Photograph: Santa Kong

Oh! You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout, I'm telling you why:

Santa Kong is coming to town ... so BEHAVE!

"Santa Kong"
by Bruce H.

First [Significant] Snow Of The Season

On Wednesday night, and into the early hours of Thursday, we had our first snow of the season.  The snow was accompanied with a blizzard warning.  I got up Thursday morning not looking forward to shoveling the drift that inevitably appears in our driveway when there is even a hint of a breeze ... and the wind howled the night before.  At first I was pleasantly surprised - only about six or seven inches of snow, easily handled by the snow blower our neighbor lends to us every year.

My pleasant surprise didn't last long, and I should have known better, when the snow turned out to be a dense, heavy, wet, icy snow.  I should have known better as the snow the day before was preceded by rain and sleet.  The blower handled most of the work but the berms of snow piled in the driveway by the snow plows was rock hard and heavy.  Despite wearing my back brace I ended up tweaking my back shoveling that icy mess.

On Friday I went out for a walk.  The snow that caused me grief the day before made everything look clean and fresh.  Before I could start walking I had to chip the snow/ice off the parking meter.  I ended up walking around 7.45 miles (12 km) through snow covered neighborhoods.  Most of the sidewalks were cleared of snow ... exposing the layer of ice below.  The walk was slow - hard to walk my normal pace when you have to take baby steps to keep from falling on the ice.

Part of my walking route took me along the Field Club trail, a former railroad right-of-way that stretches 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from Vinton on the south to Leavenworth on the north.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was also cleared of snow.  Part of this trail is lined with trees that were snow covered.  This part of the walk revived my opinion of snow, an opinion that had taken a hit the day before while shoveling.

The sun through the snow covered trees on the Field Club trail.

I have to admit I have a love hate relationship with snow.  I wait for it with anticipation every winter and then, when it finally arrives, I am irritated that it's hard to walk on the icy sidewalks and the cold keeps me from riding my bike (it was 8°F (-13°C) yesterday morning).  But then I see scenes like the pictures above and below, when I'm not staring at the ground watching for icy patches, and I forget all my irritation and marvel at the pristine beauty of winter.

The icy Field Club trail lined by snow covered trees.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It ... Or Not

It's the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar.  You know what that means, don't you?

It means it's time for the Mayans to go to Staples-Depot-Max and buy a new Long Count Calendar.

Now I'm going out to take my first walk of the new Mayan Long Count Year and carry on with my life.

Wrong South Dude! That's North!

I went for a bike ride this morning.  It was going to be a 25 mile (40 km) ride.  When I plan out my rides I always watch the weather on the nightly local news to see which way the wind will be blowing the next morning.  The past few nights there's been a new young weather guy filling in for the regular, experienced guy.  His graphics said that there would be some wind coming from somewhere in the south to westerly direction and that later on it would be breezy.

I have a strategy when it comes to biking.  The main bike paths near my home go north and south.  The direction I take depends on the direction of the wind.  I start into the wind while I'm fresh and then, after turning around, ride home with a tailwind.  Since the weather guy said we were going to have a southerly wind, I planned accordingly choosing a trail that heads south.

The ride started out fine.  It was a crisp late fall day.  I was testing out some new toe warmers that I'd bought last week (Grabber Performance Toe Heaters that you stick on the toe area of your sock - too early to judge them but they need to warm up a little bit more).  There was hardly a breeze at 6:10 AM when I started the ride.

I reached the 12 1/2 mile turn around point, turned around, and ran smack dab into a headwind.  Almost exactly when I turned around the wind started to pick up - much earlier than the weather guy said it would.  It was not from the south, west, or south-west.  The wind was from the north-west and it was blowing around 10 to 12 MPH at least.

I ride a 21 speed bike.  The wind was so hard I had to shift several gears lower than I usually do just to move forward and I barely did that at times.  I had to stop and rest four times.  I've never stopped for a rest on any of the other 33 rides this year.  At one point the wind was so strong I was almost blown off the bike path.  I cursed the wind - actually yelled at the top of my lungs - and I got off and walked for a half mile before it died down a tiny bit so I could ride the rest of the way home.  I ended up averaging about 9.7 MPH, well below my average speed of 11 MPH.

If I'd gone north it would have been a total different story.  I would have ridden home with a nice tailwind.  I managed to ride for 24.5 miles, close to my goal,  but it was one of the most miserable rides I've had in a long time.  Whaaaaa!

