Color Clock - Representing Time As A Hexadecimal Color Value

I came across a post in my Facebook feed today that linked to The Colour Clock by Jack Hughes. It's a pretty neat idea - the current time is translated into a hexadecimal color value and applied to the background of the page. So as the time changes, the background color of the page changes as well.

The only thing is, it's in Flash so if you're on an iOS device, you won't be able to see it. Or if you'd like to pull it up on your web-enabled TV or other device that doesn't have Flash. So I spent my Sunday afternoon porting it over to JavaScript and this is what I have: http://colorclock.nogoodatcoding.com. Can you spot the original?

Will the real Color Clock please stand up?
It's the one on the left.

  

I've tried to stay true to the original but among other things, my colors are just a little off, most likely because I'm calculating them differently. You can find project details on my site.

 Cross-posted from No Good Tips & Tricks

Space Invaders

Space Invader made with mouse pads

There was a carton of free mouse pads kept in the common area of the College of Computing - someone stuck a bunch of them on a whiteboard and made this space invader!

Adieu 3120...

I'd got my first mobile phone in 2003; a cousin of mine was getting rid of it. When I got it, it had a cracked screen and a loose cover. But it was reason for me to get a number and those surface imperfections were easily fixed.

The phone was the Nokia 3120, apparently no longer in production. A Series 40 phone with CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 1.0 support, it was just what I needed. It had GPRS and support for MIDI files as ringtones and JPEG and GIF image support as well. I later got a DKU-5 data cable and used it a lot, putting wallpapers and ringtones on the phone and more recently, for upgrading my Java skills to include the basics of J2ME.

It was one solid piece of engineering; I must've dropped it a hundred times and it never gave. Light and durable, it gave me over five and a half years of service. But lately, it'd been acting up a bit; it wouldn't charge properly and there were problems accessing it via Nokia PC Suite. It appears the firmware was corrupted to some extent.

Last Friday, the keypad inexplicably stopped working. And it wasn't mechanical failure, because when I restarted the device, the keys would work again but stop after a while. All except for '5'. And then even that stopped. So I knew, as much as I'd been avoiding it, it was time to get a new phone.

Tweeter!

Recently, I discovered Twitter; it's yet another social networking site. But this one is pretty different. For one, it doesn't expect any commitment from you! You don't have to be a part of a community or group. All you do, is post what you're doing at the moment, in 140 characters or less, from your cellphone, IM or on the Web and that becomes your current status. Your friends will see your status along with how long ago you posted it along with others in their friends list.

Why do I like it? Well, it has the potential for saving you the trouble of having to explain what you've been doing for the past week/ month/ year when you meet someone who you haven't been in constant touch with. It's easier to follow what your friends are doing in their lives that have inexorably diverged from yours as time passes. You get this wireframe of an idea of how they're spending their time. It would make it so much easier to catch up when you do meet up.

Of course, you and your friends would need to be on the site and doing this regularly. Unfortunately for me, none of my friends seem to find this appealing enough to sign up. They claim to have enough accounts as it is and don't want to try it out. Sad.

Well, I spent the last two weeks making Tweeter!, a Java client for Twitter because I hated having to leave my browser open to be able to post. Initially, I tried out Twitteroo, a pretty popular app, but it didn't work for me. At work, I connect through a proxy and Twitteroo does not support using proxies as of this writing. At home, I don't have enough space to install the latest Microsoft .Net framework and I can't be bothered to clean out my hard disk right now. Once I discovered the excellent jTwitter API from ThinkTank, I decided to build my own; both for use later as well as a hobby app to teach myself Swing.

It's been done for a couple of days and it seems to have turned out fine. You can download it here. If you do use it, consider letting me know what you think at no.good.at.codingATgmail.com; I'd love to hear from you. If you don't like it, you can always try out other Twitter apps like Twitteroo ( Windows only ) or Twitterrific ( Mac only ). You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nogoodatcoding.

NoGoodAtCoding.com

I own it! The it in question being the domain name 'nogoodatcoding.com'. I bought it yesterday and I've been fooling around with ever since. It's made me aware of a whole new dimension to the Internet. I'm still in the process of setting stuff up and so I guess I'll be a little busy for a while...which means no long, drawn-out posts :D

I have managed to publish both my blogs to custom domains using the feature offered by Blogger. There will be a few hiccups though; notably with images loading. I've also noticed that if you type in the blog's original, blogspot name with a 'www.' prefixed, it doesn't redirect to the custom domain.

Also, the blogs may simply not be available as the propagation of the changes across the DNS over the Internet takes some time; most sites I've seen say 24-48 hours, a couple stated up to 72 hours. Though I've already checked that a few people can already access these, it may still take sometime. Actually, if you're reading this, it's already happened; and if you weren't, well, then you wouldn't have known what was happening. :D

I think this post is getting close enough to being drawn-out now; and my domain settings beckon!

Tridecennary

tridecennary (try-di-SEN-uh-ree) noun

1. A period of thirteen years.

2. A thirteenth anniversary.

[From Latin tres (three), from decem (ten) + annus (year).]

