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Congratulations and thanks Akash & Anu.

]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=41 Sun, 7 Jan 2007 21:56:16 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=40
Elephant

We had about a 3 hour bus ride here today. There is so much to see as we drive. I try to take picture but can't capture muh from a speeding bus. Here are some shots I took on the way to Varkala. There are also shots of this hotel mixed in there.

Unfortunatly we passed a fatal motorcycle accident this afternoon. The accident had happened recently the police had just arrived. The way the motorcycles drive in and out of traffic here it is amazing this doesn't happen more.

Our plan is to stay here until 11pm tomorrow and then head to the airport to begin our trip home.

]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=40 Thu, 4 Jan 2007 14:20:48 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=39 houseboat

Yesterday was our houseboat trip through the Kerala backwaters. I tried to post to the blog from a blackberry device but since my site was messed up it didn't work. The boats are cool and the views are impressive. These boats are made mostly by hand of natural materials. There are over 500 of them in the area. Some of the boats are very nice. Ours were cool but not top of the line. We were split up onto three boats. Each has two bedrooms. One of the boats was larger so we all cruised on that one and just slept on the others.

One of the highlights of the boat trip was watching a group of duck hearders at work. That's right. Aparently they have a duck farm and the ducks need to be moved from one area to another. There was a swarm of thousands of young ducks swimming near our boat and a man in a boat hearding them. Another man on shore had set up a ramp into the water and then made duck noises to attract the ducks. Eventually they figured out they were supposed to go up the ramp and onto the shore. Pretty soon the whole bunch of them was waddeling up the ramp. One last one had trouble making it and rolled back down a few times. We all clapped when he finally made it.

The boats were awsome, I would certainly do that again.

Here are just some of the 270+ pictures I took on the boat.

One of the other cool things on the boat was a religious ceremony that was taking place on shore. We think it was a wedding but we are not sure. They had a person singing in a sort of a mellow chant song. There were speakers placed along the shore a few hundred yards apart and the music was very loud. It was kind of surreal. The music seemed to come from everywhere at once. It shounded nice but we have no clue what the words were. :)]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=39 Thu, 4 Jan 2007 08:12:48 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=37
group shot

Tonight we are at the Punnamada Backwater Resort in Alappuzha Kerala. The resort is awsome and if you are ever in Alappuzha I recomend staying here. :)

To get here we drove through a crowded town and then turned on a narrow road. The road was hardly wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. Along the road there were piles of gravel, about a pickup truck full each. These piles were on alternating sides of the road spaced about 20 yards apart. This created an amusing slolumn course for our bus driver. Later we turned down another road that only one vehicle could fit on. The buildings along all these roads were not all that great so we were not sure what we were getting in to. At the end of the road this very cool resort suddenly appeared.

The highlight of the rooms here is the attached outdoor bathrooms. It sounds primitive but isn't. I'll post pictures tomorrow morning so you can see. It is actually pretty cool.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in and then head to the house boat.

Here are some pictures of this resort.
]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=37 Tue, 2 Jan 2007 11:15:08 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=36
We went to "Elephant Junction" yesterday evening to ride some elephants. It was pretty cool. They put us all on three elephants and we got about a half hour ride.

elephant

Here are some more pictures from the elephant ride.

We are in the mountains now and the views up here are awsome.

]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=36 Mon, 1 Jan 2007 20:59:10 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=35
]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=35 Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:25:27 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=33
They had an MC giving away prizes all night. She started out organizing games and would give the prize to the winner. Twards the end she just picked people out of the crowd and brought them on stage to give them a prize. So, Jennie... we won a two night stay in the Taj Hari Mahal Hotel in Jodhpur. I have no clue where that is but I'm sure it is nice!!!

After the second party ended we went back to the first one because the were still playing music. At one point we were the only 5 people left on the dance floor. An Indian guy came up to me and shook my hand and said with a smile "You party long time!". We stayed until the final song.

Happy new year!!

Pictures here!]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=33 Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:58:33 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=34
Here are a few pictures around the city today.]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=34 Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:00:00 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=32
When we woke up this morning we heard the news of Saddam's execution. Later in the day we found out that there would be a state wide strike protesting the execution and that no cars would be on the road from 3 until midnight. The plan was for us to get going and get out of town before this strike. As we got to the city about half way to Cochin there were more and more people protesting in the streets. Someone put a poster with a picture of Saddam on the windshield of our bus as we passed.

As we came upon a large crowd of people in the street there were a few men on motorcycles directing us to turn right off the main road so we turned onto a slightly smaller side street. Those me then caught up with us and told our driver to follow them. They led us down a narrow back road and finally into the town's police station.

The police station is a concrete building with a courtyard/parking lot and bout a 5 foot wall arround the property. They told us that we should not attempt to drive through these crowds of protesters but instead wait about an hour until the crowds disperse.

The people protesting were showing their dissaproval of the execution. They view our president as a terrorist and maybe wouldn't have been too happy with a bus full of Americans driving through their crowd.

So we sat at the police station for about an hour and a half. All of the police were very nice to us. The set up chairs inside so that we could sit and wait. One of them handed out a piece of candy to each of us. At one point we started playing cards to pass the time but were quickly told not to do that. It turns out that card playing is either illegal or inappropriate in this area. Good to know. :)

When it started to get dark we set out again. This time with a police escort. We also closed all the curtains on the bus and tried to stay out of site as best we could. The police lead us to the edge of the town. We tipped them and were on our way.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. The town we are in now a bit more western. We are in a very nice hotel right now too. We'll be here for a couple of nights.

Here are some pictures of our drive today and a few at dinner too. ]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=32 Sat, 30 Dec 2006 14:00:50 -0600 http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=31
We are having lunch with Akash and Anu later today. That will probably be the last of the events. Akash and Anu are going to stay in India for a cousin's wedding over the new year's weekend. After that they are going to thailand for a while.

]]> General http://brentrader.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=31 Fri, 29 Dec 2006 23:15:31 -0600