McVirtual World

2007-07-20T06:55:00.000-05:00

Roan Mountain at the top is just over 6,000 feet tall. The trail areas zigzag between Tennessee and North Carolina. My favorite hiking spot is the three balds. This is about a four and a half mile hike round trip. However, it has a few steep places with uneven ground, and the top round peaks out around 6000, so you better be in decent shape when you walk it. If you are not just plan on making lots of stops on the way there and back. Anytime of year there is beautiful, although in the summer is when you will really see the green grasses.

On the other side there are the rhododendron gardens and a trail that is about a mile and a half that ends out on a point overlooking a lush valley. You can either drive part of the trail or walk the entire thing. Once you reach the point you can relax and take in the wonderful vista of the valley.

There are lots of hiking trails on the mountain, including the appalacian trail. So if you are a hiker or a photo hobbiest you will find plenty to do. I've also found plenty of birds, squirrels, and deer in the area to enjoy watching, and of course bear.

I personally would recommend going in the later summer early fall for hiking. The weather is a little cooler at that time, which comes in handy if you are going exploring near the bottom as well as the top. I would also recommend the trip during the changing of the leaves. Anytime you can make it to the Blue Ridge in the Fall is a good experience.

2007-07-15T06:35:00.000-05:00

When I go to Roan Mountain I like to reside at a little place I like to refere to as Craig's cabin. As the picture at the top of my blog shows, it's a place with an incredible view. If you have ever read the Hobbit, it always reminds me of what the Misty Mountains would look like. This is a private cabin that sits at just over 4,000 feet above sea level. Although it is cooler there in the middle of summer, it's still quite warm and humid.

I have found Roan Mountain to be ideal in the early spring and the fall, as is most of the Blue Ridge. Both seasons offer cold mornings, perfect for slow cups of coffee and time for reflection. As the day progresses it gets warmer, but still allows for flannel shirts, my personal favorite when in the mountains. Also, while I love wildlife, instects do not really fit into my profile of wildlife. I have found the transistion seasons offer some of the best wildlife minus insect moments.

My favorite memory of the cabin was when I was literally on top of a black bear and did not know it. This past year the plants the bears eat did not fair well, so the bears came to a new food source, the cabins. We had been warned they were around, but did not realize when they preferred to feed. I was out on the deck our first night on my cell phone describing this horrible smell I kept smelling to my wife back home. I kept looking down the deck stairs and listening for the bear. I eventually heard something go running off in the trees from the cabin. I come to find out later that the bears prefer to climb the columns of the deck, which sits a good 20 feet from the ground below. It appears the bear was hanging on the post waiting for me to leave and I was, at times, standing directly over it. I'm just glad I chose not to put my hand down on the railing while I was standing there.

2007-07-09T20:01:00.000-05:00

It's time for me to begin a series on Roan Mountain, my favorite "local" spot. It's about 3 and a half hours from where I live, but but totally worth the drive. The photo links are located to the right if you haven't already seen them.

Roan Mountain borders North Carolina and Tennessee. It is located here. If you are coming from the Charlotte, southern Piedmont area, it is worth taking 321 up through Blowing Rock, N.C. and Boone N.C. The drive from this direction is absolutely beautiful. You'll get a great view of the Appalachian Mountains and Grandfather Mountain. If you have 3 hours or so, you can drive to Grandfather Mountain. I would recommend an afternoon, and plan on hiking. To get to Roan Mountain you can either go Linville or Banner Elk. I prefer Banner Elk. While it has grown over the years, it's still small and touristy. A pleasant place to drive through, or to stop and kill a couple hours enjoying the sites. The road beyond Banner Elk is an older two lane mountain road. It's not fast, but it's an enjoyable ride.

Once you reach Roan Mountain you can visit the State Park or rent one of the cabins on the mountain, or if you are fortunate like me, you have a friend whose parents own a cabin. The photo at the top of the Blog is from their back deck. I'll write more on Roan Mountain my next post, but in the meantime let me encourage you to read the state park website.

2007-06-23T13:31:00.000-05:00

I'm going to wrap up India today by posting all the remaining posts. I can sum up our experience by saying that we preferred the country, as opposed to the cities, but we prefer the country anywhere we go. This is basically because cities are dirty. You have a lot of people in a convined space, the more people you have, the dirtier it gets. So you won't see me promoting city and high density living. I prefer my privacy and space. That being said, here are the other posts:

Safely Home
We arrived safely home at 8pm last night. The trip was long and boring, in other words perfect.

Upon arriving and catching up on things I came across something I felt related to some of the postings I plan to do on my post India perspective. In the western press's never ending desire to destroy our history and culture, I saw where they are trying to combine fiction and fact, a.k.a. the De Vinci Code, and say that they have found the tomb of Jesus and possibly his family. This brings up something I learned while in India, the subject of faith.

I asked someone after leaving a temple in India why they worship the idols, out of curiousity as opposed to accusation. They said they represented the different gods that were incarnations of the Hindu three person god. As I thought on this I thought about my own religion, Christianity, and other religions as well and came to the following conclusions.

Whether people want to admit it or not, faith is universal, and we all have to decide where we put our faith. Throughout history, man has preferred to have faith in something he can see and touch. The Jewish people in the old testament struggled with this very thing. The Christian church as well as struggles with idols or icons, such as "saints" you can pray to for certain needs, as opposed to God himself. Other people like to put faith in money, mammon, because they can see and feel it, and get immediate results. You may have faith in Buddah's teachings, Jehovah, Allah, or be polythiestic. You may say to me, I have no faith because science is able to show what is true, which means you have faith in the scientific method. We all have faith, and most of us carry multiple faiths. Such as I have faith in my wife, and faith in Christ. Faith occurs on many levels.

