OCTOBER 31ST, A TRIP TO KANCHIPURAM

Charlie and I had about 10 hours of sleep which made today possible.  We had the buffet breakfast and met our guide Vijaya and our driver Balla.  We drove to Kanchipuram about 20 km away.  That doesn't sound awful, but the road to the town is filled with the usual assortment of odd vehicles that I described yesterday, and, in addition, an amazing number of trucks.  The ride took an hour and a half, and I was delighted I wasn't doing the driving.  I am amazed that there aren't bodies and crushed vehicles all over the Indian roads.  The trucks are painted in a very jolly way.  Vijaya explained that several wider trucks (almost the most painted on the road) were water trucks that carried clean water to customers.

Our first stop was the Ekambareshwara Temple.  The Pallava leaders built the temple originally as a fortress. The first of the walls was built around 800 years ago.  There were several walls outside the original.  The carvings from granite were done in the 1500s.  The temple is dedicated to Shiva, the destroyer, in his earth manifestation. Since it was Saturday, lots of people had come to pray at the interior shrine.  We were allowed to walk and take photos everywhere but in the shrine itself.  The most interesting story about Shiva was that Parvati (his consort)  snuck up on him when he was meditating and put her hands over his eyes.  Since Shiva created the world, universe and everything else, that action caused everything to essentially disappear.  Shiva told Parvati to leave.  She, according to the legend, created a lingum and sat next to it under a mango tree for a ridiculously long time - several thousand centuries.  Shiva was impressed by her loyalty they re-united.  Sigh.

Walkway inside the temple

A peek at the inner sanctum in which we were not allowed

One of the carved figures that are carried around with the a carving of Shiva on holidays

A mango tree inside the temple. It's an offshoot of a 3500 year old tree that recently died.  Obviously representing the Shiva/Parvati story

Most temples in these parts have a pond of water with a small building in the center like this one,

A view of the from the outside of the tower of the temple

Our second stop was at the Kailasanatha Temple, another temple dedicated to Shiva.  This temple is older than the first one we saw and the carvings are made from yellow sandstone. Due to the softness of the rock several were not in very good shape.  This temple was less crowded than the first and more pleasant to walk around.

Street scene near the temple

Outside of the Kailasanatha Temple.  Vijaiya taking her shoes off - we all had to 

A view from inside showing yellow sandstone carvings and the depth of the interior

Charlie the tourist

Judy and Charlie as tourists

Kanchipuram is famous for silk weaving.  The people who live here are farmers, but when the season slows they have taken to weaving silk.  The silk itself is from Bangalore.  It is brought to Kanchipuram where it is dyed and woven into fabric.  The silk from here is 6 strands thick and is woven with threads of gold plated silver.  Needless to say, the saris made from this stuff are extremely heavy.  Beautiful, but very heavy.  We saw a couple of weavers and went to a shop with silk goods.

Another street scene in Kanchipuram

A silk weaving loom.  Notice the cards on the upper left - they are like computer cards to determine the pattern

On the walk to see a second loom

A woman spinning silk threads together.  They are incredibly fine

Her loom

Our third temple visit was to Vaikunta Perumai Temple. This temple was dedicated to Vishnu, the preserver.  It was around noon when we went to see the temple.  Hindu temples are open in the morning.  During that time people "wake the god up", then offer the god some food.  Then the god rests (from noon until 4).  At 4 the temple reopens until 8.  It is open apparently for tea time and another meal.  Eventually the god goes to bed, and the temple shuts again.

Street chaos

Inside the third temple

The snakes under the tree are put there by woman who have trouble conceiving. The idea is that the snakes will help.

We had lunch in a small hotel restaurant in Kanchipurma .  Very nice meal and a good end to our visit.

We drove back to Chennai, but the traffic was really awful.  We originally were going to stop along the beach, but it began to rain and we were a bit spent.  So we drove along the beach - the ocean is the Bay of Bengal.  The fishermen we had seen from the hotel were selling their wares along the sand/street verge.  They lived in tiny wood hovels in the area.  Vijaiya told us that when the tsunami came ashore after the Indonesian earthquake, most of the fishermen's huts were washed away.

Back to the hotel, Indian dinner tonight.  Very nice.  We've eaten in every restaurant in the hotel - strange victory.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2015

We went to bed around 3:30.  Once you've been up for days, going to bed is a relative term.  We played there tossing and turning.  Getting our bags brought upstairs was also idiotic.  Our bodies were going but our brains had clearly shut down completely.  Needing some kind of brain power for Indian Rupees to US Dollars was painful to live through.

We got up around 8:30.  We decided we needed to try to get onto India time.  By the way, India time is 12 1/2 hours beyond LA time.  India and Sri Lanka like the extra half hour.  The view from our hotel window is amazing.  It took a while to realize that the men in the water were fishermen and not people standing around in the water.  Of course, with about 3 hours of real sleep, logic isn't one of my strong suits.  The tour today was to do nothing but get over the late night.  Since last "night" was in name only I was happy we didn't have a real agenda.

