Small adventures in strange places

Stealth bugs

2007-05-09T21:58:00.000-04:00

My brother was reading a biography about the development of the F-117, the stealth fighter. According to the author, the first visceral feeling he had that stealth technology actually worked came in the run-up to the first gulf war. Bats lived in the aircraft's storage hangers, and every morning they'd find dead bats littering the floor, from when they'd run into the tail because they couldn't see it with their echo-location.

Its a cool story, but it got me thinking about how often we get engineering ideas from biology--aircraft wings from
birds, velcro from burrs, suction-cups from octopuses, camera lenses from the eye, etc. In fact, we steal ideas from Mother Nature so often that people think that nature does a good job of exploiting the laws of physics to produce some amazing things.

But, I think stealth is an example of an area where nature has fallen down on the job. I can't think of any animals, insects, etc that use the sort of signal deflection and absorption that are used in stealth aircraft. You'd kind of expect those insects which are hunted by bats to have evolved such things, since it seems like it would give them a big advantage.

Then again, I can think of a couple of reasons why it wouldn't have evolved. Stealth is usually useful from only one direction--maybe since bats tend to come from multiple directions its impossible to minimize one's cross-section from all angles without just plain being smaller. Also, I imagine its really tough for nature to produce the sort of flat surfaces that stealth seems to require, although this is less compelling when one considers that the B-2 bomber seems to be mostly curves. One of the biggest reasons, I imagine, are the low thresholds for abnomaities; one hears stories about how just three rivets 1/8th of an inch too high are enough to destroy a F-117's stealth ability. Maybe insects just can't meet those exacting standards consistently across generations.

Even so, though, it seems like some sort of evolutionary motion should have been made in that direction by insect hunted by bats in the last few million years.

Cute

2007-05-09T21:45:00.000-04:00

Saw this on a forum.

Best line

2007-04-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

The best line I heard from last night:

Girl: I've never been to a party in Virginia where the host didn't speak to me all night.
Host: Well, when the invites went out I recalled you as being much more attractive...

Efficient partying

2007-04-29T10:44:00.000-04:00

In one of the few discussions I've had with my father about the Viet Nam war, he felt that one of the biggest mistakes made in that conflict was that the planners tried to be too efficient. Ideally, they wanted the last soldier to fire the last bullet as he was jumping in to the last helicopter.

Which is totally spurious, except that I'm glad that doesn't apply to the rest of life. For our party last night we bought a keg and 6 cases of beer. There are now three beers left in the house. Not quite perfect, but all in all not bad.

State of the house

2007-04-17T21:06:00.000-04:00

My fellow bloggers, let me deliver a state of the house: it is falling apart.

The fence between us and Jay's fell down in the wind.
The refigerator stopped being cold so all the milk and yogurt and ice cream went bad.
The floor of the bathroom/ceiling of the kitchen still has a hole, which will be really interesting if its not fixed by the party next weekend.
Still no heat.

On the plus side, the roof remains dry and the walls seem to have maintained some structural integrity. And we can still walk to the metro.

Value of Art

2007-04-15T14:28:00.000-04:00

The washington post ran a story last week about the role that context plays in aesthetics. In the article, Joshua Bell, a famous violinist, played his Stradivarius violin in a subway station during rush hour. He played for an hour, over a thousand people walked by, less than 30 stopped, and he made less than $40.

What I find fascinating about this story isn't so much that no one stopped, its that the context in which something is presented plays a huge role in our appreciation of that thing--in fact, it probably plays a bigger role than even the thing itself. The most clear-cut example of this I can think of is forgeries of famous paintings. It is to the point now that forgers are so good at mimicking the originals--copying brush strokes, replicating paint, even simulating aging, that we have to use the most sensitive measurements available to tell the difference between a fake and an original. The human eye can't see these differences--you need things like scanning electron microscopes.

Given that I never intend to look at a Picasso under a scanning electron microscope, I guess this begs the question: why do we care if its a fake? If a fake is really so nearly identical to the original, why wouldn't I like the fake as much? In fact, much like the philosophical problem of thesius' ship, I could imagine some contexts where a fake might be more real than an original that has been restored.

So why this attachment to the original? The answer, of course, is the "provenance," the story we are told about this piece of art; its the context. Its actually the provenance that a forger is trying to steal when she presents a fraud for sale, because that is actually what art collectors are buying when they pay $30 million for a Picasso. If all they wanted was the image of the painting, they could get a print for significantly less. They actually want a link to the artist, to be able be part of a causal chain going from themselves back to the moments in which Picasso first started putting paint to canvas in Guernica. Everything else--the paint, the canvas, the brushes, are replicatable. It is the story, the context that is unique and worth the money.

But given this, it truly is remarkable to think that $30 million for a painting isn't buying the object. It buys the story. But then again, maybe it isn't so weird. After all, in computers, for example, the hardware is almost never worth as much as the software in it.

An Urban Tribe of Huntre Gatherers

2007-04-10T00:08:00.000-04:00

Our first clue that something was the matter on an otherwise blissful Saturday morning was a loud banging noise that reverberated in the walls of the house, accompanied by an intermittent screech. Upon investigation, with the aid of Google, we hypothesized that the circulator on our boiler was kaput. Its a pump which moves water to the radiators after its been heated by the boiler. Sadly, it also means that our house heating system is inoperable.

Normally, this would not be an issue, except that it happened during what I'm sure is the last cold snap of the season. Temperatures on Saturday dropped into the 20's, and there was about an inch of snow on the ground from the night before. This unusually cold April weather persisted through Easter to today, when Warren Ulney cheerfully announced on my morning radio that we'd expect another cold day tomorrow...

Since we only have two space heaters amongst five people, the house solution was obvious: two go to stay with their respective girlfriends, the rest forage for firewood around the neighborhood. So, rather absurdly, tonight we had the scene of Aaron, Shantanu, Matt (who had come over for poker) and I collecting branches from neighborhood yards to burn in our fire place to keep warm.

I guess we're just couple of urban tribesmen trying to survive in an urban jungle. And its cold.

Watching Sunday night TV

2007-02-25T22:05:00.000-05:00

Its been a long time since I've watched TV of any kind, and I'd forgotten just how annoying the ads are. I find it especially frustrating when an ad runs multiple times in a single commercial break. One such ad was for a new Fox show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" in which, Jeff Foxworthy asks questions to see if people can recall "what is a trapezoid."

I realize that its supposed to be tongue-in-cheek; precisely because the bar is set so low that we take pleasure in those who cannot even pass it. But still, its sad that we seem to be lowering rather than raising what we urge people to achieve, and I don't see how this could be a good thing.

Perhaps this is on my mind because, in a scary bit of synchronosity, I watched the movie Idiocracy this weekend. At the time of my watching, I kind of felt like the movie had about 15 mintues of funny stuff, but was unfortunately 90minuntes long. Now, I can kind of see some of the points it raised, and fear it might be a clarion-call for our collective mental decline. (It is just a little scary that Luke Wilson has to be harbinger of the dumb.)

Returning to the "Smarter than a 5th grader," the funny part its that my buddy Kevin has already figured out the next step in our cultural mental decline. He joked that he doesn't so much care if he's smarter than a 5th grader. What he wants to see is a show: "are you tougher than a 5th grader?" In which adults of various ages and physical fitness try to beat up a 5th grader...

Perspective

2007-02-25T17:54:00.000-05:00

So, here's some perspective for you. I'm in the wealthiest 99.76% globally. Combine that with the fact that I'm pretty happy, and life looks quite good right now.

And interesting point...

