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: India, land of spices and mystery |
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| | From:  _Xer (Original Message) | Sent: 12/30/2008 7:34 PM |
We've been busy as Dicken's trying to get ready to go after all the snow, Christmas, and family visits (and the X-Box whenever I can steal a few minutes of leisure time). Sorry I haven't taken time out to write y'all, but I do think of you everyday. It's pretty crazy here. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers? If I can't get back here before we leaven I'll try and write from New Delhi in a couple of days. After we leave Delhi it gets more difficult to get online, but I'll try when possible to check in.
Glad to see you all are already trying to fill in for my lack of posts. Good for you! Keep it alive for us in my absence? Thanks. Love ya.'
Xer |
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Have a good one, friend.
oc... |
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Enjoy India, and take lots of pictures. Find out from KC how to fool MSN and post thousands. Of course, India is a year ahead of us now. |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/9/2009 6:44 AM |
Well Pikes, looks like the pics will have to wait until I'm home again, but I am taking some to share with y'all. Thanks Cooter. It's been interesting, Jen. Unfrtunately I've either not had time or energy to write in my journal. Lots of deatils are already slipping away. <sigh> Getting over a nasty cold I started coming down with the night we got here. Must have brought it with me from all that snow at home. At the moment I am sweating. No snow here. |
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Jot down the most interesting, unusual key words that come to mind...these prod the memory later...xxx J |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/11/2009 4:14 PM |
ragwort! Don't know what it will remind me of later, but it's a durn unusual wurd. |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:30 AM |
Oh boy! Today is the 9th. Let's see what I can remember. <o:p> </o:p> 2008: Dec 31st: We left <st1:City><st1:place>Olympia</st1:place></st1:City> for the SeaTac airport mid-day. Our driver's name was Rhonda. We both liked her. She looks similar to my online friend, Jen, in <st1:place>Central California</st1:place>. Rhonda allowed me to take her photo with my wife at SeaTac before she left us. Rhonda said her family are Bulgarian(?), pretty sure that was what she said. Will have to check with my wife later. Her memory is always better than mine. Rhonda's grandpa had one blue eye and one brown. She remembers that about him clearly. She was intrigued when I told her she reminded me of a friend and asked where her ancestors were from. I didn't know the answer. The Air France flight was a little late, but I had to struggle to get my Northwest Airlines miles from Air <st1:country-region><st1:place>France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. By the time it was done the wife was already onboard. I had to hustle to catch up. Not roomy seats, but I'd seen worse, especially on SAS (<st1:country-region><st1:place>Denmark</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s) planes. Ironic considering the size od Danes!!! |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:35 AM |
Stupid Bill. Stupid, stupid Bill. Bad Bill, bad! Okay, let's try it again.....? 2009: Jan 1st: We didn't see Paris, though we did drive around the airport from one side to the other. Thought we were the last on the plane, since we were an hour late, but there were two more flights after ours with passengers going to India too. Finally, we got off the ground. We liked the crew on the Airbus 300 from Seattle to Paris, but the crew on the Boeing 747 to Delhi, were crap. They looked beat before we even left Paris. I thought at first it was having to deal with Indians, who can be difficult for those unaccustomed, but this crew was crap anyway. There was one small blond Frenchette, older middle-aged, I liked a bit. The rest could have easily been 86ed far as I was concerned. It was midnight when we arrived in Delhi, making our arrival date Jan, 2nd, 09. |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:37 AM |
2009: Jan 2nd: (midnight) Hotel Ashu Palace, or OP Ji, had a man meet us at the airport, but he didn't come in, causing my wife some stress. Finally, I talked the guard into allowing me to go out and check. Middle-aged guy, the guard, surprisingly he was cool with it though. Returning inside, only being challenged once, and then backed up by the good-guy guard, I got my wife and our two carts of luggage. The driver was sleeping in the car fogging up all the windows. One of the little airport sharpies got me to allow him to take my carryon from the cart and put it into the car trunk, then he wanted baksheesh. My wife gave him 20 rupies, but he started whining about how little that was in the country we come from. About the time she gave him the second 20 I realized he was a ringer and forbade her giving him any more. Stung again, darn it!
