Logger head turtle on Juhu beach and express shopping with the future bride (found at Taj hotel) under the guidance of Neha

2013-09-30

Life gives back what you put in and the ocean is no exception.  The morning walk was routine except for the fact that a logger head turtle had lost its way on its journey from the Aegean sea to Hawaii and ended up dead on Juhu beach in Mumbai.  It was sad to see the hundreds of years old life to be eaten by the crows.

Back home, warm breakfast was waiting and Anaya was ready to go to school wearing the elaborate uniform with two napkins pinned on it. She told me, “one is for wiping my hands after lunch and other for wiping hands after bathroom”. I hope she remembers which is which. When we told her that we will go shopping , she requested one thing, “ cheese burger meal from Macdonald”. Macdonald and Starbucks are very popular with yuppie teenagers and kids waiting in huge lines. We also spotted pink berry as well as KFC…America is big with Indians.

 Afternoon was an amazing adventure in organized shopping in the narrow alleys of Santa Cruz ( old shopping area) . It was a treat to see the seven month pregnant Neha from a multimillion dollar household, navigating the narrow alleys to find specific shops selling fabric, Sherwani, dyeing material, embroidery necessities, baby clothes, cotton kurtas and much more. Mysteriously, she knew which shop had best of what and which sales person was polite and efficient.

With Neha’s skills and Theresa’s decision making efficiency, we finished most of the wedding shopping in one afternoon. It helped to have the car and the driver follow us from shop to shop, whisking away our bags into the “dikky” of the vehicle.  Once again, such luxuries can only be found in India. (of course there was garbage on the streets, beggars were  everywhere and total chaos of black three wheelers and constant honking was all part of the ambiance) .

 

We came back ( driven home by the driver) to a air conditioned home, ginger tea  and wonderful smell of cooking with variety of spices. The feeling of welcome cannot be described in words.

After dinner and talk and laugh, we are all in our rooms exhausted from the express, organized wedding shopping adventure. I feel wonderfully grateful to the family and specially to Neha, who in spite of being seven months pregnant , braved the crowds and navigated us to a great shopping expedition.  Good night and I will be in touch…Namaste

Traffic Jam to see Big B ( Abitabh Bachhan) and people who own the traffic

2013-09-29

The birthday bash is over and people who were here are leaving one by one. The beach in the
morning was dirty and crowded. The ocean could not keep up with the mess left by people
enjoying the weekend. Sunday morning brings the cricketers in hundreds and I was worried
about getting hit by the ball so did not take any interesting pictures. My previous blog about
India has many good Juhu beach pictures, so I think I will not repeat the same thing. If you are
interested, please look for my blog “Mahayatra “from two years ago.

Lots of family guppay ( fun talks) and bonding later, Bina Mousi left for Pune. Bina Mousi
is a doctor and a mother in law and her presences was urgently requested by her son and
daughter in law, so she had to leave my precious company to help them bring in the new
baby. ( I guess that is more important).

We started our shopping and the first step was to go with Ritu to “Lokhanwara” ( an upscale
but affordable shopping area) to buy soft cotton clothing to wear during hot summers and for
Theresa for her future trips. On the way I got educated in three things:

1) The stop lights are owned by beggars and are traded as precious commodities and
sometimes given as dowry. If you need an explanation, you are not alone, I could not
get it either. It turns out that they have a systematic way of organizing the begging
industry and have the districts and stop lights divided amongst them. I doubt that is it
a democratic system , so some boss somewhere takes the commission and gives the
poor and the disabled to rights to beg at a given stop light) . Once you get over the
shock, you will see that it does make sense. It is sad but is (most probably ) true ( for
at least some of them).

2) Every Sunday evening at 7 pm ,Big B comes out from his multibillion dollar banglow
to give 10 seconds “Darshan” ( sighting of God and God like) to is hundreds of
worshippers who are gathered outside his home. If you do not know who Big B is, you
are not an India. Big B is Amitabh Bachhan, who is a Bolllywood icon and a megastar.
There is no equivalent to him in Hollywood. Unfortunately , I did not have my ready
camera but I will post the pictures borrowed from other fellow worshippers.

Not much happened otherwise. We all gathered in the evening, laughed , told jokes,
asked riddles and (of course) ate delicious home cooked Indian meal. The luxury here
cannot be imagined unless you experience it yourself.

 Here is a riddle for you to see how your social conditioning is: A father and the son
got into accident, the father brought the son to the hospital. The attending surgeon
looked at the kid and said, “ the kid needs a surgery but I cannot operate on him
because he is my son. “ How could this be possible? ( my educated family of doctors ,
engineers and teachers did not get it)..Let’s see if you can. …Good night

Birthday Bash for Bina Mousi

2013-09-28

The day started with the morning walk on the Juhu beach. The beach is clean now and was mostly crowded with the foot ball players and people coming for vacation from other parts of India.

