Cashew Apple

India is well known for the export of cashew nuts and we were able to see where cashews come from. The cashew tree bears fruit called a cashew apple, the cashew nut develops at the end of the fruit. When the cashew is ripe and ready for harvest the cashew fruit turns a beautiful red color and the fruit needs to be separated from the nut within 24 hrs as the fruit deteriorates quickly. This photo is from several months ago as the cashew harvest is generally in May. The cashew is in a double shell. I was really intrigued to learn the out casing of the shell contains the same toxins as poison ivy. I am just glad no one in our house had a reaction!

Happy Birthday Emily

Today our little girl is turning 8 years old. I am amazed at how quickly these past 8 years have gone. Emily is such a blessing to our family. It seems like she was just learning to walk and talk. Now she talks, sings and dances all the time! She had a "girlie" party on Saturday and then Saturday evening we had close friends over for dinner to celebrate a few days early. Today September 29 is her birthday and again she is taking treats to school and tonight we will just celebrate with our family. Happy Birthday Emily!

My new meat market

I have recently switched my meat provider to Fresh and Frozen. It is a tiny little shop filled with freezers. I was about to become vegetarian after all the trouble with my other source for meat, but well since I am not a big vegetable fan I decided that wasn't such a brilliant idea. The new meat shop carries pork mince (ground pork), pork fillets, pork chops, beef filet, top filet mince (ground beef), chicken, and lots of other things. The best yet is that they deliver!

Amazing trip

Wow! It was a beautiful weekend in Kerala. We boarded the plane at 6:30 and arrived in Cochin (or Kochi) at around 8 pm. A very short plane trip compared to the 14 hour car ride...wise option to fly huh? When we arrived there we were greeted by our driver who took us to the Coconut Lagoon Resort which was just lovely. It had well manicured gardens with canals winding throughout. The kids were able to fish from the canals...although they were very small fish, 2 inches maximum! We swam in the pool while watching cows graze nearby, walked to the village, and took a sunset cruise on the backwaters. Saturday morning we boarded our houseboat to cruise through the backwaters of Kerala. It was so peaceful, Ted and I thoroughly enjoyed it but the kids were restless after a few hours of it. The houseboat which was staffed by a driver, navigator and cook,was a big wooden boat with 2 bedrooms and baths and a fully stocked kitchen. The kids fished from the houseboat when we stopped they caught a few small fish. During the afternoon a large storm rolled through and it rained for about 1 hour very hard. They pulled the tarps down on 3 sides so we were still able to watch the rain beat down on the rice paddies. In late afternoon we stopped at a nearby village and tied up to the shore for the night. It was so peaceful to hear the birds and the hum of the village. We were then took on a canoe ride through the maze of canals in the village. It was just simply beautiful. In the morning we arrived at Alleppey and drove to Cochin. On the way we stopped at the beach and set foot on the shore of the Arabian Sea. How cool that was. We then drove towards Cochin, on the way we passed these elephants. I was taking photos and of course they just had to ask if we wanted to ride, well of course those of you that read my camel riding experience know this has been a long desire of mine. But the elephants were awfully big and quite intimidating. I just kept thinking about the elephants that have gone mad in temples and well the kids didn't need to witness their mom being trampled by an elephant! So I am kicking myself for not seizing the opportunity but will wait for another day. We headed to Ft. Cochin and
walked along the sea wall, saw the Chinese fishing nets and several historical churches. We had a wonderful meal of red snapper, grouper and barracuda at a seafood restaurant. We then headed back to Chennai late that night. It was a great weekend!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Heading to Kerala

Thursday evening we are headed to Kerala which is located on the west coast of India. It is supposed to be a beautiful place, one of the top ten must see sites within India. We will be flying (a one hour flight vs a 14 hr drive...) into Cochin and then we are being transfered to a resort where we will be staying for 2 nights and then the 3rd night we will be staying on a houseboat floating through the backwaters of Kerala. The backwaters consist of a bunch of canals in which consists of water from the Arabian sea and the rivers that flow from the Western Gnats mountains. I am really looking forward to the weekend. Millie and Cleo are looking forward us going away as they are going to our friends (Bob and Margot) house for the weekend. They will be amply spoiled while we are gone! I am hoping to get some great photos this weekend and will post next week!

