Marvelous Mumbai – Tues Jan 29

It turns out that we are in a suburb of Mumbai – it is about 1 ½ to 2 hours to get to downtown. The little 3 wheeler auto rickshaws are only allowed in the suburb, so you know when you get to the city limits – they all disappear. Thus, we all signed up for the tour that was provided. (The really great thing about this conference is that several tours are being provided for FREE.)

The van picked us up at 9 am. There are only 5 of us here at the moment, so it was sort of an SUV. The driver and the guide sat in the front, 3 people in the next row and two facing seats in the rear. I was one in the rear and was having a hard time getting in and out until the driver put down a little step attached to the rear.

The rear facing seat was both good and bad. We could take pictures quite easily but only saw things that we passed. Deena and I spotted an elephant (just walking down the street), but the others couldn’t see it in time. We also had a fabulous view of all of the vehicles bearing down on us and coming up to almost touch our bumper. We have all said that Hefei was good training. After riding in the cabs there, we have nerves of steel.

First we went to the laundry village (Dhobi Ghat). It is almost mind boggling to realize that all of this laundry is picked up and delivered back clean and pressed. They have customer codes on each piece. These are family businesses passed on from father to son. (Only the men do this.)

Then on to Haji Ali, a Muslim temple built out in the bay. It can only be reached by a walkway during low tide. We were obviously there a low tide, but only took pictures from the shore.

Next, we visited the house that Gandhi lived in when he was in Mumbai. He had been assassinated 60 years minus one day ago. Recently his ashes had been returned to this museum. (His hosts had kept the ashes and given them to their son who lived in Dubai. He wanted to give them back. The museum decided that the ashes should be strewn in the sea so that they would not become an object of veneration.) We visited the day before this was going to be done – so were among the last people to see the urn that contained the ashes.

Flower designs are used a lot here in religious circumstances.

This was the room where he worked and received guests.

At the Jain temple, we had to remove our shoes (glad I wore socks without holes). These people are strict vegetarians. Many of them wore masks so that they wouldn’t inadvertently hurt an insect or microbe by breathing it in and causing its death. (They wouldn’t appreciate my mosquito killing.)

Most of the building seemed to be made of carved marble:

Obviously, they don’t subscribe to the “less is more” school of decoration.

Some of the worshipers made designs with rice:

We walked through the Hanging Gardens, which were constructed on top of a reservoir.

Then, on to what must be the most elaborate train station in the world, Victoria Terminus.

Finally, it was lunch time. We went to the famous Khyber restaurant. I had read many descriptions of it and when we walked in, I knew that was where we were.

It is really hard to take good food pictures in India. Many of our meals have been buffet with everything inside of covered dishes. Here, we each ordered a dish and then shared them around. We are (from the left): Deena, Mary, Me, Lucille and Carol.

These were pickled onions and other pickles:

A cheese and veg ball in sauce:

Saag (spinach) chicken with naan.

This young man was making street snacks. He took leaves and spread all kinds of things on them (with his fingers) and then folded up the leaf and passed it over. The customer ate the whole thing.

The Gateway of India was sort of a disappointment. There was a car bomb incident 4-5 years ago, so it is really blocked off. We just stopped and took pictures from a distance.

We stopped at a Pharmacy. You told a clerk what you wanted and someone climbed around to get it. I needed to get razors for Chuck, because he forgot to pack them. Several other people had things they needed too. Carol is looking for hearing aide batteries for her husband. He forgot to pack his (after she asked him if he had them!) I think he only has about 2 more days of hearing if she doesn’t find them.

We returned home by way of Marine Drive and Chowpatty beach. There was a gigantic traffic jam. Mary had just said, “Everyone keep a lookout for elephants, we don’t want to miss any” when we found the cause of the jam:

There was a picture in the paper the next day. (A front view) These elephants had been in a religious procession and had been arrested for creating the traffic jam. They were being put on the beach until later when they were moved to the police station.

It took us 3 hours to get back to the conference site. We called the only husband with a cell phone to tell him that we were on the way, but didn’t know when we would be there. He was to pass the message on to the others.

This was the evening of the “Cultural Program”. It was supposed to start at 6 and we were sure that we were going to miss it. Luckily, the meetings were late too, so when we got there at 7, we just had time to go to the bathroom before it started.

It was an hour of Indian singing and dancing. The performers were very good, but we had been sitting already for 3 hours. My little sitter was screaming by the time it was finished.

We got back to the hotel at 10. Everyone hit the dining room for a late dinner. Luckily, the hotel does buffet and we could eat with waiting.

Off to bed. Most of the mosquitoes have been killed, so I’m sure that we will sleep well.