It was cold for Delhi, darn cold for Delhi, and foggy. The fog is normal for Delhi in December/January. Coming from all that snow we'd had in the Pac NW it didn't seem all that bad to me, but the taxi driver absolutely would NOT roll up his window. Even after the windshield dried enough to not need him wiping it anymore. He claimed it would fog up the car again to roll the window up. I told him it wasn't the fog outside clouding up the windows, but his sleeping in the freaking car! Since I was in Delhi, my jeans jacket and flannel shirt were packed in the luggage. With the driver's window open directly in front of me, and a long drive to the hotel, I got a chill and begin fighting a cold. The evening we got to Orissa the cold won. |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:39 AM |
2009: Jan 2nd: (morning) In Delhi OP Ji and Vina Ji were wonderful as always. We would never get half as much done without them. And, since OP Ji and I are both heart patients, Vina Ji would not hear of us eating any food she did not cook herself. OP Ji was the friend who insisted I go see a doctor, when I was unaware I was having a heart attack, in January 2006. Frankly, I owe him my life! Well, first morning, we saw Dr. Sawnee. He complained I need to lose 10 kg. Next morning, before I had eaten anything, OP Ji took me to get blood tests. Most of the results didn't look too bad. My triglycerides are twice what they should be, but the cholesterol is not too terribly high. Dr. Sawnee said, through Op Ji, there wasn't anything to worry about. I like that guy!
My wife got a phone chip for her Motorola Razr and bought a new small Nokia. I'm using the Razr. She keeps the Nokia. Forgot to leave my own Razr with OP Ji to be repaired while we are here. Ratz! First day, Vina Ji fed us lunch and dinner. We had drinks with Op Ji before dinner, the single malt I picked up for him at the Delhi Airport Duty-Free Shop while My wife was waiting for our luggage. Luggage took FOREEEEVER to get off the plane. Of course, soon as I had left for the duty-free shop the luggage finally came along the belt. The scotch was good, but I limited myself to one glass (about two pegs as OP Ji pours). |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:40 AM |
| 2009: Jan 3rd: Second day we got pedicures. My wife insisted I needed one too. Women have strange notions of what is pleasurable. The guy who did me screwed up my great toenails by clipping them too close on the sides. Hurt to walk for almost a week. I also got a haircut there. Looks pretty good and cost about $6. It stayed cold enough in Delhi for me to wear the shirt flannel indoors and the jacket outdoors. OP Ji also loaned me one of his two soft woolen shawls. Very nice! Vina Ji had us over for lunch again, but sent us dinner at the hotel. They both went to some religious thing that night where food was served, but people had to sit on the ground during the service. After the pedicures and lunch our publisher came to Ashu Palace and we conferred for some hours. OP Ji wanted my wife to go with him to see Sawnee again to hear his thoughts on the blood test results, but the book was paramount. The publisher has been waiting two years already, and we don't want to lose him. We had pre-selected the photos, but let the publisher 'pick' a couple of color ones. He seemed happy. Vina Ji sent our dinner to the hotel in a tiffin. We ordered rotis and the kitchen heated the tiffin foods for us. Wouldn't do that for us in the US! |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:42 AM |
2009: Jan 4th: Last day in New Delhi we had lunch with OP Ji and Vina Ji both, it was Sunday. Rest of the day was mostly spent packing and stressing. Our flight was at 6:00 PM. We left for the airport at 4:15. Should have left by 3:00 PM. We barely cleared security in time. Since my shaving kit was in the carryon I lost my beard scissors at security. Darn it.