Damn weather dude.

My New Toy: The Nexus 7

I've been telling myself that when my laptop died I would look into buying a tablet.  Well, my laptop hasn't died yet but the battery, which once lasted over four hours on a charge, is slowly dying, lasting only forty to fifty minutes on a charge.  I finally gave in and, after Thanksgiving, I purchased a Nexus 7 tablet.

First I have to say that I like it.  This isn't my first tablet.  I've gone through several iterations of Palm devices ending with the Palm Lifedrive.  My Lifedrive died when I dropped it in Wal-Mart a few years ago.  The Nexus runs the Android operating system (OS).  It's a bit different from the Palm OS.   There's been a little of a learning curve.  The first thing is the Palm OS uses a stylus.  Android is finger-centric.  After using it a bit I've decided that my fingers are thick and clumsy.

The past couple of weeks I've been playing around and loading apps.  There are a lot of good apps out there ... and a lot of crappy ones too.  A couple of the apps I've downloaded didn't work but have since been updated and work great.  In other cases I haven't decided which is better, a custom app or just using the Chrome browser and just going to the website.

So far the Nexus has been a pretty good laptop replacement.  Its small size makes it convenient and eminently transportable.  The size does have one slight inconvenience - I have to wear my glasses when I use the tablet.  Not sure if this is the tablet's fault or just old age.  Who am I kidding ... my eyes are old.

The tablet allows me do do some things I couldn't do with my laptop.  One of those is reading internet stuff and eBooks in bed.  I can now download eBooks from the library to read.  I can also read articles I've saved using Instapaper, a web service that allows you to save articles you find on the web (something I learned from the Best Man).  I use Instapaper to save longer article I think might be interesting so I can read them when I have more time.

Okay, time for a rant.  Be warned.  I went to our library website and looked at their rather limited selection of eBooks   I found one that may be interesting and tried to check out/download the book.  Oops, the book is not available.  The library only has one copy and it's checked out already.  What the heck?!?  You only lone out eBooks  books that can be copied easily, one at a time?  I understand that book publishers wouldn't want libraries to lone out unlimited free copies of books but I would think that a library should offer say five copies.  This way the waiting would be less and it would not eat into the publisher's profits too much.  Rant over.

There was a time that I considered myself an early adopter.  I used to try to be at the bleeding edge.  But that was many, many years ago.  I've fallen behind in the last fifteen to twenty years. With the purchase of my Nexus 7 I am finally crawling my way into the twenty-first century.

Camino 2013 - First Steps, This Time with Less Anxiety

Well, it's starting.  Camino fever.  I'm getting that urge, that anticipation, I had when I started to plan my last Camino.

The feelings now are different.  I no longer have that anxiety I had last time.  Planning for my first Camino I had so many questions.  Would I be able to do it?   Is my plan too ambitious?  Am I packing the right things?  Am I packing too much?  Turns out the answers to these questions were Yes, No - the plan is too conservative, Yes and No - something to keep you warm when your sleeping would have helped, and No - you only tossed out around a pound of stuff along the way.

This time around the anxiety is not of the same magnitude.  I know what to expect and I have ideas on how to tackle the issues I encountered last time.  Things like carrying my pack on the plane instead of checking it.  Changing my shoes and insoles to help reduce the chance of tendinitis and blister issues.  Packing merino wool t-shirts instead of the long sleeve shirts I took last time - wool doesn't smell as much when saturated with sweat and dry quickly.  Packing a new rain jacket that hasn't lost its water shedding abilities like my old one.  Packing trekking poles to help reduce the strain on my knees.  There are other things I will change that I will probably post about in a future lessons learned Camino post.

For now I want to talk about a couple things I have done to prepare.  The first is I bought a new pack.  I already posted about the failed Gossamer Gear attempt in September.  Early November I ordered and received a GoLite Jam 35L.  My first reaction was "Damn that thing is small ... and light."  I was a little concerned about the small size.  The GoLite Litespeed I took last time was around 38 liters.   A few liters makes a difference.  To assuage my fears I packed my new bag with everything I was going to take and found there was plenty of room.  It might be a little tighter than my old one but it just means I have to be a little more orderly when I pack it to maximize the packs pockets.  Last time I was amazed at the small pack carried by N_V, a fellow pilgrim from Ireland.  My new pack comes close to matching hers, it is just fine for what I need, and its small size will make it easy to carry on the airplane.  Sometimes small is big enough, one of life's little lessons.

