tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203740392012-01-12T16:46:09.192+05:30Two New Yorkers spend <strike>six months</strike> 18 months!?! in Bangalore and other places in India.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.comBlogger2911100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-3319857927318315652008-09-16T19:06:00.004+05:302008-09-16T19:18:44.392+05:30

So today at noon I'll be answering questions about India over at Budget Travel. It would be foolish to pretend that I'm knowledgeable about all of India -- who is? -- or even that I am an extremely learned expert about any of its sections. But I am hoping to help people start thinking in the right direction about what they want to go and what they want to do. By the way, my fellow travel editor (

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-74114097557318620982008-06-18T19:54:00.002+05:302008-06-18T19:56:04.450+05:30

Hey, so I'll continue putting random India stuff up here occasionally, but head to the main blog for more current updates.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-55454576460926605342008-05-08T02:23:00.001+05:302008-05-08T02:23:43.986+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } C215 - Indian Goat, originally uploaded by C215. Hey, I'm really late with this, but remember that funny goat from long ago? Well, it got turned into a stencil by a street artist. Pretty cool, huh?

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-36055994408249679802008-01-15T05:05:00.000+05:302008-01-15T05:11:27.249+05:30

The entertaining "Firang Squirrel" is about the be leaving India as well. Her post about it (from earlier this month) is a good read. Don and I are doing well, busy getting our stuff out of storage, re-connecting with friends, and rounding up some work. Weirdly the jet lag super-sucked this time, not sure why. Before it went away in a few days, but this time it's really taken a good dozen days to

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-39507199957714888302008-01-04T08:35:00.000+05:302008-01-04T09:09:31.024+05:30

And now we're in New York after a nicely uneventful flight on British Airways. I finally got to see Darjeeling Limited and would sometime like to visit whatever country it was supposed to be set in. It looked like India, but that's more or less where the similarity ends. I also discovered that when you're checking in on BA, and if you do click that box specifying meal preferences, it actually

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-60544651951717547482007-12-31T19:42:00.001+05:302007-12-31T19:52:06.683+05:30

Another packing toughie, like yesterday's nativity scene, this was a Pottery Town purchase. It's about 12", and the pottery is very thick. I've wanted one of these for a long time. The figures are meant to be hung or placed on the outside of a house or construction site to protect it -- mine has a hole in the back of his head, just ready for a nail. Presumably they work by scaring away trouble.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-72206385869355496572007-12-30T20:18:00.000+05:302007-12-30T20:33:11.273+05:30

Here's one of the things I'm struggling to pack up. A couple days before Christmas I walked to Pottery Town, an area near the Cantonment Railway station where lots of (you guessed it) pottery is made. The potters work out of their houses, and I think mainly have standing orders from businesses, but they will also just sell to people who wander by. The place really swells in the days leading up to

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-159204835271680512007-12-30T20:17:00.000+05:302007-12-30T20:17:57.659+05:30

Unbelievably, our time in India is almost at an end. I know I've thought that twice before, just before we were heading back in July 2006 and then in April 2007, but this time it looks as if it's really the case. I'll try to write up some sort of wordy summing-up (who doesn't love those?), but don't hold your breath. The last week or so has been full of packing tape, buying stuff (mostly cloth),

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-74639699245222904672007-12-30T20:06:00.000+05:302007-12-30T20:13:23.828+05:30

Flamingo Chenin Blanc 2005380 rupees14% Yet another wine we drank a while back. It was hard to be thrilled by it. It had a nice, sweet, honey-like frangrance, but the taste itself was way too sweet for us. Not so memorable. We have to give it a 5 for being boring.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-28697035256012074162007-12-26T17:45:00.000+05:302007-12-26T18:03:02.067+05:30

Sula Blush Zinfandel Rs. 39512% alcoholAs usual we drank this entry before we could take a picture, so I don't have any photographic evidence of its orange-red, tawny color, perhaps its best aspect. The smell was pleasing -- subtle and fruity, but quick to evaporate. It's not very deep, but it doesn't have anything unpleasant about it either. It's an insubstantial, fruity, fun wine. We give it a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-49915071042130766322007-12-25T18:12:00.000+05:302007-12-25T19:13:55.581+05:30

Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating it today. This kolam-like message was found in the Russell Market area today. Last night we had Christmas dinner over at the neighbors. It was pasta with tuna. Not exactly a traditional Christmas goose, but it was wonderful. And then, plum cake. Of course. And this morning I went to a couple church services. I wasn't sure where to head, since I didn't have

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-26156224922099481752007-12-24T17:51:00.000+05:302007-12-24T18:42:33.472+05:30

Sula410 rupees11.5% alcoholChristmas and (even more to the point) New Year's are right around the corner, and for some people that means a flute of sparkling wine. If you're going for real, honest-to-goodness French Champagne in India, be prepared to pay through the nose --- at least 1200 rupees, and possibly closer to 3000 inr ($75). At prices like that, you'd best make your parties on the small

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-60757653157912292542007-12-24T09:34:00.000+05:302007-12-24T09:49:52.169+05:30