I came away from India realizing that what faith is, and why I believe in Christ. I also came away realizing why people have a tough time believing in Christ as this faith is based on God the father, who you can not see, Christ, who is resurrected and with God, and the Holy Spirit, who lives in believer's hearts and is not seen. It is a faith that in many ways is the opposite of what people want. Something they can feel and touch. Something that can comfort their body as well as their soul. So you have people, like the press, who try and attack the faith of those who believe in the invisible God. Also, I have come to realize that faith is faith. Which is to say, you can't prove it. You can present your reasons for your faith, but faith in and of itself is an individual decision that everyone, no matter where on the planet, makes.

I am going to be posting more photos, hopefully today, of the final days of our trip. I will also be posting some of the other experiences we had while in India. It was a wonderful time, both fun and educational. It's great to be home though. It's awesome to be home with the boys, and to be back in my own bed.

February 26
Leaving for home today
We leave for North Carolina in just a few hours. 6 hours and 52 minutes to be exact before we arrive at the Chennai airport, not that I'm counting.
I was going to summarize our trip and add photos, but I've decided to wait. After being here a month I have a lot of thoughts on my trip here. Some great, some not so much. I plan to put in an update after arriving home. We appreciate everybody's prayers, and hope you will continue them until we arrive home safely.
I will say the flight from Bangalore to Chennai yesterday was wonderful. We got to see India from the air, which gave us a great perspective of places we had seen from the train. We are looking forward to seeing everyone very soon.

February 23
Photo backups
I have posted some of our photos, but not all. If you would like to see all of the photos taken, you can find them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ncgarymcpherson

Please be aware these photos, like the ones posted are not cleaned up, and in some cases flipped on their sides. However, if you would like to look through them all, please feel free.

Hunkered down in Mysore
We toured Mysore today, and saw a temple, a cathedral, and a single stone made into a very large bull. I will be posting the pictures later. We also received some news. There is a massive strike tomorrow and nothing will be running in the city. We have been instructed to stay within the hotel compound. Normally the protest are pretty peaceful, although the last one Mysore had did have some isolated incidents. I believe we are perfectly safe. The main concern is the 25th when we travel back to Bangalore and fly to Chennai. There maybe a protests still going on in a small town. If so, we may have to leave Mysore around 4am to avoid it. We are still waiting to hear.

On the upside, I'm looking forward to an excuse to stay in the hotel for a day. I slept almost 12 hours last night and I'm still tired. I have yet to just rest and do nothing sense the week before flying to India. I came close in Coorg, but never could let myself just sit there the whole day. So I can't say tomorrow is a bad thing. In fact for me, it's a good thing. As for the protest, I have to say I side with the protestors as I understand the situation. People who are downstream of the dam here need water for their crops, the crops look really really bad. Growing up in Southern California I can certainly appreciate agriculture and the need for water. I primarily hope the protest remains peaceful and the government can find a way to meet everyone's needs. Water here is about as valuable as gold or oil.

February 22
In Mysore
Well, I have internet again. Please read through all the blog entries below. I saved them offline, so they are in reverse order, newest to oldest. Bandipur and Kabini contain all of the photos from the safari rides.

It's tough being back in the city after leaving the paradise of Coorg and the Orange County resort. Our hotel here is nice, but well, it's no resort. Donna and I are definitely not city people. I hope you enjoy the stories and pictures. India has been great thus far. It's truly a dream vacation. That being said, we are both quite tired and homesick. We are now counting down the days until we get home to our boys and home.

Even so, tomorrow we go see the palace at Mysore, and may possibly visit the zoo. Hey, we still have to see a tiger. Thanks to everyone for their prayers, keep praying. Thanks especially to everyone who has been following our adventures. It's great to know so many people care out our trip, or are at least curious.

Cobra

2007-06-15T05:33:00.001-05:00

As you may have been able to tell, the point of this site is going to be travel. While much of what I am planning to post is our travel experiences, I want to focus mostly on what is great or not so great about different locations we have traveled to. Where I can, I'll add pictures. There are some travels we have taken where digital pictures were not possible, or we have not been able to find the old photos to scan in.

Be that as it may, I can't get ready to wrap up my India recap without re-posting my cobra story. To give this some perspective I have to share something that happened here at our quiet home last night. My wife and I were walking back to the front porch of the house from our driveway when my wife suddenly jumped. Yes, the same wife who in this story stood there fussing at me for pinching her arm with a king cobra only about a footstep away from her. She jump, I heard a large animal noise coming from the bush directly in front of us, and I yelled. I don't really know why I yelled, other than it surprised me. Out of the bush came a giant man eating house cat. That's right, I yelled in surprise because of a house cat in the dark.

With this story in mind, here again is what happened with the one animal I had hoped to come in contact with as much as the tiger.

King Cobra link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cobra

My Cobra

Today I have proven my dad wrong. When I was young my dad would send me to get tools out of his toolbox. For whatever reason, I could never find the stupid things. He used to tell me that I could be standing right on top of a snake and never know it. I found out today I would know it.

Donna and I were taking a stroll between the large pond and sugar cane fields here at the resort out to the forest to take photos of the shade coffee fields and rice paddies. We were chatting and slowly walking when I looked down and about 6 inches from the side of my shoes was a copper/tanish tail that grew larger and larger to about the size of my thigh just above my knee, three feet from the tip of its tail. I could see at least six feet of what had to be the largest snake I have ever seen before it disappeared in the bush. I froze up and my knees locked. Growing up camping in California the first rule I always learned when coming up on a snake was don't move and be quiet. So I reached out to stop Donna while watching the back half of the snake looking for what had to be a large head. I ended up pinching Donna's arm because I wasn't watching where I grabbed it. She said something, I wasn't paying attention, and the snake started down the hill. After my legs would move we finished our walk and I got my photos. On the way back we talked to one of the security guards. His English was not very good, but he confirmed the local king cobras here are the size and color I saw. So I got to see my cobra, from just six inches away, but not take a picture. Quite frankly, after seeing it, I have no desire to get that close again. If I want a picture of one, I'll find a post card, or visit the zoo.