2007-02-22T19:37:00.000-05:00

It never fails to impress me just how difficult it is to measure happiness...you'd think with something as central to our lives, we'd be better at it. Still, this is a pretty good discussion of the problem, from crooked timber:

For those who came in late, and probably didn’t imagine economists ever thought about happiness, the crucial finding is that “Cross country data shows pretty consistently that on average happiness increases with income, but at a certain point diminishing returns set in. In the developed world, people are not on average happier than they were in the 1960s.”
The data that supports this consists of surveys that ask people to rate their happiness on a scale, typically from 1 to 10. Within any given society, happiness tends to rise with all the obvious variables: income, health, family relationships and so on. But between societies, or in Western societies like Australia over time, there’s not much difference even though both income and health (life expectancy, for example) have improved pretty steadily for a long time.

I’ve long argued that these questions can’t really tell us anything, and an example given by Don Arthur gives me the chance to put it better than I’ve done before, I hope.

Suppose you wanted to establish whether children’s height increased with age, but you couldn’t measure height directly.

One way to respond to this problem would be to interview groups of children in different classes at school, and asked them the question Don suggests “On a scale of 1 to 10, how tall are you?”. My guess is that the data would look pretty much like reported data on the relationship between happiness and income.

That is, within the groups, you’d find that kids who were old relative to their classmates tended to be report higher numbers than those who were young relative to their classmates (for the obvious reason that, on average, the older ones would in fact be taller than their classmates).

But, for all groups, I suspect you’d find that the median response was something like 7. Even though average age is higher for higher classes, average reported height would not change (or not change much).

So you’d reach the conclusion that height was a subjective construct depending on relative, rather than absolute, age. If you wanted, you could establish some sort of metaphorical link between being old relative to your classmates and being “looked up to”.

But in reality, height does increase with (absolute) age and the problem is with the scaling of the question. A question of this kind can only give relative answers.

Well, that's a thought that's gonna to fester...

2007-02-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

One of the more interesting things I've found through American Footprints is Inside Iraq. It "chronicles daily life in a war zone through the words of Iraqi journalists in McClatchy's Baghdad Bureau as they risk so much each day to survive." I can't vouch for its veracity, but it certainly appears valid. My take is that if this is a fraud, these guys are very good in both what they've written, and how they write it; complete with the sort of language mistakes I've seen in non-native English writers.

That said, some of the posts from Inside Iraq are the most heart-wrenching as well as thought provoking I've seen in a while. For example, this one, questioning the allegiances of the current Iraqi government should push ever truly come to shove:

If the war started between U.S. and Iran, on which side the Iraqi government will be?

He goes on to point out that:

Please remember the Iraqi government is an Islamic government led by Islamist. Many of them were living in Iran for more than 25 years.

Many members of the current Iraqi government prefer to speak to you in Persian rather than Arabic

There are a host of reasons why even a Shi'ite Islamic Iraqi government wouldn't go towards Iran, 160k American troops being a primary one. But still, it is a thought that's gonna fester...

Fastest Mardi Gras Ever

2007-02-20T23:04:00.000-05:00

For tensies we went to Clarendon's Mardi Gras parade, just to see what it was like. Sadly, it was raining, and the parade was motorized, and it was a little cold. So, the whole thing was done in less than 15 minutes. And I don't mean that it took 15 minutes to pass our place on the sidwalk, I mean that we showed up at the endpoint of the parade at 8:13, to see the last float driving past...

So, here are some pictures, of Dave with a funny wig and Ellen. The last float. And, a dog with beads. Enjoy!

There's a reasonable explaination

2006-02-27T00:43:00.000-05:00

I saw this in Hampi, at an Indian water park. I'm sure there's a reasonable explaination, I just don't know it...

Tristram Shandy

2006-02-26T22:12:00.000-05:00

I saw the movie Tristram Shandy over the weekend. Very interesting, though I did get a little boring in the middle. The Washington post review of it is actually pretty accurate: it is a post-modern book written before there was a "modern," and the movie filmed it in pretty much the only way possible. I left the theater not exactly knowing what had happened, but with a strong desire to read the book.

Well I discovered that now you can, through the wonder of the internet, and by the convenient fact that "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," was written 40 years before US copyright law came into being. Click here: http://www.gifu-u.ac.jp/~masaru/TS/contents.html

What I think I like most about the book, of the first 10 pages I've read so far, are the long and wandering sentences. Laurence Stern (the author) clearly thought in whole blocks at once, and felt no need to break his thoughts down for the reader; he would just toss in a semi-colon and plow right along with his prose. If you consider sentences to be generally divided into units of thoughts, and also acknowledge that for some people consciousness is not so much a stream as a pool, then Tristam Standy seems to write by dropping water balloons on your head; you're startled, a little overwhelmed, but after some muddling you figure out what's going on. For example, the first sentence of the book is about as long as a whole page and ranges in topic from what his mother and father "had in mind" when he was conceived, to how this affects his temperature, body, mind and mood, to how his life might have been better off if they'd been considering something else.
Understandably, as a reader, you are a bit intimidated when greeted by this as the first sentence of the book...

Happy Birthday Nayarit Ella!

2006-01-18T09:02:00.000-05:00

I mean this one literally. My friends Krissy and Yurii are the proud new parents of 7 pound 13 ounce by 21" beautiful baby girl. She was born Jan. 16, 2006 at 4:46 PM at Potomac Hospital.

Congratulations to them! And happy birthday to her!

I'll post some pictures when I get some. She's named after a provence in Mexico, the pronounciation is Nye-ya-rit.

Happy Birthday, Frank!

2006-01-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

Its my brother's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Frank! He's 23, so everyone wish him a happy one.

The post office needs a watchdog group?

2006-01-15T09:43:00.000-05:00

"Rick Merritt, executive director of PostalWatch, a nonprofit watchdog group." Its from today's post.

A postal watchdog group? Is that really necessary? What do you suppose he does?

Happy Birthday, Matt

2006-01-14T14:08:00.000-05:00

Its his birthday! I hope those of you who know him wished him a happy one.

Surreal site of the day

2006-01-13T01:02:00.000-05:00

http://www.strindbergandhelium.com/

I have only a vague understanding of who Strindberg is, but "Absinthe and Women" is highly recommeded.

When Harry Met Sally

2006-01-12T20:04:00.000-05:00

I was watching “When Harry Met Sally” the other night, and in one of the cute little cut scenes interviewing happily married couples there is an Asian couple talking about their arranged marriage. I just find it funny that in a movie about the angst of dating and about the difficulty of navigating mixed gender platonic friendships there is the polar opposite, an arranged marriage, held up as an example.

But then again, what the movie lacks in consistency I suppose it makes up in shmaltz.

Birthday mix up

2006-01-11T11:31:00.000-05:00

Sorry folks but Shantanu's birthday is today, the 11th, not the 4th, like I previously indicated.
Wish him well again!

It’s a tragedy of time zones

2006-01-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

I have a theory that part of the reason the middle of the country thinks the two coasts are full of amorality and perdition is because of the time zone difference in TV scheduling. Basically, the sort of programming that is late-night in New York is broadcast in primetime in Kansas, which might lead Kansans to think that New Yorkers want to show late-night-level content to their children.

So, there you go, the nation's entire socio-policial divide explained by broadcasters being too lazy to put delay stations up.

Elevators with “undo” buttons

2006-01-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

Elevators need “undo” buttons. You mispress a floor, rather than having to wait at that floor, you should just be able to press the “undo” button and the last floor entered will be removed from the queue of stops.

Standardized serving sizes

2006-01-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

New FDA food labeling rules came into place on January 1, 2006 to list both the fat content of food but also the dangerous trans-fat content of food. Assuming that individuals are the best caretakers of their own health, and that they'll make better choices with more information, this is a good change that will help keep people healthier.
Two more changes that I think would be good is if they either implemented standardized serving sizes, or if the label contained a column for the total quantity per package, not just per serving size.
It is just so frustrating how manufacturers try to manipulate people’s perceptions by fiddling with the servings per container, to make the product seem more benign than it actually is.

Water consciousness

2006-01-05T20:33:00.000-05:00

I'm still self-conscious when I brush my teeth with the tap water; I caught myself using bottled water the other night. I also still feel mildly wary when ordering tap water at a restaurant.

It’s also funny because I’ve been thinking of the fountains, especially the water dance at the Bellagio in terms of “evaporation tanks.”

Happy Birthday, Shantanu!

2006-01-04T17:22:00.000-05:00

For those of you who know him, go buy him a beer. For those of you who don’t, have a good Wednesday!

An opportunity lost

2006-01-04T17:21:00.000-05:00

At 4:30 am Frank and I shared a limo from the party back to the strip with some folks from Rock star games, famous for such feel good video game titles as “Grand Theft Auto.” All in all we shared a tired ride together with very little of substance being discussed.

If I had thought about it though, I would have said something like this. The trick would have been to keep a straight face:

“You guys make video games, huh? I don’t know much about that, but I’ve got a few ideas for games I’d like to run by you. One game is about a pair of plucky Italian brothers who are plumbers. They fight their way through a sewer system to defeat evil, manifested in the form of mushrooms, turtles and other sewer denizens. They’ll have the ability to kick turtle shells to deadly effect, and will eat mushrooms to grow bigger and smaller.
I haven’t fleshed it out yet, but my favorite idea is for a player vs player simulation of table tennis. Each side would have a “paddle” that could slide back and forth on the top and bottom of the screen, bouncing a ball between them. It could be played on-line over the internet. I’ve been thinking a good name might be “ping,” it would be an instant classic…”

Opportunities like this only come along a few times in lifetime, and I fear I bungled this one. I’ll try to do better next time around.

Las Vegas is a self-licking ice cream cone

2006-01-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

Vegas is about the furthest away from India that one can get, both geographically and culturally. Having never really been here before, I expect conspicuous consumption, but this level is just ridiculous, and slightly upsetting to me on some level. Where things close down in India by 9 pm, things don’t really start here until 10 pm. Cars worth more than whole Indian city blocks are rentable for the evening. For all the glitz and money, I have yet to see a beggar, though I have seen plenty of touts for strip clubs.

The hotel/casinos dominate the Las Vegas strip. These buildings are truly enormous, on a scale that is difficult to express, filled with a huge array of distractions playing to humanities best, and worst vices. All told, the hotels on the Vegas strip can hold over 450,000 visitors who are here, as far as I can tell, to see...the giant hotels.

Most people never leave their hotel, I imagine. And if they do leave, the leave in order to go to a different hotel. In fact, many hotels have links between each other, ensuring that a visitor who wants to visit a different hotel never actually has to go outside. Visitors to Vegas stay in the hotels in order to stay in the hotels, creating an entirely self-justifying existence. This is as close to the definition of a self-licking ice cream cone as I’ve ever seen.

Party of Legend

2006-01-01T12:04:00.000-05:00

This is Jeff Jonas, a computer security entrepreneur. The company he started at 19 was recently sold to IBM for what I’m sure is a large amount of money. Every year he throws a New Years party which has become the stuff of legend, to which my family was invited.

The party was at his 8000 square foot house, into which over 1000 people were invited. There were 112 staff on-hand for the party. He brought in 2 bands (one an 80's cover band, the other a 90's cover band) which played on the stage set up in his back yard. There was a fire breather, two sets of acrobats from Circ Du Soliel, 8 go-go dancers performing in two different DJed dance rooms (one room played hip-hop, the other techno). There were six open bars with free drinks, and a buffet room with unlimited sushi, fondu and other food. At 2 am the host, his girlfriend and his son rode three Harley motorbikes through the house. There were fireworks and a laser light show. All in all, the party cost him $300,000 for one night.

While I’m not sure I can say it was the most fun I’ve had at a New Years party, it certainly was the most impressive party I’ve been to. We left for the party around 5:30 in the afternoon. Mom and dad headed home at 1. Frank and I got home at 4:45. We spent most of today recovering...

Happy New Years everyone!

2006-01-01T11:49:00.000-05:00

Happy New Years! Hope your 2006 is happy, healthy and prosperous!

Thanks to Dave and Shannon!

2005-12-26T07:32:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to give an official shout-out to Dave and Shannon. They first suggested this trip by offering a general invite to visitors. Without their hospitality and willingness to open their home to me, allowing me to rejuvenate between the different parts of my trip, my Indian experience would have been much more difficult.

Anyways, I just wanted to thank them yet again for everything they’ve done for me.

5 most romantic places I saw

2005-12-26T07:30:00.001-05:00

Backwaters of Kerela
Lake of Udaipur
Beaches of Goa
Ruins of Hampi
Hills of Shimla

5 coolest sights I saw

2005-12-26T07:30:00.000-05:00

Ellora/Ajunta Caves
Jodhpur Castle
Golden Temple/Waga Border closing
Rock Garden of Chandrigarh
Ruins of Hampi

5 most laid-back places I saw

2005-12-26T07:29:00.001-05:00

Dharmsala
Hampi
Bundi
Goa
Shimla

Things I’ve missed about the US

2005-12-26T07:29:00.000-05:00

Hamburgers
Steaks
Gummi bears
Snow and cold weather
The “Th” sound
Catalytic converters
Traffic laws
Personal space
Being anonymous
Public trashcans
Popular songs I can translate, if not understand
Quiet
Friends and Family

Things I miss about India (already!)

2005-12-26T07:27:00.000-05:00

Chai
Thalis
Tandoori everything
Laundry that does itself
Feeling comparatively wealthy
Feeling a bit like a welcomed celebrity
Being laidback about time
People wearing crazy outfits and crazy colors
Fresh fruit vendors
Head bobbling
Having an adventure to write about

Thoughts about overnight train and bus rides

2005-12-26T07:23:00.000-05:00

While in India I took a lot of overnight rides, both on trains and busses. The idea is straightforward; you get on in the evening, usually sometime after 9pm, then try sleep as you travel through the night, arriving at your destination early on the next morning, sometimes before 5 am. Depending on how much you’re willing to pay you can get varying levels of comfort, ranging from a normal upright chair to a full scale double bed in some busses.
I’m still torn on whether overnight travel is worth it. On the one hand, if you’re on a tight schedule, its easy to feel that you must do in order to hit everything you want to see. Also, you can talk yourself into believing its less expensive since you’re saving on the cost for a hotel room for a night. On the other hand, I inevitably arrive at my destination extremely tired so I lose a few hours recovering from the trip, anyway. I also miss out on seeing the country side roll by through the window, and the cost of a hotel room is so small as to be negligible in most cases.
So, I guess I’m torn. It’s a necessary evil in some circumstances, so here are some suggestions to make it bearable:

--AC class is essential if you have allergies, are traveling without bedding, or if you need some modicum of quiet to sleep. AC class is warmer in the winter, since they have sealed windows from the cold.
--It is best to get a berth as close to the ground as possible. This reduces rocking as the train or bus moves.
--Try to get a berth close to the middle of train carriage or bus, as this will reduce the effect of bumps.
--Use ear plugs if you can sleep with them in
--Use eye covers, if you can sleep with them on.
--Bring a lock with a chain to secure your luggage near you

Liar Planet?