Visit to IIT (India Institute of Technology)

We all went to the meeting site to see the lay of the land and to hear Art’s talk. His wife Lucille was also one of the Hefei 8. We made arrangements to go on a “shopping tour” in the afternoon. Some of us (Deena, Mary and I) decided to walk around the campus. The first thing that we saw when we exited the building was this bull in a field across the street:

Most of the campus has this very dry look to it. Sharing the field was a banyan tree:

We did see one green patch complete with monkey:

A little further on, we found a whole troop of them: Mommies, daddies and babies.

The buildings were either very new and modern, or concrete blocks with mold growing inside. (Of course, the people were still working in them!) Every building had a deep concrete ditch around it. There must be severe flooding here.

The campus is on the edge of a lake. At a talk which we missed, they said that there are snakes and crocs in the lake. A good thing that we hadn’t heard that before we took our walk. (They also said that there were panthers on the campus.)

Behind the cow, on the other shore are a group of buildings that includes our hotel. There is so much traffic that it probably would be faster to come by boat.

We had been SO excited by our first cow. Now, we are seeing them everywhere-just wandering around.

That’s Deena with another – we are getting really blasé about them.

Back to the conference for a buffet lunch and then on our shopping trip. It was a high end department store. We may have been the only customers there. It was a little embarrassing that we let the rug salesman go through his entire sales talk AND give us tea, when we really weren’t going to buy. The rugs were fabulous – wool and silk from Kashmir.

The first night’s entertainment was playing games and a BBQ. The playing games part was a little funny. These are physicists after all. Only a few played basketball. We all had a turn shooting at balloons with a pellet gun. They tried to convince us to play Frisbee, but no one joined in. Finally, it was time for the BBQ.

The green things on the skewers are fish. Many of the things were cooked in boiling oil.

Everything was very tasty. They did say that because of a bird flu scare in Northern India, they were not serving any chicken.

The mosquitoes were biting and we were fading fast – so the old farts took the first bus back. We fell into bed. Unfortunately, we had brought the mosquitoes back with us. I slept really well at first – but then have been awake since 3am. I think that I’ve killed all of them now, so will try to get a little more sleep.

A note from later:

It turned out that a maid had left the window open. No wonder I couldn’t kill all the mosquitoes – they kept coming in. I complained bitterly about it to the desk in the morning. I told them that I had left a trail of blood around the room. They apologized profusely and sent someone with a mosquito killing machine that gets plugged in. Unfortunately, the electricity is turned off when you take your room key to leave – so we will only have a little killing until we get back in the evening.

Jan 26 Day 1

Our trip has begun. After an interminably long plane ride, (L. A. to Newark-5 hours and Newark to Mumbai 14) we arrived in the Mumbai airport. It is being refurbished so looks like every other airport under construction in the world. Long hallways of pardon our dust signs and being able to see the air-conditioning ducts in the ceiling. The best part of the whole trip was that it was over and we hadn’t had any problems.

The conference was supposed to arrange for transportation to the hotel – but after the experience in Slovakia, Chuck was waiting to see before he would believe. Incredibly there were several guys with signs and hotel sheets. We had met Carl and Deena at the Newark airport (Deena was one of the Hefei 8), and shared a cab to the hotel. When we left the airport building, we realized why the weather report for Mumbai had always said “Smoke”. They were not describing haze or smog – it really is smoky here.

We have a normal looking hotel room except that it has marble floors, desk & bathroom counter:

They were having a WEDDING in the garden. One of my favorite things!! So here are the 1^st

wedding pictures from this trip:

The decorated car:

The backdrop on the stage. I think that they were taking some of the formal photos – I never did get a clear view of the bride.

Some of the guests. The sari’s were beautiful.

We fell into bed and slept till 5.

Thanksgiving with family

November is a very busy month in our family. First there was the culmination play at a Japanese Class.

Then Calder had his fourth birthday. He made the cupcakes for the family party.

A few days later he had a Spiderman themed party for all of his friends in his own backyard.

All 6 of us went to the UCLA - YALE Basketball game. We were known as an interfaith family, since almost all of us were wearing gear from both teams. Calder decided that the girls could root for the "bulldog team" and the boys would root for the "bruins." He was really upset when Alec said he would be rooting for both. Calder wore UCLA and Branwen wore YALE.

We were really blessed this Thanksgiving. My sister Susan and her 2 boys (Ford - 12 and Luke - 3) came to visit. It gave the cousins a chance to really know each other.

The little boys went to Legoland while Ford went to the UCLA Football game with Chuck, Alec & Branwen.

We went to the Noah's ark exhibit at the Skirball Center. The boys are listening to a Flood story from Africa and Branwen is exploring a music activity.

