Beethoven in Trance - Episode 59

2009 California Trip Report
Day 1 - Arrive SFO, took the BART from the airport to our base in Oakland, rest for the night.
Day 2 - Monterey Bay Aquarium, Big Sur
We started around 8am, traffic in San Jose wasn't too good. Fortunately, we could use the car pool lane, which was much better. We reached the Aquarium around 10:00am. Parking is $5 (we later found parking on the street between lover's point and aquarium is free). We spent about 3 hours in the aquarium (which is not enough in my opinion, I was busy taking pictures and forgot exploring the amazing world underwater). We drove to the Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park on the highway 1. , then come back in the evening, dropped by Carmel River State Beach and the Safeway close to Roi road, got some food, checked in hotel Best Western Crest Park, and rested for the night (it was a nice and clean hotel).
Day 3 - Point Lobos State Reserve, San Juan Bautista, Yosemite
Drove to Point Lobos State Reserve in the morning around 8am. It was a great place to hike, taking pictures and picnic. We left there around noon, and drove to Yosemite afterward. We stopped at San Juan Bautista for some pictures (nice little town and buildings), then continued to Yosemite. By the time we arrived Oakhurst, it was almost evening. We stopped by the Vons in town, had some food. Drove up to the mountains. Driving at night into Yosemite was an experience. We arrived Curry Village after 2 hours driving, parked the car (worrying about bears gonna attack our car because we just had fried chicken in the car for dinner). Went into the tent and slept. Woke in the early morning because it was really damn cold even with two blankets.
Day 4 - Yosemite Falls
We didn't realize it was gonna take us one day to hike Yosemite Falls and upper Yosemite Falls but it did. Bumped into a bear drinking water, took some pictures. We came back down and went for pizza in the curry village. Worst experience ever in there, 40 minutes of waiting and i asked the guy over the counter twice, first time he said I needed to wait, second time he said it wasn't ready and walked away. I went to another guy over the counter and complained about it, then finally, he came out with the pizza and apologized. Very bad experience with them, never go back again. Pizza is ok, nothing special.
Day 5 - Tunnel View, Glacier Point, Miror Lake
Since we missed the tunnel view when we came in, we went back in the morning, taking pictures, then went up to glacier piont, bumped into another bear, took more pictures, then came back to curry village. We stopped by some other areas for picnic as well, I don't remember the names though. We refreshed up, went out to mirror lake. We took the bus, hiked the trial. It was a great place to see, the water is low though, couldn't really take any pictures of the reflection. We went to the food court in the Yosemite Lodge for dinner. The beef stew soup was superb. Fast service and low price, thumbs up.
Day 6 - Giant Sequoia, back to base in Oakland
Drive out of the park, took some more pictures in tunnel view, then headed to the 'Groove with giant trees'. Amazing. By noon, we left the park, drove back to Oakland.
Day 7 - Las Vegas, Grand Canyon
Took the plane to Vegas in the morning, got the rental, and drove to Grand Canyon. It was about 5 hours drive, with stop for food. Checked into the hotel, Yavapai lodge. There was a general store next to the lodge which is essentially a supermarket, with everything you need. Nice. We didn't go anything that day, just went to bed and sleep.
Day 8 - Grand Canyon Hike
We hiked the South Kabib trail in the morning. We made it to the half of distance, then came back. Took us about 3 and half hours. Took the bus back. Drove to Desert view next, then dropped by the ruin. It was about sunset time, and we didn't make it to the red line bus, so we have to watch the sunset in Matte point. It was not impressive.
Day 9 - Left the Grand Canyon and drove back to Vegas
Went to M resort and casino for dinner buffet. It was a Thursday, so nothing really special, but for the price, it was ok.
Day 10 - Vegas
Vegas is still Vegas, I have been there 3 times, and it didn't change much. We went to the buffet at Bellagio for dinner, but we weren't impressive (maybe that's because we just had one the night before)...
Day 11 - Red eye fly back to home

Overall, it was a wonderful trip but it was an exhausting trip. If I could do it again, I would skip Grand Canyon, it was great, but I was more impressed by Yosemite, and I felt I wanted to see more of it. One week in Yosemite is called 'vacation', two days is called 'travel to'. Big sur is also nice, but I was rushed, and didn't have time to let the moment sink in. Point Lobos is geat, don't miss it. Aquarium is also fun, I wish have 5 hours to spend in there. I was busy taking pictures.
We travelled with two seniors this time, and it was a mistake to pack everything into the schedule. One of them got sick on day 7 when we drove to Grand Canyon. The tent cabin in Curry Village in Yosemite is a little too cold for them as well (in mid October).

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 58

Long time no blog, can't remember where was I in the last blog.

Anyway, deep into the summer of 2009 and we have been busy.

We kicked off our garden project this spring with a bang. We shopped around the nurseries in town, spent over hundred for all kinds of flowers, vegetables, and herb. After completing the routine of preparing the garden soil, we planted some tomatos, pepper, eggplant, cabage, and some peas in the garden we put down last year. We also re-did our flower bed in the front, and put down another flower bed to the right of the entrance steps next to the maple tree. My wife is obssessed with gardening this year, she wanted another garden soon after. We then spend another weekend putting down another garden with some bochoy, and squash. But that's still not enough, she lined up an army of vegetables in pots on the drive way, which makes driving in and out of garage a fun experience. Fortunately, cabage came out great, as well as tomatoes. We had heirloom, roman, and beefsteak this year. Roman sucks, no flavor, no juice. Heirloom is the best, beefsteak is in the middle. We also had some jalopeno, but very small yield. Hebanaro is coming out too, but very small. Eggplants come out much slower. Suggar snaps, peas and green beans are all growing fine. We have been enjoying our vegetable in dinners.

Other than garden, we started our bathroom remodel project this June. It's been a long and messy project. Our initial plan is to retile the bathroom walls around the tub, then change the fixture, paint the whole room, then refinish the bathtub. The budget was around $700. As soon as my neighbor and I started to taking off the tiles, we realized that we needed to replace the dry wall behind the tile as some of them are rotten with mold. We then found the walls are covered with wall papers, and we needed to peel them off before we paint. One thing led to another, before I knew it the poroject became something involves extra help from a dry wall guy, and a plumber. We had a quote from one of the plumber friends of my neighbor and it was $800. My neighbor said no, and called up his cousin, who happens to be a plumber. He did the job for $300. The dry wall guy (another friend of my neighbor) showed up and started to install the dry walls, it was $400 at first, then after patching all the walls and fix up an air duct below the vanity. It became $650. Then, we bought the paint, the tile, the caulk, the grout, adhesive, sealant, and fixture. The total cost tripled to $2000. Luckily, my neighbor has the tile saw, we cut the tile and installed ourselves. I painted the room with four coats over weeks. Then, we called in bathtub refinisher who is charging $300 for scraping the paint then recoating it. The guy came out in the middle of July and did the job. He left a small pool of paint at the bottom of the bathtub making it an uneven surface. My neighbor didn't mind and wanted to let it go. I called the refinisher again, and they came out to check and decided to redo it (sounds familiar? it happened when we refinished our hardwood floor). Anyway, he came out again after 2 weeks, sanded the extra paint down, then recoat the whole thing. While he is inside doing the job. I was outside watching my neighbor standing in a lift trimming the tree in my backyard. The tree has grown much and leaves were hanging over the roof. We were concerned that one day the thunderstorm will hit the tree hard enough and the branch might hit the roof. Now the tree is trimmed, we lost some shades though.

