Back in San Fran after two really long flights. Flight delayed to Tucson, but that means we got to watch the Giants beat the Forty-miners. Very sleepy now... Look for more posts with pictures once we get settled back at home. It was a great trip!

At Bangalore airport, 2am Sunday morning. Just did a pile of math homework, but now too tired to do more. Waiting for flight at 3:20am.

Last dinner at kibini, India for Jackson... 1st - tomato basil soup 2nd - grilled cauliflower, mushrooms, pepper, and pineapple with mint sauce - all w Indian spices! 3rd - lentil fritters, grilled panner cheese,  mattar panner  (paneer cheese and peas ) Indian bread (chapatti). Desert - ice cream with mango, anise seed. Yum! Also got Dad to dance with the local tribal dancers and me.

All animals - can you name them?

We saw tons of cool birds

All our safaris ended about sunset, or...

or started before sunrise (hard to get up but worth it!)

India's largest deer figuring out who is boss

On our last safari we saw 161 deer, mostly spotted deer like these

Scratching is sooo good!

Lots of monkeys too, mostly these langurs

Stay tuned, more to come!

Today we have to start the long trip back to the US - 6 hours to Bangalore, 1 hr to airport, time there, then 9 hours to Germany, time in the airport there, then 11 hours to San Francisco, then time there and the 2 hour flight to Tucson. Amazingly, we take off tonight from Bangalore about 3:20AM and get to Tucson later the same day. 12.5 hour time difference but lots of travel time.

So, before we go, some of our wildlife. We'll put up more more pictures later, but these should give you a good idea of how fun our trip was... (except for the homework part, perhaps).

Wow!!!! That looks like a blast. Eli has acknowledged that this might even be worth eating Indian food for.... Thanks for posting! We assumed that you were having too much fun to get online, but it is good to see that confirmed. Can't wait to see more! And you both, in person. Love, mom and Eli

We'll put more up soon, but in the meantime, please feel free to ask questions... 

Did we mention that we also went for an elephant ride?

Finally found internet (!) at Nagarhole National Park (also know as Rajiv Gandhi National Park after a former leader). We'll add a whole bunch of pictures when we get to better internet, but tonight we'll post a couple. Today we did two safaris and saw: elephants (about 20), deer (about 120 - Jack counted - of three species, including the rare tiny barking deer and fighting simbal (?) deer, a mongoose, wild boar, huge crocodile, a wild Indian buffalo, turtles, monkeys, including very tiny new borns and a very bold one that pee'd on Dad, giant Indian squirrel (looks like a marten), tons of birds including a v rare white rumped vulture that was feeding on a deer kill (they said tiger, but all we saw was the dead deer and lots of carrion eating birds. Picture of a female taking a dust bath.

The Maharaja had this bull carved out of a solid granite boulder on the side of the mountain at step 700 below the temple. It represents Shiva in another form and was painted black for this purpose. It is the size of a small school bus.

We are seeing quite a few monkeys, both in the forest and around temples. This temple monkey only had one arm which is sad, and it could not eat a broken open coconut, but when a pilgrim gave it a banana it pealed and ate it super fast.

Over 1000 stairs up to this Hindu temple on top of a hill overlooking Mysore, so we drove! This temple is for the worship of Shiva's goddess wife who in legend killed the evil demon that Mysore was named after. We went inside and were blessed twice and that is where the marking on my forehead came from. 

Mysore Maharaja Palace! No cameras allowed inside. The old palace was all wood and it burned down so this one has very little wood. 

Is this a milli or a centi? Are they poisonous? Did you pick it up? Love, mom and Eli

Here's what the emu looked like. It didn't like being too close to me or my dad as we tried to get a good picture. 

This was our lunch spot today. It was on one of the rivers that protected Sultan Tipus fort and fields from invaders. Right now the water level is low because the rains stopped back in December and won't pick up again until May or June. The British also attacked when the water was low because it was easier to cross this and the other river protecting the fort. Back then there were crocodiles in the rivers and also in the multiple moats that had to be crossed to get into the fort. This was a very peaceful lunch spot that even had two pet emus running around. I want to see crocodiles before we leave.

The Sultan Tipu was a Muslim leader and warrior who took over from another Muslim leader who took over from Hindu leaders. Once the British beat the Sultan, they made the kings Hindu until India became independent from Britian in 1947. These most recent kings were call Maharajas and they worked for the British. This picture shows me looking out from the Sultan Tipu palace where he went to have fun outside his fort. It was also where he met visiting leaders he didn't want to see the inside of his fort. Can you see the gate at the far end? 

Here I am in the lower trunk of a huge mahogany tree. It also had lots of really big honey bee nests in it. They were so high up I couldn't get good pictures. 

