entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

The Bangalore International Airport waiting room.  I actually endured a traffic jam on the way here that was caused by a bunch of cows in the middle of the intersection, loudly freaking out.  Note on the left the ghost of a long-deceased traveler, caught in limbo, never to arrive at his destination.

The entrance to the members-only lounge.  I wish the picture weren't so crappy, but that's the way it goes when i'm behind the camera.

Hmm, the line doesn't look THAT bad...

Ah, shit.  And there's more of this crap to the left.  "Now you feel like you're in fucking Disneyland!" (George Carlin)  Except Pluto and Goofy are making you empty your pockets and waving weird plastic wands around your body.

Hooray, i made it to Singapore... oh, fuck, not another fucking line!  Three X-ray machines in the gate, but only one is operating.  Blur thanks to being on the conveyor belt.  Screw this noise, let's go to the duty-free shop.

Oh, glorious Inniskillin icewine.  But wait, what's that on the right?

Cabernet franc icewine.  A mere S$213.  I can afford it.  Sure i can!  Awwww...

Incheon's stiffly welcoming architecture.

The prettiest part of Incheon.

A flower.

Another flower.

Yet another flower.

Gooseberries on a tree branch.

An 800-year-old tree, probably the oldest tree in Bangalore.

Some idiot sitting on the tree.

Raji, my guide.  He also took me to see a building that housed a variety of aquariums.

Another view of the gardens.

I forget what kind of tree this is... i know it's something i should remember, because it was familiar when Raji told me what it was.  He said that it's a dangerous tree (and you can see why in the lower left corner).

A close-up of the above.  The trees are dangerous because they have a tendency to fall over, apparently.

A good view of Bangalore from atop the Peninsular Gneissic Complex, a 3E9-year-old rock formation, among the oldest in the world.  It reminded me greatly of Enchanted Rock.

One of the towers established by Kempe Gowda to demarcate the limits of Bangalore.  This is the southern tower.

Same thing, except some idiot is in the way.

On the way to the center of the park.

The tallest tree in Bangalore.  It's 300 years old, i think.

Some idiot blocks the fountain.  The tallest tree can be seen in the background.

The Glass House at Lal Bagh.  There are still flower shows held here twice a year.

More of the Glass House.

One of the mynahs on the lawn of the Glass House (insta-icon, people).

I couldn't tell if these were branches that went back into the ground or if they were roots that burst from the ground for some reason.

Early morning traffic.  Note the quantity of auto rickshaws, the license plates of which all seemed to begin, ominously, with KA⋅05 (in some goofy handpainted font so it would look like KAOS).

Long pods on a tree next to the hotel.

Short pods on a tree on the opposite side of the hotel from the previous tree.

These trees were all over Bangalore.  Unfortunately, i couldn't get a better picture.

The Karnataka High Court building.  Bangalore is the capital of the state of Karnataka (kar-NA-ta-ka).

The High Court, again, plus tourists.

This tree on the side of the High Court building was huge.  Unfortunately, foliage blocked the trunk.

The Vidhana Soudha, the Karnataka state legislature building, sits opposite the High Court.

The Vidhana Soudha.

Gowda and his faithful iron steed.  Gowda knew exactly how long and wide his car was, and he used this knowledge to a margin of error that would make most Americans wet their pants.  On Wednesday, he took me out to do a little sightseeing, during which i saw many of the things above and also purchased my wife's sari.

The view from my temporary cube.

The second floor crew: Vishal, Sthitha, Pradeep, and some idiot.  Vinay had already gone home.

Satish, Visible Path Bangalore head honcho, as we walked back from lunch at Garam Masala.  I ordered "hariyali kabab".  What i got was radioactive green chicken.  Turns out "hariyali" means "green".  Who knew?  But it was good.  Also note traffic; the intersection was a nightmare at rush hour.

I arrived late; Gowda delivered me to the President Hotel, where i went to my room and took this picture before i collapsed.

"Valet Parking At Vehicle Owner's Risk"

Not especially tall.

Food so good, it's "irresistable".

Dig my l33t pano skillz.  Taken from my room window.

I'm not suffering any jet lag; my attempts to sleep on the plane seemed to work out, although i was still quite tired yesterday, and almost nodded off as i was towelling myself dry after a shower.

Incheon International Airport sucked.  People seemed unfriendly in general, and they were charging ₩2000 for a can of soda and ₩3000 for a 12oz cup of coffee, which is a lot, even considering the airport store surcharge.  If a Starbucks in Hong Kong International Airport can sell me a 16oz mocha for HK$31, i don't see why Incheon's gotta bust my balls for some caffeine.

And then there's the retarded security.  We came off the plane from Singapore and then had to go through X-rays and metal detectors before being admitted into the transit area.  Hello?  We just came off the fucking plane!  I'm pretty sure i didn't buy a gun or a stick of dynamite from the flight attendant.  Then it came time to board, and the line was being held up by one guy checking everyone's passport and boarding pass, and then another guy collecting transit passes.  How about using both guys to do both and cutting the line in half?  And to top it off, there was an actual carry-on luggage inspection right before getting on the plane.  I was seriously pissed off by the time i got into my seat.

Throughout the trip, i consumed no soda, alcohol, or chocolate, although i did have some 7Up and a Korean Snickers bar on the flight back.

Pictures next.

Bangalore International Airport fucking sucks.  It's an execrable, typically Third World experience.  Not even Quito's airport at its worst, during construction, was as bad as this.  Only two X-ray machines for everyone, and the metal detectors were so sensitive that i think they were just motion sensors, so the security people ended up waving a wand at every single passenger.  And the "line" to board was a crush of people shifting about, trying to jockey for position — almost identical to the way people drive in Bangalore, and a few people were in the wrong line and almost missed their flight to Bangkok; while some of the blame goes to them for being clueless tourists, the staff's announcements were made by Charlie Brown's parents.

Bangalore is the IT capital of India, so it stands to reason that it's been shuttling a lot more people over at least the last 5 years.  Why hasn't the airport been improved?  Infrastructure is dismal throughout the city, but you'd think the one part that handles the foreigners would be the one that gets attention, for many reasons.  I'm glad i took Gowda's advice to show up 3 hours early, especially because traffic was quite bad (afternoon rush hour, doncha know).

Despite wasting half my week downloading disk images, i managed to complete all objectives.  Huzzah.  Now i get to fly back and continue taking Malarone (yes, yes, LOL, i know) for another week.

Coming to India and not having lentils is like going to New York and not having pizza.  Since the latter happened to me the last time i went to NY, i had to make sure it didn't happen to me again, so today at lunch i made a point to order some, and got some delicious dal makhti along with the rest of lunch (which included garlic naan... mmmmmm).  I do have to say, though, that having everything quite spicy sure gets tiring after a few days.

OK, i hope traffic to the airport isn't too bad.

The one time i've had to pick through my food because it's filled with stuff i don't like is the time i break down and have a coworker order pizza because everyone else went to lunch without me (jerks).  I just wanted a lamb topping, but it arrived with lamb, green and red peppers, onions and olives.

The pizza arrived with a packet of ketchup, too.  Disgusting.