I'm a subscriber of A.Word.A.Day ( not that it does me much good! Though, admittedly, I don't really get time to go through the mails properly, so... ). Anyway, last week's theme was the number 13, as it was their thirteenth anniversary. This was the first word and Anu Garg mentioned that Google showed only one hit for this word. I'd run a search for it at that time and seen 3 results; the original plus the Wordsmith site. And a search now shows about 668 results ( with Wordsmith at the top! )

As a Sally Boyson noted in the AWADmail Issue 253, it is a great example of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle which states that you can't observe something without affecting it in someway. Of course, it also reflects the immense popularity of A.Word.A.Day!

हिंदी Transliteration!

I've been busy the last couple of weeks and haven't really put up any posts ( What? You noticed? :) ) When I logged in yesterday and decided to tweak the settings a bit, I noticed a new option under the Basic Settings: 'Show transliteration button for you posts?'. Intrigued, I set it to yes and checked out the Blogger help entry for it.

Well, guess what? It's a totally awesome feature that automatically converts what you type in English, to Hindi! It works phonetically so what you type may not come out right, but they have very thoughtfully provided options to either correct what you're typing or have complete control by typing out letters from a on-screen keyboard. And it seems to work rather well too! It is just fantastically impressive!

However, it does have some limitations and the text may not always display correctly. But I guess they'll work that out sometime in the future.

तो अब हम हिंदी में ब्लोग लिख सकते हैं! क्या, क्या बनाया है इन्सान ने! विज्ञानं कितनी सीमाएँ पार कर चुका है! १-२ साल पहले ही, क्या कोई मानता कि यह सब मुमकिन है?

Alright, very 10-class-board-essay-type sentence there; but it pretty much covers it. And I just have to mention that I didn't have to edit a single letter for it! It came out right the first time around! This feature is just tremendously brilliant!

For those of you who can't see it, try reading this article and till you get it right, here's a screenshot:

After going through the help entry for this feature, I'm quite embarrassed because I realize that my knowledge of my mother tongue isn't as good as it should be. The Google guys probably know much more about the structure, syntax and semantics that I ever will. I don't even know the complete alphabet in order! I've got the option but I probably wouldn't be able to correct any spellings in my Hindi sentences!

Bathroom Cleaning Tip

The room that I'm renting had a bathroom that was, well, not quite that dirty, but not pristine either. The tiles and bathware were stained a bit and the taps seemed really rusty.

Well, I've got it all gleaming now! And today I'm going to share my secret with you! You too can have a bathroom that looks brand new! It'll make your friends wonder how you manage it! And all it takes is a little bit of shopping a lot of hard work! Not to mention regularly visiting this blog to get more neat tips on various things ( a little bit of shameless self-promotion there :D )!

You'll need the following:

• Harpic ( or something similar )
  
• Steel scrubber

The Harpic can help you save a quite a bit of back-breaking scrubbing if you use it properly. And the scrubber is almost certainly guaranteed to scrape off most grime off most surfaces ( along with quite a bit of your fingertips if you're not careful! )

Start off by generously coating the surface( s ) to be cleaned with Harpic. Let it stay for a while but don't let it dry. If you clean now, even with a plastic scrubber, you'll get most of the stains off. But the steel scrubber will definitely do the job better. I used this method to get the taps good as new and the basin and tiles squeaky clean.

Oh, and for those of you that don't know, newspaper is excellent for cleaning mirrors without streaking or leaving irritating little strands.

So go ahead, clean your bathroom and get a good workout at the same time. And when your friends ( or foes ) ask, direct them to this blog :D

Invention

"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."

- Thomas Alva Edison ( 1847 - 1931 )

But in the end, it is the 1% that really matters. You could slog at something for weeks or months and get nowhere. Actually, you probably wouldn't even get started if it weren't for the initial 'A-ha!'.

There are so many inventions that are taken for granted but are just so wonderful. Take the safety pin. It is such an amazing design; simple, elegant and yet infinitely useful. Whatever would hold nappies together if it weren't for these little things? Consider also the stapler, paper clips, key rings, sticky notes, clothes pegs, band-aids and uncountable other things that make life so convenient. It's all about finding a niche to fill.

So I've been doing a little thinking about what I'd like to see created. You know how, with computers, you can change your desktop and visual themes to suit your mood or preferences any time you like? It great that when you get tired of looking at the same wallpaper everyday, you can choose another. Now, OLEDs seem to be big. And one possible application I see is in t-shirts. I know it sounds weird, but think about it. You could have a chip and the OLED embedded in you t-shirt and have some way, possibly Bluetooth or maybe through a cable that plugs in to the shirt at one end and the computer at the other, to load an image ( or even images so you have a choice later ) to be displayed as your t-shirt's 'print'. I think that would be really cool, to be able to select what your t-shirt looks like everyday; maybe even many times a day; to reflect your mood or your preference.

But this is something that I feel is more or less bound to happen soon. It's just waiting to be developed, what with clothes embedded with electronics being showcased all over and chips getting smaller in size and larger in capacity and just cheaper everyday. What I'd really want; what I really need, is some sort of contraption that will give me a way to manage my earphones! Something that will allow a quick-release from the 'put-away' state so I can just plug them in and put them in my ears without having to untangle the wires; and also vice-versa - when I'm done, I should be able to roll them up or wind them back or whatever, quickly and easily. Now that would be an invention. :D

I dream about inventing these things and being lauded the world-over. But, alas! I'm more dreamer than inventor. And I certainly am incapable of putting in the required '99% perspiration' !