2005-12-26T07:15:00.000-05:00

I’m just gonna spend a few minutes ranting about the lonely planet guide book. Don’t get me wrong, I think travelers to India should pick it up. Having compared it to other guide books I’ve seen backpackers use, its kinda like what Winston Churchill said about democracy: the worst guide except for all others.
But that said, the LP has enough mistakes, typos, and outright fabrications that I’ve heard justifiable reference to it as the “Liar Planet.” For example, every time I have tried to use one of their walking tour maps I’ve gotten lost. I suppose this might reflect on my orienteering skills, except that other packers have the same complaint; you’d expect that once in a while people would stay oriented purely by random happenstance. The maps are so bad that there is a rumor that the LP intentionally edits at least one mistake into every map as a form of copyright protection. I’m very skeptical about this claim, but the fact that it exists at all speaks to the mistakes in the book…

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

I'm just wishing everyone out there in reader land a Merry Christmas! We had a really pleasant one here full of friends and family--I hope you had the same.

Last Post from India!

2005-12-20T09:56:00.000-05:00

Well, this is my last blog post from India. Sadly, I’m leaving in a few minutes for the airport and the 24 hour flight home. Its bitter sweet for me, there’s so much still to see and find out about, but at the same time I’ve been feeling mildly homesick for a while now. My grandfather used to say that you should leave a party while you still wanted to stay, so you only had good memories; I guess I feel something similar about my travels here.

This has truly been a great trip for me, meeting new people, doing new things and seeing new sights. I had a lot of fun, some of which I hope comes across in this record.

Though the India trip is coming to a close, I’m still planning on keeping this blog up, so check back from time to time to see what’s new with me. I hope to keep it interesting; if India has taught me anything it is that while the US is more familiar, it is no less strange!

Upcoming adventures when I get back include: Linton posts about the last two weeks in India, Linton goes to New Years in Las Vegas, Linton goes skiing in Utah, and Linton finds a job. So stay tuned

A day of living dangerously.

2005-12-19T14:27:00.000-05:00

On my last day in Hampi I did three (kinda) dangerous things: I drove a motorbike, I drank the local water, and I jumped into a lake rumored to be inhabited by crocodiles.

The motorbike was a lot more fun than thought it was going to be, having never driven one before. An English couple I met and I rented bikes for 180 rupees ($4) and toured around the farms and villages outside of town. The bike itself was a simple affair, just a two stroke engine on a single gear; it struggled to top 40 kmph (25 mph). But the day was sunny and pleasant, the scenery was interesting and the roads were relatively clear of traffic.

There was an incident with a pedestrian bike, however, when I first got on, in which we were on a slow-rolling collision course. Instinctually I swerved right, which for Indian left-sided roads is the wrong way. Anyways, there was a bump, but luckily no one was hurt. Terribly chagrined, and with the bike rental guy eyeing me very ominously, I hopped back on and drove away. All things considered, it was probably for the best; I was extra careful from there on out.

Touring around outside of Hampi I stopped to photograph some field workers on the side of the road. As I usually do, I showed them their pictures on my digital camera’s LED screen afterwards, and they got VERY excited. In short time I was surrounded by fifteen workers asking me to take their picture in every combination they could think of. After taking a few photos I started to beg off, indicating I had to go, but they would have nothing of it. So I photographed a few more, while they brought chai to drink.

Even though it was made from water they got *somewhere* I figured it would be okay because it had been boiled. I figured correctly, since I didn’t get sick a few days later. Still, at the time it was a tough call to make.

After leaving the field workers I went to the lake, where we dove off a 8 meter rock into a pretty lake in which crocodiles had been rumored. Good times.

Stone Chariot

2005-12-19T14:20:00.000-05:00

The big tourist draw to Hampi is this famous the Stone Chariot. Its a World Heratige Site, and this is me leaning on it.

Elephant blessings

2005-12-19T14:16:00.000-05:00

The main temple in Hampi has a resident elephant who, like everyone else, just seems to hang out. If you approach it with a coin, it will take the coin from you with its trunk, put it in a bowl on its head, then touch its trunk to your head, blessing you. Here's picture of it getting its nightly bath in the river.

Hampi

2005-12-19T13:51:00.000-05:00

Hampi is one of the coolest places I've seen on this trip. Its a small nothing of a town which is smack-dab in the middle of the ruins of the largest Hindu empire in Indian history. The air is the cleanest I've breathed in India, and the temperature and humidity is very pleasant. The terrain is a strange mix of rocky and jungle--there a times it reminded me of Utah, and time is reminded me of Panama.

For those who are history buffs, or have a pathaoligcal need to accomplish something daily, there are ruins for miles in all directions to explore. The terrain is extremely rocky, which tends to attract rock climbers who enjoy bouldering. Theres a lake to swim in close by and open roads to bike along. Its not the most exciting of places, but the atmosphere is extremely laid back, with lots of travelers staying for weeks just to hang out.

Anyway, this is a picture of the city center, which has a towering 7 story temple built centuries ago.

Well, the man was good looking...

2005-12-15T06:44:00.000-05:00

So while in Bangalore I started a serious discussion with Jonty and her friend Ram about why the Indian population is as big as it is. I was pulling out all these explainations about geometric progressions and how antibotics introduced in the 50s likely caused a population boom.

Turning the conversation over to Ram, I asked why he thought there were so many Indians. He thought a moment then shugged his shoulders and said “Because my father and my grandfather were hot!”

Mixing up Shahruk Khan and Shah Jahan

2005-12-15T06:39:00.000-05:00

So Indians don’t find my jokes funny. But the one thing I’ve consistently managed to get a laugh for is when I confess that I mix up the famous Bollywood star Shahruk Khan with the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan.

It would kind of be like someone admitting to mixing up George Cloony and George Washington.

Christmas in Bangalore

2005-12-15T06:35:00.000-05:00

This is a picture I took in a mall in Bangalore. A christmas tree with a MacDonald's in the background. You can't get much more American than that, can you?

iPod Massage attachment

2005-12-15T06:31:00.000-05:00

I saw this in Bangalore. This is the new iPod attachment of the season, for all those of you out there who collect such things.

I'm not even sure what this means!

2005-12-15T06:29:00.000-05:00

I saw this in a mens room out by the Ellora caves. I think its kinda funny that it needs to be "by order."

Digs in Hampi

2005-12-15T06:23:00.001-05:00

This is the little hut I was living in while in Hampi. It had hot and cold water, electricity and cost 150 rupees a night, about $3.75. The hotel had about 15 huts arranged in a little wooded area next to a field. It felt like a little village, quite cool.

Little boy holding a puppy

2005-12-15T06:20:00.000-05:00

I took this in Hampi; I should make postcards.

Guest Photographer

2005-12-15T03:57:00.000-05:00

Jonty, a friend I met in McLeod Ganj, and who I have been staying with in Bangalore, took these really nice pictures while she was up in north India. Just passing them along without much explanation; hope you enjoy.

Freddie Mercury cover band

2005-12-15T03:49:00.000-05:00

In the festival at Old Goa they had an Indian band which seemed to exclusively do covers of Queen songs. I don’t know why they were there, but they did a faithful rendition of “We are the Champions,” if with a slight accent.

Crowded Market on the Feast of Saint Francis Xavier

2005-12-15T03:39:00.000-05:00

The day I went to Old Goa was the festival St. Francis Xavier, who was one of the first priests in the catholic mission to Goa. Every saint needs a documented miracle to be canonized, and his was to not go gracefully into the night. Which is not to say he didn’t die, its just that when he did die his body did not decay for over a century, appearing to be simply asleep for the whole time. Around the early 17th century, the miracle appears to have worn off, and so now it has decomposed as expected.

