Oh...forgot to mention that the customer changed their plans AGAIN late last night. They had gone so far as to purchase plane tickets to Vizag for us, but I got a call at 10 last night telling me we'll be working in Chennai at the same place we've been sitting for the past week. I guess they seem to think all the tasks that haven't been done for the pasts 4 days will get done this morning. I'm trying to be optimistic.

I was reading in the newspaper yesterday about the increasing number of cosmetic surgery procedures being performed in India. It's amazing how cheap it all is!

I was talking to Ashish about liposuction for $1000, and mentioned Lasik surgery. He says several of his friends have had Lasik and it costs about $100 for both eyes. In the US, it's about $600 per eye.

Oddly enough, I'm actually considering it. Which is funny because before I left I got a really short haircut so I wouldn't have to risk getting my hair cut in India. But I'm considering surgery on my eyes?

I'm in such a foul mood I hardly want to write anything.

Not surprisingly, despite our "firm" plans for the day, nothing was accomplished. Ashish and I both got work done on other projects using email, but it was so slow he fell asleep at one point. Seems fair since I snoozed a bit yesterday.

Tomorrow we head to Vizag to replace a system there. I'm really trying to be optimistic that we won't have a similar debacle.

And I'll spare you the details, but a hundred Imodium may not be enough for this trip.

Isn't it interesting how a tiny of bit of eggshell in an omlette will ruin an otherwise perfectly mediocre breakfast?

I shopped around for a suit today for the wedding, but most Indians are a lot smaller than I am so I couldn't find anything in my size.

The only purchase of the day was a new pair of shoes for Nicole...

At least I have something to show for my Tuesday!

I still don't know what these guys are smiling about.

My big fear was that when I arrived the computers would still be in boxes. Turns out my fears were optimistic...they didn't even have the PCs yet! Our meeting on Monday morning (business mornings seem to start about 10:30 or 11 here) seemed to be the first mention of computers being necessary for our computer automation system.

They pulled a couple of desktop units from other locations, but our audio cards wouldn't fit in them...the cards were large enough that they ran into heatsinks or other motherboard components. So we sat around Monday waiting for new computers.

Tuesday, they'd turned up a server and started to configure it. It's a short 1 rack-unit computer, which means it's too short for full-size sound cards to be installed. They thought they could maybe use it as a file server, which totally changed the configuration of the system.

We gave up waiting for the machine to be configured and went and took a long lunch and did some shopping. Came back to the station around 3:30 and they were still working on the server.

Now they've decided that since the station we're working on isn't really ready anyway, we're traveling to a town near Calcutta to replace another company's automation system. It's going to mean another pieced together configuration and some tricky data conversion, but we're all happy to have something to do. Why is it that sitting around with nothing to do is more tiring that working all day?

The obligatory cow picture. That's a cart of mangos behind it. Mangos good.

Ashish is 27 and about to get married. I made the mistake of mentioning his impending nuptials in front of one of his colleagues yesterday. Apparently, since this is not an arranged marriage there is the potential for backlash. He says some of the older guys will look at it as a sign of impetuousness, and those negative connotations will transfer to how they perceive him professionally. He says it will be better if they just find out about it when they receive an invitation and assume it's arranged. Hopefully they don't read blogs.

Another glorious day in Asia. We went this morning to pick up my friend Ashish for our meeting with the client. Our rep here, Technomedia, maintains an apartment which is where Ashish is staying.

I'd love to get one of these auto-rickshaws back to the States, but they're hardly practical in climates with true winters. It will be interesting to see what they do when monsoon season starts in a few days!

Well, I made it to India. Hardly a great beginning though. After a series of very long flights, and very long immigration lines in the Chennai airport, I exited the airport to 80-degree weather. Scary at 6 in the morning.

I was expecting a car from the hotel to be there to pick me up, but there wasn't one. I looked again at the paperwork/itinerary our rep sent over, and it indicated I wasn't arriving in Chennai until 10A. Rather than wait around for four hours, I simply hired a cab and made my way to the hotel.

Unfortunately, the hotel didn't have a reservation under my name, or the reps name, or the company name. Even worse, since it was early morning, the B-team was still working the front desk and their English was about as good as my Hindi.

I finally got a room, and after a dozen calls to the front desk, got Internet connectivity. Now that the basic needs are met, I think I'm up for a shower and some sack time.

As for the pic, it's the view from my hotel room. It's a shame the camera flash ruined my first shot...you could have caught a glimpse of one of my neighbors enjoying his morning pee off the roof across the way. Actually looked kinda fun.

It's funny...on the trip up, I had several deep insights into travel and life and everything. Insights that made me think "oh, you should put that on the blog". For the life of me, I can't remember a one of them right now!

I'm trying to be optimistic and believe that the rest of the trip will be great, but it's a bit challenging to be "up" after 20-something hours in the air!

Welcome to my blog!

Back by popular demand, I'll be posting my adventures in Asia. Check back soon for pics and comments on the adventure! I leave Tuesday, May 8, with my first scheduled stop in Amsterdam.