Posts on Journeys
April 29, 2006
Bird flew?
Looks like the Bird Flu isn't much of an issue in Southern Spain. The food court in Malaga airport has a family of sparrows that quite happily mix with the people and wasted food. Here's one sitting on an empty chair next to where I was munching on a donut.
You get the joke right... bird flew... airport... fly... flu... flew? Ok ok... I'm done.
Posted by vinayak at 11:21 PM
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April 27, 2006
I hope I don't die too soon
Before I left India in 2004, my friend Anoushka and her mom got me "1000 Places To See Before You Die", a book I'm sure most of you either have, or have seen. I realise I have a *lot* of travelling left! As I was ticking off my recent Spanish visits, I decided to do a full count. I came in at a paltry 2.4%
1. London - The British Museum, Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, National Gallery, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Gallery, Tower of London, A Night at the Theatre (Les Miserables), The National Portrait Gallery, Regent's Park, Fortnum and Mason, Harrods, Portobello Market, Camden Passage, St. Martin-In-The-Fields, Royal Albert Hall and the "Proms", Claridges
2. Cambridge (A surreal journey last week)
3. Vienna (Well a few hours around the Airport at least :))
4. La Mezquita - Cordoba, Spain
5. The Alhambra, Granada, Spain
6. Arcos De La Frontera, The Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos, and Ronda.
7. La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
8. Museu Picaso, Barcelona, Spain
9. Omyayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria
10. The Taj Mahal - Agra, India
11. The Taj Mahal Hotel - Bombay, India
12. Palace of Winds - Jaipur, India
13. Hollywood, California
14. The beach of the Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego
15. A few road trips through the Adirondacks, New York
16. The Catskills, New York
17. New York City, New York
18. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
19. Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
20. River Walk, San Antonio, Texas
21. The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
22. The Mall and It's Monuments, Washington DC
23. The Smithsonian and Beyond, Washington DC
24. Niagara Falls - US/Canada
April 25, 2006
Photos from Andalucia -- My favourites
I found some to put my seven hundred odd photos up! I've also put my favourite photos from Andalucia on my Flickr collection. As always, the bigger collection is fun if you have the time to browse through them :)
Presenting my Andalucian mosaic:
Posted by vinayak at 11:09 PM
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April 22, 2006
The end of the road...
A quick hello from Barcelona Airport, where I somehow managed to freeride on a vacant wireless network :)
Featured in this cult classic photograph is yours truly holding Rosa, our GPS navigator, showing off her trip meter.
1435.73 kilometers of Andalucia, now ending in a two hour Catalunyan pit stop. It's been a great week, hopefully I'll put the photos up tonight!
Adios!
April 19, 2006
From Malaga
My egotistical obsession with blogging from exotic lands seems to have no end in sight, so I thought I'd write a quick hello from the Costa Del Sol, and remind everyone in London that it's nice and *warm* here! Lots of travelling, very broken Spanish (Bargaining for my mom: "perdon... mi espanol es muy malo... es muy caro ... es possible descuenta?") , long drives through the countryside, some stolen olives and oranges, (hot) (topless) women sunbathing, and a lot of family! I'm as far away as I can be from the decisions in life that need to be decided on :)
I hope everyone is alive and kicking... ! More when I get back.
Adios!
April 14, 2006
Food for purchase?
I don't get it... this is now the second time I'm going to have to buy food on the plane, even though I paid a full fare for a 'yes-frills' airline. I flew Austrian to Syria, and on the London-Vienna segment I had to buy my breakfast, even though I was booked on an international onward connection. Similarly tomorrow on Iberia, I will have to buy my breakfast on the flight (although this time I don't have an "international" (outside EU) onward connection).
This sucks... what's the point in charging us full fare if they're going to treat it as a no-frill flight? Ugh... this is not good... not good at all.
Posted by vinayak at 7:08 PM
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April 12, 2006
More escapism
I'm off this weekend to Málaga for a mini family reunion. Normal programming will resume in about a week. I've been getting lots of email asking me what the next chapter of my life looks like, and all I have to say for now is that I'm still waiting on some ends to be tied before I make a final decision. I've been quiet for a while now, but things are beginning to fall into place... hopefully by the time I'm back from Spain I'll have something interesting to talk about!
