:mattLandia:

This is completely disconcerting. I am waking up at the crack of dawn completely unaided. For those of you who know me, this is highly unatural. I am the type of heavy sleeper that requires a cartoon ACME bed that launches me into the ceiling each morning before I manage to crack an eyelid.

They say that it takes one day to recover for every hour difference in time zone that you left. Ok then, that's 10.5 days before I can get back to my normal, I hate to wake up, please extinguish the sun, self. Only 7.5 days more to go.

Posted by mattLandia at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are my photos from Bangalore (well, at least the ones I liked). Again, I apologize because I haven't had time to update all the captions yet, but most of the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE

PS - I love feedback. Let me know what you think!

Posted by mattLandia at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dear reader, I am ashamed to admit that after a whole week here, I have failed to point out two hallmarks of utopian society that are found here in Bangalore. 1) Mangos are everywhere, and as everyone knows, mangos sit on the peak of mattlandia's fruit hierarchy. 2) At any given time of day or night one can look in any direction and see at least a dozen well groomed mustaches. These two points alone make it sad for me to leave.

While seven days in a country hardly makes me an expert, I have been here long enough to get a sense of this place, and in being here, I have unexpectedly found a better sense of myself.

A few personal observations on India: One doesn't know the meaning of traffic until traveling rally car style in a mad crush of two and four wheeled vehicles. I want an Ambassador car, badly. Crossing the street is a bit like walking across an ice rink mid hockey game sans skates -- you take your life in your own hands. Indian poverty is achingly real and tangible on most every corner. Indian wealth and industry is real and tangible on most every corner (at least in Bangalore). My palate loves the rich tastes of Indian food; my gut decidedly does NOT. Occasionally, you will run across monkeys. Indian women are draped in elegance regardless of class. India has instilled in me a desire to own a silk on silk, 934 knot, Persian rug. The Indian people smile easily and when then do; you sense warmth of soul. Sure, life is tough, but there is no shortage of happiness it seems.

A few observations on myself, after having spent time in India: In observing my Indian colleagues, those around me at the hotel, and the pedestrian population swarming by me, I am reminded of those things in life that lead to happiness: a devotion to family, work, and spirituality. These devotions are most easily seen when poverty and a lower standard of living strips away the excess of modern society, leaving with one with no choice but to cling to those things that don't cost a penny. I learned this lesson once, having spent many years in some of the poorer areas of South America, but are having lived back home in the US for over a decade now, I lost memory of said lesson.

Being here has given me perspective and I am also reminded that western society as a whole is devoted to money. Money establishes class, loyalty, and the purchase of 'happiness'. Not to say that wealth is inherently evil, but the pursuit thereof is a slippery slope which can easily replace the energy that should be dedicated to true self, one's family, and an ongoing sense of spirituality. These are devotions that transcend place, money, and social stature. The irony of it all is that I had to fly half way around the world to be reminded that things I really need to nourish self are right beneath my nose.

On that note, I'm ready to fly home.

Posted by mattLandia at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As I left my hotel room this morning, two monkeys were sitting out on the curb waiting for me. Like it was no big deal. Just two monkeys chillin' on the stoop. Great start to my day.

This evening I ate at Blue Ginger, the most amazing Vietnamese restaurant I have ever visited. Maybe the most amazing restaurant I've ever been to. Open air, large bamboo pavilion. Hard woods. Lagoons. Fire pit. 5 star service. A light breeze. Impeccable service. One of those moments where I just can't wipe the grin off my face, because all I'm thinking is "um yeah, this soooo rocks." Such a shame I didn't have anyone there to share in it. So I'm doing the next best thing, I'm telling you anonymous lurkers in blog land about it.

Wish you were here,

matt.

Posted by mattLandia at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm halfway through my stay in India. Thus far, my days have been pretty uneventful. Each morning, I get up and meet my driver for my commute to the client's new gleaming campus on the far side of town. The commute takes about 45 minutes in rush hour traffic. I spend most of that time, staring out the window, soaking up the imagery of ageless Indian culture clashing with the trappings of our technocentric century. The sights flash by: motorcycle, autorickshaw, women carrying jugs of water on heads, dust, sugar cane stands, etc..

