Assumptions.....

For the record... I made a bad assumption...

May 1 is a holiday for GM (May Day), and I assumed that the kids had it off as well... Bad call!!!

We had planned our weekend trip on this assumption....

Now the kids are missing 2 days of school!!! I am sure they are not complaining!!

The best part... the other families that are travelling with us are all in the same boat... their kids are in the same school.

We are off on our road trip caravan in about 1 hour... I will post the details when we get back.

Playing Catch Up!

As promised.... here are pictures from Singapore. I know... better late than never. As I mentioned... We did not take a lot of pictures here. There are few from the bird park, and then the night safari.



Just a bit of my editorial comments about Singapore... It was a bit 'too perfect'. I know, that is really hard to believe. It was too clean, too orderly, too planned out.... even the people were really put together.... I suppose being such a small country, it is easy to instill conformity.... But talk about the contrast from Bangalore. We actually have non-Indian friends (originally from Atlanta) that were in Singapore for an assignment and are now in Bangalore for an assignment. I can only imagine what the adjustment was for them!!!!

Back to the size of Singapore... It is the second smallest country in Asia with about 270 sq miles. Now I am sure that you are curious as to what is the smallest country in Asia.... It is a place that we have visited back in December... Any guesses? The Maldives!! Yes, we are working our way through Asia, smallest to largest!! OK, maybe not, but it sounded good!! And, India is the 3rd largest country in Asia. First and second are Russia and China. Gotta love wiki for all the details!!

While we were at the Night Safari, the kids decided to get a 'foot treatment'. This is not any ordinary foot treatment... this is a tank of fish and you dunk your feet in. The fish proceed to 'nibble' off the dead skin. No, I did not partake. I would much rather have my feet tended to by hands, not fish!!! The kids enjoyed it!!


Try to zoom on this picture so you can read the text... It is pretty interesting!





Kids are not phased by the 'nibbling' that is going on!

We are off to our next trip this weekend. We are going to Chennai. We will be there for 4 days. We are travelling with 2 other families.... Jignasha and her family and Kamal and her family. Some of you recall that we did a lot of our trips back at home with 'Jignasha and her family'... just for the record.... two different Jignashas... Ironically, both the Jignhasha's know each other....

Quick Update

Hope you all are enjoying the summer like weather back at home.... hopefully the the winter-chill is over for good!!!

This weekend is a bit of 'firsts' for us in Bangalore....

This weekend Milan will be having his first sleepover!! He is going to his friend Grisham and Sajan's house.

And...

This weekend I will have my first girls weekend since being here.... I am going with Jignasha (Grisham and Sajan's mom) and another friend....

I will post again in a few days with updates on all the weekend activities!!

Monsoon Rains.....

Yes, we knew they were coming.... the infamous Monsoon Rains have arrived!!!

It has rained (thunderstormed) every night since Saturday. The best part, the rains hit late in the evening and it cools things off for the night. And it make for a cool refreshing morning!!! Now the storms that we have seen so far are not really heavy... I am sure that we will see some 'torrential downpours' before the Monsoon season is behind us!! I will try to catch some good pics to share with you all!!

I am sure that you are experiencing you fair share of spring showers back at home!! As the saying goes.... April showers bring May flowers!!!

Our 6 Year Old Little Prince!!

Yes, the little guy is not so little anymore!!! On Friday he turned 6!

We started off the birthday festivities with plans to go out to dinner. Now we wanted to make this a special dinner for the special occasion. So this required us to venture out of our usual restaurant circuit.

I left work early, and we planned on going into the city for dinner. Now mind you... we don't do this very often. You will see why later. We left home just after 5 and headed off to a restaurant that we had not been to before. This is one that is in every major city across the world.... No, not McDonald's.... It was Hard Rock Cafe (yes, there is one in Bangalore). So, Milan got all dressed up for the occasion with his shirt and tie and off we went.

Left the house about 5:15, and I had a feeling that we had just missed our 'window' of avoiding the traffic. Yes, we were stuck in the infamous Bangalore traffic. Milan fell asleep in the car.... and we arrived a hour and a half after we left our house!! Yes, that was correct, a hour and a half!!!!! By the time we got there, we were STARVING! Dinner was great!!! Nachos, spinach dip, veggie burgers, chicken burgers, fries...... YUMMMY!!! We were so hungry that we wolfed down in just over an hour (yes, less time that what it took us to get there!!). Now the ride home.... We thought that we would be able to just zip home... Not so lucky!! Over an hour to get home too!!!

Now you know why we don't venture into the city for dinner on a Friday night!!!

Check out the pictures.....

The birthday celebration continued into the next day. This was the actual party.... He was SOOOOO excited leading up to it!! It was really sweet to see!! The actual party with his class mates and neighbors. The kids truly raised the roof in noise level along with a lot of fun. The build up to the party by his truly (Milan) was amazing, full of excitement. Milan would ramble off many ideas; the best way to sum up his excitement was by his actions. If you have ever seen the original King and I musical (1956), Milan’s actions were similar to that of ‘Yul Brynner’, only that he had pointed out all his ideas and requests with that cheeky smile. How can one not melt to these ideas and requests?

