Friends from India

Enjoy these pictures of some of the special people that I met while in India. (Clicking on images will greatly improve quality! :D)



Susie hanging out in a bidi factory in Mysore. The intense heat, time and humidity has caused these old buildings to darken and stain. Factory consists of three or four men sitting cross legged on the floor all day rolling slim indian cigarettes, called bidis. My traveling pal then had a great time exchanging his british city slicker cigarettes for bidis.



Here are our three young entrepenuers who took us on a locals style tour of Mysore, stopping at the bidi factory, then an aromathreapy shop(pe) where we indulged in 100% pure sandlewood oil, jacaranda, black jasmine and other native Indian goodies. We felt that we had paid a bit too much for the oils, but when I came back home and did a little research, I realized, that, for example, even some very special moisturizers and face creams contain less than 1% jacaranda oil, and here I had an ounce of pure jacaranda oil! Ok so guess how much I figured that 75. USD worth of oils turned out to be worth in America? I figured it out to be about $500.00, at least.....woo hoo! My favorite guy up there is the one on the left, who had at age 20, already lost his two permanent front teeth. He was really into reggae music, and constantly sang "No Woman, no Cry"!



Now these characters were playing cricket in the street in Bangalore before school started in the morning. I never could figure out why, but school in Bangalore and Mysore doesn't start til 11 am. So, if you are out early in the morning, "schoolkids" are everywhere, playing and hanging out with groups. The boys, usually alone. The girls, almost always escorted by mama.
Just look how cute those little whippersnappers are!




More little schoolkids hanging out together in the morning before school starts, Koromangala, Bangalore. Look at that little angel wayyyy over there on the left.......ohhhh!

Here are two very special pals that I met in Agra. Ya know, I live in the country, where wildlife abounds, but, even after three visits to India, I am still amazed about bands of monkeys roaming the countryside, and swinging from trees and buildings in the cities!