AskHoyle

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  • Tantra in Anjuna Beach

    This is the bar/restaurant/hangout spot I visited in Anjuna Beach.  They had  free wifi, which was a huge bonus.  I presume they must close entirely during the monsoon season, since everything is fabric and exposed to the elements.

    My little “room” on the 2nd level
    The view of the beach from the shade.
    Note the non-osha approved ladders, but the very-welcome fabric under each to avoid dropping sand on others.
    Tantra on the right, some kind of imposter to the left.
    Yummy Lunch

  • Readjusting

    I apparently lost 3 pounds on the Bad-Fish-Vomiting diet.  I don’t recommend it, but if anyone wants to pay me $19.95 I will send you the formal diet plan.  I take PayPal.

    I did finally sleep through the night normally.  I’d been having trouble waking up in the middle of the night for a few hours, and also needing to nap during the day.

    I went through some of my photos, and I’m debating between going back into all the posts and putting them in where relevant, or just creating new posts and discussing each one individually.  I think it will probably be the latter, since I think I can add more context that way.  I like the idea that I’ve painted a word picture, and I think that construct is useful for helping to understand my mindset in the moment and the impression places make on me.  They say a picture  is worth a thousand words, but I often find that pictures are inadequate.  Maybe I’m just not as good of a photographer as I’d like to be.

  • Some thoughts after arriving home

    I haven’t slept fully through the night but I have gotten sleep off and on.  Once I awoke wondering what room I was in, and another time checking my watch to see how many days before I go home.  

    My cat at my GF were very happy to see me, and my fish didn’t care.  I am calling that two for three, rather than two for 31.  Their hair is noticeably longer (that of the mammals) and petting them feels different.   I don’t pet the fish, since they won’t let me.

    I have yet another pile of RPG books to read, this time the Gumshoe-based Timewatch and Dungeon Crawl Classics, a hack and slash system with a crazy magic system.  In DCC, you cast spells without knowing the magnitude of their effects, so a fire spell could light a match, immolate a building or burn off your own hands.  In that world is you see a mage with the head of a chicken and a stick for an arm, you’d better watch out.  I am looking forward to reading both systems, plus the Savage Worlds redeux of Rifts.  I may need an intervention.  I told one of my guys in India that I wasn’t a collector, which I maintain is true since I have no concern for the value of things, but I definitely have tendencies toward hoarding, which I must constantly fight.  This is a first-aid problem.

    American food is not sitting well with me today which has led me to realize my standards of bathroom cleanliness have changed.  I am thankful not to have to wipe water from everywhere before sitting down.  With no evidence to support it,  I won’t argue that toilet paper results in a cleaner butt than the Indian sprayer, but I have no idea how people don’t walk around with wet pants all day.  Pretty much all Indian stalls are soaking wet everywhere. Fortunately a few places have a metal cover which mostly protects the roll of TP.  On the plus side, Indian stalls moatly go all the way to the floor in the European style, so i can’t know if people are dancing around completely naked under the sprayer and shaking off like a dog.  

    Driving was interesting and I avoided the urge to honk about a hundred times driving to and from Boston to go to the Museum of Science.  One of the guys from my India team asked what I do with my time when I am not working, and though there is a variety, I guess I could have used that as an example.  There were a total of eight old and new friends, and we saw a DaVinci exhibit full of large models built from his drawings, followed by making ourselves full of large plates of food and cheesecake.  I blame myself for my later suffering and definitely was way over my calorie limit for the day.

    We went anyway despite the ongoing snowstorm.  We got around eight inches of snow throughout the day, but the plows meant I only had to drive on a couple at a time, at least until I blasted through the snow bank they made at the base of my driveway.  I will have to deal with that today.  I took Monday off to recover and I am so far thankful that I did.  

    Pricing is a thing I have to get used to again.  I spent around 4500 rupees for two people’s dinner and one drink, plus 1400 for parking.  Add around 1000 for gas and tolls.  My yearly Museum membership got three of us in for “free” for 6000.  In other words the same as the cost of all my lodging and motorbike rentals in Goa and Hampi for a week, spent in an afternoon.  Of course this isn’t a daily activity, but opportunity cost is interesting when measured this way.  Parking at the airport during my trip was 30,000 rupees in the economy lot.  I want to wait a little while before I let that mental knob fully reset.

