Flower Clown

Flower Clown Cleveland Ohio Flower Entertainment balloon twister

India 2005

Calcutta, Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur & New Delhi

All text at bottom of page

Calcutta Show

Calcutta Girl

Calcutta Show

Varanasi

Agra

Jaipur

Jaipur Palace of the Winds

Jaipur

Jaipur Poster in McDonalds

Jaipur Shoe Repair

Jaipur

Train

Pushkar

Pushkar Street Magic

Pushkar

Pushkar Stamps

Pushkar Dye

Pushkar Painter

Pushkar

Udaipur

Train A/C

Lotus Temple Delhi

Rickshaw

Lotus Temple Delhi

Hello Friends, Clowns and Kids. Flower Clown is once again going to Asia in 2005. This year Stacy (Flower's Girlfriend) will spend the full 2 1/2 months in Asia. We wanted to donate our time to the tsunami relief effort but many of the relief agencies are asking people not to show up. Like in the years past I will find places to do magic shows and balloons. Next year when the tsunami area is somewhat back to normal we will head there and entertain the kids.

    This year we will fly into Bangkok, Thailand. We will spend a week there with our clown friends Bumm, Ut and Lucky. While in BKK i get dressed as a clown and do shows with the Thai-Clowns. After Thailand we will fly into New Delhi, India. Stacy and Flower will spend 3 weeks traveling around Rajasthan India. Then make our way back to New Delhi where our friends from Nepal will fly in and then the five of us will travel to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Then head south to Varanasi before ending up in Calcutta. The five of us will fly to Nepal where we will live with Pradeep for the month we are there. Flower will spend most of his time working on getting new clown costumes made and Stacy will work at Sunshine School. After Holi and the New Year Fest we will fly back to Bangkok and spend our last week with the Thai-Clowns before returning back to the states.

     In this area I will be posting photos from the Asia 2005 trip. Computers are slow. It has taken up to an hour just to get into my e-mail. I will do my best so keep coming back to check for updates.

Flower & Stacy

2/19/05

After 25 hours of airports we are now in Bangkok Thailand. The day we flew out there was an inch of snow covering all the trees in a nice sheet of white. The day before it was in the 50's and sunny. The crazy weather of NE Ohio. Now in Bangkok it is in the upper 90's and I am not used to the heat yet. Give me a few more days. Today we are going to see my friend Jay Bumm who is clown here in Thailand. He has a show at 1pm at the Big C dept store. I got my balloons and some magic supplies. I will help him with the show and make some balloons for the children. We looked into helping with the Tsunami here in Thailand but things here are back to normal. In the newspaper yesterday I read that the Starbucks just re-opened in Phuket. If they have a Starbucks do they need our help. They are asking people to travel and visit Phuket because they need the tourist money. We visited Phuket in 2003 so we are not up to going again. We tried to locate places in India to help but we were told not to show up because the basic need of the people have not yet been met and we would be just another mouth to need when there are so many still in need. We might try again next year. I will visit schools and other places along the way doing magic shows and making balloons for the children of India and Nepal. We have contacted my friend in Nepal and they are going to come to India for one month and travel with us. Today we will buy our tickets to India and Nepal so I will post the dates when I know what they are. We are getting over our jetlag and feeling better.

Bangkok Thailand. Stacy and I are in Bangkok. We hooked up with my friend Bumm who is a clown in Bangkok. We spent the whole day with him at the Big C shopping center. He was working for a cell phone company bringing people in with a magic show. 3 shows in 5 hours. Today we spent our day at the weekend market doing some Christmas shopping. We also picked up some water guns in China Town so we can take then to Nepal for the water fest of Holi. Here are some photos

3/6/05 Still in Varansai. Yesterday we thought we had an overnight train ticket to Agra. Come to find out we were one day early. We didn't want to go back to the same hotel we just spent one week at so we checked into Hotel Surya. A very nice place away from the city and all the people. Being in the heart of Varanasi down by the river was getting on all of our nerves. I like Varanasi but every time you talk a walk near the river there are 30-50 people coming up to you asking if you want a boat, postcard, stamps, drugs, change money or if you would like to follow them to there silk shop. It will drive you crazy if you let it. We have just come up with ways of getting away from them. Then there is another one waiting for you....

