Bob Smith's movie of his India trip

Here is a nice little movie of the India trip that my brother Bob Smith put together.  His trip was shorter, but he did visit New Delhi, the Taj Mahal and Jaipur before attending the wedding of J.D. Rosensweig and Ankita Jain with his son Andrew and Andrew's betrothed, Isabel Escobar.

This is a somewhat large video download, so I suggest a fast connection and/or patience to view it.

January 3, 2012 - Both January thirds

It's been a long and exciting vacation.  Today we head back home.

After breakfast, we catch a taxi to the airport.  Ticketing and security clearance go smoothly, and we are on the jaunt from Bangkok to Hongkong.

In Hongkong, we only have fifty minutes to get on the next plane.  We had asked previously if this would be enough time and were assured that all the international Cathay Pacific flights leave from the same terminal area so it should not be a problem.  The flight from Bangkok, however, departs about 20 minutes late and we begin to worry.

In Hongkong, the stewardesses step up to the plate to guide folks efficiently to their next flights.  One stands in the lobby for people making our connection to Los Angeles, and we join her as she gathers her brood.  She starts off at a quick walk, not just to another gate in this area, but to a train that moves us to another terminal area.  She shunts us through a baggage check area normally reserved for crew, and points toward the end of a long hallway.  We walk/run to the end where a long line reassures us that we haven't missed our plane.

It turns out that the plane is not completely full.  The fancy entertainment screens in the back of the seats in front of us don't work well, so we switch to a different set of seats.  We try to stay awake, thinking it will work as well as when we arrived in Hong Kong - an arrival at nighttime followed by a night of sleep, and all is normal in the world.

I have better luck with the entertainment system than does Lindy.  Her system reboots at least twice.  She spends most of her time reading.

This flight offers a wide variety of movies and games to play.  I watch "Cowboys vs. Aliens", a fun romp that works better than the title suggests it could, and "Rare Export: A Christmas Tale", an unusual Russian movie my daughter Jalana had recommended.  It is strange, and presents dear old Santa in a completely different light (not a movie for young kids) in a story that is fascinatingly weird, while incidentally illuminating the lives of reindeer herders in northern climes.

We have been awake a long time.  January 3rd has already spent many hours with us and is about to end, but we cross the International Date Line headed east, and January 3rd begins again.  It doesn't look all that different.  It's dark outside and the movies roll on.  We arrive in Los Angeles.

Here be a bad connection.  Our originally booked flight had us continuing on to Sacramento in an hour and a half, but apparently the airline forbade such efficiency for us, and our flights were changed months before we departed (and attempts to improve the scheduling fell through), so we have to wait for eight hours in the airport.  We walk around, eat, do some window-shopping, look for places to recharge our Kindle (every electric outlet is in use), and eventually board our last flight of the trip.

Richard Manjarrez picks us up at the airport, and we are home by midnight.  January 4th finally rolls around before we fall asleep in our own bed.  This time it takes days for the jet lag to wear off.

No pictures today - my camera's memory card was finally filled up in Bangkok, so I have no artistic shots of airplane seats.

Thank you, all, for reading my tale of our India vacation. 

  Stuart Smith

January 2, 2012 - Touring Bangkok

Today most of the tourist sites are open.  We're up and ready to explore after our breakfast.

We walk past Lumpini Park in search of the Skytrain transport to the river.  However, the station is hard to find - I don't see it near the circle marked on our map.  We try asking a few people, but get directions that we are unable to follow successfully.  A taxi picks us up, but he speaks only Thai and we only speak English. Even our map pointing doesn't help, so he has us get out again.  Another taxi did understand that we wanted to get a boat on the river, but he took us to a touring boat ramp.  We looked at their offerings, but they all cost about 50 times as much as the "river bus".  We walked away, to try to find the berth for the public river transportation, and the same taxi driver saw us.  Now understanding our desire, he took us on a quick ride to a riverboat terminal without charging us anything more.

Quail eggs

The riverboat ride to the Grand Palace was fun.  When we got off, the crowded path led past gift shops and food stands toward the palace.  We took a side walk through amulet displays, more than we could imagine, where you could purchase protections against all forms of evil.  The actual tour of the palace looked incredibly crowded, and we chose not to wait in line, instead viewing and taking pictures of the graceful roofs of the palace buildings from outside the walls.  We did see a young boy eating a plate of five or six fried eggs, all small - soon enough we see the basket of quail eggs that were cooked for him.

Later we started walking faster, looking with increasing desperation for a public toilet, and finally ducked into the Royal Hotel coffee shop.  We shared a beer and a bowlful of nuts, but I swear it wasn't our drinking that made us see pink elephants - I have the picture to prove it!










