Our last day in Bangalore we took a day trip to Mysore with some other KPMG secondees. We visited Mysore palace and some other sites. The best part of the trip were our spontaneous elephant rides. Once a year the palace has the royal elephants march through the entrance gates. We went to go see the elephants in their pasture-like area because we could see them off in the distance. There are no gates or fences so we just walked right in (we have learned if you are white you can get away with anything in India, just be prepared to give some rupees) The elephant care givers called us over and let all of us ride the royal elephants. (this is not normal, you usually just get to ride some random elephants, we actually rode the royal elephants!) I was a little scared! It is hard to hold on and if you fall it is a long way down! I love elephants and now I love them even more, it was awesome. They were soooo cute!

This weekend is our first weekend in Kochi! It is beautiful and green and the cows are fat from green grass and not starving from only eating trash. The weather is unpredictable – this area can’t seem to make up its mind. Should it be sweltering hot or pounding rain? At least when it rains here it is still warm, so it is actually fun to explore in the rain and get soaked. In Bangalore we really didn’t experience the monsoon weather, so I am enjoying the once in a lifetime weather experience. Our apartment is right along the water and we have an amazing view of the water, the Taj Malabar hotel, and Fort Kochi. It isnt as westernized as our old apartment. We have more than one gecko friend living with us here. Randy opened the silverware drawer the other day and a huge lizard jumped onto him!! Hahaha we like them because it means they eat our bugs. (yes the apartments have bugs, nothing you can do about it) Yesterday we took a ferry to Fort Kochi. It was pretty neat. Seafood is big here obviously because the town is along the ocean. There are huge Chinese fishing nets. The fisherman fish here everyday, all year long using the same method for years and years. Right now is their slow season – the fisherman saw us taking pics and called us over. They let us climb on the gigantic fishing contraptions and showed us their tiny catches: pen fish, glass fish, some small prawns, etc. They also let us help pull the huge net out of the water – no fish 😦 It was pretty awesome though! Some other fishers were more successful, as you walk along the water there are tons of huge fish, crabs, prawns, lobsters being sold, many still alive gasping for air. Much better sight (and smell) than the fish markets we saw in the inland cities. Last night I had huge pesto grilled prawns for dinner mmmmmmmm it was amazing!

We are sad our trip is coming to an end, but we have decided we will definitely be coming back someday whether it is through work or personal travel. There is SO MUCH to see here. In 3 months we didn’t have enough time to see everything. Next weekend is our last full weekend (and my bday!) so we are renting a houseboat for the weekend and exploring the backwaters of Allepey. Can’t wait! It was one of the activities I was looking forward to the most once I found out I was coming to India.

– Val and Randy

*all pictures are now up to date and posted! enjoy!

Hello loyal followers! haha well, its been awhile, we apologize! Two weeks ago we went to Goa! Its on the western coast of India, about a 1.5hr flight from Bangalore! Its an old Portuguese Fort town, now just a beach resort haven! We are knee deep in Monsoon season, Goa almost didnt happen because of it! Our flight was right in the middle of a heavy monsoon, so the pilot tried one last time to land, luckily we were able to! Strong winds, heavy rain, it was pretty fun! Once we got to our villa near the beach, they informed us they hadnt seen the sun in about 10 days! That was a bummer to hear! Lucky enough, it cleared up just for us, so it turned out to be a fun weekend getaway! We pretty much just ate a lot of yummy food, walked along a 17th century Fort, layed at the swimming pool/went in pool, shopping, and just enjoyed ourselves! Super relaxing, super fun! We were gonna rent Seadoos, but they were closed for the season. We will forsure come back to Goa in the future, forsure wanna see it during peak season, when the monsoons arent around! Goa was truely amazing.

What else has been going on you ask?! Well the weekend before we walked all over Bangalore taking pictures of all the stray dogs. Its really sad and a huge bummer, but it was a lot of fun. Lately, i’ve been feeding them leftovers and before we leave we have two bags of beef jerky we will spoil them with. I do as much as i can to try to help them out, its hard though because there are soooo many! I wanna pet them, but Val wont allow me! Too dangerous I guess.

The 4th of July was pretty fun, no fireworks. We just did a BBQ with Jacob (he is the person in charge over here where Val is working, he’s a super great guy). Val made some awesome Pasta Salad, we made some Veggie Kababs, they made burgers, and lots of goodies! It was a fun weekend forsure!

