Sean’s Blog

Friday was our last day in Bangalore. To show our appreciation to everyone for the great time we had, we took them all out to Ivy and tore the roof off the place. Don’t ever let anyone tell you Indians don’t know how to party:

Pictures here

10 years ago, Bangalore was a city of less then 3 million people (according to a co-worker).  There are now over 7 million.  Several people have asked me what the city looks like so I’ve posted some photos of the city in the Bangalore album.  They also are the latest uploads.

And yes, I am terrified of that elephant.

It has been really busy here so I haven’t had time to really write up some details on the trip.  Let me just say this - the people are increadibly hospitible, the food is great, and the driving is crazier then you could ever imagine.  When I get some time I’ll post more in detail about it. 

For now though, here is the photo gallery of some of the pics: Bangalore Photos

I’ll be the first to admit it. I hate moneybelts. I hate neck pouches. But if you are traveling, they are really a necessity. Given, I know there has been a good amount of debate of their usefulness on some sites. But when you are carrying your passport and credit cards and sometimes sizable amounts of cash, they are definitely something I feel is worthwhile.

Now, I’ve tried to use them several time in Central America, and the inconvenience just plain outweighed the extra security, but I think I have a solution and I though I would share it with you all.

First I started with a basic neck pouch. The unmodified pouch hung to about my solar plexus and looked like I was wearing one of Flavor Flav’s clocks, underneath my shirt.

The points where the loop attached the pouch were plastic as well as the clasps, and I was pretty sure that they would not survive a brisk walk, let alone a snatch and run or pickpocket.

What I did was removed the loop altogether, and replaced it with some paracord. I ran the paracord through the belt loops  instead of the plastic loops for extra strength.  You want to give it a good amount of length, so it can be comfortable (I like sideways) and sit inside your pants or shorts. You also need to make sure that the knots are ABOVE the pouch so they don’t rub too much. Lastly, before you tie the knots, you will want to slip the pad on so it does not scrape you on your shoulder while you walk..

A couple tips:

• I like the bowline knot for tying the pouch. The knot will not come untied, and the loose end will point away from you if tied correctly.
• Make sure to size it up before you tie the knots. I like it so it hangs front pocket level with my pants.
• Paracord is STRONG. Most types can easily hold several hundred pounds, so if it gets hung up on something, it is a definite hazard for choking. Be aware of this!
• Melt the cut ends of the paracord with a match or lighter to keep from fraying and unraveling.
• The best money belt in the world is useless if every pickpocket and mugger knows it is there. Do not take things (money, passports, etc) out of it in plain view. Keep the day’s money somewhere more easily accessible.

I’m leaving for India on Friday. I’m going to Bangalore for work, and am really excited about it. I’ve never been to India, Asia, or any farther east then London. I’ll be spending a week training some of the other security folks in our Bangalore office.

This will be alot of firsts for me, aside from India. The first time I’ll fly first class domestically, first time I’ll fly first class internationally (we got bumped up!), the first time I have traveled internationally for business. Also looks like I’ll be staying at the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. I also will be getting a 10 year multiple entry business visa, so hopefully this will not be the only time I travel there for business.

I’m gonna have internet at both the hotel and the job, so I should be able to blog about it as well as post some pictures while I am there. PHIR MI-LAN-GAE

I finally got my Death Valley Photos uploaded to Flickr.  I am pretty happy with them.  Now I need to look into ordering some prints.  I took these over the course of 4 days in May.  Included as well were brief stopovers in Rhyolite NV (a ghost town outside the park once called “Queen City of Death Valley”) and The Valley of Fire State Park, about an hour north of Las Vegas.

Here is the link to the photos on flickr: Death Valley Photos
Here is a slideshow of the same photos:  Death Valley Slideshow

I’ve made it back, but after 110+ degree temps, all night drinking binges, and Vegas buffet food, my immune system apparently shutdown on the plane and a picked up a nice bit of sickness, so I am working on my pictures and will hopefully get this stuff all together this weekend or earlier next week, but right now my plans consist of working and then going home and sleeping…

…well, not really.  I am leaving for my sister’s fiance’s bachelor party tommarrow in Vegas, and since I have 4 days off before everyone arrives in Vegas, I am going to get my camp on in the hottest place in North America.  I plan to write about it when I get back so stay tuned….

I just created a map on Google’s new Maps function, My Maps.  It should be publicly searchable now, but it will probably take some time to get indexed.  Anyways, it is a cool feature that lets you add personal content to Google maps.  I uploaded some pictures we took while in Merida, Mexico last year.

It was extremely easy.  Just set a placemark, name it and fill in some content.  I just dumped the image urls from my flickr photos in as the content, and the boxes filled with my pictures. It gives an interesting juxtaposition of bird’s eye and street level views of a place.  You can also export it as a KML file and view a more high resolution set of maps with Google Earth.  Unfortunately, the formatting in Google Earth messed up the pictures so you can’t see them all.  They display fine in My Maps though.

I look forward to using this handy feature to annoy my friends and relatives in the near future with more vacation pictures
So for anyone interested, here is My Map of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico