They got me

Well, I made it to Hong Kong and US security found the baby tube of
toothpaste with the toothbrush that I got on the Singapore airlines
flight. And here I thought that Singapore airlines was looking out
for my best interest, not giving me illegal items.

Singapore Sites

Here I am talking with some folks I met in downtown Singapore. They didn't have much to offer though.



The famous Merlion (on the left, in case you were confused)

Lobo

Tonight, we went to see Lobo. If you have never heard of them like I hadn't, they are a 40 year old acustic guitar band that has sung such favorite as Lodi, Stoney, Dream Lover and A Dog Named Boo.

It was funny when the band asked everyone if they had ever heard this one song, and they all raised their hands. People in the US would be doing the expected scream at the top of their lungs in response to that question. Singaporeans are so polite.

Golfing in Indonesia

We got up really early to take the ferry boat to Bhatam, a small Indonesian island with the Palm Springs golf course. Here we tried our best to get par and avoid the bushes. Ib of course did well though he said his game was off, and I was a mere 48 over. I blame it on the thick hot humid air and the rented clubs. At this course, we had carts and caddies, which pretty much only leaves the swinging of the club and the cursing left to do.

On the golf course, I unearthed a humungus red centipede while fighting the rough, and we also saw a huge monitor lizard chilling in the grass. It was a great day.

Night Safari

This is the coolest zoo I have ever seen. It is unique to Singapore and caters to nocturnal animals. What was really neat was that almost every animal was active. This included the hiennas, the badgers, the bears, the bats, and all the little tree swelling marsupials. One of the neatest exhibits was the giant flying squirrel exhibit. You go into a net surrounded enclosure with lots of branches, trees, and vegetation, and when you look up, there are these giant squirrels hanging out getting ready to fly. I think that we must have been quite lucky since we saw 3 decent jump and glides from the tallest branches to the bushes below. Everyone clapped for the creatures to encourage them and commend them on such a lovely flight.

Another good enclosure was going into the bat net. Here, you get to hang out with the largest bats in the world. You could reach over and grab them if you were brave enough. We saw a couple of these guys fighting for their fruit.

Singapore Sling at the Long Bar

I guess that everone who comes to Singapore has to have one of these. It's a fruity pink drink with a pineapple slice and umbrella, like all good drinks should have.

Singapore is Da Bomb

I got into Singapore early this morning and met up with Valinda, Omar's mom. After a much needed nap, we went out for some dim sum and to see some of the Singapore sights.

Hare Krishna

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

I had time to write this blog entry while listening to this chant over
and over again at the Iskhan temple in Bangalore. Apparently, you
have to chant this on each of the 108 steps you take all the way down
this long isle. There are a ton of people chanting. It took 10
minutes to get through the line.

Qutb Shahi Tombs and NTR Gardens

I checked out these tombs. Of course, I didn't hire one of the "tourist policemen" to take me around, so I don't exactly know the details of the place, but the main tomb looked pretty nice. I forgot my camera, so I can't share any pictures of the place. I love how the guides call themselves police. Is it because they are protecting and serving the tourists, or just because they are all dressed up in their nicest clothes to come out and try to tell me a sentence or so that I can read on the sign right next to the tombs.

Anyway, one interesting thing was that I must have been a celebraty because about 10 different Indian peeps came up to me while I was walking around to shake my hand. One guy followed me around a bit until the monsoon rain drove him away because he didn't have an umbrella and couldn't fit under mine. I finally realize that the monsoons are good for something.

NTR Gardens was kind of neat. It is a pretty well kept park with rides, a water slide, a fountain and a bonsai tree garden. I took the little train that they had around the park so that I could be a spectacle for all the Indians around the park.

Salar Jung Museum

After our brunch this morning, I convinced some of the peeps to come with me to the Salar Jung museum which has a huge collection of Indian art, sculptures, pottery, weapons, etc.

The most interesting piece was called the Vailed Rebecka, which is an Italian marble statue of a standing women completely covered in a flowing vail. The vail looks so realistic that I couldn't figure out why that had covered this statue with a big white sheet. The whole thing is one block of chiseled marble.

Brunch

I think that I have had the best brunch of my entire life today. It was at this ritsy hotel called the Taj Krishna and they served everything that you could want in a brunch with made to order eggs, pizza, lobster, pasta, and milkshakes. I went out with some of the sales Googlers in the Jayberri house. They are a fun and social crowd and know the ins and outs of Hyderabad. Some of them have been here for more than a year on assignment with Google.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears Oh My!

Today, Abihjit, Prajakta, and I went to the Hyderabad zoo. It was actually larger and more extravagant than I originally thought it would be. After being quickly departed from our money and not quite understanding what we were in for, we boarded a caged bus and set off. Now, they didn't quite close the door of the bus surrounded by a fence and bars, so being the smart engineers that we were, we pondered telling them about the security hole in the contraption, but eventually, I think that they figured it out.

We went into the lion enclosure first, and could you believe it... we saw a hungry and pissed off lion ready to run after the van. I could tell because he was staring intently on the trees next to the bus.

Then there was the tiger exhibit, which wasn't too exciting, but balanced out the fun that we had in the bear exhibit. There was two kanoodling bears that were bickering over some spicy Indian food. They quickly dropped their conversation and decided to come up to the bus and sniff us to see if we were good for dessert. I should have tapped this guy on the nose.

