Haven’t posted in a while… but I told you I only like to write about the fun stuff! Anyway, Prachee has been diligently carrying her camera around since we got back from the US. An album of mostly random photos of our summer in Bangalore. I’ll keep adding more in the future until “summer” is over!

Album Link for Facebook Users: Bangalore - Summer 2008

Spent a couple weeks in the States seeing family and friends. This time we bounced between Washington DC, San Francisco and San Diego. I guess we are of the age that our friends, siblings, cousins, etc. are all having babies… so lots of baby pictures in this album. As per my previous post, I did become an Uncle recently, so this trip was also an opportunity to meet Santiago - barely a few weeks old when we arrived!

DC was lots of fun as usual… we met up with some of Prachee’s friends from College and since Saurabh was in town it meant the whole Date family was in one place for a change . Vivek & Shobha also hosted a small party for their Maryland friends who were not able to attend our wedding (in 2005). So I think with that last party, that concludes our “wedding functions” - 2.5 years later!

San Diego was chill as usual. Saw Becky & Ron plus had the prerequisite Uruguay-Argentina BBQ lunch. Claire & Jackie came down from LA and we had some quality family time.

Album Link for Facebook users: US Home Leave 2008

The start of the low season on May 1st means that the tourists are gone and prices are half - no better reasons to get away to the beach! In 2004 we got away to Goa for a few days of relaxation at the end of our family visit and wedding shopping trip to India. We stayed at a resort in South Goa which was great for relaxation, but we couldn’t really say we saw much other than the hotel beach & pool.

On this trip, we decided to head north where Goa’s most well known beaches are located and we opted out of the resort for a great “B&B” in the little village of Siolim. It’s appropriately called the Siolim House and it is a restored Portuguese Mansion a few miles inland. Not being next to the beach was great for a couple of reasons, first of all, we saw 6 different beaches in 4 days and secondly, we had a great dinner at a different place each night. This was the last trip with Bob & Heather as they are heading back Stateside at the end of May - we’ll miss you guys!

Sun, sand and great seafood were definitely all prominent parts of the weekend, but the highlight in my opinion were the scooters! Since the B&B was a few miles from the beach we rented some scooters to get around. It was truly the best way to see Goa - the sun, the wind, the fantastic scenery rushing by! It was also freeing to go wherever you want, whenever you want to - something that in India sometimes is hard to do! The grins on our faces probably say it better than I could.

Today I became an uncle or tio (Uruguay) or kaka (India)! Santiago Gabriel Vignoles was born in San Francisco on May 16. Mom, Dad & Santiago are all doing well. Get to see him soon when we are in the US at the end of the month!

One of the great things about being in India is that we’re only a short flight away from Pune and Prachee’s grandparents. This year we decided to again visit Aai & Papa for Gudi Padwa - before Pune gets too hot! A few pics from the weekend.

It has been quite a while since Prachee and I have been to a country neither had traveled to before – I think the last time was Morocco in 2005. It reminds me of my first trip to India, looking at things with a fresh perspective and amusing the locals with “strange” observations.

If at all possible, I like to travel to a place and live like the “locals” – there are always the “must do” sites in every country, but the more tourist traps I can avoid, the better the trip will be. So when Craig suggested doing this trip we jumped at the opportunity to see the Philippines with locals (Grace was born in the Philippines and lived there many years; Craig amuses the locals with his fluent Tagalog).

Grace’s family were wonderful hosts, putting us up in their house while in Manila, making us feel welcome at several family dinners and events and of course feeding us until ready to burst - that’s just the Filipino way! The first night we checked out some of the Manila Nightlife hanging out with some of Craig & Grace’s friends and seeing a local band (Aura). We didn’t go too crazy though as we had an early 7 am flight the next morning to the Island of Palawan and the El Nido Resort of Lagen.

