Flood of Pics

Hello I'm back. Felicia is working on apost of her own right now, so please forgive us if there are duplicate photos.

First: I am alive. And, I got to shave! The loveley and talented, soon to be Dr Gomez in her own right, proved deft with scissor and tweeser, and successfully removed my stitches. Oh joy. So, you will all be able to tell the pre and post pics. Man, that scruff was driving me crazy in this heat.

I'm going to start out w/ some left over pics from Vellore I never posted.

This guy is sharpenning scissors in the marketplace.

The fancy shmancy hotel (or at least the closest facismileto one) in Vellore had this mural covering the wall in its restaurant. Now, I may be a culturally insensitive American, but I think I know one Indian from another.

Menus in Vellore were also goofy. For chicken dishes, the heading would be "Cock-a-doodle-doo" Seriously. I forgot to get a pic of that. Enjoy the description of the typical "American Meat Salad". Yum.

Well, its no Cock-a-doodle-doo, but why does a butler need a salamander. Under a pizza?

So, we have moved on from Fort Cochin. I will not be defeat by thins nation. First off, lets tally this up. In 3.5 weeks, I have had 2 GI problems requiring fasting and antibiotics the most recent one really brutal), plus a car wreck involving a concussion, what i believe to be fractured ribs (I still fall to my knees when I sneeze, it really hurts sometimes), a deep laceration requiring stitches to my face, and other assorted scars. The other day I felt so bad that I started counting down the days until we left. But I feel a lot better now, so here we go! I have some more pics from Delhi and Agra.

On the way to Agra we passed a wedding procession. I actually got out and danced like a fool with the drummers. This is what they thought as we moved on.

We saw about 10 tombs in 1.5 days. This was one of them . I forget who is in here (sorry).

Another neat looking tomb, either in Delhi or Agra, of somebody famous and now dead.

Felicia, as always, drew a crowd. In many touristy places, everyone wanted a picture with her. It was funny at first, and then I think it started to get old.

Felicia explores Agra Fort.

Felicia in the public hall at Agra Fort.

Agra Fort again. I really liked the red stone. This place is still 60% occupied and used actively by the Indian Army.

B&W version of the previous pic.

Walls and moat of Agra Fort.

Veiw as you enter the main court to the Taj Mahal. Pretty sweet.

We stayed at Fort Cochin 3 nights. Finally got me out of the house on the last night, to go see the local dances. These are incredibly ritualized, the closest thing I could conceive of comparing them to would be Kabuki in Japan. It was really neat, and even though it is the off-season and there were maybe 15 people in the audience, the troupe was took their work seriously and were very impressive. This is an art form native to Kerala (the state on the southwest coast where we will be for the next week). It is called Kathakali.

This is a Kathakali guy dressed up as some demon king. Pretty detailed story told only through dance and music. If you get to the show hall early you get to watch him put on his makeup. Only men perform this (in both male and female roles).

Well, this AM we bid farewell to Cochin, and made it down to Alleppey (a.k.a Allappuzha) by 10AM. We are staying at the Malayalam Lake Resort. It is impossible to find, and I only heard about it on an internet message board. I am already impressed. Yeah, its basic. No screens in the windows (lots of DEET at night), no TV, open air bathroom/shower, but it is right on a canal, incredibly relaxed and peaceful, and the staff are very nice. They brought me some ginger juice and mango to help my stomach. And they gave us a canoe to cruise around in this afternoon. We will be here 2 nights, then spend a night on a houseboat, before heading down to Trivandrum. Alleppey is not bad at all, except lots of people bug you to take a ride in their houseboat or backwater tour. No thanks, we're getting that taken care of already.

Be it ever so humble.....

Here's Felicia chilling out on the little day-bed that sits over the water. So stressfull....

Well, thats all for now. We'll keep on keepin' on. I now have to try to work on graduation stuff and apparently my intern-year schedule all from India, so this is a little goofy, but whatever.

See you soon! -chris