Hello~ > We are still in Calcutta. The part of town we are in is off the tourist >path and many of the locals have never seen white skin in this area. So we >are a sight to behold for them! > > To better understand the chaos here...last night our friend, Batin, took >us out for meet some people and as we are getting into auto rickshaw we hear >a BANG! and we see that we have hit a motorcycle with a girl on the back. >She gets knocked into another vehicle and landed on the ground unconscious. >The streets immediately filled with people and they carried her into a local >shop. For Stacy an I it was absolutely awful to witness! But to the locals >it is a daily occurence. From the way the crash appeared to us she would >have been lucky to have made it out alive. But we did get word this morning >that she only had internal injuries, that appear not to be so bad. It justs >goes to show how precious life and happy moments are. Just the night before >in Bangkok we had one of the best night ever and then 24 hours later we see >the worst that life has to offer. It was very hard to get the image of her >smashing into the ground out of our heads. But we are quite relieved she >will be ok. > > We booked train ticket today to head to Varansi Friday night. Ronnie is >doing a few school programs in the area in the next 2 days. Today we went >to the house of the hotel manager and had lunch with him and his family. >They of course gave us gifts and welcomed us into their heart and home like >a member of the family. The moments are the best about traveling...you make >lifelong friends. > > We will write more in a couple days. Till then..Be well~ Ronnie & Stacy >Thank You >Ron Fowler >www.FlowerClown.com > >

Hello all~
We are still in Varanaai, which is the Hindu Holy City, but to the outsider it would be hard to tell that! There is a strong undercurrent of evil that exists in this place and it can get to you after a few days. There are gangs that control the city and everyone has to answer to them and you can feel the tension in the air.
There are alot of tourists here and alot of opportunity to be taken advantage of. But in spite of all the madness and evil here we are having some of the best times ever! We have made many friends from all corners of the world. We have been hanging with a Brit and an Israeli couple and a couple of guys from Japan. As well as them Pradeep and his family arrived here yesterday. They are quite surprised by the Indian culture also. It can be a bit overwhelming at times to say the least!
We are heading to Agra by train Friday night. We will spend 2 days there, just long enough for P and family to see Taj Mahal. Our Brit friend may be tagging along with us as well. The more the merrier! It is getting very hot and humid here now and as we head into the west it will be a drier heat, which will be nice!
We are on our way back to the hotel now to get some R&R. We have a decent room with Tv, AC and hot water when they bring it to us in a bucket! We are happy and looking forward to more happiness along the way! I will send more news form Agra, if internet works.
Till then...Love and Peace! Stacy & Ronnie

Hello all~

I have been posting e-mails to my web page www.flowerclown.com about my travels. I haven't posed any photos as of yet due to the slow internet in India. There are times it has taken me 20min just to log into hotmail but my friends how use yahoo it takes just 2mins. When I return from Asia i will change my e-mail. Hotmail works like the Indians. No matter what it looks like or even if it useable as long as it works. It is amazing anything gets done in this country. I love it here but some days it takes all I got not to pull al my hair out. After India I will need a vacation.

We are still in Varanaai, which is the Hindu Holy City, but to the outsider it would be hard to tell that! There is a strong undercurrent of evil that exists in this place and it can get to you after a few days. There are gangs that control the city and everyone has to answer to them and you can feel the tension in the air.

There are a lot of tourists here and a lot of opportunity to be taken advantage of. But in spite of all the madness and evil here we are having some of the best times ever! We have made many friends from all corners of the world. We have been hanging with a Brit and an Israeli couple and a couple of guys from Japan. As well as them Pradeep and his family arrived here yesterday. They are quite surprised by the Indian culture also. It can be a bit overwhelming at times to say the least!

We are heading to Agra by train Friday night. We will spend 2 days there, just long enough for P and family to see Taj Mahal. Our Brit friend may be tagging along with us as well. The more the merrier! It is getting very hot and humid here now and as we head into the west it will be a drier heat, which will be nice!

We are on our way back to the hotel now to get some R&R. We have a decent room with TV, AC and hot water when they bring it to us in a bucket! We are happy and looking forward to more happiness along the way! I will send more news form Agra, if internet works.

