Travelog for: Pien

Heeeeeelllo!
I am Pien the little grey Elephant from the Netherlands
I lived for a long time in the Zoo, Blijdorp in Rotterdam, but now it's time for me to SEE THE WORLD!
Woepie!!

As you can see I have 4 lifemissions, I would love you to help me complete them!

Today I had a party at the Zoo. I waved every animal goodbye. And know I'm ready to go!




Information about the elephant:


Names of my current elephant friends:


Bye Bye everyone:




My current travellist:
Mosuha - India (Thanks for hosting!!)
2012 - Finland (arrived at the 13th of may!)
ChristinaB - Austria
Olgamaus - Germany

As you can see, there are places left for you to host me!!
Looking forward to meet you

Big Paw
Pien!

Hi, everyone at home...

wow, imagine, I just arrived in Chennai, India and I already found my favorite place at my hosts flat!

Look at this very nice elephant shelf!!

I can tell u, at the beginning I was some kind of unsure about this travelling thing, but now I am sooooooo happy to get to know the whole world! 

And I love the weather here in india. It's hot and humide, perfect conditions, if u ask me!

In the evening I met Repa, another TV staying at my hosts home and we went out for a very nice dinner at the five star Hotel "The Park". What a welcome.... Repa is a tough guy and he always talks a lot..... but he is very friendly to me and so I think, we will have a great time together....

Tomorrow I will see the indian ozean and I am so much looking forward it!!! Oh, what a life....

Ooooooh.... you should see the weather today, it's raining cats and dogs!!!

But yesterday was fun. First we went to a very nice Café, it's called "the Amethyst" and it is a little hide in a beautiful tropical garden.... It is such a quiet and lovely place... and we spent some hours there, had lunch, talked and talked about our lifes and what we will maybe see on our journies.....

After that Mona showed us a place at the beach, where many fishermen live...

She told us, that the Tsunami in decembre 2004 hit also very hard the coast of Chennai and 13.000 people lost their lifes at this time. Many fishermen lost also their boats and little houses at the beaches.... I was really sad, as I heard that.

Mona also said, that after the Tsunami many people arround the world donate a lot of money for the victims and their families, thats why on many boats you find the names of for example european organisations like "Caritas"

But now, some men have got a boat, who didn't have one before the Tsunami and that is really a problem for the other fishermen.... They cannot catch as much fish as before, but they also have to sell it low price, because, now there are so many fishermen.

It's a difficult situation, you can imagine....

Lucky me, I could see the indian ozean for the first time in my life!!! I was imazing.... the waves very very big and it is too dangerous for us to go swimming inside.... But it is beautiful at the beach.....

I hope, I will be there some more often.....
Do you like the pictures I made for you?

Kisses from Pien....

Since today we are three guys at Mona's and Uli's flat....

Chip just arrived from Florida and he is even smaller than me! 

He seems to be a clever and aktive little monkey.

We made a funny men evening with King Fisher beer and german Bundesliga Soccer....

I had to promise Chip, not to mention that he drunk 3 bottles of this indian beer by his own!

(After that he had to puke like hell!
But his mommy should not know this..... )

On Eastern Sunday we did, what most christian people do
- we ate a lot!

We went out for a great brunch/lunch buffet, but me and the other tv guys were just crazy about the desserts buffet!

Look at this feast! .....jummy... jaahh......

At the beginning of this week, we all decided to explore a little more of the indian culture.

First, we went out for a typical vegitarian lunch to a restaurant called "Saravanah Bahvan". It is very famous and beloved here in Chennai! We tasted a lot of different things.... most of them were very spicy but delicious.....

Then I found out, that here in India there is a very very famous hindu god called "Ganesh", his face is the face of an elephant! Can you imagine that?!

The legend says, that the god Shiva loved to watch his wife Parvati, when she was taking a bath, but she didn't liked that.

