Tonja's Photo Blog

Goa again: Palolem

2011-11-23T21:21:00.001-08:00

We decided to spend November in Goa and to revisit beautiful Palolem.

The idea was to get a lot of work done in tropical surroundings, with a swim in the ocean every now and then.

That worked out quite nicely most of the time, though finding a (more or less) reliable internet connection was harder than expected.

We also met up with Abhideep (here in pirate look),

went on another dolphin tour

checked out spices at the market

and spied on a fancy Indian wedding at a nearby beach resort.

Manly

2011-02-19T23:54:00.001-08:00

Our lovely home. We live between Manly Cove (in the front of the picture, facing Sydney Harbour) and Manly Beach on the Pacific (in the back).

View of Manly Beach and neighbouring beaches from Sydney Harbour National Park.

Manly Cove

Little Penguin. There are a few penguin couples who spend their nights under the boardwalk of Manly Wharf.

A lot more numerous than the penguins: the beautiful and noisy rainbow lorikeets.

A short walk from Manly Cove along the Corso...

takes you to Manly Beach.

Beach fun with Annie and Steph

and Ruben.

Manly Beach is great for boogie boarding... (with Vincent)

...surfing... (Richard)

and celebrating Christmas (at the Manly Pub Crawl).

Mountain View

2009-05-29T16:43:00.001-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in ages but I will now make up for it, starting with the most recent events and working my way back till it's all here. Mountain View is a nice place for it. Douwe had to come here again for Google and I came along, hoping to see a lot of friends. Don't expect any interesting pictures of sights: this trip is all work and socialising.

Annie was also here for Google and spent her last day with us before she had to fly back to Zurich. She picked us up from the airport and drove with us and Emil to Napa Valley for some wine tasting. Since I had hardly slept on the plane it was not easy to stay awake with the warm weather and the wine, but it was fun anyway - especially dinner.

The next day, we met up with Alice and Helios for a very nice brunch and a visit to the Mountain View Street Fair.

One major highlight of my stay: a hike with Heather (who is as energetic as ever: even though we went up some serious hills, it was really more of a run than a hike)

and her sweet dog Baxter (also still very fit - and curious).

Fun Chinese dinner with Max, Lu, Debby,

Steven, Steph and (not in the picture:) Amy, Andy, Mieke.

Wine tasting party at Walt's place in San Francisco. At first, Douwe seemed a little worried about our lack of wine knowledge

but got a lot more confident in his wine tasting skills as the evening wore on.

Next day: Meeting up with Lina, Steve and little Ned for brunch.

In Palo Alto with Steve, Amy and Ned at their beautiful home.

No pictures, but still totally worth mentioning: dinner with Abhideep, dinner with Russell, dinner with Heather and Jim in San Francisco, dinner with Nicole, Mike and their family at their home in Los Gatos, lunch with My in San Jose, dinner with Simone and Enrique, beer with Brian, Lisa and David. It was great to see all of you!

Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park

2009-01-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

On a sunny Sunday, Casey took us to go on a hike in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, 25 km to the North of Sydney.

Casey appreciating a red gum tree.

Goanna hiding from us - unsuccessfully - by trying to be one with a tree.

Hawkesbury River

Cormorant

Banksia flowers...

are very popular with Rainbow Lorikeets.

Last Hyderabad post

2008-09-26T00:52:00.001-07:00

Our time in India has come to an end - we have moved to Sydney.
I will miss:
Abhideep, Apurva and Bhavna and their kids, and many other nice people we met through Google,

my German class, especially the hard core consisting of Aakanksha, Genevieve, Soumya, Yogesh, Ricky and Zareen. They were so much fun to be with, taught me a lot about Indian culture and became real friends.

Kshitij, hotel manager of the Balaji Residency, who very sweetly offered to teach me Hindi. He turned out to be a very good teacher and also taught me a lot about Indian culture. If I'd met him sooner, I'm sure I would be fluent by now!
He just told me the good news that he now has a healthy baby girl. Congratulations!

everyone at the Jayabheri apartment complex who made us feel at home and took good care of us, especially Ismail and all our drivers, Shyam, Visu and Lakshmi and their family, Ramarao and many others,

the kids at the Diya orphanage who were such a joy to be with. For more details on them please see the post "Charities" (especially if you feel like donating some money!),

all the friendly people we met on our travels who talked to us, helped us, shared their food with us and made us feel so welcome,

and all the weird things about India that make life so interesting. I'll miss some more than others, of course.

