The Dutch Trade Delegation

Last few weeks it was time for a little bit more relaxation. Visitors from Holland! I spent a few days in Chennai with the Dutch trade delegation, headed by minister van Gennip of foreign trade, and a week with my parents, and uncle (Jan) and aunt (Elly) who probably did a lot more trade than the Dutch delegation did, by leaving a trail of rupees across the South of India. Rickshaw drivers, street kids, shoe shiner boys, hotel personnel, caddies. All were given a treat from Holland!!!!!!! Mainly Jan had a great time making new friends in India. After some of the negative comments I have left about India on my blog and my mails, I have to add the more sunny shine up (as Jan refers to his eggs) about India. And it was the first time I had a week off in 4 ½ months of work. So now after this week, I'm well rested and ready for the last few months of work!
Two weeks ago I went to Chennai for 2 days to spend with the Dutch trade delegation headed by minister van Gennip. It was a great experience to be part of this, staying in a very good hotel, joining in the dinners, having meetings with companies and taking part in a conference, CONNECT 2006. I went there together with a colleague from Bangalore, Sukrut. It was very good to be here together with so many Dutch people, in the middle of India, eating Dutch food, but evidently with an Indian touch. And the Heineken couldn't be missed..... Amazing to see how much Indians know about Holland on these occasions, the cliche's flew across the table talking about windmills, tulips, dikes and marijhuana.
And then a few days later I flew to Cochin to catch up with my parents and uncle and aunt, who had been travelling through India for over 2 weeks already. It was very nice to see them again and directly we went to Periyar National Park. We did some boating on Periyar lake, where we saw quite a lot of wildlife, night hiking, getting covered in leaches and a full day car safari. During that safari we went fishing and caught the smallest fish ever. It was about 3 times as small as the hook it was on!!!! Nice dinners, nice drinks and then it was time to show my ‘new home’…. Wednesday night flew back to Bangalore, where I was able to show the city, my house and my work. Time always goes too fast when you’re having fun and yesterday I left my family at the airport and they flew back through Mumbai to Amsterdam. For me it will be another 3 months!!!! My date of arrival is now confirmed and I’ll land at Schiphol on the 14th of December…

4 months!

Yes, 4 months already. And that’s a long time, especially for living in India. The first few months everything is new and exciting. Even though I got sick and needed to adjust to everything new, make new friends, work for 2 weeks during first month in Mumbai, it was great. Now life is getting more normal. The places I wanted to see in the south I have actually seen, work has its normal days and after work it usually means going to the gym with my mate Erik, having dinner and relaxing at home. Weekends are time to party in Bangalore (even though everything closes at 11.30PM!!), and enjoying some good food and drinks. For this Leela Palace is the place to go on Sunday, we pay 1200 Rs, and then sit and enjoy the buffet of unlimited food and drinks (free alcohol !!!). This usually means though, that Monday and Tuesday are days that it’s impossible to work being totally hung over from the weekends drinking…. So the best solution is to go somewhere in the weekend where there is no Leela Palace around, is not too far to travel and still is relaxing. This place is Mamallapuram. We take a night train to Chennai on Friday night, get there on Saturday morning, stay there for the weekend and take the 5 hour express train back to Bangalore on Sunday afternoon! Even this is becoming a standard trip as we went there the past few weekends! It’s the best way of getting out of Bangalore life!
So as u see still enjoying India to the fullest, even though all good things are not typically Indian and the mustaches, garbage, inefficiency, cows and rats are being pushed to the background. Just put on your sunglasses, shorts, take a cocktail, a palm tree and imagine a beach, that’s my new ‘standard’ weekend. Maybe see you there soon?

I'm back

After the last posts on my blog I started posting my pictures on my flickr account and my stories by mail. All this because the Indian Government closed blogs down after the Mumbai attacks, but as you can see there is good news. My blog is back, alive and kicking. So soon I'll post my stories on it again, some pictures, but most of them can be viewed on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaap_vd_velden/
So hang in there a little bit longer and the stories of my life in India will be back to back.