The kids had a blast! Mira and one of her friends set up a face painting station, we had a bouncy castle, and a Magician. Of course there was Pizza and Cake. The cake was AMAZING!!! It was in the shape of Lighting McQueen!! Full on 3-D version!

Our 'Babu-chuck' (my nickname for him) is truly maturing.

Mira and Vim at Hard Rock Cafe

Milan and I!!

Milan posing for the camera

The Birthday Boy!!

The birthday cake!!

The Hard Rock crew sings to Milan!!

Birthday Greetings from the Hard Rock Staff!!

The CARS cake!

It was really amazing!!

The B-Day Party in the back yard!!

Bouncing around!!

Time for some lunch!!

Some more friends!!

The magic show!!

Hey there is a bird on my shoulder!!

Abara-cada-barra!!

Lightning McQueen was a big hit!!

Our Shining Star

A post from Vim.

A Tony?, A BAFTA? An OSCAR?....or the next Bollywood Sensation.

A week ago Milan told his parents he had to make a lion mask for a school ‘end of unit’ show. Well that’s all we did. Now these shows are created to emphasize all the work the kids have put in to learn about a particular subject matter in detail. And believe me they do, at that age group learn a lot. You can see the imaginative growth in from his creative thinking of studies, culture comparisons, socially today verses this time last year.

This particular ‘End Of Unit’ show was to emphasize animals, animal groupings and how they live/survive in the wild. The stage was a make shift open area in a class room, and in usual Indian style make do with what you have and get on with it. Even for an International School the set up was bad, lots of chaos with excited kids, bad sound set-up and teachers playing chase, trying to get the kids settled. But it’s the content and quality we must judge!

Lights, Camera, Sound, Action. The acted out play was "The Big Lion and the Rabbits". The twist was that even though the Lion is the King of the Jungle and all animals are to be afraid of him, he can be out smarted by the smallest of animals, the Rabbits. Sad to say the Lion was killed in the end by the a trick from those cute bunnies.

As the show started, I was shocked! Milan was the lead character. That monkey of ours never told us what role he was playing so I only bought the camera for pictures. He acted out the narrated play extremely well. The two Rabbits also did an awesome job along with all the other animals he was jumping on and pretending to kill/eat. They all nailed their respective roles. At the end he stood proud and was congratulated by the other moms…..ok at that moment it should have been me standing there! He did a job that all family and friends would have been proud of - pictures below...

Mango Mania!!!

It is officially Mango season.... One word sums it up - YUMMY!!!

The are sweet, juicy and plentiful!!! There are stands on the sides of the street selling them all around!! We are going thru 5 or 6 per day!!

Hopefully there are no negative health related issues to eating too many mangoes!!!

Singapore

I was planning on posting picture from Singapore as well, however I realized that by the time we got to Singapore, we were all 'camera-ed out'!!! We hardly took any pictures while we were there. We have a few from the Bird Park and the Night Safari, I will post them soon.

So, sum up the trip....

We made it thru 10 days of togetherness (ok must admit, there were times that we were irritated by each other....understandably, right???).
10 days without Indian food
10 days without seeing men peeing on the side of the road (yes, this is a common site in Bangalore!
10 days of enjoying new cultures and countries!!

Planning for the next trip is in the works.... We are thinking of taking a long weekend trip to Chennai.

Thailand

A stop off at a familiar place for a cool drink!

The Grand Palace

Vi

Street Vendor selling some 'fishy' things

Near the Grand Palace

In the Grand Palace

Streets of Bangkok

A temple outside of a Mall

A closer view

Temple outside the mall

Another Temple

Streets at Night

Milan and Vim -

On Guard!

A view of the palace

Very artistic and ornate!!

Nice Shot!

The Palace

More shots at the Palace

Sleeping Buddha

Buddha's all in a row!

Emerald Buddha - Made out of Jade

Crossing the river in a 'taxi'

Now we will take you to our next stop.... Thailand....

First stop.... the Beach- Pattaya for a some relaxation!!

The resort was very nice and homey feeling. The beach was very relaxing!!! The best parts.... foot massage, eating fruit and watching the waves roll in.... all at the same time!!!

We stayed one night here. It was a nice break from the running around we did in Malaysia. Unfortunately, here is where we lost some pictures from the trip (Lost/stolen camera). No pictures from Pataya!! Bummer!!

After one night at the beach we head to Bangkok. I was surprised to see so many temples in such a small area!! During our temple tour we saw 4 temples and a palace. Some of the interesting things along the way..... little stalls and shops (more like a blankets on the sidewalk), most selling touristy type things. They sell a lot of the 'knock-off' things - purses, clothes, etc... Guess what Milan found at one of these little shops.... YEP... knock off Baukugons!! He was thrilled!!

We decided to ease the pain of the 'lost' camera and buy a new one. So one evening was spent running around the mall from electronic shop to electronic shop trying to score the best deal.... mission accomplished!! While searching the malls, saw a Lamborghini in the mall... no, not for sale, but just a display.

One of the best parts of Thailand was the night market!! I could have spent all night here, shopping my little heart out! Unfortunately, this trip to the night market came at the end of a busy day, and we hit the market before dinner!! So I had to be quick!! Got a purse (knock off - of course!), shoes, some nick-nacks, and a piece of Thai Artwork. I was impressed with my loot!!

That sums up Thailand!!