I will also miss the sight of women in beautiful saris and salwar kamiz.

Fortunately, I won't need to miss the good weather and Indian food because we should be able to get plenty of both in Sydney, too.

Goodbye, Hyderabad! Hallo, Sydney!
(Picture taken in the Blue Mountains not far from Sydney by Steph. That's Steph's hat, too.)

Charities

2008-09-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

In case you have been wondering what to do with your spare money, I'd like to draw your attention to two charities.

First of all, the Diya orphanage in Hyderabad.

The orphanage is for HIV-infected children and is run by the Freedom Foundation. They also run a small adjacent hospital (and many other charitable projects in India). For more information on the Freedom Foundation, please see http://www.thefreedomfoundation.org.

Some Googlers and their partners go there sometimes to play with the orphans since they don't get a lot of visitors otherwise. Douwe and I went a few times, too, and had a lot of fun with the children.

In the name of the children, I'd like to thank my sister Nicola for donating a big box of toys! They were much appreciated.

Unfortunately, the orphanage will have to move soon because the property owner won't renew their lease (there are a lot more profitable things you can do with ground in Hyderabad).

Another very good cause is the Rainbow Primary school in Hyderabad, a school built for poor children living in a slum. http://rainbowprimaryschool.blogspot.com
Even though state schools are free in India, many poor parents don't send their children (especially their daughters) to school since they can already earn a little money instead. At this school, the children receive a free lunch which is sometimes all it takes to make the parents send them there. A pre-school is being built, too.

Expat My teaching an English class for teachers at the school.

These kids do not go to the school (yet?), they are just hanging out and being cute.

Ganesh Chaturthi in Hyderabad

2008-09-05T20:12:00.001-07:00

Suddenly, the streets were full of people selling brightly coloured statues of Ganesh

in preparation for Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival in the god's honour.

People had erected a statue of Ganesh in the parking lot of our apartment complex. On the first day of the festival, we went there to check it out.

We were welcome to participate in the activities. A chanting priest doled out perfumed rice to throw at the statue, passed some holy fire around, gave us some sweet yoghurt to drink and collected donations. In the end, we got a whole meal - rice with vegetables, some sweet dessert and a banana.

My Hindi teacher had mentioned a huge Ganesh statue in the city - the biggest of all! We had to see that one, too.

There was a bit of a fun fair nearby, with a hand-activated merry-go-round.

Dressed up for the festival? Maybe, maybe not. Indian ladies and girls don't need a special occasion to wear festive clothing. Even beggars often wear pretty clothes and jewellery.

Shiva and (much smaller) Parvati - Ganesh's parents. Shiva is holding a sword - probably a reminder of how he cut off his son's head so that it had to be replaced with the head of an elephant. (In his defence, he didn't know it was his son at the time. A misunderstanding.)

Aurangabad

2008-09-05T19:04:00.001-07:00

Fort Daulatabad on the way from Ellora to Aurangabad. After a day of climbing hills and exploring temples, the 45 minute climb to the top didn't seem very appealing, so we skipped it. Which was probably just as well since it started to rain - a lot.

In Aurangabad, we visited Bibi-ka-Maqbara. It was built in 1679 by Aurangzeb, son of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. A lot smaller than the original, it's also referred to as mini Taj.

Built as a tomb for Aurangzeb's wife, it also served as a nice shelter from the rain for us and a lot of Indian tourists.

We amused ourselves the usual way by taking pictures of each other.

A little more solemn: a Muslim family.

Ellora

2008-09-05T18:14:00.001-07:00

After Ajanta, we went to Ellora. It has many rock temples similar to those of Ajanta, but there are not only Buddhist, but also Hindu and Jain temples.

The Kailashanatha temple is really breathtaking. It's huge, and it's hard to imagine that people cut it all out of massive rock.

Inside the temple complex.

Baya weaver weaving a nest from grass.

A professional photographer asked us to pose with his customers, well aware of the mysterious penchant of Indians for having their picture taken with us.

Printing the photos on the spot.

Jain temple

We, on the other hand, have a mysterious penchant for posing with elephants.

Ajanta

2008-09-05T17:15:00.001-07:00

On my birthday,

after a lot of nice surprises,

including lunch with friends at Little Italy,

we took the night train to Aurangabad and then a hired car to Ajanta.
Ajanta is famous for its Buddhist temples carved from rock (the curved rocky part in the picture is all temples). At breakfast, we were lucky to meet American professor Walter Spink, an expert on the temples. He gave us some useful tips and even very kindly offered us to use his shower!

