India Olsons: 2011

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Our Christmas in Bangalore

It wasn't hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year despite the 80 degree temps as everywhere we go there are Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing. I even managed to get my typical last minute Christmas shopping done with the help of Mr. Swamy. As per our usual Christmas tradition, our Christmas Eve started off in the late afternoon with a couples massage in the hotel spa while the kids watched Home Alone 2 back in the room. We had booked dinner at the Leela Palace hotel for what we thought would be a cozy traditional candlelit affair as their advertisement displayed (see picture). We exchanged gifts to each other in our hotel room before heading out around 8 PM for the Leela. We arrived to this beautiful hotel with high hopes but soon discovered that it was nothing like we expected. A 3 piece cover band was belting out a mix of Christmas and top 40 hits near our table so we realized our conversation would be limited to short command oriented bursts. A large buffet had been prepared with a great variety of entrees, salads and desserts but the atmosphere reminded us more of a college cafeteria than a 5 star hotel. Recognizing we were already committed to the dinner, we all explored the food options which varied from Indian to English and even a roasted turkey and cranberry sauce. A single glass of wine accompanied this rather expensive dinner but unfortunately the quality of the wine was sorely lacking. Now, I realize this might be coming across like an ungrateful American with overblown expectations but we truly were disappointed given the price and the setting of the hotel. We certainly made the best of it though and as soon as we were finished, we departed for the very beautiful outdoor patio area. There we found some tranquility and I also discovered that the hotel bar is known for single malt scotch so I decided to try a flight of the Highlands variety which improved my mood significantly. Chanda and I enjoyed the peaceful setting and appreciated the fact that we were outside on Christmas Eve as we tried to keep the kids awake for the next stop on our Christmas Eve itinerary, an 11:30 PM church service at St. Mark's Cathedral in central Bangalore. We had heard that we needed to arrive early to get a seat and that was an understatement. After a 20 minute drive from the hotel, we arrived at 10:30 to find the very large church (approx. 1500 seats) almost full already. We squeaked into a back pew behind a 3 foot wide pillar and settled down for a long 1 hour wait before the service even began. The kids were really tired by now and they started to drift off and even I was starting to head bob a bit. At one point, the elderly gentlemen to my right, poked my arm and politely introduced himself and his son. He was a retired minister from a church north of Hydrabad and we enjoyed a little conversation about his ministry and our reason for being there. At promptly 11:30 the service began and Chanda and I were relieved to get things moving. The church is part of the CSI (Church of South India) which came about from the English Church after independence in 1947, so the service was very familiar and included most of our favorite carols. The primarily secular nature of the holiday in India was made evident at exactly midnight when fireworks erupted from the nearby city park during the readings, which is especially noticeable when all the windows are open. With both kids slumped over in their seats, we stayed seated most of the time until communion began. By this time we were almost 1 hour into the service and the kids began to stir enough that we could prop them up and exit the pew when our time came. The communion provided us the opportunity to walk to the front of the brilliantly white interior of the church and take in the classical architecture. While I'm sure the travel books don't recommend drinking from the same wine chalice as 1500 other people your first week in a new country, we went with the flow and completed the sacrament along with everyone else. Besides, the alcohol surely helped keep it clean, right. After singing about 5 more carols with every verse included, the service concluded at around 1:15 AM and we exited the church to find Mr. Swamy waiting for us. We raced back to the hotel as speeds only dreamed about during the day to find that Santa had not yet visited us. But we comforted the kids with the fact that Santa gets to India a little later in the night than in Minnesota. We awoke this morning to the kids happily opening their presents (yes Santa did find us) and yet Chanda and I could hardly pull ourselves out of bed until around 10 AM. We listened to Christmas music in the room and lounged about until we headed down to the pool for the big Christmas Day brunch. After the previous evening, we were a bit skeptical but when we arrived a few minutes later, we were relieved to find a beautiful setting and our reserved table right next to the pool. The hotel staff made sure that our glasses were never empty and I tried a little of practically everything from grilled fish to a southern Indian traditional chicken dish. This time, all the food was excellent and sitting outside on a warm day made it all seem perfect. Certainly, a X-mas unlike any other we have celebrated.

