Family Travel

Incredible India!

That is the new Ministry of Tourism's marketing tagline. It is certainly incredible in every sense - from riches to utter poverty, from breathless natural beauty to disgusting human-created filth, from unbelievable hospitality to lackluster customer service, from supreme friendliness to unreasonable road rage!

It's been 8 years since I last visited India and I am looking at it from a very different perspective. The first few weeks I was only experiencing all that hit my superficial senses - the noise, dust, pollution, mosquitos, smells, the power cuts. But as I am here longer, I am able to look beyond those and see things with which I had grew up with - the warmth of the people, their patience; the melodious music, art, the beauty of the land outside of the chaotic city.

I have heard in the last few years that India is progressing and there have been tremendous developments, but first thing that hit us are the increased number of vehicles that are clogging the ill-equipped and low-maintained streets. The streets are in constant state of repair or construction. There are also a lot of apartment buildings, all single-family homes are being torn down for flats. However, I found that so called luxury apartments that people are paying outrageous prices are really low-quality. With the real-estate boom, as anywhere else in the world, the greedy builders did a shoddy job of quality.

With progress in the cities also brought lot more people from the countryside and from farming. This further worsened already burdened infrastructures.

But there seems to be a lot more disposable income, people are shopping and eating out more. There are lot more western brands available in the very "posh" (for my American friends, this word is from the Brits and is used quite often by Indians) shopping malls and stores. The cars too have become quite posh. And yet, people are working incredibly hard. Even very young children have to study hard to stay competitive.

Yet, with all this said, India remains a virgin market for many business ideas. After spending about 6 weeks in Hyderabad, Tomasz and I were excited about the number of new business ideas we came up with. We have decided to spend a bit of extra time here to understand the market here and meet with some business folks. We will be extending our stay till end of March.

Also, it is convenient meet up with Tomasz's family for a reunion in Bali in April.

We have decided to put the kids in a school here for the two months we extending. Finding a school that will take them as guests for such a short period has not been easy. But we found a great school. They seem to be adjusting well. Thane, especially is enjoying his time there. He seemed to have missed the environment and is happy to be in classroom. Aidan, on the other hand, liked it for the first week and now thinks he doesn't want to go. We shall see - it may be one of his phases. The kids leave for school at 7:10am (that has been difficult to get used to) by a school bus.

We also found a great, more centrally located service apartment (vacation rental) that has great amenities, which also includes daily maids (actually two) service. And in dollar terms it is costing us about 40 a night!

For photos on India visit, please go here.

Our family reunion time, sidetrips to coastal Andhra will be in our next blog entry!

Singapore is very impressive – most people have probably heard about how super-efficient everything is and how clean the streets are, but there is a lot more too it than that. For starters, the little ethnic enclaves of Little India, Chinatown and the Malay quarter are little worlds to themselves - cultural and gastronomical escapes from the glistening downtown skyscrapers. Second, for all the complaints about one-party-state totalitarianism, the local Singaporeans seem a happy bunch. We lived in a lower middle class apartment (flat) building and talked to a fair number of locals. A taxi driver summed it up this way: “People want jobs and safety. As long as the government does a good job providing those we’ll keep them in power. ” Thirdly, Singapore is financially responsible (which is quite a contrast coming from the debt ridden USA) - for example, the govt limits the amount of collective debt a citizen can carry across all his credit cards; also, it runs a national pension scheme which is actually solvent - every person's account is kept intact and not raided! (Imagine that, Washington politicians!). Our Lonely Planet travel guide (published in the USA) calls it "The Nanny State", but the irony is that if anyone is in need of a nanny these days it’s probably the USA.

The Singapore airport is a showpiece in itself, what with free computers, free WiFi, a childrens’ play area, carts for hand-luggage(!) and we’ll try get photos of that on the way back.

At the famous Jurong Bird Park

Tropical thunderstorm taken from our flat

All the trip photos are kept on Picasaweb here http://picasaweb.google.com/sdjohannsens

We always wanted to experience a farming lifestyle so when Gouri found a website for volunteering on organic farms we jumped on the opportunity. There seems to be a revolution going on in the rural southwest USA to change the way homes and gardens are built (notions of 'permaculture' and 'energy sustainability'). We got a good dose of of it at Earth Mountain, Colorado (http://www.earthmountainfarm.org/photo_gallery.htm) which is completely off grid: no municipal electricity, gas, or water - they collect rainwater, cook on a wood stove and use solar power to run their computer and a few lights. Living in a tipi was an experience, particularly when the snow and sleet started pouring in through the hole at the top! The place was a bit "rustic" (that's the most polite way of putting it - check out the photos) but their organic carrots were the best I've ever tasted, and the heating system for their compost toilet is an ingenious modification of a solar Trombe wall.

Stacking chopped for the winter was one of the chores we participated in

Outdoor kitchen with its antiquated wood-stove was certainly an experience!