The pictures don’t do justice to the natural beauty of Palawan and the Bacuit Archipelago specifically, which is where the resort is located. The limestone cliffs rise dramatically out of water that ranges in color from light green to deep blue. We did some hiking through the jungle, kayaking, island hopping and a lot of eating! We’d highly recommend either of the El Nido Resorts (Lagen or Miniloc) for anyone looking for a getaway to a spectacular place that has not achieved the renown of similar types of resorts in Thailand or even the Maldives. Be forewarned that the price of this unspoilt paradise is one hairy propeller plane ride ending in a dirt airfield that seems carved out of the jungle. Just check out the pictures, there is no point in me trying to describe the place.

We tried to extend our stay by one more night at El Nido, but everything was booked solid by an offsite of a Belgian Insurance company (in hindsight we might have gotten out just in time!). Back in Manila we dedicated ourselves to shopping and some more eating. On Tuesday evening, Lola (Grace’s grandmother), invited us to go Ballroom dancing. Yeah, I know, it’s not in the Lonely Planet, but remember what I said about living like locals… so off we went. The room was massive with a live band in the middle and full of gyrating 80+ year old women with their 20 something old “DI’s” - that’s Dance Instructor in Pilipino. Even before we’d had our first beer, Craig, Grace, Prachee and I were coaxed onto the dance floor and proceeded to be out Rumba’d, out Waltz’d and generally embarrassed ourselves. Having “danced” my plan was to attract as little attention as possible while ordering round after round of San Miguel Pales (local beer), but Lola had other ideas. Soon enough Craig and I as well as the girls were assigned our “Shared DI’s” (one man and one woman) and alternated between dancing and drinking. I must admit, dancing with someone who knows what their doing (even if she was doing all the leading…) was a lot of fun.  After about 3 hours of dancing we called it a night knowing that was a once in a lifetime experience.

Between all the shopping and eating we also managed to do a bit more sightseeing and even some exercising (sort of). We headed south of Manila through the heavy traffic to see Taal, the world’s “smallest” volcano and to play a round of golf at the Tagaytai Highlands Country Club. To get to the Volcano you have to take a boat ride on the lake that surrounds it and if you want to go to the rim it requires a one hour horse ride. We opted just to take some pictures and head to the Country Club for lunch. The Highlands golf course is striking as it winds down the hillside and offers breathtaking views from just about every tee. It also doesn’t allow much room for error as the narrow fairways are lined both sides by thick jungle and brush - good thing we bought a bunch of used balls at the caddy stand! Being a total golf hack it was fun to play with a caddy as they know the course and give you pointers that really do make a difference. I was even lucky enough to win a sleeve of balls for hitting the “flower planter” on hole #4 which has a dramatic 500 ft drop from tee box to fairway.

As usually happens with vacation, the time went by too fast and we were rushing through some last minute shopping on our way to the airport! We had a fantastic time, thanks to Craig & Grace for hosting us - hopefully next trip for the four of us will be Uruguay in ‘09.

Since Claire & Jackie were leaving back to the US from Delhi we took the opportunity to see the capital city and the famed Taj Mahal in the nearby city of Agra. Craig & Grace were starting their trip in India and joined us for the weekend as well!

I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but there are a couple of things I would like to mention. First, I’d like to give out our hotel info because it was incredibly hard to find a decently priced room in Delhi - it might be worse than Bangalore! We stayed at the Hotel Express 66, which was basic, but clean and comfortable and came in on budget at ~U$100. I’d recommend it for what it is, a basic hotel in a very central location (near Delhi Railway station). However, be advised that the area that surrounds the hotel is rather dodgy - just consider it a cultural experience!

Secondly, I would like others not to make the same mistake we did and book train tickets to Agra (Taj Mahal) on Fridays - the one day the “monument to love” is closed! Yes, I should have read the guide book and should have been even more suspicious when train tickets were available, but that is life! So in the end we saw the Taj Mahal on Saturday after a 5 hour grueling car ride (each way) with “Mr. Honk Happy” our driver. All I have to say is, learn from our mistakes, book the train (Shatabdi Express) 90 days in advance - any day but Friday.