This sunday July 11th we say goodbye to Bangalore! 😦 It will forsure be a sad day, its been really good to us, and honestly, we have fallen in love with this place! We fly to Kochi, a coastal town about 2hrs away, Val will work there for our final 3 weeks! Thats right, we only have about 3 weeks left! 😦 Can’t believe we’ve been here since April 18th, its been so long, I feel like we have just settled in, its been like home! We have made some rad friends! One of the drivers, Nashwanth, we’ve taken him to breakfast and lunch, a really nice/fun guy, we wanna fly him to america so he can see it! Naresh, the landlord, one of the best human beings I’ve honestly ever met in my life! Ill forsure miss him the most, we’ve had some amazing talks, and he has made us feel so welcomed and at home its great! Jyode, the maid, she comes everyday and she is the nicest person ever! I see her every afternoon, she is hilarious and fun! She told us we are the cleanest people ever to come to Inida from america…and the nicest! haha What a compliment! haha So yeah, these folks we will remember forever, I cant even put it into words how great theyve made our stay!

So yeah, thats about it for now! Hope that holds you off until Kochi! Wish us a safe flight, we’ll write soon, forsure atleast one more time before we leave!

Val and Randy

ps- we have new pics, they will be up in the next day or so!! Pics of stray dogs, Goa, and some other stuff!

So not this past weekend, but the weekend before, we went to the mountain town called Ooty! Its about a 6-7hr drive south in the jungles/mountains of southern India! Honestly, probally the coolest place yet besides Taj Mahal. You have to drive through a jungle and tea plantations to get to it! In that jungle are wild tigers, elephants, jaguars, monkeys, etc! Driving through was pretty surreal, just hoping to see some sorta wildlife! On the way to Ooty through the jungle, we did see tons of monkeys and wild peacocks! On the way back, we saw a wild elephant just run across the road out of nowhere! So insane I cant even explain it! Luckily Val was watching for signs of life, ’cause i was dosing off in deep thought hahaha! She shook me screaming “Look at the wild elephant!”, it was intense! So yeah, back to Ooty. Pretty awesome place. It was about 10-15 degrees cooler ’cause its in the mountains, that that was quite a relief. We did a ton of shopping, took a pedal boat out on the lake, walked all over the little town exploring, ate yummy food, walked through the crazy markets/bazaars, and just had an amazing two days out and about! Seriosuly, Val is the best travel companion ever, we have so much fun its incredible. This may sound bad, but oh well; but we dont miss home really.We have an awesome home here, and we travel! Val does work a lot, but the stresses from home are zero in India, quite a relief! So yeah, Ooty is awesome and we both truely loved it!

This past weekend, we stayed in Bangalore! Saturday, we woke up and went down to our basketball court and we played basketball together! Val’s pretty good, so watch your back folks, i’m not joking! We played Horse and Around the World together, then went to the pool and relaxed there for awhile! Then got lunch and just relaxed until we got ready for dinner! Saturday night, we went to dinner with Naresh (landlord) and Jacob (head dude where Val works). That was a great night! Amazing food, good company, and great conversation! Seriosuly, and amazing night I will never forget. And dinner was at a golf course in the pooring rain, so it was super relaxing…besides the fact Val and I got eaten by mosquitoes, hopefully they were malayria free! If not, totally worth it regardless! 😉 I must not leave out this important part! The electrical outlets suck here, things either work, or dont work at all, or not very good at all. Val bought a hair straightner when we first got here, its a piece of crap and is hard to use by yourself! So what did i do, I did Val’s hair for her saturday night, and it came out amazing! She was super happy with a smile on her face and I think she was blown away that I was able to pull it off! Not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed with myself! haha