Sula2007395 rupees12.5% This wine is semi-dry, which for secret Wine Expert reasons actually means "slightly sweet." I'm sometimes a little leery of such wines, because I think a bad sweet wine can be awful, much less bearable than a bad red wine. Anyway, this one is really, really good. It smells a little like honey, a little like flowers. The flavors are clean, crisp, and not overpowering. We

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-23049254416895638112007-12-20T22:14:00.000+05:302007-12-20T22:29:17.030+05:30

Since it's almost the same as my last name, I loved the Rambo bar of Calcutta. I discouraged us from going in since it looked so grim, but maybe I shouldn't have: a backpacker site says it's "seedy and toxic-smelling," "a dive for sure," "quite famous" but also "foul and definitely not famous." Intriguing! Anyway, "off-cum-on" means you can buy liquor for drinking off the premises as well as for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-51833456336747135312007-12-19T20:52:00.000+05:302007-12-19T20:56:02.384+05:30

Here's a short video Katherine shot with her camera. Behold the bats, who fly out of the trees in back of our apartment every night around 6:15 or whenever the sun sets. A little before they do their thing, many of the birds all start flying back to the trees. So there's a little bit of sharing going on.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-67719448960998002152007-12-19T20:20:00.001+05:302007-12-19T20:23:44.860+05:30

We already did this wine, but it found its way back into our house all the same. It seemed like a 5.5 last time, but maybe it's a little better than that. How about a 6? It's still thin and kind of dull, but it did improve once we left it open for a while and let it breathe.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-20680730492229421502007-12-19T20:01:00.000+05:302007-12-19T20:18:04.545+05:30

All is gloom in Bangalore today. It's rainy, cold, and gusty. It looks like this:OK, that's really Minnesota from a couple weeks ago. But here in Bangalore it feels very damp and cold all the same. Everyone who had a sweater or something similar had put it on. And just about everyone seemed a little down in the dumps. On the other hand, my auto-rickshaw driver kindly agreed to slow down a bit

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-27683901204991686302007-12-19T12:01:00.000+05:302007-12-19T12:10:08.949+05:30

For a few days, we had no fire in the kitchen. The propane tank that fuels our two-burner stove was empty, leaving us with no source of heat except the toaster and our approximately two-watt microwave. For the first day this was a good excuse to clear out the leftovers from the fridge. On the second day we gamely heated up prepacked meals in a pouch. By the third day we were ready to do our own

Donnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-17181375500681751862007-12-18T10:58:00.000+05:302007-12-18T11:21:21.735+05:30

Seagram465 rupees13.5% alchoholI usually keep the empty bottles of wine we've drunk until their contents either get written up here or we've completely forget what exactly the wine was like. I'll try to clear up the backlog, and then at least the apartment will stop looking so much like a frat house. Here's another wine from Seagram's relatively new Nine Hills line. We reviewed the Chenin Blanc a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-85254412534560390692007-12-17T21:40:00.001+05:302007-12-17T21:59:11.249+05:30

The Goat of Ghoom cracked us all up. How does he get his hair so curly? And why is he inside the basket? Ghoom is a town a few miles from Darjeeling. It's on most tourists' radar as the first stop the Toy Train makes from Darjeeling. There's also a great monastery.Soon after I took this picture, Don grabbed the GoG and ran like hell for the Toy Train to make his escape. But the train only goes at

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-13530013989102027542007-12-17T21:20:00.000+05:302007-12-17T21:26:53.051+05:30

We used to have this blog, see, where I'd post random pictures and go on and about Indian wine, goats, traffic, and other obsessions. Not so much anymore! I hope that will change. Anyway, our friend Katherine has posted lots of good pictures from her recent visit and vacation with us. Click here for the slideshow.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-34912063516080306452007-12-07T16:40:00.000+05:302007-12-07T16:51:20.366+05:30

We left Gangtok this morning, driving about 4 hours over very dramatic roads to Darjeeling, another mountain town. Darjeeling was once a hill station, where the British Raj went to escape from the heat of Calcutta, but now it's a very large city as well. It may be even a little colder than Gangtok. My fingers are a little numb as I'm typing. We've had some fried rice and momos (dumplings) for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-14282604450648825932007-12-05T17:23:00.001+05:302007-12-05T17:25:22.847+05:30

We're in Gangtok in the mountainous Indian state of Sikkim at the moment. We just drove in a couple hours ago. Although it's not super-high, it's high enough that I feel a little dizzy. It doesn't help that the sprawling city is on a mountain, so going from one street to another involves big flights of stairs. Even with the cardio I've been doing, it's a bit much. So if there are even more typos

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-49703336277747614292007-12-03T06:13:00.000+05:302007-12-03T06:14:33.482+05:30

So as we continue our attempt to see a few more of the places we didn't reach yet, we're heading off this morning to Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Gangtok. Our friend Katherine just flew in from the states yesterday for this trip. In Kolkata we're looking forward to College Street and its many streetside books, Bengali fish, and of course over-the-top British Raj monstrosities, I mean monuments. So