So she made a boy from earth and put some water of the ganges river over him, so he came alive. She called her son Ganesh or Ganesha and told him to watch over the place, while she was bathing. So as Shiva came to see his wife, Ganesh stood in his way, that's why  Shiva beat his head off his shoulders with a sword (how brutal!!).

But than he recognized that it was Parvatis son he killed and he sent his soldiers to bring the head of the first being they could find. So they brought him an elephants head and Shiva brought Ganesh back to life!

Today the hinduism praise Ganesh for his intelligence and he is a very famous god all over india.

Every year there is a special party in september, called Ganesh Charturthi and it takes 11 days!!! The people believe, that in those days the god is visiting the earth... and they all have small up to very big figures of Ganesh at their homes and prays to him even more often during the 11 days.....

At the end of these holidays, all family members bring their figures to the ozean, while they are playing music, singing and dancing on the streets on their ways..... The family's father than brings the Ganesh into the water, where the figure mellts......

Mona was so kind and gave me a picture from the beach of Mumbai last september...... there you can see the people bringing the Ganeshs to the Ozean.....

I think, it's not too bad, to be an elephant in india!!!

At the photos you can also see Chip and me dressed.....

Nooooooooo, this are no girls dress, these are gods dresses!!!! Hindu people dress their little god figures at special days like this!

This weekend was amazing and mommy, I send you lots of sun home!.....

Mona and Uli had some free time and so they invited us, to join them on a trip to a nice beach resort 60km south of Chennai....

We had a lot of fun!!! And it was really relaxing.....

Imagine, we even saw some cows right at the beach.... india is sometimes kind of funny....

Today, on sunday, we also went to a nice place with a lot of old buildings ( 700 AD) , caves, rock-cut temple and figures....

It was so interessting, many of these temples were dedicated to Ganesh, the elephant face god and look at this nice carvings......

I also made some new friends, as I met some very friendly baby goats. It felt like we knew each other since years....

Who knows, maybe we are soulmates and met before, in another life?!

Hello at home...

today I went with my host to buy some bread.
Mona always says, she misses the german bread so much but fortunatly there is a new bakery in town and not far from my hosts flat.

It's called "La Boulangerie" and it is a non-profit company, which wants to teach young men to make bread, croissants, sweets, cake and so on, so that they later can work at a restaurant or hotel.

Mona is very lucky, that they also sell some things, so she can get fresh and tasty "country bread" and does not have to eat white toast every morning.

I also started to fullfill one of my life missions, to learn foreign languages. You now, in india there are 17 official (goverment) languages and lots and lots of different accents.

English is, lucky me, one of the official languages, but here in Tamil Nadu, tamil of cause, is the main language....

Here is, what I've learned so far:

counting.....

1= onnu
2= irandu
3= muunu
4= naalu
5= anjci
6= aaru
7= eeru
8= eddu
9= ompadu
10=pattu

Can you help me? - means - enakku udawi cejja mudijumaa?

It is a very difficult language, don't you think?!
But I keep trying and you will see some of my homework at my travelnotebook...

Best wishes,
Pien

Don't wonder, I am fine...
I just was busy with lerning tamil and with sweating...

During the days it is now between 36 and 40 degrees in Chennai and unfortunatly my hosts AC in the livingroom is
defect...  pfuee...

But look at this nice stone-lady I met on the way to the supermarket...

On saturday we went to an german "Goethe Institut" event, where they showed international short movies about "human rights" ... it was very interesting....

Things are changing arround here...

Chip left yesterday, and before that, I went with him to the nearest temple to pray for a good journey.... and I also prayed for my friends at home, that everyone is fine.... :-)

Today than there were 2 big surprises...

First, there is a new TV in the house... Mandy Sheep....
She is cute, don't you think?

We had a nice long chat about her travels so for, and it was very interessting....

The next surprise was in the evening. A neighbour came by and gave my hosts an invitation for his son's wedding tomorrow....

This family's favorit god is Ganesh as you can see at the invitation.... I translated the informations for Mona and Uli 
There for Mona asked me, if I would like to come with them to the wedding and of course, I love to.....

