Day 8: From Chennai to Coimbatore and Erode

First of all, happy birthday to my father who would be 90 years old today. To wish him happy birthday, I will say: Hip hei!


Our first farm visit at Mr. Naachamutu's farm. Baskar, Ramesh and Mr. Manny talking with Rod.


Rod helping Alex to open a Moringa vegetable pod.


We had a full day today here in Coimbatore. We flew in from Chennai this morning and Mr. Manny and his crew picked us up at the airport. Mr. Manny is a Zija vendor who provides them with Moringa. We drove to the hotel Poppys and then straight to 2 farms that were 2.5 hours away from Tirupur. The first farms was about 8-10 hectars and mainly grew Moringa and coconuts. The second farm grew Moringa and mangos. After visiting the farms, it was sunset and we had to get back to Tirupur. We drove to another hotel named Velan where we had a great prawns, chicken and lamb dinner. Then back to our hotel at 11pm where we went skinny dipping in our private pool.


Alex at the second Moringa farm.


A woman carrying sticks on her head.


Time for refreshments. Our host hopped on his motorcycle and went to get fresh coconuts for us to drink and eat. Then gave them to his worker, who prepared them for us. So delicious and the flesh was soft inside.


The worker's little son who was so shy. He wouldn't look at me at all. Finally, Rod offered him a piece of gum and he might have looked at Rod then.


Alex swimming in our private pool at the hotel.


Tomorrow, more farms visits and we meet Mr. Manny's rest of the family.

Day 7: Mamallapuram-Mahabalipuram

Today our driver took us to Mamallapuram which was an hour away from Chennai. Mamallapuram is right by the beach and its history dates all the way back to 600 AD. We picked up our tour guide and then started touring the temples/monuments.

Alex is holding this huge rock all by himself. Even 6 elephants couldn't pull this rock down. It has something to do with gravity.

Another scorcher of a day. 90+ and 90% humidity.

A monument that dates back to 600 AD. This whole place is carved out of one single rock, from top to bottom. This depicts the 3 gods: Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma.

Five Ratas monument dates back to 630 AD and it took 38 years to "build" or chisel out, and there were over 1000 people working on these ratas=chariots.

Alex at the Shore Temple. This was built from bottom up during 700-725 AD.

Then it was time for late lunch. We drove to the Fisherman's Cove at the Taj Hotel. Rod ordered "Dosa".

Alex and I fell in love with Kulfi, which is a typical Chennai dessert made of milk, pistachio and almond paste and has cardamon in it. Then it is frozen and eaten like ice cream. This was served to us with Hallawah. So super yummy! Dare I say that it tastes better than regular ice cream?

My two handsome men at the beach.

Handsome Alex at the beach. I love this boy!

Tomorrow we travel to Coimbatore and Erode to check out the Zija farms.

Day 6: From New Delhi to Chennai

We arrived from New Delhi to Chennai this afternoon after a delay in New Delhi. Our driver was waiting at the airport to take us to the hotel.

A few things we love about Chennai already:

-Massage chair in our room. Alex immediately sat in it and didn't want to move.
-Silk, silk and more silk. I bought 18 meters of different color raw silk. $4/yard. Lydia is going to be busy with the silk soon.
-True Indian continuos dinner with a business partner and friend. Deepak met us for dinner and we spent 2 lovely hours with him eating the most exciting foods of Southern India. Can't tell you what everything was. The favorite was the Indian ice-cream dessert with pistachios and cardamom.

Tomorrow we tour Mahabalipuram and its temples and beaches.


The king and his throne.


Alex is ready to eat with his hands. He is not sure what he is eating but he knows he loves every bit of it.



Deepak and Alex at the end of the dinner.

Day 5: Agra-Taj Mahal

Let me just start staying:"HOLY MOTHER, IT'S HOT OUT HERE!!!"

I'm not sure how to describe our day in Agra. The drive took about 4 hours to get there, and along the way, it was just the saddest scenes after scenes. We were able to view the poorest of the poor to just survive...every moment of their lives. 6 year old boys with their little brother or sister in their arms knocking on our car window, begging. How do you even start understanding this? Or the madness and utter chaos of the traffic? The gratefulness that I feel towards EVERYTHING I have in my life. Even as simple as turning on/off the lights when I witnessed whole sections of the city dark after sunset because there was no electricity, or maybe a single fluorescent light bulb or a dim oil lamp hanging here and there. How about grateful for my comfortable bed when people were sleeping in the median of the major highway or on a cot under a tree by the side of the street. How about those mud houses that were part of the landscape in the countryside. How do you wrap your mind around everything? I don't have an answer. I just feel sad, yet so grateful for my life that I will never complain about anything ever again. The scenes and sounds are too painful, although the people seemed happy and smiling. Maybe they don't have an understanding what we have, and can't wrap their minds around that.



Alex at the Taj Mahal, pinching the top of the Taj.


The Larsen's at the Taj Mahal. An incredible place that words can't describe. You have to come and experience it yourself.

Namaste. Tomorrow, Chennai.

Day 4: From Paris to New Delhi

We arrived to this poorly heated sauna, known as New Delhi at 10:30pm tonight. All the airport workers wore face masks and even before we got to the passport check, we got checked out by the medical personnel for fever and other symptoms. We got no stinking symptoms. Then we met our driver who had driven from the Sheraton hotel to pick us up and had to wait for him to get his car from the parking lot because he was totally boxed in.