A guide led us to the temples through beautiful nature with some attractive little detours. Much nicer than just driving up to them.

The temples were carved out of the rock between 200 BC and 600 AD (but most of the work seems to have been done around 480 AD). They were then forgotten for more than 1000 years and rediscovered in 1819.

Many of the temples are covered with paintings.

Myna

Jodhpur

2008-08-23T06:33:00.001-07:00

The Blue City

Overlooking Jodhpur: Fort Meherangarh, just as impressive as the fort in Jaisalmer.

Plenty of chipmunks had made the fort their home. This one had a snack while dangling from a tree.

The fort in Jaisalmer was strewn with litter, but here, everything was spick and span - and beautifully restored.

Carrying chair

In the ladies' section of the palace.

Near the fort, a dream in white marble: the Jaswant Thada memorial.

Jaisalmer

2008-08-23T03:41:00.000-07:00

Jaisalmer's Golden Fort is huge

and massive,

full of small crumbling streets

and starving dogs.

Many houses are decorated with paintings of Ganesh, the popular elephant-headed god.

Outside the fort: one of many beautiful Havelis - houses of rich merchants with delicate stone carvings.

Picture by a guide in the Patwon ki Haveli. By the way, if you need a reliable and well-informed riksha driver in Jaisalmer you can call Sachin, +919414761436. We were very pleased with him.

Inside a Haveli

A little outside the city: Bada Bagh, a memorial for the rulers of Jaisalmer - and their wives, who were burnt with them on the funeral pyre.

Our hotel

and our hotel room. Almost 300 years old and quite romantic.

In the early morning, we went to lake Gadi Sagar which was supposed to look pretty around sunrise.

It really did.

In the fort again: beautifully carved Jain Temple.

Raj Mahal (City Palace)

Another Jain temple near Jaisalmer.

We also went on a little camel trip,

but nor far enough to escape the crowds.

Udaipur

2008-08-23T03:02:00.001-07:00

Douwe and I went to Rajasthan for a long weekend. Our first stop was Udaipur. This is the Lake Palace in Lake Pichola.

Detail of Jagdish Temple

Modes of transportation: autoriksha or elephant, that is the question.

Another elephant: This one is on the wall of the City Palace.

Treasure room in the palace

Courtyard

View of the City Palace from the Lake

City gate

Night bus to Jaisalmer. In India, a night bus isn't full when all the seats are booked. After all, there's still plenty of space in the aisle.

The Nizam's Museum

2008-08-23T01:10:00.001-07:00

On a rainy Sunday, I went to the Nizam's Museum with Aakanksha, Zareen, Genevieve and Ricky (all in my German class). The Nizams were the fabulously rich rulers of Hyderabad and the museum displays objects that belonged to the sixth and seventh Nizam.

They charged a whopping 50 Rs per photo! I took these anyway, just for you.

Handwritten Koran

We went home by car and stayed nice and dry while others got their feet wet at the market.

Goa with Steph

2008-06-25T22:15:00.001-07:00

After our friend Steph had visited Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, she deserved a relaxing weekend in Goa. It was the beginning of the rainy season and Goa had changed into a less sunny but even more peaceful place.

Steph and Douwe had something to celebrate: 4 years at Google.

The water was still warm enough: Steph braving the waves.

When Douwe and I went to Colva beach a few years ago, it was lined with beach shacks offering food and drink. Now, there were hardly any and even those were about to disappear. Even the most sturdy looking and beautifully decorated places not only close up for the three rainy months but get totally taken apart and stored away - to be rebuilt in a matter of days at the beginning of the next season.

In the garden of our hotel in Cansaulim

Sunbird going for some nectar

Periyar National Park

2008-05-12T02:03:00.001-07:00

From Madurai, we went to Periyar National Park, a park in Kerala at the border with Tamil Nadu that has a lot of elephants. On the way, we made a little detour to a somewhat remote waterfall. We had expected to be pretty much the only ones there

but it turned out that a lot of locals use the waterfalls as a pleasant showering opportunity, bringing shampoo and everything.

The remote location meant an increased interest in Westerners and a lot of picture taking.

But then some of the locals looked pretty fascinating, too (please note the rather large ear holes of this lady).