The Sunday, we woke up, relaxed, the found an amazing place for lunch called Barbeque Nation! Your table has like your very own bbq at it, and its a flat fee all you can eat! Wow, so good cant even put it into words! Then we did more shopping and ended the night with the new Shrek movie (very good, we loved it) and a great dinner at a super nice Italian Restraunt! When we went outside to catch our rickshaw, it was pooring monsoon rain! haha it was hilarious! So, i told Val to wait while I went running around in the rain to catch a rickshaw so Val wouldnt get wet! So we rode home in a rickshaw in the pooring rain, it was sooooooo fun, we were laughing, it was great getting soaked, dead serious here! Then when we got to our gate, the driver just dropped us off in the rain and we ran aound our complex in the rain/lightning! It was soo fun and hilarious! Puddles like up to our ankles and shins! We felt like kids, it was great! haha Earlier in the day we went to grocery store to get food! They had Ben and Jerrys!! yum! we didnt even look at price cause we wanted it sooo bad! Well, turns out we payed approx $30usd for two little pints of ice cream! hahaha Now that was pretty funny! 🙂

Anyways folks, thats the lastest update from 9000+ miles away! Hope you enjoyed it! To our few loyal followers (you know, and we know who you are) THANK YOU, it means a lot to us! Pictures are posted for all the adventures from above (from main page, click on “pictures” link on right side of page)! Our next adventure comes June 12th! Overnight jeep safari in the middle of the jungle!! They promise you will see wild tigers, white tigers, elephants, etc! Elephant rides too! Then you get a log cabin!! So amazing! A jeep safari, priceless!! Cant wait, we are super excited! Then we have some other stuff planned, but ill leave that for next time! Wish us luck!

Val and Randy

ps- here is the wild elephant proof!:

So this past sunday we had our first taste of monsoon season! I recorded a video of it, it’s pretty intense, but for some reason wont let me post it on here! So, youre just gonna have to trust us…it was pretty awesome! One second it was sunny, the next huge storm clouds roll in, super strong winds and a two hour down poor! It was so amazing I cant even explain it! Really loud thunder, and crazy intense lightning! It really cooled things off too. Then we started watching the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings! Two down, Return of the King tonight, the fact Val loves this as much as me…amazing!! Also, to get our Lost fix, no waiting until we get back, just download them off iTunes and we are good to go! Second to last episode tomorrow, then next monday for us, the anticipated 2 hour finale! It will be a sad day forsure, ill have to hold back the tears! Im sure Val will agree with me….BEST SHOW EVER! So yeah, so far so good in India! There is no place id rather be than here with Val! She is quite amazing! Well, hope you enjoy the update, we might be going to Malaysia or Maldives Islands, we’ll keep this blog posted! We have been cooking some rad dinners lately, and we found some cool places to eat where we wont get sick! I could go on and on, but i’m back to my book i’m writing (i’ve actually been writing a lot, i’ve been inspired by the great India!)! Its going good! good bye from India for now

Randy and Val

We are now in our apartment in Bangalore and I have to start work tomorrow at the Q-center. Holy cow! Bangalore is a lot nicer/cleaner than anywhere we have been so far. Our apartment is sweeeet! Randy and I have a 3 bedroom apartment to ourselves with a laundry room, kitchen, 3 bathrooms, nice living room, dining room, and neat view from the balcony.

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Our traveling was awesome. We put all the pictures up, there are a ton. The first 4 days we spent in Mumbai and toured the town including some outskirts like Elefanta Island. Elefanta Island is off the coast of Mumbai- we took an hour long boat ride. On the island we hiked up a mountain and walked through some pretty amazing ancient caves. There were monkeys everywhere! We also visited caves about 45 minutes north of Mumbai called the Kanheri Caves. These caves were even more amazing than the Elephant Caves. We walked inside ancient rock cave kitchens, bedrooms, temples, etc. It is unbelievable to imagine people building these without today’s modern tools and equipment. We met a really cool guy named Vasu who drove us around to these places for 2 days. We saw Juhu Beach (where Bollywood stars hangout), some Bollywood star’s mansion, Ghandis house, many temples and mosques. He also drove us through the Slums, even the exact ones that were used in Slumdog Millionaire. (We saw the fence that the kids jumped over in the beginning of the movie, etc.) The Slums are pretty depressing. They are basically villages made of trash houses. The poverty here is hard to believe. Vasu said 60% of India live in areas like the Slums.