I am using this post to experiment with the slide show and movie features.

We are in Prague

June 30, 2007 Saturday

What can I say? A very long train ride. We upgraded to 1^st class and sat in the same car with Huan and Xiaoyan. The train station in Poprad is under renovation so there were a lot of steps to get us to the correct platform. Then the VERY LONG TRAIN RIDE and a lot of steps in the station in Prague.

The representative from Old Town Apartments met us on the platform (wasn’t that novel? He had a sign with our name on it and everything. Chuck has become very suspicious and was convinced that we would be left to wander like at Poprad!) He took us to the apartment, showed us where everything was, and made arrangements for our transportation to the airport when we leave. Since this is at 3:40 am, it is a very important arrangement.

A lovely apartment near metro and tram lines, supermarkets, bookstores and places to eat.

A living room:

Bedroom:

Kitchen:

And bathroom. The only trouble with all of the bathtubs in Eastern Europe is that they are very high. This one came up to my mid thigh when I was standing on the floor. I had visions of catching my foot and landing with a big thump.

It was dinner time, Chuck has been reading the restaurant guide all the way here – so I made a reservation and off we went. It started raining so we really didn’t look at anything – just scurried to the restaurant. On the way, we did spot an adorable elephant mug. Calder’s favorite animal is the elephant, “and my favorite elephant is the African elephant” which he explains often. We made note of the store and will come back when it is open.

Our dinners were good, but mine was a little strange. The waiter kept saying that the special was mussels. I noticed that the word on the board was not the French word for mussels, but ordered anyway. It was the French word for clams and that is what I got. They were tasty anyway.

We had figured out the metro, found our way there and back and now were more than ready for bed.

Last Day in Lavoca

June 29, 2007 Friday

Today is the last day. The conference finishes after lunch. Several of us are staying until Saturday, because the transportation is spotty. The main topic of conversation is “And how did you get here? How did it work? Not well, eh?” Some people changed airports in London and had to run for miles through a tunnel to catch the bus. One guy’s plane was late and he ended up on a 13 hour train trip because he had to take a local instead of an express. Huan’s luggage was lost for days. It went to Bratislava, because that was the only city in Slovakia that the airline had a contact with.

Anyway, I was delegated to find some tour that we could take. I talked it over with the hotel desk and we decided that the church and castle that I had already been to was the only good choice for a short afternoon’s trip. We started with 5 for sure and ended up with the 7 that was maximum for the group. The tour company reduced the price slightly because we were cutting out some of the normal trip. Instead we added another church that one of the Slovakian guys said was a must. I was really impressed with the guide (Ondrey again). He called his company. They called the priest of the church. He made arrangements with the woman who has the key and gives tours. All while we were on our way to the first church.

Here is our happy little group:

We were locked in the church again. We can’t take pictures but I convinced the guide to let me take a picture of her key.

The second church had been a drive-by the first time and I was glad that I got to see the inside.

It had been frescoed in the 12 – 14^th centuries. Then during a plague, all of the walls had been painted white as a disinfectant. It wasn’t until the 20^th century, that it was discovered that the frescoes were there. The only problem about this church was that the woman with the key needed to tell us waaaay more that we really were interested in hearing.

Then off to the castle. You really can see it from anywhere in the area.

Ondrey is a good guide and he gave a very interesting tour. Just enough information. This time I climbed the keep.

The stairs inside are worn stone and very very very narrow.

The view from the top was worth it.

You can see how empty this country is. It only has 5.5 million people. On the way back Ondrey took us through a gypsy village. He said that it is important to show people the bad things as well as the good. He explained about the problems of the gypsies – some the government’s fault, other’s the gypsies.

A group went to Barakan for dinner. I shared a greek salad with Chuck and had grilled pheasant breast with wood mushrooms and prunes and of course roasted potatoes.

Packed to leave the next morning.

Banquet in Levoca

June 28, 2007 Thursday

Another very quiet day. Did my jaunt around the town – it is still there and hasn’t changed at all. There are a lot of people who come here on tour buses. As far as I can see, they all get off the bus and run to buy ice cream cones.

Tonight is the Banquet. (Every conference has an excursion and a banquet – the attendees spend the rest of the time from 9 am to 6:45 at the conference, conferencing!!)

The limitations of this place showed up in the food. They tried hard, but it was worse that normal banquet food. They started with smoked trout and stale rolls. (I guess that they were left over from breakfast, where they were quite good. Then we had turkey breast with asparagus – but they filled in with green beans, so everyone had exactly 2 spears of asparagus and several green beans. The white wine (or should I say vinegar?) was undrinkable. The red only slightly better. We all switched to beer.

The best thing was the really short, very cute, after dinner speech.