chez soleil

My Favorites of 2011

2012-01-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Here are my favorite things of 2011:

1· In January 2011, The Foutiliers kicked-off New Year's with Orlando-style fireworks; what a BLAST! Shortly afterwards, Tyler and I participated in coordinating and experiencing Kelley-Con with Kelley's friends: Duane, Dan, Dillon, Jennifer, and Jon -- who all flew out from San Diego, CA to Orlando, FL to be there for his surprise birthday celebration.

2· In February 2011, Tyler and I adopt and fall completely in love with Harry Belafonte, our new kitty, at 5 months of age, who quickly becomes our most loved precious little baby. We also have the pleasure of spending time with our dear friends Jim and Huey in both New Orleans, LA and Galveston, TX.

3· In March 2011, We are treated with a cross-country roadtrip visit from our Oregon parents, Roy and Ardene and we experience a fantastic fan boat ride with gators all around! The Foutiliers then end the month by visiting Savannah, GA -- the most charming city in the world.

4· In April 2011, Tyler and I spend one week visiting San Diego, primarily for Simon and Laurie's wedding -- it was a joyous event and a delight to experience. We also took this opportunity to announce to parents, close family and intimate friends that we were 4 months pregnant.

5· In May 2011, Tyler and I begin the new home purchasing process towards our first family home together with the help of our dear friend and amazing realtor, Huey Lin of Pegasus Uptown Realty in San Diego, CA.

6· In June 2011, I fly Tyler and my CFI on an 8.2-hour cross-country flight round trip from Orlando Executive Airport to Key West while 7-months pregnant.

7· In August 2011, I complete and obtain my Private Pilot License (single-engine land) two days before National Aviation Day and a week before the 8-month pregnancy mark -- just in time! Two weeks later, we move back and into our new home in San Diego, CA.

8· On October 22, 2011, Desmond is born and Tyler and I become first-time parents of a human being.

9· In November 2011, my maternal grandmother passes away. She is my last grandparent and I'm thankful that she blessed my marriage with Tyler and that Desmond could meet her at the funeral.

10· In December 2011, I find out that my job has asked for an exception and I continue employment after my maternity leave in San Diego; I can help sustain our family and our home for 2012. A happy ending to the year.. Huzzah!♥

It's A Boy! ... and his name is Desmond

2011-12-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends & Family,

It's A Boy! ... and his name is Desmond Tyler Fullerton.
Desmond was born on Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 4:08pm PT weighing 9 pounds 7 ounces and measuring 21 inches long.
Here are our baby Desmond photos

And a couple of YouTube videos of our new family:
"Harry Belafonte says hello to Desmond"
"Baby Desmond one week feeding"

The photo trio above is of Desmond at one month old and the announcements below are of Desmond at one day old.

Love,
Maureen & Tyler
&, of course, Desmond's kitten brother, Harry Belafonte :)

(Leaving Orlando and) Goin Back to Cali

2011-09-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Things I miss about Orlando:
1· The Foutiliers. We had our best times with Alison & Special K and wish they could be with us in San Diego.
2· The Weather. The lightning storms, high Simpsons (the cartoon)-like clouds, clear/unstable skies, warmth all day long, no overly dry air.
3· Gators chicken wings. Oh, how I miss my favorite flavors: grilled thai peanut & parmesan garlic!

Things I love about San Diego:
1· The food. Most of the food in Orlando pales in comparison to San Diego (which can also be an advantage because we saved SO much money on food while living there).
2· The Weather. Although it is colder here, there isn't a huge difference between the climate indoors vs outdoors; it's nice not to have to be slammed with cold A/C after adjusting to the oven-like heat every time you entered a building.
3· It's home. Our parents are on the west coast and our baby can be born in San Diego (which is nice since I was also born in Southern California).

Aviation: OMG, I'm a Pilot now!

2011-08-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

Today I had my Private Pilot Single-Engine Land oral and flight examination (a.k.a. "my private pilot checkride") towards a pilot's VFR certification. My day started when I woke up well before the 3 alarms that my hubby, T.$ and I set. The alarms were set for 5am ET but, I woke up at 2am ET and had to force myself to nap for another couple of hours to make sure I wasn't run-down for the oral and flying exams. I frantically finished my cross-country calculations with that day's winds aloft figures that were due for my checkride today. And I rushed out with just a bagel and a little bag of walnuts. I got to the Flight Ready Aviation office at the Orlando Executive Airport by 7am ET, and BOY, was I NERVOUS!

At 10 minutes past 8am ET, the check ride examiner met me, took my $400 cash payment (crazy right?!), and briefed me on how the day would proceed. Then the oral questions began. Any questions I answered, I didn't feel 100% confident in as the check ride examiner would find a context I hadn't thought about that isn't covered in the books and I would feel thoroughly and embarrassingly schooled. There were only a few questions that I answered that he moved on from. The next thing I know, he told me that it was 10:30am ET and we'd begin the flying portion of the exam. At that point, I was thinking to myself, "I guess I passed the oral because he hasn't failed me and we're moving forward." Then we flew and long story short, the tower for one of the airports said to me on my departure, "good job in the pattern" and when we returned back to the Orlando Executive Airport, I cut the engine and the examiner said that my maneuvers were strong and that I did the best hood work ("BAI", instrument-based flight) he had seen in a long time! Not to say the flying was perfect, I made some pilotage and approach errors. But, as the uncle of my WCCFI ("west coast certified flight instructor") told my WCCFI, "a pilot's license is a license to learn". So I'm resolved to continue to study the regulations and expand on further certs.

As of today, I am proud to share that I'm a certified pilot.. for life!!!

p.s. Happy National Aviation Day! (August 19th)

Aviation: My First Solo XC flight

2011-07-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

This is super embarrassing and hilarious but, it was a good experience. After practically getting 100% on the written test, I expected to nail my solo cross-country flight and came a bit short of that.

What does "practically" getting 100% mean? Well, I got 2 wrong for a score of 97. But, strangely, that's because my study guides had those 2 answers wrong -- my CFI let me know that only the FAA knows the private pilot exam answers and there are publishers, like Gleim and ASA and Jeppesen, who might have a couple discrepant answers here and there. So had I gotten the subset of questions that were not discrepant, I could have gotten 100; and that's what I keep telling myself. ☺

What does a "cross-country flight" mean? Well, it doesn't mean a five day trip across the nation (which is what everyone thinks initially). Rather, it's flying over a total distance of 75 or more nautical miles to two different destinations to a full-stop landing. At least one leg of this cross-country must be over a total distance of at least 25 nautical miles (46 km). So, it can be done in a 3-hour round trip flight.

Although my first solo cross-country flight was enjoyable, I had a few hiccups. As you can take a listen (you can hear me at 1:33) to the audio clip that was archived at LiveATC.net -- beware pilots: they record EVERYTHING .. LOL --, I thought I was lost and it turns out that I was right next to the Ocala airport that I was looking for! *smacks forehead*

What's next? Studying hardcore for the oral exam and practicing all of my maneuvers in preparation for the all-day checkride with the examiner, which, if I pass, gets me a private pilot certification. Just thinking about it makes me forget to breathe!

Aviation: My First XC flight -- and it was to Key West!

2011-06-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I flew a Cessna 172N in a cross-country flight to Key West as part of my requirements for my Private Pilot License. Click on the photo above for the pictures that Tyler took and click here for pictures that I took (And, if you're interested, click here for my TripAdvisor review on the best pasta I've ever had in my life -- it was on Key West). It was an 8.2 hour, hot and challenging roundtrip flight from Orlando, inclusive of a beautiful morning flight over the Palm Beach and Miami coast and an afternoon flight the next day with lightning storm dodging over the Everglades on the onset of Florida's rainy season. This is one of my proudest moments. I learned so much and I am newly motivated towards a future career as a pilot. In the meantime, this new found energy has me looking at pilot gear! And, I found the coolest retrofitted headset kit: the Bose QC15 and the UFM adapter -- a.k.a. "UFM/QC15". It would be awesome to have for my passengers (like Tyler) to listen to their iPhones while I fly him to cool places. I'll have to buy this duo as a secondary headset once I complete my IFR license. In the meantime, what will I treat myself to when I complete my VFR PPL? Wilco. I'm between a Lightspeed ZULU and a David Clark H10. I'd get the Lightspeed ZULU but it is beaucoup $$$!

Product Rave: Sephora Pore Cleansing Pad

2011-05-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a little beauty find for those of you who are looking to exfoliate and cleanse and not have to shell out the big bucks on an electric handheld to get similar results! I purchased the Sephora Precision Pore Cleansing Pad for $5 about two months ago and I am in love.
I bought twelve more to hand out to dear girlfriends that I felt might be able to share in the love. The benefits are instant.

1· wet your face
2· use your favorite cleanser and apply it directly to the precision pore cleansing pad
3· using circular motions, buff out the cleanser on your face, concentrating on areas that seem extra dull, dry or oily
4· rinse, pat dry, glow

The bristles are so soft that I can't seem to scrub too hard; and I have sensitive, combination oily/dry skin. I love the fact that it's an easy one-step cleanse and exfoliate process that travels really well. It helps you conserve your cleanser, your money, your counter space and is so gentle yet effective!

Travel: "There's been a murrdah in Savannah!"

2011-04-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

For the last week of March, the Foutiliers (which is comprised of our Orlando BFFs -- the princess and Special K -- and T.$ and I) took a weekend road-trip to the prettiest city I've ever vacationed to in my life: Savannah, Georgia. Keeping in mind that I've never been good at history or politics in school, I wasn't able to really appreciate the rich history that was embedded all throughout the famous "historic" district of Savannah, Georgia. However, I was able to appreciate the southern hospitality, the charming architecture, the pedestrian-friendly walkways and parks, and the large and colorful azaleas in bloom (what the princess and I referred to as the "Georgian hibiscus").

The town was so lovely and charming. We wanted to stay much longer and we had already begun discussing where we'd stay and eat on our return visit. If you know me, you know that I'm a foodie and I was really looking forward to eating some of Paula Deen's food. Her food on the Food Network looks so comforting and rich and although I expected to be disappointed, Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons restaurant dinner buffet surprisingly met my expectations. The fried chicken was perfection! And, it was the best first-time taste of fried green tomatoes I could have hoped for!

Also, another point of excitement for T.$ and myself, was that we were able to bring Harry Belafonte with us. He is such a sweet kitty and did very well although he was carried the whole time that he joined us for the walking tours throughout the streets of Savannah (he's only just started to walk on his leash). LOL. We're so blessed to have amazingly understanding and supportive friends that dealt with finding a pet-friendly hotel and restaurants with outdoor seating so that we could keep our "baby" with us on this trip. If we're lucky, maybe The Foutiliers can go back for Christmas!

Check out the princess' post on our trip.
Check out T.$'s post on our trip.

This post's title is a quote: "There's been a murrdah in Savannah!" - The [American] Office, Season 6, Episode 10

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

I snuck a couple of photos of our St. Patrick’s Day “potluck” today from work. I didn’t get any shots of the dozens of boxes of Papa John’s pizza on the counter because by the time I got my camera, they were all cleared! As you can see, there were plenty of desserts though -- which I have to admit makes me recoil a bit. I am not a sweets person, I am a savory person. So, a part of me was hoping to see some corned beef and cabbage but, alas, there was none. It would be great if there were healthy alternatives provided at work holiday functions: some broccoli, celery & peanut butter , and pesto would be awesome. And, I was too lazy to bring anything so I really shouldn't complain one bit! I am just thankful that I coincidentally left the apartment wearing a green top on St. Patrick's Day! And a surprising number of people wore green today so I was happy to fit in; as if I had planned it. One gentleman even wore a neon green fro around the office! Groovy.

Happy St. Patty's Day! ♣

Like Apple TV for Mac Mini

2011-03-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

Ever since we got the mac mini as a wedding gift, I've been missing my old bachelorette setup in San Diego where I had my old mac mini and an old modified Xbox with media player and would switch to movie media mode via my TV input switching. The hookup and configuration (copying XML files via SFTP!) was a little old skool but, the interface was so nice! It also didn't help that here in Orlando when I would go over to Special K and the princess' house, they would pull up their Xbox360 media interface for Netflix -- an interface that put my Netflix that ran via a Safari browser with Silverlight plugin to shame. Also, VLC for my AVI files never quite played the movies to a polished full screen -- I could always tell it was played through an app on the side because I could see there were some border issues in the full screen. So, the other day, I finally figured out how to extend the Front Row app that came with my Leopard OS to display and play my AVI movie files! How?! Don't worry, I'll tell you. :) It doesn't change my Netflix playing experience but, it's definitely an improvement when it comes to my stored movie files. Here are the basic steps to converting your mac mini into an Apple TV -like media center:

• Make sure you have Front Row installed: Front Row is basically Mac's Media Center. Newer versions of the Mac OS (v10.7 "Lion" and higher) don't come with Front Row since they now sell the Apple TV and they are providing the same basic functionality. Mac OS v10.5 ("Leopard") is ideal since it comes with Front Row v.2 which includes the new features introduced with the Apple TV (except for the YouTube viewer -- for which I'm looking into the Understudy plugin). To test if you have Front Row installed on your Mac OS, press the command key and Esc key at the same time -- this launches Front Row. If Front Row doesn't launch after 10 seconds, you can install it here or here.
• Make sure your iTunes can see your media files: Front Row reads files that are added (not necessarily copied, thank goodness) to iTunes. My media files are primarily ripped DVDs in AVI file format stored on an external dual bay HDD that is connected via FireWire 800/1394b to my mac mini. Therefore, my iTunes cannot read my media files as-is (mainly, because they are AVIs). If you experience the same, then read the next two steps...
• Make sure your QuickTime can play your media files: iTunes can only add movie files that QuickTime can play and that are in the proper iTunes-friendly format (generally MOV or MP4). So, make sure to test your media files in QuickTime. I quickly found that my AVI files would error when opened with QuickTime. If you experience the same, I suggest installing Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime video components. This solved my error, video and audio issues with all of my AVI movie files.
• Make sure your media files are in an iTunes-friendly format: Once you verified proper play of the AVI files in QuickTime, you'll need to convert them to MOV or MP4 for iTunes to add them to the library. This is simple but time-consuming. Open each AVI file with QuickTime and go to "File" -> "Save As"; make sure the Format is set to "Movie" and click "Save". QuickTime will process the AVI file into a MOV file. I verified that the new MOV files played in both QuickTime and iTunes.
• Add the media files to iTunes: Now that you've converted your AVI files to MOV, you can add them to your iTunes library. You can just locate the root folder in Finder for all your MOV files and drag and drop the root media folder into iTunes, it'll add all iTunes-readable media files in the subfolders for you.
• Launch Front Row and verify your new media collection: Press the command key and Esc key at the same time, arrow up and down to ensure the "Movies" menu item is selected and press Enter to drill in and play the new media you just made available in a polished-full screen home theater mode! Et voilà.. C'est ça!

Travel: Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Galveston

2011-03-02T06:39:00.001-08:00

Since getting married and moving to Orlando, FL, we haven't had a chance to see our dear friends Jim and Huey from San Diego and it was so nice to see them last week. As a wedding gift, we stayed in their complementary timeshare in both New Orleans, LA and Galveston, TX. We were in New Orleans from Sunday night through Friday morning and basically we missed the big Mardi Gras parades that apparently run on the weekends. We did however catch a couple parades in Galveston, TX while we were there through the rest of the weekend and Monday. If you like oysters, seafood, beignets, jazz, and French architecture, New Orleans, LA is a great place to visit. I don't really recommend going to Galveston, TX. There's not much to see except the largest beach I'd ever seen and the fact that Galveston used to be the capital of Texas. Other than that, there are plenty of other cities to visit in the world. On our last day, T.$ and I flew back to Orlando, FL from Houston, TX. Jim had always wanted to go to Space Center Houston since he was a little boy and he has his first taste of astronaut ice cream; so it was a significant visit. Check out our photos from the trip by clicking on either photo above.

Intel-A-Vision

2011-02-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

Most of the kids had an Atari when I was in elementary school and I had an Intellivision. That combined with the fact that, we just watched the movie Robocop while playing with Harry Belafonte all weekend (when I wasn't flying). And, I was inspired to compile some memorable "-visions" from notable movies:

Robocop's robo vision (1987):

Predator's thermal vision (1987):

Yautja Alien's xenomorphic vision (1986):

Terminator's cyborg vision (1984):

p.s. I'm disappointed in the internet -- I haven't been able to find a classic vampire vision or zombie vision photo. I might have to make my own.

I can haz kitteh?

2011-02-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

We're considering getting a kitty. I blame my buddy Tim. :)

Years ago, my buddy Tim made me open a myspace account and on that account, he commented with this photo of the invisible bike LOLCat. That photo left an impression on my hubby, T.$, and ever since, years later, he's been cracking up over LOLCats on his iPhone. I too got an iPhone a month ago and now, I have joined him in finding LOLCat photos and cracking up over them at odd times (while brushing our teeth) or odd places (at SciFi City while we're at our D&D gathering). Click on the "Proceed" LOLCat to proceed to my favorite collection of LOLCats.

Then, last Saturday, we showed up early to a theater showing of the movie Airplane in "Altimont" here in Orlando, FL and decided to pass the time by looking at kitties at the nearby Petco. And, that's when I saw Buddy in a cage in the back of the stack of cages. Everyone has different tastes in cats and I think cats are more attractive when their eyes are even and gentle, I don't really like them cross-eyed or when the kitties look like they're scared or like they're pouting. So, I walked up to Buddy's cage and saw his pretty almond-shaped gold eyes and thought "wow, that's cool how he has a circle of bright green just near his pupils". The next thing I knew, I was holding Buddy.

Buddy was apparently four months old and super mellow. So mellow that I asked if the cats were sedated and they confirmed that they weren't. Buddy had folded himself in half such that his front paws were on top of his back paws and he was trying to bury his nose under his front paws. It was really cute. He seemed really shy and this was because he was the only one of his litter -- just like me. So, we're considering getting Buddy.

UPDATE: We just adopted Buddy, renamed to Harry Belafonte, yesterday! Within a half an hour, he was purring, exploring, playing, and following me around the apartment! Click on Harry Belafonte's photo above for all of the photos!

Here's a LOLCat for Duane:

And a LOLCat for Kelley:

With regards to Orlando

2011-01-31T11:08:00.000-08:00

Recently, I ran into a coworker whom I had worked with for a few years who was in town from San Diego and was slated to move to Orlando in the second wave of San Diego-to-Orlando relocation efforts. So, I emailed him the following description to give him and his family an idea of what we've experienced here. Here are my takes on Orlando, as it pertains to me -- a Southern California native (which means I've been there for over three decades); hope you like it ..

In our first month here in August, we were inundated with stories of:
•    the huge bugs – spiders that were so big that when they scurried by, they were mistaken for rats!
•    lightning storms – where even with the most expensive surge protection, expensive large screen TVs were fried! some locals are mindful to unplug everything rather than to rely on surge protection.
•    and of course the statistics:
    Orlando is the 5th dummest city in the nation
    Orlando is the angriest city in the nation
    Orlando is a dangerous city

In addition, colleagues educated me as to where *not* to go: south OBT (Orange Blossom Trail), Paramore, Mercer, and Pine Hills (“crime hills”). The bugs and the crime stories made us feel like we were surrounded by danger and it was tough to sleep on some nights in the first few months. It also didn't help that everyone I’ve spoken to here has mentioned how they would LOVE to live in California which makes me wonder, "Why? What's so bad about Orlando, FL?".

So, it's now five months later and we love it here! LOL! Aside from love bugs which they say come out every Labor Day and Memorial Day and they’re out for a week or two (it’s pretty disgusting).. but aside from those, the other bugs aren’t so bad if you spray your place and do not live in a secluded woodsy area, and they disappear when it gets colder anyhow (like now). We LOVE the lightning storms. The lightning storms aren't as dangerous as we feared; and they are BEAUTIFUL. I adore the weather here -- the skies are gorgeous and dramatic. But, maybe I had grown too accustomed to Southern Californian weather – it bores me: the dreary marine layer in the morning, the dry sun, the dreary marine layer in the evening, the occasional earthquake, the dry Santa Ana winds.. blah. Still in the back of our minds, the crime and stupid statistics are here and we don't want to ignore them. But, so far, we’ve been fine: we know where not to go and we alarm our little apartment every time we step out or go to sleep. And that's different for me. I never had an alarm where I've lived and I've even lived in communities in San Diego where doors were left open, let alone unlocked. But, that’s where I am happy that we don’t plan to live here for the rest of our lives. My new hubby and I came out to live here for a couple years and move back to the west coast (San Diego or wherever life takes us) but we're having so much fun that I want to stay for more like five years.

We are really loving Orlando because of the people that we love here and the following places we’re still eager to visit:
•    Florida keys
•    Miami /South Beach, and Daytona
•    The South (we’re going to New Orleans and Galveston next month)
•    The East Coast (we’re planning to go to Savannah, GA in March; oh maybe that's also considered the South *shrug*)
•    Europe is much closer/cheaper from here (we're going to Budapest and Poland in October)
•    Cruises to all of these gorgeous islands (Virgin Isles, Caribbean and Bahamas) are really cheap here
•    When we wake up late, the lazy bones on the pacific coast are still fast asleep! muahahaha.
•    I haven't seen a single uppity superficial person here! Everyone is down-to-earth (granted, they are less stylish and not as attractive but who cares? they're nice!)

I would advise that living in Orlando, FL temporarily might be the best of both worlds/coasts. But, some people are lifers and I can see why. Florida is the tourist capitol of the world and that makes it feel like we're living in a permanent vacation time share.

My Favorites of 2010

2011-01-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! While it is still January, I wanted to post some of my favorite things of 2010.

1· In January 2010, Tyler and I vacationed to the big island of Hawaii and Maui with our dear friends Jim & Huey and their friends, Maynard, Levy, and Terence; and we saw a sacred sunset atop Mount Haleakala, the tallest mountain in the Pacific. (Here are our glamour shots -- a birthday gift from my parents.)

2· In February 2010, Tyler -- while on crutches! -- went with me to Orlando to see what it would be like before relocating there for my work -- I was moved beyond belief by his complete love and devotion.

3· In April 2010, I ate 60 chicken mcnuggets in one sitting with good friends from work as witnesses. (Here is the awesome YouTube video that Duane made for me)

4· In May 2010, Tyler proposed to me at the Flower Fields and j-kitty (my "rollasista") got married to The Captain in Point Loma.

5· In June 2010, Tyler and I got married in Coronado with Rareş Ciprian Săftoiu as our officiant and Werner Marius Jainek flying in from Germany for us- the planning was fun and easy and the wedding was perfect and amazing.

6· In July 2010, I had all four wisdom teeth removed (no painkillers after) and Tyler and I celebrated with Elisa at j-kitty & The Captain's boat party for the Fourth of July and it was a *blast*.

7· In August 2010, Tyler and I moved to Orlando, Florida for my work for a planned stay of two years; and my first move out of Southern California.

8· In early December 2010, Tyler and I visited Chicago, Illinois for the very first time and we experienced a winter wonderland.

9· In mid-December 2010, I soloed in a Cessna 172 and am one step closer to my private pilot.

10· In late December 2010, Tyler and I spent quality time with our BFFs in Orlando, the princess Alison and Special K, and lit up fireworks as if it was 1999.

♥

Product Rave: Two Bay or Not Two Bay

2010-12-30T08:13:00.000-08:00

Since I am comprised of part techie, part adventurer, and -- although the tomboy in me hates to admit it -- part girlie ☺, my blog posts will probably be a mêlée of these things. This particular post goes back to my techie side. At home, I have a simple media setup where we have a 2010 mac mini -- best wedding gift in the world, next to cash, BTW -- hooked up to an HD Panasonic projector via HDMI 1.3 (which supports 2560×1600 but is limited by the mac mini's resolution of 1920x1200; so even an HDMI 1.0 cable would work fine but I always prefer down-converting when it comes to resolution). The 2010 mac mini is connected to our Gigabit ethernet wirelessly through 802.11n on a 20Mbps DL/ 2Mbps UL internet service hosted by Brighthouse Networks. Connected directly to our Belkin Play N600 HD router (which so far is performing well in its first couple months despite some reviews I've read on bestbuy.com), is my Pogoplug "personal cloud" to network-enable all my media that I have on an external HDD housed in an ICY DOCK enclosure which connects to the Pogoplug via USB but has a 1394a/firewire 400 port. Of course, in case of natural disaster (with the exception of larger solar flares), I've invested in 4 years of unlimited Crashplan online backup protection to backup my 2010 mac mini HDD and my Pogoplug. What's missing? I need more HD space for the media on my mac mini so that I can play movies I own directly from the mac mini to the projector and minimize media startup time yet keep my inventory large enough to house all the media I'm interested in playing. So, I'm planning to get another external HDD... but this time, I really want my ICY DOCK enclosure to take advantage of the 2010 mac mini's 1394b/firewire 800 port. So, I have my eye on this one but since it is listed as "DEACTIVATED" on newegg.com, I'm also considering this double bay one as well. For the double-bay enclosure, the reviews on newegg.com are more flattering than the ones on amazon.com. But, I’m such a fan of ICY DOCK that I’m willing to take a gamble and see if the fan gives out or if the internals have rust on them. I just have to get to the point where I can justify the double-bay when I only need a single-bay right now. Why wouldn't I get a double-bay; it's twice as better right?! Well, hardware changes quickly enough that if I invest in a double-bay, I'm guessing that eventually they'll make a mac mini with an eSATA port and I'll definitely want an enclosure that has an eSATA port instead. To double-bay or to single-bay, that is the question.

