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| India Trip Report; finally | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 14 2007, 07:33 AM (205 Views) | |
| jon-nyc | Apr 14 2007, 07:33 AM Post #1 |
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Cheers
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At long last I’ve taken the time to write an India trip report. I’ll probably post this in a few installments, as there are lots of photos to post. I’ll also post separately on the wedding itself – its worthy of its own thread! Anyway we started our trip with a few days in Mumbai – which until a few years ago was called Bombay. We stayed in Colaba, which is a well-off area where many of the better hotels are. The wedding and the groom’s family home (where we spent the day before the wedding) were in the northern part of the city, which took about an hour to get to by car. We got to see quite a bit of the city during those drives – in fact that was our main sight-seeing time, since so much of our time in Mumbai was dedicated to wedding-related activities. Our hotel was close to this famous landark, the Gateway to India, which was built by the British when this was the hub of their Indian Empire. ![]() Behind the Gateway is the bay, wooden boats are quite common: ![]() A few blocks away is the famous Taj Majal Palace Hotel. This was built by Jamseti Tata at the turn of the last century, supposedly after he was refused entry at European-owned hotels that were reserved for whites only. He is also the founder of Tata Group, which many Americans know as a major Indian IT outsourcing firm. ![]() In Colaba you see a lot of nice buildings like this: ![]() Outside of Colaba the buildings look more like this one. Somehow much of Mumbai manages to be drab and colorful at the same time. ![]() A strange thing we saw all over Mumbai – they use bamboo poles tied together with rope for scaffolding. I had seen such a thing in sub-sharan Africa before, but was surprised to see it in a relatively rich country like India. We saw scaffolding like this as high as 15 stories. ![]() On the streets about half the vehicles you see are ‘auto rickshaws’. They are used as inexpensive taxis by the locals. The drivers were often barefoot. Here’s a couple: (before anyone asks, we didn’t stay at the ‘Garb Nawaz Hotel’ in the photo ) ![]() On the roads there are also a lot of motorcycles. Women were often on the back of them, sometimes in a full saree, and ALWAYS sitting side-saddle: (I love the helmet on the back – I guess they only put it on if they’re going to have an accident.) ![]() You see kids on motorcycles too. I saw a guy with his wife behind him and TWO kids in front of him, all on a normal-sized bike. You’d do time for that in the States. ![]() There is no shortage of extreme poverty in Mumbai. Here are some shacks built rather precariously on the side of a 30-40 ft cliff. I can’t imagine being there during monsoon season (or any other time for that matter): ![]() |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| jon-nyc | Apr 14 2007, 07:37 AM Post #2 |
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Cheers
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We also saw homeless kids and families, including this group, which seemed to be living below an overpass. ![]() After a few days in Mumbai, we flew to Kerala, a state in Southern India. We spent a couple of days in Kochi, a coastal city which was and is the center of the Indian spice trade. We stayed in a gorgeous hotel right on the water. Here it is viewed from the water: ![]() Here’s the view from our balcony. Note the netting – that was to keep out crows. The outdoor restaurants in the hotels in Kerala would have this too. ![]() The hotel had this ancient Erard – they asked me to play when I expressed interest, it was horribly out of tune. ![]() Here are some street scenes from Kochi. The first one is in the nicer tourisy area, that’s Rachel in the picture. ![]() The more crowded area of town, where much of the spice trade occurs. ![]() Some interesting graffiti. Rachel always photographs the graffiti wherever we go. ![]() Vasco da Gama died in Kochi, and was buried in an old Portuguese church. Its just a marker today, his remains were removed to Lisbon a few years after his death. ![]() All around Kochi are these huge mechanical fishing nets, apparently built the same way since the 1300’s (I think the design came from China originally). They are operated by 2 or 3 people, and seem to work something like cast nets. They’re just beautiful: ![]() We took a boat out around the bay in Kochi – here are some dilapidated buildings: ![]() |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| jon-nyc | Apr 14 2007, 07:38 AM Post #3 |
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Cheers
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Here is a guy doing laundry in the not-so-clean water:![]() From Kochi we drove about an hour away to a resort near the town of Kottayam. Its called Coconut Lagoon, and is only accessible by boat. Here’s the boat that picked us up for the ride across the lake to the hotel: ![]() Here’s Rachel on the boat: ![]() A few years ago, Paul McCartney and Heather Mills came to this resort and wrote them a letter telling them what a great time they had. They were proud of that letter and had it framed in the lobby. ![]() Here’s a nice picture of some of the buildings in the resort: ![]() The resort had individual cabins that were two story, with a living area on the bottom and a bedroom above. The most unusual thing about it was the bathrooms were outside. Nicely done, and private, but outside. Showering outside in the morning was nice. Going out at 3am to pee not so much – especially once you turned on the lights which attracted mosquitos and other bugs. ![]() Here are some locals on rafts in the lake: ![]() After a lazy two days at the resort, we drove 3-4 hours inland to the border between the state of Kerala and the state of Tamil Nadu. This was much higher elevation, and the nights were actually reasonably cool – the hotel we stayed in didn’t even have AC. We stayed right outside the Thekkady wildlife preserve. But you didn’t need to go into the reserve to see wildlife. Here is an elephant we saw on the way there: ![]() Approaching the hotel, we saw monkeys. It’s a blurry photo, taken from the car in haste, but you can see how close they were: ![]() This hotel also had individual cabins. Here’s ours: ![]() |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| jon-nyc | Apr 14 2007, 07:39 AM Post #4 |