One note about bad timing.  Last week I got an e-mail from Go-Lite about the Jam being on sale for 40% off.  I shot off an e-mail to see if I could get a refund.  They do have a 30 day price match policy ... I bought my pack 35 days ago ... Sorry dude, no refund.

The next step I've taken is to make airline reservations.  In a way buying tickets is the most important part of doing the Camino - nothing like making a substantial, non-refundable purchase to motivate one to get'er done.  Prices have gone up since I made reservations for my last Camino - going up by almost $200.  A sign of our times I guess.  The hardest thing was deciding the exact time for leaving and returning.  I am coordinating my Camino with G_V, another pilgrim I met last time and who, baring any unforeseen injury or circumstances, will be doing the 2013 Camino with me.  Coordinating with another person adds a little extra complication in the planning but not too much to handle.

We will be starting our Camino in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France.  We will follow the Arles route to the Spanish boarder near the pass of Somport.  From there the route changes name to the Aragonés route following the river Aragón.  The Aragonés route eventually joins the French Way, the route I walked last time, near the town of Obanos, Spain.

I'm flying on the 5^th of September (Omaha - Chicago - Madrid - the same flight I took last time).  I arrive in Madrid on the 6^th and I fly from Madrid to Toulouse, France.  From there I take a train to Oloron-Sainte-Marie arriving sometime after 9:00 PM.  I begin walking the next day, the 7^th.

From there I will be walking for forty days walking to Santiago de Compostela, Fisterra, and, eventually, Muxia before I am done.  I will have six extra days to use for rest/recuperation/insurance/sightseeing along the way.  Having extra days is reassuring since the Obanos to Santiago de Compostela stages I have planned out are fairly aggressive and may need to be broken up into a few more stages.  I leave Santiago de Compostela on the 23^rd of October and arrive home on the 24^th.

So things are proceeding.  I'm starting to have flashes of excitement every now and then when I think of it all.    Flashes of excitement and less, much less, anxiety.

2012 Asian Adventure - Epilogue

OK, one more epilogue.  Why?  I like epilogues.  I like the sound of the word.  Ep-i-logue.  EP-i-logue.  Ep-I-logue.  Ep-i-LOGUE.  I like the word.

This was a marvelous adventure.  Thirty-two days of awesome, and not so awesome, adventure.  The variety of what we saw is hard to quantify.  The pictures I've posted only scratch the surface.  The things we saw: The Potala Palace, Pandas (both black & white and red), Terracotta Soldiers, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Mount Everest (from the airplane), the Tiger's Nest Temple, the Bhutanese Takin, The Taj Mahal, The Glass Palace, The Amber Palace, and Elephants.  The great pieces of history keep going and going.  It is almost too much to absorb really.  Now that I'm home I keep catching myself seeing something on TV and saying "OMG I've been there!"  I love that feeling.  OK, I may not say OMG but that's how I feel at the time, like a giddy school girl at a Justin Beiber concert.

People have asked what was the best thing.  I honestly can't answer that question.  There was just too much awesomeness to be able to pick.  I loved the Yangtze river cruise and we are already looking into other river cruises.  Buddhism, and places associated with it, is incredible while being so peaceful.  Bhutan would have to be my favorite country - so peaceful and beautiful with wonderful people.  China had so much to see and I know there is a lot I did not see in this large country.  I probably didn't give Nepal a fair chance.  India was amazing.  The thousands of years of history we experienced marveled.  I guess the one word that would sum up this trip is "Wow".