Cold Milkshake Tip

I prefer cold coffee or a cold milkshake to a hot milk drink. But as we all know, Bournvita or Horlicks doesn't quite mix well with cold milk. It all just lumps together and floats on the top. It is fun to scoop it out and munch on but it leaves the milk rather insipid with only a very faint flavour. You could spend some unproductive minutes trying to crush the lumps but that doesn't really help.

Now, what I've discovered is this ( and ignore me if you already knew and carry on with whatever it is that you were doing, but those of you who weren't aware of this and wished for an easier way to mix cold milk with a mix, will thank me ) - If you make a paste of the additive, Horlicks or Bournvita or whatever else with water first, it will blend like a dream!

You could add just a little bit of water and the mix to your glass first to just make a paste or you could add more to make a sort of syrup. Stir firmly and crush all lumps to get a smooth paste/ syrup. Either way, when you add the milk, there'll be no more frustration and cold, smooth milky goodness.

This is how I start my mornings now; and so can you! All for the cost of having visited my blog and read this post! Not such a bad deal is it? :D

Rains

I like it when it rains. Not all the time; but every once in a while. And only on holidays or days when I don't have to do much travelling around!

I love the way the way the sky darkens as clouds start gathering in the distance. The whole world looks so surreal; the sky is dark but there is this weird ethereal illumination that seems to be radiating from everywhere. It gives the sky an orangish colour and makes everything look so different.

As the storm builds up you can see people scurrying around; rushing to get home and finish their business before the downpour starts. Soon, with flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, the rain starts. The smell of dry earth that is suddenly wet by the water from the heavens has got to be one of the most wonderful scents ( even though it is caused by bacteria! ).

Sitting cozily at home and watching the storm break is so much fun. You involuntarily crave hot samosas and/ or soup to counter the chill in the air. Or maybe after coming in after getting caught in the rain, you could use the nutrition and warmth.

The medley of sounds that accompanies the rains is very soothing; the low, deep, distant rumble of thunder that follows the sudden cracks of lightening; the steady pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof and windows; the water dripping from the roofs; the relaxing gurgle of water flowing into the drains. And what makes it special is the silence otherwise. It drowns out everything else and makes the world seem so private.

After the rain stops, everything seems so much brighter and cleaner. All the colours seem different. The green of the trees and plants seems to be glossy and dazzling. The world seems cleansed and reborn; free from sin. The air is clean, crisp and cold. And falling asleep to the sound of rain falling outside is so relaxing. You feel so warm and protected in your cozy bed while the elements rage outside.

But, as with everything else, there are certain drawbacks to it raining too. If you happen to be travelling when the storm hits, it's very frustrating and irritating to be wet and cold. The worst is when you're get caught on the way to work; if you're heading home, it's not that bad because you know you can have a nice warm bath once you reach, followed by a hot meal. I've spent hours squelching around in wet clothes and shoes at college so I know how bad it can be.

But I think the worst aspect is that we have to suffer power cuts! I hate that when it rains and its the best time to turn off the lights and make some popcorn and sit down for a movie, you can't because there is no electricity. And that my downloads at night get interrupted. Though they can be fun too. It gives you an excuse not to study ( if its not too urgent of course. I remember many exams that forced me to sit up on a cold, rainy night with a candle when I'd rather be tucked into bed with a good book! ). It's much quieter too, without any TV's or music.

But nothing lasts forever, not even cold rain; which is good because after a few days of incessant rainfall, things tend to get a little musty and damp. Clothes don't dry and food left out for a couple of days has a tendency to go bad or get soggy. Going out is severely restricted, especially if, like me, you travel around on a two-wheeler; and that can seriously cramp your style :D

So, I guess, as with all things, moderation is the key. Rains are welcome but only for a short while.

Winters

Winter's almost at an end here and it's time to start putting away all the woolens and blankets. I bid a sad farewell to my first winter in Delhi. I had a fun time; it is my favorite season.

It is such a relief to be free from the oppressive, sweat-soaked heat of summers. You can wake up late in the morning and it'll still be cool. In fact, if you can afford to, you could spend all day in bed, tucked in cozily in your blanket. You can safely skip bathing for days something you can't even dare dream about during summer. Though the frequent and protracted water shortages sometimes make this nightmare a terrible reality. And if its not you, then someone around you would surely be a victim.

Power cuts too lose their bite as you don't need the fans ( or coolers/ ACs if you're lucky ) to be on all the time. If there is a power cut and you can't use your heater anymore, it's not a big deal; just pile on another blanket or another layer of clothes and you'll be fine. The only reason why'd you'd suffer incase of no electricity is because you'd not be able to watch a movie or surf the net or whatever it is that you plan to do that involves power.

Winters also give me reason to bring out my jackets and pullovers that, strangely enough, I seem to have a large number of, considering that till now, I've lived in an area with a temperate climate. Staying in Delhi gave me chance to cycle thorough them all and break them in a bit.

Nutriment choice in summers is largely limited to ice-creams. Usually it's just too warm to have anything else. Winters, on the other hand, present you with a plethora of options. You can have soups, chaat, gaajar-ka-halwa, warm meals of all sorts and what not. Ice-creams are of course still an option.

Warm baths are another delight that can only truly be enjoyed in deep winter. A cold bath in summer is good, agreed. But it just isn't quite the same as a long, hot bath when you've come in from the freezing cold outside. After you're nice and clean, you can just go and tuck yourself back in bed again! A number of holidays that come during that part of the year, Christmas and New Year being the principal ones, help make it fun too.