Anyway, the I was in Old Goa on Francis Xacier’s feast day, and it was CROWDED, especially in the market to the south of town. I was feeling so claustrophobic that I actually hopped a fence into one of the cathedrals to get out of the crowd. Some old guy yelled at me for doing it, but it was worth it. I’ve ridden in commuter trains in Bombay, New York and Tokyo, and they had nothing on the crowd in the market.

Anyway, here’s a picture of the crowds before it got too tight for me to lift my arm up.

Old Goa

2005-12-15T03:28:00.000-05:00

I went to old Goa on my last day in Goa. It used to be the capitol of the province, at one point it supposedly rivaled Lisbon in its glory. Now, its mainly just a collection of pretty cathedrals and museums.

Sunset in Goa

2005-12-05T07:18:00.000-05:00

Just pictures of the sun setting.

Goan Raves

2005-12-05T07:15:00.000-05:00

Goa is supposed to have a really good party scene, which everyone insists in calling “raves.” Most of them are in clubs, but a few happen on the beach as well. Unless trance music is all that distinguishes a “rave” from a “club party,” they’re just parties, with trance music. I’ve been to three, so far, and haven't been impressed; the only saving grace is that there is no cover charge so I don't feel guilty about leaving.

Admittedly, I likely don’t have the right contacts, or am maybe in the wrong locals. Like most Americans, I'm also am not all that into trance music, which tends to make me bored and impatient. It also seems like the Goa “rave scene” is older than I am--averaging in the age late 30’s, if I had to guess; there are a LOT of aging hippies running around Goa.

One of the more interesting “raves” I found just by following the music along the beach. People had built a bon-fire in a cove and rolled up with a turn-table and speakers in the flat-bed of a truck. A DJ was spinning the requisite trance music, and a guy was selling alcohol from the cab. It was novel for a while, but I had a hard time getting into it.
It was cool, though, to be at a party broken up by the rising tide rather than by the police.

Goa

2005-12-05T07:13:00.000-05:00

I'm actually in Goa now. Been here a few days, and its beautiful. The weather isn't "perfect," but its close; a little muggier than I prefer. I can definitely understand why the Portuguese, upon colonizing here, largely lost interest in colonizing other places.

Its also kind of expensive, not by American standards, of course--rooms within sight of the beach are $8, but by Indian standards they're a little pricy.

Took this from the fort overlooking Vagator beach, in northern Goa.

Level boss' lair

2005-12-05T07:06:00.000-05:00

As mentioned earlier, the Ajunta caves are specially lit to display the cave paintings. Its also gives some of the temples a spooky look. All the temple insides look like this.

But for those of you who've played video games, tell me this doesn't look like a level boss' lair in just about every first-person-shooter game you've ever seen...

Ajanta Caves

2005-12-05T06:54:00.000-05:00

The Ajanta caves are similar to the Ellora caves, but in my mind are a lot less fun. They're also temples built into caves in a hill. The setting is slightly more impressive, since the Ajunta caves are in a canyon, while the Ellora caves just are on a (seemed to me) random hill. Also, the Ajunta caves are closer to and significantly easier for get to from Delhi. In contrast, pretty much the only way to get to Ellora involves going through Bombay, or through Ajunta.

That said, I still like Ellora better. There is significantly more tourism built up around Ajunta, with the accompanying restrictions, restraint ropes, and guards saying "no!" Also, the big draw for Ellora is stone carvings, while the draw for Ajunta is cave paintings. The paintings are poorly illuminated in an attempt to preserve them. Sadly, this means they're also difficult to see. Also, the Ajunta caves are all Jain, which means they they all follow one of two patterns (from what I could see) and so got a little repetitive.

So, if you had to choose, go see Ellora. If you're pressed for time, go see Ajunta. If you have time, go see both.

Indian Jones

2005-12-05T06:35:00.000-05:00

More pictures from the Ellora caves. This is from the largest and most impressive cave/temple, Cave #16. Its a temple which is supposed to simulate the holy Hindu mountain where the god Shiva lives.

The entire time I spent exploring it I had the "Indian Jones" theme going through my head, praying that I didn't trip any boobie-traps. I kept one eye towards the door, in case a giant boulder should roll down and block it

A lawnmower? In a stone cave?

2005-12-05T06:28:00.000-05:00

Saw this at the entrance to one of the caves. I think its a sweeper, but it looks like a lawnmower. Just kinda a surreal thing to stumble across in a 1000 year old cave temple.

Ellora caves

2005-12-05T06:22:00.000-05:00

Went to the Ellora caves north of Bombay. They're phenomenal. Really cool. They're a series of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Temples cut into the side of a mountain. There are 34 caves in all, along the ridge.

I showed up there at sunrise, with two other Americans I met at the train station. We were the first tourists there, and so got to explore them by ourselves. One of the great things is that you can actually climb up into the temples, wandering around them completely unsupervised.

Just as an aside, the two Americans I met were the FIRST American backpackers I've met this entire trip. And only the second and third from North America. I guess India just is too far to people to travel to...

Gratuitous Lizard Picture

2005-12-05T06:13:00.000-05:00

Saw it while exploring the Ellora caves. Cute little Lizard.

But where do they put the extra oxygen?

2005-12-05T05:55:00.000-05:00

I saw this in Bombay. I think they're trying to sell drinking water with extra dissolved oxygen. The only reason I can think of why you might want extra dissolved oxygen in your drinking water is if the 1940's fad of swallowing goldfish came back. You never know though, I suppose.

My first reaction on seeing the poster was: "So they give me extra oxygen and I'm supposed to supply my own hydrogen? That seems dumb..."

Quote

2005-12-05T05:51:00.000-05:00

Saw this in the Prince of Wales museum in Bombay:

"This is India, where the religious can be very different, but the Gods are the same."

This is Brilliant

2005-12-05T05:50:00.000-05:00

Somebody recut the trailer to Kubric's horror move "The Shining" to seem like a romantic comedy. Its very funny; check it out here.

Gratuitous Pictures of Bombay

2005-12-05T05:12:00.000-05:00

A picture of Washer People in Bombay
A picture of Bombay University
A picture of Bombay Harbor

Bombay in brief

2005-12-05T03:01:00.000-05:00

Cites, like people, can be briefly described by referencing parts of other cities or people; "Bette Davis eyes," or a "Machiavellian personality." What one ends up with, of course, is a Frankenstein amalgam which lumbers about a reader's brain causing confusion and possibly destruction. But short of writing 10,000 words, or employing the talents of a poet, such crude methods must suffice.

That said, Bombay, or at least the parts of it I saw, is a blend of four American cities. Take the financial aspects of New York, with its penchant for tall buildings, hustle and bustle, and people looking for an "angle." Take the colleges of Boston, with the associated Wednesday-Friday-Saturday nightlife, coffee houses and random student gatherings. Take the materialism, retail boulevards and cult-of-personality from L.A. Finally, wrap all those aspects in a muggy beach city climate like Miami, and you get an approximation of the Bombay I saw.

May the image lumber around your heads for a while…

Happy Birthday, Mike!

2005-12-04T11:06:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to Mike! For those of you who know which Mike that is, go buy him a beer and wish him the best. For those of you who don't, have a happy Sunday!

I hope some of you agree

2005-11-28T13:18:00.000-05:00

Apparently there's a West Linton, Indiana. And a whole page devoted to how You'll like Linton.

Its actually a little creepy. The slogan won a competition back in the 1930's. They have a song. And multiple signs like the one above.