UPDATE: OMG NewEgg.com just posted a new ICY DOCK enclosure that has USB, firewire 400/800, and eSATA and it's double-bay. It's not even listed on ICY DOCK's website yet! And it's everything I could ask for.. *gently weeps* :)

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's the product description on the ICY DOCK website: click here.

AND YET ANOTHER UPDATE: My sweet hubby, T.$, bought me the double-bay enclosure and WD hard drive I wanted for my birthday (I did have to return it because it is a TLER drive that is not compatible with RAID; also, I not only had to purchase the more expensive RE4 drives from WD but, I had to buy two of them because the double-bay only supports two drives for operation. "Note: The MB662USEB-2S will only work with two hard drives, regardless of which mode. We also strongly recommend the use of identical hard drives for any configuration. If two different capacity drives are used the total capacity will be double of the smaller capacity drive." I'm the luckiest gal.

Travel: "Chicago in f@#%ing December?!?", the locals exclaimed

2010-12-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

Since I got my iPhone 4 on Dec 1st, I've been FaceBooking and uploading photos to Picasaweb like nobody's business. If you're on FaceBook (my FB account is linked on the side if you want to friend me -- WARNING: I only friend people I actually know); you'll see my check-ins and see what Tyler and I have been up to. Anyways, Tyler and I had United vouchers and decided to go to Chicago for the very first time this weekend. Locals were cursing to us in an oddly friendly way ("You mean you WANTED to come to Chicago in f@#$ing DECEMBER?!?") for coming to The Windy City in the winter instead of the summer. But, we loved it, especially with a full Saturday of waking up to new snowfall and seeing the winter wonderland come alive with a fresh blanket of snow. And everything we ate was heaven. We highly recommend a weekend in Chicago. It's lovely.
(click on the photo above to see the album of photos for this trip)

Product Rave: iPhone 4g with Google Voice and Apps

2010-12-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

Although I appreciate the Droid X for it's advanced smart phone features, I bought an iPhone 4g and love it for the following reasons:
· Syncing my mp3 music collection for portable play and thereby replacing my free iPod I won from apple in 2005.
· Syncing my work e-mails, calendar and contacts flawlessly.
· Integrating well with my Google Voice app that I use for texts, phone calls and voicemails (reading voicemails in text is so awesome!).

For those of you who are considering a smart phone, this comparison chart may help. I'll try to blog something non-smartphone-related soon.. promise!

In the meantime, here's a brilliant assessment of the smart phone wars as found by Duane:

Product Rave: What's up with the iPod Touch 4g?!

2010-11-23T14:55:00.001-08:00

Once I learned that the iPod Touch 4g is an iPhone 4 without a phone, I had to investigate further. After much deliberation, I finally came to some conclusions with regards to upgrading to an iPhone 4, Droid X, or sticking with my BlackBerry Bold. For me, the greatest disadvantage of the iPhone 4 is that I believe it is a sucky phone -- which makes the Droid X worth looking into. As for the Droid X, I do think the phone has cool features with its Google integration and evolutionary UI, but, the bottom line is that it's just another phone that doesn't sync my music and isn't better than my BlackBerry in call clarity. Therefore, as long as I'm working out my contract with AT&T, I'll stick with my work BlackBerry and might get something on the side for my mp3 music and aviation apps... perhaps an iPod Touch 4g? On that note however, the answer is a resounding "no". The features on the iPod Touch 4g that keep me from putting it on my Christmas list is its lack of GPS, its retina display with Twisted Nematic instead of IPS (in-plane switching) display technology, and its rear camera (the main camera) is only 0.7 megapixels while the front camera is 0.3 megapixels! Tragic. ♠

The evolution of mo.honey's blog

2010-10-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

To date, my blog has consisted of artificial, inocuous, YouTube-inspired posts serving tips & tricks for the general public. Since I had learned the most from beauty and fashion videos on YouTube, that's what my posts dished up. However, the blogs that interest me most are more scientific, intimate, and consist of a clever sharing of life's ruminations. The thing that has kept me from having a blog like that has been two-fold:

1· Most of my friends and family were local so I could express myself to loved ones by making plans to see them.

2· I was dedicated to my work BlackBerry for the past 5 years and wasn't using a personal cell phone that had multimedia capabilities to make sharing easy.

Now that I'm no longer living in close proximity to my friends and family, and most of my friends and colleagues have either an iPhone 4 or a Droid X, I'm ready to upgrade my phone and start publishing seasonal posts about my life's ruminations on my blog -- and hopefully, they're clever!

So, the mental debate for me to make this transition has been iPhone 4 vs. Droid X.
... wish me luck! ♣

Product Rave: Scrub-a-dub-dub

2010-09-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

The blogger of my favorite blog, Crooked Tiara, who is also a dear friend of mine, asked me for recommendations on a facial scrub and based on all the You Tube I had watched around skin care and from personal experience, I came up with the following list for the princess:

1· Borghese Fango Mud: I love using this whenever I have time for an at-home spa day. Clay or mud is great for making your skin baby soft and glowy.

2· Queen Helene Refreshing Mint Julep Masque: A lot of people love this; in fact it's RollerScrapper approved! They have an equivalent scrub but I haven’t heard anything good about the scrub yet.

3· Clean & Clear Warming Scrub: Tyler’s fave but difficult to find in stores IMHO (not to be confused with Clean & Clear Morning Burst Scrub which we like but not over the warming scrub). It revitalizes and smoothes. Perfect for the shower!

4· The Body Shop Vitamin C facial scrub: This is how I got Tyler into scrubbing his face.. A lot of guys LOVE this one because it’s simple, citrus-y and makes your skin feel and look good (in fact a guy friend in the master’s program at UCSD recommended it to me years ago). It’s good!

5· Philosophy The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash: I use this currently.. almost daily and it's a nice one-step process. I like using this microfine sandy solution to make my skin soft and smooth in 30 seconds.

6· Philosophy The Microdelivery Peel: It’s a two-step process. The dry crystals are citrus-y and more concentrated so you get a stronger scrub. The second step is fun when you apply the foaming lotion. I couldn't use this one daily though. (not to be confused with Philosophy The Oxygen Peel which was a waste of money for me because even though my face was softer, I didn't love how my skin felt afterwards, and it was so much effort for results that were not better than the other products I've listed here).

7· Clarisonic Skin Care System: A nice deep-cleaning hand-held gadget. It works with practically any cleanser you like -- If you can afford it, I have heard amazing things about the Clarisonic (my friend Rebecca bought one and loves it).

Happy exfoliating!

Summer morning makeup routine

2010-09-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yay for summer! I've already posted my winter morning makeup routine but, my summer routine is simpler and I have some updates to products I've been using. So, here's my face routine.. which I can do in about 10 minutes or less, depending on how much effort I put into my mascara:

1· Cleanse: I wash my face with my Boscia makeup-breakup cleansing oil.

2· Protect, Prime & Conceal: Apply Boscia Vital Daily SPF 15 lotion and Boscia BB Cream to my face and neck.

3· Face: Press M·A·C studio fix powder foundation in NW25 across the top of my nose and under my eyes with its sponge or my M·A·C 181 kabuki brush.

4· Brows: Fill-in my eye brows with my e.l.f. studio line eyebrow kit in light; it's my ♥.

5· Eyes: Apply the light grey or light pink shadow from my Chanel quadra eye shadow in "mystic eyes" on the lid. Deepen the look with the bronze eyeshadow from the Chanel quad and my Trish McEvoy #29 tapered blending brush focusing on the outer V. Wing out and smudge my upper lash line with Urban Decay's 24/7 glide-on eye pencil in bourbon. Define the look by lining and winging out the upper lash tight line with M·A·C penultimate liner in rapidblack. Optionally, add a color shadow (like M·A·C strike-a-pose or violet pigment) with my #54 va va voom smudge brush to the outer lash lines.

6· Mascara: Apply mascara of the month (my faves are Dior DiorShow, YSL Faux Cils, M.U.F.E. Smoky Lash, Revlon Grow Luscious in black).

8· Blush, Contour, & Highlight: Apply Trish McEvoy blush in tangerine glow with my #37 bronzer brush on my cheek bones. Apply Chanel's soleil tan de chanel moisturizing bronzing powder in terre epice to add color to my face and chest. For a candlelit & beachy look, I'll highlight my cheeks, nose tip, décolleté, and legs with Bobbi Brown's shimmer brick in Bronze.

7· Lips: Condition with M·A·C tinted lip conditioner in strobe rays and then apply Aveda's sheer clover lipstick or a lipgloss like Aveda in luna, Chanel in twinkle, Smashbox in 35mm, e.l.f in trendsetter or fierce.

8· Perfume: A little spritz of Bulgari's Omnia Amethyst or Voile de Jasmin or Chanel N°19 .. et Voilà!

Wishing everyone a gorgeous summer! ♥

Perfect curls -- with and without heat

2010-04-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Read on for some tips and tricks I have learned to achieve perfect curls...
For special occasions, I like a quick, sure-fire process that will give me professional curls in an instant. That's when I turn to my Remington hot roller set. Basically, after I wash my hair, as I'm blowing drying my hair, I'll have my hot rollers plugged-in and heating up. Once my hair is dry, usually the ready-indicator dot on my hot rollers has turned from red to black and I'm ready to roll up my hair in sections and secure them with the provided plastic clips. With the rollers in place, I'll then lotion my legs or bronze my décolleté and take out the rollers about 5-10mins later and my hair is usually a little tight but will loosen to perfect curls!

For an every day style where I don't want to apply any heat to my hair, I will simply sleep on some curlers the night before and take out the rollers when I wake up which requires practically zero time in the mornings and I really love that. I've tried velcro and "wrap, snap & go" rollers and they do not work best for me. For the best result, I use the purple rollers from the following two sets:

· Conair Fast Dry Rollers -- which I use for my bangs and crown
· Conair "Fast" or "Quick" Curls Rollers -- which I use for the rest of my head of hair

UPDATE: I don't really use the above-listed Conair heatless rollers anymore because setting them by sleeping on them overnight was quite a chore for me since it was so difficult to get comfortable sleeping on them, not to mention the lack of control as to how the curls would turn out the next morning. Since mid-March, I've been using the following combination and it's been perfect for every day:

· Remington H-1015 Ceramic Compact Hot Rollers 10 count
· Conair SPC10X Super Clips 10 count

These hot rollers heat up in a couple minutes, set in 5 minutes, and are so quick and easy -- I love them for my every day curly waves and it's great for travel too!

