Anyone have tips for my vacation in Thailand?

It would appear that the Indian government has rescinded its blogging prohibition. Apparently the alleged bombers of the Mumbai train systems were using blogs to communicate. This begs the question: If the terrorists are communicating in a public forum such as blogs, how did the Indian government let something like this happen without warning? Clearly the attack happened with or without the aid of blogs, so why end blogging in India? Oh, well. A nonissue at this point.

____________________________

Sometimes you need a vacation. I need one because it has been about 5 months since I last missed a day at work, and I have rarely left work before 6:30 PM in the last 3 months. So I just purchased tickets to Thailand and I will be there from August 3rd till August 11th.

I have never been to Thailand, and I'm just now starting to do research. To tell you the truth, I saw a great fare and, realizing I desperately need to get out of Bangalore, bought the ticket understanding I had no idea what I was doing, I can't wait! Where's the excitement in taking a trip with an itinerary?

Currently I will be spending the first 2.5 days in Bangkok by myself, not something I've done before. I'm not at all worried about being on my own, in fact it will be an awesome time to relax and explore. I'm planning on arriving with only a list of must-see places and will likely spend most of my time getting lost in the city and finding my way back to the hostel.

The last 5 days of my Thailand vacation will be spent in the beaches south of Bangkok with Winnie, but my itinerary is pretty wide open and I'll be planning most of my domestic travel on the fly. This is where I thought I'd see if anyone has suggestions.

Has anyone been to Thailand and have places/activities they would recommend?

So let me know if you have any thoughts. I have quite a bit to do in the next week, including attending the opening of NASDAQ from Mysore, India. Also, 130 Americans just arrived to work for IndiaIT, so that's been exciting although I have yet to meet them.

More to come.

This might be the last post I make...

It would appear that the Indian government, in all their glorious wisdom, has decided to have several websites blocked in India, including all Blogspot sites. Here is a link to the boingboing article: Indian government blocking all Blogspot blogs.

I'll tell you, though. I can't imagine what would prompt the Indian government to do this, but hopefully it's all just a rumor.

Let's hope this won't be the end of the blog.

Terrorism in India

I'm sure all of you heard about the bombings in Mumbai (Bombay) yesterday. If you haven't heard, you should stop reading my blog and start reading some real news. In any case, 7 rail cars were bombed yesterday on the West Mumbai suburban train system. At last count, the death toll is at 185 and over 700 people were injured. This is clearly a cowardly and despicable act of terrorism that was meant to yield maximum fear in hearts of Mumbakairs. Coordinating seven bombs, anonymously (of course), in a crowded (crowded is an understatement) train during rushhour with no warning... I'd say it's a credit to the people of Mumbai that the city is back to business as usual less than 24 hours later.

Also, for those of you who don't know the geography of Indian cities off the top of your head, Mumbai is about a 2 hour flight northwest of Bangalore. Mumbai has a history of such bombings, and they are usually caused by religious extremism between the Muslims and the Hindus. Some have suggested that it is Al Qaeda, others claim it to be organized crime. Most are pointing to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, an Islamic terrorist group.

It's really hard to imagine what this bombing meant unless you have seen the Mumbai train system. Imagine the Chicago El during rush hour. Then add another 30-50 people to each car, so that it is so packed people have to hang out the door by holding on to the side of the train. Now keep in mind that it's monsoon season, so it's been raining for the past 3 weeks straight. It took the police an upwards of 1.5 hours to reach the scene, and this is caused by a combination of the torrential rains and the millions of people who crowded the streets because they could not use the trains to commute home from work. This means that thousands of gawkers crowd the scene before any emergency personnel arrive. Quite the mess.

Call me crazy, but this could have been MUCH worse. In fact, it's nothing short of a miracle that it wasn't. Think about it: There are easily 100+ people in tight quarters on each train car and 7 cars contained bombs. To think that only 185 died... Still a tragedy, but hopefully this will prompt more stringent security precautions in the future before something more major occurs. Crazy world we live in.


On a brighter note, today is my one year anniversary living in India! Man, it definitely went by fast.

Expect to see me back in the US for good sometime between January and March of 2007. Peace, ya'll.

Back to 160 and 4th of July

Most of you are probably aware of the issues that foreigners have in India when it comes to the food. Despite some issues in the first few months I've transitioned fairly well. In other words, my stomache is made of frickin steel.

However, I weighed myself about 3 months ago and was alarmed to find out that I had lost about 15 lbs since moving to India. Scary.

So I got back on a workout routine and started eating better and I'm happy to announce that I'm back at 160 lbs!

Yes, I'm aware that nobody cares.
____________________________________

Celebrating the 4th of July in India is definitely interesting, and getting your hands on fireworks is extremely easy. Nothing else too exciting or different from a US 4th. We had a BBQ on my buddy's roof, drank beer, listened to music, celebrating freedom... The only difference was listening to these Goldman Sachs fools discuss the socioeconomics of sub-Saharan Africa for a few hours. And we watched football. None of this is normal American behavior, which is nice sometimes.

That's another thing. I've purged "soccer" from my vocab. Why do the US and Australia, feel like they can call football by another name when we're not even good at it? Pretty arrogant, eh? Well when I hang out with so many non-Americans, imagine what they think when I call the game soccer.

"Man, Americans are such pricks."

I don't need to meet new people and start off in the hole because I'm American.

I constantly find myself defending the US anyway, especially around freedom-hating Europeans who feel like they have to hold me individually responsible for the foreign policy of the United States.

And while we're on the subject, I was upset before one of the US matches that many Americans in the room did not know the words to the National Anthem!!!


Anyway, the most important part about July 4th is that it's my mother's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

Feel free to leave birthday comments for my mother. She's incredible. And she loves freedom.