A word on how a US rush hour differs from a Bangalore rush hour. Here, rush hour is simply as if every person who has ever owned a piece of machinery powered by some sort of refined fuel has been dropped haphazzardly into a maze of dust choked asphalt raceways. The sheer volume is unreal, not to mention the lackadaisical manner in which two lanes are made to accomodate 6 or 7 vehicles across. It's perfectly routine to play chicken with an oncoming vehicle until the last second just before Ranga (my driver) deftly glides to the left, missing a life ending collision. I get two full hours of this a day!

I haven't done any real sightseeing yet, but I'll get to that on Friday afternoon and Saturday before heading home.

Impression of the day: Indian women, with their espresso complexions, beautiful white teeth, long black hair, and wrapped in deliciously colored saris are easily the most visually engaging people I have ever encountered. It's as if they are blessed with an elegance and grace unkknown to the rest of us. When confronted with such natural beauty I am left feeling like I've just realized that I am the bull in the china shop.

Posted by mattLandia at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ok, here are is the gallery of all my Hong Kong photos. I haven't had a chance to write captions yet, but I hope you'll enjoy them just the same.

CLICK HERE FOR GALLERY

Posted by mattLandia at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're not in Kansas anymore.

I arrived in Bangalore, India late Saturday night. I have to admit, it was really overwhelming. I thought I would be better prepared, having spent many years in relatively 3rd countries like Bolivia and Ecuador. Um, nope.

Walking out of the airport into the wall of humid night and clamoring Indian taxi drivers, vendors, and hustlers was a shock to the system. As described to me later by the desk clerk, I had arrived into a complete hullaballoo. Luckily, I had a driver waiting on me, so I was quickly shown to a small compact car and whisked about 20 minutes across the city to my hotel, the Taj West End. Pulling into the Taj was like stepping across a magical threshold. On one side, all noise, traffic, dirt, and generally controlled chaos. On the other, serene tropical gardens, white washed wall, mahagony floors, and regal service. If you've ever jumped from a jacuzzi into a cool pool, you'll get my drift.

Sunday, I took a much needed rest day. My day consisted of: sleeping, laying by the pool, eating, and sleeping. I had zero urge to leave the hotel grounds (a 20 acre estate mind you) and I needed to let my batteries charge before another training week.

Monday (today) morning, my driver picked me up at dawn and we made the 40 minute drive to the client's new campus. Traffic here in unreal. Thousands of motorcyles and mopeds, many with 3 people straddling the seat, Autorickshaws (pictured above) by the hundreds, all let loose in a crazy sort of Play Station-make-your-own-lane sort of way. Work today was mostly setup and it went well. The real test will be tomorrow to see if everything continues smoothly.

I'm off to a Indian buffet dinner!

Posted by mattLandia at 08:40 AM | Permalink

I wasn’t able to find the time to write in the past two days while wrapping up my assignment in Hong Kong, working at the Wing-On Center. I had an enjoyable close to my week, but I’ll get to that in a couple of minutes…

I’m having a moment, right this very minute while writing, where I’m feeling a peaceful calm. Lately, the physical process of traveling has become my own little fountain of panic and ill-content; where my miserably weak stomach and my propensity for nervousness and worry combine together to keep me feeling like I’m one claustrophobic flight away from a complete meltdown. But occasionally, I still have moments of calm. Pockets of smooth air in my otherwise turbulent prone life, as if an unseen pilot’s voice in my head says, “You can now unbuckle your seatbelts and you’re free to examine and marvel at the singularity of this day in your life…”

Right now, I’m sitting in the First Class cabin of Singapore Airlines flight 852, bound for Singapore. To my left, I’m looking out over the pacific and the occasional emerald green island below, white cloud fingers tracing abstract patterns in the air currents beneath us. I am aware of the wallet in my back left pocket and that it holds a flattened stack of American dollars, Japanese Yen, Hong Kong Dollars and India Rupees. A few moments ago, I took off my boots and slipped on the complimentary sock bootees they give you to walk around in. In Singapore, I’ll catch a flight to Bangalore, India where upon my arrival I’ll have a driver waiting to take me to an upscale hotel in the city.

How is this my life? I feel like an imposter of sorts, only because I never set out to get here, get this, or be this person. It just fell into my lap. Right place, right time, and right person I guess. It could happen to anyone. I can happen to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for happening to me.

OK – back to the travel log.