Blogger's business model

2005-11-28T12:58:00.000-05:00

“I know half of my advertising budget is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”
--19th century Philadelphia department store owner John Wannamaker

This isn't at all related to the trip, I just thought I'd say a quick note about how impressed I am by Blogger's business model.

Their business model is based off of one simple observation about media companies: content generation is the single biggest cost. Once NBC has an episode of "Friends" filmed, they can copy it, transmit it, modify it, sell it for a fraction of the cost of getting that first copy.

Part of the reason reality shows have been so successful is that they tend to be cheaper to make than sit-coms or other shows. You need a few sadistic "idea people" and a few more masochistic exhibitionists, and you're off. Since content is the most expensive part, more of your revenue is profit.

The problem with reality shows, and with much of television, is specificity of audience. The majority of Americans (even for hit shows) don't watch. The Superbowl only tops in at 140 million, which is less than half of Americans. And furthermore, even if they did watch, its unlikely that every ad you showed during the show would appeal to each of them. So there's waste, which means lost revenue.

The same twin difficulties of content generation and ad specificity applies to other forms of media, although they try to ameliorate the problem. For example, websites like the Washingtonpost.com try to keep track of your clicks and searches and from that "guess" the ads to which you'd be most likely to respond. But thinking like people is tricky for machines, as evidenced by the fact that Washingtonpost.com is trying to sell anti-wrinkle cream on me while I read an article about Saddam Hussein’s trial. (Actually, maybe they know something I don't...)

But now the consider the genius of blogger. They get people to write content absolutely free. If that isn't enough, they offer a service where you can choose a menu of advertisements to post to your blog, and then get paid for click-thrus. This encourages content writers to pick the most appropriate ads for their audience, who they supposedly know pretty well. This laser-like focusing of specificity greatly increases the chance of click-thru, which means the advertisers are less likely to spend money on ads to uninterested people.

So blogger gets people to write their own content for free, and then has them manage the ads shown to their readers. It takes a percentage of the revenue to run the webservers, and everything else is profit. It really is genius, and I wish I'd thought of it myself.

Now, if only they’d somehow solve the problem of more bloggers than editors, it would truly be the perfect medium.

Indian Fair

2005-11-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

Dave and I went to an Indian fair yesterday. Pretty standard fair stuff, I think they were trying to emulate the image of an American county fair. Some things were off, however.

Note, for example, how this ferris wheel is being driven by people, like its a giant hampster wheel. These guys would run/climb/hop from the internal struts, making the wheel go round. Then stop when they got tired and unload everyone.

There were a few problems with this method. For one thing, the operators had little control over the wheel balance. Basically, fat families all seemed to went to get on together, while the other chairs around the wheel were filled with toddlers. This made the wheel unbalanced, which gave the two "running it" a hard time getting started. While I'm sure they were both strong, combined I'd be surprised if they were more than 300 pounds. Once momentum was on their side, however, they were fine.

Also, stopping was a little tough, it seemed. They slowed down the pace of the awkward run/climb/hop they they had going, until finally a guy at the bottom attached what looked like bungee cords with hooks onto the frame, rocking it to a halt. They then went one at a time unloading the old and loading the new customers.

Anyways, this is another elegant Indian solution in an environment where machinery is expensive, electricity is spotty, but people are cheap.

Only in India...

Cashing in on good karma (a case study in "you win some, you lose some")

2005-11-28T05:59:00.000-05:00

At the same fair where we saw the human-driven ferris wheel, they had raffle tickets for plane flights sponsored by various airlines. They were 50 or 100 rupees a raffle, so on a whim, Dave and I entered a few of them. Not bothering to stay around until 4:30 when the drawing was, Dave and I wrote our cell numbers on the raffle tickets and left the fair. I honestly forgot about the raffle--I figured it was for charity, and that was enough.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when a few hours later I got a call from a very pleasant Indian matron who informed me that I'd won a voucher for two free plane tickets from Delhi to Goa! (Actually, they were for either "Delhi Mumbai Delhi, Delhi Goa Delhi, or Delhi Pune Delhi; yourrr choice." She said it exactly this way at least three times, with a roll of the R.) She said further that I could come to her apartment in Gurgaon, the trendy "growth" suburb of Delhi, to get the prize voucher. Finally, she mentioned that I'd need to bring the winning raffle ticket.

And that's where the problems began. Looking through my pockets, I realized I didn't have the winning raffle ticket anymore! I had every other raffle ticket, Dave had all his raffle tickets, I was missing that one raffle ticket that was needed! I looked through the bag I brought with me to the fair. Traced my footsteps since arriving back at the apartment, I double checked everything. No ticket. I called the person who was kind enough to give us a ride back from the fair, asking him to check his car; nope. I began contemplating how funny it would be if I never found the ticket; easy come, easy go. I started to concoct plans to convince the pleasant Indian matron that I didn't actually need the ticket, after all she had called me, that should be evidence enough.

In exasperation, Dave suggested I go check by the front gate of their house, in the chance that it had fallen there when we were dropped off. So, mainly to humor him I trudged downstairs in the dark, dejectedly unlached the gate, and...found it!

It was laying face-down by the gate, where it had been for hours. With a whoop (literally, the children playing cricket in the street actually turned to look at me) I scooped up the ticket and rushed inside. Very heartened by the whole affair, I declared victory for the day and went to bed.

But alas, finding the lost ticket was only the begins of the voucher saga. To explain why this was a saga, let me explain the first rule of Indian travel: Traveling in India, no matter what the distance, is cheap and easy provided you don't need to be anywhere at a given time. As soon as you have a schedule, that is the need to occupy a pre-determined set of coordinates at a certain time, India conspires against you. Lights will turn slower. Traffic will be thicker. Your driver will get lost. The woman giving directiosn will mix up left and right. The clock will seem to magically skip minutes in an inexorable drive to make you late. Just as nature abhores a vaccume, India has contempt for schedules.

And this was the rule I forgot. Being the seasoned traveler that I'd thought myself to be, I felt I could bend the rule by sufficiently padding the schedule. Looking back, it was pure hubris: I planned on going to Gurgaon in the morning, being back by 11:30 to stop by the train station to pick up tickets, then on to the denist for a 12:45 battery of fillings. It was to be a thing of glory; i would arrive home from the dentist in time to double check my bags, type up a victory blog post about winning the vouchers, then catch the express train out of town. Sadly, India started gnawing on my plans even before the driver showed up, and it had chewed up then spat them out before we even started back to Delhi.

Rather than bore you with further details, let me say India had a number of tools in its schedule-destroying arsenal. To begin with, the journey to Gurgaon involved a stretch of evil road called "highway 8," which is secretly the site of Indian experiments in perpetual traffic jams. We got lost multiple times in Gurgaon; my driver was relatively new, and confessed afterwards that he had never been to Gurgaon before. Once I arrived, the pleasant matron insisted I have tea with her, which was very kind except it put me further behind. Not that the lost time mattered, since highway 8 again caught us and blew the whole schedule to smithareens. To culminate a disaster of a morning, I skipped the train station (having missed the purchase window) and finished up in dentist's office to get my teeth drilled. Fun fun.

But, I did get a voucher for free airline tickets. And I'm planning on leaving for Bombay tomorrow...

Rational Actor model (a case study in putting your money where your mouth is)

2005-11-28T05:52:00.000-05:00

As a side note, when I was having tea with her, the pleasant matron informed me that of the eleven flights that were up for raffle, one guy won 5 of them. He filled out hundreds of raffle forms, spending thousands of rupees. He set up a production line with his entire family filling out forms.