I also want to say thank you to my parents for teaching me ever since I can remember how to act around snakes. Although I was very scared, all the training and of my childhood kicked in and I made the right decisions.

2007-06-14T19:27:00.000-05:00

More information on Coorg and the Orange County resort.

http://www.trailsindia.com/resorts.asp?Resort_id=1

The resort sits inside a beautiful coffee plantation. The packages include your meals, all of which are outstanding. We stayed in the Pool Villa. If you can afford it, I strongly recommend it. The design of the Pool Villa is open and close. The living area includes an atrium with an opening in the roof, which is covered with a screen. The bedroom has a solid door and air conditioning. So the nights are very comfortable for sleeping. I would recommend going later in the year as the water in the dipping pool can be quite chilly in February, although still tolerable. They have a sitting room where you can sit and have free coffee, and read or look over the rice paddies and sugar cane field. Even now I'm missing it.

As mentioned in my cobra story, cobra's love coffee plantations. If you are a bit of a nut like me, you might want to stroll in the earlier parts of the morning near the sugar cain and water in hopes of finding the largest, the king cobra. Even so, there are many who are normal size and just as deadly around due to the abundant water and animals Cobras are night time animals and prefer the dark. There are several signs around the plantation warning folks to stay in the lighted paths at night. I highly recommend taking heed of the signs. It's tempting at night to go stand out by the small lake in the moonlight. This is almost the exact location I saw my king cobra. Do yourself a favor, stand in the lighted path above the lake and enjoy the moon's reflection.

This combination of beauty and danger can be found in many places in the wilds of India. I guess to me this is what makes India so attractive. You can still live adventures people have written about over the centuries.

2007-06-12T17:42:00.001-05:00

Coorg:

I have not posted anything on the travel site lately due to health reasons. I'm happy to say I am doing much better. Below is my post on Coorg.

This post was written after almost 3 very long weeks for me, 2 of them work. This place was like heaven on earth, I'll post more about that tomorrow or Thursday. It made me a big believer in resorts. I used to think these places were for spoiled people, but now realize they are the perfect getaway for when you feel exceedly stressed out and just need to get away. In our 20 years of marriage, this was the first place my wife and I were actually able to just relax.

Arrive in Coorg
We left Bandipur after one more morning safari. It was disappointing in that we saw no tigers. It was great; however, in that there were only 4 of us in a jeep this time. We stayed perfectly quiet and got up very close to the wildlife we could find. We then spent time up in an observation tower where tigers were known to appear. No tigers showed, but we did see a group of spotted deer appear from the woods, regroup in the opening and then return to the cover of the forest. I’ve included some photos of the mountain view from the tower, and our new friends.
The trip to the Orange County resort was beautiful. It’s India, it’s tough not to be beautiful. Other than driving through Mysore, all of our travel has been in the country. You see many small villages, and just like small towns in the U.S. people look when a strange car drives by. So you have to get used to being looked at as you drive through. You also have to get used to cattle who seem to live for stepping in front of cars coming down the road.
The Orange County resort is very fine, as many of my new local friends like to say. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Bible in my Villa, and several Bible verses posted on the trees in the resort. The resort posts many signs dealing with spiritual health and well being, so far I’ve recognized over half as being directly from Proverbs. The spa Donna went to for the swelling in her ankles has a “Jesus is Lord” sign posted at the top of the entry door. This is just very exciting to us because most places we have been are more Hindu focused. Don’t get me wrong, there is of course Hinduism here, but it is good to see a Christian presence as well.
There are two exciting things that have happened here for us thus far. First the spa. Donna got worked over for 2 hours with a process to decrease the swelling in her ankles, and to help the pain in her back. She returned with her back feeling much better, and her ankles were normal size! We haven’t seen her ankles look right in months at least. It is super amazing to see. The second exciting thing, for me, was seeing Donna for the first time in the Sari I bought her. I took a couple of pictures, she is a princess. I was laughing at dinner because I was in jeans and wearing a local shirt style I had bought in Chennai. I told her people were thinking, “Slacker American man.” Then they see her and say, “Oh, very smart man.”

2007-06-02T06:44:00.000-05:00

More on Kabini

Some additional information I did not originally post about Kabini. The resort is wonderful due to its location on the Kabini river. This is an eco-resort, so it is ecologically minded. This means the cabins do not have air conditioning. This also means you should chose your trip dates carefully. The very best time to see wildlife is during the peak of the dry season. During this time the river is the only water source. Locals tell me you can literally see hundreds of elephants at the river as well as different cats and crocs. Of course the downside is that the temperature is bloomin' hot.

The weather while we were there was quite mild and even cool at night. Since this was our first time at the resort, I would say the middle to end of February is great if you've never been to India in the summer. I would also say I probably wouldn't spend more than 2 nights at the resort in the peak heat of the season, unless you are very heat tolerant.

The staff at Kabini was terrific. The guides we had were extremely knowledgeable and made for a terrific experience. I want to stress however that you need to be a lover of wildlife to really enjoy the eco-parks. My wife and I feel more relaxed around wild animals than people. We also find it extremely exciting to be among animals in the wild that we have only seen on television. If this is your thing, then make a trip to Kabini something to do in your lifetime, you will be very happy you did.