Product Rave: Best Buffer Brushes (kabuki included)

2010-04-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

It can be tough to find a soft, dense, non-shedding face brush! I tend to use them to buff out liquid foundation for that air-brushed finish. Here is just a quick list of the softest and nicest face brushes IMHO:
· The Body Shop Nature's Minerals foundation kabuki brush
· M·A·C 181/182 kabuki buffer brush
· Aveda Uruku Bronzing kabuki brush
· e.l.f. "studio" line Kabuki Face Brush #85011
· Hourglass Finishing kabuki brush
· MUFE HD Kabuki Brush
· theBalm Mini Kabuki Brush
· Chanel le petit pinceau #8 touch-up kabuki brush
· Too Faced "Teddy Bear Hair" retractable kabuki brush
· hourglass retractable foundation brush
· e.l.f. "studio" line Flat Powder Brush #84003
· Philosophy Supernatural Flat Airbrush
· Bare Escentuals Heavenly Flat Face Brush
· Dior flat buffer brush
· Sonya Kashuk Flat Brush
· Hourglass Foundation/Blush Brush
· Sephora Brand Professionnel Platinum Air Brush
If you know of any others, please let me know! Thank you. ♥

Luxury Cosmetics Discount Sites

2010-01-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

A compilation of luxury cosmetics discount sites:

· regencies.com
· allcosmeticsswholesale.com
· beautycrunch.com
· beautyisrelative.com
· beautyticket.com

If you know of any others, please let me know! Thank you. ♥

What's in my purse

2010-01-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Next to a morning face routine to see what products people use to start the day, I also like to see what people use throughout the day when they're out and about. In tribute to the "What's in my purse" videos that I love (like these), here's what's in my bag (sometimes I carry more -- like a water bottle and a camera, and sometimes I carry less -- in my coat pockets or a clutch):

· heart-shaped brushed silver key fob with "HB" etched on one side and blank on the other (my boyfriend gifted it from the Hofbräuhaus in München, Germany in Aug 2009) holding just my car key and house key.
· red-violet leather Chloe coin purse which I bought in a duty-free store at a NY airport in Aug of 2008 holding cash, change, ID, CCs.
· iPhone 4.
· Sephora rectangular mirrored compact.
· Aveda lipstick in sheer clover.
· e.l.f. lip gloss in fierce.
· mini pack of Kleenex (allergies are plaguing me).

· Aveda woven card case with discount cards, gift cards, membership cards.
· Chanel's Double Perfection natural matte powder makeup compact in 90 creme beige 2.5.
· sunglasses (I have Ferragamo, Chanel, Tom Ford and Oliver Peoples).
· Dior blotting papers mirrored compact.
· ChicoBag reusable travel shopping bag.
· 2 pens: a silver metal one and a free plastic pharmaceutical drug one.
· Chilewich cosmetic bag (sorry for the old pic):
Aveda compact filled with Aveda and Trisha McEvoy shadows and one Trisha McEvoy blush in tangerine glow, Stila kitten eyeshadow, Bobbi Brown mini double-sided blender/ultra-fine eyeliner brush, Hourglass retractable foundation brush, e.l.f. brow kit in light, Anastasia tweezers, mini Aquaphor tube, a 4-strip of Bausch & Lomb Sooth lubricant eye drops in sterile single-use dispensers, Boscia B.B. Cream sample, Revlon ColorStay retractable eyeliner in black, Benefit They're Real mascara, Aveda gloss in luna, mini dental floss, Tide to go pen, nail clippers, textured silver mini swiss army knife, band-aids, earplugs, o.b., lens cloth, Carmex which I bought on the spot in a little town in Germany called Neckarbischofsheim, YSL Rouge Volupté lipstick in either 07-lingerie pink or 26-tender peach, Bulgari Voile de Jasmin atomizer.

Prime time to try primers

2010-01-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

After watching MakeupByTiffanyD's rave about Benefit in her "Sephora Haul-Benefit, Gift Sets, Deals, etc" video and then watching Megan from EasyAccessBeauty's review on Too Faced Primed & Poreless in her "Foundation Primers Overview" video, I added some Benefit and Too Faced products to my Sephora wish list.. So far I've been addicted to the TooFaced Primed & Poreless and Shadow Insurance:

· Benefit Cosmetics "That Gal" Brightening Face Primer

· Benefit Cosmetics Powderflage Set

· Too Faced Shadow Insurance eye primer

· Too Faced Primed & Poreless Skin Smoothing Face Primer

· Benefit Cosmetics Lemon-Aid eye primer and camouflage cream

Winter morning makeup routine

2010-01-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Decade! Yay for 2010! I like seeing YouTube videos on people's daily face routines because despite what everyone's favorites are, what they actually use on a daily basis can have more merit. So, here's my face routine.. which I can do in about 15 minutes or less, depending on how much effort I put into my mascara:

1· Cleanse: I wash my face with my Aveda purifying gel cleanser or Aveda enbrightenment cleanser.

2· Prime & Conceal: Apply Yes To Carrots Daily Facial Moisturizer with SPF15 to face and neck. Use ring finger to apply Too Faced Shadow Insurance onto my eye lids and then apply Hourglass concealer in warm under the eye to hide dark circles as per MakeupByTiffanyD.

3· Face: Click and sweep my Trish McEvoy "Beauty To Go" refillable pen (filled with Boscia B.B. Cream) over my face then buff it out with my Trish McEvoy professional powder puff.

4· Brows: Use my e.l.f. studio line eyebrow kit in light to sketch the wax into my eye brows; it's GoGlam16's favorite and mine too.

5· Eyes: Use my ring finger to pat M·A·C's brushed metal-x cream shadow in material gold onto the inner corner of my eyes. Then I apply Chanel's fauve eyeshadow (a satin taupe color) on the lid; and then use my Trish McEvoy #29 tapered eye blending brush to apply Chanel's trace eyeshadow in the outer "V" and then blend the eyeshadow edges around the crease with M·A·C's woodwinked to create a proper fade. Optionally, I'll add a M·A·C reflects glitter to the upper and outer lid with my Trish McEvoy #54 va va voom smudge brush.

6· Eyeliner: Lightly dab my Trish McEvoy's #11 flat eye lining brush into my Bobbi Brown gel liner in "chocolate shimmer ink" then press and wiggle into my lash line; building up the outer 2/3s.

7· Mascara: Apply my mascara of the month (my faves are Dior Show and YSL Faux Cils in black), starting with lower lashes then upper lashes (if I do my top lashes first, I get mascara on my lid when I look up to do my lower lashes).

8· Blush & Highlight: Apply M·A·C mineralize blush in grand duo with my Trish McEvoy #2B sheer blush brush. For an evening or beach look, I'll highlight my cheeks, nose tip, décolleté, and legs with M·A·C mineralize skinfinish in by candlelight.

9· Lips: Apply M·A·C lustre lipstick in patisserie or Aveda lipstick in sheer clover.

10· Perfume: A little spritz of Bulgari's Omnia Amethyst or Voile de Jasmin.. et Voilà!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!!!

Roller Scrapper

2009-12-28T16:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share my friend (and coworker)'s super cute blog -- it's mostly on crafts but, I really love the stuff she posts.

BTW, she made and gave me this crocheted honeybee for Christmas 2009.. Huzzah!

Haute Handbags

2009-12-28T16:23:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Toni Duclottni's "Haute on Handbags: A Designer Handbag Haul" video, I thought I'd make a list of which handbags I've bought that are my favorites:

· Classic flap bag with classic chain by Chanel in black with silver hardware. I bought it for my mom for Christmas 2007 from Neiman Marcus at the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego and I always try it on and check myself out when she wears it and visits me. Tee hee!

· White (sorry, the one pictured is cream) shoulder bag by Salvatore Ferragamo. I bought it for my mom for Mother's Day 2008 from Bloomingdale's. She loves it!

· White leather zippered flap clutch by Jimmy Choo. Bought this from the Jimmy Choo store at the South Coast Plaza in Orange County in the summer of 2007 on sale!

· The First handbag by Balenciaga in a mushroomy beige (I think the color was called 'khaki'). I bought this from diabro.net in the fall of 2007.

· Black with gold hardware club purse by Versace. Bought mine from Nordstrom at the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego in the winter of 2007 on sale!

· Black with silver studded hardware club purse by Burberry. Bought mine from Neiman Marcus at the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego in the summer of 2008.

· Brown grained (sorry, the one pictured is smooth and not pebble-grained) leather satchel by Tod's. Bought this from the Cabazon outlet mall on Memorial Day weekend 2008 and got it on sale! My boyfriend's colleague actually asked if I had a printer in the purse because I was pulling out so many documents from it! :D It holds a lot!

· The Ultimate Soft medium handbag in the camel color by Chanel. Bought this from the Neiman Marcus at Fashion Island in Newport Beach in the winter of 2008 and they gave me a discount because of a defect my boyfriend found (a little frayed string on the chain.. yay)!

· The Day handbag by Balenciaga in a grey. Bought this in the summer of 2009 at the Balenciaga store in Las Vegas when I went out for a work conference -- The HP Tech Forum. This is my largest and most versatile handbag.

Ironically, I didn't wear a purse for most of my adult life. I just started getting into purses in the past few years. Even now, I'll sometimes just not wear a purse at all. I'm still a bit of a tomboy that way. :)

GoGlam16

2009-12-17T19:04:00.001-08:00

Be sure to check out my favorite YouTuber's blog and subscribe to her on YouTube, if you haven't already:

http://goglam16.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/goglam16

She's gorgeous, sweet, caring, focused on beauty, health and fitness, and is the nicest person ever!
I love love love her videos and her blog is awesome too!

Product Rave: My "YouTube made me do it" List..

2009-12-16T14:33:00.002-08:00

-- didn't have any of these before YouTube LOL -- and I've linked to the videos that made me do it, too!:

LOVE Teavana; thank you Elle (AllThatGlitters21)! :)

LOVE using Vaseline on my feet when I wear heels; thank you Elle (AllThatGlitters21)! :)

LOVE my O.P.I. nail polish in "Do You Lilac It?" -- I've never gotten so many compliments on my nail polish in my life; thank you Elle (AllThatGlitters21) and your sister Blair (juicystar07)! :)

LOVE e.l.f.; thank you ginabinawina99! :)

LOVE YSL Rouge Volupté lipsticks (I have 07-lingerie pink and 26-tender peach); thank you ginabinawina99! :)

LOVE Aquaphor; thank you GoGlam16! :)

LOVE spaghetti squash; thank you GoGlam16! :)

LOVE using Benefit's cream eye shadow in the color "skinny jeans" and then overlaying a brown shadow on it, it's my new favorite daily look for the cold seasons; thank you MakeupByTiffanyD! :)

LOVE my O.P.I. nail polish in "Coney Island Cotton Candy"; thank you Lorraine (TheCurrentCustom)! :)

LOVE Crest wisps disposable toothbrushes for travel or guests; thank you Lorraine (TheCurrentCustom)! :)

LOVE my Too Faced Primed & Poreless Skin Smoothing Face Primer, I never used or liked a primer before; thank you Megan (EasyAccessBeauty)! :)

LOVE Stila eye kajals; thank you MakeupByTiffanyD! :)

LOVE my Too Faced Shadow Insurance -- it's perfect (and I didn't like Lemon-Aid which is probably why no one recommended it); thank you Elle (AllThatGlitters21)! :)

LOVE my Physician's Formula shimmer strip bronzer compact in "Waikiki Strip/Peachy Glow Bronzer" which I've found is a perfect dupe for Bobbi Brown's shimmer brick in bronze; thank you for introducing me to Physician's Formula AndreasChoice! :)

LOVE my e.l.f. eyebrow kit; thank you Hayley (GoGlam16)! :)

LOVE my Philosophy The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash; thank you Megan (EasyAccessBeauty)! :)

LOVE Chanel's soft touch eyeshadow in 86 trace, quadra eye shadow in 14 mystic eyes, my Double Perfection natural matte powder makeup compact in 90 creme beige, and my soleil tan de chanel moisturizing bronzing powder in terre epice; thank you TheCurrentCustom! :)

LOVE my Sedu Revolution 4000i tourmaline ionic hair dryer; thank you juicystar07! :)

LOVE my Essie splash of grenadine nail polish; thank you TheCurrentBoobies! :)

LOVE my Hourglass concealer in Warm -- it's THE ONLY concealer that doesn't look horrible on me.. and it's boyfriend approved; thank you ginabinawina99! :)

LOVE Cover Girl's Brightening Eyeshadow quad in Vibrant Browns; thank you emilynoel83! :)

LOVE Burt's Bees lemon cuticle cream. I used it ever since I was prepping for my wedding and now I'm hooked; thank you Hayley! :)

LOVE NYX jumbo eye and lip pencils and Whole Foods 365 coconut oil for skin and hair; thank you nurberxo! :)

LOVE Boscia MakeUp-BreakUp cleansing oil; thank you Lorraine Stanick! :)

Product Rave: Holy Grail Products

2009-12-16T14:33:00.001-08:00

*shown above from top-to-bottom and left-to-right are: Aveda's purifying gel cleanser, Sephora's pore cleansing pad, e.l.f.'s studio line brow kit in "light", M·A·C's studio fix powder foundation in "NW25", Trish McEvoy's #29 tapered blending brush, Chanel's quadra eye shadow in "14 mystic eyes", M·A·C's 181 kabuki brush, Bvlgari's omnia amethyst 2.2oz eau de toilette spray.

