Back in Chennai

This school year has found us in a new apartment in the area of Chennai known as Besant Nagar.  Besant is an upscale neighborhood and includes the popular Elliot's Beach, a much smaller version of the huge expanse of the more centrally located Marina beach.We have an unrestricted view of the ocean from our bedroom balcony, where we can watch the sun rise in the morning.  Even before the sun comes up, many of the fishermen are already out, setting their nets. 

Like anyplace in India, this neighborhood is an interesting mix of people.  Within this affluent community are two fishing villages, where families live in small concrete houses or thatched huts and the only plumbing is a small trench dug in the sand. 

We call the fields along the beach that we overlook the pooping fields, because every morning you can see dozens of people using this for an open latrine.  Though the "public" beaches are relatively clean, it is indeed unfortunate that there are not more free public facilities, and better education, to protect the incredible resource that Chennai has in the miles and miles of undeveloped beaches.   

Despite the pooping fields, living on the beach is very nice, the sanitation issue is just one example of the many things you have to take in stride when living in India.  The trade off is we can open our big double doors and get wonderful ocean breezes cooling down our apartment, watch the incredible lightning storms roll in, the fishermen riding their small boats in on the waves, and even see the occasional dolphins playing in the surf. 

Rostrevor, Ireland

From Sligo we headed back to the west coast along some winding country roads, through some beautiful green rolling hills. 

We had expected a boarder crossing into the UK, but the only way we knew we had entered Northern Ireland was when we stopped at a petrol station, and realized the currency had changed to Euros, and the road signs were no longer bilingual English and Gaelic.

There were many typical cottages along our route, some like this rambling house had obviously been added onto over the generations.  Other larger buildings had some great architectural stone, brick and wooden details.

Our destination was the very typical Irish town of Rostrevor, complete with at least 2 churches and 4-5 pubs.  There is a wonderful large park just at the edge of town where we set up camp for the next 3 days. 

The annual music festival is what drew us to Rostrevor.  The festival is a small affair with a stage is set up right in the middle of town, with other venues set up at various places. The acts varied with everything from traditional and contemporary Irish, to Country Western.  Our favorite was the tradition Ceili session, where everyone swapped songs or stories in an intimate setting.  Some of the best music happens in the open pub sessions where the Guiness flows freely, and young and old alike play late into the night. 

Ireland

We wanted to see as much of Ireland as possible in our short week long trip, so we only stayed overnight in Dublin, which is a large city full of old buildings and churches complete with Griffins on the towers.

The next morning we hopped into our little rental car and headed for Galway on the west coast. We passed through a number of small towns, and no matter how small, there was always at least one pub. And yes, the sign does say Budweiser, which is readily available, but Guiness and Hard Cider seemed to be the drinks of choice.

Galway is a pretty, college town which makes it a cultural center and a tourist destination. We also met people from all over Ireland who come to vacation here. In the center of town whole streets have been turned into walking malls where street musicians, human statues, sand carvers and jugglers were in plentiful supply.

When the tide is out, the boats in the harbor are left high and dry.

Most pubs in the town have some great live music, though most of the sessions are for the tourists, and not open for jamming.

From Galway we made out way up the coast to Sligo, where we had a beautiful, though busy, campsite overlooking the water.

Char heard some accordion music in her wanderings, so I looked up this fellow and shared a few tunes with him.

Of coarse, no trip to Ireland would be complete without a pint or two of Guiness.

Summer fun

Since this is really a blog about our adventures in India, I won't spend much time on our summer break, except to give our friends and family a brief overview. We did manage to connect with many of you, and it was great to see you all!

Our friends Pam & Larry were gracious enough to put us up for a week in our home town of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Here is Char catching up with some of her fellow teachers.

Following that we were able to spend a week doing nothing but playing music and dancing our feet off with our good friends Mo & Melody at the Lady of the Lake dance camp on the beautiful shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene.
Here's Mo showing off his TGIF (Thank Ganesh it's Friday) T-shirt we brought for him.





Since traditional Irish and American folk music is a rare thing in India, I took advantage of every opportunity to play. Here I am with Arvid at a local Coeur d'Alene Irish pub.








More music with brother Billy at his unique handmade home in St. Maries, Idaho.

It was a real treat that my mother from California was able to spend a week with us in St. Maries.

From there we were able to spend a mostly relaxing three weeks visiting with Char's family at their beautiful property in the lower Hudson Valley in New York.

Char and I on the Riverwalk on the Hudson River.

It is a short hop on a commuter train into the city, where we met up with my niece Jessica, who is now living in Brooklyn, and working in the city. We spent a day walking around Manhattan, and were very impressed at how clean and alive the city has become. The waterfront that was once a place where you would not want to wander has become a vibrant center for cultural activities.

The next day we were able to show Jessica some of the sights on the Hudson, including Philipsburg Manor, which is a historic restoration where Char had once worked (in full period costume).

Our next stop was a week stopover in Ireland, which I'll catch up with in the next blog.

Summer Break

For friends, family and others who may be following our blog........ We will not be posting any updates while we are back in the US for the months of June and July. I hope you are enjoying the blog, which I will resume when I get some more pictures together in August.

Untill then, enjoy the summer!

Dave & Char

Swayambhu

Swayambhu is one of the oldest Buddhist stupas in Kathmandu. It is part of a large complex that covers the top of a hill overlooking the city. These visitors were sending off their prayers.

The gold topped Stupa is surrounded by smaller temples, many with intricate stone carvings.

Stray dogs seem to be everywhere in Asia. Typically they are not at all aggressive and just want a garbage pile to rummage through, and a comfy bed where they can escape the heat of the day.

Swayambu is also called the Monkey Temple, because of the large population of Monkeys that inhabit the grounds.

This temple that is under renovation shows the typical bamboo scaffolding used at construction sites, though they often look much more precarious than this set up.

A woman spinning the prayer wheels as she walks around the Stupa in a clockwise direction.

We were able to drive up close to the top of the hill, but many worshipers climb the steep steps, (365 I'm told).

If the smog is not to bad, there is a great view of the Kathmandu valley.

Many prayer flags strung from the trees flutter in the wind.

Endless steps

Much of our last day on the trail was spent climbing up and down newly made granite steps that went on and on, until we began to wonder if they would ever end.

I've always liked rock work, so these steps really intrigued me because of the workmanship that went into building them. Some of the stones were very large and had to be extremely heavy, and they were all shaped into perfect right angles for the risers. The builders had dry fit everything without the use of mortar.

From this picture, taken from the top of one set of steps, you can see the trail leading up the ridge to the summit of the hill we had just come down, steps all the way.

We couldn't help but wonder how all these steps had been made out here in the middle of nowhere, thinking it must have been done by the military.

We soon found our "military", which turned out to be a crew of a half dozen men armed with a couple of chisels and some rope.

And here's the quarry crew working on the hillside below the stair builders. I still don't know how they managed to get those heavy rocks up to the building site.

It is always a bit of a shock for a person like me from the US, who is so used to everything being done with power tools and earth moving equipment, to even consider a project of this size to be done with nothing but a few hand tools. But here labor is cheap, and people need jobs, so everywhere you look you see laborers like these guys (and women), with primitive tools, taking on large construction projects one step at a time.