Enjoy the pictures - the Taj Mahal must be the most photographed building in the world, and we added to the cause. I’ll also include the direct link to the sub-album “People of Chandni Chowk”. I had my camera out while the girls were shopping and got some pictures of people going about their daily lives in Old Delhi’s unique shopping district. It is a warren of streets teeming with people, livestock, motorcycles and cycle rickshaws.

The official visitors season for 2008 opened up in early February with the arrival of our friends Sara, Ale & Steffi. A few days after they left my sister Claire and her boyfriend Jackie arrived in Bangalore, followed by Craig and Grace, friends from our days at Toyota a week later.

We’ve been telling friends and family to come for a visit since we arrived a little over a year ago, but I guess it took some time to put plans into action – you can’t travel half way across the world on a whim! For those of you still thinking about coming over for a visit, book those tickets… while I can’t say how much longer we’ll be here, our time in Bangalore is finite.

Sara, Prachee’s roommate from college, was coming to spend a month in Delhi and decided to start off her trip to India with a brief visit to Bangalore. We took it easy as she was acclimating to India and she joined our weekday routine during her 3 day stay.

Ale & Steffi spent their first few days exploring Bangalore. Unfortunately, during the week, Prachee and I were busy with work so we’d meet up in the evenings to sample some great Indian food as well as some of our favorite restaurants in Bangalore. On the weekend, Steffi was on a shopping mission so we hit some of Prachee’s favorite stores like Anokhi and Soma. We also went to Russel Market and Richards Square, Bangalore’s traditional shopping areas. Ale & Steffi capped off their India trip with a few days in Kerala – check out their photos

Claire & Jackie arrived after an epic 42 hour (incl layovers) journey through Hong Kong and Delhi. Our first stop on the way home from the airport was the Sukh Sagar, one of my favorite local restaurants for a traditional South Indian breakfast of Idli Sambar and Dosas. Wanting to make the most of their trip, they took off for a 2 day trip to Mysore… seeing even more than we did on our recent weekend trip. Back in Bangalore it was another shopping bonanza on Commercial Street and the perennially favorite Anokhi (we’ve noticed that this whole shopping thing is a common theme amongst our visitors). Claire and Jackie were off to Varanasi for a few days before we would meet up with them again in Delhi.

Craig and Grace arrived a day after Claire and Jackie, so the vacancy sign at the Vignoles Inn wasn’t up for long. We didn’t get to do much in Bangalore as a day later we all took a flight to Delhi where we met up with Claire and Jackie. Check out the Delhi Weekend post for pictures and more details. Claire and Jackie headed back home on Sunday and Craig and Grace returned with us to Bangalore. They went off to see Mysore and Ooty (a hill station with tea estates) for 3 days. Then back to explore Bangalore for a couple of days before we all head off to the Philippines for a week. Check for the Philippines post soon!
So we are not expecting any visitors right now… at least that we know of! The summer hot season is on its way followed by the monsoon. While those might not be the best times of year to visit India, there are some upsides: mango season plus cheap airfare and hotels (for your side trips). The bonus is that Bangalore doesn’t get that hot, we only get a few days of 35C plus weather and the monsoon only affects us in evenings for a couple of hours. Hope all is well and hope to see you in Bangalore soon!

Hard to believe a whole year has passed already - since our arrival last year on February 14, Valentine’s day is also our “India anniversary!” The weather is already starting to warm up, and if we needed any more excuses to have a party, I recently finished building my outdoor “Tiki” bar! Anyway, the beautiful sunshine meant a Sunday BBQ was in order.

The tile “roof” our landlord had installed and the Tiki Bar now complete our terrace and we hope to have many outdoor BBQs and at least a couple more India Anniversaries! Check out the pictures.

IBLR’s kickoff 2008 party was at “Ivy, the Unwind Island” and it made me realize just how big the team has gotten! I have trouble remembering all the names. Nawaf, Anna, Jon & Kim were also in town for business, so it was great to get to catch up with them as their last trip was over 5 months ago. With the team growing in size, they have plenty of local interviewers, therefore we don’t see the San Bruno folks as often anymore.

Pete took some great pictures and posted them on his Mac Picture Album, check them out: IBLR Kickoff 2008 Party.