Other points to note, we had a riverside cabin. It was just the very best. We were close to the water, close to the eating area, close to the giant bats, and close to a treehouse. While the treehouse might have been for kids, the adults found it quite enjoyable.

2007-05-25T07:11:00.000-05:00

Kabini
We stopped at a couple of places our driver recommended on the way to Kabini. Two of the most impressive were a holy place for Hindus where three rivers meet. Here people literally bathe in the water to be cleansed of their sins. The rivers were beautiful. We also stopped at an old Indian fort which is now a Muslim school. The courtyard appeared to be open to the public. We drew a little attention from the children who seemed curious, everyone else was busy with their work. There were a few other tourist there as well, but we were the only Americans.

We’ve finished our tour of the Kabini resort. I really hope one day we can go back for 3 or 4 days. This was truly an amazing resort. We had a cabin on the river Kabini. It was beautiful. We had large, and I mean large bats in the trees above us. There is a photo of them in the trees with a bird. The bird is about the size of our hawk, so it will hopefully give you a point of reverence.

While at the resort we went on two safaris. I am sad to say we did not see a tiger or any cats. However, we did have one in the vicinity of our vehicle. The whole forest was alive with activity around us. You could even hear the tiger as it moved in the bush, but it would not come out while we were sitting in the jeep. We did see two “tuskers”, male elephants. One around 30+ and a HUGE male much older. We were able to get very close to the first elephant and I was able get some photos. The other elephant was too far off for pictures. He was massive though, very impressive. We also saw two types of deer, wild boar, several varieties of birds, Indian “bison” they are call something else here, and probably some I’m forgetting as I am writing this a day later. There are photos of almost all the animals we saw.

One place I did not mention in my original post was the sacred rivers. Three rivers come together in the town where we saw the muslim school. The hindus believe this to be a sacred place and baptize themselves in the waters. I was truly amazed at this since I know from my study of the Bible this was done in Palestine during the time of Christ. While my faith believes the only cleansing comes through the blood of Christ, we still practice baptism as a pronouncement of our faith, and in obedience to Christ who commanded we do it.

This brings me to a point I just have to share. Being around several of the world's religion while in India, it struck how much in common each has with the other. I personally do not believe any religion is okay as long as you have one. If I believed that I would be denying my own faith. That being said, I don't know how anyone can look on the entire globe, see how much we all have in common, and not come to the following conclusions: We truly are all made in the image of God, We are all brothers and sisters and should seek to love one another rather than command or destroy each other, and finally the great diversity of the billions on the earth and the commonality of the group surely point to the existence of God and not something that happened by accident over billions of years.

2007-05-24T14:28:00.000-05:00

February 15
Infosys and Bangalore
I have a lot to write about, but Donna and I are exhausted, so it will have to wait. We leave for Kabini/Bandipur tomorrow, and then on to Orange County resort. So, we may not post for another six days. No worries if we don't . I am posting the photos from today, enjoy.

Oh, one last thought. After visiting the Infosys campus I just want to say I hope they hire me some day. That place rocks! and that is not even the big campus!

Imagine going to work everyday at club med. Imagine wanting to go to the office on the weekend with the family because it's fun. Imagine not minding working long hours because you enjoy your office. Imagine feeling like you were back in college everyday. Okay, this was the Infosys campus.

Western companies have a lot to learn from these folks. Especially those who want to open offices in India. Believe me, the best of the best aren't going to go to a business office when they can go to a campus. It's like the Microsoft model we had when I was working for them, except on steroids.

A really awesome place to work.

2007-05-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

February 14
Trains, Bangalore and bathrooms
We arrived today in Bangalore. We took the train this morning from Chennai. That was an interesting experience. Chennai is not the cleanest city in the country. There are parts that look down right scary to a westerner, although they can be quite safe. So getting on the train this morning felt a bit hairy as the station is very crowded, and dirty. The First class car was probably older than me, but clean and roomy. Once we got on the train we felt safe and calm.

The view of the landscape was incredible, even during the peak of the dry season! India truly is a jewel. I was able to take some photos from the train window, even if power poles kept jumping up in front of me, I hope you enjoy them. I was amazed at the difference between the coast and here. Granted, our coastal cities and foothills/mountains also look very different. However, I had no idea how beautiful this country can be. Then we came to Bangalore. I want to compare it to Asheville on steriods, but it just doesn't fly for a town of 8 million people. I'm not sure what I can compare it to. I hope to get some pictures of the town tomorrow. I'll just say it would be a terrific place to live.

Lastly, there is our hotel room, which pictures I am including. It is very nice. The bathroom is quite different. It also included the hose next to the toilet I've seen all over India. I commented to Donna that I could hose down the bathroom at night. Then my wife, being the smart one, mentioned maybe it was a type of bidet. At first I laughed. Then me being me, and never wanting to pass up a chance to prove or disprove a theory, I decided to see if she was correct. So first I tested the nozel, and promptly left a puddle of clean water on the floor. Then I tried it where one would try such a tool. It seemed to work okay, except it left the seat quite wet. When I stood up I realized she had been correct all along. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the guys working at TCS got those toilet seats so wet, now I know.

I think I'll stop now before I get myself in real trouble. We've both had between 2 and 3 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours, so we are pretty tired. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Looking back, I think this should have been titled Culture Shock 2. The train ride was great. However, all the locals I worked with in Chennai kept asking why I didn't take a flight instead. The answer of course was to see India. Would I have done this again, probably, but I would have packed differently. I would have had fewer clothes and bought more in Bangalore at the mall, even though I hate shopping. Carrying all the bags was very stressful.

