On the Move

  • Postscript from Vancouver: replies and thoughts

    I arrived home following 36 hours of traveling surprisingly free of jet lag.  So far… After unpacking and making a dent in my pile of dirty laundry, I walked with my shopping cart – yes, at home I am a little old lady with a shopping cart! – six blocks to Safeway for groceries.  Not once…

  • Mumbai Day 1: travel and re-entry to the West

    I sadly bid good-bye to my new friends earlier today and set out in a cab for the Cochin airport. My cab driver was a real chatty Cathy and filled me in on all kinds of sociological phenomena Shagzil overlooked. (Just kidding Shagzil!)

  • Cochin Day 1: shopping and good-byes

    We have arrived at our final stop on this tour, Cochin on the Arabian Sea.  It sounds so exotic and looks a little that way too.  There are Chinese fishing nets, called so because the method of fishing comes from the Chinese not because the Chinese are here fishing.  The nets are strung on several…

  • Alleppey Days 1 and 2: houseboats and decadence

    What a lovely two days we have had! The road from Palakkad to Thottapally took us past Shagzil’s home so we stopped and had lunch with his family: his beautiful wife Shareen, his two darling daughters, his mother and father, his wife’s sister and brothers, and there may have been others as well.

  • Palakkad Day 2: celebrations and elephants

    Oh my goodness.  I was planning to tell you what I learned about Ayurvedic medicine until this afternoon’s activity trumped all else. This afternoon we went to a religious festival.  A woman and her husband had been trying unsuccessfully to have a child.  They prayed to their chosen god for a child and promised that if the god would answer their…

  • Palakkad Day 1: driving and wellness

    Wayanad to Palakkad – breakfast till lunch. It was a great plan but India got in the way. The road we were going to take was closed (don’t know why) so we had to take a detour over the mountains of Tamil Nadu. The drive was beautiful but very slow and we arrived at our…