Shoes, Bikes, and Tea

   I can't believe we are leaving India in less than a week! This coming Friday (Oct 5) we are heading out for China for a two week tour. We are really looking forward to it, but at the same time we will miss everyone here. We have made some really great friends, and we're sad to be leaving them. Maybe someday in the future we will get to come back.
   I have so many things I've wanted to tell you all about on here, but I'm running out of time fast. The internet is not very reliable here so I haven't been able to work on it as much as I've wanted. This week I'll try to get as much posted as I can. So here goes...

Here's a couple more interesting cultural things about India.

1. Shoes. Everyone takes off their shoes before going inside a home, or in this case the library. Even when we toured the palace we were required to take off our shoes. I know, gross right? Considering how many people walk through there in a day. I wore socks.

2. Motorbikes. They are the main mode of transportation. It's not unusual to see a whole family of 4 or 5 on the same bike. We've seen some pretty crazy loads on them too.

3. Tea. I think it comes from the colonial British days, but these people love tea. They make it with milk, sugar, and cardamom and it's sooo good. But "having tea" isn't restricted to drinking a certain beverage though. You can have tea with orange Fanta or coffee just as well. And if you have "biscuits" (cookies) its even better. It's a fun social event.

having tea with friends :)

hmmm...

Yep, they're good!

Hanging Out

 For my birthday this year, my little brother bought me this awesome hammock. The whole thing weighs about 2 lbs and fits inside a tiny little pocket. Perfect for traveling. Here's a picture of me hanging out in a banyan tree.

Thanks Collin!!!

Sports Week!

This past weekend was "Sports Week" for the college here. We had a blast participating in some of the events, and just hanging out with the students. They had a really wide range of events set up from football (soccer) to essay writing. Below you can see a picture of Tim throwing a javelin. He also had a lot of fun playing soccer, badminton, backwards running...  I was recruited to be in a couple really fun events, group pictionary, essay writing, and a couple events that involved acting out stories. They also had some really fun little races like the lime on a spoon race. You have to hold a spoon in your mouth and run to the finish line while balancing a small lime on the spoon. We both won that race for our teams, so they were joking that we've had 10 years experience in the USA. lol Ya, we run around with limes on spoons all the time. :)

 Above: Saturday night for the final program they had a big feast for everybody kinda like we had on independence day. This time we ate outside, and they brought the food out in these giant pots hauled over on the tractor. It was really yummy, and yes, I ate with my fingers. :)

Above: This is one of my violin students, Chris, all decked out in his traditional outfit for a skit.

A Palace And A Zoo

While we were in Mysore, we got to tour this really magnificent palace, called the Mysore Palace, or the Ambas Vilas Palace. It is one of the most famous tourist attractions in India, right up there with the Taj Mahal. That's what I've read anyway, I'd never heard of it before we went lol. Anyways, it was really neat. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but if you want to see more pictures you can look it up online here: http://www.mysorepalace.gov.in/Mysore_Palace_Pictures.htm

Mysore Palace

My favorite part about the palace was the elephant ride. :) Have you ever wondered why we call an elephants nose a trunk? I think it must be because they really do feel like a tree trunk. Not that I expected an elephant to be all soft and cuddly, but I wasn't expecting hairy sandpaper either.

Elephants are soooo cool!

We also got to go to the zoo. It was definitely the best zoo I've ever been to. All the animals seemed very well taken care of and in as natural an environment as possible. I guess that's to be expected in a country that worships animals as gods. I didn't really get any great pictures though. I don't have the patience to stand there and wait for the animal to move just right before I snap the photo. The other friends we were with got some really great ones, so maybe I'll get their pictures sometime.

Above and below: Usually the aviary section of zoos are really boring, but this zoo had had the biggest exotic bird collection I've ever seen.

Above: Sleeping tiger. Wish we could have seen one of these in the wild.