1) Aveda:
Loving Aveda products since 1995 and the main products that have never failed me are their facial cleansers, hair care, and lip products like the "botanical kinetics purifying gel cleanser", the "brilliant" hair care line: shampoo, conditioner, damage control spray, lip savers, and my Aveda paddle brush is a timeless fav! Newer faves are the "enbrightenment brightening cleanser", smoothing body polish, Uruku gloss stick in "Luna", lipsticks in "sheer clover", "maracuja" and "poppy". I love and have had the best results with great quality earth-friendly brands and products derived from plant extracts. I've been getting my hair done at an Aveda spa salon with Cora Seymour since 1999 and I've long since fallen in love with the products, the brand and their mission statement.

-- Clarins:
I've used Clarins skincare since I was 12 and their face/body moisturizers and bronzing lotions are emollient, soothing, and luxurious. I really love their products because they are plant-based and have always been good to my skin and have never irritated my sensitive eyes. Superbe! [I don't currently have any Clarins products that I'm using so I didn't count it for the listing.]

2) Chanel:
For makeup, nothing beats Chanel in luxury, quality (if you pick the winners) and haute price! :) My favs are N°19 eau de toilette, the quadra eye shadow in "14 mystic eyes", ombre essentielle soft touch eye shadow in "86 trace", soleil tan de chanel moisturizing bronzing powder in "62 terre epice", glossimer in "11 twinkle", glossimer in "46 giggle", and nail lacquers in "493 jade rose", and "557 morning rose".

3) Trish McEvoy:
Using a first-edition Aveda compact, I love to fill it with a Trish McEvoy blush in tangerine glow, and shadows in "cafe latte" glaze and "blackberry granite" definer. All of their brushes I bought in 2009 are super soft, well-made, perfectly-sized, have beautiful clear lucite handles and never shed. Love #11 precise eye lining,#32 eye brow, #54 va va voom smudge, #61 corner brush, #29 tapered blending, #2B sheer blush, #37 bronzer brushes and the professional powder puff. I'm also loving the "Beauty To Go" refillable liquid foundation click pen. I was advised by Sheila who helped start the company with Trish to be careful when capping it or the bristles will fray; so I'm careful and it's perfect -- so easy to carry, use, and keep.

4) M·A·C:
Since YouTube has educated me about more M·A·C products, I've been branching out beyond single eyeshadows: woodwinked, strike a pose, club; and using other products like their 219, 239, 168 brushes, 181 kabuki brush, studio fix powder foundation in NW25, back-2-MAC program, mineralize skinfinish in "by candlelight", tinted lip conditioner in "strobe rays" and "strobe kiss", "patisserie" and "milan mode" lustre lipsticks, and their pigment charms: naked, violet, fuchsia, reflects gold, reflects transparent teal, reflects bronze.. and loving it!

5) eyeslipsface.com:
Love e.l.f.'s "studio" line brow kit in light, the brow spoolie wand, basic eye shadow and eye blending brushes (they might shed a tad but they're soft, cute, and only a dollar), the "mineral" line lip glosses in fierce and trendsetter, and the "studio" line blushes in candid coral and tickled pink (chalky when compared to high-end blushes like Trish McEvoy in "tangerine glow" and "blush natural" but I enjoy the packaging, they look great on and are a great value). I also love NYX's jumbo eye pencils in iced mocha and slate, slide on eye pencils in brown perfection and jet black and Revlon's luxurious color smoky crayon in bronze smoke and steel smoke. These items are surprisingly good for very little $.

-- L'Occitane, The Body Shop and Lush:
These are the BEST bath and body products. Particularly, the L'Occitane almond shower oil and olive shower cream, The Body Shop cocoa butter creamy body wash and coconut shower cream, and Lush aqua mirabilis body butter and dreamtime bath melt and bubble bars. I don't use these regularly; but, whenever I travel and buy them, I fall in love every time!

Summary: ..[inspired from India]..

2001-08-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, August 20, 2001

Summary:
..[inspired from India]..

What a relief to be back. Smooth rides, clean air, clean water, no need to question the clarity or safety-level of anything. And, complete privacy wherever we go. People keep to themselves here. The things I miss are the friendly people, the comradry, the men walking hand-in-hand along the roadsides and the women smiling and giggling wearing nose rings and toe rings, draped in sheer colorful cloth, anklets jingling with every step and the untouched beauty of the natural areas. The beauty of people with dark skin and a casual glance. The freedom of the animals can't be beat. The animals have what they need to survive and learn the fundamental basics of survival without being squashed by inane human restrictions and hindrances. The people looked worse off than any of the animals I remembered seeing (usually on the streets). Traffic is bad but so slow compared to our highway speeds that hardly anyone, including cows laying in the middle of the road, gets hurt. But, of course, this is also a place where the average life span is probably shorter and getting by is much tougher.
Looking back, it is really a different thing to have experienced an Asian country. To be in the midst of prevalent poverty is not what you would expect. My perspective was tainted by TV propaganda usually hosted by Sally Struthers or some other sad-eyed grim-mouthed actor/actress. However, after having come back from India, my outlook is very different. There is the thing and then there is the expression of the thing. Never having been in a situation where compassion is a predominant feeling, I always guessed that the expression of compassion encompassed sadness, pity, distress, guilt, remorse,.. basically some form of self-abnegation. Having been to India where the population is over 80% below the poverty line, I have learned that compassion is more of an appreciation and an understanding of the human condition in any circumstance. This puts my perspective on life in a much more positive light.
Another misunderstanding I had as a Southern Californian was that understanding a culture gave you insight into understanding a country. California has a "Little-" Everything it seems: Little China, Little Tokyo, Little Saigon, Little India, Little Italy, etc. And, with the access I had to these places in a Southern Californian setting, my assumption was that the actual countries were just like these towns and hence, very similar in condition and atmosphere to Southern California or the U.S. in general. It was only when I got back and spoke to American coworkers about other Asian countries that I found out that aside from India, most of Asia is a third-world country with very similar conditions (the street living, the disease, the pollution, the lack of sanitization). Places like the Phillippines, China, Malaysia, etc. All of these places that I assumed being rich in culture and therefore rich in living conditions are even today primarily ridden in poverty and poor conditions. I had no idea..
For all the things I have learned, experienced and been a part of, I feel blessed with the relationship I have in my good friends Joe, Sree, Santhosh (Sree's husband), Ashwin (Sree's son) and my goddaughter (Sree's baby daughter) Pallavi. They are invaluable to me and were the main reason for my wanting to experience India. Will I go back? I plan on going back at least one more time in my lifetime. Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip!

Guruvayoor and Chennai

2001-08-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 19, 2001

Guruvayoor and Chennai
Aug 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday):
..[inspired from Joe's journal entries]..

The next morning, Wednesday August 15th, we had breakfast (I was loving the non-spicy versions of all the dishes that Sree had the housekeeper make just for me), Joe installs a webcam for Sree's parents, and most of the relatives that we had met the evening before had come by to see us off. So, we said farewell, hopped in both a rented car and Mutachen's car, and headed for the train station. At the train station, we said goodbyes to Leela Auntie, Reinu-Chechi (who asked when we were coming back), Mutachen, Mutachen's brother (who had met us there), and Pallavi. On the train, we had a pleasant ride in a 2nd class non-A/C locked cabin for the 4 of us. About 3 stops later and Santhosh's (Sree's husband) parents met us at the station and Radha Auntie (Santhosh's mom) handed me a wrapped gift that turned out to be a traditional Keralan jewelry box. About 10 minutes later with more farewell hugs and waves and we had some kerala pourris and aloo masala (I passed) for dinner and settled in on the cots with clean sheets which was really nice as the rocking motion of the train and the room-temperature fanned air lulled us to sleep. We trained from the evening until the early morning before we reached our stop in Chennai (f.k.a. Madras).
At the train station in Chennai, Thursday August 16th, it was a big struggle to keep our luggage (Sree had a couple big suitcases) away from the porters who wanted to grab them and rob us with their fees. So, Sree had to haggle with them in Tamil for a bit there and then on the way out of the station with Ashwin holding Joe's hand, we met Kumari-Chechi (the pediatrician cousin that Sree would be staying with), and on reaching Kumari-Chechi's car, there was another big haggle about the fee they should get for having delivered the luggage. I was so offended because the scene reminded me too much of the fiasco with the bicycle-rickshaw driver in Delhi that I overreacted and joined in the conversation and told them that they were cheating us. But, Kumari-Chechi would have to deal with those porters every time she went to the train station so, they got their raise. We stopped by Kumari-Chechi's house where we met "Baby"-Chechi and their mother. As with all of Sree's relatives, their house is nice with exquisite wood furniture, rugs, and various eye-candy decor. One trinket in particular caught my eye: a dancing girl with palms facing front (one pointed up and one pointed down) where her head, hips, and arms swayed in the breeze at different rates to make her fluid motion very entertaining. Then, we checked in for 2 nights and 3 days at our hotel located on the other side of the bridge from Kumari-Chechi's house. The hotel was decent but, double the price because Chennai being a port city has more visitors and tourism there. After we freshened up and had a buffet breakfast when Kumari-Chechi, Sree, and Baby picked us up to go shopping. We should have left Joe at Kumar-Chechi's place with their mother and Ashwin. The shopping was long and uneventful. I accomplished my mission several hours later and bought 2 exquisite sarees including skirts and tops to be stitched. Before we were done, we stayed in the shopping area called Pondy Bazaar where I had gotten my sarees, to buy some chappals (sandals.. everyone wears sandals, men/women, north/south), and a mundu top, while Sree wanted to pick up another large suitcase (as hers tore), and some jewelry. After we were done with our knick-knack shopping (Joe waited for us in the car) the weirdest thing happened, a guy started yelling out behind me "Hello!! Hello!!" and I tuned it out as I tune all the "hellos" that I get as I walk around in India of everyone trying to get me or Joe's attention. However, this time the cry was distinctly more forceful and aggressive. I kept walking. Sree heard the man yelling and turned around and gently pushed me ahead of her in our single-file line in the 2-way pedestrian sidewalk traffic of Pondy Bazaar (picture people walking on the left-sides of the road though). Apparently, this perturbed man got ahead of Sree and was again right behind me and I only stopped when Sree yelled out for "Kumar-Chech!" and Kumari-Chechi turned around in front of me and I accordingly stopped. The guy got in front of all 3 of us and was yelling something in half English and half Tamil (the language of Chennai) saying something about "Pakistani terrorists" and such with his eyes bulging and brows furrowed and his mouth near frothing. Suffice it to say, I was pretty darn scared. The next thing I knew, Sree and Kumari-Chechi were yelling him down and people on the right, going in the opposite direction were giving some verbal guidance. First, one lady said to us, "Why are you even talking to him? He's drunk." and a gentleman behind him told us, "Ladies, he's mental. Do not bother with him." and 3 young men apparently said in Tamil that they would beat him up to which people were saying "Don't beat him up, he's mental." But, the guy departed down the street in front of us and a minute later with me tip-toeing forward, we could see that indeed the 3 men were beating the crazy guy up on the side of the street and again later in the middle of the street. The strange thing was that even though I felt somehow guilty and responsible for catching the attention of a madman and getting him beat up, I also felt very safe knowing that the men of India would always come to the rescue and take immediate action for a woman's safety (foreign or no). India has definately been one of the rare times that I have truly enjoyed being female as there is a near complete trust and innocence associated with all women in India. Later that evening, we dropped off my stitchables at a lady seamstress' house who charged very little for top-of-the-line work. She offered us some sweet rice pudding that she brought back from the nearby temple and kindly dalloped into our right hands; she seemed very nice. The rush load of work would be done before we had to leave for the airport. For dinner, we were back at the hotel and we ordered room service while watching tv, and got a veggie sandwich, chicken wings, a tandoori plate for Joe, a couple Bisleris (water) and a couple Sprites. Since Agra, I had learned to drink Sprite which was uncomfortable as I wasn't used to carbonated drinks but gave me the peace of mind that it was sanitary.
It's Friday August 17th, and although we missed our breakfast buffet, it turns out to be a blessing as we ended up walking over to the local Food World to buy groceries. After the hard day yesterday of nonstop, brainless, fatiguing shopping, it was a ton of fun to go to a grocery store and feel more like locals and therefore, closer to home. We took the food back to the hotel and ate Brittania spreadable cheese on various salted (crackers) and unsalted (cookies) biscuits. It grounded us but I guess we still needed a warm meal. We met up with Sree, Kumari-Chechi, Baby, and Ashwin with unhappy tummies, drove to a bank, and ate at a nearby restaurant where we had our first taste of Indian Chinese food (most of which was non-spicy). We then dropped Baby and Ashwin off back at the house and proceeded to shop for rugs to no avail. But, when we got to VTI (a crafts and furniture store), I ended up buying some embroidered pillowcases and a gorgeous wooden chest (that Joe gifted to me). We were worn out and totally sick of shopping. Thank goodness we asked to stop by the beach where Joe and I hopped out of the car and waved off people offering to give us horse rides or trinkets and we took turns wading in the Bay of Bengal and taking pictures. Joe drew even more attention when he zipped the legs off his pants to go wading. Ocean views are not esteemed in India as they are in California. In fact, ocean-front property is really cheap and looked-down upon. This is a boon to the scenery because the beach is the longest span of beach that one can see. All the way from left to right you can see uncluttered beach and ocean. We came back to the car fresh and rejuvenated and Sree and Kumari-Chechi looked worn but happy for us. They dropped us off at the hotel and we barely extracted plans for them for the next day before they drove off. Another fun night of TV and room service. This time we ordered some Indian Chinese veggie noodles and it was surprisingly pretty good. Two evenings of Indian TV in Chennai and that was enough to equip me with phrases like "Masca Chasca", "Ford Opel.. Simply Bindaas", and "Mere Dil Maange More Pepsi" to be recycled after the trip in order to produce fits of giggles and laughter from Sree and myself.
Our last day in India, Saturday August 18th, we woke up and got ready to go back to the shopping bizaar that we went to the night before so that I could buy some glass bangles (a tradition in the South), more bindis (decorative forehead stickers), and have some mehndi done. We arrived at a beauty parlor that Kumari-Chechi knew of but, when we arrived there via an auto, the lady quoted me 800 rupees and up. So, I immediately asked to borrow a phone and called Kumari-Chechi. She told me that we should be paying no more than 250 rupees. Besides, I didn't like their attitude; so, I went with my instinct and we promptly thanked them and left (no haggling with people we don't like has been an unsaid rule of ours). We returned to the site of the Pakistani terrorist at Pondy Bazaar and across the street near the Maya Plaza (a 4-story mall that functions as a Little Singapore), we found a little beauty parlor where the really nice lady there quoted us 500 rupees but after talking to Baby-Chechi on the phone, brought the price down to 300 rupees (150 per hand). The girl who applied the mehndi (decorative dark greenish black henna paste that stains skin red) did an excellent job in about 45 minutes. And, they let me know that I had to leave the mehndi on for a minimum of 3 hours but, ideally 8-10 hours. I went ahead an left it on for 10 hours and Joe was nice enough to occasionally dab my hands with coconut oil to keep it from drying off. Joe bought a travel Cluedo game near there, and we auto-ed back to the hotel to do nothing but snack on room service and watch TV and wait for Kumari-Chechi, Sree, Baby, and Ashwin to pick us up for the airport. They came to pick us up at around 8pm and Kumari-Chechi gave me a beautiful little carved stone elephant within an elephant as a gift. Then, hugs and waves later, the four of us (Sree, Ashwin, Joe and myself) were on the plane to Singapore.
Unfortunately, the travel agency (4lowfare.com), screwed up the one request that we emphasized and kept reiterating.. that Sree and I come back on the same flight. So, at Singapore, Joe and I had a 2-hour layover and Sree and Ashwin had something like an 8-hour layover. The sad part was that Sree missed her 10th anniversary with Santhosh. 4lowfare.com sucks!!
Without a long layover in Singapore, our flight back was something like 24 hours of flying with two 2-hour layovers in-between.
When we arrived in LAX, because of the different flight schedules we didn't have a ride back to San Diego, so after a vain attempt to get a rental car without a driver's license on us, I called my dad and D came to the rescue. He took Joe and I out to dinner and then stopped by my parents' house in Huntington Beach for about a half-hour and dropped us off at my house in Carlsbad (in North County San Diego).

