The India Adventure

This is the end of the blog.

2011-03-31T16:14:00.001+05:30

As I prepare to leave India, I am reminded of all of the highs and lows of the years I spent here. I'm not the emotional or reminiscent sort, but something there are no pictures of in all the archives of this fairly well kept travel blog, but that I will remember long past many of the places I've been, are the friends I've made. Its much less common in this second half of life to form real meaningful friendships. That bonding experience is left behind along with the frivolity of youth. But the people you share the experience of learning to live in a whole new world are real friends. So, while I'm a bit of a loner, sometimes more than a bit of a curmudgeon, and spent a good deal of time either traveling alone or entombed in my great marble mansion, I will truly miss the friends I've made here. Almost as much as Koh Samui.

Proper Feeding of Shogun the Dog

2011-02-27T20:22:00.021+05:30

Shogun will soon be taking a great adventure traveling back to his homeland. Those assuming his care will need to know the proper feeding instructions for keeping Shogun satiated and full of energy for all the house guarding and monkey chasing he will need to do when back in the US.

Step One: Gather the necessary ingredients

Eukanuba Premium Performance
Six slices of American style processed cheese
Imported German stew-like wet dog food, extra stinky
One liter processed Indian roof water

Step Two: Dry Food

The proper portion of dry food is exactly two full 7-11 Super Big Gulp cups. Pour into microwave safe bowl.

Step Three: Wet Food

Shogun prefers the sausage-like New Zealand imported "Butch" dog food that comes in plastic tubes, but my importer hasn't been able to get it for the last couple months so we've switched to this weird German slop called "My Lord". My German is a litte rusty, but apparently it is made out of Lassie parts, or some deity, or both. Or maybe you are just supposed to say "My Lord" when you crack it open and see all of the coagulated fat floating on top. Regardless, it seems to be a satisfactory substitute.

As any great chef will tell you (or at least Gordon Ramsey), you have to keep tasting the food while you cook. Quality control is very important. Shogun can help with this. He will need to taste one to two chunks of the wet food at this point in the preparation to make sure it is good.

Assuming the German stuff passes inspection, pour over the dry food. These cans are large, 1300 grams. About the size that Hi-C used to come in in the 70's and early 80's. I use half a can, or 650 grams, around 22 ounces.

Step Four: Cheeeese

You must ensure the cheese is of acceptable quality before continuing with this step. Shogun can help with this.

After the cheese has passed the quality check, place four slices over the wet food.

Step Five: Water
Pour about 1 liter of Indian roof water over the ingredients, until you can see the dry food is fully submerged.

Step Six: Cook it

The food should then be nuked for 4 minutes 50 seconds in a 900 watt microwave. This step is very difficult for the food preparation assistant, and he will likely need reminded several times during this 4 minutes and 50 seconds that the food is cooking and that you have not forgotten about the incredibly important task you were doing. Once satisfied you are still on the job, he will usually wait patiently.

Step Seven: Mix well

The melted cheese on the top should now be chopped up and mixed thoroughly through the gruel. The cooked mixture should have a nice, loose vomit consistency, watery, like when you drank too much Jaegermeister and then ate too much at Taco Bell.

Step Eight: Garnish and Serve!

The food should now be poured into Shogun's bowl. Its very important to finish the meal with a proper presentation by sticking one more slice of American cheese on the top. He will likely not accept the meal if this garnish is forgotten, be warned!

Bon Appetit!

Home Sweet Home

2011-02-27T11:15:00.002+05:30

For one more month.

A policeman uses a stick to move men back into a queue for tickets for the India and England Group B cricket World Cup match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore February 24, 2011. Thousands of fans who had camped outside the stadium to buy just 4,000 tickets for Sunday's World Cup showdown between India and England clashed with police on Thursday, local media reported. REUTERS/Philip Brown

Living in an exotic foreign land

2011-02-07T10:46:00.002+05:30

For those of you who have idealized the notion of living in an exotic foreign land and how it must be endlessly exciting, I submit the following video, which I watched, in its entirety, yesterday afternoon.

At some point around 20 minutes or so the sounds lose all meaning.

Bali Indonesia

2011-01-24T18:54:00.004+05:30

Went to Bali last weekend. Stayed the first night at the Hard Rock resort. Raging party until dawn. Arrested Development the house band. The early 90's hip hop group, not the short lived sitcom with the two great seasons and one terrible one. Still singing Mr. Wendel and Tennessee. Kinda sad. Went up to the mostly uninhabited north side of the island on day two to dive a wrecked US troop carrier from WWII. Did some night diving, super fun. Back down to the south end to stay at the Oberoi and recuperate.

My Favorite Media 2010

2010-12-24T20:09:00.004+05:30

I've decided this post is entirely IndiaAdventure related, as besides travel and getting violently sick, about all I do in India to wile away the time is consume media.

Best Book:
This one was an easy one for me, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. An astoundingly brilliant book, the best 'our generation' book since Egger's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Described by my sister as "mesmerizing", Freedom is a must read for anyone trying to figure out how to get through the incredibly boring and shitty middle part of life.

Best Video Game:
This is tough. Despite being the biggest year for video games sales in history, it was a surprisingly weak year for truly great games. Luckily, Halo:Reach came out to show everyone how an amazing game is made. It completely makes up for the awful Halo:ODST last year, and ranks as the best of the series for me. Its long, hard, beautiful, well paced, and incredibly inventive. I say its tough because I was also blown away by another game this year: Castlevania Lords of Shadow. Its so crazy that a Castlevania game is vying for my game of the year; Castlevania games haven't been good in over a decade, since Symphony of the Night in '97 (which I played through again this year in its entirety and its just impossible not to just spam kill everyone with the absurdly overpowered Holy Shield / Steel Rod combo). Lords of Shadow is a tremendously good game. Incredibly long, playing on the hardest difficulty level it took me well over 30 hours to complete. Its exciting, well balanced, innovative in parts, and where its derivative of other modern hack and slashers it does it better than the game its copying (I'm looking at you Shadow of Colossus and God of War III).

Best Album:

While I, like many, many others, have been listening to nothing but Kanye West's new minor masterpiece since it came out, unlike most top 10 lists you'll see I'll resist the urge to put the last great album of the year as the best album of the year (although its an amazing album, Kanye's best, and fully makes up for him picking on poor, homely little Taylor Swift). There were lots of great albums this year. Eminem's Recovery was a great return to form for him, albeit a bit one dimensional. The National put out their best album with High Violet. However sad I am about the demise of The Shins, James Mercer's new band Broken Bells put out a fantastic first album (although there are no songs on it that Natalie Portman would hand to you in a doctor's office waiting room). I'm an unapologetic Angels and Airwaves fan, and their free album this year, LOVE, is great; not a bad song on it. Shout Out Loud's Work wasn't received too well by a lot of critics, but I loved it and listened to it on repeat for weeks. Speaking of wearing the electrons off of an album, Vampire Weekend's Contra played on my iPod on repeat forever. The weird Americana/Bruce Springsteen/Punk drummer band Gaslight Anthem had their best album this year as well with American Slang; it probably made me more homesick for the US of A than any other this year. Freak folk was well represented this year by two phenomenal albums; Mumford & Sons debut Sign no More and Bombay Bicycle Club's Flaws. But, for my favorite album of 2010 I'm going to go with one you've probably never heard of but should be listening to; Swedish singer/songwriter The Tallest Man on Earth's The Wild Hunt. Its an amazing album and of an already amazing catalog, its Kristian Matsson's best yet.

Best TV show:
My sister records a bunch of TV for me onto DVDs and sends them to me at great cost all the way here to India. Unfortunately, I think 2010 TV was so bad its pretty much killed TV for me. I enjoyed the two seasons of Survivor this year like I always do, but that's just a guilty pleasure of course and doesn't represent anything close to art. Everything else was terrible. I've watched House for all of its seasons, even struggling through the awful season with the cop, but this one ended my viewing of that show. Terrible. All the sitcoms I used to watch have completely jumped the shark. Sorry, I think TV is dead, there is no best TV show of 2010 I'm afraid.
(Edit:) After writing this last night I remembered that in fact 2010 contained one of the best hours of TV ever - the final episode of Lost. So of course Lost is the best show of 2010, but unfortunately that only strengthens my argument that TV is shit right now as it was the end of one of the greatest series ever.

Best Film:
This one is tough for me, not because of all the great movies this year but because I've seen so few of them living here in 1850's India. But, of the ones I've seen, its a year with a fantastic studio monster Inception and a fantastic independent little gem Winter's Bone. I'm going to go with Inception, because while Winter's Bone is easily one of the best movies of this year or any other, its primarily so good because of the tremendous performance of its lead, while Inception is just all around amazing. Of course I haven't seen any of the late December Oscar bait movies so I could be missing the next Lost in Translation for all I know (one of which is a Sofia Coppola film, coincidentally). Honorable mention goes to Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I normally dislike comic book movies, but this is a wild, crazy, media mash of visual and auditory delight. Its not your parent's movie, that's for sure. And Kieran Culkin steals the show as the too cool for school roommate, his best performance in 8 years, since Igby Goes Down.