So, we had our bathroom out for use for two months. I have been taking shower with a garden hose in the back at night, and also in the basement next to the sink where there is a drain on the floor. We just had our bathtub back this Tuesday when the coating was supposed to be dry, as well as all the caulk and sealant on the tile. The new shower head is cool, we used the new curtain, which is pretty. We have a much brighter bathroom (certainly the four light bulb working full throttle has something to do with it). We got the fixture on clearance in the home center, there was a piece broken and I was planning to buy a replacement or return the whole thing and buy a different one. But the plumber (who quoted us $800 for the job) he suggested us call the manufacture and ask for a replacement. Well, he was right. Thanks to his advice, my neighbor called the company and we got a new replacement part for free. Basically, we got a complete working unit at a clearance price. Nice.

All in all, at $2000 price tag, this project still looks like bargagin. We did a lot of work ourselves, my neighbor certainlly did the most of the heavy lifing. We took his family to chinese buffet and dim sum places in the last couple months and they loved it. I also made them some beef noodle stir fry and they loved it too. They even asked for the recipe, which I don't have as it's my own creation. So, we saved on painting, tiling, taking the walls down. We got our plumber cheap, while drywall is not so much. The bathtub refinishing cost is ok, and we got two coats out of the price of one. We had a bargain with the fixture as well.

Since I was painting the bathroom walls, I had all the tools out. So I decided to paint the hand rail on the entrance door step outside. We got the paint from clearance in the homecenter, $2 or $3 per quart. Color is very acceptable. We picked some purple, pink, and bright yellow. We painted the handrail purple (it's a exterior paint). Then we painted a park bench pink. I also got some polyurathym from clearance, and I plan to stain the pinic table after I power wash it. I also need to paint the garage door as well (after power washing it).

Now we did our garden, remodeled our bathroom, trimmed the tree in the backyard and bush fense. We still need to power wash the drive way, the picnic table, garage door, then paint the door and stain the table. We then might be able to call it a day in the yard this year.

Inside the house, I shop-vac the cool air return duct because there is a place inside of the duct collecting dust. I painted the door trim (which was painted with the wrong color last year) of the entrance door. There are still some details to do, and another coat of paint needs to go on the silt. I also touched some of the baseboard around the floor in the major traffic area because they were stained when floor was refinished.

We have been having water leakage in the basement since we moved in. My neighbor mentioned that he used to have the same problem and it was caused my tree leaves and roots blocking the drain pipe. He solved the problem with couple bottles of Draino. That was what we did couple weeks ago. We first ran hot water into the drain around the house through the down spot at the bottom cornor of the house, then dumped the Draino and waited couple hours. Then we ran hot water through again. And this trick seemed to be working. We had a few thunderstorm since then and we had no pool of water coming in the basement. The edge of the floor is wet, but no pool of water came in. That is a great news. We will do that trick again this year before the winter after we clean out all the leaves in the gutter.

Last weekend, we were outside in the yard stripping the leaves from the branch that my neighbor trimmed from the tree. It was an 8 hours project in a 90F summer day. My wife needs those leaves for the compost. We now have to save all the vegetabls and left over fruits for her compost. Fun!

We left our skylight on the second floor bathroom open last year for some time and the cold wet weather has done some damage to the dry wall around the window. I had to take one piece of the wall down and I now have to install a new piece, patch cracks, and paint it. But first, I need to clean the room with all the debris and shop vac the leaves collect on the window frame. This is another project.

My parents are coming September 2nd. I would hope to finish the project by then. I have two weeks to go. One weekend for this, another for the power washing. Will see how it goes.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 57

can't remember when is the last time I blogged.

it's been a busy summer so far. We kicked off our garden project this spring and added a small flower bed in the front of the house and planted some more flowers in the old flower bed. We planted all the vegatables on the side of the garage, and just digged another garden on the other side of the backyard. We haven't finished fencing yet, and will have to do that as soon as possible.

We finally started our bathroom remodel project last week. It was estimed as a $700 project including retile, and refinish bathtub, then paint. As for now, the project cost is hitting $2000. My neighbor was helping me with the project, and right after we started to take off the tile, we found it would be better to tear down the wall instead. One side of the wall behind the tile has been molded, and had to be replaced. So, one thing lead to another, before I knew it, we had taken down three walls surrounding the bathtub, and another wall next to the door. We also took down the wall paper that was painted. The wall paper only covered half of the wall so there would be some sanding to do. I have been scraping the cracking paint off the wall for days and there is still more to go.

We bought the fixture from Lowes and it was on clearance. The fixture had a broken piece though. I was thinking buying a replacement at that time. Interestingly we were looking for a plumber at that time, and my neighbor found a plumber, and he brought them in for quoting. The plumber suggested we call the manufacture (Delta) to ask for a replacement. My neighbor called and the company said they would send me a new one. Great. fixture is done then. By the way, we never realized how expensive bathroom fixture is untill we started to look for one... After the plumber quoted us $850 for the job, my neighbor decided to say goodbye to them, and brought in his cousin who I also know and went fishing with before. He quoted me $300 for everything (well, my neighbor needed to work a bit for the low price). The pipe work was done last Friday and I took my neighbor's family and his cousin to a Chinese buffet for dinner. Everyone was happy about the food because we were all starving.

We have put up some 'Fiberock' board around the bathtub on which we will put up the tile. Will need to buy tiles, adhesive, and grout today, it's gonna be another $200 or so.

We bought the paint from Sherwin Williams, total $200 including primer, paint, brushes and rollers. I will still need some painters tool and white paint for door and windors trim.

The dry wall guy showed up last Friday and helped putting up the Fiberock and he will put up dry wall today. After that, my neighbor and I can start painting and tiling. He has a tile cutter that I can borrow.

We would need to remove the vanity and toilet before we paint.

After these jobs are done, I will call in the bathtub refinisher to refinish the bathtub. It's gonna be another $300.

I am so looking forward to getting this project done. It seem a second bathroom is really neccessary in a situation like this. I have been taking cold water shower outside with garden hose for the last three days. Getting a shower in the basement seem to be a great project for next year.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 56

For people who are interested in food:

My review of Michael Pollan's two books
In defense of food
Omnivore's Dilemma

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
In his book "In defense of food", Michael Pollan advocates people eating whole foods, and not too much. For example, corn syrup is a man-made food, therefore can not by recognized by your body while sugar can. This lends to the suggestion to use sugar rather than corn syrup for consumption (which is not practiced in the food industry because corn syrup is cheaper). Ever heard of people saying 'Coke Original' taste better? Well, that's because they hadn't replaced the sugar with corn syrup. Eat whole foods, foods that is recognized by your grandma as he put it in the book. Eat as French does, no second serving, eat in a crowd, spend more time around the dining table, to make eating an enjoyable event. By eating slowly, we also learn to appreciate the quality of the food more. He also recommends plants over animal protein as main course. "Use meat as a condiment" as he suggested.

Omnivore's Dilemma
In this book, Michael followed the journey of the industry corn along the industry food chain from the field in Iowa to the American's dinner table. A typical industry corn, (Type 3 corn, recognized across continents) was grown in Iowa in this example, spread with growth enhancer made by nitrate leftover from World War II, Corn is the No. 1 agriculture product in terms of the ability and speed to transform raw petroleum and natural energy into man-made energy. After harvest, they are shipped to wholesale trader in trucks, then transported in bulk to the processing facility owned by Cargil (who is the vertical integrator in the food industry and the largest private owned company in US or the world). In the processing plant, corn turns into Corn Starch, Corn Plastic, Corn Syrup, and numerous corn products that don't have the word 'corn' in their names (ex. ethanol). Corn dominates the farming industry and created a vicious cycle, the more the farmers grow, the lower the market price, the lower the market price, the more government subsidize, the more government subsidize, the more tax payers have to pay for.