I especially like the dark, overcast and foggy days that winter has to offer. The whole day seems to be stuck at twilight. And the fog makes it seem so mysterious. I love walking through a fog; it makes the world seem so peaceful and quiet and all my own; my private little place, a much nicer place. It hides out all the evil and sadness, and only shows me a uniform grayness all around.

Though I will say, there is one thing bad about winters; the cold makes my joints hurt. :D

Shopping

I've been spending quite a lot these past few months, ever since I started earning. I've been buying things left and right and I've realized that yes! It is therapeutic!

I love purchasing small utility items and then going home and putting them to use. I also like purchasing big utility items and then going and putting them to use but I can't afford to do that too often. I've recently bought a cupboard, a bed and a fridge. I had a great time arranging it all to fit perfectly in my room.

The fridge has been utilized to its full. I bought lots of stuff just to fill it up; ice cream, soy milk, milk, eggs, butter, cheese spread, the works! Its just wonderful, the way it sits there and hums away to itself!

I have fun with small stuff too. I bought some rope the other day to fashion a clothesline. I spent an interesting morning putting it up and adjusting it so it was just right.

I visit the local CSD canteens ( that’s right! Canteens! As in, more than one! ) every other weekend to pick up stuff. The fact that things there are cheaper than outside makes shopping so much more pleasurable! I buy cartons of juice, Chocos, coffee, jam, soap, scrubs, powder, deos, dusting cloths, noodles, napkins, everything! Oh, it’s just wonderful!

It's so relaxing to walk down all those aisles looking around for things to pick up. Scanning and observing. All that choice! All those goods! Making mental notes to pick up something during the next trip. And it all feels so good once you get back and go through your purchased goodies! And if you managed to get a good bargain or struggled and jostled through a crowd to get what you wanted, it feels even better. To sort it all and put it away. To sit down later, comforted by the knowledge that you have all the stuff you need, should you suddenly want it, right there. To use something and beam at it for easing your life and providing comfort and convenience.

Unfortunately, I don't get paid nearly enough to support my hobby. There's only so much I can buy before I'm all out. And then its 3 more weeks till the next round begins.

Trip To Bangkok : Finale

( This post follows from Trip To Bangkok: Day III. Post V of V chronicling, well, what else? My Trip to Bangkok! )

The day after my return from Bangkok was a Sunday. That was fortunate since I could spend time recovering from the hectic 3 days and take care of mundane activities like cleaning the room and washing clothes. It was unfortunate in that I was all by myself and that was cause for me to ruminate and that always leads me into depression.

I wondered if I'd ever be well-off enough to actually be able to afford a trip like this one. If I'd have the time to be able to spend time out somewhere with my family, just relaxing.

I was also painfully aware of the crude way in which Indians presented themselves, even while travelling abroad. Their lack of culture and boorish manners make me cringe all the while. I want to get away from it all, move away from all this. But I also know that I'll never actually fit in anywhere.

If I were to immigrate, I'd never be a first-class citizen, especially in, say, the States or the UK. But if I were to stay back here and live out the rest of my life in this country, I'd spend sometime everyday in frustration at the lack of basic amenities; the lack of civility among the people; the apathy of the government; the state of the country in general.

The trip was an eye-opener, yes. But it hasn't made anything clearer.

Trip To Bangkok : Day III

( This post follows from Trip To Bangkok: Day II. Post IV of V chronicling, well, what else? My Trip to Bangkok! )

I woke up after about 3 hours of sleep to the insistent ring of the phone. I answered to hear a voice at the other end say ‘This is your six-thirty wake up call, sir’. I thanked him and fell back to my pillow. I lounged for a while then got up and went to get ready. Freddie, who had decided we should be up at that ungodly hour, was still snoozing when I came out from the bathroom. After he got ready, I took our breakfast coupon and we went down to eat.

There was a large spread awaiting us. There were cornflakes, Chocos, toast, fried eggs, bacon, sausages, fruits, juices, pancakes and some more things. I stuffed myself on the chicken sausages and consequently, was feeling queasy the rest of the day. We both ate well and after being completely stuffed, lumbered our way to the front door to catch a taxi to the Grand Palace.

The Palace was quite a distance from our hotel. When we reached there, we were approached by an old man who offered to be our guide for 300 baht. We considered it and agreed. You aren’t allowed to wear clothes that expose too much skin; so 3/4ths, shorts, spaghetti tops etc. are a no-no. But they do provide you clothes to wear over your own. You’re supposed to deposit 100 baht or your driving license or something similar and collect it on the way out after depositing the borrowed clothes. We both had to get a pair of pants to wear over our 3/4ths, but our guide took care of procuring them.

We then walked down to the ticket counter where the guide told us to buy tickets, 250 baht each! We were stunned since we’d figured the 300 baht we were paying him was inclusive of the tickets! There was no alternative so we bought the tickets. Freddie was kinda ticked off at this. We then went inside and started following the guide. He seemed to be in a big hurry. He would point at something, tell us a little bit of its history, tell us to click a picture and then rush us off to see something else. It was very irritating and Freddie was especially peeved at this. He started showing his anger by not following him, or at best, ambling along at his own pace. He stopped everywhere to click photos.

