Mamalapuram in the news.

In the weeks after the tsunami in December I remember furiously googling for any news from Mamalapuram and Pondicherry but never managed to find anything.

Tonight I ran across this story about some ruins that were newly uncovered when the tsunami hit Mamalapuram. I guess this means I'll have to force myself to go back one of these days.

I was also very glad to see from this article that the death toll was minimal. Considering the location I had expected much worse.

Purple people day.

Today is the final day of Holi so I was a bit wary when I went out for lunch. However, Holi is mostly celebrated in the north and other than some residents of my apartment building there wasn't much of the usual exuberant mayhem. I managed to escape with only a few streaks of green dye on my face.

Not much else to report. I'm already settling into quite a routine. In fact I even rode to work with the same auto-rickshaw driver 4 out of 5 days last week. And I still haven't taken any pictures worth posting yet.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Two to three times a day a uniformed busboy appears in my cubicle at work to collect any dirty coffee/tea cups (which are ceramic rather than paper) and carries them off on a little tray.

Housekeeping

Figured I would change the look in honor of my new India "trip". I like this cleaner style, and in any case I was never a big fan of the old template anyway.

Also, I turned comments on for new posts. Currently there is no login requirement for posting but if the spammer scum find this place I'll have to require logins for commenting.

Settling In

I guess there's no need to explain that I'm now working in Bangalore since anyone
reading this blog probably already knows that.

I arrived very early Thursday morning and was met at the airport by people from my apartment and brought directly here. It was kind of nice having everything pre-arranged, especially considering how much stuff I brought with me.

The apartment I'm in is nice. There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living/dining area, and the kitchen. Definitely a step or two up from the accommodations I'm used to from my travels. In fact, this place is a big step up from the apartment I used to live in in Portland back before I went walkabout. I'll post some pictures one of these days.

This afternoon the Internet connection in my room was turned on. Considering where I am its amazing they were able to get it done so quickly. BTW, my computer caused quite a stir coming through customs at the Bangalore airport. They are used to laptops but someone arriving with an entire PC and monitor seemed to be something new. After about 20 minutes I managed to convince them that I really was going to take it with me when I leave so they let me go without having to pay any import duty on it.