Corn gets into American's diet through corn syrup, corn starch, and animal protein. Animal protein? How did that happen? Through animal feeds. Chicken, cow, pig, salmon, you name it. Cow is like a huge fermentation tank that process the corn and transform it into protein. By eating steak, we are eating 'processed corn'. The champion of transforming corn into protein is ... chicken. That's why chicken is cheaper than beef. That also explains why those animals are given antibiotics, because animal can't just live on corn feed, they are born (or used to be born) to eat grass.

The next stop in the food chain is the retail store. Michael mentioned WholeFoods and criticized its diminishing effort to support local growers. In his point of view, local farming is more important than 'industrial organic (such as Earthbound) agriculture', hence should be nurtured.
(as a side note, WholeFoods CEO wrote back to him in a public letter to clarify WholeFoods' sourcing practices and efforts to support local farmers, and Michael replied with another public letter not fully convinced. Both letters are available on WholeFoods' website).

At the end of the book, Michael took us to a journey to created the 'perfect meal' - everything in the dinner will be gathered, hunted and prepared by him. There will be nothing bought from the store. He hunted down a Californian wild boar, gathered bunch wiled mushroom (morel), mined the salt, cultivated wild yeast and harvested some fava beans from his garden. The perfect meal was perfectly natural.


Both books introduced the readers to the 'industry food' to various degrees. Michael's experiences on the Iowa corn field, Kansas cow ranch, and some local chicken farm in VA convinced him that the industry food is cheap for a reason and good quality local food is worth every penny charged. "We are what we eat". Michael suggest us eat selectively, and eat better, enjoy foods more for our own good.


So what do I learn from the books? It sucks to learn that we have been eating corns in various forms (and we are still eating leftovers from WW II), but the reality is, I don't see myself hunting down some wild animal in the Forrest to put dinner on the table any time soon. There are a few inspirations after the reading though.

One thing I have started doing, and I've never realized how much fun doing, is reading the food label, Xantham Gum, Benozate, Citrus Acid ( I don't even know I am spelling them correctly). The label is a shopping list for a chemistry lab (and might be true for the food company research lab). I avoid these products as much as I can. When I pick up a pack of WholeFoods chicken and read on the label "given corn and soybean vegetarian feed', I will laugh and put it down (and wonder: what is a non-vegetarian feed for chicken? chicken?) because the description just tells me that this chicken is no better than any 'regular' industrial chicken therefore doesn't warrant the higher price.

Happy grocery shopping and happy eating.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 55

The long overdue 2008 annual letter.

Time flies. I feel like I just wrote the 2007 year end report not so long ago.

Looking back the year, though I found less 'ground breaking' concepts or projects than we had in 2007, 2008 had its own twists and turns. These events happened to line up nicely in a time line.

Career development became a top priority at the beginning of 2008 when the relationship with my manager went south. I was given an 'action plan' to work on due to some error I caused at work. I was under pressure to dance his tune and look for something else. Remembering my early success in sales and marketing, I concluded that I wanted to move to a similar position. There was one job over the sales and distribution department at the time, initially I decided to wait because my intuition told me that I wasn't ready. Later my manager suggested I look for something else, and I made a mistake to apply for the opening against my gut and my application was failed. Not surprised (as I knew it was coming), I stayed put and did what I have to do at work. The manager left the company shortly after. Then the turning point came. It was an article called 'No Excuse', and it was about being responsible and getting the job done. It helped me. I got better at work and felt less stressed. It was a road map that I could just simply follow it through. Soon, another opportunity in the sales and distribution (actually a better one) became available. I applied, and by July, I got the offer. It was an interesting interview experience. I was interviewed by a manager on the interviewing panel, and I was told that he was also hiring. He seemed interested in my background and indicated that I could apply for his opening as well. So I ended up having one offer that I originally applied at hand, and the one I applied later in the air. After many considerations, I decided to accept the offer in hand (which somehow feels right intuitively). And that, was August already. As a side note, my taste of music started to change along the way as well. the transition is subtle on the surface - from trance to progressive, but the fundamentals are different - from a upbeat mainstreaming pop theme to a personal dedication focus.

So what is the learning? Translating from Dr. Phill 'if you don't manage your inlaws, your inlaws will manage you.' If you don't manage your job, your job will manage you. Also quoting from the article "no excuse" - " if you hate the job, the job will hate you as well, and if you happen to have a job you hate, you just have to be responsible."

Settling down in the new job in the rest of the year, we made a few trips back to back. First stop, Portland, Oregon for our very first marathon in October.

Portland is a fun place. It showed us what we are missing staying in Cleveland. I wasn't able to finish the marathon due to the leg injury which was disappointing. We rested at home for one day and went on a trip to India for our friend's wedding. The trip to India certainly refreshed our view of India. The city we stayed was like a small rural town in China. It was dirty and under developed. Shanghai is in much better shape comparatively. My previous blog has recorded the experience. It was a good trip, short, intense and good. We had good experience with Air India, and the aircraft was better than the one we took the next month to China.

Yes, we went back home for the very first time after 7 years in US. Before we went, we found there was a marathon in Shanghai at the end of November. We signed up, and I started some massage therapy session (because I still had injury on my left leg and couldn't run for 5 minutes). The first 1.5 hour session cost me $120. I then went through the health service in the company and got two more session for $15 / session. After I arrived Shanghai, I went through another massage session with a local therapist (a blind person) for $3 / hour. On Dec. 31th 2008, we were running our first half marathon in Shanghai after 7 years. Our race result was not recorded because we didn't step on the mat at the beginning (because we were late, and we blamed the poor organization). Anyway, we didn't really care about the result that much. We went to an Indian restaurant after the race and had lunch with both our families.

Other than preparing for the marathon and relax at home, I am very happy to visit my grandmother's resting place. I was her favorite, and I haven't had a chance to visit her since she passed away while I was in US. I am also happy to meet with all the family relatives, particularly my mother's elder sister, who was very happy to see me after 7 years. We met my dad's mother as well, she is 92 now and still look healthy. I met most of my friends, played basketball with them, and had dinner with them. And of course, I took many pictures, food, people and city. I cooked some at home, had a chance to cook a free range chicken particularly.

On the financial side, not exciting. Stock market has been tanking since the beginning of the year. Our 401K has dropped 40+%, as well as our Roth IRA accounts. Zecco has announced to pull back free trading service, and I decided to transfer out of this company. I will transfer it to Scottrade, which offers $100 reimbursement for account transfer.

The housing market correlates with the stock market. Our house value has dropped about 11% (20K/170K) since we moved in. Mortgage rate for refinancing was at 4.85% one time, and we decided to refinance our house. We calculated couple options and went to bank to start the application. After another round of calculation after we came back from the bank, we actually found out refinancing was not as good option as paying down another 40K principle to the loan. We wasted $325 because the application fee was not refundable. It was an expensive lesson.