Happy Easter everyone... see you next week!
(P.S. I hope the new look goes down well... this is the last makeover for a while yet!)
Posted by vinayak at 10:27 AM
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March 21, 2006
My trips in Syria
As and when I get time I'll start writing this. For now I've put together a map! I couldn't find a good enough map that had all the places I had visited, so I drew my own (quite horrible) map that contains the real deal! More later!
Day One:
and Day Two:
Posted by vinayak at 12:05 AM
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March 17, 2006
Photos from Syria -- My favourites
I've put my favourite photos from last week on a seperate set on my Flickr collection. The other bigger set is also around, and contains all the 500 odd photos I took over my time there... they're pretty cool if you have the time :)
Here's a mosaic from the smaller subset:
Posted by vinayak at 11:22 PM
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Back from Paradise
Even though I was gone just for a week, I'm finding it very difficult to get back to the routine of every day life. Having spent a week barely talking to anyone who knew English, I'm suddenly surrounded by people talking all around me, and it feels almost foriegn. It's also weird being around so many busy people again too, it's such a culture shock :) Also, it's back to the crummy food at the Brunch Bow(e)l, and the end of a week's culinary orgasm.
On the bright side it's great to meet up with everyone again and tell them all my fun stories... some of which I'll write about over the next few weeks. Photos will be up soon!
Posted by vinayak at 2:40 PM
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March 11, 2006
A quick hello from Damascus
Each sentence is a brainwave... don't have much time to expand on them. Will write volumes sometime...
It's amazing what two days in a foreign country can do to your spirits. Until this line was written, my PhD apps hadn't crossed my mind since I left London. I ate the most amazing street food from the scariest looking shop, and didn't think twice about living to tell the story (Kevin and Gopika will be very impressed, given my OCD tendencies). I spent an entire day with kids on a school trip after their teacher asked me to join them as they looked around. I got good company and some Kurdish dancing, and in return they got to practice their English. I feel like Michael Palin. Befriended an Army contingent in Bosra, south of Damascus... we got on so well, they actually put me in their jeep and drove me to the border with Israel. Heavily armed but UN buffer zone protected, wore bulletproof vest and saw mean Israelis through binoculars, who were looking through their binoculars at mean Syrians (and an Indian). I contemplated waving but didn't trust the vest and helmet. Was scared shitless and wasn't allowed to photograph beyond a certain area... have fun snap of them smoking like weasels near Da'ara. UN dudes nice... one guy worked with Indians so kept shitting me with Bollywood film gossip... amazing! 1 in 7.67 Syrians have seen a Bollywood movie (preliminary estimate, LLN not yet valid, sample size of 23, will update this when verified). Got a thank you post card from the school kids. Hot women EVERYWHERE, don't think I'll survive much longer... might need to come back on the next visit as a married man just to tell myself there's no hope. Very liberal country, with the most courteous and fun people I've ever met. Even tout decided to throw his hat in and just talk after I told him eighty thousand times I didn't want his services... ended up practicing his English (and I my Arabic). I owe Hala, one of my students, much gratitude for "Ana Nabati" (I am vegetarian). Met three bakers (Lebanese, Iranian and Syrian) and we discussed (in Arabic and Dumb Charades) the concept of throwing George Bush's penis into the wood-fired oven. Something similar with the Army men too. Managed to dumbcharade my Army friend Mahmood (also 23) about dying young and being killed in action. He's ready, though he has a pregnant wife, but hopes that won't be the case. We then decided we would indeed grow old, grow beards read lots of books and have lots of sex (with our wives)... then die and meet next in heaven after passing through our respective religious checkpoints. I pointed out that I wasn't sure heaven was where I'd go. He thought about it for a while (probably revisiting his bachelor days) and said he wasn't either, so Insha'allah we'll both end up at the same place. Arabic getting much better, from 99% Dumb Charades 1% Arabic to 6% Arabic and 94% DC. That's enough to keep me alive and reduces my directional dyslexia. Bosra looked great -- Roman amphitheatre preserved very very well, old city looked awesome. Lots of kids to see it with, so we discussed history and mathematics and I tried to sell them some Economics. After just two days I find my ideologies beginning to align with Gopika's on many development issues... must talk about this in detail some time. Kevin/Janak, dudes, you're not going to believe the stories I have for you. Adds to the contradicting self theory, but what the hell, you'll love the stuff I have to tell you. Masa, got your mail and did most of the stuff you've suggested, will do the remaining one or two things on Monday/Tuesday! It took me thirty minutes in Syria to get my first Orange Juice. The Banana Milk came three hours later.