Hong Kong

2010-11-07T21:08:00.006+05:30

In Hong Kong for the weekend. Staying at the Island Shangri-La on Hong Kong island. Top floor, "club" room. Awesome hotel, 60 stories. Room is identical to a Kruengtep wing Shangri-La room in Bangkok, minus the balcony. Same intoxicating smell wafting through the lobby floors. I'm hording the L'Occitane soaps, of course.
Went to the Hong Kong philharmonic orchestra on night one. Good. Did Barber's Adagio for Strings first (the Platoon theme if that helps). Second was an original piece by a Hong Kong composer for the bamboo flute. The chick on the flute would give Ron Burgundy a run for his money. Third was Copeland's Third symphony, of which I'm not a big fan. Orchestra was young and talented. Definitely no London Phil or Tokyo Phil, but a great show all the same. Concert hall was on Kowloon side.
The shopping mall integration is pretty advanced here in HK. They are a far cry from Singapore, as all of the malls don't interconnect, and there are still sidewalks here as opposed to the only way to get through the city of Singapore is through the malls. But there are a shitload of malls all the same. Big emphasis on luxury items. Ultra-luxury watches are an obsession here, almost every billboard is for a super lux watch brand; Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet... watches that go for hundreds of thousands of dollars and make my watch look like a goddamn Swatch. Exchange rate with USD is terrible, makes everything more expensive than it should be. To the point where when shopping if you ask for the price in USD they will invariably give a 20% US discount on whatever you are shopping for, and that 20% will get your just down to a bit above full retail. Bogus. Except video games, which are about 1/2 price here. Brand new just released PS3 games for $30 US. Awesome.
There is a movie theater in the mall below my hotel that plays movies all night. I have reduced my sleep to 2.5 to 3 hours a night since I've been here and so far seen Red (actually quite good. Willis embraces his old age), The Switch (just awful and super slow paced. Everyone attached to this that usually makes good movies should hide their head in shame), Charlie St. Cloud (horrible. horrible. horrible.), Saw 3D (wow, so bad), Life as We Know It (terrible, too long, I really hate Katherine Heigl), Due Date (really not funny at all, however implausible that seems), and Grown Ups (unbelievably, Adam Sandler films just keep getting worse). So, lots of bad movies and one good one, but god damn its nice to go to the movies in a clean movie theater with a quiet audience.
Went to the two Michelin star classic French fine dining restaurant Petrus last night. Amazing experience, gorgeous restaurant on the top floor overlooking all of Hong Kong. Harp player, classic French motif. My dinner companion was a bottle of 1978 Chateau Petrus. Man it was delicious.
Every other meal I've had Sushi. Great sushi here, all the hard to find stuff I like; aji, uni, toro, ama ebi, you name it. Of course the gotcha is its way too expensive. Like $25 per piece of Sushi (not served in pairs like normal - one piece). Ouch.
Tomorrow heading over to Macao. My fool-proof roulette system will surely break the bank at each and every casino. I don't want to give away all of the details of my system, but, I'll let you know that it was originally developed by a Mr. Wesley Snipes in 1992's "Passenger 57".

I'll post some pics when I upload them.

Zimbabwe - Elephant Safari

2010-11-03T10:04:00.003+05:30

Having once seen a "When Animals Attack" on Fox back in the day of an elephant rampaging through a zoo killing everyone in sight, as well as this video:

I was a little leary of an elephant backed safari. Luckily Jake the elephant decided not to kill us in cold blood and instead just walked around and ate trees. We got off lucky.

The vicious stare of Jake the elephant:

The murderous pachyderms lining up for their next round of hapless victims:

An elephant with the "ooga booga" strapped to his back. Roughly translated: "death saddle":

Jake lashing out for an unsuspected attack:

Clearly a recipe for disaster:

Jake stuffing what I assume to be a severed human hand into his mouth of razor sharp teeth:

Zimbabwe - Victoria Falls Hotel

2010-11-03T08:57:00.003+05:30

Zimbabwe is pretty much a shithole. Sorry Zimbabwe. You can tell immediately how much more depressed the economy of Zimbabwe is than the neighboring countries Zambia and Botswana. They abandoned their country's currency recently due to hyperinflation and now just use the American dollar, which they are clearly trying to apply their habits of inflation to. Unfortunately, assuming that the country doesn't just start producing counterfeit US dollars (which I wouldn't put past them, honestly), they'll quickly run out of currency to exchange. A total mess.
The hotel we stayed was clearly the nicest hotel in Zimbabwe, and from appearance is quite attractive. The management was horrible, though, and the rooms were as well. There was a solid day's worth of fun things to do in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately we were there for three days.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Flickr Set

2010-10-31T11:09:00.002+05:30

Link to the Lion Sands Flickr Set

South Africa - Lion Sands - Lions

2010-10-31T10:34:00.004+05:30

Lions are like big huge housecats. Super lazy, lay around all the time and eat. I think the big difference is that a lion can kill you super easy (if he just wasn't so sleepy), but a housecat has a much tougher time of it. The housecat would need to position itself just exactly right over your sleeping face, or step in front of you at just the right time so you trip and fall out a tall window.
Landon had no concern of driving right up next to a feeding lion. It wasn't even because he had a huge elephant gun right in front of him on the dash, as he barely even had the case unzipped. It might have been because this dude Eddie sits on a little chair bolted to the front of the car, and Eddie would clearly be the first one eaten, giving Landon more than enough time to carefully back the Land Rover out of any danger.
According to the story told, the big dead hippo was killed in a hippo e hippo fight, and the lions just ate the loser as a meal of opportunity.

This lion was having a tough time chewing through the thick hide of the hippo, so he had the brilliant idea to get to the juicy center through the butthole.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Elephants

2010-10-31T10:20:00.002+05:30

There will be more elephants later from Zimbabwe and Botswana, but here are the Sabi Sabi variety of elephants. They travel around in families, but not huge herds like in the open Kalahari.
These enormous cows with distended noses are clearly much smarter than humans. The adult ones just look at you like "another damn metal box full of hairless monkeys", but the teenage ones like to try to scare you with their big ears and aggressive personalities, and the young ones play with each other and act like little kids.

Super guide Landon explained that they cry out the side of their faces like this when they are stressed out. He probably explained it better than that.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Cape Buffalo

2010-10-31T09:40:00.002+05:30

The Cape Buffalo is one of the "Big Five", but inarguably the least interesting of the big five. Its a big dirty cow with a brain shield of about 6 inches of solid cow bone. They just stand there and chew cud. They are so lazy birds nest on their faces. The video accurately portrays 99% of a cape buffalo's daily activities.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Leopard

2010-10-29T11:10:00.003+05:30

He's eating a young impala antelope in the tree.

Video of him climbing back up the tree to eat more impala brains.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Hippos

2010-10-29T10:51:00.003+05:30

This one had seen better days. The lions were busy eating him. More on that later.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Giraffe

2010-10-29T10:46:00.004+05:30

Giraffes. Big spotted horses with long necks. Enjoy.

South Africa - Lion Sands - Zebras

2010-10-29T10:42:00.004+05:30

Zebras. Little striped horses with crew cuts. Enjoy.

South Africa - Kruger National Park - Lions Sands

2010-10-29T09:51:00.006+05:30

The Lion Sands game reserve is in the Sabi Sands private game reserve adjacent to the Kruger National Park, described by wikipedia as "undoubtedly the most exclusive private game reserve in South Africa". And I totally agree. Lion Sands was the highlight of the whole trip. The lodge itself was awesome. In the middle of the game reserve with only a high electrical wire to keep out elephants, you had to have a security escort to walk anywhere, including your room. The rooms were individually standing thatched roof huts, huge and extremely well appointed. The staff was great, especially our guide for the 3 days who was phenomenal. We went out on a safari every morning at 5:30am, then some activity during the day like a bush walk or going to the river to see the hippos, then an evening safari each night. The Land Rovers the safaris were in were awesome vehicles.

South Africa - Cape Town

2010-10-28T13:31:00.005+05:30

Cape Town Flickr Set Here

South Africa - Cape of Good Hope

2010-10-28T13:21:00.003+05:30

The southern most tip of the world! (Not really, South America goes way farther south - and there is Antarctica down there too - or so they say). Where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet! (Not really, they actually meet a few hours east of here). A majestic and picturesque place with very high winds, a funicular, ostrich, baboon, and a lighthouse! Yes, that's better.
(There are no pictures of the rather significant infestation of baboons as I refuse to take pictures of filthy monkeys any more)

South Africa - Simon's Town - Penguin Colony

2010-10-28T08:30:00.005+05:30

A bunch of lazy sea chickens roosted on this beach area outside of Cape Town and never left, seemingly ignoring the fact that their brethren are freezing their sea chicken asses off down in Antarctica. Hell, even their basic physiology is designed for the brutal spring/summer/winter/fall of Antarctica. And yet here they sit, sunning themselves in comparatively balmy weather. Our guide for the day was particularly interested in the cooking and eating of most of the wildlife we saw, and even thought that a penguin might be a tasty meal. I'm not so sure.

South Africa - Cape Town - Haut Bay

2010-10-28T08:17:00.003+05:30

20 minutes or so out of central Cape Town is a seaside neighborhood called Haut Bay. Beautiful beaches on the way to the area. A tourist ferry takes you out 10 minutes or so into the bay to a small rock formation that hundreds of seals lounge around on and play around in the water. Its a testament to the stupidity of the great white shark that this isn't the equivalent of an all you can eat buffet restaurant for them.

South Africa - Cape Town - Great White Shark Diving

2010-10-27T13:51:00.002+05:30

Took a car about 2 1/2 hours east of Cape Town to a little coastal town called Gansbaai (pronounced Haans-beye) and went out on a boat to dive with the great white sharks. Not too many pictures, it was drizzling and wet so I didn't bring my good camera. It was very cold, choppy waters. Even in a thick wetsuit the water was frigid. I was pretty sure my sister would chicken out but she was the first one in the water. We saw several sharks. Fun times.

South Africa - Cape Town - Table Mountain

2010-10-27T08:38:00.002+05:30

A big plateau that commands the skyline of Cape Town. To get to the top, you drive up a windy road to the base, then take a gondola up to the top.

South Africa - Cape Town - V&A Waterfront

2010-10-27T08:24:00.004+05:30

Cape Town is a beautiful city, and of all the cities I've been to in the world is most like the States. Its much like a cooler weather San Diego, but cleaner. Lots of majestic cliff side homes like you might find in La Jolla. We stayed at the V&A waterfront, which is the best area to stay in while visiting, I think. Its pretty central, in a nice area, right near the harbor, where there are dozens of restaurants, a huge mall with two movie theaters, "curio" (souvenir) shops, etc.
The weather was cool, probably around 16C, warming up to 19 or 20 midday. Lots of good looking people, excellent freeway and road system, but no Starbucks. Not a single one. Not really any US chains of anything, except for KFC.
The South African food is all meat. Meat, meat, meat. Grilled on a plate, in a stew, whatever, but just lots of meat. And not really cow, either. More stuff like antelope, wildebeest, wild boar, things like that.
Stayed at the Cape Royal Hotel, a beautiful 5 star boutique that also has residences. The rooms were apartments, with separate bedrooms, a full kitchen, washer and dryer, etc. Awesome place to stay. The only place we saw that seems like it might be as good or better a choice was the One & Only hotel, just down the road, the difference being its just a large hotel, with more services, and had a Nobu in it.
The exchange rate with the US dollar is great, too. The South African Rand goes quite far, everything feels like its on sale.