My income in 2008 increased 7.3% from changing the job in August, and I got another 2% ($1000 ) recently as annual salary increase (my wife got a 3%). As for side income, I didn't have much country specialist opportunity in 2008. I can only remember one or two in the whole year. However, I did discover another revenue, which is selling cookware through amazon. The result so far is encouraging. The whole exercises is not just about money, but the mind set - no need to hold on to something I don't use often. If I can sell it for better price, sell it. As of this writing, I have sold total four pans. first, an All-Clad 4 qt. saute pan (the pan that triggered my thought of selling it due to the large price difference online, and the fact that the price was still too much for me @ $70). I sold pan for $120 and pocketed $30 profit. I then sold a used Sitram saute pan and a new Sitram sauce pan, both were selling at higher prices online. I made anther $30 profit on each transaction. The most recent pan sold is a CalphalonOne chef pan, MRSP $200 online and I sold for $95. I bought it @ $20. I have two more listings on amazon now, a Kitchenaid 12qt. stock pot ($24 purchased), and a Beka copper oval fry pan ($15 purchased). They will be tough sell due to the high price I listed them under, but since I am in no rush to clear the inventory. I just wait and see what happens.

We also made a few purchases in 2008 including: clothe and cosmetics from TjMaxx and Marshalls after Valentine's day. food items in a Japanses grocery store in Portland. food items, clothe, accessories and an Indian wok in India. Throughout the year, I bought 5 pieces of new cookware (totalling $110) and three new Japanese knives (totalling $53). During the Christmas month, I bought 3 pairs of shoes, two pairs of trial shoes, and one running shoe for total about $60. We also bought a new TV due to the fact that no more analog signal will be available in Feb. 2009, a DSLR camera Nikon D60 that I am still learning how to use. I also upgraded my PC because I hate not being able to play the latest titles. I was asked why I liked playing games so much. Well, as most gamers (if you play tennis on Wii, you are not included in my definition of gamer) will answer, "because gaming gives you experience that I won't get from real life". With the new PC, I have completed Crysis, Prince of Persia, Bioshock, and Tombraider Legend. I am currently on Tombraider Anniversary and I can see Tombraider Underworld along the way soon. Call of Duty 4 and 5 are also on the top3 list.

2008 Movie of the year award goes to "Journey of the man" from National Geographic. It leads us through life from the beginning to the end, and that, brings me to the next topics - Health.

We are getting more and more conscious about what we eat and how we eat, and we will continue to explore various dietary choice. We started to consume more fish and visit Whole Foods Market more often. We eat slower, and enjoy more variety in our diet. We replaced our costco non fat milk with a whole milk from a local farm, and purchased brown rice to complement our daily white rice. Our recent wheat flour dumpling was a success thanks to a new recipe. I just finished a book called "In defense of food" which talks about what people should eat nowadays (eat whole foods, not much, most plants). I am on the second book "Omnivore's Dilemma". We are excited about what we will discover in 2009. In additional to updating dietary plan, I also joined the company gym, and attending yoga class, which I found helpful. The stretch helped me recover from my injury.

Overall, I will call 2008 a year of awakening. I am happy to see we weren't off the track from 2007 when we layered some good foundation. I am excited about 2009 as we will be starting our own family. I will call 2009 'year of living' as we continue focus on health, career and finance as they form the golden triangle of our happiness.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 54

Day 7 we woke up early becuase we had a tour scheduled. We had some breakfast, a fried pancake with potato filling, and we loved it. Our friend's father even gave us some local healthy specialty to try. It was some form of paste in a bottle that looks like calcuim supplement here in US, and it's enhanced with gold. Yes, gold. The local swear by its health benefit. The paste tastes fruity, and I don't mind the taste at all.

After the breakfast, we set off to our tour. It was a bus tour around the city Delhi, and the bus was half full. There are total 3 pair, 6 international travellers on the bus. Two French ladies, another pair of one Irish guy and English girl. The rest was all Indian. The tour started with some temple, we had to deposit our shoes before we can walk in (a common practice in our trip). The temple was nice and clean (comparing to outside of the temple). When we left to get the shoes, the guard officer showed me a brochure about the Indian temple and its history and symbols showing inside. It looks as a promotional material, and I was gladly to accept it. He then asked me for money, well, well, well, there was always a catch. I asked him how much and he told me to give him any amount I wanted. Well, I laughed and gave the brochure back to him. I think the brochure is helpful to promote Hindu religion but the charge from the guard made me turn away from getting to know more, too bad. We then went to another site where there was a very tall tower, I forgot the name. The tickets were 500 rupee for both, plus 25 rupee for video taping. It was expensive for 30 minutes of visit.

We then went to a lotus temple, a temple that built like a lotus. Before we could go to lunch, we 'conveniently' stopped in the middle of nowhere by a 'government authorized or operated' shop for some indian specialty. We walked around and saw a Taj Mahal miniature displaying on the counter, I tried to pick it up and the poles around the Taj Mahal immediately broke off as soon as I touched it. The person over the counter said it was ok. Well, great, I ain't gonna buy that. My wife wanted to get one for her coworkers and asked the guy over the counter how much it was. She asked couple times and no one answered her, and they were not like busy or anything either. My wife eventually gave up and walked out the door. Got back to the bus, we were the first group coming back from the shopping. Next arrived the Irish guy and British girl. After about 30 minutes, everybody came back except the guide and two French ladies. After one hour, French ladies came back with their purchases and said to the bus 'sorry, we swear we won't do that again'. Well, that was perfectly ok for the guide because he just got a good kick back.

We arrived another 'government operation' for lunch. It was a busy place, not fancy, a lot of locals. Menu was simple as well. I was told the place has 'vegie chow mein' when I booked the tour, so I was looking for the dish. We were also happy to see some familiar names on the menu as we just had them the day before with our friend. We order one noodle, one dosa and one bottle of water. The noodles has 'wok hei', and the dosa was ok.

We were taken to Delhi Fort, Gandhi's Museum and his tomb, and Humayum's Tomb in the afternoon. We skipped the Delhi Fort, because we thought it was similar to Agra Fort, and we didn't consider 50 minutes visit time worth 500 rupee tickets. We sat in the bus taking naps, and I took some pictures of the traffic.
I found the Gandhi's museum was very informative and a good place to visit. I hope the locals feel the same. We spent the rest of the afternoon rushing into tourist sites and rushing back to the bus. I feel we spent almost the same time on the bus and off the bus. There just wasn't enough time for us to really appreciate the places we visited.

We finished the tour around 6pm, and our friend was calling us to go to a relative's birthday party. Since her father and brother woudn't go, we had to say goodbye to them before we took off (because we would go directly to the airport after the party). We loaded the car with our luggage and said good bye. Come to think of it, we will miss them.

The birthday party was for the daughter of one of our friend's sister. Her sister's house was well decorated and spacious, like a nice apartment in Manhattan. We sat and did a little chit chat with the hosts before we started the dinner. Since the hosts were not vegetarian, we had lamb and chicken on the table. I was thrilled, I was very happy with the food, the our friend's hospitality. We took some pictures together after the dinner and I had a beer with the host before we set off to the airport. I was the the beer is a 'local beer', but the lable doesn't read like Hindu at all. It looks like an imported beer from Europe. Anyway, who cares.

We finally arrived at the airport with our friend and her mom. We said goodbye to them, and thanked them again for their generocity. We went through a series of check points in the airport and finally we got our boarding pass. The officer at the security check point requested every carry-on case to be tagged. Well, where could we find the tags then? I followed a Indian guy and he eventually opened one of the check-in counter draw searching for the tags, and he found it. We grabbed bunch, and went through the security check. We were asked if there was any nuts in our carry-on, oh yeah, cashew and almonds. The security let us pass, but I got the feeling that there might be some rules they didn't follow. But Thanks!

