Not your Grandma's picnic

Dawn breaks on Dabhosa. We are told these falls are the largest in India. We were also told it would take 3 hours to get here. Like Gilligans Island, a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour. we arrive 7 hours later....After 7 hours of ORCHID singing Bollywood songs we all slept well.
This is my first sight of the falls in the morning. I envisioned going over them in a barrel or possibly a mango cart or rickshaw. We had been told it would be a picnic, but I have been on Indian picnics before.......

This is the magic bus. Nuff said.

These signs were proof there was civilization somewhere close by.

Sundar and Bhargav discussing how scared they were to make the descent into the canyon. Both openly confessed they wanted their mommies.

This guy obviously played poker too long the night before and was trying to remember how much money he had brought because he had nothing left in the morning.....

Tim bunked with Mike, I bunked with Bhargav. No we had separate beds, at least Bhargav and I did. Sometime in the night i awoke to something being killed outside the bungalow. No idea what but from the screams it was a grizzly death. A half hour later a freakin mouse ran up my leg. A squirrel would have made more sense..........Bhargav hysterically laughed
himself back to sleep. It could only happen to me. Obviously Bhargav is challenged by sleeping lengthwise in a bed. Maybe the mouse moved him, no idea , but this is how Tim and I found him after we enjoyed our coffee, which was brought to us precisely at 6:00am accompanied by constant ringing of our door bells. Cruel and unusual punishment of which I blame Satish and Sundar.

Me and Dabhosa. For some reason I thought of the Jolly Green Giant after several beers at a local pub..

I have no idea what the hell happened to this picture

Satish, Sundar and Suchit. They looked so excited to be the last ones to arrive to the bottom

Sandesh with the waterfall in the background. Sandesh and I were the first ones down to the base. I think they told him to keep an eye on the old man and possibly if I fell to step aside and let me roll to my death

Tim was cheerful the whole trip. I don't know what he was 'smokin' but he did have a big bag of goody pills claiming they were malaria pills and other "health" supplements. Anyone remember "ludes"???lol.

Thirupathi (not sure if I spelled this correct so forgive me) . I liked the t-shirt

I thought possibly Moses saw this as the burning bush some years ago and it had grown back.

I had a seizure. No big deal, brought some Vimpat with me.

Relaxing at the base of the waterfall.

Everyone loves to be photographed.

I mean everyone.

Bhargav seemed happy to make it to the top, right after I took the picture he slipped and rolled all the way back down.

Bhargav repelling across the valley

Dipti replelling across the valley

At first only the strong and only the men were willing to go across, but for some reason when this old dude went across all the women were shamed into following.

Mike performing. There was talk he had once been in a travelling circus.

Satish said this was just like escaping from his old apartment during the last floods in Mumbai.

Sundar had nothing to lose. I was surprised the rope could hold him as it was obvious he had gained all the weight back that he had lost last year.

Varsha said that after working with Brigitte on phase ones this was a piece of cake.

Again, Tim was just giddy and reckless all at the same time. Look Ma, no hands!!! He thought he saw a moose.

Yatin looks bewildered in this team building game where you had to avoid "bombs", predetermined squares that if you stepped on them you had to go back to the beginning and start again.

Sundar was just lost, he spun around like a top out of control. LA LALA RA RARA LALALALA RARARA. LOL.

The winners of the "memory" game. I was on Sunitas team, I think we came in second. The other teams cheated. We had them beat with clap clap clap. bow bowbow caw cawcaw meow QUACK!! LOL you had to be there.....

These 3 are trouble. Gargi, Tejal and Varsha.

The ladies.

The men.

ORCHID.

I had a great time. As did everyone. I missed taking pictures of the kayak races which were hilarious as some were in competition with the snakes.....

There was also a night walk where the people from the camp tried to scare the team. I think Sundar had to change his shorts after that. But all was well, we returned the next day to Mumbai. It was nice to spend a weekend without the honking of horns or the threat of being run over by an auto-rickshaw.

Hello RTP, I miss you all......yes Christy I said all...LOL.

