It was a night of broken glass

Hello friends! I've arrived in India, safe and sound. But before I get into that, let's play Thailand picture catch-up.

As I was leaving Bangkok the first time, some scary looking clouds rolled into town and dumped a copious amount of rain on the city...

My experience of Chaing Mai in northern Thailand was punctuated by the story in my previous post and a day of outdoor adventure, as depicted here...

The affordability of in-country flights, being about $50 a pop, enticed me to pack as much into my Thailand visit as humanly possible so, after spending a mere day and two nights in Chaing Mai, I hopped a plane to the island of Kho Phangan in southern Thailand for a mere 24 hours. (Actually, I took a plane to Kho Samui, a neighboring island, and then took a boat to Kho Phangan.)

Kho Phangan is the spitting image of what you would think of when considering an island paradise cliché with mountains with thick, lush tropical forests overlooking picturesque beaches. The island is host to Full Moon Parties, which involve thousands of people partying the night away on the beach, fueled by buckets of booze and electronic music. I missed the Full Moon Party by a couple of days, but there were still booze buckets, beach dancing and a flaming jumprope, all of which I happily took part in. I didn't have time to explore the island like I wanted to, but here's the idea...

The tropical outdoor airport in Kho Samui is, hands down, the coolest airport that I've had the pleasure of using. And at the end of my whirlwind tour of Thailand I was very tired and very tan...

I took a red-eye flight out of Bangkok to Mumbai, on which I was bumped up to Business Class. I had a hard time at the Mumbai airport, a confirmation of Murphy's Law that was made exponentially worse by my lack of sleep. Luckily, I arrived at my gate in the nick of time to catch my plane to Chennai, where I'll be staying for the next two months.

Vwaola! It just happened... you might have missed it, but this blog just made a transition from Phase I, east Asia travel, to Phase II, volunteer work in India. (We will move into Phase III, Europe travel, in early August.) In case you're one of the people that has no idea why I'm over here, I'm volunteering with an organization doing HIV/AIDS prevention work. More on that in future posts.

On the evening of the first night we (my team) went to a club, starting with an exciting pre-game trip to the "wine shop" as they're called in India. It was tucked away in a shady little alley, the ordering window covered with metal bars to keep out the throngs of loud and eager men. I pushed my way to the front and got a little bottle of low-quality rum for 60 rupees, about $1.30. Just as we were leaving, a police truck pulled up and an officer pulled out his baton and started beating the shit out of people! People were running around in panic, glass breaking, the whole nine! Needless to say, we got out of there pretty fast!

Since I'm going be in Chennai for an extended period of time, I'll wait for a few days to post pictures and general impressions. Also, I have a phone! You (yes, YOU) can call me since Skype and international calling cards are dirt cheap. Our times are essentially opposite if you're in Arizona, twelve and a half hours apart, to be exact. Don't feel pressured to have something "important" to say... call me after you see a shitty movie, or when you see a purple Volkswagon, or when you're really drunk, especially when you're drunk! It would make me very happy to hear your beautiful voice for a mere three minutes. Country-code included, I'm at 91-978-987-6485.

I love you.