Leaving Bangkok

Some last pictures from Thailand before I leave for Laos. I ended up staying here for a day longer than I'd planned because I left something in my guesthouse in Kanchanaburi and decided it was important enough to go back to get it. Luckily they had it (and I got an extra meal at Apple's out of it so the day wasn't a total loss).

These first pictures are all panoramic shots from Kanchanaburi.





I thought this garage was kind of cool and worth a few photos. Its the last of the pictures from Kanchanaburi.



Finally here are two pictures from back in Bangkok. The first is Wat Arun lit up at night. The second shot was from the electronics mall where I bought my camera. Four stories of computer and electronics gear. Sticker prices are around what you would pay from EggHead but then you can start bargaining.



I've got to run - time to go catch my bus.

Nightshots

Here are two more pictures from Kanchanaburi before I head off to catch the train back to Bangkok.

Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi is about like I remembered it. I didn't do much after I arrived yesterday but today I went out and tried to see some things I'd missed on my previous visits.

To start out with, here are some pics of my guesthouse (same place I stayed in 2003/2004).



The rest are pictures taken in and around Kanchanaburi over the past two days. The first was taken from the train yesterday and the rest while I was out sightseeing today.



I had two more that I wanted to post but they really need to be cropped to show properly and this computer doesn't have a picture editor capable of accomplishing that. Maybe tomorrow.

Off to dinner at Apple's restaurant. If pressed I would have to call this the best restaurant I've discovered in any of my travels so I'm quite looking forward to dinner.

Khao San

Time for a some of the requisite Khao San road pictures. Nothing really new here - these pictures were really just an excuse to play with my new toy.



Of course, even though the river in Bangkok isn't all that picturesque, we have to have at least one picture over the water at sunset.



Tomorrow morning I head to Kanchanaburi to run out the time it will take for my Laos visa to come back. For those who weren't here the last time around my pictures from the last trip are here.

In Bangkok

Made it to Bangkok safe, sound, and approximately on time.

Photo Dump

Time for one last post before I break down my computer and pack it up for shipping. These are just a few pictures from the past year that I never posted.

First some shots from around my neighborhood. Some of these were meant for the theme posts I promised back in the spring that never quite worked out.



Some miscellaneous shots from around Bangalore...



And finally, some pictures my most-visited restaurants. These are all right near my apartment. I ate most of my meals over the past year at these places.




My next post will be from Thailand next week. I should be back to more regular blogging one the traveling starts up again.

Hampi Miscellany

And finally, a few miscellaneous pictures from Hampi.

First up are a couple pictures of the ruins. The first shot is my favorite temple at Hampi, of which I have many pictures. This one came out better than most though. The second is of the elephant stables in the royal enclosure. This was the first time I've seen them up-close in all my trips.



While we were in the royal enclosure we were accosted by this large group of young women who all wanted their picture taken.



And finally some pictures from Hampi bazaar itself.

Another view of India.

Here is an extensive writeup with lots of pictures from Thurman's recent visit to India. Definately worth the time to read.

Shanti guesthouse.

OK, so maybe the final bit of my last post should have read next couple weeks instead of days.

These pictures are all in and around Shanti guesthouse. Somehow on all my previous stays there I'd managed not to take any pictures of my Hampi home away from home.



These final shots show the area outside of the Shanti. You can just see the guesthouse itself off on the right in the second one.



That's it for now. One more Hampi post left to go.

Never seen this before.

Amazingly enough, considering I've now been to Hampi five times, there were still plenty of things I hadn't seen before. Here are a few pictures of some sights that were new to me on this most recent visit.

The flooded "underground temple" in the second shot was particularly cool. The temple isn't really underground, rather it's just located in a depression that was dug out of the ground. The flooding must have been accounted for in the design as there were channels cut in the floor that were clearly intended to carry water around the temple.



The temples in these other pictures are right outside the entrance to Hampi bazaar itself. I've walked by both of these before but somehow managed not to explore either of them.



I've got some more pictures to post. Rather than put them up all at once I'm going to break them into themes and post them over the next couple days. Maybe this will get me in the blogging mood again.