Cape Royal Hotel:

In house brewed Scottish Ales. Delicious.

Istanbul

2010-10-26T09:16:00.005+05:30

Istanbul was over a month ago, so unfortunately I've lost all of the intricate detail you would expect from my blog posts as nearly everything, important or not, is wiped from my memory about twice a month. Its a blessing and a curse.
Anyway, Istanbul was a surprisingly impressive city. I didn't know quite what to expect, I figured it could go either way, but I had braced myself for more of the "middle east, oppressive, old and dirty" sort of vibe. I was dead wrong. Istanbul is sparklingly clean, the old monuments that are around the city are all surrounded in beautiful parks and controlled areas, and the rest of the city, particularly the area called 'the new city' is new, European, and super cosmopolitan. I stayed at the W Hotel and it was an amazing hotel. Getting to Istanbul was rough, though. As I was squeezing the trip into a weekend, I picked the flight that red-eyed on Friday, getting me in early morning, and returned Sunday night to maximize the time in Turkey. Unfortunately, that was an Air India flight, connecting in Delhi. Connecting in Delhi is bad news, since the Delhi domestic and Delhi international airports are different airports and quite a ways away from one another, and there is no concept of "checking through" to an international destination here in India. If you have a stop in another Indian city, you have to collect your bag, leave the airport, go to the international terminal (or separate airport in the case), go back through, re-check in, then go through immigration. Sucks. Air India also sucks. I don't normally fly anywhere economy class anymore (I know, tough life), but that was all both of the flights had to offer - no business or first. And, man, Air India economy class is the real deal. Hot, crowded, smelly, loud. I wouldn't bat an eyelash if I saw a chicken run down the aisle. And I also miscalculated how far Istanbul was away (timezones are hard), so the Delhi->Istanbul flight was about 9 hours. I'm not a very tall American, but I'm a very, very tall India, so they put the seat rows much closer together on economy flights. I had the pleasure of sitting in the first row against the toilet, so my knees were jammed against the toilet wall for the whole flight. Horrible. Poor me.
Anyway, Istanbul. First thing I did, since I live in a place where basic necessities like expensive French soaps, Starbucks coffee, designer label clothes, and PS3/Xbox360 games are unavailable, is jump in a cab and asked to be taken to the biggest and best mall. Istanbul lesson number one immediately followed: don't take Istanbul taxis. They drive horribly, and they are all crooks. There is a button on the meter that at some point when they think you aren't looking they press and it adds 20 Turkish Lira to the tab. Shady shit.
The mall, which happens to be the biggest in Europe, met all of my soap/clothes/Starbucks/gaming needs, but lesson number two of Istanbul was quickly learned: Istanbul is fucking expensive. I thought I was doing the Turkish Lira to dollar math wrong and kept rechecking, but, no, my math was right. Everything is about double the price you would expect, kind of like London. No wonder their switch to the Euro is tough, their Lira has a much stronger exchange right now than the Euro.
I went to a movie at the mall as well, it was a nice theater, equivalent but not surpassing what you would expect of a theater in the States. I saw Clooney's "The American", which is called "The Gentlemen" for international markets. Contrary to critical and cine-score results, I loved it.
Day two was touring the city seeing all of the historical sites: the blue mosque, the hagia sophia, etc. The buildings are astounding. Enormous to the point of dwarfing the Taj Mahal, beautiful, and maintained to perfection (unlike the Taj Mahal, I found no Sharpie graffiti adorning the walls, proudly marking that "Rahul was here").
The weather was beautiful, like 20C the whole time. Saturday night I had dinner at a nuevo-Japanese restaurant on the banks of the black sea. Very expensive, but perfectly executed experience.
The city isn't particularly English language friendly (no second line on all the signs in English like most of the world now has), but the Turkish language shares enough similaries that you figure out the gist of what something says (unlike Tokyo or Stockholm).
As I was heading back to the airport to return home, a huge thunderstorm erupted and delayed all flights out. My flight back to Delhi was delayed almost 6 hours, so I missed my connecting flight from Delhi to Bangalore. I was then gifted the lovely surprise that Air India doesn't give a shit that their connecting flight being delayed is what causes you to miss your second flight. After a couple hours of arguing with various disinterested persons I was forced to re-purchase another flight back to Bangalore. Needless to say, I have retired from Air India, regardless of whether the timing is better or not.

Link to my flickr set of Istanbul

While this dog was roaming a foot traffic street unattended, clearly she had a home full of bellyrubs and cheeseburgers to go back to each evening.

This is not the Black Sea (as it doesn't look black), its the Sea of Marmara, on the other side of town.

Beward this ferocious pride of wild kitties in the old city, they aren't messing around.

The India Adventure

2010-10-21T21:58:00.003+05:30

Dear Reader,

I'll get to why I've included a picture of a vending machine in a minute. Writing a blog is like a relationship, I think. At first, its all new and exciting. You can't wait to tell it every little detail of your life; past, present, future. You are proud of your blog, you want others to see it. You want others to think, 'damn, how did Henderson (replace with your name if it helps your visualization) get a blog that awesome?'. Your commitment is unwavering.

Time passes. You still like your blog, and you like that people still check it out. You still tell it what's going on, but more out of ritual than that inexplicable need to tell it everything like at first. You look at other blogs and think, 'oooh, that's a nice blog. How did Perez Hilton get such an awesome blog?'.

More time goes by. Its been a year and half or so. Now, I hear told there are people in the world that can actually maintain a healthy relationship with another person for a period this long or even longer. Personally, I think that is made up bullshit to confuse and demoralize the Communists, just like the platypus and the moon landing. In my experience, now is about the time that the ritual becomes a chore. You start to resent that damn blog. 'Man, I'm going to have to tell that damn blog about my trip. And didn't my blog used to look good? Its really let itself go. It looks like a goddamn AOL home page from 1996. Well, I might as well just get it over with and update the damn blog...'

Now, onto the aforementioned vending machine. I've included a picture for my valued Indian readers as, well, there really aren't any vending machines in India and I want to make sure they have a clear mental picture of the imposing size, weight, and ferocity of such a machine. Back in college I had this great friend; a Texan, a killer of anything that needed killin', a 4x4 driving master, and a true master at concocting diabolical and destructive ways to kill those boring hours between 2am and 4am. One such activity we enjoyed was to go around and knock over vending machines. Now, for any such reader that hasn't partaken of such activity, don't minimize the challenge, the danger, the science, the artistry, and the sheer joy of knocking over a vending machine. They don't tip over easily, I'll say that. Well, breaking up a relationship, if done right, is like tipping over a vending machine. It starts with a big, sudden, surprising push. Now, neophytes at vending machine tipping and relationship ending might think that's all you need. But no, good reader, that just gets the vending machine rocking. It takes several good shoves. These shoves need to be expertly timed to keep that vending machine rocking farther and farther each tip. Shove too hard, and you might just get crushed. Don't shove hard enough and that goddamn vending machine just goes back to sitting on its ass, expecting you to tell you about its day tomorrow. You keep it rocking at the right speed, with the right amount of shoves, and you'll get that vending machine over on its side with minimal personal injury. Ready to move onto another vending machine, hopefully one with those frosted circus animal crackers. Those things are the best.

Well, TheIndiaAdventure.com , I can tell its about time for me to start the process of tipping you over. But, as any vending machine destroyer / blog relationship ender should, I wont go cold turkey. I went to Istanbul in September, and just recently returned from a couple weeks on an amazing trip around Africa. I'll start blogging those soon.

Thailand - Koh Tao Diving

2010-08-07T17:16:00.003+05:30

Went to Thailand for the weekend last weekend. A few pictures from a day scuba diving trip in Koh Tao, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, about an hour and a half speedboat ride from Koh Samui. The diving was good. The water was very warm, almost too warm. The marine life is certainly not as dense as in the Maldives. My dive group was only 5 people, but we shared the boat with a few other groups, so it was pretty packed. The boat was a triple outboard and hauled serious ass, so it was slapping the waves the whole trip, unfortunately causing several of its passengers to barf off the side for most of the journey. I listened to the new Bombay Bicycle Club album and read a book.

The Maldives - Resort Pictures

2010-06-19T18:30:00.008+05:30

Just some pictures from the main island and the villa island. There's a bunch of those arrogant lizards strutting around the villa island, they're about a foot long and demand priority passage on the walking paths. The white topped hut thing is the fine dining restaurant on the main island. Had dinner there last night, the food was excellent, it was a choice of 5 different set menus. Had a great bottle of wildly overpriced 2002 Margaux.

The Maldives - Dive Day Two

2010-06-19T14:50:00.003+05:30

Went on a more advanced dive this morning. Took the speedboat out about an hour from my island to an uninhabited island with a reef around it. The waves were breaking at the reef at least 15 feet high, haven't seen such huge waves since the north shore of Oahu. We went to just outside where the waves were swelling, diving in search of the giant mantra rays. The current was very, very strong, sometimes you just couldn't fight it and had to go where it wanted you to, you just had to make sure it wasn't pulling you up so as to avoid the bends. We caught sight of one giant manta right as we went down to about 25 meters, but that was it. Saw several sea turtles poking around the bottom of the reef, and an absolutely massive fish, at least 10 feet long, just hanging out. I asked what kind of fish it was after the dive, but my japanese dive master had too strong an accent for me to make out what she said. She was hot though, so I forgave her.

