cooksinindia: September 2006

Mike's Bike

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There are a few who are curious about the bike. It is called an Atlas. Heavy duty bike for the people. Everyone we see on a bike on the streets rides this type of bike even the rickshaw drivers. Mike paid around $50 for it and he loves it. He has been riding it around here and he hopes to be able to use it even more when he moves to the other flat. He will try to ship it back to the states. He is hoping to put it in a box and check it when he goes back. I'm guessing it weighs around 40-50lbs.

The other day he was riding his bike when he popped into a store in the mall. When he came out his bike was gone. There is no such thing as a bike rack and he had locked it out front. He found a security guard who showed him to the parking ramp and there he found his beloved Atlas. It seems no one rides a bike to the mall unless they are pulling a rickshaw. The people are very amused to see a white guy riding at all. He says he is getting used to the traffic. The little bell helps.

Mike's Bike

The Atlas- nice "hood" ornament

Fully equipped with kickstand, lock, fenders

and bell

Mike loves his bike

Mike's Bike

Mike loves his bike

Parking

Kickstand

Fender

The Flat

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Here are pictures for those of you that are curious about our apartment. As you can see it is very nice. Grant was able to skateboard around the complex without any hassle and Quinn was filming some footage of him. Unfortunately they went down to skate today and they were told by a guard that he can't skate anymore. He is very upset- this was one of the ways he could blow off some steam here. We are going to try to smooth things over with the guard.

After the kids and I leave, Mike is going to be moving in with another Fulbrighter, Tom. He lives in a two bedroom flat in an area called Sheik Sarai. It is not as posh as this place but it is still nice. I don't think he'll have someone to cook breakfast and clean but he will manage. It is in a good location for getting around and sightseeing. More of a neighborhood then we have out here. It will be nice for Mike to not have to do an hour drive to get to school etc. He won't require a driver all of the time either. He'll probably be able to get by using an autorickshaw most of the time.

The Flat

Essel Towers- Our Building. We live on the 6th floor.

Essel Towers

Suraj- he is always smiling except when he is getting his picture taken

One of our drivers, Buri- from Nepal with a Tata Indica. He speaks fairly good English and is a good tour guide.

The Flat

Washing machine- clothes are washed in the compartment on the left. They are then transferred to the compartment on the right and spun nearly dry.

Dryer- on the other balcony. Suraj does our laundry. After the clothes are dry he takes them away and they come back pressed and folded.

View from one balcony

View from other balcony

The Flat

Mike and Rebecca's room

Grant's room

Quinn's room

View from one balcony

The Apartment

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen- very simple- two burner stove, fridge, sink

Bathroom- sink to left, shower to right. Above the toilet is the geyser (pronounced geezer.) It is a point of use hot water heater. There is one in each bathroom and in the kitchen.

cooksinindia

cooksinindia

Below are photos of our trip to Humayun's Tomb who was the second Mughal emperor. This tomb is thought to be the precursor to the Taj Mahal. The complex also includes several other tombs and a Mosque. This is yet another World Heritage site. Every time we turn around we seen another one. After the tomb we went shopping at the Khan Market, Tibetan Market and at the Central Cottage Industries which is a huge emporium with fabric, art, rugs etc from all over India. We are collecting some cool things to bring home. Luckily, we have an extra suitcase.

Humayun's Tomb- New Delhi September 25

Atgah Khan's Tomb

Mosque

Humayun's Tomb

Quinn and Grant excited to see another tomb!!!

cooksinindia

cooksinindia

September 26- 1000
It seems there has been some confusion as to the times/dates I have been sending my emails. I just noticed that Quinn has set the computer with the correct time in Marquette. So while it is 10am here in India, it is 12:30am in Marquette. From here on I will date and time my correspondence. To further confuse me, my watch is slowly dying. I have not been able to find a replacement battery so time is slowing down in my world. Luckily, my mobile phone has the correct time and an alarm.

An interesting thing about time here. IST (India Standard Time) is 5 1/2 hours ahead of GMT so 9 1/2 hours ahead of EST until the clocks are changed at the end of the month then it will be 10 1/2 hours ahead. The time zone is the same for the entire country. I'm not sure about the half hour thing. Maybe they thought the country is so huge that instead of having two time zones they would just split the difference. I have heard IST referred to as Indian Stretchable Time. It is true that in many cases things move much slower and it is hard to predict when or if something will happen. An example- If we call for a driver for 0800 he could come at 0730 or 0830. Another example is when we have dealt with problems with the internet connection here at the flat- "we'll be right over to fix it" could mean now, this afternoon or tomorrow. I'm sure some of our difficulties have had to do with language problems and all of these are temporary inconveniences. We see it as all a part of the adventure.

As you can see I am experimenting with posting photos. It really is very easy once you get the hang of it but I'm a bit of a slow learner. You'll notice things aren't in chronological order and there are some duplicates. Should be a little neater in the future.

I have had requests for photos of the flat, Indian toilets, the markets and Mike's bike. I will continue to add photos as we take them.

Mike finally got the verbal OK to get an entry (work) visa. No official letter yet but it is a good sign. Looks like he will have to go to Nepal to have his visa switched. He will probably go alone- too expensive for the whole family to go. I'm really dissapointed. Have always wanted to go to Kathmandu.

We are in the process of planning our trip to Goa. Will probably fly down on Friday and return the next Thursday so Mike can go to Nepal. The Nepal trip will just be for two days or so. I'm still trying to cram in as much sightseeing as I can before we head back. Still working on having the plane tickets switched. Looks like I'll have to go directly to the airlines to have them switched. I'll let everyone know what the plan is as soon as I know. I'll post more photos later.