So, tomorrow I will go to a wedding!! I am so excited...

My hosts are more relaxed... it's the 3rd wedding within few weeks.... because it's wedding saison in india....

Happy new year's, mommy!
Yes, you read right, the tamil people celebrated "New Year" this weekend and Uli had this monday one day off, so we went to another nice beach resort called The Dune ....

It is about 160km south of Chennai and is a very nice garden type resort. It's such a quiet and peacefull place and it's extreme eco friendly. They grow their own vegetables and they teach people from the villages how to take care of plants and get good quallity meat, vegatables.... and how to serve guests right. We slept at a bamboo and palm leaves "naturall cool" house right at the ocean side, so we could hear the waves roll the coast all night long.

We all had a very great time with relaxing, pottery, and playing beach volleyball. 

I also played a game called "Genial" with Mandy Sheep in the evening. Mandy won, but anyway it was fun.

During the days Roderich, the new tv at our hosts flat and I decided to jump into the pool. It's also an eco friendly one without any chloride and I needed a bath anyway.... it was sooooooooo refreshing after 36 degrees under india's sun...

yeah....

Oh wow, great news. My host told me, that  I'll leave next week to continue my journey. I'll go to finland!!!

The other tvs were a little jealous at me, because they all are sweating like hell and would be happy to travel somewhere less hot..... I like the indian weather and will probably miss it a little bit.... But I am happily looking forward to meet my new host..... 

Yesterday we had a very nice evening with watching televison "American Idol" and hang out all together...

There is a new guest arrived, his name is Weasley and he is from out of space....

Today I showed him a little around in the house, the building our host live in and the view from the roof terasse...

It's very green here, don't you think?!

At the top of the stairs we found some suitcases and I wondered about that. Mona told me, that is the personal stuff of the watchman, who lives up here and sleeps at the stairs.
In fact, he is even happy to have a roof over his head.

So, that's it, Mommy, my last update from India before I leave to finland, with one crying and one laughing eye.

We took a last nice walk all together today, but I tell you, it was sooooooooo hot.... I felt like melting!

We went to a place called "Valluvar Kottam", this is not only a big hall for events, but also a huge Stone Car looking like a tower.

And guess who is pulling this chariot!

Damn right, some of my friends, the elephants.

I thought, this building is really beautifull during I was melting like an icecube in boiling water....

Later we visited the nice curch of the holy mother mary.

You know, Mona was really sad the last few days. Not only because I am going to leave, but also because one of her best friends back home in Germany died because of Aids.

Mona told me, that he was a very special guy, with a great sense of humor and always on the jump to help other people where ever he could. She said, he was one of the most loveliest humans, she used to know.

The tragedy is, he got the HI virus few years ago, when he helped a young man after an car accident. This young guy was bleeding and didn't breathe, so Mona's friend gave him mouth to mouth breathe, and saved his life. Of cause he didn't know, that this young man was HIV positive and he caught the virus this moment.

Mommy, and everyone else who is reading this, has to promise me, to buy a first Aid breathing mask at the pharmacy and put it into the car for the case of cases. An always wear these aids cloves, when you help hurt people.
Please, never ever forget that, ok?!

In that church Mona and I enlighted a candle for her friend.

And I also enlighted one candle for all of us TVs, travelling with the help of this webside.

May nobody ever get lost, may everybody have a great time, enjoying their lifes, make good friends and carry a peace of love arround the world.

India was great fun and a amazing oportunity for me, to explore different religions and to meet people, who celebrate their believes with a lot of passion and love.

I am really thankfull and feel very blesst, to be a toyvoyager!

Here I am in Finland! I arrived safely and in good condition. And yes, the temperature isn't hot in here, thermometer shows 12 degrees Celsius. But still, it's almost summer in here, most of the trees are full of green leaves. Here is a pic of me sitting on balcony railing (my host lives on 7th floor) and you can see the fields and forest in the distance.