Jet Airways Bangalore to San Francisco

The ticket was cheap.

The Mumbai-San Francisco plane was a new 777 with LOTS of legroom in economy.

That's about all I can say positive...

The Mumbai transfer was all you expect with a transfer in India. 2 hours was just enough time to cover all the extra insane security checks and the bus ride from one terminal to another. Said bus ride was on what is quite possibly the filthiest bus on the planet. The Mumbai airport is nicer than when I was there 2 years ago, but still not a nice place to spend time.

The 2 hour stopover in Shanghai for refueling was an absolute bummer. You are guided off the plane into a glass jail cell to sit. No wandering the airport. No lounge. No TV. No amenities. The most horrible piped-in muzak you can imagine. It's like 2 hours of water-torture. And I'm not a smoker, but I felt sorry for the smokers, cause in this layover, there is no smoking area.

So, would I take Jet Airways again to SFO? Probably not. Singapore Airlines is much better in every respect. Lufthansa is not a better on-plane experience (it's the worst), but at least you get a break (pretzel and a good beer) in Germany. Air France is better and you can smuggle nice cheeses back into India on the return flight.

swimming hole...

Nothing better than a good swimming hole. And this one is literally a hole in the ground. That's me, shortly after having jumped from the launching pad at the top there. It was a hot day out on the bicycles so when we found the locals enjoying this spot, I had to join in.

It's an irrigation well and the water is at least 20 feet deep. Those stairs continue down another 10' at least underwater.

It was certainly dug by hand (imagine the effort) and probably a long long time ago. It's completely lined with stone.

As far as cleanliness, there are fish living in it, no algae or other signs of nutrient issues (fertilizer or waste), and well, a month later, I still don't have any rashes or skin diseases.

Local motion

A very typical pile of fresh veggies at the Madiwala market in town.

Locovore's make a small difference

I used to read ES&T regularly in grad school, but haven't seen it in years. Here is an interesting article on what it really means to only eat foods that come from a short distance around where you live.

Do food miles matter? | ES&T Online News

Bottom line is this: for an average American eating locally makes as much impact on greenhouse gas emissions as switching away from red-meat for one day a week. Red meat production represents 30% of the greenhouse-gas emissions, while shipping food to market is about 4%.

So what does this have to do with India? A couple things.

First, I suspect that the vast majority of Indians are locovores already. They simply cannot afford to buy food that has been trucked or shipped around the globe, let alone across India. In Bangalore we do see apples from Shimla in the north, but the vast majority of the food that is normally eaten in Bangalore can be grown within a 250km radius of here. We can reach the coasts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to get the most tropical of things, even though bananas and coconuts grow right in town. So we're fortunate in that respect. This part of India is VERY wealthy from a food-growing perspective. Lots of rain, mild climate, no frost, and some good soil in areas.

Second, the majority are vegetarians. And those who are not vegetarian typically don't eat much beef. They do eat goat (mutton) which qualifies as a red meat but isn't industrially grown like cows are in the US. I have never seen an industrial goat farm here. I have seen single herders tending to their herds of 30-50 goats. I have seen goat markets in the medium cities like Hosakote where it seems these herders bring their animals for sale and shipping to market. But I'm not sure there is a "feed-lot" concept in the production of mutton in India. This is probably why the mutton here is very stringy, chewy and rarely thick and tender like New Zealand mutton (sheep). And just outside of town (east of Whitefield, for example) you see many small chicken farms. These are what would probably qualify as "free-range" even. Certainly they're not "organic" but I doubt they're pumped full anti-biotics like the super-industrial chickens in America and Europe. And they don't travel far to market.

And with oil prices climbing higher, the economic drivers for local eating are even stronger.

My only real complaint about the veggies in Bangalore is the lack of variety. It seems that if it doesn't go in sambar, they hardly sell it.

Pain Killers May Delay Bone Healing

Pain Killers May Delay Bone Healing

Now they tell me.

I've been taking some NSAID painkillers for my broken collarbone. I took them pretty regularly for the first week, and then after that only when it was really bothering me.

Now, I usually look upon chiropractors as "Quacks", (See Penn and Teller's show for some info on that), but this article at the Chiropractice Research site actually cites university studies on rats which showed much slower bone recovery in those who were given painkillers.

I think I'll do my best to lay off the tablets for a while...

I really want this bone to heal and my shoulder to get back to normal. It is making me very very grumpy.