Thursday, March 11, 2010

tour of south, moving north, picking up others and HOLI

Hi. Well, Onelovetours has had more tours go out this first season than I have anticipated which is great! And, people have been loving their tours! Through the south we went to visit the largest Tibetan Community in India with Ceril and Alicia...and the main anchor, Kelsi.


Staying a night there during Tibetan New Year (all the monks had off) I spent the entire night playing ping pong against them. About 4 hours and I went through about 100 of them, losing one game (but I beat the same guy about 3 times). I felt like forest gump, when in truth, monks are some poor ping pong players.


We all went to visit an elephant camp after. I wish someone would scrub me down like that!

Then we went on a beautiful southern temple tour to Belur and Halibet.


That's Alicia above with her trusty umbrella.


Everything done by hand.



We stopped along the side of the road to see how they make pure jaggery. Solid Sugar.

Walking up about 700 stairs to see the famous Jain statue.

The crew for the day!


at the top of the small mountain, this statue, carved from one stone, stands at about 70ft tall.


A day in Bangalore and we went to the park and saw the carved bushes and enjoyed the peacefulness, cleanliness, and quietness of the area.

Kelsi and Rose in a big ass tree!

Then we ventured through the city market and got lost in the flower market area.

The colors speak for themselves.

Finally found a great driver in the south who I will use to represent onelovetours.

There was a big vote whether or not to allow Genetically Engineered Eggplant...luckily it was turned down. India is becoming more aware...slowly.

Then we headed north and after picking up Rachel and Najat we met up again in the village with my Indian family.
They were busy working before Holi Festival.

Let Holi and the party begin and the paint fly!!!!! This Rohit, always in the middle of the action.

The girls!

Rachel----always a crowd pleaser!

She is shy as you can see.

Who knows how Kelsi kept paint out of her eyes and mouth.

Najat and Jyoti getting each other...friendly!

You can see the paint dust as Pooja rubs my head. The amount of paint I consumed, too much.

Towards the end of the festivities.

The full family.
I look like the devil in this picture. I don't remember making this face. But a great day!!!!!!