We passed on our opportunity to get a little Thai massage.













We did enter the Wat Pho grounds where we saw many golden Buddha statues.  One especially large sitting Buddha glowed inside a protective building whose walls were painted with scenes from Buddhist villages.  Lindy and I took turns admiring the Buddha while the other waited outside guarding shoes and bags.

Returning by riverboat, it was easier to get to the main station under the bridge, from which we found the Skytrain with little difficulty.  We did get on going the wrong direction, but switched trains at the next station easily enough.  We exited quite close to our hotel, and tried the direct route - but found ourselves walking through back alleys in an attempt to walk like the crow flies.  We did manage to get from one long avenue to the next parallel one but one more alley walk looked unlikely to succeed.  We realized we'd just have to walk up a long block to a real road, then over to the next avenue, and back down an equally long block to reach our hotel.

For dinner, we enjoyed coconut breaded shrimp with spicy mango sauce, Russian potato cheese dumplings, Thai corn fritters and watermelon gazpacho accompanied by a rich Merlot.

It's been a fun day with a lot of exercise.

January 1, 2012 - A walk in the park

It's New Year's day in Bangkok.  We were up late last night and up late this morning.  Still, we aren't about to miss the hotel's fine breakfast.

Afterwards, we talk to the hotel concierge about places to visit.  All the main tourist attractions are closed for the day, either because it is Sunday or because it's a holiday.

Instead we walk several blocks south to Lumpini park. Our hotel is in the embassy district of Bangkok, and we pass by the American embassy on the way.  The wall enclosing it has been painted by local schools with themes of Thai-American cooperation.

detail showing American heroes

In Lumpini park, we wander pleasantly by a band platform, lakes with paddle boats, and locals enjoying another hot, humid day.  In one of the lakes we see something swimming.  We can't see much of it, and it's a bit far off, but my best guess is that we have seen an alligator or its equivalent.

After a longish leisurely walk, we return to the hotel for a swim in the pool, and a discussion of possible New Year's resolutions.  One of them is to do more walks together when we return home (a resolution we manage to more or less keep).

December 31, 2011 - New Year's Eve

Vishnu carried by Garuda

After breakfast, Lindy are ready to leave our hotel.  I get a sweat on pretty early.  It's 90 degrees and very humid.  We are walking to the Central area of town where thousands will gather for tonight's New Year's celebration.  It's a half dozen or so blocks to Central World.  On the way, we cross broad boulevards by climbing up stairs to a pedestrian crosswalk that gives us the choices of just descending on the other side or staying on a walkway with small businesses on either side and occasional connections to their equivalent of Chicago's elevated trains.  Our walk is casual and we duck into several stores.  One is an air-conditioned multiple-floor building, something like a Macy's.  Others are tiny shops on the side of the walk.

Shiva holding his trident

Much-loved elephants

Along the way are several mini-temples where worshipers kneel and leave gifts, often of food.  Most of these shrines have dozens of wooden elephants standing beside them.














 There are also occasional large pictures of the Thai king.













In the Central World area, the road is several lanes wide.  Shops are fun and plentiful.  We each buy some clothes that are colorful and inexpensive.  A band plays short phrases to test out the speakers and electronics.  This area is Bangkok's version of Times Square in New York.  A few large screens advertise products, and by their very presence, the modernity of central Bangkok.




Returning to the hotel, we rest, enjoy some afternoon tea, walk on the exercise track on floor 7, check our email in the lobby and recuperate a bit more from fading colds.

In the evening, we attend the wine and dine get-together.  It's a popular night to attend, and we are a little late, so there are very few places to sit.  We get "stuck" with a table behind a Chinese chef who is carving thin slices from a roast duck and rolling up the meat with chives and bean sprouts in a translucently thin pastry.  The duck is done to perfection - crisp skin and tender innards.  Lindy makes several admiring comments and is awarded by the chef presenting her with a small plate mounded with slices of roast duck.  All of the food samples are good, but this special treat (she shares generously with me) is scrumptious.

We talk about walking back to Central World to mill with the thousands and ring in the New Year.  As part of our discussion, we recall how we have celebrated other recent New Year's days.  Most of them have been greeted in our living room with just the two of us.  We decide to make this New Year's one more relatively simple one.  The bar in the main lobby is putting on some special New Year's festivities.  Bottles of champagne and vodka sit in vats of ice.  There are only a few people listening to the live band.  We sip on a drink, but when we finish it is still hours before midnight.  Growing restless, we check out and look for other activities.  A dance floor around the corner is totally vacant.

Stu's such a nice deer...

We walk out into a shopping lobby where I pose.