Gingerbread houses in our hotel lobby

The Ista Hotel - where we stayed in November.

Our hotel lobby X-mas tree

Advertisement for X-mas Eve dinner at the Leela Hotel

Reality - seat by the band

Beautiful lobby of the Leela

St. Mark's Church - X-mas Eve 11:30 pm

Christmas brunch at our hotel

Santa brought chocolate!

Santa even came to our table

Cocktails as first course of our brunch

Chef's grilling and running pasta bar

Food set up near the pool

Buffet tables for brunch

Live music - great Abba covers

After brunch, Jorgen hit the pool for his daily swim

Thursday, December 22, 2011

First week in India (Kid version)

On the Airplane there where lots of movies and games. I almost stayed awake the whole time. It was REALLY FUN. Every thing else was boring from the airport to the hotel. I forgot the days but we did lots of stuff like go to zoos, temples and palaces. The first zoo was fun but had bad enclosers. The second was awesome! We went to Mysore and saw a Palace and Temple. It was boring exept there were monkeys and I bought a fresh coconut to eat and drink. It was my dads birthday that day so when we got home their was a birthday cake from the staff. Yester day was boring because we had to sit for an hour at another hotel. But at least we got to the pool.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

First Week in India

Greetings from India - Our first post

We're new to the concept of blogging so forgive us if we are providing more detail than you are looking for. If you want the executive summary version, it is that we had a great trip over and are enjoying getting acclimated to a fascinating city full of interesting sites, food, people and wildlife.

For those of you looking for more detail, here you go.....

We arrived in Bangalore on Saturday morning December 17th around 1 AM (all flights to and from India arrive in the middle of the night). Our flights went very smoothly (with the exception of the complicated logistics at the Paris airport) and the kids were kept entertained with endless movies and games in their business class seats. Upon arrival, our 12 bags (yes 12) arrived within seconds and we piled them all up on 4 carts and rolled on through customs without being stopped. Henrik couldn't even see over the pile of suitcases on his cart so I had to give him directions on which way to walk as he pushed his cart to the exit door. Our drivers were waiting for us holding the kind of name sign you normally see for other people and then we barely managed to get all our things into their 2 small mini-van like cars. We cruised on through the still fairly busy streets of the city to our hotel, the Grand Mercure and arrived around 3 AM. All said, our 24 hour trip couldn't have gone any smoother.

We slept as long as we could and then emerged to explore our plush hotel home. We have 2 separate bedrooms adjoining a small living room with a kitchen off to one side so it's comfortable for a longer stay. Although the main room is littered with our many suitcases, Chanda and the kids quickly decorated the room with a small X-mas tree and stockings to make the place seem more like home. We have since spent quite a bit of time poolside as the kids have enjoyed the large pool all to themselves. The water temp is a bit chilly for me as they rely only on the sun to keep it heated and the temperatures, although perfect for us in the 70's so far, are not hot enough to get the water much above Lake Superior in late August. However, Chanda and I have found the lounge chairs to our liking and we have kept the wait staff busy bringing us our favorite Danish beer (Tuborg and Carlsberg).

We have now made a few trips outside the hotel and have discovered our neighborhood represents the great economic dichotomy of India very well. Our luxury hotel sits in a upscale neighborhood full of diplomat homes and yet a block down the street, we have found a family of pigs feasting on piles of garbage along side of roaming cows and wild dogs. We ventured down the street on foot, navigating the broken sidewalks and street vendors to reach a Baskin Robins for an afternoon treat. Around the corner from there, we found fairly high end shopping with stores such as a Sony Centre and Croma which seems to be the Best Buy of India.

The jet lag has hit us all fairly hard on this trip and I awoke to the sound of Jorgen and Henrik talking to each other in their room at about 3 AM and despite my requests, they never did get back to sleep. Around early afternoon each day, we have all started zoning a bit and it has taken a lot of focus these first few days to keep moving until at least 8 PM when we allow ourselves to crash.

