Prologue

India vacation was a much awaited vacation. In the past I had visited home (home has become a rather overloaded term. Here I mean where I grew up) every 6 months or every year if not more often. This time it had been 1.5 years since my wedding & the last visit home and so the yearning to visit folks had grown. Phone calls saying that this was too long a gap and I was too far … and the usual stuff that nri daughters hear their parents say were coming in. Ofcourse the timing was intentional, I wanted to go to Cochin in the winter and the only choices we had with Roshan’s vacations were between summer & winter break.

The Vacation

My port of entry in India was Mumbai and the airport looked better & bigger than I remembered. My first reaction everywhere I went was why there were so many people. And why the rush. People never respected lines and queues, whether it was to pay a bill or get into a shuttle or board a plane. Not like the plane would take off without somebody or the next shuttle won’t show if this one got full. This wasn’t anything new, I see it everytime I go and I get annoyed each time. I started sampling food at airport and was extremely pleased. Next few days in Cochin I was thoroughly pampered with lots of delicious food.

Cochin has the same roads but many many more cars and so the traffic is painful. I wasn’t driving but even being driven around was stressful. After a day or 2 I got used to the honking; towards the end of my trip if I didn’t hear enough honking I’d wonder if I was still on the main road. Cochin had 1 mall the last time I visited and this time when I visited, the city was suddenly springing with malls. Apparently, India’s (or was it Asia’s?) largest mall ‘Lulu’ is coming up close to where we live in Edapally. It was still in the works when I was there. I visited Oberon mall which is relatively a new mall in Edapally, it was impressive considering its predecessors - Bay Pride, Penta menaka and GCDA. Despite 3 or 4 floors of basement parking, in the evenings parking lot is full and vehicles park outside the mall on the road many times blocking the traffic. Talk about lack of entertainment options… its like the whole city is in the mall. All this when Oberon doesn’t have a multiplex, my brain explodes when I try to imagine the crowd when it has its multiplex up & running. In the past, the only entertainment I could think of in Cochin was to watch movies.

I was impressed with the changes the city has had. I saw restaurants (in Bangalore & Chennai too) that had menu items with diet icons indicating that they were healthy options (still no calorie count – I am happy about that), restaurants that had child seats and malls with a dedicated play area. Oh and also a decorated xmas tree with fake snow. Where was all this when I was growing up!?!

While many of the hoardings there still are of gold jewellery, I saw a lot of new ads mostly related to cell phone providers or homes for sale. GCDA shops make me wonder what they did before cell phones came around. Talking about cellphones, I was quite happy with cell phone plans in India – the ease and low cost are a huge plus. With high GPRS costs, a lot of the folk don’t have data plans. SMS is pretty big, 15 min after Roshan got a new SIM he started getting spam sms-es. My siblings and even my dad text a lot more than I do.

India is a lot more expensive than it used to be a few years ago. Prices of food, clothing, and groceries are 4 times the cost they were. I was quite appalled at the costs. There were several instances when I thought US was cheaper.

After 4 or 5 days in Cochin, Roshan and I headed to Bangalore for a few days. Bangalore looked completely different from what I remembered, the last time I was there was in 2004. I couldn’t recognize MG Road at all. All the outskirts were now a part of the city and were apparently more “happening” than the “happening” parts in the past. There were new flyovers and some cool looking public transport buses that were air conditioned. Metro rail construction was in the works. More coffee shops and more restaurants and more chain stores had opened up. All super pricey which makes me believe that people’s earnings in India have also multiplied many fold in the last few years. Going from Cochin, the driving sense felt a lot better. I had some really good food in Bangalore … oh Bengaluru.

From Bangalore we left for Chennai for 2 days. Chennai city looked extremely good – very clean, wide roads, huge flyovers etc. Marina beach looked much much cleaner and well maintained than it did a few years back. We had some amazing food in Chennai. We heard about a hole in the wall authentic Sushi place in Chennai and decided to check that out. It was pretty good, while we were there we didn’t see any other Indians. The weather in Chennai & Bangalore was just perfect. Only if we had that all year round in Seattle

We got back to Cochin in time for a friend’s wedding. I have been to only 2 or 3 weddings in Kerala and 3 or 4 weddings outside Kerala. For a person my age that is an extremely low count of wedding attendance. I probably just don’t remember how it used to be, but I was a little shocked to see people rushing to get food even at the wedding. Of course they wouldn’t run out of food, it’s an Indian wedding after all . My sister said that it was pretty normal as everybody wanted to leave soon once the wedding was done.

