I've finally started to post the pictures from our trip. You can check them out here. Enjoy.

"I liked it better when everything was in one suitcase," declared Monika as she ran around the apartment trying to get dressed for work this morning. It's a lot harder getting dressed when you once again have the option of everything you own.

"Can I wear these to work?" I asked holding up my new favorite pair of jeans. "I wore them on the plane ... I wore them in India, too. Maybe I better wear something else."

Although I wouldn't say we've had a direct problem with jet lag, we've been going to bed earlier than usual: 8-9pm versus 10-11pm. We've also been getting up much earlier: 4-6am. Not an unwelcome change. I kind of like getting up early. It gives us both a chance to hit the gym before work. Of course, Monika is the only one that has taken full advantage of it so far. This was the first morning that I managed to make it.

I picked up the first batch of developed film this morning. I had dropped off 5 rolls at Walgreens on Friday. I suspected there were a few more rolls hiding in the suitcases. After looking around for a bit, I managed to find another 6 rolls of film on Saturday. That brings the film total to at least 260 photos. I took about 500 digital photos. Although only a small fraction of these pictures will be worth showing to anyone, I'm amazed at how the pictures can act as visual triggers to reawaken a memory from the trip. I was just looking at some of the pictures from the Modera, the Sun Temple


near Ahmedabad and remembering what a fun day we had with Monika's cousins Mukeshbi, Smeetaben, Maloni, and Anal. We drove to Modera in the families SUV. Mukeshbi drives quite fast and a couple of times he missed noticing the speed breakers. So everytime we started approaching a speed breaker everyone would start yelling, "speed breaker, speed breaker".

When I see a person wearing a white mask, I think they are protecting themselves. Turns out it's the other way around in Japan. Apparently, the Japanese are so polite that wearing the mask protects others from their germs. Read more about it on the BBC and make your own decision.

I've seen at least half a dozen women and men wearing white surgical masks. It can't be from pollution, we are inside a climate controlled building. Do the Japanese suffer from bacillophobia?

On the plane we were given quarantine forms to fill out. After disembarking from the plane, as you approach immigration, there are signs for quarantine and health officers all over the place.

Monika suggested that it had something to do with the terrorist attack from several years ago where nerve gas was released into the Toyko subway system.

It's 30 F in Chicago. I'm wearing sandals and a short sleeve shirt. I can't bear the thought of trying to dig my fleece and some shoes out of the baggage. We landed 30 minutes ahead of schedule and breezed though customs. Outside at the taxi stand for International Terminal 5, it looks like a post-apocalypse movie where the Earth has been depopulated. There were no cars or taxis on the access road for 10 minutes when we got out here.

In the queue in front of us a small family: father, mother, young child have a small mound of bags. The first cab to pull up insists that he can't take them because they have too many bags. They will need to wait for a mini-van. The father tells the driver that it will fit. This quickly escalates into a shouting match. Behind me a woman says, "Just like Bangkok". She and her husband have just come from Thailand, Phuket and Chiang Mai, and have had similar problems with the taxi drivers there.

In the meantime, the father and the taxi driver are still shouting at each other. The taxi stand attendant finally gets them to quiet down, and then looks at me. "Ok. You can take the cab."

Monika and I have even more bags than the family. "I'll wait," I reply. Within 30 seconds another cab zooms down the ramp. Snatches up us and our hillock of luggage and we're off. The highway is almost as empty as the airport. It must have been a rough night in Chicago.

There was a camera mounted under the nose of the All Nippon Air plane that we took from Bangkok to Tokyo. They fed the video stream to the TV monitors that they use for movies. Take off was like a video game. It was night so all I could see on the screen was the lights from the runway. With takeoff the lights started to speed by until we lifted off. It was dark then and Monika and I were a bit disappointed until we flew over a highway and realized that the camera was still on. Very nice. It would be great to watch that feed during the day over just about any part of the world, especially Alaska when we fly home.

Happy New Year.

We are currently in the departure lounge in Narita Airport in Japan. The airport is 1 hour outside of Tokyo by train. We arrived at Narita from Bangkok at 7:00 am. Our initial plan and Monika's intent when she booked the tickets was that the 8 hours between our arrival and our departure at 3:10 pm would give us enough time, to pop into Tokyo for a quick look around. Part of this plan was to use the day\shower rooms that they have in the airport. Things didn't work out like we planned.

We arrived in Terminal 2. The showers are in Terminal 1. To get there we had to pass through customs and immigration. U.S. citizens are granted an on the spot 90 day visa when entering Japan. After a short, convenient shuttle bus ride to terminal 1, we discovered that the showers are on the other side of the immigration counters. Once you pass through immigration on your way out of the country, you cannot get back out. So we had a choice, take it easy, rest, eat, shower or jump on the train and hope we can get back to the airport in time for our flight while we are hungry, dirty, and probably stressed out...