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 21 -heading home

    ​I slept a little and watched David Attenborough on planet Earth 2.  

    The b777 has little mirrors built into the large overhead bins so you can tell if there is something at the front edge.

    We are leaving via stairs behind me

    We boarded a series of buses, clearly labeled Emirates First Class, Emirates Business Class, and Dirty.  I was on Dirty.

    We were on it entirely too long, like 20 minutes, and when I got through security I found my gate was in a different terminal. Following the signed I ended up running through the whole airport, but I made it to my gate and free wifi. Posting before boarding.

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 20 – Friday evening, heading home

    ​After a marathon session of training the team at work I spent almost two hours in the car on the way to dinner.  Fortunately Sachin had arranged for us to meet while driving, to make the most of our final hours together.  

    We went to Puma Social Club, which is apparently the official club of the Puma sports brand.  We went up a tiny elevator to a sleek multi-floor facility of glass, wood and chrome to the roof deck.  We ate at a long low table with chairs in front and a long couch behind.  We were a good sized group including my team, one of the other teams and a few managers.

    Food arrived in a steady stream of tapas, both veg and non. Conversion arrived similarly, but that was all non veg.  I was flattered by some interesting gifts for me and for my girlfriend.  The latter was particularly charming. Perhaps they are trying to butter her up to join me next time.  Regardless, she will appreciate them, as do I.  I just hope everything I could fit in my small bag will survive.  I have high hopes for the last one which David will bring with him later, as it is in its original foam packing.  

    One of my team offered to drive me to the airport. I was reluctant to accept since I knew I had to shower, change and pack at the room, and though I rushed I still felt bad for how long I took.  The ride was pleasant and we chatted along the way.

    I nearly went through the wrong security gate at the airport but I saw a European eyeing a sign which drew my attention in the same direction to an arrow for international gates.  We agreed to head that way and chatted in the long but fast moving immigration line.  Really it should be called emigration or just the GTFO line.  Stamp stamp, the then on to a different guy to check for the stamp (because India) then on to security.  Again through the motion detector disguised as a metal detector before the wand scan.  I didn’t see where the physicist programmer from Dusseldorf went, but he will be on my first flight.

    This trip I put my multitool into my Sky Train and checked it to avoid hassles by security.  I had to determine what exactly was meant by gadgets, and separated out my laptop, Kindle and phone, guessing that the headphones were nongadgets.

    I packed my liquids in the checked bag too, but remembered to put Saturday’s malaria pill in an accessible pocket.  My Hospete bites started to itch a reminder last night and continue to do so today.

    I have thus far opted against paying for the lounge.  I think the cushy leather seats will just spoil me for the flights.  Also this would be the international lounge and it might be different.  So after laughing at the ridiculously priced crappy beers, including the ~600rs Corona, I plopped down in the middle of an open area, full of people whose complexion mostly matches mine.  Recall a beer in Goa was 80, but we’re not in Goa anymore, Toto.

    I have about 1400 left, and have thought about another bite to eat or a drink since my body is confused about what time it is in the brightly lit airport.  In Dubai I ate to stay awake, here I am considering eating because I don’t know what to do with the next hour or so.  I am not sure if there is wifi but if so I will try to post this.

    I shared the link to this blog with a couple of guys so I expect the whole team has it by now.  They will notice I didn’t talk about work much, but they were there for that part, so they don’t need to read about it.  Also my original intent was simply posting occasional updates about my trip to let my friends know I hadn’t died yet.  I didn’t really intend to release it but after so many requests I figured it would be OK. I hope people like it.  As I said to some, it is often written as a stream of consciousness, or sometimes just in parts, so I am sure it lacks coherency, and some stuff is probably outright incorrect. 