The view from our window and the fishermen

lovely clouds

Our very short walk outside the hotel - the hotel garden

View of the garden from inside the hotel with a glimpse of the city beyond

Charlie in the garden

After breakfast we went back to the room to hang around.  Charlie took out his computer and realized it had to be charged.  OH NO!  His charging cord was gone.  We really don't know if he left it in the hotel in LA, or left the zipper on the outside of his carry-bag open and it fell out.  Either way, it was gone.  He went to the concierge in the hotel who suggested a couple of places to try to buy a new one.  One was closer than the other, but they didn't answer their phone.  The second definitely had the charger and cord.  We hired a car for 5 hours and set out to find the cord. We went to the closer place first.  It took us 20 minutes to drive what couldn't have been more than 2 miles.  The streets are filled with vehicles: cars, buses, vans, motor scooters, bicycles, tuk tuks (little vehicles that are like tiny-vans with scooter motors that can carry about 3 passengers).  The last 3 vehicles try to get around larger vehicles on the inside, outside, through the middle.  The little vehicles honk to avoid getting crushed and the larger vehicles honk to avoid killing all involved.  Controlled chaos.  The smaller shop," Imagine", was inside a shopping mall.  The driver was stopped (as were all cars).  Two men checked under the car with a camera on a pole and inside the trunk.  Once all was well we parked in the underground garage.  The mall itself was like malls everywhere in the world.  Odd to find similar continuity around the planet.  You could be anywhere.  "Imagine" had Charlie's power cord. Phew.  The other shop was 19 or 20 km away - that's where our 5 hours would have gone.  We now can be charged.  AND, we had our adventure.

Once we got back to the hotel, the car was searched just like the mall.  My purse and our bag were pushed through a metal detector, and we had to walk through one too.  Of course, Charlie's new hip makes it sound like he's carrying, but we don't appear to be much of a threat.

I'm glad we had a chance to get away, the hotel is large and lovely, but we really have no where to go but inside.

Fishermen later in the day.

The fishermen were out with their nets from at least 8:30 this morning until about 5:30.  In the middle of the day they took their boats out of the water and had a siesta. 

Tonight dinner in the hotel, what else.  Tomorrow we go to see some sights.

CHENNAI, THE HARD WAYt

We are finally in Chennai.  Hurray! And it's only Friday.....

Last Tuesday, Charlie and I had a great plan.  We'd spend the night in a hotel by LAX.  Our flight (the first of three) was at 7:40 in the morning.  Since we were going to be gone for close to a month, we didn't want to leave the car in the C lot.   So, we decided to drive our cases and us to the airport Hilton, drop Charlie and the cases off.  Then, I would drive home, leave the car in the garage, walk to the Gold Line station.  Gold line to Union station.  Then the Flyaway to the airport. Then the airport shuttle to the hotel.  Not a bad plan.

It began like clockwork.  With Charlie and luggage at the hotel, I drove home.  Easy peasy.  I walked to the Gold line and there was a 4 pm train almost as soon as I got to the station.  The driver seemed to be wallowing in mud.  He kept opening and shutting the doors at every stop.  He seemed to crawl from station to station.  At Lincoln Cypress station, he just stopped altogether.  Gak!  After at least 5 minutes, he mentioned that only one track was open and we'd have to wait another 5.  It was actually 15.  All told it was a 35 minute ride instead of a 15 minute ride.  The rest was easy

The next morning at 4:00 AM we hopped the Hilton shuttle to the airport.  We took a United flight from LA to Washington Dulles in Washington DC.  I had noticed the weather report for Washington looked bleak.  Sigh.....  The weather was fine when we landed.  We had a 3 hour layover which we spent getting a coffee, visiting the Lufthansa lounge and other ways of killing 3 hours in an airport.  The flight - a Lufthansa from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt Germany - was supposed to be on time.  At 7 or so we boarded the plane.  At that moment the skies opened and it really began to pour.  It was raining so hard that the jetway at the plane's door was leaking.  We boarded anyway.  The pilot was a bit slow taxing out of the gate.  He told us the weather was slowing take offs.  There was a great scrum of planes bunched up waiting to go.  The rain poured against the plane.  After more time, the pilot announced that the airport had closed take offs for all planes headed north and west. (we were north). The pilot hoped he could get us a south takeoff and figure it out from there.  Finally we began to move.  OH NO - he announced he was going back to the gate for more fuel.  At this moment it was more than two hours after we boarded.  Our next flight (the one to Chennai was supposed to leave     2 1/4 hours after our planned arrival. ) We were stalling way past that.  At that moment I decided we were going to miss the next leg of our flight. I had brought clothes for hot, tropical India, not cold Frankfurt.

