Procrastiblog

The land of stone carvers and goats and white people. Photo set here.

[UPDATE] I was hoping to see temples under the sea, but according to the student-just-practicing-English-who-wasn’t-a-guide-and-wasn’t-selling-anything, they are only visible in May, when I guess the sea level subsides somewhat. There are even more temples which only became visible after the 2004 tsunami.

Hilleary says all I ever do on the blog is bitch and Tobi says I have ruled out every possible mode of transportation, so let me take a moment to talk happy about transport…

Air Deccan sucks, but both Jet Airways and Indian Airlines were quite pleasant. Indian Airlines actually served a meal on our one hour flight: the cart rolled down the aisle soon after we levelled off and they picked up the trays just before we descended for our landing. And the meal was pretty good too.

The online reservation system for Indian trains sucks and the arrival/departure information in the stations is usually lacking, but the trains themselves are not too bad, especially if you skip the riot scene in steerage and go for an A/C car. The 2nd class sleeper cars are surprisingly acceptable, though by no means luxurious.

As long as you can communicate where you want to go and keep an eye out for any idiosyncratic route changes, autorickshaws are a servicable means of transport. (Even if they screw you, it’s usually cheaper than the NYC subway.)

I have nothing nice to say about the buses.

The cancelled our first outgoing flight, then they rescheduled our make-up flight. So we set out about eight hours later than we had planned. Then they delayed our return flight. Twice. By a total of about six and a half hours*.

In fairness, in every case we were informed of the change before we had left for the airport** (by SMS, to boot). And the flights themselves were not as unpleasant as I had been led to expect. I saw no rats on board, for example. And I did not have to throw any elbows to secure an unreserved seat.

Still, I shan’t be flying them again.

* Here’s customer service for you: our flight was delayed so much that it took off after the next Air Deccan flight to Bangalore. Which we were not informed existed, much less offered a seat on.

** If H and I had spend 8 hours in the Bangalore airport, at least one of us would be dead. For sure.

Healthful and helpful signs
Originally uploaded by PinkHamsters.

Prasad: “They’re not eating garbage. They’re eating food that people have thrown away.”

Jerry Seinfeld: “Adjacent to refuse is refuse.”

Mysore Palace at Night
Originally uploaded by C+H.

Photo set here.

Why is Snoopy brown?

Note: Snoopy is not brown on Sunday. The great and good Indian people know that Snoopy is not brown.

Equally perplexing, if less dramatic: why is Calvin yellow?

Why lay down a light yellow background on an otherwise monochrome strip? (Dennis gets the same treatment. The Wizard of Id does not.)

2

Are a pain in the butt. They have a dizzying array of classes (pictures here). To book in advance you have to figure out how to use a terrible website (IE only; best used in conjunction with this other, slightly less terrible website). Trains are sold out weeks in advance. When you try to book in advance, your browser crashes!

The only thing worse? Indian buses! Because, really, who needs destinations, routes, timetables, or booking information? Real men just go to the bus station and hope for the best!