Okay then... my fifteen minutes are up. Hope everyone is doing okay! Anyone who knows me, mail me... and say hi.
Ma'asalama!
4 hours later... a photo update:
Army trio - Ahmed, Mahmood, Saqdar. Just after where we could take photos.
The School Gang with Math/Physics/Chemistry teacher (2nd from right)
Juice Stall - Al Hamidiya Souk post Orange Juice and Banana Milk double.
Al Umayaad Mosque at dusk. Are my prayers working?
Cop who saved me from starvation by pointing me out to Al Musri Falafel... spent twenty minutes dumbcharading and trying broken Arabic, until he says, "do you know how to speak English?". We had a good laugh.
The baking mujahadeen. Mohammed the Lebanese (Hizbollah from Ba'albek and proudly so), Ali the Iranian, and Mustafa the Syrian. Also featuring - the woodfired oven where we decided we'd fry George Bush's wee wee if we ever got a hold of it (no pun intended).
Al Musri Falafel - packing me a kickass dinner. Look at the left middle area of the photo. Kevin and Gopika, you'd be proud.
(rich) Arab wedding dance - Lobby of the Le Meridian Damascus. On asking Jihad (concierge extrordinare and pastor at large) what was going on, he proclaims "Divorce... divorce!". The other (cute female) receptionist dealt him a clean but efficient blow to his solar plexus. He then goes on to say that the dance is the equivalent of a bachelor party... they're talking about all the fun things he has to give up in a matter of hours.
Posted by vinayak at 2:13 PM
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March 9, 2006
Things to do in Syria #1 -- Even before I leave
Masa says:
"In Damascus, you'll see quite a few juice bars
with bunches of organges in a net hanging from the ceiling at the
entrance. Do try orange juice at such places. They'll squeeze six to
eight oranges on demand and serve in a large glass jar (the one we use
for beer). It's amazingly tasty and cheap. Also try banana milk. Again
it's marvelous.
Fruits and vegetables in Syria are so fresh and tasty (maybe they are
all organic). No contest with those in Tesco. :) I hear Italian
tourists, supposedly the pickiest people when it comes to tomatoes,
are impressed by how tasteful tomatoes are in Syria."
I can't wait... six more hours!
Posted by vinayak at 10:32 PM
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As promised, my escapist act of the year.
In less than 15 hours, I will be on my way to breathe fresh Damascus air. On Friday I'm probably going to chill out in the city... it'll probably be quite dead given it's the weekend there. Hopefully on Saturday, I'll run a day trip to Baalbek in Lebanon. On Sunday, I'll rummage through the Roman runs in the south of Syria, at Bosra. Monday through Wednesday will be in Damascus, with teaching sessions in the morning and some free time each evening!
Lots and lots of photos to come, I promise.
Until then, be good, and think of me trying to suggest to the waiter that I am in fact not from Mars, and that there are people in this world who don't eat Chicken, Lamb or Fish. All this, in Arabic.
Wohoooooo! Until we meet again... adios!
Some sticky notes:
Masa -- I've been trying to reach you, but just can't seem to get through. Tried the office, tried your mobile, visited your desk... you're a ghost! Mail me any more bright ideas that come to your head (Masa's already been to Syria last summer on holiday).
Kerry -- If you ever decide that just Seth isn't enough and need another hubby (i.e. in addition to the good Seth), count me in. Dr. Seuss is always a deal clincher.
Posted by vinayak at 5:32 PM
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November 26, 2005
Noble advice
I almost forgot! Given that hoards of you check this space so regularly for my profound advice, here's some I almost forgot to mention!