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-34717822161654970862007-11-27T20:39:00.000+05:302007-11-27T21:04:42.276+05:30

So we have about a month left to spend in India, and we have a lot to do in that month. A friend is visiting, we both have lots of projects to start and finish, and then we have to pack up. And at the moment we're just really ready to go back.Thanksgiving made me happy, although the food wasn't going to win any gourmet awards. The turkey was a little tough, and the pumpkin pie had been made

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-47319882903485634922007-11-25T10:50:00.000+05:302007-11-25T10:56:07.132+05:30

The front page of today's Deccan Herald had this awesome series of photos of a couple parrots picking on a rat snake they hadn't taken a liking too. I think that rat snakes will eat more than just rodents . . . . I think the snake is a very nice color, but I guess I'm glad I didn't see it in the park myself.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-27476879569229410622007-11-22T17:44:00.000+05:302007-11-22T18:03:18.621+05:30

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans, one and all. We're headed off to The Only Place in a couple hours, and unlike last year, we actually made reservations this time. So with any luck we won't be carting our turkey, stuffing, and canned cranberries on our laps in the back of an auto-rickshaw hurtling through Bangalore's nighttime traffic.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-31539401296325788252007-11-22T16:17:00.001+05:302007-12-18T11:23:31.977+05:30

Blue Star Agro & Winery, PuneRs. 437Another one from the maker of Evita, covered yesterday. According to the wine label, this is a "deep purple full-bodied" wine with "an attractive aroma of black pepper with silky tannins that leave a delicious finish" It also goes with tandoor items and "spiced Indian curries." (We thought that bit was funny -- where are the unspiced Indian curries? And curries

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-26704534557989611242007-11-21T20:54:00.000+05:302007-11-22T17:14:01.561+05:30

Blue Star Agro & Winery, PuneRs. 2742006This wine is described as "fruity, dry, light, and stable," with a "distinctive bouquet." It's also made from "classic grape varieties," but those are not named. It's also called a "value-for-money" wine that's ideal with "cheese and meat dishes."Don't cry for me having to drink this wine, because it was decent. It seemed to us a little like a beaujoulais

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-86949722757195915222007-11-18T10:18:00.000+05:302007-11-18T10:30:50.967+05:30

Vinsura VineyardsBrut sparkling wine (methode champenoise)Sankalp Winery501 rupees12.5 % alcoholRecently I stopped in at the new and fancy Food World Gourmet, which attempts to give expats and other rich and high-living people all the stuff they want. It feels weird going there and looking at overpriced imported grapes from the USA (and nothing domestic!) and so on, but on the other hand it's

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-17501499040861467452007-11-16T20:14:00.001+05:302007-11-16T20:17:34.527+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DSC06281.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. Another great facade. It was the custom in Bhubaneshwar to paint the doorways with the names of those who had been married (and the writing always seemed to be in English, not

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-24852263329720126262007-11-16T20:05:00.001+05:302007-11-16T20:06:48.984+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DSC06278.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. This was obviously quite something back in the day. It still is.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-36759135804340983822007-11-16T19:56:00.001+05:302007-11-16T19:56:21.956+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DSC06337.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. Those umbrellas were very practical. As you can see, the temple's size is impressive -- and it's diminished from what it once was.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-35083213075324440302007-11-16T19:54:00.001+05:302007-11-16T19:54:25.707+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } bungalow.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. Puri had many Raj-era bungalows that had either always been hotels or later turned into ones. This was one of my favorites. I wish I'd wandered in to have a little look around.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-68908882764580869082007-11-16T19:52:00.001+05:302007-11-16T19:52:45.718+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } sun temple.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. Here's Don in front of one of the three statutes of Surya that are at the Sun Temple. It was beautiful -- the stone is a kind of chlorite and has a very nice greenish tinge.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-76503429422612667292007-11-13T18:02:00.000+05:302007-11-13T18:29:36.215+05:30

Orissa was really fun. I think a lot more tourists would visit if it wasn't kind of a pain to get to. You can easily tell it's a lot more rural than, say, Karnataka -- lots of people staring at the firangi (foreigners), even in the big cities, and instead of having to drive for 90 minutes or so to see lots of rice paddy fields, they pop up after about 30 minutes after you've gotten in the car in

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-7263876167684901212007-11-09T20:12:00.000+05:302007-11-09T20:26:52.377+05:30

Speaking of fire and perils, here's a fire extinguisher installed at the Orissa State Museum, in Bhubhaneshwar. It's not an exhibit, it's there to do a job, but I have some doubts about whether or not it's still able to do it. The good news is that it's not as old as its 1930s-ish design and typeface imply -- the bad news is that it's still from 1971.Minimax still makes fire extinguishers, but I

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-56621061178981527122007-11-09T19:58:00.000+05:302007-11-09T20:03:56.602+05:30

Happy Diwali to everyone out there celebrating it. When we got back to the apartment this afternoon, we saw that the decorating for the final day had begun, with rice-flour rangoli/kolams along the entryway and small lights (diyas) on top of every other design. And now that it's nighttime, the "crackers" (firecrackers) have started going off. For the past few days the newspapers, in the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-39615005194178387392007-11-06T18:22:00.000+05:302007-11-06T18:38:20.633+05:30

