Ruined

I'm pretty sure I've already used this title at some point, but who pays attention to these things anyway?  In any case, it's a good one and deserves repeating.

I'd like to take a quick moment to give my Happy Halloween shout out - belatedly, as is my style.  I hope everyone had a good Halloween weekend.  Matt and I had a good weekend despite the fact that it wasn't very festive.  We went to play paintball (again.  I know, my life is so rough), and then we watched a movie in the Res. Lounge, per usual, only this time, we dressed up!  Well, kind of.  Of course we didn't have costumes (no place to wear them even if we did), but we improvised and dressed up in my matching couples t-shirts I got in Thailand.  These are huge in Asia... surely I've mentioned them before?  Anyway, we were supposed to be Chinese tourists, but as neither of us are even remotely Asian looking, it didn't really work.

 

Yup, kind of lame.  But kind of cute, too?

 

Here's where we get really Asian:  socks and flip flops.  

Anyway, as many of you may know, Halloween is my favorite holiday, so it was kind of a bummer to be so lame about it, but what can you do?  This is Baroda.  We're legally and contractually obligated to not have fun.  Ever.  Also, as this is only the first of many holidays we'll be spending here (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's, St. Patrick's Day, Easter.... Thanksgiving 2011...), it's probably important to set the tone of a boring holiday season.  

Now we can get back to business.  When last I posted, I believe I was in the process of describing the highlights of the Best Vacation Ever.   Our second day we spent in Bangkok and went to Chinatown (not my idea, nor was it my idea of a good time, but it was interesting... pretty much same same as China) and then toured the Jim Thompson House.  Old J.T. is something of a celebrity in Thailand due to his helping build up the silk trade, as well as his mysterious disappearing act in Malaysia in the '60s. 

The next day we hired a car and drove about an hour outside of BKK to the ancient city of Ayutthaya to tour around its ruined temples from the 15th and 16th centuries.  They were really (you guessed it) amazing and beautiful.  

 

Line of Buddha statues at Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya.  

We spent the entire day traipsing around these different temples, learning little about the history, but loving it anyway.  I know I should probably make more of an effort to learn about these places before (or during, or after) I go, but I just don't have it in me.  Instead, I will give you some pictures to look at, and if you're interested, you can go to Thailand and learn about the history yourself!  Is that mean?  I don't mean for it to be, but you take it however you like.  

 

Buddha head at Wat Mahathat.  Danielle overheard one guide say something about how a guy was trying to steal the head but then dropped it so nature reclaimed it with her far-reaching tree roots.  See I did learn something after all.  So what if the facts are fuzzy... or false. 

 

Apparently this is beyond offensive, but in our defense, we didn't know it at the time (yes, I did it too, but Mary's picture is better).  

Shortly after we took these offensive pictures, we headed to another temple where I played this game where you shake a can full of numbered sticks until one falls out, then you take the stick up to a lady and she gives you a horoscope which corresponds to your stick number (still with me?).  I believe it was directly due to the above photos that my horoscope read as follows:  

You are in trouble and unhappy.  You face obstacles and interruption.  You might have to take the fall for other people's mistakes.  No luck, you have to be patient and seek it with wisdom.  

Are you kidding me?  What kind of horoscope is that?  I was depressed for the rest of the day... or at least the next five minutes.  I guess I had it coming, but still.  Come on.  

 

Wat Chai Wattanaram.

 

Oh how I love these shiny gold leaf-encrusted Buddha heads. 

I guess that about wraps it up for this installment of the Best Vacation Ever .  I am probably not doing this trip justice, but really, you just had to be there (don't you hate it when people say that?  I do, but I'm saying it anyway.  India makes me bitter and mean).    

Back To Life, Back To Reality

...Back to the here and now, yeah.  After weeks and weeks (just under three, to be exact) in Thailand, the prodigal daughter has finally returned back to her life and reality.  And the reality of my situation is best summed up with this little visual: as my plane from Bangkok was hovering over Mumbai airspace preparing to land, I looked out the window and was completely unsurprised (though no less disappointed) to see a hazy mess of brown cloud saturating the city.  Beneath this brown fog I glimpsed large clustered masses of bamboo and tin shacks, their aluminum roofs glinting in the weak sunlight.  Incredible India, indeed.

Now that I have your attention, let me just say that although my trip was amazing, I was more than excited to get back to India and my husband.  We had a not-quite tearful reunion at the Baroda airport, and he valiantly loaded my huge duffel bag into the auto rickshaw and squeezed in next to it for the long drive back to WelcomHotel.  What a gentleman.