The pilot flew like a mad man once we managed to take off.  Miraculously, he made up incredible amounts of time.  We were originally supposed to land at 8 (Frankfurt time)  We actually made it to the gate by 9:40.  The purser was announcing replacement flights for all the people who had clearly missed their flights other places.  Chennai wasn't on the list.  We ran off the plane, spotted a group of Lufthansa reps.  "Chennai?"  They pointed down the hall.  At every critical junction on our run were more Lufthansa reps with the same question and response.  We ran to the gate.  An airport security man decided to be officious - but we got on in lots of time despite his poking around.  The plane was held on the ground for 15 minutes (at this point who cares) so more late arrivals could make the flight.  Lufthansa has only one flight a day to Chennai.

We landed at 12:30 AM - it's a 9 1/2 hour flight from Frankfurt.  By the time we got through immigration, customs, and waited for our bags - which miraculously made it from LA, despite our quick plane change - we got back to the hotel at 2:30.  In bed by 3 AM or so - but who's counting? By the way, we landed at 12:30 AM on October 30 (Friday).  The guys from Cox and Kings picked us up at the airport - but it made discussing what we were going to do on what day very confusing.  "Today, Tomorrow"  When today starts at 2:30 or 3 in the morning - it gets weird

Day one in Chennai later.

LAST DAY IN HAWAII - EAST COAST TOUR

We woke up to a beautiful clear morning - it had been raining a lot the day before.  We decided to drive to Diamond Head.  We had breakfast at Eggs and Things.  Kind of a big breakfast.  We got to Diamond Head park at about 9:30.  This wasn't a unique idea - even the place to wait for a parking place was filled up.  We were told to go away and come back another time.  I guess for us, that'll be another Oahu trip.

From there we drove around to see Hanauma Bay.  First, the bay itself is gorgeous.

Hanauma Bay seen from the parking lot.

Charlie just before we snorked

Me too

An Hawaiian white egret - another parking lot bird

Beyond the parking lot was a ticket office, a store, and a restaurant.  We weren't permitted to walk down the hill to the bay until we had seen a 9 minute video about preservation of the corals and sea life.  At the bottom were showers, changing stations, life guards, places to rent snorkeling equipment, and best of all - the bay itself.  Charlie's hip is very sore, and since my operation 20 years ago, I've really had trouble snorkeling.  We decided to give it a go anyway, and rented fins, snorkels and masks.  Wow!  Am I glad we did.  Somehow, I was able to breath through a snorkel without problems (first time in years) and Charlie, although a bit slow, was able to use the fins.  Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay is like snorkeling in an aquarium.  We saw Convict fish, Trigger Fish, Parrot Fist, lots of others as well.  Our problem this trip was the weather.  When we got to the bay itself, although it wasn't particularly cloudy, it was misting rain.  We snorkeled for about 2 hours, and I got cold.  When we went onto the shore to "warm up"  misty clouds began to pull off other clouds, like cotton candy.  It was getting wetter, and darker.  We opted to leave - but I definitely plan to return.  What a wonderful spot!!

By the time we got back to the car it was full on raining.  We stopped at Halona blow hole - but it was too wet to appreciate.  We drove on around the east coast.  We drove to Waimanolo Beach.  We drove along a suburban street.  Each little road perpendicular to it said, "beach access".  What a gorgeous beach - even in the rain.

Me - apres snorkeling on Waimanolo beach

From there we drove to Kailua.  We had a bit of trouble finding the beach.  We did find the center of the small town of Kailua and a marine base.  Eventually we found the beach.  Another beautiful spot - but it was teeming rain here.  We found a group of guys that were parasurfing.  At least one was.  The rest were sitting with their equipment getting drenched.

This guy was tearing around with that sail on his surfboard!

His buddies hiding from the rain

We continued our damp journey to Kaneohe Bay.  Not really for swimming but very picturesque.

Above Charlie is standing next to our lime green Kia.  It was easy to drive, and easy to spot in parking lots.

Some scenery along Kaneohe Bay.

We drove back to Waikiki.  I was chilly, but our silly hotel had barely lukewarm water.  At least I got the salt off.  We went back to Cheeseburgers in Paradise - oddly not as good as last night.  We then went to the Moana Surfrider hotel along the beach for some wine.  Back to the hotel -

We flew home on Sunday - Charlie's birthday.  Lovely trip - ready to go back!

OAHU - SECOND FULL DAY - AQUARIUM - DOLE PINEAPPLE - SHOPPING

It was drizzling in the morning so we decided to walk to the Honolulu Aquarium - less than a mile from our hotel.  Glenn and Krysty really know their stuff!  