The Maldives

2010-06-18T17:52:00.008+05:30

Arrived at The Maldives yesterday midday. The islands I'm staying at are in the North Male Atoll, about a 45 minute speedboat ride from Male where you fly in.
The resort is a paradise. The Maldives is a couples place, no doubt, but the place I'm staying at is a private beach per water villa. I'll post some pics of it later. Americans are very rare here, considering its a 30 hour flight from the states, so everyone is very interested in talking about the US. Strangely, while many here haven't met an American, all transactions are in US dollars. They have their own currency here, its just not used on the resort islands.
I had my small spare camera out on the dive boat today so took a few pictures. Went on two dives today, haven't dived in years so was a bit rusty but it all came back fast. Met a pleasant British doctor whose wife doesn't dive so we are diving together while she spends the day at the spa.
The reefs here are astounding, its clear why The Maldives are considered one of the best dive sites in the world. The visibility goes on forever, the water is as clear as glass, and warm and comfortable. The dives here are all not too deep. I'm certified to 130', but the max depth of the dives here is 90'. Thats cool though, as more shallow dives last longer, and are more colorful, as color starts to go away as you get deeper. The divemasters here are super friendly and helpful. One thing I hadn't read about diving here before coming was that the waters are friggin shark infested. Saw three sharks on the first dive, one on the second. The don't care about you at all though. Also saw a sea turtle, some absolutely massive yellow tails, probably 5 feet long, moray eels, schools of barracuda. Its like a diving dream. Going out on the boat all day tomorrow too.

View Maldives in a larger map

Bangalore - Lamb of God Concert

2010-06-18T17:39:00.003+05:30

Oh, look what I found on my spare camera from May 15, a few pictures of a Lamb of God, a US death metal concert at the Palace Grounds in Bangalore. It was very hot, very loud (but not quite loud enough), and interestingly, very much like a US heavy metal concert. Not a saree to be found.

Dubai - From the Burj Kalifa Observation Deck

2010-06-03T17:02:00.003+05:30

Its costs about a $100 US to go up to the observation deck. You wait in a fairly slow moving line as only two express elevators go directly from the basement entrance straight to the observation deck, which is about 2/3 of the way up the tower. The sides of the deck are glassed in, the top is open, and the wind is loud and blustering all the way up there.

Dubai - Out and About

2010-05-19T11:58:00.005+05:30

Took a tour, which involved walking around, checking out some different parts of town, walking through a gold market, and taking a boat across the river.
The sail shaped building is the Burj al Arab, the most expensive hotel in the world. Every room is a multi-level suite. The bar on the top has $1000 US drinks. Its not a place for us, so move along, move along...

Dubai - Atlantis Hotel

2010-05-19T09:50:00.004+05:30

A huge hotel out on one of the palm frond islands. There are two palm islands, man-made islands made in the shape of palm trees to maximize ocean front property. The hotel is very impressive, massive in every scale. Its very reminiscent of a Vegas hotel, just on the ocean.

View Larger Map

A big glass statue in the lobby, apparently shipped from Italy (where-ever it is in Italy where they make obnoxious things) and worth several million dollars.

Dubai - Malls

2010-05-18T17:42:00.007+05:30

I went to two malls in Dubai. Lets start with the Mall of the Emirates. The Mall of the Emirates is a luxury mall down near Jumeirah. Its huge, all high-end stores. A nice movie theater with 12 screens. A bunch of restaurants. A big Tower store where I picked up a couple PS3 games. Oh, and a goddamn skiing resort. The ski run from the outside looks like a huge silver worm like structure extending from one end of the mall up twisting up into the sky. From the inside it looks like a little ski village covered in snow. Its cold in the ski area, winter coat cold.

Okay, now lets talk about the Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall surrounds the Burj Kalifa and is, of course, the largest mall in the world. Its really big, just like the building it surrounds. Again, its a high-end mall filled with high-end brands, an amazing brand new theater, lots of restaurants. Its mostly American brands, American chain restaurants. But, most of Dubai is. Its like a brand new city in the US, full of chain restaurants and new construction. Kind of like Scottsdale, Arizona, but on the beach. Its weirdly ironic that the middle east has built their own little USA right south of Iraq.
But, how embarrassing for the Dubai mall, there is no ski slope. What's that? Oh, right, there's a hundred foot deep aquarium running through the center of it like a huge column, filled with 40,000 fish, including sharks. That you can scuba dive in. But its so deep you need to be a certified diver. Oh, Dubai...

Dubai - The Address Hotel Downtown

2010-05-17T16:58:00.003+05:30

'The Address' is a chain of super-luxury hotels through the middle east. There are three in Dubai, two right next to each other surrounding the Burj Kalifa, and one down in the south suburb of Jumeirah. I stayed at the larger of the two next to the Burj Kalifa. The Burj Kalifa also has two hotels and a residency condo part designed and run by Armani. Cheap, I'm sure.
So, anyway, The Address Downtown. There are three classes of hotels in Dubai (well, I'm sure there are crappy scary places somewhere, but I'm not including them). There is the fairly reasonable 5 star hotels, several of which are around the downtown area, a few in Jumeirah. There is the top end 5 star hotels, The Address is one of these, so is Atlantis (pictures of Atlantis in a later post). And then there is what they call a 7 star hotel, the Burj al Arab, the most expensive hotel in the world. I'll post about it later too. So, The Address was swanky to the extreme. It was modern, lots of black and mirrors. Reminded me of an even nicer W hotel. It was 63 stories tall, about a 1/3 hotel rooms and the remaining 2/3 condo residences. The room was lavishly spacious, all of the toiletries were Aveda (my favorite!), the two clubs were the places to be in town, the fine dining restaurant was amazing... obviously I'm not going to bash on this hotel too much. This is as nice as a contemporary modern hotel there is in the world. Parked out front when I first got in Friday night was a Ferrari California, and it was the first California I've seen on the road so that was exciting. Over the weekend, as I saw the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Ferrari California on the road, I, sadly, decided its the least impressive Ferrari ever built. Ever. It just doesn't scream "ITALIAN EXOTIC" (all caps were invented for talking about exotic sports cars). It more like whispers "classy luxury roadster". The car it most reminds me of is the Lexus roadster. I nice car to be sure, but not in the Ferrari class. So, "boo" California, although its clear they are attempting to strongly differentiate their brand in the starter exotic class from the Lambo Gallardo.
I'm including a picture of The Address downtown that I took from space... err, the observation deck of the Burj Kalifa to give you some scale. Remember, The Address is 63 stories tall. For my dear Angelenos, remember the tallest building in the LA skyline, the Library Tower (US Bank Tower, Wedding Cake, etc) is 73 stories. And while The Address is right next to the Kalifa, it looks like a tiny little model building from only 2/3 of the way up the Burj Kalifa. The Burj Kalifa is really tall. Mind boggling.

Dubai - Burj Kalifa

2010-05-12T17:49:00.005+05:30

Dubai is a strange, awesome place. Its definitely a playground for the super-rich, as will be made evident by future posts. But, its also got plenty to do for the not super rich but still lots of disposable income crowd too. Its a place of striking juxtaposition, conservative Muslims next to liberal expats, Burqas next to bikinis, nightclubs next to mosques.
The weather was amazing, everything is spotlessly clean, the air quality is amazing, the water of the Persian gulf is the best I've ever been in.
No photoshop trickery, the sky was actually this beautiful color of blue when I took this picture. The Burj Kalifa, the tallest building in the world, is a majestic and futuristic site. Those three little towers to the left in the picture are actually huge tower skyscrapers themselves, but everything... everything is dwarfed by the Burj. I'll do another post on it about when I took the ride to the top.

Bangalore - Taco Bell

2010-04-24T20:40:00.005+05:30

Here are a few pictures from the first Taco Bell in India. Its a couple hours away, across on the other side of Bangalore from where I live, in a mall. The mall is said to be the biggest in India. Its definitely bigger than any I've been to in India, but its not big by US standards. Its maybe a 1/3 the size of the Glendale Galleria. Its maybe 1/100th the size of any mall in Singapore. Its filled with all the same shops as the other malls here, but there is also a Lifestyle ( Indian department store chain ), a Spar (German food store chain), a movie theater (INOX), a bar (which made a pretty passable mojito), 2 KFCs, and of course the Taco Bell.
The Taco Bell was hot and smelly, and had a bit of a mob vibe going on inside. For those readers that haven't been actively following all of the news stories of this restaurant opening, this is not only the first Taco Bell in India but the first place to offer free refills on soft drinks. "Free" doesn't work very well in India. "Free" quickly devolves into "crazed hoarding". Hence the "action shot" by the drink machine. Lots of pushing and shoving. Its obvious that the restaurant expected large crowds and attempted to institute a queuing system; you are to wait in one line for ordering, then digital readouts on the wall display the number of the order ready for pickup. You are then supposed to go to a separate window to pick up your order. Well, this isn't working. "Queuing", or for my American friends, "waiting in line", doesn't work very well in India either. It quickly devolves into a pushing mass crowded around the counter doing whatever possible to get served before anyone else, regardless of who was there first. This was the scene around the window where you are supposed to walk up to when your number comes up. The numbers have been summarily dismissed, and the person to get his tacos is the person that can shove his way to the counter and wave his receipt in the person's face the best.
The menu is quite limited compared to the US menu, and all of the items have been "Indianized" to some degree. The least Indianized I'd say is the bean burrito. Its a pretty authentic tasting tortilla with pretty authentic tasting refried beans - both items rare to the point of non existent in India, so kudos to them for getting a way to source them. The hot sauce is different, though, its spicier than the US version, and a hint of Indian spices. "Nachos" are just the chips, no cheese, and there are quite a few paneer items on the menu.
The restaurant was pretty clean considering how busy it was - I've definitely been to dirtier Taco Bells in the US. The kitchen was clean too - you could see it through the window where you pick up your order.

Narita - Hard Rock Cafe

2010-04-14T16:05:00.002+05:30

Before the sad flight back, I stopped by the Hard Rock in Narita (where the airport is, about an hour north of Tokyo). Its probably the lamest Hard Rock ever, in a mall, small, playing 80's music, super expensive, and closed at 11pm on a weekend night.

Japan - midwest US chains strangely prevalent

2010-04-14T16:04:00.001+05:30

I saw several Mr. Donuts, a couple Shakey's. Huh.

Japan - Osaka at Night

2010-04-14T16:01:00.003+05:30

Osaka is a big port city just 45 minutes or so south of Kyoto by local train, about 10 minutes by bullet train. I went just for the evening, walked around, had some great sushi. Lots of neon.