While travelling, don't (DO NOT) throw away your boarding pass, or use it to stick gum on for later disposal. If you don't, and keep it safely, you won't have to run back in through immigration, explain yourself to five different armed officers why you need to go back into the control area, and then finally sift through a ton of disgusting garbage to find your boarding card in less than pristine condition. Why would you ever need to do that you might ask... well... it just could be that your bag doesn't show up in the baggage carousel, and you need to prove that the bag was yours. A mighty tough job if the baggage claim sticker is on the back of that damned boarding card.
Learn from your Guru's wisdom (and mildly troubling past experience)... keep your boarding card for three years after you travel!
Posted by vinayak at 2:16 PM
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October 27, 2005
Application season with Michael Palin via Lebesgue
It's time for those apps to get cracking again! This year I am applying to a larger base of schools... in line with my original risk theory (the number of applications is a monotonically increasing function of the number of grey hairs on my head). For now I'll keep quiet about it, and let's see how things shape up!
I also got my collection of Micheal Palin stuff from Amazon.co.uk today. I'm a big fan of his work as a travel writer/presenter. I've blogged about some of his stuff before here and here. His "Around the World in 80 Days" still has me in awe of the world! So I finally (after ages) managed to put together a collection of his out of print hardback books on each of his journeys - 80 Days, Full Circle, Pole to Pole, Sahara, Hemmingway Adventures, Great Railway Journeys, and Himalaya. I also managed to find a deeply discounted special edition DVD collection of all of them... which just made my day!
I also picked up a copy of Capinsky and Koop's book on Measure, Integral and Probability. Ziad had recommended it to me a while ago, and when I had borrowed a copy from him I realised I had finally found the perfect book to understand the fundamentals of Measure Theory... something I have been trying to do forever now. Sometimes you have to put your learning journey on hold, and wait patiently till the perfect book comes along!
Ten mintues with the book had taught me:
a. Exactly how the Indicator funciton works.
b. Why and how all finite, countable sets were null sets.
c. Why using b. the set of all rational numbers in [0,1] had measure zero.
Simple things to all you mathematically profound princes of the Economics world. Despicably elusive to bimbos like me.
Posted by vinayak at 7:32 PM
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September 26, 2005
economists on economy class
I know everyone jokes about the life of a 'poor graduate student'. Okay, I'll grant that there are lifestyles that could probably be much, much worse, and I don't want to sound like a snotty whine pot, but I thought I'd write a bit about how there are times when I crave to be an investment banker.
I'm not about fast cars (unless Minis are fast). I'm not much into big houses and fancy real estate. Small car, cozy apartment, even if I were filthy rich (which I'm not). But you know what I really really really want? I want to be able to waltz into first class when I fly home to see the folks (which I'm doing right now... this post comes to you from Washington Dulles Airport). I don't know why, but I keep getting the feeling that as the days go by, my ailing bones won't be able to manage the pleasant tortures that airline companies so lovingly indulge their Economy customers with.
Take for example my flight to Washington from London. My seat - 35E, on a Boeing 777. Hmm... have you ever seen those really funny Airbus advertisements that say "On an Airbus A320, you're only ever one seat from the aisle"? They were quite popular in India when they first came out, and I used to scoff at them, because I couldn't even possibly remember the last time I was shoved into a middle seat... a seat that is in the middle... the arithmetic mean of the number of seats in that row. Well well well, fate had it's delights in store for me tonight. I was stuck with two people on either side of me. The lady at the London terminal said "yes sir, I put special request for you sir... special special... we change your seat to best in aircraft... just ask lady at boarding gate". After removing my shoes (a procedure which, in my humble opinion is the REAL shoe bomb), booting my laptop, and going through great lengths of passion to truly assure the security lady that my bags were indeed packed by me, I finally caught sight of the boarding gate lady. On asking her for the promised seat, the boarding gate lady smiles, smiles to the other boarding gate lady that is, and says "oh we definitely have the best seat for you - you're sitting in it. 35 E - you get view of whole aircraft... like a commander in chief... you are in the middle of all the action!" How ironic that at just that moment, a guy with a "Goldman Sachs" tag on his bag walks by me with a polite grin as he proceeds into Door "A" for priority boarding. Hey... if it weren't for the dedicated cutting edge research of my clan you wouldn't be able to walk through Door A... so make sure you get that straight dude! Now if you don't mind... I'll see you when I enter through Door "B".