Till then...Love and Peace! Stacy & Ronnie

Namaste~
We arrived in Agra this morning at 6:30. Funny thing happened on the way to Agra....we were packed into a taxi on Saturday ready (and I mean ready) to leave Varanasi and from the back of the taxi Ronnie says, "What's the date today?" Of course, we all had to think a minute or two and then we came to know it was the 5th, well, our train tickets were for the 6th. AHHHHHHH!!!!! At first it was sheer agony to think of spending another night in noisy Varanasi, until we remembered the nice hotel we happened upon the day before as we went to exchange money. By the time we convinced the taxi driver to take us some place other than the train station, of course, at a higher rate than originally agreed upon, it was an oasis! We spent the best night of our lives in India at the Hotel Surya. They had beautiful gardens and clean rooms with HOT water, comfy beds and pillows, TV and room service, oh and a balcony off each room. Holy Shiva, it was paradise! We ate dinner out in the garden with fantastic food, great Indian music and a wait staff there for our every need. We met a lass from Adelaide, Australia, who was a piece of work with some really funny stories of her own to share.
The next day I decided to treat myself and Shreejana to a day at the spa! I went all out with an Ayurvedic massage, an eyebrow tweezing and a steam pack facial, oh and she threw in a head and shoulder massage free of charge. It was two hours of sheer bliss!!!! I was zen-like for about 6 hours afterwards. It was worth every cent of the $15 it cost me!! That is one of the great things about India, everything is so darn cheap!
The train ride of course was a typical Indian train ride. All the vendors hustling their wares the whole night into the morn and they have no concept of quiet as they scream out whatever it is they have to sell. Whoever thought of buying a ceramic elephant at 4Am, but you can do it on a train of your heart desires!!
We arrived to rain and much cooler weather in Agra. The hotel we stay at here is a smaller oasis, with lovely gardens and a gorgeous German Shepard guarding the place. That they have a purebred dog here is something to behold, as all the dogs are mongrels and nobody really owns a pet. We happened to see a Dalmatian at a house in Varanasi, which we all stopped at stared at as if it was a foreigner.
We are onto Rajasthan after a few days here. It is into the desert there and full of great colors and men with turbans and handlebar moustaches. Sure to fill the eyes and ears with new stimulation, I am quite looking forward to it! More from there...till then, Love & Peace! Stacy & Ronnie

Hello~

We are in Udaipur. It is quite lovely...all quiet and people tend to leave you alone. This is where the James Bond movie, "Octopussy" was filmed. There was until 3 years ago a beautiful lake in the center, similar to Pushkar but it has since dried up. Which is really a shame because it adds to the appeal! Ronnie has a friend here, Anil, and we are going to his home tonight to have dinner with his family. He is an artist and an art teacher.

We had to take a bus from Pushkar to get here and it took 7 hours. It was exhausting because it is so hot here. By the time we got off the bus my feet and ankles were swollen again. You drink as much as two liters of water a day but in the dry desert heat you never have to go the bathroom. So I am becoming like a camel, carrying my water with me always!

We have had some incredible moments in India. You just never know what you are going to see. On the train to Ajmer, before Pushkar, there were 3 teenage boys on the train who do shoe polishing. They hung around us for a while and then Ronnie made a balloon guitar for them and then one of the boys took out the shoe brushes. Then he began to play the brushes and sing traditional Hindi songs. This kid could sing and all of us in our compartment were wondering why he was hustling on the trains with a can of shoe polish and a brush when he could make much more money singing thru his heart. He certainly warmed our heart! It is moments like these that take all the bad things away.

We may head to Mt. Abu for a day or so. This is where the maharajas (kings) used to vacation and it said to be beautiful! We make take a 5 hour bus ride there and then hop a train back to Pushkar from there. We will keep you al posted! Till then...Love & Peace! Stacy & Ronnie

Hello all!

We made it back to Pushkar last night. We spent 2 nights and 2 days in Udaippur. It was a great time! We had two home cooked meals and lots of laughs. We spent our last night there over our friend, Anil's, mother-in-laws house. They have a great house for India. They actually have a front lawn and a beautiful garden, with papaya and mango trees. They had 3 small children in the house, so Ronnie was busy all night! Then we got into some Hindi cinema dancing. It was a blast! Once again it was hard to leave. Having friends to spend time with while in this country always makes it so much more enjoyable!

Today we are booking our train ticket to Delhi. The train leaves at midnight and arrives in Delhi at 7AM. So we will have a day in Delhi, which is quite enough, to see some of the local temples and then head on to Kathmandu at 7:15pm. Delhi is one of the bigger cities in India and completely about tourism, so we will be bound to get into at least one argument about transportation. It never fails! That is actually the worst part of traveling here is having to deal with the rickshaw and taxi drivers. They are out to rip westerners off. And then it turns into a full size spectacle because 15-20 more drivers than gather around throwing our fare rates as you are trying to bargain with someone. It always becomes a moment where I lose my temper, which I hardly ever do, and makes me just want to cuss them out. But we have learned some techniques about beating them at their own game!

I will send more news when we arrive in Nepal. It won't be for a few days, so be patient! Till then...Love & Peace! Stacy & Ronnie