We had further stress by a mix up with hotels due to date changes, and re-changes by my employer. It all worked out, but by the time we got to the hotel we were hot, thirsty, hungry, and exhausted. Will I ride that train again? Probably not, since I've done it now. That being said, if you are ever in India, take the train, it's worth the ride.

2007-05-21T18:48:00.000-05:00

February 12
Wife arrives
I want to throw up. Not because my wife has arrived, but because I've had about 4 hours of sleep. My wife arrived safely last night/this morning. It was a similar routine to what I had gone through when I first arrived. My body had almost adjusted to the time zone before last night. Tonight will be even more fun as we must check out by 5am to catch the 6am train. The great news is that we have our own train compartment. The not so great news is that it is for two people, and we have to fit our luggage there as well. There is no sleeper car, so I don't think we'll be stretching out when we get on board the train.

I hope to get some great pictures of the country tomorrow, and be able to post them on the blog once we get to Bangalore. Assuming I live that long. It's amazing how lousy you can feel on so little sleep. It's not like when I was in my twenties. Come to think of it, maybe if I had slept more in my twenties I wouldn't feel so bad now....

Let the marathon begin. Thus started the second half, the longest half in every sense of the word, of the trip. It was early mornings, late nights, and lots of activity. I dropped about 10 lbs. on the trip, mostly the second half. I think half the fun of vacations and adventures is resting at the end.

2007-05-20T19:42:00.000-05:00

Pondicherry
I will be posting the pictures from our trip today shortly. It was a great, and long trip. It's around 83km, and took us about 2 - 3 hours to get down there. I took a few pictures of some of the houses you see along the highway. Please don't mistake this to be the way everyone lives, but it is the way some have to live.

Along the way we stopped by a monument to world peace. You'll see the pictures to the right. It's a giant gold sphere. My understanding today is that this will become a place of meditation. There will actually be an entrance you can go into and spend time in prayer in meditation. It is not yet complete. It is understandable that a region such as India, which has seen its share of terrorism and war, would want something as a symbol for world peace. I thought about this later today. It's interesting that the Christian symbol for world peace is an empty rocky hill outside of Jerusalem, and a church that sits atop an empty tomb around a similar location. So basically, our faith offers peace by having nothing to view, because we believe the God of peace is alive and will return one day, so there is nothing else that is needed. I don't mean anything disrespectful, or judgemental by my statement. I just thought it was an interesting comparison in how those who follow Christ view the world, and the hope others are hoping to find.

Pondicherry is an old French colony, and a weekend getaway for the people of Chennai. With today being Sunday, it was very crowded. We had a good time and walked about 2 miles near the coastline. I really enjoyed the town and the walk. I even had them take some pictures of me, Donna is not going to believe it. I hope you enjoy all the photos. India is still a wonderous place to me, even after a week.

Well, this was my first cultural foible. The world peace globe is actually sort of a temple. It is used for meditation once it is opened and considered sacred, as I was told after this post.

Now for my favorite memory of the trip, it had to be coming back to Chennai. We are riding along in the car when our driver suddenly kicks the car into high gear. He locks the door and the thing sounds like we've just been vacuumed sealed. Even the TCS guy with me was wondering what the "feature" was. When asked why we were suddenly playing chicken with very large trucks, even by India standards, we were told, "There is no help out here if we break down." Uh yea..... That was pretty much our reaction. I learned later that the road was not all that safe after dark. We had left Pondicherry quite late, so we were working to get back before dark. I'm still not sure if I buy that completely since our other car arrived about 30 minutes after us, but at least it makes more sense.

2007-05-18T14:42:00.000-05:00

Something Current:

I wanted to take a moment to note our current "adventure" here at home. We had our oldest son graduate from community college, and second son graduation from high school, and our third son return to today from surgery on his throat and nose so he could breath better.

All these events occurred over a two week period, peaking today with our third son's return home from the hospital. Tomorrow I take my father-in-law, who is in town from New Mexico, to Lowes Motor Speedway for the All Star Challenge race.

During these events I developed TMJ in my jaw, and pain in my neck. Fortunately, I was told the pain in the neck was normal for my age and had absolutely nothing to do with my job, go figure.

As the insurance commercial states, life does come at you fast. I'm actually looking forward to going back to work Monday so things will slow down. Even so, I think we all need these types of weeks. We need to remember how it feels to really live life. Going on adventures half way around the world is certainly exciting; However, life is an adventure all around us everday. If you haven't lived life lately, let me humbly suggest you do. If you are mobile enough, get out of your house, to walking in the park, go camping, get out in the neighborhood, have a meal with a friend or family member, head to church on Sunday. If you're unable to leave home, invite someone over, email or write a letter to an old friend or family member. Call someone you haven't talked to in a long time.

Live everyday in such a way that if God calls you home tomorrow, you'll have no regrets over things you did not do.

2007-05-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

Shopping and St. Thomas Mount
Today was certainly a very full day. First we went shopping. We were taken first to a "department" store down the street. This was a very high end place, and many of us spent money we probably did not have. That being said, what we got was unique to India, and probably not something we could afford to pick up in the U.S. Then we went to the "mall". This place was totally awesome. From the street it appeared very small. However, once you got in, it was amazing. It was huge, with many of the stores we would expect to find. There isn't the open space you find in our malls, this one is in downtown Chennai. However, the experience was decent. I got myself some shirts, most of which fit. My physical dimensions do not exactly match most of Indian male population. (i.e. I have big stomach muscles surrounded by fat to keep them safe.) I also got Donna a pretty common outfit here. I can't post what it is because it's a surprise.