As an aside, Freddie loves to take pictures. He doesn’t want to be in them. He doesn’t want anyone else to be in them. He just wants to take photos of the buildings and things that he sees. Just to document the trip. I hate going through photos like that! My dad does the same thing! We’ve got hundreds of photos of mountains and valleys and lakes and other natural exhibits. They’re ok for one look; some of the places are quite beautiful; but I just can’t go through that many photos of the same thing! I would prefer to see someone I know, perhaps doing something stupid so we can all get a laugh out of it.

Anyway, we went over the whole place and were out of it in less than an hour. We then walked around and went past the Democracy monument. After some more wandering around, we caught a taxi back to the hotel since we were supposed to check out at 1200. We reached back around 1100 and had a bath and packed all our stuff. I went down to get our things from the safe deposit box. Once we were all done we went down to the lobby. Freddie wanted to buy some Thai beer for his friend and he said that he’d seen a place along the Sukhumvit Soi 55, the road we’d walked down from the Thong Lo station. He suggested we walk back that way, buy the beer and then take a taxi the rest of the way. I agreed and we set off.

My suitcase was heavy and clumsy to carry. All Freddie had was his bag. We kept walking, looking for that elusive shop that Freddie thought he’d spotted the evening before. My shoulders were killing me and my palms were starting to blister when we reached the Thong Lo station without having found the shop. We gave up on the idea of Thai beer and took a train to Siam. Except we bought tickets for 15 baht and not 25 baht as we should have. So when we got off at Siam, the turnstile wouldn’t open for us. So we asked a guard what was wrong and he said we’d have to pay 40 baht to get out. Luckily, he was under the impression that only one of us was stuck. So he got us one pass for 40 baht and then was confused as I asked him from the other side about how Freddie was going to get through and finally just let him through.

Freddie wanted to go back to Sizzlers since, he said, he’d not get to have authentic beef steak till he was back in Ireland, and that was two months away. I wasn’t very hungry and wanted to have junk food so I waited for him to finish eating. I was so tired that I slept through his whole meal; right from placing the order till he ate his last bite! After he paid, we went to get him a coffee from Starbucks. On our way out, he pointed out a KFC across the street and we made our way to it. I ordered a Zinger burger to take away and went out to the pavement where Freddie was waiting on my suitcase and proceeded to devour the burger. After that, I felt like some ice-cream so I went to the Siam Paragon, where we’d been the first day, and got myself a scoop of chocolate ice-cream from New Zealand Natural. On the way back, I crossed some people promoting Eragon, the movie. I got a couple of mini-posters from them for my sister. On reaching where I’d left Freddie with my luggage, I put the posters in my suitcase.

As we started walking, a car stopped by us with a Starbucks paper coffee cup on its top. A tourist passing by tried to take it off to discover that it’d been pasted on top! As a Christmas promotion, they were giving away coupons for a free coffee at Starbucks. We both got one each too but we were too tired to go back to the store and get any. So we just caught a taxi to the airport. We stopped once on the way as the guy needed to make a visit to the bathroom :)

Once at the airport, I went to get changed into clothes that’d be more suited to the Delhi winter. It was a difficult job and it took me quite sometime to get done. By then, Freddie’ had already got his boarding pass. I’d to struggle a bit to get the guy at the counter to understand that I wanted a seat with Freddie. With that finally done, I checked in my suitcase, collected my boarding pass and we walked around a bit and then decided to move into the airport. Then we discovered that we needed to pay 500 baht as airport tax! Freddie had been saving some money for duty free shopping, so he had 1000 baht. I had almost nothing. He needed more money now, so I got a $20 bill changed to lend to him.

The duty free shops were incredible! There was so much to buy! And buy Freddie did! He spent more there than he had during the entire stay at Bangkok! I don’t remember what he bought since I was more interested in getting on the plane and getting back home. I spent all that time trailing behind him and watching all the gadgets at the electronics shops. Later, we tried to locate a Starbucks so that we could use our coupons but couldn’t find one. Sigh!

Finally, we were tired and Freddie had bought all he wanted, so we sat down and waited for our gate to open. After it did, we went through the security check and walked to our gate and sat down to wait some more for our boarding call. I spent the time reading my magazine. We found our seats; they were right next to an emergency exit and at the start of the seats. So that meant that there were no seats in front of us. That gave us leg space but no pockets to put stuff into and tables that were awkward to get out of they little places in the armrests.

Freddie got talking to the guy with us who was also from Ireland and I got out my player and magazine. We were soon served dinner and I watched the in-flight movie ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ which was nice. We were delayed a bit and when we finally reached, it was 2130. Stepping into Delhi airport was such a disappointment after having seen the Bangkok airport. We walked to the immigration counters where we parted ways since I had an Indian passport and Freddie was a foreign individual. I was through faster and I went to collect my suitcase. I was soon joined by Freddie who was looking for his duty free shopping parcel. After a bit of running around to find out where he’d be able to collect it, we found out that it’d be coming on the same belt, but right at the end. So we waited till all the luggage had come and then he finally collected his stuff.

We were supposed to be picked up by a car that Freddie had requested from the company but we couldn’t see anyone at the arrival area nor could we get in touch with the driver. Freddie tried calling up the guy who arranges the vehicles and he told him that he’d try calling the driver and get back to him. To cut a long story short, the driver was somewhere at the airport and we were able to explain to him where we were after a little struggle and he turned up soon after to pick us up. The journey back home was quick, since it was around 2230 and soon I was back home.