On Sunday at noon, we met up with Chanda's new boss Molly and her husband and some other Target co-workers at the Leela Palace Hotel. This place can only be described as colonial India opulence at the highest level. The grounds are gorgeously manicured and the staff greets you in full formal traditional India attire. We have discovered that Sunday brunch is a very popular activity for the ex-pat community and the Leela brunch is particularly popular because they have a kid zone. This is a separate open-air area complete with a large TV showing Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry cartoons while the kids eat a menu comprised mostly of candy and other sweets. We have also learned that Indians will rarely if ever discipline children so the entire space becomes a play room where pillow fights rage. 30 feet away, the parents can sit in complete oblivion while eating unbelievable delicious Japanese food, complete with endless mimosas. Needless to say, it was wonderful brunch experience for all of us.

The next day we decided to see some sights and with our resident animal lover Jorgen in tow, we ventured out to the Bangalore Zoo. The key thing to keep in mind about driving in Bangalore is that you simply cannot believe how crowded the streets are with any number of auto-rickshaws, bikes, motor-cycles, motor-scooters, cars, trucks, tractors, ox drawn wagons and of course, cows. The kids have found it particularly amusing to see cows mingling with cars on practically every street in Bangalore with no one batting an eye. We understand they are owned by people but have free reign on where they go during the day, which can be right down the middle of a busy road or grazing in a vacant lot nearby. Fortunately for us, we have been assigned a great driver named Mr.Swamy who is fearless and knows every back street and alley in Bangalore. He is challenging to understand but we have agreed that I will help him with his English and he will teach me Hindi so I'm more than happy with that arrangement.

On to the zoo..
We first boarded an old bus for the safari portion of the zoo. I was given the honor of sitting in the first seat along with Henrik which afforded the best view of the animals we encountered. The downside was that it had about 8 inches of leg room so I was packed sideways into the seat with Henrik between me and the driver. We drove through winding hills for 30 minutes, entering various animal safari zones including various deer, sloth bears, lions, and tigers. While I had direct access to the left side and front of the bus for picture taking, the driver was only too happy to snap pictures with my camera from his seat of the animals that approached the bus from his side. It soon became obvious that he was working hard for an extra tip and that my placement in the front had been strategically arranged for this reason. After the tour came to an end and I had paid my cameraman, we exited the bus and headed for the main zoo area. This part of the zoo reminded us a dilapidated version of the Como Zoo from about the 1950's era. The animals generally looked healthy and taken care of but the cages were small and far from a natural habitat for them. The highlight of the zoo for us all was the elephant section. A small herd of Indian elephants (smaller ears and short tusks than African) were standing close to us and soon the handlers were offering the kids photo ops on top of the baby elephants and blessings by letting the elephant take money from us and place his trunk on top of our heads. Hopefully the elephants benefited from the arrangement as well.

Tuesday we headed out to see how our house in Palm Meadows was coming along and we arrived to find a crew of workers busy with a variety of tasks. We had been skeptical that everything would be ready for us so were not surprised to find that many of our requested changes had not been completed. The kids were particular alarmed by the army of ants in a couple of the bathrooms so we discussed the need for a thorough cleaning with the head guy. In general though we love the house and are excited to move in as soon as everything is done. We didn't realize it at the time we picked it in November, but our house is set on a particularly quiet street within the gated community so it should be a restful oasis from the hectic pace of life in Bangalore. After talking through the remaining work to be done, we decided to plan on spending Christmas at our hotel and moving in the following week. We strolled down the palm tree lined street to the clubhouse to show the kids the pools and they were delighted to find an even larger pool than our hotel awaiting them.

On Wednesday we celebrated my birthday by taking a road trip to the former capital of this region which is about 3 hours (only 140 km) away. The city is named Mysore and the main attractions there include an 800 year old Hindu temple and the 100 year old palace of the last king of Mysore. The sites were pretty interesting but half the time we find it more fascinating to just look at the people and things going on around us. We had lots of people come up to us (especially Chanda and Jorgen) just to shake our hands and even take pictures with us because they had never seen people with blond hair (maybe just in movies). We certainly know we’re not in Minnesota anymore! We enjoyed the sites but were worn out from the driving as even the highway we traveled on was chaotic at times and we never kept the same speed for more than 3 or 4 minutes with countless speed bumps and diversions along the entire route. Thankfully Mr. Swamy got us home safe and sound. When we entered our room, were were pleasantly surprised to find a delicious chocolate birthday cake with a card signed by the entire hotel staff. It proved to be one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had!