Bhubaneswar had a very light fog. You could only see it by distant airport tarmac lights. After getting the luggage we headed out to see Panda Nana waiting for us. My wife was impressed Nana came himself. The driver, Nilu, is new to us. Sigh, a new training period, I hate breaking in new drivers. The hotel is undergoing some major renovations. Lobby is torn all to hell, but they had a room ready for us. Not our usual room, but I like it better. This room has marble floors instead of moldy carpet. The AC works good too. Just wish for a fridge like the Delhi hotel rooms have. We recovered our hotplate from last trip. We had left it with Bichi. 'Almost' all the comforts of home. |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/13/2009 11:43 AM |
2009: Jan 5th: We got ready to leave for Bargarh. It was midmorning before we got away. The drive was long and Nilu thought I wanted the AC on. He couldn't get it through his head all I wanted was the fan. With this head-cold the AC was kicking my ass, and we still had jetlag to boot. It was a seven hour drive and I was miserable in a tiny car. Sigh. At one point we had a flat tire, and I was able to get out of the cramped little car and walk around. I found a good place to take a leak, back up the road a bit. Took some nice photos while walking too. Life is good after all�?or it was until I had to get back in that wretched little car. Good news is, the flat was away from cities. We had long since left Cuttack, and were not yet anywhere near to Angul.
We stopped at a dhaba (truck stop) for lunch, and the driver got the flat tire repaired while we ate. Cooking is done over open coals. When I say coals, I mean hot coal. Literally, they use raw coal to burn for cooking. A tandoor (oven) was used to make the flat bread. If you've never cooked over hot coal, let me tell you, _ it _ is _ hot! In fact, it gets white hot. I got photos of the cooks at the dhaba that show the hot coals. They really put on a show for me too, the hams, but the food was way too rich for me to eat. It was very heavy with ghee (clarified butter) and oil, not at all good for my heart. Neither of us finished our meal. Dhabas seem to be going for fancy rich food nowadays. Pity. They used to be great places to eat.
Traffic through Angul was very heavy and we traveled at a crawl, way too many pedestrians in the road along with the cars, scooters, and bicycles. Between Angul and Sambalpur the road is lined with large old trees on both sides. The trunks are painted white so people don't run off the road and hit them, but the trees totally block the view around curves. The road is also not graded on the curves and people drive fast going both ways. Not at all a good highway to drive at dusk! There were signs every so often warning to not drive too fast. I don't scare easy, but our driver scared the heck out of me when he crossed the road almost to the opposite shoulder before regaining control of the car!
Traffic was heavy again in Sambalpur. Nilu took a back-road 'shortcut' to the highway for Bargarh. It was around 6:00 PM and well after dusk: We were totally beat by the time we pulled up at the Hotel Ganapati in Bargarh. Randeep was not there to meet us either, but the hotel staff seemed to be expecting us.
I'll work on this more later. I'm already losing track of the days in Bhubaneswar! |
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I swear, Xer, reading your posts above were as exotic to me as if you were on some foreign planet. I must've had a bad experience in a past life, but that whole area (India, Pakistan, etc.,) has never "called" to me to come visit (like some other places like Japan and the British Isles...) I could never go visit there, even if somebody paid me to go.  I'm sure glad you have visited, however, and are sharing the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes to us. For me, better than being there!  |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/16/2009 11:14 AM |
| Gryphon, I've still not had time to write what little I can remember of the two days (day and a half) in Bargarh but it certainly was eventful, in a good way. Randeep turned out to be an excellent contact! |
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| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 1/16/2009 11:31 AM |
| Tonight we are attending the final night's performances of the Mukteswar Temple Festival in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. Friends are performing there, The Odissi Dance Academy, young friends, and Sonal Mansingh, an old friend and a hoofer. Afterwards we will go to Bichi's for a dinner party. Tomorrow night we catch a flight for New Delhi where we wait a couple days for our return flight home. Ah'm getting too old for this life, ah tells ya,' too old. Gonna be good to sleep in my own bed again. Can't wait to hear Wildfire purr for me! |
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