Walled swimming along Waikiki 

Common myna - seen all over Oahu 

Pacific Golden Plover - again - very common on Oahu

The aquarium is small but very informative.  They explained how the managed to keep jellyfish and sea horses alive in their tanks.  Cool bit of info - jellyfish tanks are rounded - I guess so the jellyfish won't get stuck?  break apart?

We had lunch at Marukame Udon.  We had avoided it the night before because of the lone line to get in.  The line is worth it.  They hand make the udon noodles, you have a choice of different kinds of soups or salads (with udon of course).  They also had various toppings, a few sushis (we tried spam - it is Hawaii), and some tempura.  Really a great place.  Only in Japan and Hawaii - too bad.

After lunch we drove out to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to see what was there.  The first, and best thing, was a little steam train - the Pineapple Express - that drove around a bit on the plantation explaining the history and some of the plants.  We also walked around a garden with explanations on a phone-like device. Then into their shop.  What a nightmare.  It reminded me of the old Casa de Fruta in Pacheco Pass.  You could buy pineapples and have them shipped back to the States for $70 - great.  You could buy Dole T shirts, magnets, swimsuits, candy, and on and on.  

the Pineapple Express

Pretty Hawaiian trees and red soil - pineapples like iron

Rainbow gum tree from the garden at Dole Plantation

Pretty habiscus from the garden

Brazilian Red Capped Cardinal - it was hopping around the Dole parking lot

We went back to the Ala Moana center and had a coffee.  Then back to the hotel.  That night's dinner - Cheeseburgers in Paradise - we only ate at the finest of establishments.

JANUARY SHORT HOP TO HONOLULU

We had gone to Seattle the second week of January.  I was learning how to use a new camera, and, apparently, managed to dump all my photos.  They weren't great.  I'll need to try again.  We stayed in a wonderful hotel along Lake Washington in Kirkland.  The weather was drizzly, but I discovered that you can get a bus from Kirkland to Seattle for only $2.25 each way.  Much easier than trying to drive.  Charlie worked with Stuart Smith - I toured about.

JANUARY 21

The trip to Hawaii actually began as a possible trip to Boston, Ma.  Charlie was going to work with a colleague there.  "Unfortunately"  the colleague was actually coming to LA.  Charlie asked why were we thinking of going to Boston if no one was there to work with.  Why not Hawaii?  Indeed!  Glenn and Krysty love Oahu, talked a lot about where they had gone, and where they stayed.  We hadn't been to Oahu in years, and followed their advice.  We left on a Wednesday morning, the 21st.  Thanks to Glenn and Krysty's advice, we stayed on the east side of Waikiki.    We landed at 12:30, picked up our lime green Kia then off to Waikiki. Our hotel was OK - not their advice - but the area was great. We got to the hotel by only 1:30 and really hadn't planned on what to do.  Part of the hotel "freebies" was a free pass on the Pink bus.  Its main goal was to drag everyone to the Ala Moana shopping center.  That's what we did.  The shopping center is immense - filled with a strange combination of very high end stores - Neiman Marcus Nordstroms Prada on and on - and Hawaiian gift shops.  We got back to the hotel, walked down to the water (only about 2 blocks away), and had a Maitai at Duke's.  We watched the sunset, and had dinner there.  Back to our hotel.

JANUARY 22
This was the first time I had been to Hawaii in winter.  We decided to see the north shore of Oahu, since there was a chance we'd see big waves.  Lots of crazy surf.

Turtle bay

Our first stop was Turtle Bay.  There were signs all along the road before we got there pleading not to expand commercialization to the northern coast.  After seeing the Turtle Bay resort - I'm in strong agreement.  The only way to the bay was a path next to the main buildings.  Clearly the resort didn't want riff raff on their beach.  With public access, we could have swum.  It was just an odd place.  They had their own golf course.  Later on our trip I looked up how much it would cost to stay there.  Amazingly, as much as the more expensive hotels in Waikiki. 

We continued on to Sunset Beach.  The waves were dramatic - lots of signs to stay out of the water.

Not a problem.  They looked scary.

Along the coast, the next stop was the Banzai Pipeline.  Too much blow out for cool pipes - more crashing waves and yellow police tape keeping everyone out of the water.

Next stop - Waimea Bay - Here were the surfers.  We guessed the waves were 15 - 20 feet, but heard on the news that night they were 20 - 30.  Again, no problem for us staying out of the water.

Surfers in the photo aren't us - no surprise.

We drove as far as the town of Haleiwa.  Really a great Hawaiian place.  We had lunch at Kono's - famous for their pulled pork sandwiches.  

Shopping area in Haleiwa that had Kono's pork sandwiches

A chicken moocher

We got back to the hotel at about 5.  That night on a recommendation from the Hertz Renta Car tour book we went to Seaside Grill.  It's not on the seaside - it's on Kohio (parallel to the main drag - one street up).  Good maitai - nice garlic shrimp.