Trekking 2.0

After my first trek with the Chennai Trekking club left me very dehydrated and with some strange jungle rash, it took me several months to muster the courage to follow Peter (a.k.a. Belgium Crazy Man) into the wild. So an "easy to moderate" expat trek sounded like a nice weekend out.

We hiked for two days and spent the night underneath the starry skies. At 800 meters (2400 feet), I fell asleep outside my sleeping bag and actually woke up cold. What a great feeling! There were not even any bugs to suck my blood while I slept. We swam in beautiful pools and shouted battle cries at nature (still not sure why).

Upon finally returning to our cars... no wait... I mean finally returning to a village 6 km away from our cars, Peter borrowed the "village bike" to go and get his car, returning 40 minutes later to get the other drivers. (Seriously, there was only one bike in the village.) After another 25 minutes or so, everyone piled into the vehicles to go get the last remaining vehicle. Can we please go home now?! 

We reached Chennai around 2am and I finally got back to my docile around 3am. Good sleeping. I woke up the next morning and felt like an old man with back stiffness and soar legs again, which makes me wonder what old people feel like after exercising. 

Year of the Cobra

 

I am not sure whether Kevin chose to give me the Cobra puzzle for Christmas because I am in the land of Cobra's or because I bite people like Cobra's and poison them. Or maybe it was because I am really good at crawling on my belly and/or tricking women to eat fruit. In any case, I am glad he did. Despite the fact that it took me far far too long, I enjoyed thinking of home when I did it. The Cobra puzzle was the second-best Christmas present I received this year. The first being the one I bought myself, a place ticket to Paris.

This Cobra puzzle symbolizes people overcoming their fears and resolving to continue the good fight. It represents freedom and liberty, hope and justice, and light blue with a little bit of yellow. That is why this year shall forever be known as "The Year of the Cobra". Join Me. Be A Real American Hero!

Thank you, sir.

The guy on the far left is my driver, Rama. The guy next to him is Mohan. He works for Ament and is a very pleasant fellow who has helped me out a lot since my arrival. I forget the guy on the far right, but he sold me the car. They decorated it with flowers and did a small religious ritual before handing me the keys, which I then handed to Rama.

Hot Sun, Cold Beer, Lazy Anthony

I heard it has been really cold in my former place of residence, Whatcom County. Well, here is a picture to warm you all up. In case you are wondering, the circle on the left is a jet pool and the half circle on the right is a bar. Most of the time I am in the office, but on the weekends I try to get away. Luckily, my friend Nick has a sick beach house with a private pool. It is only about a twenty minute drive from my house, which is nice, 'cause it wouldn't be worth it to drive more than twenty minutes for this.

Apodaca Overshadows Obama

If I had known that in celebrating Obama's victory I was going to steal momentarily his international spotlight, I might have thought twice about it. But since we don't have to worry about the polls anymore, I'll go with it. For those of you wondering about the headline, Chennai has somewhat of a nightlife problem, besides the fact that the whole city shuts down at 11pm. Actually, its kind of like living in Lynden, only 7 million people strong. I've gathered that because of cultural restraints, women do not typically go out as much as men, ergo the shortage of women in bars. Several places around town won't even let you in unless accompanied by a women. I'll never forget the first time I was denied entrance into a bar in Chennai. I felt like I was 18, trying to sneek into the Blarney Stone. Regardless of this rule, however, every time I have gone to one of these discriminatory places, pictured above, there is still way too many dudes there - as the article suggests.

Anthony Discovers Deezer

I'll credit Troy for this. Make your playlist here!

Discover Tom Waits!

Discover Rodrigo y Gabriela!

Discover The Cure!

Subway

I like Indian food a lot. Unfortunately, it is not treating my stomach so well these days, but I have found refuge in ordering sandwiches from the nearby Subway. However, I am increasingly frustrated by the fact that I cannot order a footlong even though it is on the menu. "Only six inch", they say. Is it too much to ask that they stop and think for one second about this proposition? Of course, I could do the work for them and order two six inchers, but the price is 139 bucks for a six inch and 224 for a footlong. So ordering two sixers would cost 54 bucks more. Even though I have explained this them over and over, and even though I put a Tamil speaker on the phone to explain it, they won't budge.

Of all the difficulties I have encountered in my time here, this one is putting me over the edge.