Compost toilet and solar heated outdoor shower - all homemade solutions

We spent four nights in this Teepee - it was certainly very exciting for the boys

Another charming feature - homemade outhouse

Later we went to SolarArk and met Arvo, the self taught engineering genius who built the whole thing (www.solarark.org) over the last 12 years with his own hands using mainly salvaged parts. The home is attached to a passive greenhouse and doesn't require heating or cooling despite the -25 deg F to 100 deg F temperature changes in New Mexico's high desert. He gets water from a well but the power for all modern conveniences (stove, washing machine, fridge, freezer) comes from solar panels, a wind generator and an ingenious biogas system. Why ingenious? Here is an example: when we arrived he was fine tuning the compressor system which turns on when the biogas (from the chicken poop and other refuse) inflates an old tube from a wheelbarrow that pushes a lever to turn on the compressor; when the biogas is pumped to storage the tube deflates and turns off the switch...Another example: he made the fridge from scratch using thick wood and polystyrene insulation that he found lying around. The whole place is sustainable - here is an example cycle: he was cleaning out the thick manure sludge from his biogas tank which we helped put into the earthworm buckets that make compost; the compost and earthworms go onto his outside and inside gardens to give the plants nutrients; Thane, Aidan and me harvested the sunflowers and chard from his outside garden and then we fed the chickens who ate it with glee, and the cycle was complete when the chickens pooped again. The only problem is that Arvo is a bachelor, so although the accommodation was very warm and comfortable, the kitchen was a little below Gouri's hygiene standards so I don't think we're going back anytime soon...

The Earthships (http://www.earthship.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=14), which we visited in Taos, New Mexico, are far more elegant (and expensive) although they require propane to run a stove. Everything else, including water (from rain runoff) is self sustainable and it felt very comfortable exploring the living spaces so low inside the earth. I never felt claustrophobic or anything like that. The idea of using the earth's heat mass is supposed to work in hot climates like Texas too, although I'll be asking Tatus to confirm that separately. Also, the tires and cans used to build the home seem a little over the top which makes Gouri and me think this could be done less expensively using conventional materials... new business opportunity?

Mesa Verde in Colorado is another building technology we saw, built by the Pueblo people 800 years ago near the 4 corners region.

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/sdjohannsens

It has been a while since our last post. You probably think that the Johannsens are on this long vacation and so they should be able to do a lot of things that most sane routiners (I just coined that word, to describe people who lead normal lives) have difficulty finding time for.

Ha, ha, that's what we ignorant newbie nomads thought in the begining. Only to discover that vacationing is actually a lot of work, esp if you have two hyper-active boys! We have been back to Seattle for almost 10 days after our Canadian trip, and we haven't found time to upload all our photos and post a blog entry. So what to we do with our time. I think a lot of our time is spent on the basics - planning and researching where to go next; cooking, eating and cleaning, and keeping the kids engaged.

Planning the vacation is a lot of work - we can spend hours, days on the internet researching where and what we want to do - there are so many options. We also want this to be a meaningful vacation, not just sight-seeing one beautiful place after another. If any of our ideas come to fruition we will update you on a later post.

Chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry still need to be done - these cannot be avoided when one is on vacation. In fact, these things take up more time because, it is always an adventure trying to accomplish all these in a new place.

Kids, they take up a lot of the time too - educating and engaging them. We are trying to establish a study routine with them. Now that the school years have begun, there is more of a need to have a structure in their education. Thane is writing a journal of the things that he has experienced on this trip. This will help him with reading, writing and composing his thoughts. He also learnt to tell time, use compass, etc. Aidan is practicing his letters and learning phonetics. We are trying to come up with ways to make their learning fun and games. Tomasz makes tremendous effort in keeping the boys physically active too - biking, scootering, hiking, swimming, etc.

So, all this does not leave us much time to ourselves. Of course, we still need to exercise ourselves, sleep, etc. Sometimes, it seems that being in San Diego and going to work was simpler.

But we are not complaining. There are certainly many benefits to being vagabonds.

I hope our grand plans about expanding our horizons and reading more, etc, will materialize soon. For now we will be leaving for Yellowstone National Park soon.

We are coming to the end of our first Seattle stay. We spent some quality time with my sister, Sarada, her husband, Krish and my newest niece, Lahari. It was also nice time to visit Seattle. Even though it rained pretty heavy couple of days we were here and got gloomy, just to remind us there are other seasons here. It was glorious when the sun was out and the flowers are in full bloom.

We visited our long time friends Marshalls in Bremerton across the Pueget Sound. The boys were pretty thrilled to go on the ferry across the Sound. We had a great time in Bremerton with all the Marshall clan - their daughters and families; Susan's brother and sister-in-law. One the highlights of this visit was the time we spent on the Kitsap lake.

The kids in the tube ready to be tugged

Out on the lake

Kim gave all boys a ride on the Seedoo

We explored a few parks around the Redmond/Bellevue areas, Picked blueberries in a blueberry farm, went to Seattle downtown, did a hike in the Tiger Mountain park; cooked and ate a lot.

Visit to downtown seattle, Pike's Place Market

Thane was very good in entertaining his little cousin Lahari

Rock climber Thane

Death by Chocolate cake baked by Sharu for Krish's Birthday

Celebrating Krish's Birthday and eagerly awaiting the cake

Lahari posing for Thane

We are heading into Canada tomorrow. And so may be a while before our next entry.