Before I begin the long and arduous process of recounting all of my many great adventures in Thailand in appallingly great detail (false, I have no intention of doing that.  You will be lucky if I tell you any details at all... yup, Thailand made me hard in terms of blogging), I would like to share another little India story.  This morning, after a fairly sleepless night (that one-and-a-half hour time difference really gets you), I opened my curtains to look out upon the "garden", and what did I see but three little monkeys sitting on the ground!  They appeared to be eating something, maybe poop, and when they finished, the jumped up into the tree next to my window.  Lucky me, I had my camera handy, and of course I got pictures.

 

Indian monkey.  It's okay to be jealous.  I would be.  

Matt assures me that he sees these monkeys every day at the refinery and that it's nothing new to see them in town, but I've never seen them before.  Also, he hates them (I think they scare him).  On more than one occasion I've heard him utter the phrase "stupid monkey bastards".

Anyway, let's get down to business.  Thailand was amazing.  I don't think I'm the first person to feel this way, but I think having gone directly from India to Thailand made me appreciate the fantasticness of the country all the more.  Bangkok is a really beautiful and incredibly clean city - or do I just think that because I came from here?  Who can know?  Anyway, on our first full day in town we (in case you didn't know, I went with a group of roadwives, Mary, Kat and Danielle, who used to work for UOP and is now in sort of transitory state as she travels with her husband but is also doing some contract work) went to a bunch of temples around the city.

 

Kat, Mary, Me and Danielle.  Despite our best efforts, we were still inappropriately dressed for the Grand Palace, thus the borrowed skirts.   

Danielle and her husband basically live in Thailand (Chris's job is somewhere around the 2.5 year mark) so she acted as our tour guide for the entirety of the trip.  Thanks, buddy.  Anyway, I will not be detailing the history of the temples because I am a lazy mess, but if you want to read about it, check out Mary's blog.  She has done a much better job with the details.  I do know that first we went to the Grand Palace (I think the King lived there at some point in Thai history), which was really beautiful and amazing (I fear I will use those two adjectives in excess throughout my Thailand posts... you'll get over it).

 

Demons standing guard at the Grand Palace. 

Lots of the buildings are covered in tiny mirrors which gives the whole place a very bedazzled feel.  Also, there are tons of random decorative details everywhere, which makes for nice and interesting pictures, if I do say so myself.  

 

 

A mural on the interior walls.  Some of that is painted in gold leaf.  They don't mess around. 

After this, we went and saw a huge reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.  I think it might be the biggest one, or the biggest reclining one, or maybe the biggest reclining gold Buddha with spiky hair and mother of pearl-encrusted feet.  (They have lots and lots of categories for Buddhas in Asia.  I have seen many of them, and they never get old.)

 

See? I wasn't joking.  It's huge.  Look at those toes. 

Later, we took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun, the porcelain temple.  It is covered with a mosaic of random porcelain pieces, and is very beautiful and amazing (imagine that).  

 

Demons.  Or monkeys.  I forget the distinction, but it's something about the feet.  The demons wear shoes, maybe?

 

Ahh, how I love Asians posing for pictures.  The guy in the yellow is demonstrating my favorite: "standing far away from wall leaning with arm outstretched."  I utilize this one many times myself.  

I think that's about enough for the time being.  Fear not, I will return tomorrow with another installment of "Stories from the Best Vacation Ever".  

I LOVE THAILAND

If you guys were worried that I was turning into one of those negative people who doesn't like anything, I'm pleased to say that you are mistaken.  I loooove Thailand.  We haven't even been out of Bangkok yet, and I'm just in effing love with this place.  Mostly it's due to the people being so fabulously nice, but the clean streets and lack of cows in trash piles doesn't hurt either.  For example: yesterday we were walking around the city and these two Thai ladies walked up behind us and said "Ohhh, sexy ladies!"  Of course I thought they were trying to sell us something at first, but no, they were just friendly chatty ladies!  Amazing!  I feel like I've never met friendly people before.  Oh, then later in the day I got cash out of the ATM and walked off, and then this lady ran up to me and gave me my debit card and receipt that I had apparently left in the machine!  Impressive.  Anyway, I'm not blogging a full account of our time so far, but if you'd like to read what we did on our first day, please refer to Mary's blog:  http://www.peckenpaugh.blogspot.com/ .  Please enjoy it. ExTRA rules!

It's no Turkey Trot...

Yesterday we went paintballing.  In India.  It was surprisingly kind of awesome.

 

I stole this from Facebook. If you squint, you can see me in my paintball gear.  

Matt was still sick with a fever, so he couldn't come, which was a bummer.  We'll definitely go again, though, so he'll get his chance.

