Leaving the Land of Smiles

Well, I left Thailand and made it to Bangalore, India. The new Bangkok Airport is quite impressive. I like it a lot better, except for the fact that it is farther from town. The Bangalore Airport doesn't quite meet the standards set by Bangkok. In fact, it doesn't meet the standards set by the airport in Vientienne, Laos. I'm told that they are building a new one, which is a good thing. The current Airport is the worst I've seen, and believe me, Hyderabad ain't so great.

When I bought my ticket, it was from Air India, but the itinerary said that the flight would be operated by Thai Airways. And it was, which was really nice. Except for the fact that they honored my Kosher meal request. The Kosher meal sucked, as they have for all of my flights so far. As soon as can figure out how, I will cancel the request. I'd go for the Halal meal, but then my government will classify me as a terrorist. But for the return to Thailand, it would be best to get the regular Thai Airways food, as it is the best in the industry.

I'd like to say that everything is fine here in India, but I'm really sick. Normally, the concern about travelling in India is that you might catch some random disease for which you have no resistance. But the situation has been reversed in this case. I had been coming down with the flu for about a week now, and it really hit hard last night. So I am in the unusual situation of bringing a foreign flu version from Colorado to India. And nobody here has any resistance to that weird Colorado flu strain. Hope I don't kill anyone.

The immediate plan now is to try to drink lots of fluids and rest up for the trip to Chennai (Madrasa), which will start tonight. We will be taking an overnight train and will ariive early in the morning. We will have three days in Chennai, and we will try to get a visa for Tamding at the US consulate there. We will also see the San Thome Basilica, for which there is a very strange story. But you'll have to wait for that.