Thursday after work, I caught the train over to Kowloon to pick up my CUSTOM TAILORED SUIT. I just love saying that! The suit and shirts fit great and after buying a few silk to ties to match, I can’t wait to find a reason to actually get dressed up. I left Bobby’s Fashions and took the train back to hotel, stopping along the way to pick up a quarter of roasted chicken and a rice and raisin salad for dinner. I camped out on my bed and just ate until I was comatose.

Friday, I only had to work until Noon. I think my classes went well and that everyone who attended learned something from them. When I left on the Friday, they had the software up and running, busy hatching schemes to sell software configurations to the nearest multimillion dollar Chinese retailer.

Friday afternoon was spent walking all over the city, shopping for souvenirs, small gifts and taking a few more photos. By the time 3:30 rolled around, I was soaked through from the humidity and grime of a hot overpopulated city. I went back to the hotel, took a later afternoon swim and then spent an hour or so repacking. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left something in the hotel, so I get a little paranoid about leaving something like my passport or my iPod or my belt or my toothbrush or my laptop or my camera or my…. You get the idea. I repack very carefully.

To finish up my week in HK, I did a little night district hopping. I stopped by a few ex-pat sort of bar joints, listen to a little bad techno and moved on. I did a lot of wandering before I stumbled upon a Chinese Salsa band in a little lounge not too far from the hotel. For a Chinese Salsa band, these guys were damn good. Their Spanish was almost flawless and they even had the moves down! I hung out there for a bit, had fun singing along to “Guantanamera”, and then called it a night.

Closing thoughts on Hong Kong: This place crawls with manic activity day and night. This is a vertical jungle of glass and neon. The people are nice enough. You can get by on English no problem. Shopping is king. Well worth the flight over. I’d come back any day.

Posted by mattLandia at 05:51 AM | Permalink

Today was a LONG but good day. Here's a short breakdown of my day, which is pretty typical for me when I working in a city I've never been to.

7 AM - Wake up. Waking up is fairly easy when you have wrap-around windows on the 25th floor of the Marriott in downtown Hong Kong. Stunning view. I shower, answer all my email I get over night, and pack for work.

8:30 - Hop a cab a mile or so over to the our HK office. Totally shocked (yet again) as the absolute prowess these cabbies have. I'm talking 1/100's of an inch between them and other buses, cabs, people, etc. And strangely, I have zero fear.

9 - 4 - WORK. In my case, this means standing in front of a class, laptop projector roaring, scribbling on a white board, taking questions (in this case in broken english), troubleshooting pc performance and lecturing to the class. No amount of practice makes it any less tiring. By 4, I'm bushed.

4ish - Head back to the hotel to drop off bag, change clothes, and grab my camera. Today, I'm hanging out after work with some of my trainees who are here for my class from Korea. Their names are Yong-Hyuk, Gun-il, Jong-sung, and Moon-Seob. These guys are really cool, and take me to this great eatery where I finally get some authentic HK Dim Sum. I opted for the pork dumplings and some hard core won ton soup. Very, very decent.

5 - 8 - Walk all the hell over Hong Kong. I mean up streets, down alleys, up and up and up hills, and down and down and down hills untils my calves are complete jelly. I almost always do this my first few days in a city. It's my own personal recon mission, and I scope out shopping, restaurant, attractions, etc. This is really helpful for shopping, so I can find the best deals and have a much better idea of what my options are.

8ish- Get back to the hotel, bathed in sweat, legs aching. Answer a few more emails. It's warm and balmy out, so I decide to take a swim. The pools is outside on the 7th floor terrace, surrounded by glowing towers of glass. There is no one else in the pool, so I slide into the perfectly tepid water, float on my back, and watch the lights blink all over the city. THIS is how you relax.

9ish - Grab some grub at the eatery downstairs, head back to my room, take a long hot shower, wrap up in a robe, and then plop down to email, blog, post pics, whatever. The whole time sitting at my desk over looking the city.

Now, if this was weekend day, or if I wasn't lecturing the next morning, I would probably head back out again to check out the night life, but as I've learned from painful past experiences, going out late and lecturing at the crack of dawn DO NOT MIX. Don't say I never warned you.

And I'm off to bed.

Posted by mattLandia at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So in a moment of blinding panic last night, I realized that I forgot to bring an AC adapter to convert my 110V laptop cable to 220V. I've done this before, but usually I can get a small adapter from the concierge and I'm set. Well, instead of an adapter, all they had was a full blow transformer that weighs about 5 lbs. Niiice. Since no stores were open prior to the start of class, I was stuck packing this monstrosity all over Hong Kong today.

