I'm Coming Home

Lots of changes going on with my job in terms of management. My boss is leaving April 11th and I am so sad about it. In addition our general manager will be retiring at the end of April. In light of those two events my boss and I decided it was best for me to come home. And quite frankly I would not want to be here in India without him supporting me. So I'm coming home - YEA!!!!! Now part of the agreement was that I get a week vacation to be taken while I'm here so Billie and I are trying to get to the Andaman Islands April 5th to the 10th. I really did want to come home on April 11th but the BA flight is sold out in business class and there is no way I'm flying coach. So I'll have one last day and night in Bangalore and then I'm out of here. And it all kind of works out because Billie is leaving April 11th.
We did have some fun this weekend which is good because I've been working till midnight and later almost every day this past week. Yesterday Billie came and hung out the pool and then we met up with our Swedish friend Benny and we went to Commercial Street. I had also met this guy at the pool who was asking me about shopping so I just invited him to come along. He only stayed with us part of the time - he had to come back to the Leela to meet some folks for dinner. But then we went and picked up Nicole and went to this crafts fair. It was pretty cool. We found my wallet guy and Nicole was thrilled because she really liked the wallets I had bought and also this purse. I bought some raw silk and took it back to my tailor Kamal today so he could copy this jacket I have. He was already copying it for me in red and he's making me some pants. This should be interesting to see how it comes out.
Today Billie and I went back to Commercial Street - she wanted to look for fabric. It was relatively quiet. We were shocked.
So now it's Sunday night and I dread working tomorrow but what are you gonna do. I'm just so excited to be coming home and being with my Chester boy again.

Mudamalai and Ooty Weekend

Ganeesh (the elephant) and his Mahout
Monkey in a Tree
Wild Elephant
Peacock
Danny - the Nauturalist at Jungle Retreat

Ganeesh getting a bath from his Mahout

Ganeesh

Monkey Family including Babies
Momma Monkey and her Baby
Monkey Family

Wild Boar

Spotted Baby Deer
Monkey

Monkey

My Bed in the Bamboo Hut
Gunda - one of the domesticated dogs at Jungle Retreat

Duke - another domesticated dog at Jungle Retreat

My Bamboo Hut
Masimi the 15 month baby elephant
Masimi the 15 month old baby elephant giving me a Kiss

On Friday I started my journey to Jungle Retreat in Mudamalai in the misty rain. Just me and my driver Sentheil. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - only 5 and1/2 hours. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to grab one of the pillows from bed in the hotel because I just curled up in the back seat and went to sleep for most of the journey. Until we entered the Forest that is. There were monkeys everywhere. I got out of the car and was able to get really close and take pictures. I had also brought some bananas with me so we stopped and I threw those out the window to the monkeys. Did you know monkeys don't peel bananas - they just bite into them - peel and all. One of the monkeys almost jumped in the window which silly me had rolled all the way down.

Anyway, we made it to Jungle Retreat and let me tell you this place is in the middle of nowhere. We had to ask 4 times how to find it. We pulled up and I immediately fell in love with the place. It's set on 35 acres of land in the jungle. I didn't know what to expect with the bamboo hut but it wasn't bad as you can tell from the pictures. A little primitive but it did have lights, a ceiling fan and an attached bathroom. However there was no phone reception, no TV and not even a phone for a wake-up call. They actually came and knocked on your door when you wanted to get up. I went for a walk around the property and saw wild deer, all kinds of birds, some really trippy plants.

At 4pm I went on safari. I was so disappointed the elephant camp was closed but I was very lucky and had a really special treat the next day but more about that later. So the first stop on the safari ride was the river where you could see the Mahouts giving their elephants a bath. A Mahout is the man (never a woman) who trains and takes care of the elephants. One must be born into a family of mahouts. This tradition is passed down generation through generation. Now the elephants we saw being bathed were either abandoned or rogue elephants that had been brought to camp and rehabilitated and are now working elephants - logging elephants. They get bathed twice a day. The one elephant you see here in the pictures is Ganeesh. Ganeesh was a rogue elephant who killed 17 people but they were able to capture him, bring him to camp and rehabilitate him. He looked like he was in heaven getting that bath. And at this elephant camp they do all the training with voice commands and a stick. There are some elephant camps where they use a hook which is quite painful and something I would not want to see.

After seeing the elephants we went riding through the jungle and saw deer, wild boar, peacocks, pea hens, woodpeckers and most exciting a family of wild elephants. We really wanted to see a tiger or leopard but the tiger family in India is rapidly becoming extinct so it is quite rare to see them.

Got back to Jungle Retreat around 8pm and washed up and went for dinner. Danny, the naturalist, had introduced me to another woman - an Indian woman who lives in London, who was also traveling alone so we had gone on the safari ride together. As we were having dinner Danny came over and we excitedly told him about seeing Ganeesh getting a bath. He told us although the elephant camp was closed to tourists if we wanted he would bring us the next morning because there was a baby elephant, Masimi, at the camp. Naturally after finding this out we said forget the walk and let's go to the camp.