When we got back, fresh breakfast was waiting and then the family from Indore and local started arriving. It is a rare occasion when we siblings all get together along with the children and grandchildren. Not everyone was here and those who could make it were missed. Still it was loud and vibrant enough that, I am not sure what Theresa was thinking about all this chaos. But, of course there was order within the chaos. We were laughing, talking ( in two languages), kids were running around all over and there was plenty of fresh cooked food for everyone.



Birthday Lady



Birthday Invitation



Family

4 Siblings and Grandkids

Granddaughter

We took a quick break and went to “jogger’s park” for an evening walk and to watch sunset. I have to say that Mumbai has cleaned up a lot and ( at least in the park) there was greenery and fresh air. Lots of people were running and walking ( a refreshing site). But, still, even compared to Turkey, there is a loud madness about the traffic and chaos on the roads in general. We have to remember it is four times the population and one forth the size of USA.

 

Family in Jogger's Park

 

Sunset



Bunny in Jogger's Park
 

Back at home, celebrations continued with a guitarist singing old Hindi songs, Ritu singing and then for everyone’s delight, BIna Mousi danced ;) The cake was cut and delicious home cooked meal was served , games were played and then more long talks and bonding continued till midnight and longer.

3 Monkeys



Celebrations

My brother and his family ( Renu, Neha, Aditi, Amit, Anuj) had planned this really well in spite of the recent family sickness. I feel truly blessed to have the family (which is so far away) to so close. I need to get some sleep but will write more as time goes by. Namaste..

 

 

I went to India to find the bride for my son

2013-09-27

The flight to India was uneventful except for my bad Karma, I tried two seats and the movies were not working (or operator error) but I was too tired to figure out. So, I just vegetated and slept.

Against all odds, the checked in luggage was there and I came out very quickly. I used a porter (paid him a dollar and he was sooo happy)  and used his cell phone to call my nephew waiting outside.  Anuj drove me home at 5am and my brother and sister in law were waiting.  It is so nice to come all the across the world, find a loving home, warm ginger tea and just unload dirty laundry of two weeks of travel :)

Lots of talks and some more talks later we picked up the grand kids (my grand nephews and niece) from the local private school where Theresa was giving a seminar to 10 high schools about the college admissions in USA. Of course, we found out about this only after driving for 2 hours all the way across the town to pick her up from the Taj hotel. If we had just read her itinerary  before hand, we would have known that she was there in the neighbor hood and saved ourselves and her four hours of driving time. But, engineers do not read instructions or anything written.



 

 

 

 

 

We are at Kukki ( my brother’s home ), I am happy to find my future daughter in law in India  and we will have wonderful time for next few days. Namaste from Mumbai ( temp is in upper 80s and raining)

We wore our guide out, all there is left of him is puddles of sweat

2013-09-25

I have eight hours to spend at Istanbul airport, so get ready for the long blog. After a 3 am start, we drove an hour to the nearby airport for an hour flight and the breakfast ( provided by Turkish airline) to Istanbul.  Guess what? Buck’s luggage, after travelling the world for 14 days was waiting for him at the airport . Now he can change his clothes after 14 days.

We are sitting in the Istanbul airport terminal for the airline counters to open and  some of us are getting very anxious to check in and to get home and think that making trips to the counter will make them open them quicker.

Many hours have passed now, thanks to the bank priority plus lounge card, I am sitting very comfortably with internet, comfortable chairs and plenty to eat and drink. Everyone is gone now (from our group) so I am alone in Turkey. (feel free to send me emails)

·         Here are the highlights of the trip:
Food: Aubergines , Figs, Bean Soup, Beet sugar and all kinds of Kebabs.
Synchronized swimming in Agean sea. Darkest skin person got severe sun burn.
Temples that changed to churches that changed to mosques.
Home hosted lunch, home stay and wonderful people.
Terrance houses ( hill terraces) at Ephesus.
Hot air balloon over the planet Tatooine.
Backpacks over loaded with souvenirs.
Amazing cliff caves of  Myra.
Graffiti fountain as Hittites water well.
Magnum a day kept the doctor away.
Buck losing his glasses, flip flops and bags.
Look on Jackie’s face at the Hamam.
Village and lady giving farewell with water spilling.
Mohamet feeding us on the boat and captain catching fish with Judith.
Satellite dish and solar heater at the goat herders hut.
Short Short wearing Russian teenagers at St. Nicholas.
 Inclusiveness and openness of Islam at its core.
Turkish coffee and Chai.
Santa Clause is a Turk and lived here at Myra.
Cleanliness and infrastructure ( roads, water and power) everywhere.