Hey there. So we got on a train on Sunday at 2 pm and set out for Orissa, on India's eastern coast. It was a long train ride. 31 hours! This was by far the longest time we've ever been on a train, but for many Indians such distances are not nearly as impressive. Train is still the main way to get from point A to B if A and B are sufficiently far apart. Airlines have only cut into a slice of that

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-15967809794646308882007-10-30T22:14:00.001+05:302007-10-30T22:42:32.624+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } traffic school.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. No points for guessing what you head here to learn. This was a good neighborhood to practice with the learner's car, which I saw heading slowly down the road. There was

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-89734606333152441322007-10-30T22:01:00.001+05:302007-10-30T22:01:37.153+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } mysore chicken.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. Don was in Mysore last week, and I took the train down to see him. Here's a chicken store near his work. The tinsel was probably applied during Dasara, the week before.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-88665906311147080912007-10-29T22:04:00.000+05:302007-10-29T22:27:30.657+05:30

So yesterday for lunch we headed west to the upscale, suburbanish neighborhood of Indiranagar, which surely has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in Bangalore. (Koramangala has even more.) Anyway, the Parsi deli we'd first hoped to find had closed, and we couldn't find the Bengali hole-in-the-wall, so instead we ended up at a very fancy Bengali restaurant called 6 Ballygunge

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-8689301668637196472007-10-28T18:52:00.000+05:302007-10-28T18:56:56.339+05:30

SeagramRs. 41512.5% alcoholAs we continue to clear the decks with bottles we've drunk recently, we come to the second of the Seagram's wines we've tried out. It was a bit of a surprise -- I had it in my mind that chenin blanc was a very mild, sometimes almost watery wine. But this was a concentrated, quite sweet, slightly bubbly wine. It was tasty and fun. We completely randomly had it with

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-35204430947602947102007-10-28T18:39:00.000+05:302007-10-28T18:50:02.945+05:30

Grover VineyardsRs. 38012% alcohol Business-oriented people in India often talk about the USP (unique selling proposition) of a business, and it's common to see "USP" this and "USP" that in the newspapers. It may not be unique, but the selling proposition trumpeted on this wine's label is the fact that its shiraz and cabernet sauvignon vines were "imported from France" and are now "thriving" on

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-6638909395158157512007-10-23T17:53:00.000+05:302007-10-26T19:07:38.379+05:30

Yesterday Slate took on the question of timely question of what to do if you're attacked by a monkey gang.First off, I'm not really sure what the article considers an attack. Is it just a monkey looking at you cross-eyed? Or is it a monkey actually making a move at you? Hard to tell. Either way, the main advice is "just give 'em what they want. When monkeys get aggressive, it's usually because

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-91033587206147523032007-10-22T20:54:00.001+05:302007-10-22T21:06:38.448+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } cleaning ladies.JPG, originally uploaded by jrambow. Lots of rangoli, or colored designs for the floor, were created during the festivities at Don's office. You can check out more of them here.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-89054345936310562282007-10-20T10:38:00.000+05:302007-10-20T10:40:07.256+05:30

Today is Ayudh Puja, the 9th day of the major Hindu festival of Dasara. Here in the south, it's a day to honor Lord Vishvakarman, the god of artisans and others who make things. It's a day to get blessing for tools and other things that help you do your job. So, a few minutes ago, I saw a row of four cars in the courtyard next to the apartment building being blessed, with garlands on the hoods,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-17141412083610644642007-10-18T19:09:00.000+05:302007-10-22T20:39:06.529+05:30

Nashik Valley White WineSula VineyardsRs. 272 ($6.70)12% alcoholIn our last edition of wine time, we had the surprisingly not-horrible Madera red, which got a respectable 7. And now it's time for the white. Well, the label's still nice! Thrifty Sula didn't even bother to round up a different tribal-art picture for the white. And the tag line on the back ("an easy-drinking wine from the Nashik

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-9971872010246286812007-10-16T20:49:00.001+05:302007-10-16T20:49:46.978+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Monkey Babies, originally uploaded by jrambow. Although it is a scientific fact that monkeys are evil or at least evilish, it is sometimes impossible to resist their cute faces and antics. Also, they are so often forming

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-81434750403055175112007-10-16T20:39:00.001+05:302007-10-16T20:44:00.706+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DSC05955, originally uploaded by jrambow. I don't know if Sri Lankans get bored of having cool animals like water monitors around, but I hope not. This one was in the moat of the Temple of the Buddha's Tooth, in Kandy. At

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-71440012520800510962007-10-16T20:06:00.000+05:302007-10-16T20:12:21.635+05:30

Over at Gridskipper, I have a post up about one of the more chilled-out restaurants we ate at in Sri Lanka, No. 18. I think they should open a branch in Bangalore. We certainly have our share of fancy restaurants, but they often seem to veer toward the snobby or at least overdone side of the street.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-45393879355089647762007-10-14T18:42:00.000+05:302007-10-22T20:39:06.531+05:30