I waved goodbye to Freddie once I got off the car and then I proceeded to the gate to find it locked! Since everybody in the house where I rent a room was out of town, the landlady had locked up the doors from the inside. I rang her up and asked to open up. Luckily she was home otherwise I’d have had to spend the night outside! I went home, heated some water for a bath. I didn’t bother to unpack since I was really tired.

After bathing, I got into bed and lay for while thinking about the whole trip. I was a little depressed at coming back home, back to the dirt and crudity of India. But I’d also missed it and it was a contest between depression because of short trip and familiarity of being back home. Guess which won?

Trip To Bangkok : Day II

( This post follows from Trip To Bangkok: Day I. Post III of V chronicling, well, what else? My Trip to Bangkok! )

Freddie, in his state of gleeful bliss, following the umpteen glasses of champagne cocktails, set the alarm for 0830, Indian time! That meant that it was about 0950 in Bangkok. There was no way we could make it for breakfast. So we continued sleeping. A simple yet elegant solution. :D

We finally woke up at around 1200, Bangkok time and after a quick wash, went down to catch a taxi to go visit the malls. We took a taxi to Thong Lo station and bought an all day pass for the SkyTrain. It was 120 baht and allowed us to travel for a whole day to any station as many number of times as we wanted. We then took a train back to Siam. When we observed it during the day, we saw that it was actually 3 malls all connected to one another.




We went to the Siam Paragon which was had all the classy, expensive boutiques. Inside we saw a Ferrari F430 and a Lamborghini Murcielago. Of course we took photos. :D We walked around a bit and then went downstairs. Since we were hungry, we were looking for a place to eat. Downstairs was the food court. I saw a chocolate pudding that I liked the look of, so I decided to sample some. Freddie spotted a New Zealand Natural ice-cream stand so he ordered 3 large scoops of different types of ice-cream. We found a place to sit and spent a few minutes polishing off our goodies.

Temporarily satiated, we went to the mall next door, the Siam Center, which we’d visited the night before too. On the way we saw preparations for a Skatejam. People were setting up the area and there were also a few guys practicing. We made a note to come by later and watch it but unfortunately we couldn’t make it for the actual show.

We strolled through the Siam Center and Freddie found a Starbucks and got himself some coffee. I’ve tried something from there once before, in Jakarta, and I didn’t really like it too much then, so I decided to pass. We then went to the third mall, the Siam Discovery and did a bit of window shopping. There, we found a big shop selling lots of stuff like stationary and gift items and crockery. We went to have a look. I bought a mouse pad and a couple of phone charms.

After an hour or so, we’d had enough of these malls. Freddie had this restaurant that he wanted to go to, the V9. It was on the 37th floor of the Sofitel Silom hotel. So we went back to the Siam station and caught a train to Chong Nonsi. When we went to the hotel, we found that it was open only after 1700! But we spotted another restaurant, Shanghai, on the 38th floor. So went up to that. It was very classy and looked very expensive. I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend so much on Chinese food but Freddie had his heart set on it, so I went along with it without protest.

We took a table next to window to be able to get a good view of the city. We weren’t disappointed. The panorama was incredible. We could see out for miles. Freddie started ordering the food while I went through the menu. He asked for 3 dishes and asked me if I’d share one of them with him. Since I wasn’t very hungry, an aftereffect of the chocolate pudding, I didn’t order anything else for myself. When it came, the food looked very enticing. It had been arranged very nicely. I tried a bit of everything.

First up was the Drunken Chicken. It’s served cold and tasted like it’d been cooked in beer or something. I didn’t like it too much, but it wasn’t bad, just different. Then there were pork ribs which were alright. I forget what the third dish was but it was the best of the three. There was also fried rice. Even though I shared with Freddie, my hunger was sated. And even though I shared with Freddie, our bill was about Rs. 1800!

After lunch we strolled back to the Chong Nonsi SkyTrain station and caught a train back to Siam where we changed over to the other line and went to Thong Lo. From there we decided to walk back to our hotel since it seemed close enough ( it wasn’t that close! It was around a 40 minute walk ). Freddie and I bought a fake perfume each from a vendor under the station for 200 baht each. We then wandered down the Sukhumvit Soi 55 road, looking at shops and the general area. We saw a Burger King on the way and decided to get our dinner from there. After collecting our orders we continued our journey back to the hotel.

Once we were back, we rested for a while, eating our food. The plan for the evening was to go to a Thai boxing fight and to visit the Patpong area, famous for its night market. And its red light district. So we asked at the front desk for information on Thai boxing. We were told that there were two places where we could watch and the timings were 1830 to 2230. It was about 1900 then so we decided to go there first. The nearer boxing stadium was at Lumpini. We caught a taxi to there and on the way crossed the Suo Lim night market which we figured we could visit if the Patpong one was closed for some reason.

At Lumpini, as soon as we got out, an official asked us if we were there to watch Thai boxing. She then directed us to the ticket counters. There are 3 levels: you can sit at the ring side; stand behind those sitting at the ring side; or stand one more level up and further. The prices forced us to buy tickets for the third and cheapest level. We were still lighter by 1000 baht, each, though! Inside there was a ring with two guys, one in red and one in blue, who were in amazing shape, fighting. It really wasn’t that exciting. The fight was slow and there would be sudden increase in the action but it short lived. Maybe it’s just the influence of too many Matrix movies, but I thought it’d be a little more to it.