In general, Turkey has been a major power in Europe and probably in the world and is a very well run place so far ( unless it gets messed up by the fundamentalism).  I also think that we Americans have a news media induced paranoia  and honestly are too arrogant about “our” way of living.

Trip was a big success because of our guide( Behlul)  and the wonderful group of people.

One family's luggage

Why the airport is so clean

Doctor Sisters from Algeria

Exhausted Guide

Hajiis

So, this is the official end of the Turkey blog and I hope to get on the plane to India soon. Gule Gule and I will be in touch…Namaste..

Throwing the clay pot on the wheel on the planet Tatooine

2013-09-25

Did you know that scenes of the Star Wars on the planet Tatooine were taken from the landscape of Cappadocia? 

Planet Tatooine

Planet Tatooine

Planet Tatooine

Planet Tatooine

Today is our last day in Turkey. We start the journey back at 3 am tomorrow morning. The time goes very fast on the Planet Tatooine and it is time to get back on Earth time.

Before that, I will like to log today’s activity. We drove around different cities to check out various homes and habitants. I have attached sample pictures for your verification. We ran into a professional potter who has been making potteries for three generations. They taught us  the art of pottery making and hand painting. The work is just spectacular. Many earthlings bought the samples to take home.

Pottery Maker of Tatooine

Finished Pottery

Pottery Painter

 

After a delicious lunch in one of the Peri building (natural rock cave) , we visited the Monasteries of Gorme. These Christian monks  lived here from around 300 AD and afterword. They painted bountiful frescos to explain the life and teachings of Jesus of the planet Earth. St. Basil was the famous one and he spread the message of love and sharing amongst the Tatooineons (that is why they are friends with the Earthlinks.)

Monastery

 

Transportation of Tatooine

Inhabitants of Tatooine

We are back to the hotel, going out for final dinner on the planet and say Gule Gule ( Bye Bye) to everyone. It will take almost a day for me to get back to the planet Earth from here, I have a long wait at the Istanbul airport , so I might try to blog from there. If not , Gule Gule from Turkey .

Home next to Hotel

I will continue this blog from India, so please check it out. It might take me couple of days to get all set up with the system. I will like to extend my thanks to the “community brain” of the group for coming up with the ideas for the blog. It has been a fun group activity. Also, special thanks to our multitalented guide , Behlul Dundar.

Thanks for cyber journeying with me. If you get a chance visit this magical place. Let me know if I can help with the planning the trip. I will be in touch soon Insha Allah

Guess who landed on the truck?

2013-09-24

When the pilot of our hot air balloon said, he is going to land on the truck, we thought he was joking. But, we found out he was not joking at all and the balloon actually did land on the truck. It was totally amazing to see how accurately he was able to manure the balloon. The ride over Cappadocia was spectacular to say the least. Pictures can show you the glimpse of what you see here.

Hot Air Balloons

In the Hot Air Balloon Basket:  Truck Landing

Cappadocia is unique both geologically and  historically. The Peri ( fairy) structure as well as the caves and other formations are formed over millions of years. The area is surrounded by three volcanoes and ( as over guide put it) the eruption provided the material and erosion sculpted the formations. The rocks are made of soft volcanic stones ( called Tufa in Turkish) and some have natural caves, others are man made.

Underground Cave Homes

Historically, the central Turkish area was the cross road for all the merchants as well as the armies going west to east or east to west for at least last 6000 years. This had many advantages but also was always in the path of the soldiers and hence prone to looting and other issues. To protect themselves and their belongings, local people had devised this elaborate system of underground dwellings using the natural formations and soft stones. It is also said that , these were originally developed as the resting place for soldiers.

Cave Homes

Hike Views



Rock Family

It is impossible to describe these dwellings and formations in words. Few pictures are attached. Basically, the caves were up to 350 feet underground ( seven stories) and could shelter up to 1000 people for several months. There were underground tunnels leading to kitchen, living and other areas and places to store food and other belongings.

Our Hotel

Pigeon Homes

We toured one such cave system. The place was overrun by very rude and large German tourist group ( 50+ people) and many more behind them. I was very glad when our guide decides to get us out of there but we saw the main part. Turkey ( specially this area) is a major destination for European tour groups. We also ran into individual tourists, one of them, a girl from UC Berkeley - Very nice and politeJ

Newborns

Vadi Hike to Cavehomes

Us

That is it for today. I think the pictures tell more than what I can say in words but this a definitely a unique place in Geography as well as History.  I will write mote tomorrow…Insha Allah