A lousily written article in the Telegraph points out that the new edition of the World Atlas of Wine will now include wine-producing areas in India as well as China: "The map of the world's most renowned wine-producing areas has been officially redrawn this weekend to include countries such as China, India, Georgia, Canada, New Mexico and Belgium."Now, New Mexico is not a country, and Georgia

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-41406033470116629212007-10-12T23:45:00.000+05:302007-10-13T00:04:27.152+05:30

This morning around 7:30, when I always open the apartment door to leave out the garbage and pick up the two papers we subscribe to, I saw something small scuttle out of the pages and into the apartment. Oh great, I thought, now the monster cockroaches are using the front door rather than just coming up through drains and cracks in the kitchen tile. But I followed it back into the apartment and

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-49981924608711862982007-10-10T16:00:00.000+05:302007-10-10T16:46:14.307+05:30

So in the northeast state of Manipur there were these monks from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, aka ISKCON, aka the Hare Krishnas. They were minding their own business selling books, until a possibly drunk jerk comes up and says "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna, beef is the best" five times, a blasphemous take-off on the famous Hare Krishna chant. There was a "heated exchange," some

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-78662025989416825492007-10-10T15:58:00.000+05:302007-10-10T21:01:32.103+05:30

I'm busy "researching" rice pudding to use up some of the rice that resulted from cooking Persian-style rice last night. The Wikipedia article on the subject cracks me up -- who knew there was so much to say about it? I don't agree that "Over centuries, the European recipe has been simplified, resulting in the modern dish often criticized for its blandness," simply because there are a million

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-25248343560487417272007-10-09T18:24:00.000+05:302007-10-09T18:43:06.396+05:30

This sign from the city fortress of Sigiriya made us laugh, but you have to admit it gets its message across quickly. I'm not sure how big the danger really was. Further up, near the summit, you could see nests of what may have been hornets. But so many Indian monuments (including the Taj Mahal, if I recall correctly) have nests of bee or hornets or wasps, and I never saw any warnings like this.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-64406604831482968892007-10-08T16:55:00.001+05:302007-10-08T16:55:32.692+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } prawn cakes, originally uploaded by jrambow. Sri Lanka was a blast. We went to the beach, we went to boutiques, we saw ancient ruins, we were beset by touts, and we took the train. And on that train, which went along the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-71864905136765902132007-10-01T19:46:00.000+05:302007-10-01T19:50:03.387+05:30

After a couple days in Colombo (the heat! the walking! the security checkpoints!), we've landed in the much more laidback Galle and its old Dutch Fort. So many incredibly beautiful old bungalow-like houses, which miraculously haven't all been changed into boutiques, or boutique hotels, or boutique restaurants. We are staying in one of the old houses that have been changed into a boutique hotel.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-55233175662178260542007-09-29T16:30:00.000+05:302007-09-29T17:01:41.797+05:30

So we're headed off to Sri Lanka for a week. Pictures and stuff to come. We haven't planned the last half of the trip, so I'm not exactly sure what we'll see. But we are going to Colombo, Galle, Unawatuna Beach, and then probably the ancient cities. In the meantime, here's a big hit from this spring, It's Rocking, from the movie Kay Love Story Hai (What a Love Story). I think the singer, Alisha,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-2333971978467884362007-09-29T16:11:00.000+05:302007-09-29T16:28:06.042+05:30

I love and hate Zee Studio, a English-langauge movie channel here. Their programming seems to have little rhyme or reason -- at least none that I can find. Why else would they follow a completely depressing Serbian movie involving Down syndrome, murder, and suicide by one of the Santa Clause movies, as they did today? A while back I think it was Zee Studio that treated us to Bluebird, another

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-49114069534607649002007-09-28T17:35:00.000+05:302007-09-28T18:01:29.053+05:30

---Slate on Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited. Sounds as if most critics are a little kinder, but not by much. IMDB doesn't have a release date for India. It's not the sort of English-language movie that would get much play here, but I thought perhaps the Indian train thing might make it an exception.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-22061199391262867872007-09-28T17:10:00.000+05:302007-09-28T17:10:09.882+05:30

This is fun. Hobson-Jobson, the early 20th century dictionary of Indian-English, is available online. Of course it is. And here's godown (warehouse). Don and I were just wondering yesterday if it's from "going down", if it's literally taken from an Indian language, or what. Seems as if its actually just the anglicized version of a longstanding Telugu/Tamil/South Indian word for a "place where

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-36519178567170548002007-09-26T16:40:00.000+05:302007-09-26T17:37:25.251+05:30

A Times of India article today gets very hopped-up over the unwarm welcome given to the Iranian "prez" at Colombia University a couple days ago (Can't find it online, sorry. Click here to go to the whole thing.) I'm not sure if it was picking on Ahmadinejad per se that was the problem, or whether it was just the fact that the U. was so stuck on inviting him and then they picked on him, but for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-9612417851314047822007-09-24T18:20:00.001+05:302007-09-24T18:25:54.027+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Goat Turning Up Nose at Sugar, originally uploaded by jrambow. Goats evidently try to eat healthy. When we were in Cochin, Don tried over and over to get a goat -- any goat! -- to eat a lump of sugar. He tried four or five