Then we went to St. Thomas mount. The photos are posted to the right. I did not take a picture of the inside of the church. There are pictures over looking Chennai, one of the shrines at the top, the sign the explains the story, and another shrine midway up the hill. We spent time inside praying. I was thankful for that because we all have a lot of prayer needs. Although not required, we entered barefoot on the carved stoned floors. I'm beginning to think the act of removing ones shoes for holy ground is a good thing. Keeps your mind are where you are. The church was built in the late 1500's and is undergoing renovation. So unfortunately, it was very loud. I did see the cross at the front of the church that is called the "bleeding cross." It is believe St. Thomas was holding it when we was martyred. I hope to return with Donna when she and I can spend some more time up on the mount.

Tomorrow morning we go to Pondicherry. I hope to post some pictures either late tomorrow or Monday.

What can I say about shopping overseas. I think the best answer came from one of the onshore Indians here in America. They noted you can buy just about anything in the U.S. from anywhere in the world, and they are correct. Here in Charlotte we even have stores that sell things I've only seen in India.

What's my point? If you are ever overseas, or plan to go overseas, redeem your time. Make shopping a low priority. Yes, the prices are good, but what you bring home may or may not be "one of a kind" to people who live here. Take your time and experience the people, the culture, and the places. Take photos/movies, write a blog, whatever you can do to capture your unqiue moments in the unique places you travel. Afterall, isn't that the point of going through the hassel, danger, and expense of international travel?

2007-05-17T12:48:00.000-05:00

February 08
A day at work and a photo
I have added a photo of our team in front of our welcome sign in the lobby of TATA. (See "Meet the team" under photos) It's been a great week thus far. Two things occurred yesterday that surprised me.

First was on our way into work. We had a woman come up to the car with a tin cup asking for money. What surprised me was my reaction, which is to say I did nothing. I don't know if I'm becoming that hard hearted while being here, or if it reminded me too much of the people in Charlotte who are able bodied and ask for money. This woman obviously was not able to work, I hope I have an opportunity to make it right. Jesus did say we should do for the least for we are then doing it to Him.

You see a lot of suffering, and a lot of prosperity here as India's economic boom is only a few years old, and with globalization, it has decades to go. As a single person, you feel powerless to help those who are suffering so much. The church is helping here, a.k.a. Gospel for Asia etc. and the economy/education system itself will hopefully remove many of these problems within the next generation.

The other "moment" was realizing the effects of globalization. We sat in a converence room yesterday discussing where people will live when they arrive in Charlotte. Our Indian partners talked about familiar streets and neighborhoods like they were just up the road from us. For those who are part of the "D" generation or younger, you may not appreciate this, but I grew up during the space age and started working in the information age. So the idea of talking to someone in Chennai, India about streets around UNCC is just amazing. Especially when you drive out of the office and see people still using bulls and carts to transport goods from one place to another.

Globalization still impacts me today. I watch the news about India and recognize some of the spots where we were. I think about the friends we made and wonder how they are doing. I get annoyed when people make jokes about the country.

At the sametime, something else stayed with me. Language, and how important it is for a country to have its own. While in India many places we stayed spoke very little english. I remember noticing how people there would even identify each other by their state language, vs. the national language which is Hindi. Upon coming home it helped me to appreciate why the U.S. needs to define its language on a national scale. It matters that "Americans" speak english. It's part of what identifies us in this global village, and it's important that people who become Americans speak english.

Donna and I always tried to keep an open mind on our trip, to live and learn and hopefully love a new and exciting place and people. Part of that meant observing the respecting the customs. The old saying is,"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." For this country, the U.S. we need to remember this old saying and follow it. We need to stop being politically correct and socially ignorant. Maybe if "Americans" would accept our identity, we could be more accepting of other cultures as well. Just a thought.

2007-05-16T06:37:00.001-05:00

February 07
vacation plans
There is going to be what we in the U.S. would call a general strike in Bangalore on Monday over water rights. Growing up in Southern Calif. I can appreciate the feelings. Everyone is hoping that will be the end of any demonstrations, none so more than me. We are due to arrive in Bangalore on Wed. the 14th. So far everything is still a green light.

This weekend I hope to go to the St. Thomas monument on Sat. as well as a cathedral that I believe the driver said is over 1200 years old. On Sunday we are going to Pondicherry. Most of the group is planning to shop Sat. so I don't know yet if I'll be going alone with the driver to the churches or not. My training partner expressed interest in going, so there maybe two of us. The are three words I keep hearing to describe Pondicherry: Pretty, French, and cheapest beer in India. Okay, maybe that last one is more than one word. Needless to say, the group is really wanting to go to that. I'm looking forward to the French architecture and the beach.

No new pictures today. I will have more this weekend for sure, but may not have anymore before then to post. We are staying quite busy training the folks at TCS. We have a great group of people, and the facility is incredible. Since it never gets cold here, and rains very little, they use an indoor/outdoor theme around the building. There are moments you are walking down the hall, but are actually outside, and then you are back inside and don't even realize it. Very neat.

2007-05-16T06:36:00.000-05:00

2007-05-14T06:11:00.000-05:00

February 06
Driving to work
Here are some raw photos of the commute into work. I think it's easier to see than describe. The system out here works, and I've gotten so comfortable with it I slept half of the way home last night from work. (We have a driver for those that don't know.) The traffic yesterday was light, so I was somewhat disappointed with my timing, but I think you can still get a feel for how it flows. If we had been in a hotel outside the city, closer to TCS, the traffic would have been less of an issue.

One of thing of note that does show up in the photos. As you get further out of downtown you will normally see cows relaxing in groups in and around the median. I wish I had gotten a picture yesterday, but was unable to. It's interesting to see bovines just sitting there with cars missing them by an inch. They maybe sacred, but the cars come very close.