Sunbird (feeds on nectar like the hummingbird). This one sat in our hotel garden near the National Park. Our first trip into the park was a three hour night walk (sorry, no pictures) that was quite interesting because our guide was amazing at spotting animals in near total darkness so we could admire them in the soft light of our flashlights. And we did not need any help spotting thousands of fireflies floating prettily in the dark.

Red-whiskered Bulbul (in the park). When our driver got quite excited about a sambar deer showing up really far away, we got a bit suspicious about the kind of animals we would get to see in this area of the park (there had been plenty of sambar deer in Ranthambore).

Nilgiri Langur

It was all quite pretty...

but where were the elephants? We thought it would be nice to see some Indian elephants frolicking in the wild rather than standing around in temples or carrying people.

Another langur. We decided to go to a different part of the park and take a boat tour.

The line for the boat tickets. The system was so inefficient that it hurt (with one man at the counter elaborately printing each ticket and closing the counter every now and then for an hour or so) but people took it with their usual grace and cheerfulness.

Finally!

Gaur (Indian Bison)

Deer

Great cormorant

Two elephants swimming

Good-bye!

Madurai

2008-05-12T01:45:00.001-07:00

Meenakshi Temple in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) is big, popular and quite old (parts of it are said to be older than 2000 years).

Unfortunately, most of towers where being renovated when we were there, but there was still plenty to see.

Inside the temple: detail of painted ceiling

The bats don't seem to mind the crowds in the temple.

Temple elephant collecting money in exchange for a "blessing" (a pat on the head with its trunk)

Camel making money by letting kids sit on it.

After a visit to the Gandhi Memorial Museum, we went to Tirumalai Nayak Palace from 1636.

Former dance hall.

Jaipur with Annie & Tadek

2008-04-25T23:53:00.002-07:00

My worst enemy

Pots in all shapes and sizes

City Palace (private audience hall)

Blocks for printing on fabric

In the palace

The Peacock Gate - one of four beautiful gates in the palace

Hawa Mahal

Who says construction workers should wear boring overalls?

Toddler on the dirty pavement (and that's Indian dirt we're talking about here, with generous helpings of animal feaces, spit and other nasty stuff).

Sharing an autoriksha to the airport.

Ranthambore National Park

2008-04-25T07:32:00.001-07:00

From Jaipur, we took the train to Sawai Madhopur to visit Ranthambore National Park

where all our tiger dreams came true.

Tiger food

Rufous Treepie

Gray langur

Banyan tree

Sambar Deer

Another peacock

Chital (Spotted Deer)

Rose-ringed parakeet

White-breasted Kingfisher

Ruddy Shelduck (Brahminy Duck)

Sambar Deer

Tiger tracks...

and another beautiful tiger. We are so lucky!

Same tiger relaxing in the evening sun.

Comfortable Crocodile

Around Jaipur with Annie & Tadek

2008-04-07T06:19:00.001-07:00

We met up with Annie & Tadek in Jaipur and went to beautiful Amber Fort.

Marble carvings at a temple near Amber Fort

Jal Mahal, the Water Palace

Hyderabad with Annie & Tadek

2008-04-07T05:35:00.001-07:00

Fine dining with our friend Annie from Zurich - after a little shopping trip facilitated by the fact that Tadek was only scheduled to arrive two days later.

They were shooting a movie at our pool just when we decided to go for a swim but that couldn't stop us.

Annie in our garden, preparing for some serious sightseeing.

But first - Sunday brunch with friends.

Taking a stroll around the Charminar.

Bangles, bangles, bangles.

Having dinner in the Google dining room in our apartment complex before Annie & Tadek fly to Delhi.

Mumbai (formerly Bombay) with HP

2008-03-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

Our Dutch friend Hans-Peter arrived on the day of the Holi festival when people paint and splash each other with coloured water.

After some sightseeing in Hyderabad, we flew to Mumbai (above: the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus).

Administrative building

Spices at a market

Chowpatty Beach

On the boat to Elephanta Island

Rock-cut temple on Elephanta Island

Catching up

Flea-picking session

View of Mumbai

Taj Mahal Hotel

Gateway of India

After another day in Hyderabad, Douwe and HP traveled to the Andaman Islands (photo by HP)

and to Mamallapuram (see earlier post), making the most out of six days in India.

Goa again

2008-03-05T22:03:00.001-08:00

This time with Douwe's parents.

And dolphins. (There's a baby dolphin in the middle.)

