Our India Experience

Start at the bottom and work your way up reading about some of my adventures in India. The embedded photo links will take you to photo album pages with captions/additonal info. Hope you all enjoy and we hope to see you soon!

4/6/07 Well we are back home in Greenfield. Its great to be home! Our experience in India was a truly amazing adventure. The people were fantastic and we learned a lot. It was an enjoyable, eye-opening journey that makes one really appreciate all that we enjoy. The photos on the following pages are a mere fraction of those we took so please visit us and ask us to show you a more comprehensive array of photos.

4/2/07 Today we visited Bangalore's City Market. Walking through this large urban market was quite an experience. With thousands of vendors the market was roughly organized in relation to offerings. There were large sections with flowers, vegetables, groceries, house wares, even a section with tools. It was basically the Indian equivalent of Home Depot, Wal-Mart, a grocery store and farmers market all combined. Click here for photos.

3/25/07 Bridget arrived in India today and we immediately headed out of Bangalore with some of my coworkers. We went to Mysore where we toured Mysore Palace and then journeyed to a spectacular mountain top temple. Click here for photos.

3/16/07 Yashupal Jayanna my coworker here in Bangalore invited me and another American (Karl Bardell) to join him attending his friends wedding. Since the wedding was quite a ways away we decided to make a long weekend of it and go to the coast after the wedding. Click here to view some photos of the wedding reception and our adventures in Goa one of India's most famous beach resort areas.

3/4/07 As some of you may know one of my best friends in college Sanjay Kashyap was born in India. When I found out I would be visiting Bangalore he was one of the first folks I told. We were both surprised to learn that serendipitously he was also planning a trip to India to visit family and for a few days early in February and again early in March we would both be in Bangalore. Well, Sanjay and I did get together in both months. It was great to spend time with him and his family and we enjoyed some truly memorable times together once again. Here are a couple of quick pics of Sanj and I.

2/28/07 OK, the suprises in India never seem to end. Apparently one of my coworkers knows an art buyer who put him in touch with a local gallery owner who managed to provide us with an invite to a gala fashion show at Bangalore Palace. Of all the things I never imagined doing on this trip I'd have to say attending a fashion show was certainly among the things I had not envisioned. That being said it was a pretty impressive evening. Thousands of guests, a fabulous outdoor setting, open bar, food, and oh yeah the fashions were fun to look at too. Check it out for yourself.

2/18/07 Today a number of my co-workers here in India took me on a trip to three historic temples. We departed at 6am and returned to Bangalore at 1am, it was an incredible amount packed into one day. We visited the Chennakesava Temple in Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple in Halebidu, and Vindhyagiri hill in Shravanabelagola, (home to a gigantic 60 foot high monolithic stone statue). The size, artistry, craftsmanship, and longevity of these sites was astounding. When one considers that all of this work was accomplished by hand without the benefit of modern tools or machinery the amount of dedication and labor is all the more impressive. Each of these sites is approximately 1000 years old. During the journey to the temples we also stopped at a sugar cane farm and I was able to witness first hand the making of jaggery. This was quite an experience as this was a very rural setting and the workers were as fascinated with our digital cameras as we were with their jaggery production. I hope you enjoy my photos: Three Temples & Jaggery.

2/11/07 Today a couple of my co-workerss took me on a safari tour within Bannerghatta National Park. The tour consisted of a bus ride through large fenced in areas of natural habitat that were stocked with lions, tigers and bears (each within its own area). The animals were acclimated to the buses and the lions and tigers especially seemed as eager to observe us as we were to observe them. The bus was pretty full but I managed to get a spot right at the door that allowed me to take some great photos. At one point a lion walked right up to me and was literally only about 2 feet from me. It was amazing! After the bus tour we walked through a zoo were we fed the monkeys and I got to meet an elephant. Safari Photos

2/10/07 I attended Aero-India, the largest airshow in this region of the world. The US was well represented with the flying demonstrations by the F-16, F-18, C17, airplanes and a Chinook helicopter. However, the best part of the show for me was seeing the aircraft that are typically not displayed within the US. Flight demonstrations of other countries aircraft included the MiG-29OVT/MiG-35 "Fulcrum-F" and the the Sukhoi Su-30 "Flanker-C". These are among the latest versions of Russia's MiG and Sukhoi fighters both utilize thrust-vectoring technology. While the Swedish "Gripen" manufactured by Saab also put on an impressive demonstration, the Russian aircraft performed maneuvers that literally seemed to defy aerodynamics. I saw these plans do things that I have never seen another aircraft do. They were truly impressive. AeroIndia Photos

2/8/07 Tonight I realized just how surreal India can be as I enjoyed a falafel dinner in an Italian restaurant while I watched cricket and listened to a indian duo belt out a rousing version of the Door's Come on Baby Light My Fire. Guess you just had to be there to fully appreciate the irony of it all. Does anyone understand cricket? Check out some of my first photos here in India - First Photos.