That's all to report for now. Our training classes are going well. Trying to catch up on other things with work, and complete my vacation plans. I will keep you updated.

The traffic is normally the most memorable part of the trip for everyone who has gone to India for the company I work for. After traveling nearly across the whole country east to west, I have to say it isn't that bad outside the cities. True, we did still go the wrong way down the freeway because we missed a cross over at a construction site, but people just got out of the way. Riding in India gave me a greater tolerance for rude drivers here in America. I came to realize that "my space" just wasn't that important. Don't get me wrong, I still have my moments behind the wheel, but by in large, my blood pressure dropped while driving in Charlotte after I returned.

2007-05-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

February 05
Back to the grindstone
No picture today I'm afraid, althought I think I will take my camera. I found out the resort we were suppose to be in was 5 minutes from our campus. However, it was not on the "approved" list, so we got stuck over an hour away. I did want to see India, so I'm seeing the same stuff everyday now, 2 hours a day. I would say seems like home, but the drivers here are much better.

The campus is super secure, it took us 10 minutes just to get through it, and we have to do it everyday. I think we maybe getting badges today so we won't have to do that much longer. English is better, but at times still sketchy. Of course, my english is some sort of combination of west coast, south east, and I mumble at times. So as a result, it took 5 people to figure out I was asking where the bathroom was yesterday. I would learn it in Hindi, but I'm doing good to pronounce people's full names. BTW, even the local folks have trouble with each other's names at times, so I don't feel too bad about that one.

Our training time each day is suppose to be around 5 hours a day, which is what I thought it would be given the training we are doing. I wish we had 2 full weeks rather this just one and a half. Our class is the largest as we are going to get to pick and choose who stays on the project. Like geek survivor. In all seriousness, it is hard to guage people's talen half a world away, and you don't come here and do one interview and make the decision. There are so many IT jobs, I don't think these guys are too worried as they will be put on a different project if they are not a fit for this one.

This weekend, or later in the week, we are going to St. Thomas cathedral and Pondicherry. I will definitely take pictures of those areas and post them here. I would not expect too many more photos however before the weekend, for those who would like to see more. I appreciate those of you who are reading the blogs. To my wife and son, ahem, yes, I spelled idol wrong. However, to a computer geek who had relatively little sleep over the previous days, an idle is a noun.

On our first day some high level suit types were at the TCS location, so the security was tighter than normal. Although, our car was searched everyday we went to work. We had to check in and check out our laptops and other equipment everyday, and we were never left to wonder around alone. It was unusual since most office buildings here are pretty much free roaming once you check through the security at the front door.

2007-05-09T22:11:00.000-05:00

Culture Shock
I have the raw photos posted. Sorry for the blurry ones especially. The connection is so slow that I'm having a rough time of it. So let me just post our experiences today.

Of the whole group of people who have never been here, I am probably the most studied on India. Even I had surprises culturally when we went out yesteday. Let me try and describe what we experienced and try to do it objectively.

First of all, driving in India. Unless you are from here, don't even try it. We have decided you either die young, or must be very patient to drive in India. Outside the city no speed limits. Inside the city there are speed limits but nobody enforces them. You don't have to when there are not lanes and the rule is, if you car fits you can drive there. If you need to go head on to a truck, you both honk your horns and force you way over to miss my mere inches. Most trucks to not have mirrors on the side. It makes sense we you see how close you pass. That I expected. It was even sort of fun, because I knew our driver knew what he was doing.

Then we went to our first temple. It was over 1300 years old made of Marble and sand, incredible. Hopefully I can get some photos up here. Anyway, first we were hit up to buy sandles because you can not wear shoes in the temple. No problem, well almost no problem. We bought the sandles, 10 bucks U.S.. Ouch! Then someone grabbed them because they were defective and drove two nails in them, another 10 bucks U.S. That's when we started saying no. Our drivers and guide interviened and we were able to get into the temple, where we had to take off the sandles. Stupid American tourist.

The temple was incredible. I would rather post the raw photos than describe it. It was over 1300 years old and build around a mango tree of the same age. It was of Shiva. Please look at this link for information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva.

Photos are allowed for a price. Entrance is allowed for a price. Getting your sandles back is allowed for a price, getting closer to the idles is allowed for a price, and a shock. Our first idle we were invited to enter the chamber and take pictures. Then the priest showed up and did a blessing over us, we were not asked. Understanding many of us are of the Christian faith we were non too comfortable with this, but respected the ceremony as Paul writes we should show respect for all as our actions have consequence, for both good and evil. I think the rest went along because we really had no way to gracefully say no thank you. What was interesting to me personally, was that I was praying hard during all the chanting etc. for the group, myself, and the priest/people. When it came to the blessing I was the only one the priest would say, "God bless you" to, for everyone else it was some sort of chant or phrase. Then he asked for money for the blessing. This was a tough call as many of us, while being respectful, did not want to finance this. Fortunately, I was pretty tapped out of cash at that point, but others who could paid out of respect.

I will mention here it gave me a whole new appreciation of Jesus and the money changers. I ached for those who were hoping an idle would help them out of their poverty or sickness, and then on top of that could not get the blessing, real or imaginary, they desperately wanted. It is to be without any hope of any kind. I can just imagine the same thing at the Jewish temple, no wonder Jesus drove the money changers out with a whip. That being said, this is Hinduism and we must respect the beliefs and practices. To me it just brought about the message that Jesus is free, and Christianity is free, to a whole new level. It's little wonder Christianity thrives among the poor. It's also a great lesson on why Christian Americans need to give more to missions, not only to reach people spiritually, but to care for their needs. More on that later in another post. For now I will just say that the needs are great, and those of us of the Christian faith should be doing anything in our power to help relieve the physical suffering.