    I am definitely going to try to edit my gear list when I get back. There wasn’t anything I was missing, and there were things I didn’t use.  I think I had a pretty good amount of clothes, it was nice being able to wash infrequently, and I felt like I stayed pretty clean even on my vacation week when I wore one pair of shorts all week.  They are Outlier New Way and the material is pretty amazing.  I did miss the chance to have someone sew a loop inside the pocket to clip keys to.  I used my belt loop and one of the Tom Bihn keystraps, but it was always nicer using the loop inside the Bluffworks pants.  

    Overall my favorite long pants are still the Thunderbolt Sportswear ones, but I would like to try the Outlier long pants sometime.  The Bluffworks have great features and look dressy but they do wrinkle and stay that way even through a hand wash.  I’m sure I would have been fine in just Bluffworks too, but the stretchiness of the Scholler Dryskin in the Thunderbolts is super comfy and they are very soft inside.  They are definitely warmer though, which is why I was in shorts all week in Goa and Hampi.

    I still love my Tilley hemp hat for the sun.  I washed it yesterday to get the sweat out of it and hung it up to dry today.  The rubber clothesline with a carabinier was great, and the stopper was indispensable.  Yes I could have paid for laundry more often, but I enjoy self sufficiency.  

    I wrote more than I expected so I am going to post this before the free wifi runs out.  Wish me luck sleeping on the planes. 

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 20 – Friday Morning – last day in BLR

    So, I did a blog thing.  Yesterday before work (and a bit last night, and again this morning) I set up a wordpress site, which is where you’ll be reading this.  Prior to this update I’d done everything on Facebook as updates just for my friends, but I keep getting asked by others here to see it, and I figure one or two things I said might be entertaining outside my circle of friends, so here you go.  Of course I had to do it the hard way, with hosting and such.  I hope people enjoy it.  Maybe it will inspire me to write more or travel more or both.  I plan to go back into these posts and edit them to include photos, and maybe add some detail here  and  there.

    Today is going to be a  really long day.  I’ve got a lot to do at work, then the guys are taking me out for a party/dinner.  Around midnight I’ll come to the hotel, shower, change, pack and head to the airport.  The flight is around 4am to Dubai, then a 1:45 layover and another long flight home.  I really hope I’ll be able to sleep on the plane.

    Last night we went to Vapour, a rooftop brewpub.  I had a flight of  beers including a Basmati beer, which actually tasted like basmati!  It was very light though and not my style, so I wouldn’t order it again, but I was glad to have a few ounces of it.   The others were an OK ale, a “premium” which I didn’t like, and a stout which was quite good.  We also continued our trend of trying and sharing appetizers/tapas and had paneer tikka Zafrani, whose skewers were intermixed with bell peppers.  We also had really amazing chicken tikka Hyderabadi, that were very juicy.

    We also had Mutton Galouti Kebab, which was a tender patty on top of a triangle of thin bread.  I tried eating it with a knife but the bread was tough and I decided it was finger food.  We had asked for “less spicy” and got what we wanted.

    A soccer match was on TV but it was Dortmund against someone else in Europe and no one was watching  It was 1-1 and we remarked that soccer would be a lot more fun to watch with more scoring.  Maybe they should make the goal bigger.

    I walked back from Vapour which was about 3/4 mile in a straight line down 100 feet rd, which sounds silly until you realize it’s 100 feet wide.  There’s an 80 feet rd too nearby.

    Saving this and heading down for breakfast.  I’m not sure  if I’ll be able to provide another real update between now and the plane, but I’ll probably want to kill some time in flight so I may write something long then.

     

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 19 – Thursday morning in BLR

    Last night we went to a big and shiny new mall for dinner and drinks with one of the teams from work. Of course the entrance is a mess of smashed concrete and dirt, but once inside it was really very nice, and would fit in anywhere in the US. I wouldn’t have minded walking around some, but we were basically still working. 3 Monkeys Brewpub is big and nice inside, with shiny brewing equipment displayed centrally.