We left the stadium after the main fight of the day was over. Freddie wanted to ride a tuk-tuk so we looked around for one. We found one who was ready to take us to Patpong for 100 baht. We piled in and he roared off. The tuk-tuk is kinda like the autorickshaws we have here in India, except its more open and more powerful. The driver was under the impression that we were going to Patpong to indulge our baser desires. So he kept asking us if we wanted him to recommend some place! It was pretty much the same after we got off at the market where we were accosted by every third person to come visit the shop he/ she was working for! We kept fighting them off and making our way through the market.

The market itself it set on the road itself. Lots of people setup make shift stalls and lay out their wares. It’s pretty much the same stuff in all the shops: DVD’s, trinkets and jewelry, belts, clothes and watches. A little further, on the pavement next to the main road, there were shops selling other show pieces and assorted Thai handicrafts. We both bought some little stuff ( I paid too much for mine! The trick is to quote less than half of what the shopkeeper says and then haggle your way up to a price that is good for you both )

After spending so much money in one evening, I thought it was best to go back to our room and so we went to nearest SkyTrain station and decided to make a detour to the Victory Monument. We got off at the station, walked to the monument and took a few pictures. Freddie had heard of some other palace nearby and wanted to take a look. I wasn’t too keen but we went out looking. After walking for a while and not being able to figure out where to go exactly, we gave it up and decided to go back.

We went to the Asok staion. We planned to take the MRT which is the underground version of the SkyTrain. Except the last train for the station we were trying to get to had a long since departed. We hurried back to the SkyTrain since it was getting close to midnight and the operations for the day would soon stop. We caught a train to Thong Lo and caught a taxi back to the hotel from there. Freddie asked for a wake up call at 0630 so that we’d get ready in time for breakfast. We went up to the room and had a bath and got ready to sleep after a very long and tiring day. Except we just couldn’t! Both of us kept tossing and turning in our beds for almost an hour before I gave up on sleep and switched on the TV. The Glass House was on on Star Movies so I settled down to watch that. It’d been a few hours since we’d last eaten so Freddie got some stuff out of the mini-bar. He polished off a couple of Toblerone bars and a fruit juice.

I was groaning inside at the prospect of just 3 odd hours of sleep once again in 2 days when we finally drifted off to sleep at around 0300.

Trip To Bangkok : Day I

( This post follows from Trip to Bangkok: Prelude. Post II of V chronicling, well, what else? My Trip to Bangkok! )

We stepped into the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and looked around for the check-in counters. I got my suitcase x-ray'd and then we went to get some bahts, that’s Thai currency, in lieu of some of the rupees we were carrying. We then headed to the counters and got our boarding passes. That’s when we noticed that the flight scheduled departure time was 1015! We'd been planning for 0840! ( After we got back I found out that that flight had been rescheduled because of concerns of delays due to fog. Well, nobody told us! )

We then strolled down to the lounge to try and catch some shut-eye. I'd eaten before leaving because I'd suspected some sort of delay but Freddie had been out to a pub the night before and hadn't slept all night. We spotted a SubWay outlet and he went off to get something to eat. After he'd finished, I felt a bit peckish myself, what with having to watch him devour his sub, so I went and got myself one too. Tummies full, we went to find some seats in quieter spot. We found one that was relatively silent and dragged another set of seats closer and lay down on them as comfortably as we could in that situation. Freddie slept off immediately but I couldn't, being as paranoid as I am, I kept jerking awake to check that our bags weren't being stolen.

Hours passed and finally our flight was announced. We walked through the security check and headed towards our gate where we had to wait for another 40 minutes. When we finally boarded our flight, I noted with some apprehension that it seemed a bit rickety. Settled in our seats, we waited for take-off so we could get back to the pressing business of catching up on lost slumber. As we taxied towards the runway, the left engine, the one next to our seats, started an ominous knocking. Observing closer I realized that the damn thing hadn't started! It was turning over but not catching! I had this funny feeling in my stomach as I considered the implications of making a 2900-odd kilometer journey with only one engine or at best one good engine and one iffy engine. I contemplated cutting short the journey; surviving to talk about a trip to Bangkok that almost happened is better than not quite being there to describe how terrifying the crash into the ocean, during the course of one, was, right? Well, luckily, it started soon after and we soared off into the sky, as gracefully as it is possible for a rattling, aging aircraft to.

The flight was pretty uneventful. We were served beverages and food. I watched a bit of King of Queens and before we knew it, we were there. The Suvarnbhumi Airport looked nice as we taxi’d in to the parking bay. It’s huge and laid out very nicely. Of all the airports I’ve seen ( a meager few though ) I’d rank it second after the Changi International Airport at Singapore. We walked ( ok, stood on travellators ) a pretty good distance to reach the immigration counters. Freddie breezed right through ( Irish passport holders don’t require a visa ) but the lady asked me where my visa was. I told her that I had planned for the visa on arrival. She then directed me to the visa on arrival counter. I rushed there since I didn’t want Freddie to wait too long but I stopped in my tracks when I saw the number of people waiting, predominantly Indian! I got my number in the queue; there were 50 people ahead of me! A 40-minute wait followed during which I read most of my copy of the December issue of Digit. When my turn finally came, I paid the required 1000 baht ( Rs 1250 ) and submitted a photo to get my visa. That done I rushed back to find Freddie. He had been waiting on the other side of the immigration counter on my suitcase, which he’d collected. We walked out to look for a taxi. We found them easily enough.