Kochi, Kottayam, Athirapally, and Guruvayoor

2001-08-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Kochi, Kottayam, Athirapally, and Guruvayoor
Day 11, 12, 13, and 14 (Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday):
..[inspired from Joe's journal entries]..

The next morning, Saturday August 11th, Sree and family (including Santhosh's parents -- that's Sree's husband's parents) picked us up in an SUV that resembled a 4-door Isuzu trooper. The driver dropped us off a good half an hour away to a dock where we loaded up our bags onto 2 speed boats. The speed boats took us hopping along the backwaters where we were surrounded by water and the land turned into a distant line of coconut trees. What a fun ride! About 20 minutes later we cruised up to the dock of the Kumarakom Lake Resort. It was truly paradise -- a five-star hotel with all the amenities. We're greeted by a delicate and accommodating hostess that brought us up to the front desk where we each got our own coconut the size of a bowling ball with a straw in it. Coconut water is the best water on earth and it's naturally good for you and pure -- it's often used for babies because it's better than Pedialyte. And, that's what Pallavi drank for as much of the trip as possible. At the resort, we could have anything we want.. we found our hotel room and then got an abrupt and unexpected call saying that we're late for the Nehru boat races. We took an uneasy ride on a less speedy boat with other passengers to the Nehru boat races, watched the races and got a lovely trip back on our own boat ride on a boat made of bamboo, coconut, and another wood. This is how we got to watch the sunset back to the Resort. We had our dinner buffet (making sure to put on plenty of mosquito repellent on our exposed areas as the mosquitos like foreigners most for dinner) and then went to bed easily. Our bathroom was outdoors.. not separate from our bungalow but, attached and private. It was the most exhilarating thing and the scariest thing (at night when the mosquitos come out). The most difficult part for me was mustering up the courage to wash up after dinner.
We woke up, Sunday August 12th, got ready slowly, went to the breakfast buffet, stopped by a game room where we played ping-pong, and then we sauntered over to the massage area where Joe and I both got an Ayurvedic massage. The Ayurvedic massage is not meant to make you feel good in a sensual way but, is meant to improve health and circulation. So, I was thoroughly greased up and kept sliding around the table every which way she pushed me. It was more awkward than pleasant but, I did have a glow afterwards.. like a freshly-spanked baby's bottom. We then got Ashwin and Joe and Ashwin played in the pool. I took a few pictures of them upon Joe's request. After a while, I noticed the dark clouds and the migrating birds and I tried to time it just right.. I sat up and clapped my hands together and announced "okay, let's go!" and the two of them got ready and by the time we opened the door to our hut 117, it was pouring rain. Pretty good timing, I must say! Sree came by to visit us in hut 117 to discuss our plans for the rest of the trip, the rain had stopped, and we went to our dinner buffet. We were feeling pretty lethargic and were thinking that we wanted to get out of that place before we aren't able to leave at all.
Monday August 13th, in the morning, we woke up, had our breakfast buffet, packed, and met up with Sree and climbed into a nice mini-bus which took us away from Kottayam and to Athirapally. Sree, Ashwin, Mutachen, Joe and I get off the train early and set off in a taxi for the mountains and waterfalls of Athirapally. Athirapally is a luscious green mountain with rivers and waterfalls. The drive up is a 2 lane windy road. We saw pepper plants, mango trees, palm oil trees, teak trees, and all sorts of other greenery. We had just missed the fruiting season so we had to learn to identify the different trees from the shape and color of the leaves. We spent the night there at the river-side Richmond Cascade Holiday Resort hotel where we were their only guests (aside from a cat, a dog, the bats, and the billion frogs we heard at the river at night). Before we went to bed, we did some sight-seeing and saw majestic waterfalls, trees, plants, and granite while the restaurant at the hotel took three hours to prepare our dinner). Some pictures later, we returned to the backwoods hotel and settled our things awaiting dinner to be ready and listening to Mutachen tell Ashwin, Sree, Joe and myself wonderfully funny and intriguing stories of their hunter ancestors and his experiences with his multi-talented and eccentric uncles. That evening, we ate spicy pieces of seasoned and fried chicken with sauteed and fried onion curls and pourris and aloo masala. Despite the levels of spice, I couldn't resist the chicken and the onion curls (my stomache made me pay for that one later!). Like almost everything we ate in Kerala, this was a traditional Kerala dish. Yum!
The next morning, Tuesday August 14th, we woke up, got ready and waited for breakfast at 8:30am with Sree, Ashwin and Mutachen at the same hotel restaurant. Before we walked over to breakfast together, we asked Mutachen about a few plants and trees in the immediate area next to the river. One plant that really impressed Joe and I was the "tote wari" (in Malayalam it means "touch me not"). The tote wari looks a lot like a miniature fern (the size of a small weed or clover) and when you touch the leaves or even the stem of the plant, it immediately reacts by shriveling up. Mutachen explained that this is a defense mechanism to avoid bugs from eating the plant up. Sree explained that kids from Kerala would pick on a little kid and poke them while he/she shriveled up and they would chant "tote wari, tote wari,...". For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs (with a non-spicy batch for me), toast, butter, cheese, and chai (tea). After breakfast, we proceeded to drive back up the road to a spot that neared the most active and grandiose part of the river. We exited the car and walked up a gorgeous granite stone path enveloped in a tall canopy of teak trees that led us up and then down to the river. Along the granite path, we looked for tote waris but, instead saw a poisonous red lizard that they say forgets to bite and therefore holds the name of "aranay de buddhi" which means forgetful lizard (this phrase is also used to tease people with). There were people playing in the river when we arrived but after we took a group picture and decided to walk down to its banks, it started pouring rain. That place that we wanted to approach happened to be a majestic waterfall site where Mutachen's nephew had died trying to save his friend 11 years ago. There was some mention of that place being haunted as a lot of people's lives had been taken by the invisible tow of the undercurrent in the river there. The heavy rain almost seemed to try to deter us from getting too close as we quickly headed for cover under the metal roofing of a nearby shed. When it rains, it pours, and this was one of the few times in my life that I appreciated umbrellas. After about 20 minutes of waiting under the partial cover of the shed, the rain ceased and we hiked back to the car and driver. We drove back down the seemingly steeper and windier road out and away from the mountain and up north on to Thrissur where there is a popular shopping circle. It was raining at a medium rate on and off and we got off the circular road there to park and shop at a traditional Keralan handicrafts store. There I bought some wooden hot plates and admired an exquisite wooden elephant sculpture/carving with carriage on its back that I later regretted not buying. After the bit of shopping, we hopped back in the car and reached Sree's family's place in Guruvayoor (famous for the 3rd richest Hindu temple in India). Sree's maiden name is Parath and non-coincidentally, her father lives at a house named "Rohini" (in India, they name their houses and the postal services delivers mail according to the house names) on a street named "Parath Lane". Aiyoo!
Due to a tree-cutting accident down the street, the house had no electricity until 4pm. So, we decided to take an "auto" (auto-rickshaw) to the nearby bank. When we returned, we ate lunch with similar fried chicken & sauteed onion ringlets from the evening before at the hotel, then later ate some snacks and we spent the late afternoon walking around the neighborhood at Parath Lane visiting Sree's many relatives. Everyone was very nice and it was nice to walk around on their own family street! By early evening, we had some more snacks and visited a nearby elephant sanctuary. When we first got there, I was expecting a large forest of sorts filled with scattered and wild elephants. So, much to my dismay the terrain was dirt, it looks like a small neighborhood with roads and buildings and trees interspersed and the elephants were distanced from each other and chained to the nearby trees by 1 or even up to 4 legs at a time. So, upon my lamenting over the elephants well-being, Mutachen explained that the elephants have an intensely intimate and life-long relationship with its owner. It's been said that one time an owner who loved to drink took his elephant with him to a local bar and even gave the elephant some alcohol to partake in his habit. When the owner passed out, the elephant picked the owner up and took him back to his room at his home. The story calmed me but, what really made me adore the elephant sanctuary was when down the walking path, we came across a bathing water hole. At the water hole, there were 2 elephants lying on their sides laying in what seemed like shallow water until I noticed the 8 people who were knee-deep in the water scrubbing away at the elephants' hides with large pieces of coconut shells. The owner of one of the elephants yelled something out in Malayalam, and immediately and with eagerness it seemed, the elephant he was washing quickly moved his leg up and back. Mutachen explained that owner had told his elephant to "move your leg out of the way". I was dumbstruck at the apparent love between the elephants and their owners and from then on, I shut up about the whole chaining thing. One interesting moment, however, was when an elephant carrying large palm leaves (which was his food) was walking down the wide road towards us. Sree's mother ("Leela Auntie"), older sister ("Reinu-Chechi"), and Sree cowered off to the side of the road scared of the seemingly tame and gentile elephant. After the elephant had passed, I realized that in India, most of their experiences with elephants are stories of elephants going mad about once a year and in America, the only exposure we have to elephants are things like Dumbo and National Geographic in Africa where the aggressiveness is removed from what we know. Apparently, for 3 months out of every year, the elephants are in heat and it's during this time that for some odd reason, the elephants may leak fluids from an open sore that forms on their forehead. When this happens, it is most likely a sign that the animal is going mad and people should stay clear (15 ft or more) of the elephants as they can swing things at you from quite a distance. However, nothing happened while we were there and we returned to Parath Lane to do some more relative visiting (neglected to apply mosquito repellent on our feet.. big mistake) and we said a happy "Hello" to Sree's 2 pregnant cousins one of which is Priya whom I had already met at Sree's house in San Diego and the other had lived in Africa.
After the relative visits til late evening, we set out to go to the well-renowned Guruvayoor temple in Guruvayoor hailing the god Guruvayoor who is a reincarnation of Krishna. My whining about wanting to go into the temple was stopped by Sree who explained that even well-renowned Indians cannot enter the temple. When I heard that the famous Christian-born singer of Hindu songs was turned away from the temple (and later accepted as an exception but the singer said he would not go until all his people could enter), I decided not to stir anything up by sneaking in. So, we walked down the street of Guruvayoor vendors and Joe, Leela Auntie, and I waited outside the temple where I dropped off my coworker Janaki's donation in the box that stood before an impressive oil lamp lit in circles from floor to sky. After Sree and Pallavi emerged from the temple, Leela Auntie (Sree's mother) bought me a traditional mundu and I bought Pallavi a Guruvayoor pendant and a Guruvayoor god prism for my car.
We stopped by another of Sree's relatives who lived right next to the Guruvayoor temple, Sree's dad brought his car and drove us to a restaurant at a nice hotel where we had chicken biryani and I had chicken strips with tomato soup, and we then returned to the house and settled down for the night. Joe chatted with Mutachen while Sree and I outfitted Pallavi with the Guruvayoor pendant on the gold chain I bought from Singapore and took pictures.