Last night we went to one of the Navratri festival parties in Baroda.  I don't really understand what Navratri is, but it's a huge deal in Gujarat, and each city has multiple parties to celebrate... whatever it is they're celebrating.  We showed up at the "United Way" party (it was the most popular one, so naturally, that's where we needed to be) at 11.30, not knowing that it ended at midnight.  We decided to go anyway, but then were detained for at least 10 minutes because we had cameras.  Never mind that tons of other people inside had cameras.  Ours were big and noticeable and expensive, so of course they wanted us to leave them outside unattended.  We said no, and a small scuffle ensued, and then some random employee showed up, talked to Alex (who is Indian) briefly, and then let us all go on through with our cameras.  Ahhh, the price you pay for being a foreigner, I guess.  Anyway, by the time we made it in there was probably only 15 to 20 minutes left, so we tried to take as many pictures as possible.  it was dark, so they are blurry.

 

I love those lights.  The people are dancing, but you can't really tell.  

After we got inside, we watched all the people inside participating in the garba.  There were at least a couple thousand people inside the arena dancing in giant circles, with each circle moving the opposite way of the one outside it - if that makes sense.  I wish I could've seen it from the top because I bet it would have been even more amazing with a bird's eye view.  Navratri attire is a really big deal, especially for the women.  Men will usually wear just a long kurta (like a tunic), but some of the men wear traditional Gujarati costumes, which are really impressive.  The women wear long skirts and short tops, both covered with mirror-work and embroidery.  I didn't get very many good pictures of outfits, but I tried my best.  

 

The guy on the left (in white) is in traditional Gujarati garb.  His lady friend looks pretty nice, too.

 

I thought this girl was really beautiful.  So did all the boys... it's going to be rough being the only girl here for the rest of the time.

 

This one's blurry, but I thought this girl was such a doll.  Also, I've already bought Bella an outfit like this.  

After Navratri, we went back to the hotel, where a real live Bollywood star was currently getting a room!  I would never have recognized him, (I guess he's not famous enough to be on commercials yet... only the really famous ones get the commercials, which is strange) but Shriram pointed him out.  His name is Dino Morea, and he has done several Bollywood movies, none of which I've seen.  This makes him the third celebrity I've seen in the past six months, and that ain't bad.  Of course I took his picture... from behind so as not to arouse suspicion.  

 

That's him on the far left.  Yeah, I'm a fabulous photographer. And yeah, our hotel lobby has a weird lighted mural behind the front desk.  

 

I got this off Google.  He's so Bollywood. 

As you can see, I had a pretty busy weekend.  I'm off to Thailand tomorrow, where I'm sure to have the time of my life.  No lie.  I'm trying really hard to not get sick from whatever Matt has... doesn't matter.  Thailand cures all ills.  Anyway, I'll try to update some from vacation, but I make no promises.  

Campaign Trail

Yesterday, I walked to the market via my shortcut to see if there had been any changes in the way of trash and/or potholes.  There had been, but not in quite the way I expected.  It was even more trashy than usual, but with decidedly less potholes, which is a plus.  In a tremendous wave of foresight, I had decided to bring my camera in case I saw just such a trashy occasion as this:

 

I think I should start a series: Cows Eating Trash.  

That cow looks pissed, but what can you do?  I needed that picture.  Also, I recently learned that the cows aren't "free" as I had previously thought.  Farmers own them, and they let them out to roam free during the days, and then at night, they either come back on their own, or someone goes out and collects them.  Some of them are even branded.  So.  That clears that up.  

 

Trash and potholes road.  This picture really doesn't do it justice.  It's much dirtier and smellier than it looks.

On my way back from the store, I ran into a parade.  Apparently it was some sort of political parade where members of the various parties ride around to drum up support.  A campaign trail, if you will.  I didn't know this at the time, of course.  I just thought it was a bunch of random people getting all fired up for Navrati (another Hindu festival that starts today... I guess it's a really big deal).  Anyway, all the people in the parade were very excited to see me, probably because I had a camera.  They all kept waving to me and smiling really big, which was nice.   I think it makes for better pictures when people aren't staring at you, all pissed off like (e.g. "Cows Eating Trash").  

 

I think this was the candidate, but who can know for sure?

 

Perhaps it was this guy, who, incidentally, bears a strong resemblance to Rajinikanth.  

 

Not everyone was sitting atop a flatbed truck.  There must be at least eight in that auto.  

In other news, I don't know how it happened, but Matt is sick again.  He came home early today with a fever of 102, and is sleeping it off at this very moment.  I feel really bad for him, especially because this will be the second time in a row he's been sick on a weekend!  Can't even get sick during the week to miss work!  Poor guy can't catch a break.  I hope he's feeling much better by Monday, or I will feel really guilty leaving him for Thailand.  Not that I'm very helpful here, but moral support is always nice when you're sick.  

  

 

Rajinikanth is My Homeboy

So there's this movie that just came out in India called "Robot", starring a man named Rajnikanth.  Actually, I guess he is more of a god than a man.  Seriously, Krishnan told me that people in southern India worship him.  Like literally.  "Robot" is his first movie in four years, and I read in the paper that for opening night on Oct. 1st, they brought the film-reels into town on a chariot, took them first to a temple, and then brought them to the theater to show the movie.  Seriously.