We told the lady at the pre-paid taxi counter our hotel ( A-One Hotel, Bangkok ) and got into our taxi. The guy drove out of the airport and a few kilometers down the road asked us to confirm our hotel name. We repeated it and he looked lost. He said he didn’t know where it was! I showed him the inadequate map that I’d printed off the net but he couldn’t figure it out. He then kept coasting as he waited for his dispatch to call him back with directions. At this point, I was having serious misgivings about the quality of the hotel. I hadn’t been able to find much info on it on the net. In fact, at first, I couldn’t find anything at all! The travel agent sent me a mail saying we’d be booked into the ‘Avon’ hotel! And that turned up absolutely nothing!

The driver finally found out where it was and we spend on our way. It was tucked away somewhere in the back lanes of the outskirts of Bangkok and my apprehensions were mounting as I surveyed what looked like a wasteland on the approach to the hotel. Once we entered, however, it seemed pretty nice. We went to the counter and presented our voucher and gave $100 as a deposit and sipped on our complementary juices as we waited for our room key. A lift took us up to our room on the 10th floor and the carpet as we stepped out was amazing. It was so deep and soft! And after all those hours of being in our shoes and walking around at the two airports, it felt great! We walked to our room and admired the layout on the approach. It was nice.

Our room was absolutely awesome! The beds were soft and springy, the bathroom was nice, the whole place was done up very tastefully and nicely. Freddie said it was the best room he’d ever stayed in and he’s traveled around a bit so I guess that counts for something. You have to see the pictures to get an idea. We unpacked and put our phones and cameras for charging. Freddie went in for a bath first and took his time in the tub. I watched TV in the meanwhile. Most of the channels were local Thai ones but we also got Star Movies and BBC World so not all was lost. I watched The Librarian while I waited. It was an ok movie.

While I had a bath, Freddie went downstairs and deposited our passports and excess cash ( a phrase that I never thought I’d use! ) in a safe deposit box. We changed into our 3/4ths and t-shirts and left to have a look around town and visit a few places that Freddie’s friend’s girlfriend, who’d just visited Bangkok, had recommended. We caught a taxi at the lobby and asked to be taken to the All Seasons Place. We reached there in about 15 minutes. We looked around the place and since Freddie wanted to go to a club there, we decided to look for a place to have dinner at, first. We walked back to the main road and found the entrance to the Phloen Chit SkyTrain station was the nearest. It was quite nice, very like the Delhi Metro stations. The train runs above the road ( Sigh! Of course! As the name would imply ). The stations are at two levels, the lower one is where the ticket vending machines and the personnel are and the upper one is where the platforms are. There is a guard on every platform to keep you from the crossing the yellow line. Freddie was admonished quite a few times; every single time we took the train, in fact. There are two lines: the Sukhumvit Line and the Silom Line, you can change them at the Siam station.

We didn’t know quite where to go and we were wondering whom to ask. I spotted a couple that was definitely Indian and I went and asked them were the main downtown area of Bangkok was. They said Siam and so Siam was where we decided to go. We got our tickets and a badly required map of Bangkok, it was drawn from the point of view of the SkyTrain, but very useful nonetheless. ( I’m putting a picture of that too. Because I can! ). We got off at Siam and I was surprised to see that the station opened into the mall itself! As we walked in I noticed a sign with the timings and realized that it was about to close ( it was 2100 )

Almost all the places that we checked with were not taking any new orders. But we finally found Sizzlers and though it looked kinda expensive to me, we went in. Freddie ordered lots of stuff ( he eats a lot, yeah ) and I don’t quite remember what I ordered but it was nice. While we waited for the order, we went to the salad bar and got some munchies. Again, Freddie piled his plate. I ate minimally. :)

After dinner we went back to the station and caught the SkyTrain back to Phloen Chit. We traced our route back to the All Seasons Place and walked in and looked for 87, the club there. This hotel, incidentally, was so much better than ours! It was breathtaking! We found our way down to the club where the guy at the entrance asked me if I was over 20! If you know me you’d know that was a really stupid question to ask. Especially I hadn’t shaved for almost 24 hours now! :D I warmly ( and possibly very convincingly, since he didn’t ask for proof ) confirmed that I was and we went inside. There was a live African-American band performing and they were good. But the bass was just too heavy! I was feeling a little queasy the whole time I was sitting there as it just pounded away without relief, the vibrations running through me.

We sat there for quite a few hours as Freddie kept sipping on a champagne cocktail ( 300+ baht each! ) At the end of it, I was very tired and sleepy and Freddie had a happy, contented glow about his smiling, pink face. We caught a taxi back to our hotel but we got off at a 7/11 some distance before and bought a few bottles of water. We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel. Before we reached, Freddie needed to answer the call of nature so he stepped into the shadows in an alley and emerged with a noticeable spring in his step.

Once we reached back, Freddie had another bath but I was too tired so I just changed and brushed my teeth and flopped into the bed. We wanted to get up in time for the complementary American style breakfast the next morning so Freddie set his alarm for 0830 ( breakfast was 0600 to 1000 ).

After being awake for that many hours, it wasn’t very difficult for me to fall into deep, dreamless sleep almost immediately. It’d have been nice to write that I slept and dreamt off all that I’d seen but nope. I was too tired for that.