Agra, Jaipur, and Kochi

2001-08-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 10, 2001

Agra, Jaipur, and Kochi
Day 8, 9, and 10 (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday):
..[inspired from Joe's journal entries]..

We woke up a little late the next morning, Wednesday August 8th).. We grabbed an auto-rickshaw to drive us to the train station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 7am and we had 10 minutes to get there and get on the train. We arrived at the station and did much running up and down the lanes trying to figure out which train was ours and which car to stand next to. That's one of the drawbacks of India, there are no street signs and unless you ask, you can't figure out which car is the car that you've paid for (in our case, the A/C sleeper car). On this train from Agra to Jaipur, Joe has a good conversation with a military Indian man. He happens to be in the airforce and likes to talk about politics and share his biscuits with Joe. I was complacent being stand-offish as I was still tired from all the running in the early morning. Another thing about India is that they don't tell you what the next or even current stop is when you're on the train. Time and again, we were vaguely worried that the next stop was ours. The good thing is, you can always ask. It was raining on the stop prior and at Jaipur. The military man on the train said that rain is a sign of good luck. However, we were skeptical and would rate our luck against the hotel once we saw it.
Once we got off the train, there was much grabbing, insisting, and shouting. I asked one driver to please not shout in my ear and he responded with a very rude "oh my god." I wanted to sock him in the face but, we walked away annoyed. When we finally picked someone to take us to the Hotel Diggi Palace (which was supposed to be a former Maharaja's Palace), we were amazed and glad to find that it was a palace, indeed. At the front desk, we were greeted by Wilson -- nice hotel manager who used to live in Kerala and knew a little Mayalayam. He was very pleasant to talk to and gave us our room for $15 US (same price as the hotel in Delhi but, much much better). We had a large king bedroom, large bathroom, and large livingroom with writing desk/chair and a coffee table with 2 waiting chairs. No sign of mosquitos anywhere (although as every night, we still put the net up hanging off of the ceiling fan) and the decor was awesome. Everything looked really clean compared to the hotels in Delhi and Agra. What a relief! We had a nice lunch at the hotel where Joe tried chicken biryani and I had tomato noodle soup with pourri aloo. The hotel and restaurant are surrounded by lush greenery. After lunch, we capped off the evening by going to the nation-famous and first-rate Raj Mandir movie theatre where we saw the Hindi movie, Yaadein. The lobby was elaborate and we chatted with some budget travelers from Israel and England. In the theatre we got front row, balcony, dead center seats for 80 rupees ($1.75 US). It was great. We both liked the movie a lot. One thing that Joe learned (that I already knew because of all the old Indian TV that my dad and I watched when I was younger) was that all Hindi movies are like musicals and all Indian music comes from movies [later, in Chennai, I asked the driver what movie the music he was playing was from and this shocked Joe as he didn't realize that you could make the assumption that any music playing originates from some Hindi movie in India]. I decided that I wanted to buy the soundtrack for Yaadein [which I did later in Guruvayoor]. After the movie, we went back to the hotel (7 rupees on a bicycle rickshaw with me giving the driver a formal apology for not having more money -- "mujhe maaf kardijiye", I said), slept well in our palace, and woke up believing that rain was good luck.
Jaipur, Thursday August 9th, we woke up around 10am, dropped off things to be laundered, and met up with the same auto rickshaw driver who drove us to the hotel yesterday. I figured after the 7 rupee ride back from the theatre, that I will not overpay this guy any further. I told him we'll give him 20 rupees and no more than that to see Jaipur. When he refused, I thank him kindly and walked off to ask another driver outside of the hotel pick-up area, and he called out to take the 20 rupees. Amazing!! That should make up for most of the money we've lost in overpaying the drivers thusfar. First he took us to the Pink City. Jaipur is known as the Pink City because over 100 years ago, to honor a visiting British Prince, the Maharaja had the entire city painted pink. Since then, many walls have outgrown the color and Jaipur itself has grown beyond the walls of the city it once was. There, we saw the Pink Palace (where I almost got to meet the Maharaja if we had been just a minute earlier), down the hall, some musicians were playing so I joined them and Joe took a few pics.. the beat was unconventional for the music I'm used to hearing with a 3-piece band. :) Then, we saw Hawa Mahal (a famous 5-story pink sandstone edifice seen in a lot of Indian Coke ads), and then the Water Palace (not in Joe's guidebook but, a nice place to see and a driver recommendation). Here, we can see an unusual view of the Amber Fort and the Jaigarh Fort. A little boy (barely 6) walks up to us and we're prepared to deal with little pleas of "Hello money!" Instead, I notice that he is saying "Hello chocolate.." and I ask Joe if he has any biscuits to give him whereupon he gives him a few creme biscuits and the boy runs off to a nearby shed seemingly to share the biscuits with his dad. Very sweet. On the way back to the hotel, the driver admits that he gets paid if we visit some shops, so we do him the favor and learn again how rugs are made, and we stop by a Rajasthani store (since Jaipur is a city in the county of Rajasthan) where we find lots of mirrored items and Joe buys a handkerchief to wipe his brow there. I bargained the hankee down to 20 rupees (from 200) as I have become confident in my bargaining skills.
We returned back to the hotel and had dinner there where Joe had an Indian dish and I had spaghetti (the noodles are mushy and overcooked and the sauce is much like the tomato soup I had the day before but, it's still good and I'm hoping it'll finally settle my uneasy stomache). We picked up our dry-cleaning and then crashed back at the room enjoying the hotel very much after the A/C went out and was fixed within 15 minutes. We wake up at 4:20am the next morning, Friday August 10th, reluctant to leave Jaipur, and leave on an auto-rickshaw (arranged by Joe with the hotel manager) for the airport at 5:30am. Before the flight, we're asked to switch to a different terminal as they will have us board on a different plane. On the flight (on the safe plane), we fly Jet Airways and stop once at Udaipur for about 40 minutes where we decided to stay seated on the plane. Once we reach Mumbai (f.k.a. Bombay), however, we're forced to get off the plane with our stuff, and reboard the plane about an hour later.. more x-raying of film and such. The airline workers were especially nice to me as they liked my salvaar and my necklace. On the way from Mumbai to Cochin (in Kerala), we sat next to a very nice older man named Paul who was retired and very friendly. He gave us all sorts of advice about how to see Kerala which we jotted down but, in the end, left everything up to Sree. We met up with Sree and her father ("Menon Uncle" or "Mutachen") with glee.. Sree and I screamed and hugged to greet each other and of course everyone stared, as usual. The four of us hopped in the car with driver and it was very comforting to know that we were now in good hands. On the drive we learned from Sree that cars in India are generally manufactured by a company called Ambassador (a popular model being the "Nova") and they look like they are from the 50's but, they are the newest models on the streets. In general, car prices are very expensive, nearing between double and triple the price that we would pay in America for the same or similar cars. This is why it is more economical to hire a car and driver for further distances or to walk for local destinations. With Mutachen chatting with the driver, and Sree and Joe chatting with me by my side, the ride was very relaxing and enjoyable.
It's hard to say if it's the plentiful water -- which brings the lush greens and gives Kerala (literally "Land of Coconuts") the local name of "God's Own Country", National Geographic calls it "Paradise Found", Joe calls it a "Tropical Wonderland". The backwaters that make up Kerala range in size from lake to bay to river to sea, all are said to be fresh water and lend to the natural beauty of the state. Around every turn is another sight waiting to be seen, another wilderness waiting to be explored, another stream waiting to be crossed, another tree waiting to be climbed. Sree's father said it best when he said, "You can find all the different shades of green in Kerala." Or, it could be that Kerala is so lucky because it was the first place in the world to democratically elect a Communist Government into power. This gave the people a school system and an equitable distribution of land. Apparently, the communists have long since been outvoted, but their school system is still intact. There are certainly far fewer beggars in Kerala, even in the big city of Kochi (f.k.a. Cochin). This first evening we're there, Sree showed us her cousin's house in Kochi where we had some Keralan snacks, and then drove us around with her cousins Chikku and Sedu to see the gigantic Chinese fishing nets (that are too dark to photograph), some local medicine stand, and a local salvaar store where everything has price tags.. imagine that! We didn't have to bargain for anything. I bought my second salvaar there and was glad not to have to launder so often (not that I laundered the salvaar enough anyway). That first night in Kerala, Sree put us up in a good hotel (BTH hotel) near the Maharaja shopping village I bought my salvaar from. We had a slightly awkward dinner at the hotel (as I didn't feel confidant speaking English or Hindi since most everyone spoke Malayalam natively) and then we headed for bed with the mosquito net smartly positioned as on every night we've spent with no exception. We slept very excited that we made it so far and we were finally with Sree and that it could only get better.

Delhi and Agra

2001-08-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Delhi and Agra
Day 5, 6, and 7 (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday):
..[from notes I jotted in Joe's travel journal]..