Bilu

Below are some pictures of our Christmas in North Carolina

Me and Anna Grace
Back yard

The street

Our House
Our Front yard taken from our porch

Our Back yard

The apple did not fall far from the tree.....

Michele, Chase, Bryce and Santa

Varsha's Trip to RTP

I neglected to post these pictures, but seeing how it is raining in Mumbai and cooling off in RTP, I thought I would. Below is Michele and Varsha. Had I known how famously they got along, I may have postponed her trip.....LOL

Below is a scene too often replayed throughout my life time. Michele talking about jewelry. Varsha and her were Best friends after this....

Wilmington, NC. The town as viewed from the boat we took for a tour.

This is the Battleship North Carolina. We would have taken this out for a spin but its stuck in the mud.

It was a nice little cruise, these two were "joined at the hip".

We have some beautiful beaches in NC. Varsha found a new home. She was shoeless as soon as we hit the beach. This was in July so it was nice and warm but always a good breeze at the beach.

Again, inseparable....When I pass on to the after life, it think Varsha will come live with Michele....and spend whatever I leave in money on jewelry....

Second to jewelry comes cooking. Michele is a great cook, but it was fun to see another great cook from Mumbai grace our kitchen. It was fun shopping for the ingredients but more fun watching Michele watch someone else cook. And Varsha was right at home, as if she had done this before....

Varsha cooked us a spicy meal. I almost felt guilty that she was doing all the work...ALMOST!

I call these "Little Brown Moons
", but I believe they are called Galob Jamins(phonetically, I am sure I spelled this entirely wrong). Satish, TOO bad you could not have been here, but I am glad you were not, we ate these for several days..Yummy.

Varsha, thank you so much for gracing our kitchen and the RTP office. Everyone enjoyed your visit in July and you were a hit...

Hallo Everyone:
I am back in Monheim, Germany. To visit friends and colleagues and work, work, work. A colleague from Accenture, Sunita Poojary, also is visiting so we are getting reacquainted and meeting some new colleagues and some old ( one is actually a year older, Sascha celebrated his Birthday on Friday.) We had many pastries supplied by Wendy who was gracious enough to give me money to bring over, and Sascha brought a cake. We danced and sang most of the day and during lunch we rode horses and played a quick game of cricket.....

On Saturday, Sunita and I left for a short walk to the Rhine river. We returned two hours later....You all are aware that I am directionally challenged.... Below is Sunita with the Rhine in the distance.

Sunita wanted to walk out into the river and I would have let her go if I knew Karl would not be upset that she floated off down stream, never to be seen again. S
he has a few studies to work on so I thought best we stay on shore.

Below is a huge barge or something. It was not accepting passengers.

I told Sunita that the water was like bath water, as in Monheim it is always sunny and a balmy 30C and that a nice dip in the Rhine would do her good.....Lucky, the dog, was having a nice swim. I call him Lucky as it was a wonder he was not frozen.

Tourists!!!! Always have to take pictures!! Sunita will have many memories to take back to Monheim. She has mentioned SEVERAL times that she LOVES Monheim and that it reminds her of her home town in India. Satish, I think she wants to move here.....However her mother has been faking a sickness and has told her on the phone to return. She leaves next Saturday.

This is on our trip back from the Rhine excursion when Sunita thought it wise to follow a map. It took us about an hour to get to the Rhine with my directions and 20 minutes to return using the map......LOL..

Sunita was wanting to ride this horse back to the hotel, she is not in the physical shape that I am, I felt sorry for her. Every step I had to worry that she would fall and not get up again. I had to carry her most of the way and she cried how tired she was the entire trip.

Below is Sunita with Brigitte, I had thought when God made me that he had broke the mold, but evidently he/she created Brigitte in Monheim. LOL, and I do mean Laugh Out Loud, she has the best sense of humor and is a joy to work with.

You can tell that I do not like this woman very much.....

After trying to survive on Pizza for 5 days, I convinced Sunita to accompany me to this Asian restaurant where we suffered through trying to order by looking at pictures on the menu we ordered an excellent meal.

Below is a sign I saw while walking Friday evening trying to get reception fro my Blackberry.

Which STILL does not let me send emails from the Hotel......

This sign has a story to tell...