Next day, I visited Thodupuzha and Karimanoor with Roshan and his family. Apparently after you get married the newlyweds need to meet everybody in the family. Besides my parents, my relatives are mostly in Rajasthan and northern parts of India, I am guessing we’ll visit some of them during our next trip to India. This trip we tried to cover Roshan’s side of the family. The drive through the country side is beautiful. Away from the traffic, noises and crowds I could see why I loved Kerala growing up. The lush greenery, lakes and mountains even after all these years continue to mesmerize me. Each visit during this trip left my stomach fuller and fuller. I have not eaten so much meat in such a short span of time before. (Remember I grew up in a vegetarian family). I can’t complain, everything tasted so good

We got back to Cochin and 2 days later left for Wayanad. This was a family trip. We visited Bandipur National Park in Karnataka and Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad. Both are good forests, we just had the wrong expectation that we would see some wild animals on the safari tour. We saw monkeys, deer, peacocks and chickens. Elephants too but they were chained close to the entrance and hence not exactly in the wild. Wayanad may be a good place for non-Keralites to visit but for somebody who’s grown up there, I was quite underwhelmed. Pookot lake, Sulthan Bathery Jain Temple, Sita devi Tears lake, Luv Kush temple etc were nothing out of the ordinary. The walk to Edakkal Caves and Soochipara waterfalls was fun. The caves themselves were quite good too. We ended our trip at the falls where students kept coming in batches and leaving. It looked like a popular excursion spot.

We got back to Cochin in time to celebrate New Year’s eve with friends and family. We spent the next few days eating and shopping. And before I knew the trip was over. All the plans of sitting down with my folks and having long conversations and playing the silly indoor games etc didn’t materialize. Oh well. Next time eh?

Epilogue

(Like a wise friend said) "The thing about getting married is that the no. of people you meet double, the no. of ceremionies and functions you need to attend double up but your time stays the same". I hadn't factored this in in my planning. So, I didn't end up visiting or calling people I normally would. On the brighter side I did travel within India, I did go back to Mullapanthal for the spicy food (and this time I had 2 glasses of the repulsive toddy), I did try a lot of food and many new restaurants and I travelled by air, train, bus, auto, scooter and car within India. Yay!

[This entry was written soon after the vacation, but I didnt put it up hoping to get access to photos taken during the trip. Moral: Dont count on the spouse doing things on time]

Of all the places I have visited, Japan has been the most different culturally. Most places, I could read signs or communicate in English. Even though people in Italy and France did not speak english fluently, we could read words and tell if a place was a restaurant or not for example. People in Japan are very friendly and respectful. As a foreigner you get away with a lot of not-knowing-the-protocol thing.
 
The western toilets in Japan are awesome, my house is getting a toilet from Japan. It lets you control the temperature and pressure of water, some of them play music, have heated seats and there are other features that I'll refrain from writing here. The airport carts are designed such that you can take them down a staircase escalator. Pretty cool eh? The subway stations require you to enter a ticket to get in. Ticket kiosks are close to the entrance and some of the ones I saw had an option to choose english and some others didn't. An american guy asked a guy in uniform about tickets and that guy held this dude's hands, walked him to a kiosk and helped him buy a ticket. Sweet. You can throw in all your change and choose an amount, it will print a ticket of the amount and return the difference. Very smart. When you are leaving you re-insert your ticket, if the amount is right, the machine eats your ticket (ah, part of the no trash secret) and you walk out. If not, you take the ticket to the counter close by and you can settle the difference at no penalty. Again, very helpful for foreigners.

In all the cities we went to, we noticed that people were happy to get their pictures taken. Kids in armor practising kendo, girls dressed in kimonos, guy making sushi rolls, guy cutting fish - all agreed to pics being taken. Their favorite pose is making a V (for peace?) with the fingers. Most of them, after we took a pic with our camera, would hand us their camera and request a pic to be taken with us in the picture. I guess they are just as fascinated getting pictures of them with the foreigners . The girls cant stop giggling especially when they are in a group and one of them tries to speak in English to you. Its the same with some boys. It sometimes has a rippling effect, they giggle, I laugh, they giggle more ...

One of the chefs was trying to communicate with us via the waitress who knew very little english. Roshan had a few iphone apps that translated commonly used phrases and I had a dictionary that I used occasionally. We were sitting by the bar and he asked if we had a camera. We hadnt taken our cameras, but we had our phones. So we pointed at the phone and he asked Roshan to go into the kitchen - They stood together and then I was beckoned and finally the waitress clicked a pic. Everything happened in installments slowly, it was funny.