After we left the Internet Cafe where I wrote the last e-mail, we went downstairs in that same hotel we visited and had breakfast and there at the front desk, rented a minibus to drive us all day to see Old Delhi, Sunday August 5th, for $10US for 8 hours or 80km max. For breakfast, Joe had 2 scrambled eggs and buttered toast and I had pourris with Bhaji Aloo (fried poofs of bread with potato curry) merchi nai (no hot spices). Joe had studied the "Let's Go India and Nepal 2001" guidebook and planned our day of sights. We ended up seeing Raj Ghat (where Gandhi was cremated), Jama Masjid (literally, "Friday mosque" -- there are several Jama Masjids.. most likely one in every town -- with a large courtyard and tall minarets that we climbed inside to the top of), the Red Fort (via the Lahore Gate) where I had to emphatically argue in part-English and part-Hindi with the bicycle rickshaw driver because he kept asking for 100 rupees when he had quoted us 10 rupees and Joe was offering him 20 rupees. The whole calamity ended with the crowd turning away and siding with our infallible logic and disapproving tone and I grabbed Joe's 20 rupees and shovedit into the cheating bicycle rickshaw driver's hand. I would gladly give an honest driver 100 rupees but, I couldn't stand the thought of paying that guy the extra 10. I had a headache for 2 days after that one. The minibus driver suggested and took us to the Royal Dakshin Restaurant where Joe had ordered Kashmiri mutton (in India, mutton is goat's meat instead of lamb), and I had Dahi Vada (yoghurt bread) and Gulab Jamun (that Gulab was the best dessert I've had next to Sree's kesaree). After we ate, we took pictures outside the entrance of Qutb Minar because it was too hot and the entrance fee was too steep. Lastly, the minibus driver took us to the Lotus (Baha'i) Temple where the staff asked us to be silent and pray to any god we like. As with any temple, we had to take our shoes off. But, my right ankle was so swollen and sore from a mosquito bite from the night before, that it was difficult and painful to pull my J.Crew sandals off and on. Back at the Golden Regency Hotel (where we'd had emailed and eaten breakfast that morning), we paid the minibus driver and hailed an uncommonly easy-going, decent autorickshaw driver who took us back to our hotel, where we watched TV and passed out uncomfortably in the room at around 6pm.
Our 3rd day in Delhi, Monday August 6th, We took a train from Delhi to Agra and on the train we met a nice 21-year old Indian man named Vivek who told us about his girlfriend in Florida that he met when he went to college there and what kind of bottled water we should not trust. It was refreshing to speak to someone who could help us continue to experience India and yet understand what the U.S. is like. His father apparently owns the 2nd largest plastics manufacturing companies. We exchanged our contact info with Vivek and met Agra with new things learned from Delhi: 1) don't be so innocent around a random Indian who approaches you with a smile and gentile words; 2) even if you disagree, don't take it personal because you can still get along with even the best scheisters if you know how to play their game; 3) trust your instincts about personality.. the talkative and forceful ones are generally less trustworthy, so run and grab the first guy you see who looks decent and isn't looking your your way.
Upon reaching Agra at the train station, we were engulfed by people jabbering away prices and explanations for prices. Joe and I without batting an eyelash walked past the crowd and up to a young cycle rickshaw driver on the outskirts of all the hubbub. He rode us a mile up the road and then split up Joe and I (weight distribution for the young fella who hadn't developed his muscles yet.. it was then we realized he wasn't but a teenager) with a middle-aged to elderly man who was much more talkative and knew French. We found the older man to be quite honest and quite a friendly retreat compared to the crowd we avoided who were yelling around us at the train station. We arrived at the Hotel Sheela that was a minute walking distance away from the Taj Mahal entrance. We checked-into our room, had a less-than-satisfactory lunch there, and then returned to the two rickshaw drivers who'd been waiting 2 hours for us. Although we asked to go to the bus station (to get to Fatehpur Sikri -- today's sightseeing destination), the old man convinced us to take a cab. Before he took us to the cab place, we told us that he gets 10 rupees for each store we look at (no purchase necessary), so, appreciating the honesty, we agree to visit the stores. There, we learn how in-laid marble is made, how rugs are made (where I called Sree to check them on their prices), and we visit a store similar to Saga in Delhi (Delhi is where the driver had yelled at us for the amount we gave him compared to the amount we spent in the store) so we made sure not to buy a thing. By the time we got to the cab station, we were exhausted. We didn't have enough money for their fees (they quoted 450 rupees) and the decent old man pointed out that the entrance fees into Fatehpur Sikri alone were about that much. So, he ended up taking us to the Pizza Hut bank and we got the cab for 350 rupees. The drive to Fatehpur Sikri was long and enjoyable -- we saw a lot of greenery, thatch houses, free roaming goats, cows, and odd-looking, long-haired, walking pet bears on chain leashes who walked on their hind legs when their young boy masters would raise their whips. It was nice to see these things on the way there and the way back.. much nicer and more memorable than Fatehpur Sikri itself. Fatehpur Sikri was the capital of the deserted Mughal empire and was pretty much intact. Afterwards, we went to the nearby Jama Masjid. There, a young boy resident of the place seemed to befriend me, taught me a little more Hindi, and gave us a tour (despite our telling everyone that we didn't want a guide) in English and French. My headache was pounding away from the heat and the jabbering of the boy and other people trying to get our attention but, the boy was so entertaining and the people sitting off to the sides of the courtyards gave me so many complements that my headache subsiding off and on. A couple of Indians asked for pictures with me again and the boy explained that they were charging 100 rupees per photo with me. Upon leaving this new friend asked for "something" so Joe gave him 10 rupees. He laughed and I said a new phrase that he taught me in Hindi, "Our money is all gone." We all laughed then. We returned to the hotel and I noticed that the mosquito bite on my right ankle was spreading all around my ankle to my feet and my calf and it hurt to stand on it. After deciding to ask the hotel managers before we rushed to the nearest hospital or American Consulate, we sauntered outside and asked who the manager was. The two guys we asked pointed to each other and one of them agreed to attend to us. We told him that I had a bite and by the light near the front desk, he took a look at my ankle and said, "nothing to worry about" over and over with a relaxed demeanor. We decided to wait til the morning to find out if I was dying of Malaria or not.
Tuesday, August 7th, we woke up bright and early to spend this second day in Agra at the Taj Mahal. A really nice security guard named Navinder walked with us, took pictures of us for us, and told us some of the history of the Taj. The inner chamber entombed in darkness is where lies Arjumane Banu Begum, one of the wives of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahah. When she died - his favorite wife - giving birth to his 14th son, he built the Taj Mahal as a tomb of undying love. The Taj has been referred to by a poet as "a tear that would hang on the cheek of time". No tears for us; we were dry and had forgotten to bring water. But, when we asked the security guard where we could get water nearby, he offered to walk and get us bottled water from the street vendors outside of the Taj. We gave him money for the water and when he returned, we asked him to keep the change. We felt privileged because of our own private security escort and the many Indians asking us to take pictures with them. Joe had a great exercise to remember the Taj.. he had each of us sketch the Taj into his travel journal. I normally attracted a lot of attention because Indians thought I was Nepalese in my salvaar. But, when Joe began sketching, we both were attracting too much attention. I started getting a heat rash on my forearms and, the picture requests and the interruptions got old eventually and soon, we found ourselves leaving the main areas of the Taj to get away from all of the positive attention despite the fact that Joe hadn't finished his sketching. We got away into the Taj museum held off to the side and then soon after left the Taj.
Sleeping at the Hotel Sheela was exciting but not fun either. Each time we went back to the room, there was a new animal that had crawled in (humungous ant, humungous spider, green lizard, orange frog) and when I told Joe that I felt stickier each time I took a shower, he let me know that the water there smelled like poo. So, after the Taj, we went out to eat dinner to avoid going back to the muggy poo water hotel. We went to Deepee Restaurant (f.k.a. Dasa Prakash Restaurant) down via bicycle rickshaw down the road where Joe ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and I ordered a South Indian platter with all sorts of curries and idlee, aplam, and dosa. On the way back, we stopped by some street stores on the road where the Taj and we stayed. Joe bought a couple of T-shirts (that I haggled down to 2 for 200 rupees) and we talked to the natives and a few foreigners at the hotel (mostly French and Korean). Unfortunately, the Koreans didn't speak English so, I couldn't do much but smile and motion things in English. They seemed pretty nice but, I couldn't help but wonder how they could get around without at least knowing English there (since near all Indians speak Indian English -- which is British English with an Indian accent and more head gesturing as if they are shaking their heads "no"). On this 2nd day in Agra, when we returned to the hotel room and I took a shower, the power went out. I had to sit in pitch black darkness for 5 minutes with the shower poo water running to avoid mosquitos and other creepy crawlies that I could not see. That was kinda neat to have been in a city that could go pitch black like that. We were really not looking forward to Jaipur as the trend seemed to be with each city it got hotter, more humid, and dirtier.

Singapore and Delhi

2001-08-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 4, 2001

Singapore and Delhi
Days 1, 2, 3, and 4 (August 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th -- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday respectively):
..[from an e-mail to my parents]..

Howdy!
Greetings from Connaught Place in New Delhi. How is the easy living in sunny Southern California? I've just taken my first shower on my trip and I feel renewed. So far, we flew out of LAX, spent an hour and a half in Narita, Japan at the airport and the 18 hours in Singapore. Each in-between flight was 15, 7 and 5 hours long respectively. However, the 5 hour flight from Singapore to Delhi didn't seem so bad since we had such a good time in Singapore.
In Singapore, Friday August 3rd, we slept from 2am til 8:30am at the Golden Landmark Hotel and spent the day seeing everything we wanted to. The hotel was very nice. After ruling out the red-eyed smoking taxi cab driver who wanted to charge us $60 Singapore for a $6 Singapore ride, we had a great time seeing the city with the rest of the cabbies. Cabs are the way to go in Singapore.. just make sure to pick a decent looking one. Singapore was founded by British Sir Stamford Raffles and is comprised of Mandarin-speaking Chinese, Malaysians, Tamil-speaking Indians, and Australians (visitors). Thanks to the cabbies, we saw the Orchid garden inside of the Botanical Garden, we ate at a Hawkers outdoor eating area where I had Mee Soto (Malay noodle soup) and Joe had Mee Po (Vietnamese fish ball dry noodles w/soup), then we browsed the Suntek City Mall, saw the largest water fountain in the world there, and I bought a pair of sunglasses from an open vendor on the mall floor. After that, a cabbie took us to see the MerLion where we took pictures and Joe purchased a T-shirt and I bought hors d'oeuvres forks w/holder. Next, we snuck into the Victoria Concert Hall and took some forbidden photos. Joe was very nervous but I was very at ease because music is 2nd nature to me. Someone informed us nicely that we weren't supposed to take pictures but they were too late! Ha ha! The last place we visited in Singapore was the Mustafa Mall where many Indians buy their gold because the quality is high and the prices are low. I bought 4 bangles and a necklace for Pallavi. The best part was that except for the gold & souvenir purchases, everything was free because of the Indian travel agency and the Singapore flight tickets to Delhi.
Singapore was so humid that reaching Delhi after an hour-delayed flight at midnight on Friday August 3rd wasn't so bad although it seemed considerably warm for the middle of the night. At the airport, a young Indian man named Das greeted us with his sign that read "H.K. Choudhary Guesthouse / Mr. Joseph Elwell". I greeted him by putting my hands together as if in prayer and saying "Namascarum" to which he said "Namasthe" with a smile.. and he and his 2 counterparts drove us to our $15 US per night hotel half an hour away with no less than 250 honks. We honk to pass, we honk to warn, we honk if we haven't honked recently enough. We slept uneasily from 2am til 7am with the lights out, fan & AC on, doors locked, mosquito net up, and no sheets.
The first half of our day in Delhi, Saturday August 4th, was spent walking and talking to touts -- men who tout the stores and businesses they work for -- who led us astray (to their partner stores) and told us they were students and not trying to sell us anything .. althought they carried no books, backpack and there were no schools nearby to be seen. BAH! One neat thing was that this day was Rikshabandan -- a festival that celebrates brotherhood & sisterhood where you place a Rakki (bracelet) on the right wrist of your brother/sister (left wrist for sisters). While we walked, our goal was to find a Salvaar (traditional Indian long top with long pants and scarf) that I liked. We found a nice dark blue handwoven one for 1120 rupees ($20 US) then went to Nirula's Potpourri restaurant to eat Tandoori Masala Aloo (tandoori potato w/curry). Inside, there were upper-class Indians; outside, there were touts, beggars, and auto-rickshaws. After we ate, we spent the second half of our day riding around in an auto-rickshaw (we were warned by the touts to avoid the auto-rickshaws because they are scheisters).
From the auto-rickshaw, we saw the President's Estate with monkees climbing along the walls, the India Gate (where an Indian man charged other touristing Indians to have their picture taken with me because in my salvaar, they thought I was Nepalese), the Mughal emperors' tombs outside of Humayun's Tomb, the Saga department store, and then we returned to the hotel. The auto-rickshaw driver haggled about the price, of course. He happened to be a Sikh (turban-wearing) Indian. He had also set us up so that he knew exactly what we bought at the Saga department store (which were 2 wooden souvenirs.. one of an elephant and another of Parvati and Ghanesh in a carving of 2 praying hands.. like a hand-sized locket). I was feeling hot, dirty, and down because of the hard day of haggling with everyone. We fell asleep from 8pm til 3am. Our room has no windows so we sleep when we want. We got up and then took showers. I feel great now. We woke up a little early on this second day in Delhi, Sunday August 5th, and took an auto-rickshaw (haggled a slightly high but still fair price with the driver beforehand) and came to a 24-hour internet cafe a few blocks down the road.
More to come about the rest of Delhi (old Delhi), Agra, Jaipur, and Cochin in Kerala and Madras.
Ciao,
-S