Later we went to the sloth bear enclosure on foot. I guess that malfed animals are really more lively than lazy well kept animals, because this guy came over to see us too. There were only about 10 feet between us and I wasn't sure that he couldn't jump over the 6 foot wide moat to come visit us more closely, so when the sloth bear jumped up on his hind legs, Abhijit and I bolted like lightning, leaving Prajakta at the edge of the enclosure. Needless to say, she was unphased by the animal's inquisitive actions and turned to us with the words "he's not going to get out". Hey, all I have to say, is that if he did get out, he wasn't going to get me. I was also practicing my sprinting skills on a 30 degree, 90% humid day under the Indian sun. You can never let an opportunity like that go.

Elephants on Parade

They have elephant rides to the top of the hill near the Amer Fort in Jaipur. We kind of ran for the scaffleding when we saw these guys coming at us because we knew that there was no way that 4 elephants could get through the bamboo shoots tied together with rags and that we were safe.

Luckily, we didn't have anything to worry about. It seemed that the elephants were more worried about the pesky Indians jumping on their heads. I guess only Liz would know how they felt since she had that pesky monkey fly onto her head from above at the Agra train station.

The Fort on the Hill

This is the Amer Fort in Jaipur. We took a lively rickshaw ride to the outskirts of town to explore this fort.

Liz at the women's mosque

Agra and the Taj Mahal

Well, the Taj Mahal is brilliant. Liz and I walked in through the main gate to see the magnificent view that is in all of the pictures that you see. There was a ton of people there trying to take pictures of themselves in front of the long mirror pool along the walkway to the entrance to the Taj. Our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal had been from the car, where the place seemed quite small along the river, but from here, you can really embrace how huge the place really is.

Today was the start of a three day celebration of the anniversary the Taj Mahal, thus entrance was free for everyone, and everyone came to see the place. They also opened up the chamber to the actual underground tombs which I went to see. You basically take a long flight of stairs down down down into this humid sweat vapor filled candle lit room at the bottom to see the tomb of the king and queen. There are a bunch of people stumbling barefoot up and down the stairs in the pitch black stairway. We all get a little cosey and I am reminded of that scene where Ben Stiller gets a face full of sweaty belly while playing basketball.

A Man Who Looks In Need Of Tires

I was walking by these auto parts shops in Delhi trying to avoid the confusion and chaos on the streets, when someone at a tire store comes out to sell us tires. Now, I thought being the only white people on the street, and being conspicuosly dressed in Tevas, hats, and sunglasses, and carrying a lonely planet guide would have been a dead giveaway to the answer we were about to give that no, in fact, we did not need tires. But I was completely wrong. It must have been because we were gawking so enviously at the filthy tires piled up outside on the sidewalk, and that we were talking to each other seemingly to prepare for the greatest tire bargaining session of our lives, that the man at the shop felt that we would kill for some tires right about now.

Who's my camel?

These camels are huge, and I am a little wary about camels since that one camel spit at me after I was teasing it at the San Diego zoo.

Jantar Mantar in Delhi

After a very extranvagant lunch at the Imperial Palace in Delhi, Liz and I sat and relaxed at the Jantar Mantar of Delhi. This is a huge park with huge building used to determine the time. It's a big sundial. I couldn't really figure out how to tell the time correctly, but I trust that someone actually put some thought into this place and got it right. Thank God for having a wrist watch, because I couldn't imagine having to run back to the Jantar Mantar every couple hours to see if what time it is.

Auto-Rickshaws

These guys are the shiestiest characters I have seen. They never want
to run the meter on their ricshaw (they always claim it is broken) and
they overcharge the white people. It not worth it for them to drive
us unless they can rip us off.

Old Delhi

Today, we went to a couple spots in old Delhi. There was the famous
and huge Red Fort where the emperor resided. Then we hit up
Jamamasjib Mosque where we climbed to the top of one of the two
towers. You can see the whole city from there and the most interesting monument to view is the Red Fort. We then went to
the Ghandi museum to learn about the Mahatma, his life and philosophy,
and see his worldly possessions including his clothes when he was
assassinated and his famous walking stick.

Jai's Wife and Baby

Jai is our caretaker at the guest house. This is his lovely wife and baby.

Another week in Hyderabad

Well, another week has past in Hyderabad. The evenings are filled with Google hoopla and then evenings are fun filled with dinners and night clubs. We checked out a couple places this week called Bottles and Chimneys, Southern Spice, and Paradise. At the restaurants, I didn't get too taken aback by the spicy food, but I have had some stomach issues throughout the week. I am sort of looking forward to normal food again.

On Thursday, one of the interns had a going away party at 10 Downey St. There was a karaoke competion that Liz sang at. Unfortunately, I didn't get any text messages on my phone to let her know that she won the competition, but I do know that she was the best female performer there.

Today we are off to Delhi for the weekend. I have a week of vacation time coming up so we are heading to Agra, the Taj Mahal, Jaipur, and Jodhpur. It should be fun.

Indian Independence Day

Today is Indian Independence Day. We started off the day with a flag hoisting ceremony at the guest house. The flag full of flowers is hoisted to the top of the bamboo pole and then opened up to let all the contents shower the ground.

I finally saw the beach

This is the beach in Calagute (Goa). There were a ton of people on it and all the women were in saris it seemed. No one dared to go surfing in the rough brown monsoon season water. When we were in Goa, someone drowned in the waves in the picture below.