The waiting area was small, although the airport was modern looking. A large area was used for duty free shopping where we bought some sweets for coworkers back home. At the final boarding station, two guards really did their job asking us where we were from, where did we work, for how long, and why we visit India. Finally they let us pass.

The plane was not even half full. Everybody was comfortable. The lade sitting next to my wife noticed her henna, and started to chat and showed her own henna to my wife. She later went to the row in front of us to sleep becuase it was empty.

The dinner served on the plane is lamb curry. It was good, very meaty. After 16 hour or so's flight, we finally arrived. It was a good flight. And that was our final day of the trip.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 53

Day 6. By the time we got up and got ready, our friend was already up and we were introduced to her family. We met her parents and had a little chit chat. I got the chance to work in the kitchen and I had a good time. I video taped the whole thing of course. My friend made a sandwich with homemade cheese (similar to ricotta), and put it on the flat iron as we do with a pannini. We were stuffed before we could walk out the door. Day 6 agenda is shopping and schedule a tour around the city for the next day. We first went spice shopping. We went to the a local health institute which promotes good health by eating healthy food. First stop is the spice shop. All the spices are handgrounded at the back of the shop, and no photo was allowed. I was asked what to buy, and I basically told my friend I want all of the items on the list. So they gave me a pack of everything (later I found out I don't have enough tumeric and garam masala, but too late). After the spice shop we dropped by a juice mix booth. I asked my friend to told the guy working in the booth not to add any sugar in the juice, and I was told that sugar is not allowed by law in this institution. Wow, that's a first. While we were waiting for the juice to be mixed, we dropped by another store that sells heathly pills and oils. There were almond oil, local honey, etc. We had no luck with either of them because they were out of stock. Well, we went back to the juice stand and finish our juice. The juice was great, and I finished it quickly. I then was dared to try another juice, a cucumber and some other vegetable or fruit juice mix. Not even the locals had tried it. Well, bring it on. The juice came out green, like cucumber, and as a matter of fact, it tastes like cucumber as well. I finished it in no time as well (I did gave my wife a sip to taste). I like the juice, it was little tart, but not too strong, it was refreshing. I would order it again next time.

Next stop is a local market called Delhi Haat, we went to a travel agency (it was a 'government undertaking'), and booked the travel tour for the next day. We then bought the tickets (15 rupee) to go into the Delhi Haat. The place is a gathering of all the local specialty in one place. There are many textile from all over the country. Carpet, clothe, shawl, bags, sofa covers, you name it. The tout inside wasn't too bad. We bought a few shawls there without too much bargining and left the place.

Second stop is an open shopping bazzar. We did our bangels shopping there. This time, we bargained even less. We are pretty sure that we got ripped off badly there. By the time we finished circle around the place, it was lunch hour. We were all hungry, so our friend took us a reputable local restaurant for Southern Indian food. The restaurant was packe, and apperantly popular. There were both local and foreign visitors coming in and out and there was a line outside of restaurant waiting. There were a few seats outside of the restaurant and one seat was opened up and I was just ready to take it, but there was another foreign visitor jumped into it before I did. That old guy even said 'the age beats the bueaty' or something like that. The only time people fighted me for a seat happened in Shanghai when I was a little kid. I've never experienced it in US since I came here and I felt a little 'back home' at that moment. I couldn't say that it was a good experience though. While we were waiting, there were a few kids begging for money and food. I ignored them, but my friend gave him some money, but the kid didn't want it because he wanted food, so my friend bought some snack from a store next door and gave it to him. He then started to fancy my water, and asked my friend for my water. My friend forwarded the message and I replied with a no. I reminded her that my middle name is 'mean'. After about half hour or so waiting, we went into the restaurant, and our friend started to introduced us to the food. We ordered a bunch of them, and most of them are pretty spicy. I finished all of them and I was happy.

Left the restaurant, we went back to shopping. We went to another underground shopping mall (we had one in Shanghai as well). The underground shopping plaza is more stocked towards hippie youngsters, we didn't find much that was attractive. We only bought some shirts that was quoted 650 rupee, but we bargained down to 200 rupee. At that moment we realized how much we could bargain, but that was too late.

Next stop we went to another open bazzar, where I found the best thing of the trip - an Indian wok, we also bought a stainless steel milk jar. We then bought a set of children's clothe for our neighbor's daughter, and few packs of cashew and almonds. By the time we were done, it was dark already, we called it a day and went back home. And I coudn't remember if we had dinner that day or not..... But that was our day 6. We went back, take shower, and had some water, and then met our friend's brother, then go to sleep I guess...

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 52

We got up early as usual on Day 5. Today is the wedding day for our friend. We packed our bag and headed to our friend's home after waking her up by phone. After sitting around for a while at her home, we had our breakfast served. The food was wonderful and I was very happy about it. The wedding ceremony started at her home in the afternoon and we video taped the whole thing. I even helped with cooking something for the bride's father. The bride's father needed to fast on the wedding day as a tradition, and he could only eat milk and some nuts. I helped toasted the peanuts. Then one of the aunt mixed it into some milk mixture. The wedding ceremony wouldn't start till evening so we had some time to kill. We contacted the sister of our coworker and she came over to give us another package for us to bring back to US and she took us to a place for shopping. She dropped us off to a local clothing shop because I needed something appropriate for the wedding that evening. She couldn't accompany us that day because she was busy. After saying good bye to her, we went into the shop. I bought a set of India clothing, and went to the check out. Fortunately they accepted credit card. I asked the guy over the counter where I could get money exchange. He pointed me to a group of guys working in the store. I was then 'suggested' by them that I could just sit and they would bring me the person for exchanging money (or at least that was my understanding). I smelled something fishy (or just being paranoid), I insisted they give me direction for Thomas Cook. Then one guy jumped out and gave me some direction, and another guy came out and smashed him on the head. Hummmmmm.

We left the store and since we still have plenty of time till the wedding, we started to walk around and tried to find Thomas Cook. The area consists a few blocks of stores cramped together. We followed the direction that we got previously and were able to find any branch. My wife kept reminding me not to walk in the middle of the road (a habit that I developed in Agra). I then decided to go into a known bank branch (HSBC? forgot the name) to ask for help. The guard won't let me in because of the bag I carry. So I left my bag with my wife and walk inside by myself. I found a young lady in there and asked her for direction. She suggested 'Western Union' which was what our friend suggested and gave me some direction. We then followed the direction to some extent and found the most modern shopping mall in town. The officers at the door checked our bag before letting us in, we have started to get used to it. It's a shopping mall much like the western ones, pretty boring. We eventually found the Western Union, and it was a tiny little office with one guy sitting behind the counter. I called my friend again to confirm this IS the place, then walked in to exchange the money. We walked around the shopping mall a bit then finally decided to sit down in the McDonald's (yeah, it's everywhere). We had a Chicken Maharaj and Vegie Burger. The flavor of chicken maharaj is confusing and I didn't like it at all, actually I hated it. Vegie burger on the other hand has distinct indian flavor, and I liked it. Stuffed with junk food, we headed out of the store.