Stupid Rickshaw Tricks.

Just got back from a weekend in Hampi. Off to work in a couple minutes. Pictures later.

This morning on the way back from the train station I finally got into an Auto-Rickshaw fender-bender. No damage other than a rip in my pants and the trip home ended up costing less than it would have with the original predator driver. So it pretty much balanced out.

Happy birthday

Picture courtesy of ushistory.org

Street scenes.

I've been neglecting my blog lately. I have a bunch of pictures from around my neighborhood for a theme post I've been toying with however I don't have all the shots I need yet (and it might be a while before I'm done). In the meantime here are some random street shots from near my apartment.



Not much too report, other than that the rain has started. Looks like the monsoon is right around the corner. It has rained briefly almost every evening for the last week. And tonight it was absolutely pouring when I left work - I didn't think my auto-rickshaw was going to make it through the current a couple times on the way home.

Pictures from Mysore.

I finally got around to picking out some pictures from my trip to Mysore last weekend.

Rather than taking a bus or train to get to Mysore on Saturday we rented a car and driver which provided an opportunity to stop at some out-of-the-way sites on the way. The first stop at Shivanaputnam wasn't so great; the sites were over touristed and rather uninteresting. After we left there I convinced the driver to take us out of the way to see the temple at Somnapur which ended up being well worth the extra time and expense. In fact I'd have to place it as one of my 2 or 3 favorite of the numberless temples I've seen in India.



After Somnapur we went straight to Mysore, checked into a hotel, and sent the driver on his way. We relaxed for an hour or so then walked over to the train station to buy or tickets back for the next day. The finish to the day was a simply amazing meal at a restaurant I had thought was only so-so on my previous trip.

On Sunday we saw a couple sites in Mysore. We didn't go anywhere I hadn't visited before but it was nice to be back. All three of the remaining pictures are from the top of Chamundi hill. I was particularly glad to get a good shot of this ugly demon statue. When I was there in 2003 it was the afternoon and the sun was directly behind his head.



For a while we were the center of attention (see the first picture below). This group of Indian tourists were visiting from Gulbarga and wanted to have their pictures taken with us. In addition to a few group shots, every one of them had to have individual pictures taken with us. I've seen this kind of thing before although not on this scale and never with the women in the group taking part. Thurman got a big kick out of it. After that we wandered around the temple for a while before walking back down the hill and heading back into town.

Catching up.

I finally got the chance to go through my pictures from the wedding two weekends ago. Unfortunately not a single picture of the ceremony itself is good enough to post - without exception they are all either out of focus or capture such fascinating items as the back of assorted people's heads.

The one picture that did come out OK was this group shot. Most of the people in this picture are from work, however there are only a few that I actually interact with. The bride and groom are the two standing up right in the middle. Hopefully no-one will mind me posting this.



I also took a few pictures in downtown Pune on Saturday afternoon (my camera always seems to do better with outdoor shots). I liked the building in the shot below a lot. It seems to have a little bit of everything wrapped up in one neat little package. Although you can't make it out in this shot it even has a Barista (insert obligatory chocolate cake comment here).



In other news, I enjoyed the trip to Mysore this past weekend. It was kind of nice to travel in style for a change. I'll post some picture in the next couple of days (stop rolling your eyes!)

Falling behind.

I'm off to Mysore for the weekend and I still haven't posted any of my pictures from last weekend's trip to Pune :O.

More photobloggy goodness.

I found another India photo blog linked from the one I posted last week. This one is even better.

Quick update before I pass out on my keyboard.

I had a great time in Pune this past weekend. The wedding was a lot of fun and I enjoyed hanging out with the other people from work who went up. Unfortunately most of my pictures from the ceremony itself didn't come out so great, but there are a few I can salvage. I'm too tired to give a thorough write-up or mess around with pictures right now though.

It was nice to get on the road again. Even the bus ride back last night wasn't too bad - much better than the last one I took in India. I got a reasonable amount of sleep so I felt good enough to go into work instead of taking the day off as I'd originally planned. All that travel time finally caught up with me about 5:30 though and right now I can barely keep my eyes open.