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-12084567060228342522007-09-20T18:03:00.000+05:302007-09-20T18:32:48.940+05:30

Yesterday I headed to Ulsoor Lake to hopefully see some Ganesh idols being immersed. The idols used in the Ganesha festival are considered inauspicious if they hang around too long after. It's best to do this an odd number of days after the festival, which was last Saturday.) Although I did see a handful of trucks carrying Ganeshes and chanting worshippers, and even an especially large one

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-3833038553923677232007-09-17T21:03:00.000+05:302007-10-22T20:39:06.533+05:30

Nashik Valley Red WineSula VineyardsRs. 270 ($6.70)12.5% alcoholI was momentarily confused when looking over my notes on this wine. "Ghee, vinegar, onion, curry leaves" were all scrawled down. God, just what (and how much) were we drinking that night? But then I realized that this was just an old shopping list, and our actual, highly authoritative wine notes were on the back. (Note to wineries:

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-53260688690443228252007-09-14T18:08:00.000+05:302007-09-14T18:28:05.258+05:30

Here are a few things I loved at Cochin's Indo-Portuguese museum, which is on the grounds of the Bishop's House. Its exhibits are mainly drawn from things in churches in the area. Old-fashioned door lock. I believe that the left part is supposed to be styled after Shiva's trident.Jar with the all-seeing eye, which also appears on dollar bills. I guess it's called the Eye of Providence. I wish I

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-2847327045505003142007-09-13T21:57:00.000+05:302007-09-14T09:48:51.021+05:30

Here's the second print we bought in Cochin. A murthi refers to an idol which is used to worship and communicate with a God. Rameswaram is way in the south of Tamil Nadu, almost touching Sri Lanka. You can click on the print and go to a much bigger version, but here are a few close-ups:Ganesh the elephant god riding his vehicle, a rat:Vishnu reclining beneath the serpent. The mustacioed man-eagle

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-48092735115877173762007-09-12T15:22:00.001+05:302007-09-12T16:21:56.408+05:30

So I finally got around to fixing the way that links work on this website. So now you can just click on a post and see an actual link, not just "www.bangaloremonkey.com." That's all.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-50385401663407102862007-09-12T13:25:00.000+05:302007-09-12T14:02:19.480+05:30

This is another wine made in the Nashik Valley, about 230 km (150 miles) northeast of Mumbai. The label calls it a "complex deeply colored wine with good body, tannins, and aromas. The taste and flavours may be reminiscent of dried fruit, juicy black-current, savoury spice and gamy meat [!]. The wine can be best enjoyed with roasted pork, turkey, lamb, venison, and Indian Chinese cuisine."I love

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-65119842746874976912007-09-11T21:51:00.000+05:302007-09-11T21:56:02.991+05:30

While in Cochin we bought two old prints from some of the many antique shops there. I'd wanted one for a long time, and it seemed like the right place. If you find yourself in Cochin some day looking for prints of your own, don't pay too much, thinking that they may be rare. The shops' godowns (warehouses) are filled with dusty, ripped, bug-eaten pictures just waiting to go to a good home. We

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-66770855516166719442007-09-10T22:34:00.000+05:302007-09-10T22:39:13.194+05:30

This weekend we flew to Cochin (aka Kochi), on India's west coast. This old spice port is now a popular tourist spot, but in the monsoon it's not so full. So our hotel was empty or nearly empty while we were there, and restaurants and tourist sites were sparsely inhabited. We were mainly in Fort Cochin, the section with the most preserved old buildings---and westerners.What was most surprising

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-36227455574553949722007-09-06T21:04:00.000+05:302007-09-06T21:41:54.183+05:30

The story about Nepal Airlines sacrificing two goats to help remove troubles from its Boeing 757s sounds really funny at first, but I doubt it seemed that weird to anyone in Nepal.For one thing, the caption but not the text of the article explains that a festival called Dasain is underway. And that during that festival, lots of people are evidently sacrificing goats and chickens to the local

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-25395975517365233502007-09-06T20:08:00.000+05:302007-09-06T20:43:33.542+05:30

We'll have another of our very casual (some might say half-ass) Wine Times coming up soon, but in the meantime here's a book that treats Indian wine seriously and covers it in a systematic matter -- Dr. Aakash Singh Rathore's Complete Indian Guide, which came out last year. I just got it today, so I've just flipped through it, but it will be very useful. The author checks out all the major

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-56836556443241937612007-09-06T19:05:00.001+05:302007-09-06T20:04:01.442+05:30

Over at Gridskipper, I have a post up about The Love Bangalore travel guide, a thin book to all that's schmancy in town. The book is all a bit much, and so far I've avoided the temptation of getting one, but who knows? I might weaken at any moment. [Post title inspired by Star World, which plays the above Mika song as its station ID approximately every 3 minutes. It was fun the first 5 lakh