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Cheers
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Around Thekkady are hundreds of square miles of rubber plantations. Here’s one, note how they cut the bark to maximize the amount of sap they collect.![]() There are also lots of tea plantations: ![]() In one we passed there were women picking the tea. ![]() Here’s a nice photo of a fruit stand in the town of Thekkady: ![]() And this cracked me up. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, translated into Malayalam. ![]() We did go through the game reserve on a boat. We saw lots of animals, but from afar. I’ll share just one photo, this one of wild elephants. ![]() Leaving the reserve on foot, though, we saw some wild boar up close and personal: ![]() On the return trip – 3-4 hours on a two lane road – we were passed by these ‘superfast’ busses. They advertise their speed at getting places, and they drive like complete maniacs. People get out of their way. Here’s one passing an entire line of cars, despite the fact that there was a bus coming the other way. Look how the oncoming bus had to go into the shoulder. Truly frightening. ![]() After Thekkady we came back to the coastal area near Kochi and spend a day and a night on a houseboat. The houseboat goes through the backwaters of Kerala, where there are rice farms and entire villages that are accessible only by boat. The boat we stayed on was private with a crew of three, including a cook. The front of the boat had a shaded sitting area, and an area in front of that where you could lie under the sun or the stars. Behind the open sitting area was our bedrrom and then the crew area. The next two pictures give an idea of what the boat was like. ![]() ![]() |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| jon-nyc | Apr 14 2007, 07:39 AM Post #5 |
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Cheers
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Here I am on the houseboat (kind of dark photo):![]() Here are some villagers. Note the skirt-like things the men wear. Those are tied from a single large square cloth. ![]() Here is a village woman washing clothes and baby: ![]() Here is a fisherman we passed: ![]() A typical village scene on the side of the river: ![]() This village was harvesting rice. They’d put it in large bags and load boats up with it: ![]() Here’s the dinner they served us. Rachel loves taking photos of food we are served on vacations. ![]() This picture I took first thing in the morning, note the clouds reflecting in the water: ![]() One final thing and I’ll close. On the way back to Kochi after the houseboat, we visited this Hindu temple. The second photo shows the architectural detail. It was really something to see. ![]()
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| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| dolmansaxlil | Apr 14 2007, 07:42 AM Post #6 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Fantastic pics, jon! I'd love to go to India, I've always been fascinated with the culture. I can't wait to see the wedding pics! I read a mention of your trip in another thread this morning, and was going to post a "hey, jon, where's your trip update?" and then this appeared! |
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"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson My Flickr Photostream | |
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| dolmansaxlil | Apr 14 2007, 07:44 AM Post #7 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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OMG! I posted after the second set. I love the Hindu temple! That's amazing! |
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"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson My Flickr Photostream | |
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| RosemaryTwo | Apr 14 2007, 07:51 AM Post #8 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Worthy of being published. Thank you for going to the effort to post and describe. What a trip. Wish I were there. |
| "Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua | |
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| George K | Apr 14 2007, 08:00 AM Post #9 |
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Finally
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Words fail, Jon. Thank you for taking the time to share. Amazing. Simply amazing. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| Horace | Apr 14 2007, 08:15 AM Post #10 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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So beautiful and interesting! Thanks Jon. |
| As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good? | |
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| sue | Apr 14 2007, 08:23 AM Post #11 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Incredible. Such beautiful photos, amazing places. Thank you so much for taking the time to share them with us. I'm going to look at them again later, with a map by my side so I can see where everything is. |
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| 1hp | Apr 14 2007, 03:44 PM Post #12 |
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Fulla-Carp
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Great photos - the resort on the island looks fantastic. How was the eating - did you live on curry, or is that just a myth that they exported to the west? You also didn't mention anything about smell - all those spices must carry on the air, no? |
| There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those that understand binary and................ | |
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| Jack Frost | Apr 14 2007, 05:12 PM Post #13 |
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Bull-Carp
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Really! Do you two make all the arrangements and plans? jf |
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