We visited another temple that was much smaller, but also impressive. We had learned from our first experience and so this time things went smoothly. Finally we went to a stone mountain that was carved by a king over 1200 years ago. It appeared to have different rooms, and an old lighthouse on top. We climb all over that rock. My knee was doing better, and I figured I should do it before I felt bad. There were monkeys at the top, that was so cool. We had a guy who kept wanting to be our guide and would tell us a few things and then ask for money. Like a shareware guide. We kept telling him no and he kept coming. Finally we took the "backway" to the old and new lighthouses. He kept trying to stop us, and I said, "Look there are women and children going this way, how bad can it be?"
He said, "There are cobras sometimes."
I said,"Cool, that's one of the photos I'm really wanting to get."
Well of course there were no cobras. The way was steep, and yes, my knee did hurt at times, but only at times, and I wouldn't trade that climbing around for the world. Besides losing our would be guide, we came up on top in the middle of the monkeys, and that was cool.

So by and large a terrific and educational day. I'm still suffering jet lag, it's now 3:30am here, but I did sleep for almost 8 hours. Work begins in a few short hours. I'm looking forward to seeing the TCS campus. I'll write more later. Either tonight or in the morning depending on when I fall asleep.

Looking back at this post I laugh at the cobra comment. I had no idea they were serious. We climb over bushes and rocks. It wasn't until seeing the king cobra that I later realized we could have walk right past some and not known it. Cobras are active at night, not normally during the day. That is probably the only thing that saved us.

If I had a negative impression of India, this was probably the only day. The first temple really freaked us out. It was like being mobbed. After being there a month I look back at this day and wish we could have gone again. Some of what we experienced would have been different. I would have told them no to the sandals. I would have picked a different guide, and of course we would have avoided the whole ceremony. Be that as it may, it was still a good day. Some of my best photos came from the second temple we visited.

2007-05-08T21:11:00.000-05:00

Finally Arrived
Well I made it. Here I sit in my room this morning at the Sheraton in Chennai. I'm on the 24th floor and have a beautiful view of a rotting air conditioner duct on the building behind us. It's sweltering hot, much like Florida in the Summer time.
I'm hoping to get this posted today, but my room is, well, interesting. There is only wireless internet in certain spots of the hotel. They say I have a dataport, but I have yet to find it in the room. They also charge for the access. You would think given IT in this part of the world it would be wirless throughout the rooms and free. Especially in a "5 star" hotel. One thing I am learning, not every place of the world defines 5 stars the same.
Other details worth noting. United Business class rocks! We were on a newer 747 that was just terrific. My only complaint was that I wanted a manual for the consol controls. My MP3 player is easier to understand. Lufthansa was a good leg into Chennai, although they got my attention when we flew over Iraq and Iran airspace. Talk about praying you don't have to make an emergency landing. The only other two things worth noting was that the commuter plane from Charlotte to D.C. had slightly less headroom than a Chevy Camero, and the bathrooms on the last leg had full length mirrors that faced you when you were sitting on the toilet. Now maybe it's just me, but the last thing I want to be looking at is me, or anyone else, sitting on the toilet. I guess I'm just funny that way.
We are heading out in about an hour and a half to do some sight seeing as a group. We are heading down to 800+ year old temples. It will probably take the full day. I had about 4 hours of sleep last night. Before that I had probably a total of 5 hours between Thursday night when I went to bed, and 2am Sunday when I laid down to bed at the hotel. Now I'm waiting on Breakfast, that's dinner in the U.S. I'm having an "American" breakfast. I just can't take trying out new foods first thing in the morning.

Wow, what a day this would turn out to be. Driving into the hotel we could really tell nothing of the city. Chennai is a city in transition, old to new. So at night, as you drive through, you see lots of rubble along the way from the airport. All I could think at the time was that it reminded of places I saw while in New York. Once it became daylight and we started moving around, we could see more of the city. I remember thinking that Sunday that there were lots of people. However, by Monday I realized that there were only a few people out on Sunday.

2007-05-07T20:14:00.000-05:00

February 01
Just a few hours to go
Well, I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. I am still waiting for a phone call tonight to tell me all is reserved for our vacation. I still have some time though since I am there to work the first 10 days.

Earlier today I tried to print my e-tickets. Big mistake. First, it wouldn't allow me to confirm the leg from Germany to India. Instead it told me I would have to talk to a customer service rep. That sort of takes the whole e-ticket advantage away doesn't it? Then, it only printed the first of the three legs to what should have been an e-ticket, but no bar code would print out. No matter since I have to see the customer service rep anyway.

Here is our vacation plans, assuming all the reservations work out.

Bandipur/Kabini
http://www.junglelodges.com/resort_overview.asp?resort=Bandipur
http://www.junglelodges.com/resort_overview.asp?resort=Kabini

Coorg
This is booked. Here is where we are staying, and the type of cottage we are staying in:
http://trailsindia.com/cottage.asp?cottage_ID=4

Mysore
http://www.sandeshtheprince.com/home.htm

I will update the links as the other reservations are confirmed.

I thought for sure we would lose our reservations. Everyone was scrambling because of the last minute changes back and forth with whether or not we would go. If you ever go to India, visit these places. The jungle resorts and Coorg. still rank above Windsor Castle and the Sidney Opera House for me. They are up there with Craig's cabin in my book.

Namaste!

2007-05-07T19:55:00.001-05:00

Namaste once more! Many people said they missed out on the photos and blogs from our trip to India. As a result I finally got around to creating a new blog over on Google. To kick it off I am reposting each day my original blogs from India. Also, the Photos link contains all of our India photos. The good, bad, and fuzzy, for you enjoyment!