Above: King Julian. (Also known as Ring-tailed Lemurs ;)

 Above: Did I mention I really like elephants? :)

Above: Sleeping Rhino

Above: I actually heard this lion roaring from several cages away and was wondering what it was. lol

Above: They keep the Giraffes at the entrance to the zoo, so you walk in and WOW, we're at the zoo!

 Above: The signs at the zoo where hilarious. This one vividly warns that you should not climb on the animal cages because someone might push you in. Then not only will you be mauled violently by the wild beast, but afterward hauled off to jail.

Above: This one shows what will happen if you feed the animals. The poor monkey will swell up like a balloon, then pop and become flattened and most likely dead. How do you like my translations? :)

In The Jungle

We got to stay two nights at Quiet Corner, in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. It was soooo cool to be in the jungle. Some of the terrain actually kinda reminded me of Texas, dry with lots of prickly pear cactus. But there are vast areas of bamboo/banyan tree forest. All the official safari trails were closed, but we still got to see a lot of animals just from the road.

Guar, wild Indian bison

horses (no, they're not wild)

Indian tractor

wild elephants (no it's not a trick, look closely :))

cute monkey family, we also saw langur monkeys but didn't get a good pic

jungle cock, wild Indian chicken

this guy saw two tigers in his yard a couple days ago

spotted deer, and peacocks were everywhere

aren't the low clouds so pretty?

A Day in the Mountains

Above: Here we are at the highest point on the mountain, 8,500 ft. elevation. That's the town of Ooty behind us, nestled on top of the mountain range. On a clear day you can see for a very long way from here. The day we went was cloudy, but even then the view was really awesome. It was really neat being in the cloud and feeling the moisture blowing on our cheeks. It was much cooler up here than were we are staying in Coimbatore. We wished we had brought our jackets.

Above: We got to tour a tea factory. It was a really neat experience seeing all the machines they use and the process for making the tea. I felt like Mr. Rogers lol.

Above: We also got to go inside a couple really old Churches. This one was built in 1895. C.T. Studd pastored here for a while. Amy Carmichael also spent a lot of time here. They were actually having a service inside so we were careful not to disturb them.

Above: Inside the botanical gardens. I thought this was a really neat map of India made out of plants.

Above: Vendors selling roasted chickpeas, cut pineapple, and other snacks. It smelled really good.

Above and below: Seems like everyone wanted their picture taken with the white people. lol Pretty random to me.

Trip to Ooty and Mysore

This past weekend we took a sightseeing trip up and across the mountains to Ooty and Mysore. We had such an awesome time!!! And took a LOT of pictures :). It'll take me a few days of posting to get enough pictures on here to give you a feel for the trip. Hope you enjoy it!

Heading toward the mountains, Thursday afternoon

Yes, those are donkeys crossing the road

We saw many animals, domestic and wild, on and along the roadside on this adventure including donkeys, cows, horses, water buffalo, elephants, pigs, chickens, guar (wild cattle), mongoose, peacocks, wild boar, spotted deer, jungle cock, monkeys, turkeys. I'll be posting pictures of many of them in the next few days.

reaching the foot of the mountain, the terrain is beginning to look like jungle

just beginning the ascent, you can see the view is already beautiful

crazy monkeys, they were all along the side of the road, waiting for a handout

glad this wasn't us!

There were very dangerous hairpin turns all the way up and down the mountain. Huge buses like this one have to swing way out in these narrow lanes, and I'm sure accidents happen often.

my handsome husband

climbing higher

These pictures really cannot do justice to the awesomeness of the view. Every time we came around a curve, we wanted to stop and take more pictures. Our driver was really great, and had this uncanny sense for when we were getting out our cameras. He would stop (whenever it was safe) and let us soak it in.

tea gardens

This area is famous for their tea gardens. You can see them in these pictures. The tea grows on short bushes. The dark lines are footpaths.

waterfall

Houses and gardens were build right into the mountainside. Gave everything a story book look. With all the colors, it kinda reminded me of a patchwork quilt.

I love the terraced gardens

To be continued...