Probabilistically, it was worth it. There weren't all that many raffle entries, you could see them in the jars from which they were to be drawn. In addition, the cost of each ticket was very low, compared to the pay-off of things like 2 free first class tickets anywhere in the US on Continental. As a result, so long as the price of each ticket was less than the expected value of it paying off, it was rational for him to buy an extra ticket. Its just impressive that he did the calculation and actually acted on what he found.

In some parts of risk analysis they talk about how people are risk-adverse. That is, actual people are unwilling to take some risks even when the expected value is in their favor; that they feel the pain of loss more heavily than the happiness of success. Most people, acting irrationally, when confronted with a lottery like this would buy a bid or two and hope for the best, partially because their past failures to win lotteries make them think that they could never win a lottery. They console themselves when they lose with the knowledge that they only lost a little. Not this guy, though.

The fact that he bought so many tickets is doubly impressive because he apparently tried this same trick last year, and did not win a single one. Its to his credit that he came back a second year to do it. It represents an almost inhuman faith in the law of large numbers and the independence of random events. If it weren’t for the fact that it made other rafflers (a person who participates in a raffle) upset, I’d say it had potential to be a made-for-TV-movie.

Just as a side note, while people at the drawing were angry at the one guy for getting so many prizes, she didn't seem angry at him for gaming the system. More than anything, she seemed exasperated that he spent so much time. Its as if she thought: "if only he knew the right 5 tickets to buy, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble."

One thing I can question was his timing in buying the tickets. He came late in the day, half an hour before the raffle closed to buy his many tickets. I'm sure he did this so he could look in each raffle bin and buy more of the ones which he felt were under-filled. At the same time, however, if he had come in the beginning of the raffle, and bought all his hundreds of tickets, leaving them in the bin all day, I wonder if he could have intimidated people from ever signing up at all; I personally I signed up for the two raffles I did because I the bins were near empty and I liked my odds. If he could have intimidated small time people like myself in this way from the beginning, his odds overall would have been even better.

Perhaps he’ll think of that when sipping champaign in First class on one of his cross-country flights.

The Taj

2005-11-25T06:08:00.000-05:00

I went to Agra and saw the Taj Mahal. As a tourist in India you're pretty much expected to go at some point. To be honest when I read Rabindranath Tagore's claim that the Taj is "tear drop on the face of eternity," I prepared myself for disappointment; its almost impossible for anything real to live up to statements like that.

In actuality, the Taj was a little overhyped, but not as bad as I'd feared. Its kinda like a supermodel in a kiddie pool--very photogenic, but none too deep.

So, go in the morning when the light is best and crowds aren't bad. Take few pictures, and move on. If you have time, your ticket from the Taj will also get you into Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, so go see them too.

Here are some of the better photos I took.

Interesting quote

2005-11-25T05:56:00.000-05:00

"I put my foot in the stirrup of resolution and set my hand on the reins of trust in God and moved towards Delhi and the domination of Hindustan."

--Babur, the first Moghal Emperor of India, regarding his decision to invade India from modern-day Afghanistan.

I guess if you read a history of a horse-riding people, you should expect horse-riding metaphores...

Symbols

2005-11-25T05:55:00.000-05:00

I took this in the Fort at Agra. Its just a set of wall carvings, but is notable for the trippy mixture of swastikas and Stars-of-David put side-by-side. It was made centuries ago by Babur, the first great Moghul emperor, so they meant completely different things to him than they do to modern western minds. Just more evidence that one needs to be careful when interpreting symbols across cultures.

More Indian Jokes

2005-11-25T05:48:00.000-05:00

I just remembered another joke that Adil told me:

Child to Grandfather: "Why do you have hair on your face, but none on your head?"
Grandfather to Child: "Because the hair on my head was 20 years older than the hair on my face"

Horses

2005-11-25T05:36:00.000-05:00

For those of you in readerland to like horses, Pushkar had a lot of them, too. Note the curved in tips of the ears. This means these are a breed called "Marwari," and were prized for their ability to withstand intense heat and cold, and their ruggedness over long distances.

Close to the Maddeing Crowd

2005-11-25T05:22:00.000-05:00

I have a hard time emphasizing enough how many people there were at Pushkar. There were lots. Here's a picture of the crowd trying to enter the temple to Lord Brahma. Pushkar's camel fair co-insides with a major pilgramage to the temple, which explains why people were so keen to go inside. You can't take pictures inside the temple, but I asure you it was crowded inside too.

The temple is significant because it is the only one in the world devoted to Brahma, even though Hindus believe him to be the creator of the universe. The derth of temples is attributed to a fight between Brahma and his wife, Savriti, over something that never made sense to me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T03:49:00.000-05:00

Hope you all have a good one.

Pushkar in the morning

2005-11-24T01:26:00.000-05:00

Shannon and I got up early one morning to go see the sunrise in the camel fair. Unexpectedly the air quality was far worse in the morning than during the day, largely due to the fact that they burned camel dung for cooking fires. Anyways, this way my attempt at stiching together a wide-angle shot of the fair. Note the low-hanging smoke covering everything.

If you click on the picture, you can see a larger view.

Pushkar camel fair

2005-11-24T00:56:00.000-05:00

After leaving Jodhpur, I hopped on a bus towards Pushkar and its famous camel fair. It was...touristy. That's the best single descriptor I can think of. While I'm sure that lots of actual camel trading goes on in Pushkar, there are ten times as many touts selling things to tourists at rediculous prices. Prices for little paper-mache elephants would begin at 500 rupees, but if you showed no interest would drop as low as 10 rupees.

So, imagine 300,000 people decending on a town of 20,ooo for ten days out of the year. There are so many people they overflow the town into the surrounding dusty desert. Imagine a hundreds of thousands of camel showing up to be bought and sold. In addition to the camels, cows, horses and goats are all over the place. Now imagine walking through this dust-filled noisy environment surrounded by people selling things.

That was my experience of the Pushkar camel fair.

Eeewwww....

2005-11-24T00:23:00.000-05:00

This is actually a picture from the rafting trip to Rishakesh. Thought I'd lost it. Sadly, I didn't, so I thought I'd foist it on you...

Indian Jokes

2005-11-23T05:28:00.000-05:00

Adil, Veronique and I compared jokes from our different countries one evening over coffee. Canadian jokes and American jokes are pretty much the same, which isn't all the surprising. They tell "Newfie" jokes about New Foundlanders where we tell Blond jokes. Some were kinda funny.

But I definately don't get Indian jokes. For example, one which he thought was hilarous:

A man is walking on the street carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit. His friend stops him and asks "So, what are you doing?" Obviously, he's going to work.
A little while later the same man is waiting in line to see a movie. Same friend approaches and asks "So, what are you doing?" Obviously, he's going to see a movie.
Finally, during intermission the man walks into the bathroom, where his friend finds him and asks "So, what are you doing?"

And there the joke ends. You're supposed to infer that he's using the restroom. I *think* is poking fun at people who ask obvious questions, but I'm not sure. Or maybe its obscure potty humor, I dunno. I told the joke back to him to make sure I understood him properly, he howled with laughter.

Another joke he told that was kinda funny was about three wives sitting around discussing the color saree they wear.

One wife says "My husband has black hair, so I wear a blakc saree."
The second wifes says "My husband has white hair so I wear a white saree."
The last wife looks alarmed and says "My husband is bald!"

In fairness he didn't seem to get my jokes either. The puns I could understand; you kinda need a close t0 native grasp on English to get those. I told knock-knock jokes, but even after we explained the pattern, he couldn't tell when the joke ended. I told a few man-walks into a bar jokes, some engineer jokes, even some dead-baby jokes. The humor just rolled off him. I finished with the coup-de-gras, the joke that has been scientifically proven to be the best joke in the world. He didn't even crack a smile. Maybe I need to work on the delivery. Or maybe he was laughing on the inside.