We wrote down our address on a piece of paper and started to look for a manual rickshaw to take us back. The first driver quote us 50 rupee, then 40. He must be drinking and we went for another one. Most of the drivers don't know the address in English which makes the 'hiring process' a bit difficult. Eventually one driver took the bid, and asked a street vendor to translate it. At that time my offer was 10 rupee, I showed him the address in one hand, and 10 rupee in another hand, and he said yes. We got on the 'bike', and he started to riding back. He didn't know any English and he didn't really know the address. He delivered us to a place close to the address, but not the address. We decided to walk back ourselves so we got off his 'bike', and gave him 10 rupee. He all of sudden started to ask for 15 rupee (which was an offer I made earlier before I hired him). I told him firmly that this was not the address, and I only agreed for 10 rupee. He didn't understand me, and I didn't understand him. I showed him again with the address in one hand and 10 rupee in another (like what I did before he said yes to our offer), and told him the he took us to the wrong address. We gave him the 10 rupee, and we started to walk. He followed us and shouting at us loud and angry. We ignored him and kept walking. I bet the whole block could hear him. We came across a group of young people on the way, and we asked him for direction, they could only tell us the general direction. We kept on walking and the driver kept on following. Very soon we saw a sign that we remembered seeing before and we were heading the right direction. The driver was very persistent, and kept on following us. We didn't think bringning him back to our friend's house was a great idea at that moment, so we went into the club that we went to for the engagement party three days ago. We stopped at the gate, and told the officer that the driver was bothering us. The driver followed us in and started to talk to the guard. I told the guard that I didn't understand what the driver was saying and appearantly the guard had no interest in involving in this matter. He let us in the club, and the driver was disappointed. He left finally. After we walked in the club, the guard stopped us again and told us that the gym opens from 5pm. Ok, we will keep that in mind!

We sat on the lawn under the evening sun for a while, relaxed. We headed back to our friend home to get ready for the party (to be honest I was afraid the driver would waited there, but fortunately he wasn't). Our friend's sister loaned Jessica a set of traditional clothe, and I put on my newly bought as well. We were ready and walked to the club again at night. We met four friends of groom waiting for the party to begin. They were from Germany. We chatted a little bit. The groom was busy with some ceremony very much like the one we just saw at bride's home. After waiting and waiting, the groom finally got on a horse and started to rode back to the dinner party site. There were a group of relatives and friends dancing around the horse and moving slowly to the party site. There were drummers trying to stop them moving and two groups would 'fight' on the road. Drum vs. Dance. There was a line of people on both sides of the groom carrying lights and some guys in front of the everybody setting off fireworks. It was rowdy. I was amazed how traffic was still open and cars were able to pass by the whole army of people.

The groom finally reached the gate, where a group of bride's sisters stopped him for getting in. The groom had to 'bribe' them to get in. Jessica was among them and shouting 'US dollar, US dollar'. Well, the groom surely would be broke if he paid US Dollar. Finally, the monther in law came out for help, grabbed him into the door.

By that time, most of the guests have arrived and started eating already. The party was on the lawn of the club, and it was open. Around lined up an army of cooks ready to serve you whatever you like. We met another friend of us from Delhi at the party and we started to catch up. We then went to see the bride together (who was hiding in the backstage), while the groom was busy with his ritual. We took pictures of the bride then came out for dinner. My friend showed me around and intoduced to me all the dishes and I video taped the whole thing. I even went behind the counter to be a chef for a minute, which was really fun. The only thing that bothered me a little that night is that there was one guy grabbed me in my arm and asked me to give him the video camera. I first thought he was kidding but he was dead serious. I said no, and tried to get away from him, but he was persistent and kept asking me. My friend from Delhi came to rescue and I was able to escape. But soon my friend was 'trapped' again by him and his father. They were asking my friend to send the son US Visa. What the heck??? I went to rescue her and we finally could start eating.

After the dinner, I was sitting on the table and my wife and friend went for desert, the son came back again and asked me for my phone no. I told him that I was from China so he said me for my Chinese phone no. He said he was going to call me and he told me his name is 'honey'. What kind of man call himself 'honey', and NO WAY I am going to call him that! Sure, I gave him a fake chinese no. and he said something that I didn't understand and left.

We didn't stay too long at the party, the wedding was going to last till next day, and we needed to go back to Delhi to stay with her for the night. We took the picture with the bride and groom and we went back to the bride's home with the bride as she needed to change the dress. We pulled out our luggage and said goodbye to them in rush. Her monther was kind enough to give Jessica a necklace as a gift. We said good bye to everyone and got into the car with our friend heading back to Delhi.

By the time we got to our friend's house, it was almost mid night. Her parents went to sleep already. We took a shower and got into bed soon as well. The masquito had a 'Chinese buffet' that night. And that, was our Day 5 in India.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 51

Day 4. We woke up early as usual. We heard from the hotel staff that Taj Mahal opens @ 5:30am, and we got ready and left the hotel around that time. 2 minutes walk and we were at the ticket office. The good thing about being early was that no tout came bothering us. The ticket is 750 rupees for foreigners and 50 rupees for locals. With tickets, we can claim a bottle of water and one shoe cover (because no shoe is allowed on Taj Mahal). I went to the water stand asking for water and the guy gave me only one, and showed me on the ticket that one bottle per ticket, even I showed him two tickets. I STRONGLY insisted to have two bottles, and finally he gave me another one. Male and Female need to go through security check seperately in two lines. The security office found a USB cable in my camera case and told me it was not allowed. I had to put it into storage, and it was free.

Finally we were inside of the Taj Mahal building and everything started to calm down. The sun was barely coming out, and there were not much visitors inside. It was a good moment. We went through the main gate, where I had to deposit my video camera (because it's not allowed, only camera is allowed). We went in and started to enjoy the one of the wonders of the world. We spent about 4 hours inside appreciating the beauty of this tomb. We walked on the marble floor and it was very nice (untill noon when it's getting hot). We even saw a Indian boy in a shirt saying 'Shanghai'. What's the odd? We took a picture of him. The only thing that ruined my moment a bit was when two guys showed up in front of us when we were sitting on the floor relaxing and asked us 'are you chinese?' I looked at them and I knew these two guys are crocks. They didn't look like usual touts who were trying to make a living, they were people who were dangerous with deal with. So we ignored them but one guy still stared at us and asked us the same question. I started to talk Shanghainess to him, and he picked it up really quickly. Eventually they left, and they could repeat what I said by then. ( I guess they will use it on someone to see what does it mean).

Before we left, we went to the toilet. The toilet was free for foreigners and 2 or 5 rupees for locals (YEAH, the only advantage of being a foreigner in India!). When I got out, the boy at the door tried to stop me for something, I pointed at the sign which says "free for foreigner" and kept walking away. He the said something like 'no money', but I coudn't care what he wanted at that time. Maybe he had a good reason to stop me for something, but at that time, I just couldn't trust anyone.
Went out Taj, we stopped by a street vendor for some snacks, I picked some deep fried pancake like stuff and some pancake that was burned on the open flame. I figured the open flame and hot oil should have killed all the germs. We went back to hotel and freshed up. Checked out the room, and went on our afternoon journey.

Left the hotel and we headed to the Taj complex gate, at the gate I asked one of the guards (did I mention they were all armed with heavy weapon?) there where the 'baby Taj' was. It was a tomb built by the treasurer, and it was a small version of the Taj Mahal. We were approached by several rickshaw drivers and the price one of them quoted us was 100 rupee. There were several of them so I asked another driver for the price, and I got 80 rupee. Well, we had a winner then. The two drivers had a 'discussion' in Hindu before we left. I bet they were arguing that the driver broke their 'pricing guideline'.