The english translations in many places are hilarious and sometimes just inappropriate. I am certain that most of those have no clue what it means. There are t-shirts that men and children wear with probably literal translations that end up sounding non-sensical. There are signs that crack you up - "publice toilet", "don't shoe" and this. Yeah we still dont know what it is, Roshan think its something you eat and lose weight, I think its like a topical cream or something. This was handed out as complimentary gift to all the women staying in this particular hotel in Nara. You can imagine Roshan's jokes I had to endure following the fact that I was given one of these. Just to be clear all women are given these!

A cab driver didnt know the right route to the station and kept apologizing and asked us if he could make a call. I think he called somebody to ask which entrance he could drop us off so that we could catch the train to the airport (We had a lot of luggage). After he kept the phone he kept bowing and saying 'Moushiwake arimasen deshita' (Sorry) and we kept saying its ok. He showed the meter and crossed his arms to indicate ignore the meter. A lot of the japanese cross their arms to indicate no, no entry, closed etc. Signs sometimes communicate a lot more than words . After a 15 min detour when he dropped us we paid him close to the amount on the meter and he kept refusing to take in japanese, apologizing and bowing, we kept saying it was ok (People there understand OK if nothing else) in english. He finally bowed like a million times saying thank you and sorry in japanese. If I powers to vanish, I would have definitely used it then.

Onsens or public baths are a neat concept. Its a great way to relax and refresh. People in Japan (just like many other parts of the world) believe that the water from the springs with all its chemicals cures ailments and is good for your body. They belive that the real onsens have water channeled directly from the hot springs and do not store/reheat or mix normal water. We tried two of these after long days of walking. One of our japanese guides said that a lot of the touristy onsens reheat the water and mix it. We think we tried some of the non-touristy ones. Ryokans are traditional japanese guesthouses. The true ryokans are expensive to stay in and some dont allow foreigners as they dont know all the protocols. Most of the touristy ryokans are a hybrid model with western toilets and not-so-strict on rules and more affordable prices.

Roshan loved Tokyo enough to think that he wouldn't mind living there for a few years. He especially wants to try all their food/drinks. We tried lots of japanese food, before I went to Japan I knew of sushi only. There is a lot of varierty and the food is surprisingly both tasty and healthy. The Japanese have an amazing skill of making things look pretty. We saw the most aesthetically arranged aquariums, flowers, lights, gardens, parks, food, dessert and even sand! OCD indeed! A lot of the eateries have plastic models of their menu items that they put on display outside, and boy, is it tempting or what! The best part is that if you order the dish, it is an exact replica of the model.

After several attempts in various ATMs, we discovered that seven-11 ATMS are the only one's that have english menus and work with foreign cards. Something for you to keep in mind if withdrawing money there.

Next time if I go, I am making sure I take some japanese lessons. It will be so much more fun when you can talk to the people and understand the train announcements and the museum audio tours. Even better if you can read, but after hearing how complex their script is, I am not even going to try. With konichiwa, sayonara, Sumimasen, dohmo arigato gozaimasu, oshi - I managed to communicate enough to get by on this vacation trip

One of the early mornings here, we took a walk to the fish market. Its the biggest fish market I have ever seen, Pike's place market looks like a tiny sample before this . The people moved around stuff within the market on these cool little vehicle thingies, quite innovative I must admit. We saw a lot of the sea creatures, many alive, some frozen, some being sliced ... pretty much all the phases it goes through after it is caught and before it reaches our plates. There was a guy cutting huge blocks of ice and sending up this machinery where it would go in and come out crushed. People would come on their vehicle thingies to buy crushed ice. I was staring at these shrimps moving in the little tank they were in, when the seller smiled and in what seemed like a gesture to help me see/photograph, pulled a shrimp out of the water and pointed at me. My knee jerk reaction was not appreciation but a loud scream seeing the shrimp wriggle for its life. He ofcourse immediately put the shrimp back into water and stepped back. Oh well :-(

We had japanese breakfast outside the market. The fish doesn't get much fresher. And bingo, I tried raw fish for the first time!! Just so randomly, just like that. I am also trying to eat with chopsticks. So far so good.
 
I often struggle finding  petite sections in stores in the US when buying clothes. Ever been in a situation where you love the clothes but they are almost always a larger size? Here while trying slippers on, my feet felt most comfortable in the LL size which is probably a double large or extra large equivalent. I am guessing that buying clothes here may be a fun experience. The japanese girls are so petite. I may be a large after all
 
I love all the expressions and the giggles. People are very friendly. Many go out of their way to help. I asked this girl which train I needed to take to go some place and she stared at the map for a few seconds, asked me to wait, ran and came back with somebody who spoke a little english. Similarly Roshan asked some guy if he knew of a laundromat close by, after some communication struggle the guy called his friend on his phone and Rosh talked to the guy on phone.
 