So I finally board the plane, and atleast God/Elvis was nice enough to give me two amazingly sweet (and breathtakingly gorgeous) women to keep me company on my left, and two really nice gay guys on my right. I decided to be nice as well and cooperate. I held my bladder until any one of the people on my right/left decided to get up, instead of bothering them both. Quite efficient, and a good exercise to see how far your urinary tract will support you in your endeavours to be a better person. I highly recommend it. We pass time doing sociable things, like bitching about the airhostess with an attitude problem, or just grunting.
There are other little things... dinner comes in a box, and the lady keeps screaming "after you finish make sure you put everything neatly into the box so we can dispose of it faster... neatly into the box... PUT IT BACK INTO THE BOX PLEASE". Meanwhile Goldman Sachs man is being mind-read by a clairvoyant head purser - "Are you feeling cold sir, you look cold, let me put this blanket on you." or "Would you like some more light to read that brief sir?" or "More dates sir?" or "The lavatory is vacant now sir, we're holding it for you." Sure... when you travel business class your urinary tract really misses out on something... but I wonder if it's okay to wish for a luxury as inane as that... a clairvoyant caretaker.
I could start about the seat pitch. Actually I will. As if it weren't enough for the poor graduate student to be subjected to the tortures of Economy, there is this growing section of the aircraft titled "Economy Plus". The seats are the same... the food is the same old crap... but the most sought after luxury of them all... one extra inch of legroom. Those idiots pay a fortune for a measly inch of legroom... and the Economics of it make so much sense (lots of demand) that they actually believe in the damn concept. Which means poverty stricken oafs like me have to see THREE groups of gleefully happy people... the ones up at first, the ones in business, and now... the ones on Economy Plus.
Then there's the question of the lounges. Goldman Sachs man (who is a really nice chap btw... no offense intended whatsoever to him) is en route to another destination as well... and he bids me farewell as I proceed to gate D10, while he looks up the first class lounge. He tells me he's on his way to visit his parents for a week. What a coincidence... that's MY agenda too... perhaps you'd like to talk over it with me in your lounge?
I love this life... I do so give me a break when I bitch about the crummy days.
Bon Voyage Goldman Sachs Man! Say hi to the folks.
Posted by vinayak at 5:21 AM
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July 1, 2005
high on life
I've always wondered what it must feel like to write a post when you're down two tequillas and a beer. It feels quite interesting! I cannot believe I'm done with my course! I'm finally back in India, catching up with old friends that I haven't had a proper conversation with in over six years at pubs that make London look boring! I know I've been away for just one year, but it feels so much different. For starters, I finally got to go see Zara, the Tapas bar that opened up almost two years ago above one of my all time favourite restaurants, Copper Chimney. It was a really awesome time... except I wish they had put the retro DJ on a few hours earlier (there were some boring women trying to sing in Spanish to supplement the kickass Tapas). The usual extremely drunk, almost gay guy dancing around the joint like it was nuclear holocaust day... the bartender trying to hit on every woman, acquaintences I vaguely remember from my undergrad days... it was a really fun night.
I only wish I had photos!
What is everyone else upto? Leave me a comment with an update! Chris, Kerry, Govind, Kevin, Nikki, Janak, Ohood, Monica, Jacqueline, Florian, Em Ess, Masa, Sam, Benny, Ian, Adora, Domo... give me the dope!
Excuse me... I'm just high.
Posted by vinayak at 8:10 PM
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June 24, 2005
Chennai chillin!
I'm back on the home beat! Life is looking up for sure! It feels great to be back in Madras... not much has changed since I left a year ago. The only crib I've had all week is that its crap expensive to eat out, and it never used to be that way. I wrote a quick Truck and Barter post on this, so I won't really be all econ about it.
I'm definitely missing the gang back in London, who must be having a whale of a time now that everyone is done with their exams. Don't wear yourselves out guys... save some fun for me!
The flight in was great - they forgot my meal preference and starved me for about 20 hours. To compensate though, a really really cute airhostess kept talking to me to make sure I was still alive. Err... for a short, mildly rotund balding 22 year old like me, thats pretty much the best that you'd ever hope for.
More later!
Posted by vinayak at 2:18 PM
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