Kyoto - Temples

2010-04-12T11:24:00.004+05:30

Kyoto is a couple hours southwest of Tokyo by bullet train. Is just a smaller city, kind of grid-like. There is a subway system, but only two lines, one running north-south, the other east-west. Most travel is done by city bus. The buses were confusing at first as they involve a complex queuing system for waiting for the bus, entering the bus, and exiting the bus. And the buses were way too overheated. It was cold as hell out, and the buses had the heaters blasting so hot it must have been at least 80 F . Miserable.
The interesting part of Kyoto is that on the outskirts of the city are temples in large, well landscaped parks.

Japan - Pocari Sweat

2010-04-12T11:11:00.003+05:30

The Japanese are ahead of us in many ways. Amazingly, they have apparently not only figured out how to trap the elusive Pocari, but also a technique to capture its sweat in enough quantity to offer 600 ml bottles of it in every vending machine.

Japan - Nikko

2010-04-09T09:41:00.002+05:30

Nikko is in the mountains, a couple hours northwest of Tokyo by Shinkansen (the bullet train). I got a late start, and then missed the connection stop on the train because I fell asleep, so by the time I got to Nikko things were already starting to close up. But I walked around. It was cold, the buildings were pretty cool. Parts were a little like a Ninja village probably is, except of course you couldn't see the ninjas as they are invisible.

Tokyo - Bear Claw!

2010-04-08T13:25:00.002+05:30

Some who know me well may know of my love for, and preternatural skill at, bear claw. Well, all over Tokyo there are vast arcades full of nothing but bear claw machines. You can play bear claw for everything from the usual stuffedd animals, to jewelry, to toys, even, as in this video, groceries. The Tokyoians were amazed by my bear claw prowess as I pulled Ritz cracker box after Ritz cracker box out of the machine, seemingly at will. (A total lie).

Tokyo - Shibuya Station

2010-04-08T13:22:00.001+05:30

Crossing the street in the most populous city in the world is a bit different than most places.

Tokyo - Asakusa

2010-04-08T12:03:00.004+05:30

Asakusa is north east of central Tokyo, just east of Ueno, where the Tokyo zoo is (which I unfortunately did not get to - way too much to do in Tokyo in just 6 days). Its a big park with a temple and an old pagoda in it, and lots of Asian tourists. The park was cool though.

Tokyo - Shinjuku at night

2010-04-08T11:42:00.004+05:30

Shinjuku was one of my favorite wards. Lots of neon, the Kabuki area, an amazing sushi bar in an alley, Uogi Sushi, and tons of people (of course). I saw a pack of lolita goths finally, but didn't have my camera out, sorry.

Tokyo - Ginza

2010-03-21T15:48:00.006+05:30

The most expensive area of Tokyo. The roads are closed to traffic on the weekends and opened for pedestrians. Every store you would expect in a Rodeo Drive sort of place. A cafe was advertising a special for Y1000 cups of Darjeeling tea ($11). Had a $17 dark Japanese beer at the beer hall, which is cheaper than a beer in Copenhagen, on the bright side.
Speaking of expensive, Tokyo is not disappointing. I officially will not afford to eat at my hotel. The breakfast buffet is $78, the buffet for lunch or dinner is $130. The fine dining restaurant in the hotel, a french place, has entrees that range from $170 to $380. That's an ala carte entree. The pre-fix menu has no prices.
I'm going to L'Osier, a 3 star michelin french place before the Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday. I've never been to a 3 star, so I'm quite excited.

Tokyo - Harajuku

2010-03-21T15:44:00.003+05:30

Harajuku, made famous by the Gwen Stefani solo project. Its suppose to be where you see all the cos-play, lolita goth, and other crazy people. Unfortunately didn't see any. Just lots of fabulously stylish beautiful people.

Tokyo - Roppongi

2010-03-20T22:40:00.006+05:30

First night I went to Roppongi. Tokyo is huge so its broken up into wards, kinda like NY is broken up into boroughs. Roppongi is known as an expat hangout, so I figured it was a good place to start.
The subway system to get to Roppongi was confusing and frustrating, but finally figured it out. Roppongi was packed, people everywhere, places everywhere, great - except the fact that every single street corner had a thuggish black dude that would follow me for half a block trying to coerce me into going into some seedy joint he was peddling. Really reduced the enjoyment of the experience. Found several great places to drink Guinness and scotch. Started at the Tokyo Hard Rock with a couple Guinness and a couple Jager shots and kept rolling down the strip.

Japan - Tokyo

2010-03-20T17:39:00.004+05:30

On the ground. Flew Singapore Air First Class. Amazing first class service; great pajamas, great facial products, all Salvatore Ferragamo. All the Dom Perignon you can drink (which is a lot). Huge menu to choose from that spans the globe. One big issue - they don't have lay flat sleeper chairs - just big easy chairs that are like a lazy boy. Very comfortable, but for an overnight flight, a lay flat is key. Horrendously long train ride from Narita airport to Tokyo city center where I'm staying. Very confusing to get a ticket; there are English words scattered around but are really no help. Everyone is friendly so far. Hotel is nice. Heading out on the town...

View from my hotel room

Thailand - Koh Samui

2010-03-20T17:27:00.004+05:30

Samui (Koh means island) is an island about an hour flight south of Bangkok. Its just about the best place on earth. Endless reef enclosed beaches, beautiful women of all varieties, some of the best diving in the world, jet skis (that I jacked my leg up on), crazy fast go-carts (that I shredded both my leg and my ipod on), endless bars open all night, great restaurants, multiple Starbucks.
You rent a scooter (I know very well how 14 year old / gay / girlie a scooter is, but when in Rome, right?) for 300 Bhat a day (about $10) and roll around the Island. The scooters have some kick, I got mine up to 90km/h on a stretch of good road. Considering my bullet in India only goes 115km/h, I'll take that any day from a scooter.
Gorgeous beach hotel where one wall of the room opens up fully to a huge deck over the ocean. Tough living.
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Back to Thailand - Bangkok

2010-03-20T17:25:00.002+05:30

Had a long weekend so went back to Bangkok. Because its awesome. A shot of the river at night. Just one night in Bangkok (queue the Chess theme) this time, then off to the tropical island of Samui.

XMas Shogun

2010-03-20T17:20:00.002+05:30

A bit late, but just found these on my camera. Its adorable little Shogun hording his christmas presents.

Bangkok - Nightlife

2010-03-03T13:45:00.000+05:30

Bangkok - Shagri-La Hotel

2010-03-03T13:37:00.004+05:30

Beautiful hotel, sprawling over two towers. Spacious room. Sushi buffet lunch. Great mojitos. Not a single complaint.

Bangkok, Thailand

2010-03-03T12:02:00.003+05:30

Hopped over to Bangkok for the weekend with a couple guys from the studio. Its about a 3 or 4 hour flight (I don't know exactly as I pass out before most planes take off) that leaves Bangalore at 12:30am and arrives in Bangkok at the crack of dawn. This makes for a long, wild first day in Thailand. Stayed at the Shangri-La on the banks of the Chao Phraya river (next post). The first night went to a pan-asian fine dining restaurant on the 64th floor of the highest tower in Bangkok, the state tower. The dinner was truly fantastic. The wine list was very complete, and astoundingly over-priced. From a US$6 bottle of grocery store wine (Coppola Claret) going for over US$160 to a US$2000 bottle of '98 Cos d'Estrounel, it was a wine list designed for someone who doesn't give a shit about the price. I settled on one of the cheaper Bordeauxs on the list, a '95 3rd growth from Margaux for about US$600 that turned out to be pretty great. At some point about 2/3 of the way through the meal, there was a tremendous BOOM. No one in the restaurant seemed at all disturbed, but the three of us we quite shocked, called the waitress over, and asked "what was that explosion!?". To which she calmly replied with a bit of a giggle, "hmm, maybe bimb?" and went about filling our water glasses.
Well, turns out it was a bimb. A grenade to be exact. And pretty damn close.

View Bangkok Bimb in a larger map
Crazy. We drove by the bank later that night and saw all the damage, but didn't know about the attack until we got back to India.
We wanted to go to a Muay Thai fight, but Sunday was a holiday so the fight center was closed. Sunday night was spent at a fine dining Italian place with a '99 Barolo and later at an Irish pub drinking delicious Guinness beer from the tap and playing Golden Tee, an evening impossible in so many ways in India so all the better.
So, despite the terrorist attack (which was against the bank, and not people, to be fair) Bangkok was a huge amount of fun and a great escape weekend from India. Excited to return.

Bhutan - Karaoke

2010-02-17T08:21:00.006+05:30

On the last night in country my guide asked me if I wanted to go out on the town to a karaoke bar. Oh, hell yes. I had amazing visions of wow'ing the locals with the most stirring rendition of Peter Cetera's Glory of Love (1986, Karate Kid II) that they'd ever heard.
Well, Karaoke in Bhutan is a different thing. We went into the basement of a house, where the proprietor had set up rows of very low benches and a stage. A band of two dudes, one with a lute and the other with a flat string instrument played kind of like a lap steel guitar, stood facing away from the "audience" (my guide, my driver, and me) while a bunch of Bhutanese women danced traditional dances on stage while singing. When one of them messed up a dance step, the proprietor, who stood in the back, would ring a bell. They would all stop, the band would restart the music, and they would begin again. Needless to say it was surreal.
At one point my guide leaned over to me and said (paraphrasing, but reducing the amount of prepositions, noun markers, and conjunctions to simulate broken English) "Very sad, girls come from smaller villages East Bhutan to West to make life, end up dancing bar", insinuating these women, fully dressed from head to toe, singing traditional songs and dancing traditional dances, were somehow equivalent to our cornfed midwestern girls coming out to Hollywood to be a star and ending up stripping at Crazy Girls. Awesome.

Bhutan - Fortresses

2010-01-25T20:05:00.003+05:30

Each valley in Bhutan had a fortress. Bhutan has only been a unified nation for about 100 years. 100 years ago the warlords that ruled each valley met up battled each other to the death, and the winner became the king of Bhutan. There have been 6 kings, all of the same lineage. The current king is 29 and unmarried. His father gave him the crown in 2008. The fortresses are where the government does its business, and also where the monks live. Half of each fortress is administrative, and half is religious. You aren't allowed in the administrative half, and you cant take pictures in much of the religious half. But they are pretty amazing.

