HOME!

We have enjoyed being home so much the past week I forgot to update the blog! After a blissful six days in Germany we made it back to Seattle and are getting back in the swing of things. Even if nobody else reads this much more, we will still finish up those last few posts before we forget...

Thanks for following our adventures!

Time to pack up and go...

Well, somehow the day is already here! Time to hitch up our gear and get movin' on down the road. And when it's time to go, you just go. You figure out how to put your house on a cart, hitch up the beast, and start movin'.

So that's what we've done tonight, even though our adventure stories here on Curry-osity are still a few weeks behind. I'm determined to continue writing about our travels; from Kerala to Mysore, and of course, quite a bit of time in Bangalore, there are still sights and stories to share. We've had fun blogging about them and we'll keep it up to finish out our trip. But it might be a few more days yet.

In a few hours we'll fly to Germany, where we have decided to maximize our connecting flight through Frankfurt. For six days we'll poke around Heidelberg, Strasbourg and points in-between. That is, if we survive the shock at how expensive everything is! It's easy to get used to lunch for two for less than $2. But that won't get you far in the land of the Euro...

A HUGE thank you to Deepak, Rashmi, young miss Shruti, and her grandfather, all of whom have been such wonderful, generous hosts to us here in Bangalore. They have housed us, fed us, and generally have been essential to our taking this trip. Thank you for sharing your home, your time and your family, but especially your amazing, huge, complex and wonderful country! I have no idea what impact India has had on us, but for sure it has changed us in ways we'll be figuring out for a long time. In the meantime, don't stop pushing! (or pulling, as the case may be)...

Almost done!

We leave tomorrow! Stay tuned for a few more stories about our travels, and then hopefully some parting words on our trip and India. In the meantime, if you haven't checked back in a while, we have added a few more posts - just scroll down a bit...

Off to Mysore

Today we take a short trip to the city of Mysore, three hours from Bangalore. We'll be back Saturday, with even more stuff to write about on Curry-osity. Hopefully we can catch up on the backlog...

**UPDATE** We're catching up! A few more posts below...

Bangalore Blast?

Thanks Mom, for reporting to us about a small explosion outside the Bangalore Cricket Stadium, apparently reported on the news a few moments ago.  If you happen to hear of this back in the US, rest assured that we are nowhere near the stadium or the big IPL (Indian Premier League) game. We saw some boys playing cricket down the street when we went out for our daily coconut, but that's as close as we'll get to any excitement today...

UPDATE: Oops, I guess we were close the night before. We'd gone to an architecture lecture in the heart of the city, and went to a restaurant afterwards. I think we walked right through the intersection where one of the (small, but who's counting?) bombs apparently went off today. Although I have to tell you, I am way way more nervous about surviving Indian road traffic than I am about the chances of being caught up in some incident.

Blog break ends soon...

Once again, we are concluding another big India "road trip" with limited internet access but plenty of stories and sights to share on Curry-osity in the days to come. Tomorrow we fly back to Bangalore from the city of Kochi, in the green, beautiful but extremely hot and humid state of Kerala.

It will be a long day, as both trips to and from the respective airports will take longer than our 70-minute flight! But that's India for you. And we'll have even more India for you soon. I'm looking forward to writing about the past few weeks for all (both?) of our devoted followers, as well as ourselves. This blog is also somewhat of a travel journal, albeit a public one. Anyway, stay tuned for plenty of bugs, buses, boats and bananas...

**UPDATE** New posts will keep showing up below ordered by date. And please leave comments if you're inspired!

Three Days in Tea Town

The next three days in Munnar are for the most part fantastic. Great weather, food and scenery make for some of our most relaxing time in India so far. At times I'm reminded of being in a small European hill town, at least in the way the beautiful countryside views greet us at every turn as we walk through the steep terrain. As we walk a mile or two into town, it turns out Lori knows exactly where we are - she's been here before! Her group came this way in 2002, and at this very spot they shot scenes for a mock Bollywood video! Watch it here on Youtube - the quality is low but you might be able to spot my favorite movie star...


Munnar town is 100% India, complete with giant buses rampaging down narrow roads, tuk-tuks blasting exhaust and noise, and dozens and dozens of shops crowded along the road. Walking into town after breakfast and exploring doesn't take long and in itself isn't much to see. But the large tourist-oriented spice shops are awesome! From dozens of varieties of Munnar tea to five kinds of pepper to red-hot cinnamon bark and more, it's all here, picked and packed in the hills surrounding us. We stock up a lifetime's supply of spices and other goodies, then catch our first rickshaw ride on steep hilly roads back to Olivebrook for a guided walk to see the tea plantations.

One of the best things about our India trip is seeing how stuff is made and where it's from. Sure you can do this in the U.S., but I think we're more consumers than producers these days. But after India I now know what a cardamom plant looks like, where tea comes from (and what “tips” are) and how it's processed. The following day after a disappointing visit to a natural park (it takes a few hundred rupees and long drive to learn that 90% of it is inaccessible), we tour a local tea factory and see freshly-picked tea leaves come off the truck and get processed. The 30-minute company history video is even watchable!

Another great afternoon follows at Olivebrook, drinking tea but now with a much deeper understanding. We relax and listen to the fantastic bird calls (sorry Mom, I have no idea what they were). Unlike our trip to the park earlier that day, we even spot the giant red flying squirrels in the trees down the hill. Somehow I manage to get the timing perfect for a mid-air shot! Alas my camera lens is not National-Geographic-worthy, even if my timing is...