Benaulim Beach

The shells are perfect: pretty to look at but so small and yielding that they don't hurt your bare feet.

Sandpiper (not sure which kind)

Benaulim beach babes

Evening stroll with buffalo.

This buffalo preferred to enjoy the water without a leash and made a dash for it.

Sweet freedom

These fish weren't so lucky.

Another beach babe

Our lovely spice tour guide with a particularly mean sort of chili.

Betel nuts

Jack fruit

Star fruit

Refreshing elephant shower.

Palolem Beach

Early morning cricket game on Benaulim Beach.

Ramoji Film City

2008-02-28T23:31:00.001-08:00

Ramoji Fim City is a huge film production complex 25 km from Hyderabad. We went there with Douwe's parents after visiting Hyderabad's more traditional sites.

Fake Switzerland at a tourist ride.

Fake ancient city

Fake palace and - in the background - a fake Nordertor (Northern Gate). This landmark of Flensburg, my home town, is clearly more famous than I thought.
Nearby, we finally got a glimpse of the filming of an Indian musical (sorry, no pictures of that, just a short bootleg movie).

Dance show for the tourists

The monkeys were real.

Visakhapatnam, Araku Valley, Borra Caves

2008-02-20T04:18:00.001-08:00

Visakhapatnam's beaches weren't as inviting as we had hoped. Neither were the reasonably priced hotels.

So we checked into an expensive one. Totally worth it!

The next day, we went on a train ride to Araku Valley. It took about 5 hours but our friendly fellow travellers made the time fly by.

Papaya

We visited a small tribal museum and then got a chance to try our hands at archery ourselves.

Tribal dancing

Small Indian children sometimes have their faces painted with black dots and kohl, apparently to look less cute and avert the evil eye.

In the Borra Caves.

Google office

2008-02-14T05:54:00.001-08:00

Who cares about old temples - show us pictures of the Google office!

An all-important training of the brain.

I guess it can't compete with the new Zurich office but it's pretty nice, too.

Lots of excellent food - Indian and other cuisines, including sandwiches of your choice and Italian pasta prepared for you right on the spot.

Hours at the computer and plenty of food are balanced with a little workout. Or not.

Warangal and surroundings

2008-02-04T05:01:00.000-08:00

Another Nandi. This one is in Hanamkonda at the Thousand Pillars Temple.

We made a lot of new friends there. Girls...

...and guys.

Ruins of the Shiva temple at Warangal's fort.

They are really good at making Nandis in this country.

And elephants. Big ones...

and small ones.

A resting Douwe makes for a very good trunk.

At Bhadrakali Temple

Near Badhrakali Temple, we met a school class from the Gowtham Model School on an outing.

These kids are all in one class! They wanted to know about our home countries and how we liked India. Well - a lot!

You can never have enough Nandis.

Old Town

2008-02-04T03:48:00.000-08:00

Again: the Charminar. Half way up, there is a platform from which you have a nice view over the surroundings. A wonderful spot for spying on the people below.

Sugar cane press

Bicycle riksha - apparently a good place to do your homework.

It's quite scary what kind of loads people transport on bicycle rikshas, surrounded by crazy traffic. The thinner the cyclist, the bigger the load seems to be the rule.

Chowmahalla Palace

2008-02-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

The Nizams, the rulers of Hyderabad, used to live in this palace. Parts of it are now a museum.

Corocodile Park

2008-01-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Egret

Common Kingfisher

Mammalapuram

2008-01-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

Shore Temple

Littering is a problem. The pigs don't mind.

Five Rathas

Rose-ringed Parakeet. Lots of those fly around in some European cities these days, too (e.g. in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam).

Nandi (Shiva's bull)

Arjuna's Penance

Fishing boats

Golkonda Fort

2008-01-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

This impressive fort is situated 11 kilometres from Hyderabad.

Little Green Bee-Eater

Publish Post

Goa

2008-01-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

Tadek, need we say more? Come visit.

Who needs grass when you can bring your picknick to the beach in your stomach?

Indian girls keep their clothes on when they go bathing, but that doesn't diminish the fun.

It's not all Muslim

2008-01-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

And not all Hindu either: spot Jesus.

Hindu temple near our guest house

First Impressions: The Charminar

2008-01-12T18:37:00.000-08:00

On our first day, we took an autoriksha to the Old Town and saw the Charminar. Around it are bustling streets with plenty of shops and a busy fruit market.