My guide talked for over an hour at this painting of the wheel of life, explaining in amazing detail how the Buddhist faith believes souls pass between the six realms. Really interesting stuff. Heaven is actually not as good as the human world, as you have to go to hell after you go to heaven. The goal of the whole game is to become enlightened and break out of the wheel like Buddha did. Sounds too hard. I'm shooting for either another run at the human world, or the ghost world, it sounded pretty cool.

Bhutan - Tiger Nest

2010-01-25T19:49:00.003+05:30

So, now in week three of fighting this pneumonia shit, everyone at work, and myself, are astounded that I'm still sick. A million times better than week one, but still gasping for air and coughing whenever I talk. Amazingly resilient shit. Anyway, enough of my sob stories, lets look back at better times - the hike to the Tiger Nest in Paro Valley, Bhutan.
Sadly, this is another story of gasping for air, though. This trek was day two in Bhutan. It was -11 Celsius, and the hike was a day hike (up and down in one day) at about 15,000 ft altitude in the Himalayas. Let me tell you, when you aren't acclimated, the air at that altitude feels whisper thin. The trail to Tiger Nest is a constant 40 to 45 degree incline, culminating in the traversal of a crevasse by walking down a few hundred rock steps and then back up 800 rock steps, as opposed to rigging some suspension across. If you check out the distance pics of the Tiger Nest, the crevasse is just to the left of the temple.
So, needless to say, this hike damn near killed me. I was begging for mercy just a couple hours in, gasping for air. You have to constantly remind yourself to slow your breathing, because your body's reaction to the thin air is to pant, which causes your heart to race. I didn't wear gortex, and should of, because I sweat my ass off while hiking, and then as soon as you stop to rest the sweat makes you freezing cold. This is an easy trek as far as trekking in the Himalayas goes, and it kicked my ass. Gotta be in better shape and give myself a bit of time to acclimate to the altitude for next year, as I want to go on at least a 3 day.

So. Goddamn. Sick

2010-01-14T00:34:00.000+05:30

I've got several more Bhutan posts to do, but I figured this week's little adventure is part of the adventure so I might as well blog about it. On the end of day 4, well, actually, 29 minutes into day 5 of a bought with pneumonia. Woke up Saturday night with a high fever, and didn't get out of bed until Monday morning. Made it downstairs to clean up after the housebound dog, finally let him out, and refill his water and food. Tried to play some Uncharted 2, but in the game you are running around villages in the Himalayas and I'm thinking - meh, been there, done that... in real life. Of course it could be argued that the Uncharted 2 dude's experience is quite a bit more acrobatic and harrowing, but with an ample dose of poetic license I'm comfortable claiming I have personally lived the Uncharted 2 experience. But I digress. Reading is a pain because the book I'm reading is a huge hardback (I really hate hardbacks) and I'm so GD weak that holding it wears me out. Internet was out until just this evening. So mostly I just stare at the wall. Went back to bed till Tuesday. Made it the doctor on Tuesday. I had no idea what to expect but I thought it quite erudite to expect the worst. Surprisingly, it wasn't too painful of an experience. The doctor washed his hands, was well spoken, and asked good questions. And the whole thing with 5 different medications was like $25 US. Crazy.
Not sleeping much, just when I dope myself up enough to sleep cough for a couple hours here and there.
The dog was worried for a while and even threw up Monday from nerves, but now he's totally over it and spending most of the time in the spare bedroom away from the noise and flailing.
Cried for a little bit today. It was terribly emasculating and quite pitiful, and as I haven't cried for years I kind of had forgotten how, but it seemed to help a bit. How's that for hard hitting honest blogging. Take that Julie and Julia woman. That might be a bit too obscure a reference for some readers. Let me try again. Take that Perez Hilton. That's better.
I have a strong feeling tomorrow is going to be the hump and then a quick road to recovery. The rare and delicate combination of the severity, the duration, and the location of this malady definitely places it in my top list of worst crap ever.
The India Adventure will continue as normal soon...

Bhutan - Archery

2010-01-05T19:50:00.002+05:30

Bhutan's national sport is archery. In each village I was in, they have an archery field set up. They shoot 150 meters (3 times the olympic distance) onto an 8 inch target. With a traditional longbow. And they hit that goddamn target too. Amazing. The opposing team stands around the target and taunts the shooter. The shooter lets the arrow fly, and the opposing team watches it coming and then at the last second dodges it. No fear of dying by arrow. The women stand next to the shooter and dance around and wave ribbons to distract him. When an arrow hits the center of the target, they do a victory dance in front of the target. I saw several victory dances. The whole village shows up for these matches too; lots of people.
A bunch of dudes in plaid ninja outfits shooting arrows at each other deep in the Himalayas. Beat that for a weekend getaway.

Bhutan - Land of the Thunder Dragon

2010-01-05T19:17:00.002+05:30

The Kingdom of Bhutan is an amazing place. A closed country for most of its existence, it is slowly opening its doors to tourism. Very slowly, and just a crack. There is no tourist industry as we know it. There is a government per day charge to be in the country, and travel must be arranged through a government agency and accompanied by a government approved tour agent. It all sounds very controlled and uncomfortable, but it wasn't. The tour agent I had was incredibly polite, informative, and spoke good enough English. The driver spoke no English.
Travel into Bhutan by foreigners is only allowed through the governments airline, DrukAir. No border crossing. You land in Paro valley, a small valley in the middle of the Eastern Himalayas. You approach so close to the mountains it feels like the plane is going to scrape the trees, and then the plane reduces altitude so steeply it feels like you are crashing. The airport consists of a single airstrip with a small building adjoining. Getting off the plane you go through customs, which is a counter with two lines; the line for Bhutanese and the line for foreigners. There were three other foreigners on my flight so it went quickly. The first thing I noticed was the crazy outfits the guys were wearing. Its like a plaid ninja outfit without the pants, and with knee high socks pulled up tight with dress shoes. I assumed this was some cruel decision by the airport manager - I quickly found out its the national dress. All men are required to wear the same outfit in any government building (which is most buildings), or at work. Woman are required to wear an outfit similar to a saree, but made of the same plaid material.
Bhutan is cold. Really cold. The mornings were -11 Celcius, warming up to 0 or so midday.

Casa de Shogun

2009-12-25T14:42:00.004+05:30

Finally moved out of the service apartment I was in for 8 months into a new house, just a few kilometers from work. Its ridiculously too large for one guy and a dog, but, the yard is huge for Shogun and the neighborhood is nice and quite, except for a Muslim minaret nearby that blasts its prayers throughout the day through a huge loudspeaker. The house is brand new, about 5000 sq feet, three second story balconies, with another few thousand sq feet of yard. (All provided free of charge by DreamWorks. Thanks DreamWorks!) There is a servants quarters intended for your live-in service staff to stay, but I'm determined to go servant free here. From the terrible experience of my service staff at the last place, I'd rather just clean myself. We'll see how long it lasts, though, as its a shitload of marble floor to keep the dog hair swept off. While most of my associates have a cook as well as a housekeeping staff, I contend no one will really be able to cook up a bowl of ramen noodles quite as good as I do, so I believe I'll abstain from that luxury as well.

Sri Lanka - Temple of the Tooth

2009-12-25T14:37:00.003+05:30

In the center of the island is a small town called Kandy. There is a Buddhist temple their that they keep the tooth of Lord Buddha, removed from his cremation remains in India and brought down to Sri Lanka centuries ago. Apparently the British took it from them for a while, while Sri Lanka was under British control, but returned it to them later. The temple was cool. It has suffered some damage from suicide bombings by the rebel terrorists a while back but was for the most part intact.

Sri Lanka - Jewel Mining

2009-12-25T14:34:00.002+05:30

Another one of the biggest exports of Sri Lanka is precious and semi-precious jewels. They don't pan for them in streams or dig huge earth pits like Africa does for diamonds - instead a team of 5 or so guys digs a well-like hole straight into the ground about a 100 feet deep and sifts through all the dirt and mud. It takes them months and months to dig the hole. Looks like a shitty job.

Sri Lanka - Tea Factory

2009-12-25T14:31:00.002+05:30

Tea is a big export of Sri Lanka (they actually have lots of exports for a small island - they make clothes for large companies, shoes, dishes, etc). There was a tea factory along the road to Kandy that let you tour, so I figured I would. It was incredibly hot due to the huge furnaces used to roast the tea leaves (remember the temperature was already close to 40 celcius without the help of huge furnaces), smelled, and was overwhelmingly brown. Looked like a shitty job.

Sri Lanka - The Elephant Orphanage

2009-12-24T19:16:00.002+05:30

About 45 minutes outside of Colombo there is an elephant sanctuary where they bring in orphaned elephant calves (usually due to landmine death of the parent) and raise them in an open environment. Twice a day they walk all 100 or so elephants to the river for them to play. And they love playing in that river. Some lay down on their side and submerge themselves completely in the water, breathing just through their trunk like a snorkel, others shoot water at each other, others roll around in the mud. It was awesome to watch so many elephants at once.

Sri Lanka - The Taj Sumudra

2009-12-24T19:01:00.003+05:30

Stayed at the Taj Sumudra in Colombo. An older but very nice 5 star right on the ocean. The water is too rough and breaks too close to the beach to go in where the Taj is though, so if your itinerary while in Colombo includes walking from your hotel room into the ocean, you should stay farther south in the city.

Sri Lanka

2009-12-24T18:51:00.004+05:30

I have internet access once again and I've finally got all my photos from Sri Lanka and Bhutan uploaded. So lets start with Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a little island just south of the southern tip of India. Its just north of the equator, and is entirely covered in equatorial rain forest. Its hot. Really hot. To get it out of the way, Sri Lanka just concluded (for the most part) a long, bloody civil war a few months ago. So, Sri Lanka is still very militarized. There are army checkpoints all over the place, helicopters circling, etc. And they aren't messing around or slacking off like the Indian army guys you see lounging around. You can tell these guys were in active combat not too long ago. The war was between the ruling government and the Tamil Tigers, and went on for 20 years or so. I'm sure wikipedia can fill you in on all of the details. The rebels admitted defeat a few months ago and thus the war was declared over, but there is apparently still rebel activity in the north and eastern parts of the island. So you don't go there. I flew into and stayed in Colombo, the capital, and against the advice of some, including the US embassy, got a car and driver and went into the north center of the island to check out some old Buddhist temples and things. Everything went fine, no incidents, although the driver did mention a few times during the drive out into the jungle "thats a bad part, we are going the long way around" and stuff like that. But if you don't let the militarization and rebel activity bother you, and I didn't, Sri Lanka is a beautiful place and I'm looking forward to going back, as the Sri Lanka Air Force will give you a tour of the island in one of their helicopters with some advance notice. That will be awesome.