 
A walk around the seventh floor trail is pleasantly cool with great views of the city.  It's closer to midnight, so we return to the bar and order another drink.  There are quite a few people here now, and they pass out noisemakers and hats, which a young girl in a nearby family is enjoying a lot.  The big screen shows the countdown at Central World and the invigorated bar crowd cheers the new year.

December 30, 2011 - On to Bangkok

I have some sniffles, Lindy is only a little congested.  We aren't fully recovered, but we are feeling better.  The short ride to the airport in the hotel car cost us 1000 Rupees, a relatively expensive ride, but we've got Rupees to use up anyway.  We manage to spend the remaining 210 Rupees in the airport, some on medicines which are so cheap the store throws in a few extra meds as change.

Bangkok Airport

On the plane they offer Grant's Whiskey as a courtesy drink.  I take some, and they pour a "Patiala peg" (a particularly generous helping).  This helps make up for the 2 hour 20 minute delay in departure.  Luckily, we have no connecting flight nor anything special planned on arrival.








On the way to the Bangkok Hilton, I learn my first Thai phrases.  "Sawade kha" is the greeting given to a woman, "sawade khap" to a man.

Room with a view

Our hotel is luxurious.  It doesn't cost us anything thanks to Lindy's extensive use of Hilton facilities over the years.  Not only is the room a benefit of her customer loyalty, but they offer several executive privileges.  We are welcome to attend an afternoon tea and an early evening serving of hors d'oeuvres (a word I still always look up to check the spelling) and wine.  Along with the free breakfasts, we don't need to buy any food if we choose to only hang around the hotel.

First of daily hotel room snacks

In addition to the free food, there is a swimming pool and gym on the seventh floor, along with a walking/running path with a view of downtown, and a few shaded enclaves with running water and tropical plants to sooth the spirits.

We relax at the hotel and rest up for some exploration of Bangkok tomorrow.

December 29, 2011 - Chandigahr

Today Bob, Lindy and I check out of our hotel.  We are to meet at 8:00 in the morning at the Jains' home to begin a drive to Chandigarh and then to New Delhi.  However, the check-out process is rather complicated.  Arun has put deposits down on our rooms and on another couple's room, from some of the money we sent him earlier, and it takes a while to figure out who owes what.  The hotel folk call Arun and we examine a few versions of revised billing, eliminating two charges for laundry belonging to other hotel guests, before we are ready to check out.  We leave in our chauffeured transport around 9:00 which delays the departure for the whole party, mostly in bus, to Chandigarh.

Chandigarh is an engineered city, designed by architect Le Corbusier who also designed several of the government buildings.  The city has broad tree-lined roads meeting at right angles.  Most intersections are traffic circles.  The roads are named, and each of the rectangles created by the main avenues has a sector number.  When the city was laid out, many of the rectangles were not yet developed.  Nek Chand decided to use the empty space in one of them to house his rock collection.  He loved unusually shaped rocks.  He also created a multitude of sculptures created out of scraps from the city's construction - creatures made of broken pottery shards, left-over electric wiring, burnt remnants of rock from manufacturing.  The city officials finally got around to his sector and found his (illegally) placed treasures.  Rather than demand their removal or plow them over, they hired Nek to develop the sector into a fantasy sculpture park and gave him fifty employees to help him.  Arun knows Nek Chand and has arranged to have us all meet him after we tour the grounds of the Nek Chand Fantasy Rock Garden.

Ankita, Nek Chand, J.D.

Bob petting camel in Rock Garden

Stuart in Fantasy land

From there we head to Arun's sister's house for some quick snacks.  After saying our goodbyes to our India friends, we are off to New Delhi.  Lindy and I have one more night to spend in India before leaving for Bangkok.  Bob will be hanging out at the airport until his 4:00 am flight home.  We give a lift to Nada and her daughter Serena who are also flying out of the airport late tonight.  Daniel, who shares an apartment with J.D. and Ankita in San Francisco, rides with us as well.  He is eager to see the Taj Mahal before meeting up with Andrew for further travels.

Our driver was trained in Great Britain as a chauffeur and it shows.  Rather than subjecting us to rabbit starts and quick stops to grab the smallest space to more forward, he negotiates at a somewhat slower but much smoother pace through the peculiar traffic conditions of India.

Despite the seemingly chaotic (but in some strange way efficient) traffic, we have seen no accidents more serious than scratched cars while here.  Tonight, however, we observe an older gentleman who has fallen off the back of a motorcycle.  He wears no helmet, and is lying in the middle of the highway with a bloody head wound.  Several people run over to help and phone calls are made while we cautiously cruise on by. 

Lindy and I are the first to be dropped off and we are glad to reach the hotel after about eight hours of driving.