A Whale of a Good Time

Aloha oukou! Our latest adventure is a trip to the big island of Hawaii. We arrived yesterday and will leave next Sunday, staying on the Western side near Kona. We brought the “kids” and our daughter-in-law Katherine along for the ride. This morning was a snorkeling trip. We saw lots and lots of very colorful fish, a few large turtles (about 30” across) and some humpback whales. I also saw an octopus that turned from a good camouflage sandy color to white when I got close. Best of all was a whale shark that came bumping up along the side of our boat. It is huge, something like 10 feet wide by 40 feet long but harmless. I just wish that I had the presence of mind to jump in the water when it came up to us. Some of the people from other boats were hitching rides on it. It was totally docile. Tomorrow we go visit the volcanoes. A hui hou!

There Is No Place Like Home...With a Bang!

Well we put on our ruby slippers and wound up back in "Kansas" with wild winds and stormy weather. A patio chair is sitting at the bottom of the deep end of the pool.

The flights home all went smoothly though the total transit time from hotel to home was about 40 hours. Strangest was the longest night of my life, the flight from Delhi to Chicago. We took off at just before 2 AM and arrived a bit after 5 AM after flying about 15 hours in the dark. At least it gave us plenty of time to sleep!

Being home again feels surreal as does the whole trip to India. Did it really happen? The dogs were delighted to see us again though Fred has become much whiter in just the month we were gone.

It can be difficult to tell which are the best places to visit from guide books and travel agents. Here is a summary of the places we thought were really worthwhile...

1) Agra and the Taj Mahal. It really is special. The nearby "Baby Taj", pictured here, is also not to be missed. It is much smaller but exquisite.

2) The caves at Ellora north of Aurangabad. I still don't know how they could have carved those structures right out of the rocks.

3) The Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple in Madurai is simply spectacular, both in itself and in all of the activities buzzing around it.

4) The Adinath Jain Temple at Ranakpur (56 miles from Udaipur) is stunning and beautiful. While the Taj is most impressive from the outside, the Adinath Temple is most impressive from within. You might even be waylaid by a troupe of monkeys on the way there. What a deal!

5) Our hotel on the beach, the Grt Temple Bay Beach Resort in Mamallpuram, was so pleasant, quiet and uncrowded, that it has to be included.

6) Not everyone will be as lucky as us at Ranthambhore, but it was one of the highlights of our trip. Can you see the owl in the tree? The little furry guy is a mongoose.

7) The backwaters of Kerala were wonderful but we couldn't really recommend taking a houseboat. A day trip from Cochi would let you see the sights without some of the difficulties we ran into.

Shawne called this trip a "journey into the unknown". Everything was so different from what we are used to. Even small things like interpreting people's body language is difficult. This was about the most hard working place we have ever been to. Everyone was working hard, especially the women (but not the dogs!). The down side was that most everyone also worked hard at making sales, from street vendors to sales folk in the tourist stores. Everyone seemed to be an entrepreneur.

Four weeks was a long time to be gone from home in such a different environment. Shawne was especially ready to come home by the end. The break in the middle of our journey was just what we needed and we were especially grateful to our gracious hostess, Nalini, who got us going on this amazing adventure.

Postscript...Home with a Bang!

After all of our near death experiences on the streets and highways of India, it is keenly ironic that it wasn't until two days after our return home that Shawne was in a major traffic accident on our local freeway. Our car is destroyed and Shawne had a brief visit to the emergency room and has several very nasty bruises but thankfully nobody was seriously injured. People who saw our car say it miraculous that anyone could have walked away from it. Life can be wondrous, strange and unexpected.

More pictures coming...
I will upload a collection of pictures to shutterfly.com by mid-February or so. You will be able to find the link at:

Link to India Pictures Coming Soon

On The Beach

Monday, January 21 - Tuesday, January 22


Monday morning we flew to Chennai, on east coast of India and drove directly to our hotel 30 miles south in the ancient port of Mahalipuram. We had arrived early so our room wasn't quite ready. We had lunch and then went on a tour of the local sites...

There were temples carved from stone, like Ellora and Ajanta, very nice but on a much smaller scale.






A very old lighthouse stood near to a much newer one..









A huge bas-relief carving with an impressive elephant family...









A larger bolder that really should be falling down....



The spectacular shore temple is just down the beach from our hotel.










We got back to the hotel late in the afternoon. They put us in a really nice beachside cottage. The cottage, the hotel, the entire setting is simply the nicest place we have ever stayed at. What a way to end the vacation!










Tuesday morning I went to the nearby town of Varinashi while Shawne decided to relax and enjoy the scenery.











On the way, I saw guys hanging on, I don't know how, as their bus barrelled down the highway. Our guide said they had to pay full fare!












We visited four temples in Varinashi. One was much larger than the others, with white towers rather than the painted ones of the Madurai temples. A cerimonial procession just started when we got there and our guide was very, very excited. This was the first time in twelve years of guiding that she had seen that ceremony. One guy was blowing a horn and two banging on drums and several floats being carried around by a bearers. It was fun.















On the way back to the hotel we passed a tree that had grown over and around a tiny little temple. How did it do that?















This afternoon, just relaxing. Tomorrow we embark on a marathon journey home arriving back mid-day on Thursday. I'll have a final entry or two after we get back.

More Monkey Business

Sunday, January 21.


On the way back from the bullock cart on Saturday we saw lots of monkeys begging along side of the road. Sunday we were to drive to Madurai in the morning, starting on the same road so I bought ten bananas to feed them.











It took some doing to keep the dominant male from stealing everything, stuffing the bananas into a pouch in his cheeks for later.


I threw lots of bananas out at the same time so some of the little guys got some too.















We visited a palace and two Hindu temples in Madurai. The palace was impressive...





















...but the temples were stunning and quite different than I would have expected. Not only was it huge and with richly detailed carvings but there was a crazy quilt of life going on their with both tourists and the devout.





There were dozens and dozens of little shops inside the temple walls selling all sorts of religous and tourist items, much of it wild and brightly colored.














There were many fascinating statues and carvings.




















Some women were seated on the ground in the midst of all the chaos, negotiating an arranged marriage.






...and I was blessed by an elephant.