India Adventure Inactivity Explained - and a "best of" list

2009-12-11T08:18:00.004+05:30

So, haven't updated in a bit because I am without internet at home where all the pictures are. Since the last update I went to Sri Lanka, which was a pretty cool place, and moved into a new house. I'm hoping to have internet hooked up next week and I'll start posting the pictures. If I don't, next weekend I'm heading to the kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas, and I'll add that trip to the list I need to post on.
In the meantime, check out this list of the top 100 songs and albums of the 2000's decade. Two Bright Eyes albums, one Bright Eyes song, and lots of Radiohead and Whitestripes, all some of my favorite bands, so its a pretty good list. Clearly too much hip/hop R&B crap in there - a Beyonce (spellcheck recommends "Bonce" and "Abeyance" as correct spellings of Beyonce - "temporary inactivity" and "head/brain". Kind of fitting I'd say) song, really? But top song of the decade - the one hit wonder "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley?! Sure, its a great song, but best? And in an album as bad as that one? Weird choice. Especially with treasures like "My Humps", "Hollaback Girl", and "Photograph" being totally snubbed.

Click here for stereogum post and complete list

Singapore: The Singapore Flyer

2009-11-25T20:27:00.003+05:30

Singapore now has the largest ferris wheel in the world (they call it an observation wheel - whatever). Its like the London Eye only considerably larger. At its top you are about 500 feet in the air, the height of a 42 story building. It takes exactly 30 minutes to do one revolution, so its not exactly spinning out of control. The give you this iPod thing that narrates a history of Singapore while you ride the wheel. Its interesting but the voice acting is pretty subpar. As you go higher and higher, the city reveals itself, then Indonesia, then Malaysia.

Singapore: At Night

2009-11-25T20:11:00.005+05:30

Just some pics from walking around at night. The Christmas lights are out and very pretty. I went to the theater on Orchard Blvd. to see New Moon, but unfortunately it doesn't open until Dec 3 in Singapore. So I saw Christmas Carol, and I saw it in 3D. Its a pretty astounding technical achievement in many ways. I truly think they beat the uncanny valley with Scrooge. The lighting and surfacing are gorgeous, the eyes have life, and the mocap is fluid and enjoyable. The lighting for the whole film is very daring - very dark, lots of shots are lit just through fx elements - especially with the ghost of Christmas Present. Jim Carrey's performances are phenomenal, I think the second instance of needing an Academy Award category (or special achievement Oscar) for mocapped performance (first being Andy Serkis for Gollum, of course). The 3D is good, not too many theme park moments (a few hands reaching out, to be sure). But its not incredible. Its used well with the lighting, putting a point light like a candle in forward z space creates an interesting depth. But the cityscape scenes should have been pushed deeper to create a real epic look. There are also some really scary moments. I thought a few times if I would have seen it as a kid I would have been scared shitless.
All in all, for someone that doesn't particularly enjoy the genre of cartoons, and doesn't particularly enjoy the 3D experience, I very much appreciated the film, which is pretty big props. Congrats Image Movers, sorry your box office wasn't stronger.
There was also a very long trailer for Avatar. I'm dying to be proved wrong on this one, but that film looks like a steaming pile of crap.
After the movie I went to an underground live music bar called the No Bar. Its entrance was in an alley, it was all basement level, it was relatively affordable, it had live rock music. Certainly this is the place in Singapore where they let their hair down a bit and drop a napkin on the ground. Hell no, it was spotless. And the drinks sucked, their mojito was made with this plutonium green mint/lime syrup mix and was disgusssting.
It should be mentioned in every post, though - my God there are beautiful women in Singapore. All dressed incredibly well and so well put together.

Singapore: Sentosa Island

2009-11-25T18:20:00.004+05:30

Sentosa is an island just south of the main island of Singapore, reachable by monorail or bridge. Its a 100% leisure activity island, with golf courses, amusement parks, beaches, restaurants, and bars. This is where Universal City Singapore is opening next year that DreamWorks is producing an attraction for. I took the monorail over (from a mall, of course) and hung out at one of the three carefully planned and immaculately groomed beaches. The mojitos and Guinness beers were great, the sun was out, and the people watching was awesome.

Singapore: Raffles Hotel and Grill

2009-11-25T18:06:00.002+05:30

Ate at the Raffles Grill the first night, the fine dining restaurant at the Raffles hotel, a colonial style hotel in central Singapore. The restaurant, the service, and the meal were tremendous. The prices were tremendous. Dinner for one was so expensive I reeled from the sticker shock for the rest of the trip. I had a bottle of '89 Cos d'Estrounel, and it was one of the more affordable bottles on the list at $540. There were bottles from 1900 on, the prices climbing into 6 digits. Brutal. But, it was a world class fine dining experience, and that is what I wanted. I was dressed in a taupe suit with tie, and felt a bit under-dressed. It was definitely more of a black suit sort of place.

Singapore: The Mandarin Oriental

2009-11-25T17:59:00.003+05:30

Not exactly a boutique, but a fantastic hotel. Everything was perfect. The room was huge and attractively decorated, the restaurants were great (including a Morton's), the spa was awesome (has a "signature" massage, which was a mix of swedish deep tissue, shiatsu, and oriental hot oil) , the pool was great, just the right temperature and very deep, the service was impeccable. If I were to return to Singapore there would be no question that I would stay here again.

Singapore: Fun Facts

2009-11-24T20:41:00.003+05:30

1) Singapore is littered (an intentional and ironic choice of words) with Starbucks. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I stocked up on Christmas Blend, and a new Black Apron Exclusive, Aged Sumatra, that comes in a cool tin with a Tiger head on it. Before I knew there was a Starbucks nearly literally around every corner, I was getting a tall iced coffee at each I saw. About an hour into exploring Singapore I was so cracked out on caffeine I thought I was going to pass out, so I had to abandon my resolve to give each and every franchise my business.

2) Singapore is terrifyingly clean. Its a huge fine for littering, chewing gum is illegal, and everything and everyone is monitored and controlled. There are cctv cameras everywhere. As soon as you notice them they are omnipresent. Unbelievably, even for someone coming from the chaotic mess that is India, Singapore is actually too orderly and clean for comfort. I actively searched for a single piece of litter to photograph my whole three days there and did not see a single piece.

3) Singapore dollars are plastic. They are flexible like a paper bill, but can't be torn, and are clear in the corners. Pretty cool.

4) Singapore is expensive. This isn't that perfect mix of super modern Asian city and affordability that is Kuala Lumpur, this is a super modern Asian city at super modern Asian city prices.

5) Singapore is a city constructed entirely of shopping malls. This is really not much of an exaggeration. I asked the concierge of the hotel I stayed at (a later post - awesome hotel) how to get to the monorail to go to Sentosa island (a later post) and the directions were: Go out the front door into the adjoining mall, the Marina Square. Walk through the Marina Square mall to the Millennium Walk mall, walk through the Millennium Walk mall to the Citylink mall, walk through the Citylink mall to the Raffles City mall. From the Raffles City mall, you take the tram to the Vivocity mall. The monorail entrance is on the 3rd floor of the Vivocity mall. On day two I tried to get somewhere without going through a shopping mall, and you actually can't do it. The only way to cross many streets is to go through a mall.

6) Singapore is fucking really hot and humid, but you wouldn't know it if the city planners control you as they intend, as you spend the whole time in air conditioned areas. And my God, they air condition like they are storing raw meat. Some places are so cold that it literally takes your breath away. Its like they are in competition to see who can make their mall the coldest.

7) Sushi sucks in Singapore. Alliteration intended. I tried three places, all googled as recommendations. All sucked. The rice is too dry and not properly vinegared. There isn't interesting variety to the fish selections. And two of the three places had those conveyor belts that just rotate around pre cut plates of sushi. Yuck.

Singapore: Changi Airport

2009-11-24T20:12:00.008+05:30

Singapore's airport, Changi, is just your typical airport. It has your typical gift shops:

Your typical hard plastic chairs to sit on:

Your typical free internet kiosks all over the place:

And your typical free Xbox 360 kiosks, free Rockband music studio with surrounding audience theater, free LAN party room hosting CoD MW2, and free movie theater:

Well, I guess you can't expect much, it is just an airport. But hopefully the Singaporwegeans put a little bit more effort into their city planning than they do their airport. (Hint: they do)