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-1789198147449721402007-09-04T20:05:00.000+05:302007-09-04T20:16:51.446+05:30

Speaking of Krishna's birthday, here's a picture of some little kids dressed up as Krishna and his main lover, Radha. Image from today's Deccan Herald.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-73379168011305418402007-09-04T19:31:00.000+05:302007-09-04T19:51:26.089+05:30

We celebrated Labor Day a day late this year. For complicated reasons having to do with the prescribed number of holidays per year, Don got today off. It is a holiday, Krishna's birthday, known as Krishna Janmashtami, but this isn't one that allows most people to skip work. Anyway, Don and I have a tradition of getting fried chicken on Labor Day, so we headed off to Commercial Street a day late

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-2847828053512218432007-09-02T18:33:00.000+05:302007-09-02T18:52:11.816+05:30

Here's some oil I saw for sale at a University of Pennsylvania museum gift shop a couple months ago. It "smells just like temples in India." Huh? What is that smell? You've got your incense. You've got your flowers, especially jasmine. And maybe some other less pleasant smells. But that all doesn't really all add up to one particular combination you could bottle. The later claim that "you will

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-21744743732804254632007-09-02T17:59:00.000+05:302007-09-02T18:06:56.961+05:30

I love this story about the goat that smokes, drinks booze, and eats meat in the dhaba (roadside restaurant) where he lives. It'll also do tricks: "If you ask it to perform a death scene, it will lie on the ground as if dead. You ask it to show a fight scene, it will demonstrate like a warrior,” says the goat's owner.Above is a goat I saw eating posters in Trichy earlier this year -- his diet is

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-67264567809021952682007-09-02T17:16:00.000+05:302007-09-02T17:46:02.551+05:30

This wine cost 465 rupees and was a 2006 vintage. It couldn't be any earlier, because Seagram only started making Indian wine since last year. They do already have a big Indian presence with liquor brands here. Seagram's also owns Jacob's Creek in Australia. The shiraz tasted very jammy, with a slight aftertaste that wasn't good but also wasn't that strong. The label calls it medium-bodied, but I

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-18116949563400794852007-08-31T09:33:00.000+05:302007-08-31T09:33:53.576+05:30

USA Today's blog post about holy water getting confiscated at the Lourdes Airport brought me back to our trip from Varanasi. I'd brought a filled-up plastic water of Ganges water in my carry-on for a friend back in Bangalore. Usually Indian airport officials are a little . . . lax about that whole no-liquids-on-board thing, but this time they were tough and by-the-book. It may have had something

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-56557309789870613222007-08-28T18:22:00.000+05:302007-08-28T18:27:13.175+05:30

As you can imagine, the leeches were an instant conversation starter with the other people staying at Honey Valley. And once we found out that leeches are kind of picky about what they'll attach to, their presence became a lot less disgusting. They are simple creatures, and chemical smells make them unhappy. We slathered on lots of Odomos (mosquito repellent), both on our skin and on our jeans,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-42002484094445321372007-08-27T21:41:00.000+05:302007-08-27T21:47:31.818+05:30

This weekend we went off to Coorg, a region southwest of Bangalore, to stay on a coffee and cardamon plantation. We got a car and driver to pick us up around 5 am and set out. The driver made great time -- it took about 5 hours. The roads around Coorg were noticeably better than then were the first (and only other) time we went there, in March 2006. Still some bumpy and twisty parts, but much

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-18209639326455330732007-08-23T17:45:00.000+05:302007-08-23T17:50:27.262+05:30

And yesterday's BBC News had more about the Agatha Christie comics I was mumbling about yesterday.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-4026529205979372812007-08-22T16:19:00.001+05:302007-08-22T18:17:28.220+05:30

In addition to our normal levels of cockroaches, ants have decided to join us in the apartment, especially in the kitchen and the bathroom. If I leave out an empty mug with sugar on the bottom, and I usually do, I can be sure that it will be filled with tiny tiny ants in a few hours. And that's why we're so pleased that a gecko has moved into the kitchen cupboards. The little beasts have been an

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-77792374005260172372007-08-21T16:15:00.000+05:302007-08-21T16:44:16.251+05:30

Another day, another press release:Read between the characters of Queen of Crime-Agatha Christie as it comes in a new avatar! Euro Books, India’s largest Children Publishing House presents the entire collection of Agatha Christie in graphic novels format.They say that Vision without action is a daydream and action without vision is a nightmare, now read these action-packed crime stories in an

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-25986179097293975592007-08-20T20:40:00.000+05:302007-08-20T20:59:46.457+05:30

From the The Hindu:Well-known botanist T. Ananda Rao has collaborated with ornithologist and photographer S. Sridhar, to bring out “Wild Orchids in Karnataka- A Pictorial Compendium”, which is at once a run through the captivating world of orchids and a journey in the ecological hotspots of Karnataka. The original “Orchid Man”, Dr. Ananda Rao, has dedicated the book to Hanumanthu, a monkey that

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-83578990506899703592007-08-17T18:31:00.000+05:302007-08-17T18:51:23.526+05:30