We visited Akihabara, the elctronic city which besides electronics has lots of japanese porn, comics, dvds etc. Women dressed in kimonos and school girl clothese were handing out flyers on the sidewalk. We also visited Shinjuku (sort of like Times square) and Ginza - they have huge shopping areas and a variety of pubs and restaurants. Lots of people. I noticed very few couples though. Most were by themselves or few guys togther and few girls together. I proably have seen 3 young couples holding hands (and no PDA) and walking so far. People in Tokyo are probably too busy to date. There is a vending machine for almost everything - drinks, food, cigarrette, dvds, posters, t-shirts ... Rosh and I wanted to watch sumo wrestling in Japan, but its not happening in Tokyo at the time we are here :-(. I hope we get to catch a geisha performance in Kyoto. I got to see Kendo, it was pretty cool.

Pachinko is some game that a lot of the middle aged men seem completely engrossed in. I have seen 3 pachinko places so far and people are so intently playing, I have no idea how its played and why its so interesting. The only equivalent I know is how some of the older people spend hours on slot machines in Vegas. If I knew the game, I probably would only play and do nothing else while in Japan (I get hooked on to games easily), so may be I wont find out.
 
I love Tokyo! (Few pics on http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolly/sets/72157621763892903/)

Roshan's internship gave Rosh the choice of doing it in New York and part of it in Tokyo/London. Rosh picked Tokyo. After his internship we thought we could take some time off and tour Japan. So here I am, in Tokyo, the start of my 2 week vacation this summer.I flew in from Seattle to Japan last night, it was a 9 hour flight - not so long international flight for somebody who's been flying internationally between US & India mostly

Unlike my other flights, where the advise it to sleep as much as possible on the flight, this time I didn't sleep at all on the flight. That helped coz after dinner I could fall asleep like other folk here. So jetlag has been gracefully handled.

The first thought when I got off the flight was 'whoa this is warm'. People starting taking layers of clothing off on the walkway. When I finally stepped out on the street to get some food, it was after sunset and still super-warm. Very much like Indian summers.

I am quite puzzled about how the subway stations, roads, sidewalks etc are so clean. There is no trace of trash, paper, wrappers nothing... And there are no trash cans or bins visible. I am hoping in the next 5 days of stay here I can figure out how this is possible.

I am staying in Central Tokyo (Shimbashi) and the view from our room (on the 34th floor) is breathtaking. I think I may have brought some of the Seattle rain here. It rained today and the forecast shows temperatures as 30C (~80F) with showers/clouds rest of the week. Hopefully it will not interfere too much with the sightseeing & exploring plans.

The plan is that after this week in Tokyo, Roshan and I will leave this saturday for Nikko. 2 days in Nikko, 2 days in Kyoto, 2 days in Nara and 2 days in Hakone. Then ofcourse fly back to seattle.

Stay tuned.

A fun read: http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html

Its saturday, sunny, warm & beautiful - the sort of weekend we wish for all year in Seattle. I woke up early (very unusual for a weekend), made myself some quick breakfast, warmed a cup of milk and gobbled it all down. Got into my trackpants and drove out with the sun roof down.  I guess, I was enjoying the change and the morning breeze - so I was actually singing along with the bollywood music playing in the car. After about 30 min, I got to the field - a school playground rather and saw a couple of Indian girls with bats & balls. Considering that this is my first attempt at cricket ever, I was both a little intimidated & excited. It cant hurt trying was what I kept telling myself when I signed up for the practise sessions. And there I was.
 
No, I didn't find any hidden talents and no miracles happened. My bowling was too 'wide' or had too many 'pitches' apparently. My batting often missed 'connecting' with the ball, and in my fielding attempts I either missed catches or didnt throw the ball towards the bowler ... Oh and as a wicket keeper I let most balls pass through. I was struggling to get all the termilology & rules right, '1d', 'lbw', 'over' and what not. (In hind sight, It might have helped if I watched those cricket matches on TV with my family growing up)
 
Oh well, I am learning to play cricket this summer. We'll see after a few months if I develop any (people in the team seem to think that you got to be good at one of batting, bowling or fielding) talents in the sport of cricket.

I finally bought an xbox for myself. The only game I have tried so far is guitar hero and its been fun. The xbox live stuff is pretty awesome. Netflix streaming is probably the start of how we are all going to be watching movies soon. There was a time when I had just moved away from home and eating alone felt odd and sort of lonely; and here I am now, when I love coming home to nobody and eating on my couch watching TV. Good or Bad - who cares. It works and thats all that matters.

Coming back to XBOX, I am wondering what games to get that are fun to learn/play and dont have a steep learning curve. Drop me a comment if you have any ideas.