Cleo's new toy

Last week I decided that Cleo needed a scratching post other than furniture or things that shouldn't be used to sharpen her dagger like claws. I told Sundar what I needed: a section of a dead tree about 2 ft long, heavy rope, and base. It was amazing, everyone got involved and were excited to help out. Before I knew it Sampeth had scrounged a dead Neem tree and scraped off all the bark and he found an old board in the car shed for the base. The tree needed leveled so Sundar drove the tree down to the next village to a man with a power saw who for about 20 rupees (50 cents) cut it level. I had to laugh when Sundar told me the guy thought we were making some modern artwork. Sundar didn't have nerve to tell him it was a cat scratching post. Sundar headed out to by rope and some long nails. Everyone (guards, maid, gardener and driver) was involved and offering their opinion on the correct way to secure the rope. Cleo is thrilled with her new toy! It was a fun project and awesome to see the way everyone wanted to be so involved. I probably could have found one somewhere in the city but I figure my 80 rupee ($2) cat scratching post is a good deal...as long as we don't get termites crawling out! And the best yet, I didn't have to travel to the city in search of what "might" be found in some obscure store.

Freezer Boxes

Freezer boxes are something I had never heard of until yesterday. We drove past a funeral and the body was placed in a freezer box, basically a cold coffin. The freezer box has 3 metal sides and a glad lid. The body is kept cold while mourners pay their respects to the dead. This really seems like a great concept for India as they don't embalm the body and the body may not be buried or cremated for several days so that family members may have enough travel time to pay their respects. This is probably only used by the middle/upper class in India. Below is a photo of a van advertising the freezer box.


When the body is on the way to the burial site or electric cemetery (crematorium) it is placed in the back of the van and people sit in back with the body (laying on bed of flowers) and throw flowers onto the street. Evidently they drive by all the places that were important to the deceased. Very interesting to witness the procession.

Oh the things we see

I wonder if I will stop being amazed at the things that I see in India. It seems like by now I would have seen it all but I am always seeing new things. Below is a short clip, it turns out that lots of Tamil films are filmed in Chennai, more precisely on the OMR road near a lot of the IT buildings. In the US the road would be blocked off and there would be some safety features put in place. But remember we are in India there is no such thing as safety! This car was cruising along probably around 35 mph with all sorts of traffic around. Who knows maybe I will be in the film!




Besides being a movie star in India you can be a government employee. This really doesn't seem to be a very good Indian job, but the man is working and feeding his family. I believe he earns roughly 10000rps ($250 USD) a month which is quite good. And I believe there is some housing offered as well. But the job looks very terrible. Whenever it rains especially in the city the rain has no where to go except the street. The workers have to take off the sewager/drainage lids and clean "stuff" out of the pipes.

A trip to Mahabalipuram

This past weekend we headed down to Mahabalipuram to check out the ruins. We had been down before but did not visit all of them and after this trip we still haven't! Mahabalipuram is a 7th century port city that is full of incredibly beautiful rock carvings. They say most of these impressive carvings are out of one big rock! Wow! I still don't think I grasp how old these carvings are.

Logan mid jump

Mason mid jump

This group wanted a our picture with them so I took one too!

Good thing the guy didn't leave the keys in the two wheeler!

In between visiting sites we headed to a few touristy shops. While waiting at a shop there were two monkeys just hanging out, looking for food. We really enjoyed watching them and were thankful we weren't eating. The weather was very hot, so we headed to GTR -Grand Temple Resort for a lovely lunch served right on the ocean. Of course during lunch you couldn't help but think about all the lives lost when the tsunami came in 2004.