Today at Sultan Tipu's fort, I explored the dungeon where he locked up British soldiers, who then got blasted by their own troops when general Cornwallis attached. Notice the openings in the walls that once had big cannons in them. The Sultan thought they were coming from the east, but the British really came from the south. And when the Sultan came back into the fort he found the British already there because a trusted minister was a traitor and had let them in.

People warned us about snakes like cobras and vipers that could kill or make victims very sick. Because cobras don't make their own holes, they like to use termite colonies (mounds) for homes. To ward off the chance of getting bit, people build little shrines on termite mounds dedicated to the god Shiva who is a major god for Hindus and also associated with snakes. Shiva's symbol is also the trident, just like Posidon (also known as Nepture). Shiva doesn't always look this peaceful because he is also known as "the destroyer". Haven't seen any snakes yet (except tourist cobras which are sad), so maybe this approach is working. 

Jack Fruit!

Hooray! We finally got to a place with decent wifi and can do blog posts without resorting to Twitter. It's still very easy to tweet, so let us know by a comment to this blog if you'd rather we avoid twitter. Today we did a long day of seeing stuff between Bangalore and Mysore - the latter was the seat of power for Sultan Tipu, who was the guy overthrown by.... British General Cornwallis! Yes, the same guy who fought (and lost) George Washington during our revolutionary war - like at Yorktown, he faced the unruly locals and the French, but here he did win. Not a nice guy either - after he won (and killed the Sultan) he still destroyed the Sultan's primary palace, took two of his sons hostage and made the remaining son pay a kings ransom. Good thing George Washington and team were able to beat him!

Ok, we have to go to dinner, and hopefully I'll post a pile of pictures and comments (including from Jackson) after dinner. But, first, remember these great big pods from an earlier picture and the one with this post? We were at a market today and found out they are called.... Jack Fruit! What a coincidence. Here is Jackson with his namesake. Apparently these are small ones too, and can get much bigger as they mature. As for the other mystery fruit, still no name - it wasn't in the huge Mysore market. The quest continues, and right now, that means dinner.

Bye from Jackson's dad and Jackson. 

Latest tweets from @tucsonjackson

Sorry I neglected this yesterday, but here are several more tweets from Jackson, with linked pictures. Top ones are the oldest, most recent at bottom. You can follow him directly at @tucsonjackson. 


Note that Jackson's assignment for science class is to learn about natural disasters in India - I hop you can write us a bit more on that, Jackson! It is sad but important to learn about. 


And what is the name of your mystery fruit?!






TWEETS


Wondering how to get photos from Jack's camera to twitter - tomorrow's challenge. He saw lots of monkeys today, but jet-lag got tough in pm

Good morning! I lost my ninth tooth last night. Today I go to the Nehru planetarium. Nehru was a founding father of India.

We ate these. Good when ripe, seeded and peeled. mystery fruit. Unripe pods ooze white rubbery sticky sap http://pic.twitter.com/OKjO5LO3


Thx 4 posting on blog. Learning lots about natural disasters in India and Bangladesh. Sad but getting better. http://pic.twitter.com/rG7RsvmA


Nice big millipede with my finger for scale - wake up millipede! http://pic.twitter.com/VTUZNK7x

I went to the Nehru Planetarium and saw a movie about the history of the solar system on a domed screen. Saw lots of Indian school kids.

And yet more ginormous pods! http://pic.twitter.com/3la19lXz

More pods!

More pods! pic.twitter.com/9sNBVO1

Jackson's tweets

Nice pictures at twitter account! Thanks @tucsonjackson!

I'm not sure if this will work, but I'm pasting the tweets and links to photos here. Please post a comment to let me know if this works for everyone -  Thanks!

Found some big pods today in forest around Bangalore guest house! (Bangalore is what locals like to call Bangaluru) http://pic.twitter.com/fNxfZg7y

Papaya, Indian rice cake and savory Indian donuts for 1st Indian breakfast http://pic.twitter.com/aHin6aJF

Monday morning Bangalore

Staying at the Indian institute of Sciences with other guests and very tricky wifi Internet. So far, only way to post pictures is via Twitter. So, follow JacksonI at @tucsonjackson and see what's up in India! Feel free to post questions as comments on this blog. Jackson is on a quest for monkeys and information about natural disasters of India.

Going to Germany on a 747 jet. It has two stories and looks very gianormous big.

On our way...

In sunny San Francisco. Pretty cool planes taking off. Sea gull flying. Four more hours until our next flight to Frankfurt Germany. Then ten hours to Germany!

Jackson's questions on the eve of departure...

1) do people like soccer in India?
2) what is the jungle like?
3) how many kinds of monkeys will we see?
4) when can we do my homework (Dad's question)?