After Mumbai we flew to Delhi where we saw the usual tourist sights including the India Gate, Lotus Temple, Humayan’s Tomb, Parliament Building, Presidential Palace, Ghandi memorial, etc. Luckily we only had a little over a half day in Delhi. Besides the cool sites it wasnt that nice of a city. Very large, dirty, busy, and we both got dirty looks alot. After Delhi we drove and spent the night in Agra and saw the Taj Mahal. In the morning we saw the abandoned city of Fatehpur Sikri which had amazing architecture, and then we drove about 6 hours to Jaipur the pink city! Randy ate something that made him sick so I spent the day in Jaipur by myself. It is kinda ironic because I have been eating everything and he has been more careful than me…it is very hard to find food we feel comfortable eating, much more difficult than I expected in the further cities. Jaipur has an old part of the town that is completely pink! Surrounding the town are 3 forts which I toured. They were so cool, I took lots of pics.

After Jaipur we spent one night in Pushkar then two nights in Udaipur. Udaipur was one of our favorites. It is a city centered around a lake. Because of a 3 or 5 year drought (not sure how long, we heard 2 stories) the lake isnt completely full. Around and in the center of the lake are Palaces. We toured the City Palace and took pictures of the Palace in the water. Unfortunately boat rides to the palace are not available anymore because there isn’t enough water. This pretty much sums up our 2 weeks! We flew back to Bangalore and relaxed all day in the apartment. It is nice to have AC, clean clothes, and food we can trust!

-Val

First, I should start by apologizing for the lack of updates! It has been super hard to do! Its been hard to get internet some places, as we are in the middle of no where! haha Anyways, we have taken hundreds of pictures and they will be posted in the next few days. We saw the Taj Mahal, got to walk through it! Its more amazing than any picture ever! One of the greatest days ever! Agra Fort was amazing too! Right now we aren’t in Delhi anymore, we are doing the tour of the “Golden Triangle”. Consists of Agra (Taj Mahal), Jaipur, Pushkar, and Udaipur! Right now as i type we are in Jaipur. Let me just say, Delhi is horrible, wouldnt recommend it! haha Drove through some crazy village in the middle of no where today, the kids loved us. So far people look at us like we’re from another planet! Its actually kinda cool and funny! We just smile and walk along! The muslims don’t seem to like us! Today we were at a mosque and a “head” muslim tried scamming us to pay 500-750 rupees for a piece of cloth to put on a tomb. I told him it was too expensive and i wasnt doing it, and he said everyone does it. i said no and he got mad! haha He tried telling me it was a donation for the poor…not gonna lie, if you were here, you’d see that is horseshit! haha But yeah, it was funny! Also, anyone and everyone in India is some way trying to run a scam or trying to sell you something. At first it annoyed us, but now we find fun in it! So yeah, so far so good! India is a very interesting place with lots of amazing life changing things to see and experience. We’ve noticed its a very poor country and a very dirty country. Very depressing and sad, but very eye opening! So yeah, stay tuned for another update really soon and amazing pictures! GET READY!!!

randy

ps – i didnt even mention mumbai, that will come in the next update!

We made it to India! Wow, that was a long, long flight! 5hrs to Newark, NJ from San francisco (and yes, just from the looks of it, NJ is dirty as shit! No lame-ass Jersey Shore glamour here, you were all fooled! haha) Then 16hrs nonstop from Newark to Mumabi, India! Yummy Indian veggie food on the plane! And I must mention we had a nice little boy sit next to us, he was super sweet and Val kept bugging him! Anyways, he kinda smelled, and so did our entire plane! But who cares, it was fun! So we picked up our luggage, went through customs, and our hotel had a driver there to pick us up! I must mention now…THIS IS FORSURE NOT AMERICA! Holy crap, I felt like Val and I were in a driving video game! The drivers here are insane! Swirving in and out, honking, cutting each other off, blowing red lights! Not gonna lie, it was fun, and we had smiles on our face the whole ride! Oh yeah, Val gave our driver some gum, he must of enjoyed it alot cause he was chomping it like he hasn’t had gum since 1904! haha

Well, hope you liked the first post, i’ll leave you with Val’s first experience with a women’s squat toilet…she took a picture for you all! Enjoy!

We leave April 18th in the morning! 20 days! Pretty much takes an entire day to get to India! should be a fun flight.

Randy

We went shopping for India supplies and got some bomb backpacks! According to Randy a vest is a necessity….

Randy in his cool Indiana Jones vest

Val

Shut your face, mine will come just in time!

Randy and I officially planned our trips in Mumbaii and Delhi! Woooooooooooooooooooo!

Val