http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SFO2TRV/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SFO2TRV en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:52:39 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:52:39 +0000 Seasons Greetings to AllI'm sticking around Bangalore and have been invited to my neighborlandlord Xavier's house.Also I have changed to a different blog website. Please continue to follow my travels at Take CarePaul http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-356869.html Hi everyoneI have moved to Bangalore and am loving it.Here are some pics of my apartment. I will try to get some more pics of Koramangala the neighborhood I live in soon.Bangalore is a big city and it is a definite change from Trivandrum. I have moved from one of the most conservative states to one of the most liberal and progressive. In Bangalore you don't need a female partner to jump on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-353845.html I was in no way affected by the recent terrorist attacks. With the distance from here to Mumbai being around that of the Bay Area and the Midwest I am completely safe.Today I went to Divine Childrens Home with my friend Spela. This home is ran by Alice Walker not the Color Purple author and currently has 33 orphan children living in it. The ages of the children are 1 year to 13 years. I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-349348.html Here are a few photos of the house I am staying in.I live about 20 minutes away by car from the city. The vegetation is very thick with the majority of it being coconut trees. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-344750.html Hello AllIt has been a while since I have updated my blog.I bought a car. It is a 2003 Suzuki Maruti that runs on an 800cc engine which is the smaller than some of the motorcycles in the states. It's a four speed right hand drive and I am getting the hang of shifting and driving on the left. The car has absolutely no power but it get's me where I need to go. Work is going good and we are almo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-343496.html The guys surprised me today and took me to the beach instead of the office for my Birthday.We rented some boogie boards and spent a few hours getting tossed around in the surf. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-339595.html Yesterday we celebrated Diwali The Festival of Lights. The fireworks were just shy of dynamite and made for a crazy night.Everything else is going well. I'm adapting to the South Indian lifestyle and have became more and more comfortable with living here. I don't know when I will be back in the states possibly in Feb or March but who knows. Ryan hold down the fort. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-339190.html We traveled by train to Cochin last weekend for Sreeram's sister Raji's engagement party and I had an amazing time. The train ride was an adventure in itself.Cochin feels a lot more hip and upbeat than Trivandrum the city we stay in. Sreeram and Aju were amazing hosts and showed us some cool highlights in the small time we had.I will explain the rest of my trip the best I can in the captions http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kochi-/blog-336397.html Today we ate at Hotel Rahmaniya Kethel's Chicken.They use a very young chicken and all of the pieces are sized down tender versions of an adult chicken. It is pan fried in a chili pepper sauce and absolutely amazing. It is served on a banana leaf with chapatti bread. The small plate on the top is a gravy sauce for dipping it is made of the small inedible portions of the bird like the spine and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-334493.html Work is going good. It's nice to have all of this talent at your fingertips. I'm currently working on a website for India based Customer Support geared towards the ecommerce sector. Web development moves so quick when the programmer sits behind you and the designer sits in front of you.I took a photo for an corporate ID card and they use a Photoshop program to add a suit I wanted a baby blue http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-334077.html This last weekend the team and I went to an area of Kerala called Backwaters. Backwaters is a delta area right off of the ocean. It has all sorts of resorts and is a destination for tourist from all around the world. It is very popular to rent a house boat though we opted to stay at a resort.The resort that we stayed at is called the Aquamarinne and it was very beautiful. It was made up of 25 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-333827.html So I have safely arrived in India.Overall I am having a great time. It is so green and tropical here. The food is great and is very cheap. I will try to take more pictures of the countryside this weekend. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-332549.html I arrived in London today and was able to catch some good sights and also have a few pints with a friend that lived in San Francisco Paul Mewis a.k.a British Paul.I took the London Subway and it was very easy to navigate down to Westminster. In Westminster I was amazed by the beauty of Big Ben. I was looking for it upon exiting the train station and little did I know it was just across the str http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-332012.html Packing My Bags In San Francisco getting ready to head off to India. This photo is what I will use to locate my host family they look like very nice people.Stay tuned as I will try to update my blog as often as possible.httpwww.travelblog.orggmapsmap8J4.html or in travelblog Paul's Route Map http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-331215.html