Went back to my hut around 10:30pm and went to sleep all the time praying when I woke up I wouldn't see any bugs in the mosquito netting. At 6am they knocked on my door and I opened my eyes to no bugs - thank god. I am not a fan of the insect world.

On the way to the elephant camp to see Masimi Danny told us her story. She had been abandoned in the jungle when she was 15 days old. She was so small they were able to put her in the back of a jeep to bring her to the camp. Now she is 15 months old. As she is still a baby she has not been put to work - she gets her bottle, her bath and socializes with the other elephants. The mahout and his wife actually live in the hut with the elephant. They sleep on a mat on the floor and do nothing but take of her round the clock. I found out the way to greet an elephant is to put your hand in its mouth and that's exactly what I did. It was a trip. And then I just kept petting her. Elephant hair is like the wire on a brush - not soft at all. She was so cute - what an experience. You can take all the cities in India with the billion people, the noise, the pollution, the traffic- put me in the jungle with the animals.
Danny asked if I wanted to bathe the elephant but after watching the elephant piss in the river while he was having his bath I decided against it.

Went back to the Retreat and had breakfast. It was not a nice day - misty and rainy but I didn't care. It was just nice being able to listen to nothing but birds and play with the dogs Gunda and Duke.

Around 1pm Sentheil and I took off for Ooty. Now Ooty is 6,000 feet up in the Niligiri mountain range otherwise known as the Western Ghats. The road to Ooty has 37 hairpin turns and the scenery even with the rain and mist was pretty spectacular. We reached Ooty about 2:30pm and went to the hotel. And let me tell you it is cold outside. It was like being in San Francisco on a rainy day in January. But the room in my hotel is awesome. It has a wood burning fireplace, 16 foot ceilings and a flat screen TV. Quite a difference from my bamboo hut. I dry out my shoes from the muddy trek I had taken earlier, wash my face and go back to the car. I had Sentheil take me to the Tibettan marketplace where I bought a wool cap for 40 rupees and a wool shawl for 170 rupees. That's how cold it was. Seeing as the weather was so miserable -although it is cool in Ooty the rain was most unusual - I really wasn't much up for doing anything. In Ooty the big thing is to go trekking and if was just cold and not raining I would have been totally up for doing that but not in the rain. So off I went back to the hotel, built a really big fire and watched Rocky IV on my flat screen TV.

Got up around 9am - had breakfast and met Sentheil the next morning. Although it wasn't raining it was threatening. I went searching for a couple of places in Ooty where there was suppossedly good shopping but I did not find that to be true. And seeing as it was so crappy there was no point in going to the lookout because all you would see is fog. So I said let's just go back to Bangalore. So off we went.

So Mudumalai - two thumps up - I'd back there in a heartbeat. Ooty - big deal - I really wouldn't recommend it unless the weather was going to be awesome and you could do a lot of trekking.

Off to Mudumalai and Ooty

Okay everyone check out this website - Da- all you have to do is put the cursor on it and click.

http://www.jungleretreat.com/

Then click on rooms and tarriffs and click on the bamboo hut.

This is where I'm staying Friday night March 21st in the Bamboo hut. I must be out of my mind. I'm not even sure this hut has a toilet in it -it's probably just a hole in the ground if there is one.

So the plan is on Friday at 7am my driver and I go off to Mudamalai and that will take about 5-6 hours. The activity guide will be at the lodge around 2pm and I hope to go on a nature walk for about 2 hours or so. And I'll see about going to the elephant camp.

Then on Saturday it's off to Ooty - that will take about 3 hours on that crazy road with all the hairpin turns. And I'll stay in Ooty Saturday night. There's a Tibetan Marketplace open on Sunday so I'll check that out and then figure I'll leave to come back to Bangalore around noon on Sunday.

The trip back from Ooty is going to be a killer - it's around 8 hours and I'm sure I'll be bored out of my freaking mind. I mean there are only so many personal I can ask my driver :) and believe me I've already asked him a lot.

BTW - I have a new driver because Manu got into an accident with me in the car about 3 weeks after I arrived. I didn't even ask to have him removed but apparently the company thought they should do that. Then they sent me a series of drivers who were very unreliable so I basically had a fit and then they sent me my current driver who is prompt, courteous and a really nice guy. The other day I asked him if he ever watched American movies and he said he liked Sylvester Stallone and the Rocky movies :)

Okay next blog will after my trip with pictures. Bet y'all can't wait.