When we got to the Baby Taj (Itmad du Daula), the driver said he could wait for us and took us back. We could pay him later for both trips later. Well, works for me. We went into the baby Taj, and paid the video ticket and started our sightseeing. Baby Taj was nice as well, a small version of Taj Mahal and much less crowded. We spent almost 2 hours there and when we came back, the rickshaw driver was almost ready to jump off bridge. We asked him to take us to Agra Fort, and he quoted 50, we said 40, and we settled at 45 rupee (still a rip off). We arrived Agra Fort and the driver decided not to wait for us. He figured that we were not easy business. We paid him and went into Agra Fort. A guard there at the gate was being friendly to me and said he could buy tickets for us. I still didn't trust him with my money, and turned it down.

Agra Fort was a big complex to look around, we spent about another 2 hours looking around. From the fort, we could see Taj Mahal from a distance. The tout was much less there, and we weren't bothered by many people. We looked around, rested a little bit, then left the fort to go to a local bazzar close to the train station. I asked the person at the storage room how much would it cost for a rickshaw to get there, and I was told it was about 20, 25 rupee. We went out and found a rickshaw, we were quoted 50 rupee, and I countered 25 rupee. He accepted, and we stepped on. We toured the bazzar, had some street food again. It was a potato pancake deep fried in oil and dressed with spice, ginger, cashew and some sauce. We liked it. Jessica also tried something that I didn't know the name. It was some 'fortune cookie' like thing that the server will poke a hole in the middle then scope it in a bucket of 'soup'. It was not a hygiene choice because they usually handle food and money with the same hand. But we were adventurous enough to try it. The good thing is that we got for free. They decided not to charge us for that thing. It might be that they wanted us to sample it only.

We took another rickshaw from bazzar to train station, and waited the train at the station. The train station was not in good shape. I even think the old train station in Shanghai when I was young is better than the one in Agra. Finally, the train arrived after being 15 mintues late. We concluded our trip to Agra. During this trip, Jessica was mistaken as Tibetan when we were in Taj Mahal, and I was mistaken as Mongual at the train station. And we were being asked 'Japanese?' numerous times.

Around 11pm, we arrived Delhi train station. Our taxi driver was there already waiting for us, but we went to the wrong exit and we called the driver, and he asked us to wait at where we were, and he came and found us.

We got back to the guest house midnight. We would need to go to a different guest house for the night (which was owned by the same person and was really close to where we stay 2 days before). We went there and found the light in the toilet didn't work. The servant tried to get away from it, but I insisted him fixing the light. He changed light bulb and did something and WaLa, there came the light. The toilet still in bad shap but the room has a much quiter air condition. I had a better rest that night, and that was our day 4.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 50

Day 3 in Noida, India. Morning 6am, we took a taxi to the Delhi train station. It's an old train station (not the one in new Delhi). It's in pretty bad shape. The guard there were all armed with rifle or machine guns. We went on the train, and found our seats after looking carefully at our tickets. The train ride itself was ok, but the sight along the way wasn't that pleasant. There was almost a village under each bridge we went by. By 10:30am, we arrived in Agra where we would see Taj Mahal. The moment we stepped off the train, we got followed by taxi drivers touting for service. We were convinced that a pre-paid taxi was the way to go, and we were looking for pre-paid taxi stand as soon as we left the platform. We saw a small pre-paid taxi stand across the exit, but it didn't look right to me. 'Where is the policy who is manning the booth?' I was thinking. 'It must not be the one'. We started to walk around and we were followed by a team of taxi drivers. We tried to ask the policeman at the gate where the pre-paid taxi was, and he wasn't really helpful (well, he wasn't helpful at all). Finally we circled back to the pre-paid taxi stand, and the policeman inside gave us a ticket, and we paid the taxi fee base on the price written on the board. I could feel the the people around me staring at my wallet intensively when I pulled the money out of the wallet. At that moment, we realized that police there and taxi drivers were working together. Police there didn't control the taxi drivers, it was the other way around. We took the reciept and followed the driver to the car. There were two of them in the car. One is the driver (who doesn't speak English), the other one is the talker. I was concerned with this fact and I made a phone call to our friend to let her know that we arrived and we were riding in taxi to our hotel. I talked loud enough so that the 'talker' can hear me. The talker started talking, introduced himself and asked our names. He said he was an economics major in the school and this was his side job. I asked him what did he think about the current stock market. He said, 'oh, there are a lot of markets here in India'. Yeah, right! He continued to try to sell us his guided tour in Agra, but I told him that we had a friend in the city and we were on our way to meet her. Then he finally shut up.

The taxi stopped around 500 meters away from Taj Mahal complex (that's what they call it, a complex) because taxi was not allowed to get closer. After confirming the fact with the hotel (thank god for unlocked cell phone), we got off the taxi and started to wonder where should we go now. The talker asked us for the reciept (with the reciept, they will go back to the train station to get the money we paid earlier). Then he grabbed a manual rickshaw and told us the rickshaw can take us there for 20 rupees. Well, he underestimated us. We asked him which direction the hotel was, and we started walking. We got in this local market street and it was in poor condition (to say the least). It's narrow, dirty, and full of traffic and touts. All kind of rickshaw, animal and people were walking in both directions. We walked for a while and reached a conjunction which we didn't know which branch to follow. The rickshaw driver at that time showed up and said 'wrong way, wrong way', and he 'insisted' to take us to the hotel. We asked him how much and he still said 20 rupees. "No way, we just walked that long way", I thought, I countered 10, and he accepted it. We hop on the rickshaw and he took us to the hotel (I found that we WERE heading the right direction). Anyway, we arrived and I paid him 10 rupees. He was mummering something (might be cursing us that time) but I didn't really care that much. It's not that I couldn't afford this 5 rupees ($1 = 45 rupees), it's a matter of principle. We just don't like to be ripped off when we know we can avoid, even for a penny.

After navigate through more touts we finally arrive the hotel. It was really close to Taj Mahal and it was quite and clean (comparing to outside). We settled down and we asked the hotel to arrange a taxi service for us to go to Fatephur Sikri, an abandoned kingdom for sightseeing. We asked for a non-AC car, because we were not huge fan of air condition in cars. The taxi driver showed up after 30 minutes and we set off our journey. The ride to the destination wasn't really peasant either, but by that time we have got used to it. Still the same image, dusty, dirty, animals, crazy drivers, and more of the same things.

The taxi driver dropped us off in front of a group of 'guides'. We are surrounded by them when we were still in the car. The moment we got off the car, we were attacked by all kinds of offers for guide services for various reasons. One guy tried to act authority-like and told us a guide was good for us because we won't be bothered there by other guides and beggars, and I fired him first (having problem with authority). We asked them how long was it to the gate, and they said it was gonna be 1 km. Well, we just ran a marathon, we can handle 1km. So we started to walk, then they followed us and said it was 2 km, the and told us the guys earlier tried to understate the distance so that we won't feel bored on the way. Well, 2km still didn't cut it. We went on walking. In the middle of way to the site, we met a single female (I think she is from US, but didn't ask her) on her way back from the opposite direction. I asked her how were things up there, and she said we just had to be persistent saying no. We compliment that she was so brave going there along (especially with a camera in front of her and small bag on her shoulder, she didn't look 'armed and dangerous' at all to me). Anyway, she looked not scared at all, and we were glad that we talked to her and felt much better about ourselves too. We kept on going and reached another fork branch road. We remember the girl told us to 'stay on the road', and we did. We went into a local market very much like the one we just went through one hour ago next to Taj Mahal. After 15 minutes of walking and we reached the end of the market and we realized that we went the wrong way. We then headed back to the branch road, and went onto another branch and finally we arrived the gate of the Fatepur Sikri complex.