A few observations I left out of the travel posts:

• China, while steeped in superstition is trying to be secular.  When we entered temples in China our shoes stayed on.  In Nepal, Bhutan, and India the shoes always come off.  Slip on shoes would have been an asset.
• Also in China, there is only one time zone for the whole country which messes with your head when it's light at 4:00 AM in one part of the country and dark at 4:00 AM in another part of the country.
• The modern world, i.e. western culture, is everywhere.  In Nepal and Bhutan you saw angry birds shirts, toys, and stuffed birds everywhere.  Cell phones are ubiquitous in all four countries.  Even so, everything still had a native twist it.  Western culture is changing things not by replacing but by melding with what has always been there.
• We had seven different guides.  I liked it better when there was one guide for the whole country like in China, Nepal, and Bhutan.  The guide gives you continuity.  Changing guides every day or so made things more difficult at times.  I also preferred women guides over men.  They seemed like they cared for you better.
• Nepal, Bhutan, and India have some of the most beautiful people in the world - I can vouch for the women and I'm sure the Wife will vouch for the men.
• In America we spend money on tanning booths and self-tanners to give us that dark, healthy glow.  Starting in Nepal we noticed commercials for skin lighteners.  Apparently dark skin is not popular ... in a part of the world where darker skin is the norm.  Our guide in Delhi blamed this on the British and their standards for beauty.
• Before we left I'd heard that it was impossible to go to India without getting sick.  During the entire 32 days of travel, after eating Chinese, Tibetan, Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Indian food, I suffered from intestinal distress only twice and each time was a one time event.  Both were in China.  That was it.  I credit this to the yogurt and probiotic regimen I put myself on before leaving.  Sadly, on the last day, things caught up with the Wife.  After getting home she was down for the count for about five days.  Except for feeling a bit jet lagged and tired I felt fine.
• After worrying that many of the places we were going would not meet my expectations, I was always surprised how much better the places were in person.  Pictures can only give you a superficial taste of a place.  Being there is a completely different experience.
• Thirty-two days of travel, especially the intense guided tour type of travel, is very close to my limit.  I was exhausted at the end of many days and I let this nearly make me sick at times when I didn't eat and drink enough.  The Camino was longer but didn't have the intensity of this Asian trip.  I think we may have to limit these types of tours to three week spans from now on.

One other thing happened on this trip.  I can now say that I have traveled around the world.  The thirteen flights we took during this vacation took us completely around the world.  I hadn't really considered this when I was setting up the trip but it's a fun little extra.  To make it better, we never missed a flight and our bags were never lost.

Pictures from the China portion of our travels can be found in my 2012-06 China Google Photos album.

Pictures from the Tibet portion of our travels can be found in my 2017-06 Tibet Google Photos Album.

Pictures from the Nepal portion of our travels can be found in my 2012-07 Nepal Google Photos album.

Pictures from the Bhutan portion of our travels can be found in my 2012-07 Bhutan Google Photos album.

Pictures from the India portion of our travels can be found in my 2012-07 India Google Photos album.

Onward to our next adventure ... whatever that may be.

Book: Vernor Vinge's "Fire Upon The Deep"

After reading a couple non-fiction books I figured it was time to get back to fiction which, for me, more often than not means science fiction.  After looking through Amazon, and at Amazon's recommendations, I decided to read a book by Vernor Vinge.  I'd heard a lot of good things about his writing and I figured if I liked him it would give me a good list of books to chose from moving forward.  I decided to start with one of his first books, "A Fire Upon The Deep", that had a four star Amazon rating.

The book started off like any typical science fiction-space opera which would have been fine with me except for one little detail.  A diagram in the front of the book hinted at a strange property of the galaxy.  The galaxy was divided into concentric zones.  The outer zones permitted faster than light travel and all manners of high tech.  The middle zone was limited to the speed of light and limited tech.  The central zone was a dead zone called the "unthinking depths".  I had a hard time accepting this premise.  It did get better near the end when it was suggested that the zones were an ancient artificial construct of some type but the book never went into much detail and the origin and nature of the zones were left a mystery.  I had trouble getting passed this zone concept.

The rest of the book, a typical quest novel where two or more parties are racing to get to something that will help one side save the day and the other side to become even more powerful.  This time it is humans versus an ancient evil transcendent artificial intelligence.  As I said it was typical and not extraordinary.

I kept hoping it would get better.  I struggled and managed to put the whole zones thing behind me and to just accept the concept but it didn't help much to improve my opinion of the book.  Every now and then an interesting concept would be explored but they often were fleetingly short lived resulting in a book I really found hard to get through.  So now I have to decide if I should explore the other two books of this series.  One book is often not enough to judge an author.  But do I want to re-immerse myself into a universe that frankly I don't like?

Not sure I can recommend this one.