I liked this "re-purposing" of the Penguin Books mascot. His distant relation is selling something you'd think the little black and white beasts would know a lot about. The awning with the penguin crowd is also kind of awesome. The store is semi-famous, I believe. I should have stopped, but was in a hurry.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-17282547242144322942007-08-17T18:13:00.001+05:302007-08-17T18:13:15.022+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Green Wall, originally uploaded by jrambow. More about last week's trip to Mangalore later, but for now here's a picture of what many walls look like during the monsoon, at least along the coast.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-55908310791453542732007-08-17T17:57:00.001+05:302007-08-17T18:02:18.724+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Rag Rug, originally uploaded by jrambow. A confession. Buying a fancy wool or silk rug in India is not very high on my priorities. All the pretentious talking. All the offering of milky tea. All the bargaining and BS-ing.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-53147388889662767592007-08-15T17:24:00.000+05:302007-08-15T17:40:02.805+05:30

It's Independence Day today, and that means the streets are very quiet and many stores are closed for at least part of the day. And it also happens to be a very sunny day good for walks in the park -- never something you can count on during the monsoon. I've been trying to finish up some work in between reading lots of I-Day stuff (the BBC, the extra-large edition of today's Hindu). I've also

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-7506761086210748152007-08-14T21:13:00.000+05:302007-08-14T21:23:41.473+05:30

A bit of a surprise. I bought it at the store on a whim, mainly because its label didn't look that annoying, and because I didn't have enough rupees for a fancy-pants reserve wine that was shinier. But we lucked out, because it was actually darn good. Our wine was bottled in 2005 and cost 368 rupees ($9). It's from Chateau Indage, a winery that began in 1982, and the grapes are from the Sahyadri

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-42669056903172255412007-08-14T19:26:00.001+05:302007-08-14T20:37:34.157+05:30

This time we got our act together and made it to the flower show, held at Lal Bagh, the botanical garden here. The show's held twice a year, the week before Independence Day (tomorrow) and Republic Day (in January), and perhaps because it's so regular, there are not many announcements about it. To everyone else, I think, it's really obvious when it's about to occur. Anyway, the show is held

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-16899323846892571572007-08-13T18:33:00.000+05:302007-08-13T18:33:38.582+05:30

Perhaps this won't be funny to many other people, but it made me smile to see how prominent the Moti Mahal hotel makes its staff hierarchy. India in general is a very hierarchical place, but even for here it seems unusual to put it on the web site, next to pictures of the rooms and discussion of the size of the banquet halls. By the way, the restaurant has very good seafood. I could do with some

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-69929022290005523832007-08-10T15:08:00.000+05:302007-08-10T15:35:58.621+05:30

It may very well be because of my weakness for buying snacks at the grocery that Don is always surprised when I tell him that I happen to be on a diet. In any case, it's our loyal readers I'm thinking of when I see products like the one below and grab them. These appealed to me partly because they seemed pretty simple: you've just got some rice flour, dry ginger, jaggery (delicious palm sugar),

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-1105848677977044032007-08-10T14:57:00.000+05:302007-08-10T15:33:18.934+05:30

So that horrible Voltage Stabilizer drove us crazy with all its "chattering." A couple nights it was so bad and constant that I woke up, and it wasn't a treat to hear it during the day, either. So we unplugged the old one, took if off the cabinet carefully (it seemed to weigh about 40 pounds), and upgraded to the much smaller specimen below-- Oscar. The cost of around 1000 rupees seems like a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-13613740038976018682007-08-06T18:42:00.000+05:302007-08-06T18:42:53.441+05:30

Here's an funny story about the super-hot bhut jolokia (ghost chili), which is grown in Assam. You know, lots of Indian food is not really that hot, but of course the stuff that is, is usually memorable. It's always good to make sure you have some raita (yogurt/curd with spices and vegetables) nearby. Just in case.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-35690995902747646982007-08-06T18:26:00.000+05:302007-08-06T18:31:48.532+05:30

We're still taking a while to get used to the monsoon. It's strange to wake up to grey skies so often, and it's also weird how chilly it often is. At the moment, around 6 pm, it's around 75 F (24 C), but it feels much chillier because of the dampness and the breeze. And it's lasting longer than we thought it would. At least one person had told us that the monsoon usually petered out by the end of

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-40238919836421401802007-08-03T18:08:00.000+05:302007-08-03T18:28:54.592+05:30

It's normal for most medium- and high-end hotels in India to charge foreigners extra. The usual way they do this is to quote foreigner prices in US dollars, with the Indian price, obviously, in rupees. The trick, if you want to call it that, is that the USD price is almost always higher than the rupee price. I'm a little hazy on how exactly this system arose, but it's clearly a way to get a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20374039.post-64798639000650287312007-08-01T19:58:00.001+05:302007-08-01T19:58:53.835+05:30

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Dung beetle, originally uploaded by jrambow. The Chamundi temple is at the top of a hill with 1000 stone steps leading down to Mysore itself. Pilgrims walk up, but Don and I took a car up and walked down. Just about every

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654231926830775673noreply@blogger.com0