Yes, there was an army of guides and touts, we ignored them and started our sightseeing. At this moment, anyone who wanted to start a conversation with us will be ignored and hold hostile against. Some guy in the complex asked us for video ticket when he saw me video taping, and I totally ignored him. He got louder and louder and eventually I told him if he wan't a policyman, don't bother talking to me. He continued to follow us and shouting for video tickets, and I decided to find a policy man for help. We eventually saw a policy man at the gate and we started to walk towards him. The other guy stopped following us and yelled at the policy man something and left. The policy asked me if I was video taping and I said yes. He told me that I needed a video ticket, and I could get it at the ticket office. Ok, I went back to the ticket office and got my ticket. Everything finally settled down. But I was at the edge by that time.

3 hours went by fast, I coudn't wait to leave because I was stressed out and was sick of the touts. Although the site itself worth the time to continue exploring, we have to get back to our taxi before it started to charge us 100 rupee / hour. We got back to the taxi and left the place. I was somewhat relaxed in the car. On our way back, we witnessed a street fight between two richshaw drivers. One of them pick up a brick on the ground and chased the other one. I didn't see the brick, my wife did. But it amazed me how one can just pick a brick from the ground in the middle of the road.

Back to hotel, we had our dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was a total rip off. The dinner was half of the price of our one night stay at the hotel, and we just had some vegatables, rice and egg. Fortunately, we brought some fish can with us, and we ate it with rice. That concluded our day 3 in Agra, India.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 49

After we got back from Portland, OR for our first marathon, We rested on day at home (packed our luggage, cleaned the gutter). We sat on the plane to Delhi the next day.

We first arrived JFK airport @ NY around noon. We checked in, went through custom. And waited @ the gate for our plane from Air India. The plane itself wasn't bad. There weren't any seats in front of us so we have plenty leg space. Only the guy sitting next to us was a big guy and he took a lot of space. The food was great on the plane. Jessica had chicken curry and I ordered fish expecting something indian. Well, it was not, it's a western style poached fish and I didn't like it at all. The next day, breakfast was egg and sausage, nothing exciting. After 16 hours of sitting, we finally arrived Delhi at 4:45pm local time. The airport policy was armed with rifle or semi-auto machine guy. We had a pick up at the airport arranged by a friend of ours here in US. We were glad we had a pick up because the traffic is horrible and there wasn't much order or directions in clean display (and we soon found out the pre-paid taxi was not as we expected).

Arrived at the bride's home in Noida in the evening, I was tired already. We chated with bride's parents and we went to the guest house close by. The room seemed to be ok but the toilet is dirty (and soon we found it was normal). We didn't know how to use the water heater (or maybe it wasn't working anyway). I had to have a cold water shower. I wasn't feeling that well that night, and we decided not to go back to bride's home for dinner. We had some simple airplane food we saved, and I went to bed with air condition on. The air condition sounded like a jet plane and I coudn't stand it. I had to shut it down, but sleeping in a room with no windows at 90F wasn't pleasant either. The tiger essential balm came into rescue (thank god my wife packed it). I put it on my temple, under nose and back above my neck, and I felt much better. I had some rest the next morning before I woke up around 5am.

It was still early in the morning and our friend (the bride) surely wasn't wake. We walked around the block and watched the street getting busy. The streets are really in bad shape, dusty, dirty, and full of construction and human trashes. It wasn't a pleasant sight. We came back to hotel and waited for a while, then went to the bride's home. She was barely waking up so we sat outside of the house in the patio for a while. I had three cups of hot water and that helped bringing my fever down a bit more. We had breakfast almost noon (I was starving by that time), and the food was good. A bit later, we met the sister of one of our coworker friends here. She was nice enough to take us around for some shopping and she gave us a package to take back to US for her sister. We told her to bring more package because our luggage can fit more. So we agreed to meet again two days later when we were back from Agra. After that, we just sat around in bride's house and in the afternoon, we went to a nearby 'club' (almost like a building built for community event) for the engagement party. The club seemed to be half done, there were still constructions going on next to it. Anyway, we started the party a while later and the guests started to arrive. The cousins of the bride danced at the party, and we enjoyed the show. The groom eventually showed up and the dance show stopped. The official engagement ceremony started.

While the couple was sitting in front of everybody going through the ceremony. Guests started to eat. We liked the food there even there wasn't any animal protein. The engagement party went on, and we finally left for guest house and went to bed early because we had a early train to catch the next day. That was our day 2 in Noida, India.

Beethoven in Trance - Episode 48

Our first marathon was quite an experience.

We arried Portland OR on Oct. 3rd. and we went to a local Japenses supermarket right after. We had a great time shopping there and had its dinner box in its food court as well. We arrived our download hotel in the evening and called a night.

Woke up the next morning, we went to pick up our car and drove to some local ethnic stores. One Japense store, where we had our history lesson by the store owner. One Chinese-Vitnamese supermarket where I had great time touring its meat department. We shopped and bought its vietnamese lunch box at noon. The lunch was great, pork, tiger skin egg, fish, a pig feet soup and jasmine rice. We were very happy when we left the store.

Returned our rental, we took a light rail train from the airport back to downtown Portland. We won't need the rental on the race day, so we pay for it and its parking? We walked around downtown a bit and bought our dinner in Safeway. We had a mix salad, and some bread. We toasted the bread in the oven in the hotel, and it was goooooood.

Next morning we woke up early. We toasted some bagel we got the night before (they were so good), and ready for the race.

7am we started the race, it was cloudy and a bit chilli. I started the first mile all right, and when I got into mile 2, I started to feel my IT band near my knee getting crampy. At mile 3 I knew I will have to do another marathon because I was not at my best. After mile 5, well, I started to walk a bit more at the water station and stretch. Mile 7 and 8, I pretty much walked more than I ran. And it started to pull, we were wet and I was cold because I wasn't running. My wife was doing ok and she walked with me. I was managed to pass 13 mile mark and at that point, I wasn't able to run any more, and even walking was a challenge to me. From mile 13 and forward, I was limping and shaking in the raining. Eventually, I made it to a waterstation at mile 16.5 and I decided to quit the race. It was 1pm all ready and my firend Abi was waiting for us at the finishline. She will have to go back to Seattle around 6pm and I didn't believe I could finish the race before then. Considering that and the fact India trip is 3 days away, I said goodbye to my wife and waited at the station for a pickup to the med-aid station at the finish line. My wife went to finish the race.

At the finish line I got my IT band checked up and I met our friend Abi there. We waited till my wife crossing the finish line. She finished the last 10 miles in one hour and 45 mintues. We went back to hotel and Abi got me some painkiller for the leg. We went to Todai (the Japense seafood buffet) but it wasn't open till 5pm. So we went to Macroni grill across the street instead and had some snacks. The food was good there, and we had a good time together.

After saying goodbye to Abi at the train station, we went back to Todai (it's one of the reason we came to Portland for the race). I was thrilled to see all the Sashimi and jumbo shrimp. We started our raw fish eating spree, and by the end of the dinner, I was stuffed with raw fish.

The next day, we took the train back to airport and said good bye to Portland. I love that city, especially the food. The city is clean, and very culture oriented. It has a large asian populations and mexicans as well. When I was in Todai, all the food there is handled by mexicans (only one Japense, Chiense looking guy working there). I looked at them and said 'mexicans built this country'.

Back to Cleveland, there is some regret that I wasn't able to finish the race, but it wasn't a huge. I guess all great food made up the dissapointment, besides, my wife finished it, at least one of us did it.

Will have to have a physician to look at the problem.