The drive to the hotel started. 40 minutes. Locked car doors. People staring at the white bald guy. We finally got to the hotel after viewing a herd of cows by the side of the road. After entering the hotel gates, Ali Baba and his 4 friends stopped the car, jacked it up, checked under the hood and the trunk for thieves, I guess. No thieves were found and we were free to go and to check in...of course after a metal detector and the bags had to put through the bag scanner.

Our hotel room is super nice and we will have 5 hours of sleep before we leave to drive (3 hours) to Agra and to Taj Mahal. No, we are not driving. We hired a driver from the hotel and will meet a tour guide in Agra. Short night, but worth it.

More sounds and smells from our travels. Until then...let's glisten in India.


Marja and Rod at the airport waiting for our driver. Even the camera got steamy.


Alex is "glistening" in the New Delhi night.

Day 3 in Paris

Day 3 was spent in Versailles. The.whole.day.


After the tour inside the palace, we went to the gardens. I think this was one of the most lovely places on earth that I have ever seen.


We had pizza before renting our bikes, and I was drinking an orange drink from a can, and to my surprise, a bee had gone inside the can. When I swallowed the last of the drink, the bee came out and bit me on the lip. It stung so bad. Can you see my swollen lip. I felt like Angelina Jolie for the rest of the day.


We rented bikes because it was faster to get around the gardens. They were so HUGE! Miles and miles of land. We are on our way to the "Petit Trianon".

Alex and Rod biking along the pathways. One section was about 1/2 mile long. We figured that we biked about 4 miles.

Rod and I at the Temple of Love (in the background).

Just outside of Marie Antoinette's place, there was a lovely field of sunflowers...with buzzing bees.

After finishing the whole tour at the Palace, we took the train back to the city. We got off at the Eiffel Tower and went to find a place to eat.

At the RIBE, we ate:

Escargot with a garlic herb butter. Can't leave Paris without eating snails first.

Both Rod and I ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato salad. It was SO delicious!

Alex is eating the escargot. He loved it too.

This was Alex's favorite dessert, crepes with strawberry jam.

4 miles walked today

Tomorrow: New Delhi, India

Au Revoir France! C'est tres magnifique!

Day 2 in Paris

Day 2 in Paris:

Louvre
Champs Elysees
Arc de Triomphe
Seine


Marja Liisa and Mona Lisa


"I want Gum Gum"



Waiter at the Louvre with a heavily hairsprayed Mullet

Beignets de sucre and Diet Coke (no ice)at the Louvre Cafe

248 steps later, we made it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Alex has triumphed!

We tried to go to D'Chez Eux for typical French dinner but it was closed until Monday. We kept walking and found "Le Tanney". We looked at the menu and it was all in French. A nice owner of the place came over who didn't speak English. Luckily we had Alex with us and he was able to translate some of the conversations. Although we weren't sure what we ordered, everything was so delicious. 2.5 hours later we left the restaurant totally satisfied.

Marja's "Bar Portion Grille". Wasn't sure what I was getting. But this is what was brought to me with Parmesan Risotto. This whole meal was delicious.

"Encourtes farcis a la Plancha" is what Rod ordered. Rod:"Looks like some kind of bird". I thought that it was possibly a duck leg. After tasting, Rod realized that it was stuffed squid.

Alex's favorite dessert: Creme Brulee.

Walked 4-5 miles today.

Tomorrow: Versailles

Paris: Day 1

Day 1 in Paris:

Notre Dame
The Louvre
The Eiffel Tower

and everything in between the sights.



Alex and Marja in front of the Notre Dame


Typical Frenchmen


The Louvre


Nostrils at the Eiffel Tower


Marja and Rod at the Eiffel Tower, 2nd level. Yep, it was super windy.


The crowning moment came at the end of the day when we saw the Eiffel Tower light up.

Meatballs are all packed in my suitcase

I'm definitely packing meatballs to take with me on our trip, like a good Finn that I am. Why, some may ask, but if you are a fellow Finn, born before 1970s, you might even understand why I would do such a silly thing. Let me explain the history of packing meatballs in your suitcase when you go on a trip.

When the Finns, from the 1970s on, started really traveling to the south, like Spain, Italy or Greece in the middle of the harshest and darkest winter time, they quickly realized when arriving to these countries that the cuisine was not like at home. The food was spicy when they were used to bland. There was a lot of weird food that they had never even seen, like squid or octopus or olives. Now who could ever put something like that into their mouths, let alone survive a week with it.

And this is where the meatballs entered many suitcases that traveled to the holiday destination for decades.

There they were, common housewives cooking in their "condominiums", cracking open a can of meatballs (yes, you can buy meatballs in a can in Finland) and happy husbands in their hangover stupor would devour the most common Finnish food stuff during their lovely "Roman Holiday". Heaven forbid if they were going to try something different and extraordinary. You might get sick or even like it.

Because I couldn't find meatballs in a can in our grocery store, I opted for granola bars and beef jerky. I think 3 people can survive India for 7 days with that...and Pepto Bismol.

My Baby, the Freshman

Alex started his freshman year in high school this morning. From now on every grade counts towards college. Scary thought. Good luck Alex this year. You will do great!