First thing after work, I found myself a electronics stand and bought an adapter for a $1. Have adapter - will travel. Lighter.

Posted by mattLandia at 08:07 AM | Permalink

Work today went as well as expected. I spent the afternoon helping to install and set up the software needed for the class that starts tomorrow. Our Hong Kong office is nice enough I suppose, but an office is an office is an office. You know?

After work, and in spite of the torrential rain, I grabbed my camera and headed out for a bit of walking. Lots of the stuff I've read on tourism here suggests that one can't visit here without taking advantage of the cheap costs of tailoring. I decided that I would explore the Kowloon district and find myself a tailor. My reading also indicated that a reasonable price would be as little as $100 to $200. I took the subway over to Kowloon, which is across the bay from Hong Kong central, and spent a few hours walking around and window shopping before settling on a place called "Bobby's Fashions". Nick, the shop guy, was super pleasant and we didn't haggle much. He actually comes to Atlanta from time to time to fit his clients in the US. Said that he actually fitted the football coach from GA Tech. Small world. I settled on a $150 suit made with 150 count fabric, and I'll pick it up on thursday. We'll see how it turns out.

On the whole, HK reminds me a lot of Tokyo, but seems slightly off kilter due the amount of English that is spoken everywhere. It is also a little off putting to see really old, tenament style buildings interspersed with gleaming glass buildings that were built recently.

This place is truly a hive of activity. It's hard to stop and snap a decent pic while standing still, because you get jostled from all sides by other pedestrians who move along at a brick clip. I did manage to snap a few during a break in the rain, but I hope the weather breaks so I can get a few more tomorrow.

Posted by mattLandia at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Click on the picture for a larger view...

Posted by mattLandia at 10:33 PM | Permalink

1.5 hours spent waiting for flight at Hartsfield-Jackson airport. 2 hours flight time to Chicago. 1.5 hours spent wandering around O'hare airport. (That airport is looking really nice by the way; lot's of light and vaulted iron walkways. Makes ATL look like a dump for 70's decor. It has a really trippy travel-through-time-ish light tunnel that connects one concourse to another.) 12.5 hours flight time to Tokyo. 1.5 hours spent wandering around Tokyo-Narita. Am feeling REALLY out of it by now. I buy a key chain. 4 hours flight time to Hong Kong. 1.5 hours spent getting through immigration, getting bags, taking the Airport Express train to Hong Kong Central Station, getting a cab to the JW Marriot.

It's 1:02 AM and I'm all sorts of out-of-it. I don't have any really interesting observations or reports on my trip thus far. Except that once you fly across the pacific, there are 747 jets everywhere. Maybe even more so than the standard jets we're used to in the US. For some reason, when I see a 747, I have the impression of a giant sky shark. Must be the big fin. There are giant sky sharks everywhere here.

I am a long way from home.

Posted by mattLandia at 12:56 PM | Permalink

Does anyone else feel compelled to hurl obcenities at the TV, rip handfuls of hair out by the follicle and have their skin glow in a white hot rage everytime they suffer the indinigty of a Sprint ad? Not only are their advertisements as entertaining as the linoleum floor at the DMV, but I exert more energy blinking my eyes than that organic excuse for humanoid plywood that passes as the Sprint pitch-man.

I mean really, have you ever seen a such a large company pour so much money into such flaccid creativity? If only I could stretch my hand through the screen, pimp slap that black trench coat wearing con man and scream "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!"

Posted by mattLandia at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alright PAY ATTENTION FOLKS. I'm please to announce the birth of DJLight's new blog: WWW.THISISTHEBESTEVER.NET! The author, known here as DJLight, is one of my best friends ever... I've know him for close to a decade now, and if I had a dollar for everytime he started a phrase, email, chat message or phone call with "Dude, I'm telling you that ____ is the best EVER!", I would have ludicrous wealth. Seems appropriate the he can now proclaim his "best ever" manifestos to a global audience.

Much of the music content I've shared with you here I've get from him. His is a blog you're going to want to visit on a daily basis, as he will posting hard to find music, movie trailers, music gossip, and much more.

It's taken me month after agonizing month of constant badgering to get him to pony up the dough to get his own blog set up, so make sure you give him some love and click on him often!

Posted by mattLandia at 01:17 PM | Permalink