Hyderabad: Golconda Fort

2009-11-08T08:44:00.002+05:30

Hyderabad: Hard Rock

2009-11-08T08:42:00.002+05:30

Hyderabad: Taj Deccan

2009-11-08T08:39:00.002+05:30

Chennai: Taj Mount Road

2009-11-08T08:37:00.001+05:30

Bombay: Taj Land's End

2009-11-08T08:36:00.002+05:30

Bombay: Chasing the Unicorn

2009-10-28T09:21:00.005+05:30

Leopold Cafe

Went to Bombay this last weekend for a conference and to speak at a university. Its an awesome city, and I'll go back soon and do the full photo tour to ensure there are more compelling blog entries. Its by a considerable margin my favorite city in India, and I've been to all the big ones now. Sure, its dirty and old, but there is a bunch of new modern buildings, as well as a nice high rise skyline over the bay extending to the Arabian sea. The first night there, we stayed at the Taj President and ate dinner there, then went out on the town. Its important to mention that in Bangalore everything closes at 11pm. All bars and clubs. And there is this rule about not being able to serve alcohol and dance in the same establishment. Bombay is open all night. We hit the town at around 11pm, and club hopped through town until about 3am. Clubs are expensive, like US prices. At one club, 4 redbull and grey goose were 4000 INR, or about $20 US a piece. At another, 3 Corona were 2000 INR. But the music was loud, the clubs were packed, the people were dressed to the nines, and the women were beautiful. Cleavage, mini skirts, little party dresses, all the things that would get a woman stoned here in Bangalore. Not a saree in sight. We had been told by a couple guys that lived in Bombay before moving down to Bangalore for DreamWorks that Guinness was freely available there. Its completely unavailable in Bangalore. Like, at the Irish pub inside the 5 star Windsor hotel when I asked if they had Guinness he just laughed at me and confirmed that they only had Kingfisher. So, a top priority for me was to have a cold, delicious Guinness. It quickly became apparent to me that we were bold faced lied to, and Guinness was as unavailable in Bombay as it is in Bangalore. After the 3rd or so place that didn't have it, I dubbed Guinness as a unicorn, a mythical beast that doesn't really exist, but is lovely in concept and often spoke of. The rest of the night was "chasing the unicorn". Of course the unicorn was never found. Its a fucking unicorn.
Night two we went down to the Taj Palace, an amazingly beautiful hotel that was unfortunately the site of the 26/11 terrorist bombing in mumbai last year. A good portion of the front entry of the hotel is still boarded up to cover the bomb damage , and the "palace" part of the hotel is still not open for occupancy, just the "tower" part. We met up with an Australian we met at the conference that day, and headed down to Leopold Cafe. Leopold was made famous by being the hang out of Gregory Roberts in his beautifully written novel Shantaram, and made infamous as the second stop of the terrorists who rained machine gun fire into the open front cafe, killing a dozen people in the cafe and injuring scores more, right after having killed 50 people at the train station, on the way to the Taj to bomb it and raid the rooms hunting for foreigners.
Leopold Cafe is a big, bustling, dirty place and a ton of fun. Its a complete cross section of people, from teenagers sharing some western food, to old people, foreigners, locals, and everyone else. The beer (Kingfisher only, of course) is served in big tubes they call pitchers but more resemble big beer bongs. The food is good, and surprisingly so is the service. We stayed there for the whole night.
Night three our IIT presentation went late. We stayed at the Taj Land's End that night, a huge 500 room ocean front "5 star plus" hotel on the other side of the bay from the Taj President and the Taj Palace. It was late, so no going out, just had dinner at the hotel restaurant, but had a great, although overpriced, bottle of too young but still delicious 2004 Mouton Rothschild.
Our new Australian friend Kateland has the pics of Leopold so when I get them I'll update this post.

Ranthambhore: Tiger

2009-10-23T17:01:00.004+05:30

After a long day of hunting tiger, there she was, just laying by the road cooling her ass off in some dirty water. We had seen a tiger a couple hours earlier, a male, hiding in the bushes next to the road. It dashed across the road and was gone before my brain was able to take it all in and get a picture. But this tiger was here for the show. A fantastic beast. And although I did not get to blast her into tiger heaven and wear her hide back as a fabulous cloak (you'd think SOMEONE during all of the incredible amount of planning required for this safari would have told me that, wouldn't you?!) it was an amazing experience to stand there next to such a tremendously dangerous and disinterested animal. She really could not give a shit that a jeep full of gawking food was 15 feet away, and after a few minutes of us disturbing her peace, she slowly stood up and pounced up a sheer rock cliff and disappeared.
The collar is a GPS tracker. Hundreds more pics of Ranthambhore in the flickr set: Go to flickr set

Ranthambhore: Tiger Food

2009-10-23T16:57:00.002+05:30

Okay, this one is wishful thinking. But how great would it be if the Tigers ate all of these goddamn filthy monkeys?!

Ranthambhore: The Birds

2009-10-23T13:39:00.003+05:30

The place is overrun with peacocks. The first couple you are like "oh! a peacock!" by day three you've seen enough peacocks to last you a lifetime. Lots of parrots too.

Ranthambhore: The Forest

2009-10-23T10:29:00.008+05:30

Ranthambhore is 400 sq km of protected desert and "dry deciduous forest" and a recognized tiger reserve of India. You have to get up at about 4:30am to go to this window to get a pass to get in the sanctuary, then by about 6:30am load up into an open air "jeep" (quotes because its not really a Jeep brand, its a Maruti Gypsy ) and bump up and down rugged 4x4 trails all day. Its a tremendous amount of fun.

Ranthambore: The Taj Sawai Madhopur Lodge

2009-10-22T21:41:00.002+05:30

Ranthambore is a national park tiger reserve up in Rajisthan, the state of India bordering Pakistan. We flew from Bangalore, to Bombay, and then to Jaipur. We then had a car from the Taj drive us a few hours to the tiger park.
The Taj was a hunting lodge for the king of India back in the day. Now its an expansive layout directly next to the tiger park. The rooms were beautiful, all natural woods and marble. Each room had a private back yard, a separate sitting room, and a front porch.

Mysore: Bandivan Gardens

2009-10-22T21:25:00.005+05:30

An acre or so of manicured lawns at the base of a big dam. There's a big hotel on the hill, and you can take a boat ride across the reservoir to a show where they have a water fountain timed to music. Its a pretty pitiful display. The show starts with the sound of a windows machine starting up blasting through the loudspeakers (presumably the fountain/music thing is driven by a laptop or something), and then its loud Indian music to a very small water fountain. Its like the Bellagio fountain show, if the Bellagio were built for $25.00 in 1950 and forgotten about for the next 60 years.
The day was long and we were tired and it was time to go.

Mysore Market

2009-10-22T16:42:00.002+05:30

This place was awesome. Tightly packed, dark alleys of little stands selling everything under the sun; fruits, spices, nuts, sundries, knickknacks, you name it. And it started pouring rain, so the tarps covering the alleys totally gave way and drench us in huge torrents of water.

Mysore: Chamundi Hills

2009-10-22T11:45:00.004+05:30

Another hill, another temple. This time a temple of Kali, just like that nightmare temple in Calcutta. We drove all the way up this hill, and there really wasn't much else besides this temple, so we sucked it up and removed our shoes and walked barefoot through the temple to give Kali a gift of some flowers. The line to give offerings to the God was organized and calm, the temple was pretty clean, the stone you walked barefoot on was pretty clean, there was an old guy there that showed us what to do, we got a spot of paint on our forehead, and that was that. This was a much different experience than the temple in Calcutta, if you remember, where there was no line, but instead lots of yelling and pushing and slapping, and you walked through a good 1/2 inch of black muck, and the offering to Kali was a sacrificed goat, and there were crazed people chanting everywhere, and people spitting on your feet, and finally a spot of paint on your head. Much different indeed. The Calcutta one was much more like the Temple of Doom (which was a temple to Kali, if you remember, Mola Ram was a Kali priest).
There was also a very friendly cow and a couple street dogs fiercely fighting. And I guess the pic of the Super Mario Bros statue was actually intended to be a statue of the demon that Kali slayed that this temple honors, but it was just an unfortunate coincidence that the creators of said statue ended up making a giant middle eastern Luigi. There was no statue of a koopa trooper or bowser, fyi.

Mysore Palace

2009-10-22T10:36:00.003+05:30

A really big palace. We did a tour of the Bangalore palace a few days prior, and while fairly interesting, it was less than impressive. This place is pretty impressive. Huge, sprawling, with manicured lawns. Of course, India figures out how to fuck it up a bit. Once you get past the lawn area, there's a window with cubicles built onto the wall where you are suppose to leave your camera. That's right, just go ahead and leave your incredibly expensive camera behind on this wall next to your sandals. And beyond the security implications of this procedure; why, I ask you? Its a tourist spot that they don't allow pictures of. What does this place think it is, Calcutta? But, luckily, there's nothing to take pictures of inside. Oh, wait, no, there is AWESOME stuff to take pictures of. Like getting to ride a gd elephant around the palace grounds, for one. Which was very fun. And then the elephant takes the money from you with his trunk and hands it up to the guy on his head, and then pats you on the head with his trunk. I can't imagine why you would want to take any pictures of that, though, so good thing you can't have a camera.

Mysore: Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

2009-10-22T04:14:00.005+05:30

They really undersell this place calling it a bird sanctuary. Sure, there are birds in the trees. But where aren't there birds in the trees? Here's something that they should be advertising they provide that everywhere that has trees isn't giving away for free: rowboat trips through crocodile infested waters. Oh, and bats. Giant bats. (cut to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: "Those aren't big birds, sweetheart. Those are giant vampire bats".
Oh, and the last pic here, that's not from a zoom lens. That dude rowing in the first pic decided to row the boat up to the rock Mr. IWillFuckingEatYouAsSoonAsLookAtYou was sunning himself on. Like, to where the boat banged against the rock. Granted, the croc's sum total reaction to this invasion of his bubble of privacy was to close his mouth, and row boat driver probably expected that, but we are really leaving a lot to the decision making ability of a fucking lizard, aren't we?
More birds and the crocs who wait around to eat their babies in the flickr set: Go to flickr set

Mysore: Temple of Ranganatha Swamy

2009-10-22T04:09:00.002+05:30

A big temple. Shoes not allowed. People peddling their wares.

Mysore: Narasipura

2009-10-21T07:29:00.002+05:30

A delta of three rivers, just north of Mysore. A holy place, of course, like anywhere slightly out of the ordinary in India; a hill, an oddly shaped rock, rivers meeting, a mud hut that is leaning past the point where it should collapse and bury its inhabitants but doesn't...
Like any body of water, there were people bathing in it. For 100 INR you could go out on a little disc raft made of bamboo and dried leaves. So of course we did.

Mysore: Hazrath Tipu Sultan Wakf Estate Ganjam

2009-10-20T20:15:00.002+05:30

Just down the road from the summer palace place was another palace. Didn't go inside, as they required removal of footwear and I'm still having nightmares about Calcutta barefoot walking. This palace doesn't have the large grounds of the last one, but the building is cooler.

Mysore: Dariya Daulat Bagh

2009-10-20T18:12:00.002+05:30

First stop on our day in Mysore (a city south west of Bangalore, about a 3.5 hour drive) was a summer palace called Dariya Daulat Bagh. Our driver told us to only spend 20 minutes there as there was lots to see that day. That wasn't a problem, it was lame, just an empty palace with some pics on the wall. The coolest part was the expansive palace grounds, all well maintained and landscape through the several hundred rupee entrance fee for foreigners.