Mustachioed Men

2005-11-23T05:24:00.000-05:00

One of the more distinctive things about India in general but Rajisthan in particular is the obvious pride that men take in their mustaches. Perhaps is a remnant from the British, I don't know. But these are some of the more extreme examples I saw while touring around Jodhpur's fort.

Jodhpur

2005-11-23T05:13:00.000-05:00

Jodhpur is a very pretty city as well, though not quite as pretty as Udaipur. Jodhpur is also known as the "blue city," but I thought the houses in Bundi were more consistently painted blue. Not that Jodhpur wasn't awesome. The fort was fascinating, the best I've been to, and the narrow streets of the old town are some of the most interesting to walk down.

This picture was taken from the fort overlooking the town.

A close shave...

2005-11-23T04:56:00.000-05:00

It was in Jodhpur where I finally worked up the courage to go to one of those street-side barbers. A number of them were lined up in a row, and Adil joked afterwards that he suggested the one he did because that barber had the worst haircut. You don't want a barber with a good haircut--it means there's a likely a better one nearby.

Few things focus your attention like having a complete stranger hold a straight razor to your throat, no matter how experienced or trust-worthy you're assured he is. Its the closest I've come to understanding what the Buddhists mean when they say to be mindful of the present. Not that I was thinking about this at the time, of course.

That said, he really did do a good job. It was amongst the closest shaves I've had, and with very few nicks or razor burn. He used three different kind of shaving gels, a brand-new straight razor, two types of aftershave and cologne.

All told, the shave was 10 rupees, a hair cut would have been another 10. It was almost a shave and haircut, two bits.

Exercise Guy

2005-11-23T04:49:00.000-05:00

I got up early to see the sunrise in Udaipur. It was okay, water reflecting the rising sun, warming the buildings. But the real pay-off was seeing the morning routines of the indians by the water. Most people were washing up or cleaning clothes in the morning. One guy was doing what appeared to be a combination of yoga, tai-chi and calisthenics.

He let me take this picture of him.

Another picture

2005-11-23T04:44:00.000-05:00

Not that the adults were any less fascinated by us, they just were more polite about it. (I know that sentence sounds stuck-up but I'm just calling 'em how I saw 'em.)

Even in this photo you can see the kids swarming around.

A star for a day, kinda

2005-11-23T04:33:00.000-05:00

One of the more surreal things about going to visit Adil's family is that all the local children were fascinated by us. They followed us as soon as we entered the neighborhood, trying to touch us, asking to shake our hand, saying "hello," and just generally staring openly at us.

I couldn't help but feel that this is how movie stars feel when walking around.

This picture doesn't really do the experience justice, because I couldn't get a wide-enough angle. The kids extend around half again on each side. After I took the picture I was swamped with children wanting to see the LCD screen.

Adil's family workshop

2005-11-22T07:50:00.000-05:00

Adil's father is apparently reknown for the types of dyes he uses in his prints--they have a number of plaques referring to awards won for their work. After hanging out in the shop, Adil took us to his family's work shop where they showed us how they make the prints. Very neat.

Pictures

2005-11-22T07:43:00.000-05:00

These are just some pictures from the day spent hanging out in Adil's shop. Note me in a turban. The old guy is a friend of Adil's family, who's name I never caught. He was (and remains) the only vaguely negative reaction I've gotten from someone upon saying I was from the US. He lanched into a 10 minute harrangue of President Bush, and then asked that I address this upon returning home. The young guy is Adil's best friend, Reyaj.

Veronique and Adil

2005-11-22T07:29:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of Veronique and Adil, two folks I met in Udaipur and traveled to Jodpur with a few days later. Veronique is a medical student from Canada who is taking a year off to travel. Adil works in his family's business making and selling printed textiles.

They're both good people and figure a lot in my travels for a few days. We spent a day in Udaipur hanging out in Adil's shop, just sitting and watching customers come and go. It was neat watching the other side of small-business retail. I'm not sure I could do it myself, but I certainly admired Adil's salesmanship.

Afterwards we went to a number of places where natives congregate and chill. They reminded me a little of German beer gardens, but without alcohol. It was also remarkable because there were people of all ages there, and both genders. The majority of people were there with their entire families. I was reminded of kind of the small town gathering atmosphere which (I percieve) existed in the US back in the 50's. It was really fun.

Also, as you can see, Adil drives the obligatory motorcyle that all Indians in their early 20's seem to drive.

Me! Meeee! Mmeeeeeee!

2005-11-22T07:24:00.000-05:00

This was the official seal of the Raj of Udaipur. It depicts the latest Raj with his face as the center of the sun. Traditionally the Raj was apparently worshiped as a minor sun deity of some sort.

It just strikes me as one of the most self centered things possible...

Tiger hunting, Raj style

2005-11-22T07:12:00.000-05:00

There was one photo in the city palace that I wish I'd been able to take. I depicts the Raj on an elephant engaged in a tiger hunt. Considering my prior frustrations and musings about the tiger hunting process, I was very interested in this.

At least from what I could garner from the painting, it looks like the Raj had help. In a circle all along the edge of the painting were depicted hundreds of servants with trumpets. They appear to be walking through the forest, frightening the wildlife ahead of them. The Raj meanwhile sat in a clearing in the middle of this giant noose on top of an elephant with a rifle. He shot the animals he wanted as they appeared from the underbrush.

Pretty sneaky, but its good method if you can do it.

City Palace

2005-11-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Over looking the Floating Palace is the City Palace, which is open to visitors. Its an extensive palace which is still owned by a line of Raj's that ruled Udaipur for over a thousand years. They claim theirs is the oldest unbroken line of succession in India.

it cost 50 rupees to get in, but 200 rupees for a "camera fee" and another 200 for a guide, neither of which I could justify paying. So i don't have any pictures of the inside. It was kind of too crowded to take many good pictures, however, and most people were pushed through by guides in a rather harried manner, so I don't think I missed much.

I couldn't help but overhear a few different guides talk about the same exhibit. There were three different stories, even though these were all supposedly "officially sanctioned" guides. For example, conserning one bath tub made from a single solid piece of marble, one guide said that this was the Raj's favorite bathing place. Another said that the Raj's would fill it with their own weight worth of gold, then distribute the gold to the townsfolk. A third said it was where one unlucky Raj was killed in a failed coup attempt. I suppose all three are possible, it was just strange that none of them mentioned more than one story...

Other than that, the palace is quite impressive and deserving of a look.

Udaipur

2005-11-19T14:06:00.000-05:00

I've been told Udaipur is India's most romantic city. I'd believe it.

Ths is a picture of the Floating Palace, which was built in the middle of the lake that Udaipur surrounds. Rooms run around $450 a night, and so were out of my price range. Still, its pretty to look at.

Just a bit of triva which visitors are never allowed to forget, the Floating Palace is where part of the Bond movie "Octopussy" was filmed. This is mentioned everywhere. By random passerbyers, sometimes. Many restaurants have nightly showings of the movie for their patrons.

Chittor

2005-11-19T13:43:00.000-05:00

Between Bundi and Udaipur I stopped off in the town of Chittor to look at the biggest fort in Rajisthan. And big it is. They had it encompassing the whole of a plateau overlooking the city. To give some sense of its size, the fort has its own lake. At the moment 4k people live up there, and back in the day it was apparently many more.

I'm not sure its worth an overnight stay in Chittor (I didn't) but it is definately a nice way to break up the 10 hr bus ride from Bundi to Udaipur.