2012 Asian Adventure - India Epilogue

As we flew into Delhi I made the mistake of realizing that in exactly a week I would be going home.  This meant that I'd been on the road for three weeks.  As the plane made its approached I suddenly felt very tired.  I worried that it would prevent me from enjoying India.  I can't say I was as enthusiastic as I was in China at the beginning of the trip but I did manage to enjoy India.

India had been added to the trip almost as an afterthought.  We were going to China, Tibet, and Nepal.  As we planned the trip I kept looking at the map and seeing just how close India was from where we were going to be.  India was not at the top of either of our lists.  But, after making the mistake of not also doing Turkey and Egypt when we went to Jordan, not doing India would have been a mistake.

Having said all this, India exceeded my expectations.  It was crowded.  It was noisy.  It was dirty.  Traffic was a nightmare of horse carts, camel carts, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, and trucks, many with horns, all mashed up together.  Beggars tapped at the car windows at stop lights.  It was also a country of incredible architecture and beauty.  A country of rich and deep history.  A country and culture so different from my own.  My expectations were blown away.

Yes, I was tired from all our travels up to then - a fact that mystified me as I'd been on the Camino for forty-nine days and never felt the weariness that I was starting to feel.   Yes, I sweat my a$$ off almost every day in India, but when I realized just where I was and what I was seeing, I got a second wind ... or at least an extra half of a wind ... and enjoyed the wonderful things that were around me.

Oh, and I enjoyed the Indian food.  I'd worried about this a lot before the trip started.  Needless worry.

One last thing about India.  One of the Wife's favorite little details I think.  The doorman at our hotel in Delhi.  He was tall ... very tall.  He dressed in flamboyant white with a large white turban.  He looked like a sultan from a storybook.  His facial hair ... immaculately groomed and exceptional.  He greeted us every day we were in Delhi and tried his best, unsuccessfully, to open the car door before we could.  A touristy detail, I know, but he made me smile every time I saw him.

Pictures from India portion of our travels can be found in my 2012-07 India Google Photos album.

2012 Asian Adventure - All I Want For My Birthday Is An Elephant Ride

Day Twenty-Nine - Happy Birthday To Me!

Day twenty-nine, the last 'real' touring day of our Asian adventure, just so happened to have fallen on my forty-ninth birthday.  I'm not a big birthday celebrator, though my attitude towards them is improving slightly (I no longer mope all day long), but being in Jaipur, India on my birthday ... it was kind of cool.

Palace of the wind.

We were picked up by our driver and guide and headed out.  First stop was a drive by the Palace of the Winds.  The palace, designed to look like Krishna's crown, was built to allow the royal women to see the activity in the street below without being seen.  Our car stopped long enough to get out and take some pictures of the magnificent facade.  I also got a good picture of a camel cart.

The Amber Palace.

The next stop was the Amber Palace (Amber Fort, Amer Fort).  The palace is located at the top of a hill.   You could have walked up the hill but there was a more interesting, if not a bit touristy, way to go up to the fort.  You can ride an elephant.

Waiting for our elephant ride.

We stood in line to get on our elephant.  We'd been warned about all the people who would try to sell us junk.  We were told to ignore them.  We ignored them and we were not bothered.  A poor lady in front of us must not have gotten the memo.  She showed interest in some doodad and that opened the floodgates.  They harassed her, tag-teamed her, and followed her and her elephant nearly all the way up the hill.

Our turn came and we got on our elephant.  We rode sidesaddle as it slowly followed the elephant parade up the hill.  The elephants only work for a few hours in the morning and head home before it gets too hot.  The treatment of elephants is carefully watched to ensure no abuse.

Palace columns.

As our elephant entered the walls of the palace we handed our camera to our guide so he could take pictures of us.  It was interesting.  I can't say it was fun but it was a new experience.  Riding animals have never been on my to do list but sometimes you just have to give in and do the tourist thing.

We toured the palace.  It was extensive and intricately decorated with vistas of the surrounding hills, the old city walls that ran along the hills, and the city of Jaipur.  There were other travelers touring the place including a group of high school/college age kids.  As we waited out turn to enter the next part of the palace the group became a flash mob and did an impromptu Bollywood sing and dance routine which had everyone laughing and clapping.

A smile in the Amber Palace.

After the Amber palace we stopped briefly to see an island fort not open to the public yet before stopping at the obligatory shopping stop.  This one had to do with block printed table cloths and fabrics.  We watched and participated in a a demonstration of how the patterns are made using overlapping blocks of different colors.  We bought two table clothes and talked about American politics with the store owner as we waited for the credit card to go through.