 

Rajinikanth in "Robot".  Did I mention he is 61 years old?  And not very handsome?

I've been trying to think of a comparable actor in the U.S. to Rajini (yeah, we're so tight I can him Rajini now), but I don't think we have one. Maybe Steven Seagal would come close... but I don't think they're quite on the same level.   Americans are just too cynical and jaded to believe in the power of the "Superstar".   Anyway, I just found this ridiculously great link to an overview of the movie.  It's really long, but here's an excerpt just to give you an idea:

The plot revolves around a scientist Dr. Vasigaran (Rajinikanth) who has toiled for 10 years and finally built an android-humanoid robot called Chitthi (Rajinikanth in a double role). 

The robot is a super-hero with retractable wheels on the soles of his feet.  

Chitti can leap, Chitthi can fight, Chitthi can speak in 30 languages, is a master-chef, a painter, a mine-sweeper, a surgeon delivering babies, a make-up artist, a henna artist and a super-fighting machine who can talk to mosquitoes and take on dengue.   

Do you see how awesome this is?  So anyway, yesterday I decided I had to go watch this movie to see if it lived up to the hype.  Nevermind that it's only in Tamil, Hindi and Telegu (I don't even know what that last one is).  I was told I didn't need to understand it to enjoy it.  So I went to the theater yesterday to buy a ticket... and the guy at the ticket counter laughed at me.  I couldn't exactly understand him, but I think he said something along the lines of "We're all sold out for this movie until the end of time, you stupid American idiot."  I guess I should have known that it would be sold out in the middle of the afternoon on a work day.  How foolish of me.

Because I had trekked my happy ass all the way to the movie theater, I was seeing a movie, dammit.  It didn't matter that none of them were in English.  I ended up seeing "Anjaana Anjaani", which was sort of a love story/comedy/depressing drama/musical.  Being a first-time Bollywood-er, I had a pretty decent experience. Except that A/A is three hours long.  It's about a man and woman who meet on the George Washington bridge when they're both trying to commit suicide.  Then they decide not to, and instead take a road trip to Las Vegas and San Francisco.  Lots of singing and dancing ensue, and then they part ways, only to rejoin on December 31st on the same bridge where they met.  Then they get married.  See how long that took me to describe?  There's no way it should be a three hour movie, and yet it is.  My favorite part was when the boys danced with their pants around their ankles.  Also there are some jokes that would not at all be considered PC in the States, but that is the beauty of developing countries.  They don't have to be PC.

A Few of My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things about Baroda is the newspaper.  Or more specifically, I like the Baroda Times section of the Times of India newspaper.  In it, every day, you can find tantalizing tidbits of information that you never knew you always wanted to know!  Check out this little ditty from today's paper:

"This Diwali is going to be a photo finish between two Bollywood girls Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Kareena Kaoppr.  Both Bebo and Ash are clashing at the box office with their respective films Golmaal-3 and Action Replayy.  Also, while Bebo has done a Shakira style hip shake in G-3... Ash has dance movements that apparently resemble those of the international pop icon Beyonce Knowles.  Those who've seen the gaana say Aishwarya's look is also reminiscent of Beyonce.  Of course, Ash's fans say that she moves better than Beyonce!  But Ash doesn't believe in all these comparisons.  She's happy to just do her work and move on."  

Wow. If that isn't quality journalism, I don't know what is.  It would be a nightmare to be famous in India.  They'd hound you forever about even the most minute details of your life.  Fear not, they cover American celebrities (even not-so-famous ones) in the Baroda Times as well.  Here's a recent favorite of mine informatively titled "Vanessa finds Efron's beard itchy":

"Although Zac Efron's new beard look has become a hit with thousands of teenage girl fans, but his girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens finds it itching.   Screaming fans packed Parramatta in Sydney to catch a glimpse of Hollywood heartthrob as hairy and older looking Efron was at Westfield's Event Cinemas for the premiere of his film 'Charlie St Cloud'.  While the 2000 mostly teenage fans didn't mind the 22-year-old's new look, his girlfriend and former co-star Vanessa Hudgens is still warming to it.  'She's getting used to the beard but she says it itches," News quoted him as telling the Daily Telegraph." 

The only thing that funnier than the fact that this is a news story is the fact that it doesn't make sense.  How I love it.  The only thing better than these is the "Matrimonials" section that comes out every weekend.  It's a full four-page spread that lists all sorts of potential marriage candidates detailing everything from job description and yearly income to height and weight.  I don't have one at my disposal at the moment, but rest assured I'll find one this weekend and share a few with you.

As I'm sure you've guessed by now, I haven't done anything all day.  Actually, I sat outside for a while and read, and I currently have some unmentionables soaking in the sink.  How's that for something?  Five days to Thailand.