Bangalore Weekend

Well it was with great sadness that I said goodbye to Billie on Thursday as I knew I would be alone for the next couple of weekends. And I thought what the heck am I going to do?
Honestly I think I was still so exhausted from all the traveling the fact I pretty much did nothing was a good one.
Saturday I spent the day by the pool and then a couple of hours at the gym. Now one of the things I really enjoy when I'm here on the weekends it sitting on my balcony reading my book, drinking a diet pepsi and having some peanut butter crackers. My balcony looks out over the garden so if block out the horns honking it's actually fairly peaceful. I finished my book just as started getting too dark to read and decided since Duffy had given me the American Gangster DVD I would set my laptop up on the balcony and watch the movie. Like being at the drive-in except I could pause when I had to go to the bathroom :)
So I set everything up and am happily watching when all of a sudden there are flashes of lightning followed by huge claps of thunder and then the deluge. Of course I was completely protected on the balcony so I just stayed there and after a couple of hours it was over. I love thunderstorms so this was a real treat for me. First off we rarely get thunderstorms in San Francisco and it's not like it's nice outside so I have no place to watch them from anway. That's what I thought was so great - I was outside but protected and got to watch everything.
Sunday was hot and humid - very unusual weather this time of year. I was told there was a tropical depression somewhere in India that was causing this weather. No matter - it was nice enough for the pool and then of course gym.
Later in the day I met Nicole and she was thrilled because I brought her back her favorite chocolate from Trader Joe's as well as Mac and Cheese. She's been here since August so she really appreciated the goodies. We hung out and had dinner at the Asian restaurant called Zen in the hotel. They have great soup - you can actually identify the chicken as chicken and it tastes like chicken - what a concept. And the vegetarian spring rolls are pretty tasty. Being that it's in the Leela the prices are a little on the high side but like I said at least you can identify the food. Always a big plus in my opinion.
This coming weekend my driver and I are going to OOTY which is also known as the Scotland of the East. It's way up in the mountains and is the centre point of the Niligiri Range. It will take us about 8 hours to drive and apparently at one point you take the Kalhatti Ghat Road. This road has been described as the closest you can get to the stairway to heaven. It's supposed to give you the heebie jeebies but as my driver is from the OOTY region I have ever confidence in abilities to deliver us both there safe and sound. So at long last some new pictures will be added to the blog. Hopefully they will be of elephants, flying squirrels and other assorted critters.
Back to work for now - damn how that interferes with everything!!!!

Back in Bangalore

I'm back in Bangalore and of course the screwiness begins :)


Yesterday Billie and I went to a crafts fair on MG Road. Seeing as she stays out in Whitefield she hired a taxi through her hotel and came to pick me up. So the taxi driver has been on the job for one week and not only does he not speak English he also doesn't know Bangalore. Lord knows where we would have wound up if we weren't paying attention to the route he was using to get us from the Leela to MG Road. As it was he went past the turn and we had to tell him to make a u-turn. But we did finally make it to our destination.


The crafts fair was pretty cool. It was government sponsored which means the vendors and the quality of the goods has to be a certain standard - in other words they can't tell you something is leather when it's not. So we meandered about the craft fair for a couple of hours - bought some items and decided we had enough.


Our driver was waiting in the parking lot and we get into the car and the engine won't start. Our driver decides he's going to pop the clutch to see if that will work. So he has 3 other guys come over to push the car with Billie and I inside. In the meantime I'm trying to let him know if Billie and I get out of the car it will be a lot easier to push but I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. So the three guys push the car through the parking lot and then out on to the street. Meanwhile the engine still isn't popping over and I'm thinking to myself this is an accident waiting to happen. The driver is coasting down the side street - in the opposite direction of MG Road where we could have found an autorickshaw and an ATM - and Billie and I are just looking at each other. I said to her - it's a good thing this isn't my first or second day in Bangalore because I'd be freaking out - now I'm a seasoned vet so I just take this all in stride. Anyway, about halfway down the block he stops the car - and not over to the side of the road - just in the middle of the block. He gets out - opens the hood and starts fiddling about. We have no idea if he's out of gas - or if something else is wrong and Billie has called her hotel to have them send another taxi and all of a sudden he gets the car started. So off we went - me back to the Leela and Billie back to Whitefield. When I saw her in the office today she confirmed the car made it back without breaking down again.

Always an adventure.

It was nice when I arrived back in the leela to have everyone say how nice it was to see me again - probably lying through their teeth. I'm very upset though because Krishna, my floor butler, now starts work at 8pm and I never see him. Apparently he told the new floor butler all about me though because he's taking pretty good care of me as well.


That's all for now.

Back to Bangalore

So I'm back to Bangalore. Being able to get back to the states was really a godsend. I so desparately needed the break - it was great to be with Chester and for those I didn't get to see it was just insane - between working, the doctor appointments, getting my taxes done etc. I just couldn't do everything.


Then it was off to Dallas for meetings and let me tell you they kept us going morning, noon and night.


I just left Florida last night and am now in London -I've got a meeting with a customer tomorrow and then Friday I'm back to Bangalore. The good news is I get to come home around May 11th so I'm going try and travel as much as I can although most of it will probably be on my own.

Anyone want to come visit??????

And now I site back in the same British Airways lounge I sat in just two months not knowing what I was getting in to. This time I know the drill - will go directly back to my room at the Leela - pass out for awhile and then meet Billie around 2pm to do I have no idea. At least when she leaves on the Ides of March (the 15th for those of you who are challenged) she'll be back on the 24th. I advised her I will no doubt be heading back to the states for good around May 10th. It's certainly been an adventure but I've decided I'm the type of gal who likes to use to Charmin to wipe and wants something that flushes after I go to the bathroom. I'm sure 20 years ago it all would have been so great but now I'm old, cranky and set in my ways. No more 3rd world countries - I'm a western gal.

So the next post will be from India.