We went back to the hotel for lunch before heading out one more time.  This time we went to Jantar Mantar, a large astrological observatory with amazingly accurate sun/moon/star driven instruments.  The highlight here was a 90 ft (27 m) tall sundial - the tallest in the world.  Its shadow moves at 1 mm per second (2.4 inches per minute).  The complex was built almost three hundred years ago (and refurbished in 1901).  There is an instrument for each astrological sign.  By coincidence our guide stopped to explain about them in front of my symbol, cancer.

Jantar Mantar - on the left is the tallest sundial in the world.

From the observatory we walked to the nearby palace museum. I took an obligatory picture of a snake charmer ... and almost caused a riot when he thought I wasn't going to pay for the privilege of taking his picture.

A palace museum balcony.

The museum was interesting.  Lots of old weapons for some reason.  There was no AC in the museum and the Indian heat was getting to me by the time we left the building.  The palace was very beautiful but I think my ability to appreciate it all was slowly wilting.  After we left we went back to the hotel and cooled off for the rest of the afternoon.

Day Thirty

This day was a transition day.  We got in the car and we drove back to Delhi.  It was about an eight hour drive.  We stopped at a small roadside restaurant and had some good food along the way.

This was the one and only day in India I did not sweat through my shirt by the end of the day.   It felt good to be in an air conditioned space even if it was a car.

Day Thirty-One

It was our last day in India.  Originally there was nothing planned for this day and, after talking to the tour company representative (who kept calling us to find out how we were doing ... every day!) we discovered the plan was to check out late morning and go to the airport over ten hours early.  We negotiated with the tour company and the hotel and managed to add another tour stop this morning and to extend our time in the hotel so we wouldn't be sitting in the airport for so long.

The extra stop, actually just a stop we'd postponed from our first day in India, was the Akshardham Temple complex, a modern Hindu temple.  The temple was opened in 2005.  It is an impressive complex.  No cameras are allowed in the temple (you go through a strict security checkpoint where all cameras and cell phones are taken and put in lockers before you can go in).  We walked around the main temple with its engravings of elephants.

To go in the temple you have to remove your shoes and leave them at a shoe check area.  After you remove your shoes you are warned to only walk on the white tiles.  This is totally understandable since, even mid-morning, the dark colored tiles were hot enough to roast your toes.  We toured the temple and marveled at the intricate decorations before going back out and retrieving our shoes.

Next stop in the complex was a "show" that would tell us about the history of Hinduism.  There were two lines - one for native speakers and one for English speakers.  The English speaking line was only three or four people long but they made us wait as several groups of native speakers went in.  We were in the shade but it was still hot.  My shirt sweated through first.  Then I noticed what I thought was a stain on my pants.  Closer inspection made me realize that I was sweating through my pants.  I have never sweated through my pants before.  The heat here was insane.

They finally let us in where is was cool.  A recorded narrative took us from room to room where we watched, and I kid you not, animatronic figures illustrating the history of Hinduism.  I wasn't sure if I was at a Hindu temple or at Disneyland.  It was informative but also a bit cheesy.  After the show the next stop would have been an IMAX history of the child-yogi and a boat ride "through 10,000 years of Indian culture".  All I could imagine was the Tunnel of Love.  We both had enough.  We were hot and already sapped of all strength so we skipped these, walked through the gift shop, and headed out looking for our driver.  I think he was surprised we came out so soon.

Back to the hotel for a nap, shower, fresh clothes, and lunch before heading to the airport for flights numbers twelve and thirteen (a fifteen hour international flight followed by a three hour domestic flight).  Security at the Delhi airport was crazy.  You had to go through security a couple times.  We walked to our gate and sat own.  That's when someone realized that we were not being checked when we entered the gate area so we all had to leave the gate area and re-enter.  Some X Rays, magnatometers, and wandings later and we were back in the same seat we'd been sitting in earlier.  You couldn't bring food and drink to the gate (and I didn't have change for the vending machine in the gate area)  so I sat there reading my book hungry and thirsty until we finally got on our plane.  This ended up being a very long day.

Pictures from days twenty-nine (07/20/2012) can be found in my 2012-07 India Google Photos album.  No pictures were taken on the last two days.

Our 2012 Asian Adventure comes to an end.