Destiny..elephants.. memories..

San has successfully managed me for 20 years now! A milestone that I am extremely grateful to pass. The kids who always take my side, finally acknowledged "yeah. you are not an easy guy to deal with. you are very complicated. so amma did do well to handle you for 20 years". 

They are her toughest and biased critics and this came from them.. 

Was still under travel pressure, so we just kept it simple this time. Lunch at Chaat House as usual for our anniversary (this time with my in laws) and a visit to the local temple to say thanks. There was no ice cream at Ghirardelis.. 

We also ended up on a whirlwind India trip for 5 days. This time to do a Sadhabishegam function for my dad and mom. Have written a recent post on this..

My dad's 1000'th moon happens in early December and technically (the sankara sastri in me rears his ugly head again).. we should have celebrated this next February. Then there are astrologers, older people, fuzzy logic, health concerns etc.. and the quantum computing ended up with last week as the "last Revathy birth star of the first half of the year where the earth moves northwards (between Jan14th and July 14th)".. If your head is spinning faster than the earth after reading that, you are in good shape. Like they say in Yoga class "it is normal to feel dizzy after that!". 

It was hectic for us, as Jr. is going to Senior year in high school and we have a packed agenda. We did go as a family and celebrate the event. It went better than expected, given my dad was in diapers three months ago when I went for a 5 day visit. His parkinsons is under control, but he had a fall and was recovering from it. Looks like he is back to where he was before his fall. 

We literally entered the house at 5AM and the function started at 6:30AM.  Chennai was going through a water crisis. So there was the waiting for water truck on some days. It was also the first time we stayed in a hotel in Chennai. Hotels have water and star hotels definitely have water. That was a good decision to move to a hotel.

Two days for the function, two days for rest and we flew back on day 5!

In those two so called "rest days" we managed to

- go meet my grandma (who could not make it to the function)

- meet San's grandma

- eat out in three places

- visit Kabali temple and

- do a quick round of shopping in old Cupertino/ Old Fremont..

sorry.. Mylapore and Mambalam.. I have to write a separate post on why folks who are in Mylapore side end up in Cupertino and Mambalam side end up in Fremont.. the statistics are interesting.. think BART and Station road might have something to do with it..

where were we? Yes.. quick visits on two "rest" days.

We visited Kabali temple .. the place where San and me met for the first time..a place where "our fates changed" in San's words.

The kids went to the elephants and quickly realized that the elephants were sitting in the sun all morning and were at 41 C. One quickly jumped off and the other managed a smile knowing she had already done the damage..

Don't how many kids have sat on these elephants and had fun over the last centuries.. 

We also walked through one of my favorite places in the temple where they keep the cows and peacocks.. Didn't not spot any peacocks this time but this little calf came and was all over me.. kissing me and wanting to play with me. Brought back so many memories.. 

As usual I am now down with a cold virus from the flight.. so taking it easy and resting as much as I can for the long weekend.

My one achievement for the trip was to take a family group picture of my parents with all their kids and families. This group has never been together under one roof ever.. this was the first time. Hopefully it will be repeated many more times.. Have waited a long time to take this picture!

Will have more pictures to edit and share soon. This trip was only 5 days and 20k miles but felt like we went to the moon and back and over decades of time in memories..

A pyramid.. finally!

The previous post about this series on the Belize trip is here..

It has always been a dream to see the Pyramids.. Given that might happen sometime, was going to see "a" pyramid.. Chichen Itza, Altun Ha or Lamanai.. 

The first one that came our way is Altun Ha!

We were staying 20 minutes from Altun Ha and were not going to miss the chance. Day 4 of the Belize trip started with Altun Ha in the morning.

Our guide took us to the modest Museum of sorts that explained the place and had a replica of the Jade head that was found in the tomb, that made the place famous!

On the way to the structure we saw a large beetle, a very large but hopefully dead tarantula (it was larger than my hand) and some nice flowers.. all of which amused the kids in the group.

we also saw a "love you to death tree".. which is a parasitic tree that grows around palm trees and engulfs the palm inside! (this is a vertical Pano) 

The pyramids are layered and sealed with remains. There are more questions than answers per our guide on why they built it the way they did. The carbon dating for this is all over the place as it was used by multiple generations and trying to restore the pyramids actually damaged it. 

The place is not fully excavated and they decided to stop. you can clearly see that the original stone work was way better than the current stone work or more recent stone work used to try and repair! 

We climbed up to the top of both the large structures and had a great view of the surrounding area. At one point this place must have had a 10000 people trading in the market below.. it is easily possible to visualize this from the top. (our guide was nice enough to say "give me your camera and I will take pictures when you are at the top". Really liked this guy as he made sure I was in a few pictures!)

Here is a slide show of the landscape..

and a slide show of the Pano's .. this place was perfect for Panos. 

Altun Ha is a must see if you visit Belize. 

After hanging out there for an hour or so we moved on directly to our second stop of the day..Turned out to be the second best highlight of our trip and was totally unexpected!  That post over the weekend. Was fortunate to have an extra day after the vacation to edit photos and videos in the middle of dealing with a broken washing machine. Work has begun and that means the posts slow down. 

Starting to like Wifi free vacations. It is a good reset.