    There were at least a dozen of us, and I got a chance to talk to a few folks. I mentioned I like board and card games, and showed how to play No Thanks, though we couldn’t play since the ziplock that held the chips broke open and they got separated from the cards. But Shanib is a wizard with card tricks and impressed us all.

    There were lots of spicy tapas dishes, a coordinated mix of veg and non-veg for those with various food restrictions. Also there were pitchers of a good IPA.

    The ladies talked them into changing the music from pretty crappy 80’s music to dance music, and there was a little bit of dancing before we cleared out at the usual 11pm. David and I shared a tuktuk because we are both staying in Indiranagar and we ended up in a blinged out one with an LCD screen and stereo system.

    When I got back I decided to wash the clothes I was wearing so that I’d have one more set for Saturday. I’ll have enough time after dinner friday night to go back to the hotel, shower and change for my long travel day, so I wanted one more fresh set of clothes.

    This morning was Masala dosa, machine coffee and watermelon juice again. I took some videos on the commute to try to give an idea of what the roads are like. I just missed a picture of a guy on a scooter carrying 6 boxes of copier paper. David suggested we mount a gopro to someone’s scooter and turn it into a ride.

    Time to get some work done.

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 18 – Wednesday in BLR

    Last night we went back to the place in UB city, the fancy mall next to the JW Marriott downtown. This time there were four of us, adding Carol and Dennis who arrived while I was on vacation. The idea was to bring Dennis somewhere that was new for him, but he had come on his last trip! Anyway we had a pile of Indian tapas under the pounding beat of house music… The place was much quieter last time, but I guess they turn up the music after about 10.

    There of us rode back with Dennis’s driver who had heard I went to Goa and told me that’s where he is from, specifically Vasco de Gama. Dennis thought I had switched to Spanish, but I explained it was a Portuguese colony. We talked a bit about my trip a little and he told us David is staying in a bad neighborhood, near a slum where Tamil people stay.

    I washed my last set of laundry in the sink and hung it out on the rubber clothesline on the balcony, then went down for an egg sandwich, cooked panini style with tomato, cucumber and onion.

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 17 – Tuesday in BLR

    I got a decent night’s sleep overall, though there is a loud dog nearby that woke me up a few times. I booted my laptop and joined the Star Wars RPG for about a half hour, and it was nice to see friends. I still had some time to kill so I listened to the Dice Tower podcast, which amounted to another sort of grounding activity.

    Breakfast was tasty springy iddli and an omelette, with watermelon juice and coffee again. The two breakfast attendants are helpful but don’t have much English. One wears his cap flat and his black jeans with styled bleached parts low on his hips, like a rapper in white flip flops.

    Off to work

  • Hoyle goes to India – Day 16 – Monday back to work

    Last night was fun. David and I took a tuktuk to a nice college area and ate at Dice and Dine, a board game cafe. I taught him Splendor and we had fried breaded things that looked like mozzarella sticks but didn’t have lava inside. We also had a chicken tikka pizza. Both were good. David left a generous tip of over 500 since we had been there so long.

    I chatted with Jos and went to bed early, setting my alarm for 5 am to watch the Superbowl. By around halftime I was considering going back to bed as we were down 28 3. But I stuck with it and saw one of the best games of my life. One thing that was disappointing was that none of the commercials make it over here, so I saw one for a watch and one for UFC every single break. Also they have an annoying habit of overlaying crap on every channel taking up screen space like it was Headline News.

    Washed the Hampi sweat out of two shirts and last night’s smoke out of another and hung them up. Then breakfast in the hotel lobby of an omelette and a stuffed bread whose name I already forgot. Plus watermelon juice and coffee.

    David will bring the car by around 1110 so I am packing up the laptop and going to start planning my day.
    …
    Had a good day back at work with a bit different perspective. The car that picked us up was a not nicer, a high end Suzuki, which I didn’t know was a thing.

    Dinner at Toit, downstairs this time in the non smoking section. Much nicer. Had two IPAs and two pizzas, one artichoke and sun dried tomatoes, the other a meat special. Took the last of both back to put in my mini fridge at an unexpectedly early hour of 11pm. Heading to bad after a long day.