... Monika just got back from the shower and she insists that the shower room is really nice. It's like a 5 star hotel. She is urging me to go see it. Since she needs to snuggle up to me on the plane to get comfortable, I think she has an ulterior motive, but I'll play along.

O.K. The shower was nice, but nothing to write home about ... damn too late. It was small, but just big enough not to feel cramped. The shower had the whole: 1 piece of beige plastic thing going on. Excellent water pressure though. When I turned the water on high, the removeable showerhead popped out of it's socket. It took a couple of tires for me the catch it.
Almost time for the flight and we are down to our last 100Yen. Time to sign off.

The connection at the INT Internet Kiosk in the Departure Lounge at the Narita Airport in Japan, is the fastest internet connection I have ever seen in my life. It is so fast, II jump every time the page pops onto my screen. You might think that I'm exaggerating because of the month of painfully slow internet connectivity, but I'm not kidding. It's fast. I think I might move in here. Excellent showers, fast internet, what else do I need?

This shot is from our day of sightseeing. Rani-Ki-Vav is an extremely well preserved step-well in Patan. It's hard to find, but worth seeing.

We had a fantasic stay in Ahmedabad. We did a bit of sightseeing, spent a lot of time with the family, and met with a clothing designer. We spent seven hours with the designer, but we think that in the end Monika has finally got what she wanted. More on this later. Pictures to follow.

We are leaving for Bangkok tomorrow morning on a 5:30am flight. That means getting up at 2am! I think we are going to stay at the Novatel again. We liked it so much last time and it seems like a nice place to relax.

This sunset picture of Koh Phi Phi Ley,



the smaller of the two Phi Phi islands and setting for several scenes from "The Beach", reveals that the beauty and magic of Homer Simpson knows no limits.

Some cities have clouds. Mumbai has smoke.

We're off to Ahmedabad this evening on the 5pm flight. Monika has some cousins, who we haven't have the change to see in several years, that live there. The father came though Chicago last year, but the daughters and mother we haven't seen since Tim's (Monika's brother) wedding 4 years back. We can't wait to see them it's been a long time. Ahmedabad in eastern Gujarat is a big industrial city with a lot of commerce. Ahmedabad is infamous for it's crowding, pollution, religious tensions, and was the biggest city near the earthquake that struck Gujarat in 2001. From what I hear the pollution in Ahmedabad is less than Mumbai. Scooters are really popular there, more so than in Mumbai.

Finally I have been able to get the card reader attached to a computer. I probably could have managed it earlier, but then I would have had to forgo writing the posts.

Nov 30th, 2002. Flying over Alaska. Our next trip?

Dec 2nd, 2002. Spirithouses. A widespread custom of ridding your home of bad spirits.

Dec 3rd, 2002. Limestone hills and several rice paddies. I am facinated by rice and it's cultivation.

I've been stuggling to post updates to this web log, but I've been sick for the past fews days.

We spent most of Mon. Dec 16th, shopping in the Mumbai suburbs. I think we were in the Santa Cruz area. Specifically, Monika had a lot of luck at a place called Sia. We went to Sia on a recommendation of a friend from Chicago who once lived in Mumbai. Sia had an excellent and wide selection of custom jewelery. They seem quite proud of the fact that they made the costume jewelery for the movie Devdas. Apparently, Devdas made quite an impact of the fashion industry here, I've seen it mentioned in many, many shops and several fashion magazines.

Monika's aunt, Pannamasi, was with us on our first day of shopping. We is an amazing, patient woman with excellent taste. We hit a couple of shops before Sia, without much luck. As we walked by the window of Sia, Pannamasi saw this really nice green necklace in the window that she really liked. We went in and after 1 hour of shopping, the green necklace that Pannamasi had initially spotted was still the favorite.

On Tuesday, Dec 17th we headed into Mumbai proper for more shopping. Through a friend of the family, we were able to stay at the W.I.A.A. Club on Malabar Hill. The club is members, or guests, only. It has 4 floors of hotel-like rooms, a decent pool, tennis courts, squash courts, a playground, game rooms, and a health club. They also have a decent restraurant that servers a variety of food: India, Chinese, Continental, and more. But, the place has seen better days. Everything in the place seemed a bit run down. The furnishings, the walls, the stairs, everything is in need of a coat of paint or a bit of varnishing. Also, with the abundence of cheap labor in India, I would expect the place to be spotless, but it wasn't. The outside hallway leading to our room was constantly in need of sweeping, even when 3 porters where sitting on plastic lawn chairs at the top of the stairs. Although, most of the room was clean, the toilet, a rather important detail, wasn't.

All in all our stay there was pleasant and convenient and we are greatful to the member for booking us a room, but it's sad to see what could be a great facility just getting by.