Geek Bazaar

What do I do?
: Carry your towel with you throughout the day to show your participation and mourning.
When do I do it?
: May 25th.
Where do I do it?
: Everywhere.
Why a towel?
: Read here.

I’ve seen something like this done with a particular dome camera - pretty cool stuff - showing off a new level of mapping technology

http://www.mapjack.com/

Ive been watching a new series on Miro lately called Bike2Oz, which describes the travel adventures of a couple who decide to make it from UK to Australia. They use the bicycle to travel to create more awareness about the environment and pollution and all that. Episode 4 or 5 was about Iran, which was particularly interesting since I had just watched  (which I’d also recommend).

http://funtasticus.com/20080314/new-googles-zurich-office-amazing/

Last weekend I’ve been in Portugal for a Cure concert. Portugal looks nice, relaxed and people know english, not like this boring island I’m living on, and no it is not Malta. Well, they have loads of modern structures (at least in Lisbon where I was), and nice chicks, sorry no pics available, was around with my girlfriend. Concert was ace, 3 and a half hours, very good sound quality (like the sound in that Escort Mk1 of your neighbour, with a sticker on the back “Sex is my favorite game, wanna play?”) and we were right in front of the stage. Simon Gallup thinks he is still cool although he is in his 40’s and Robert Smith, erm is really weird looking in real life. Well, I really loved it and anyone who has a chance to see them live before they disappear (as soon they are quitting they say), go for it

More pics:

Some famous thingy in Portugal which my gf wanted to see.
Wall covered with tiles of cartoons characters.
Christmas Tree?
JC flying high.
If Lowell sees you around!
wtf you’re looking at?

Well stay was very short, that is why few pics. There are more of me naked, but I am sure you are not really interested in seeing them

Enjoy e-guys (yeah the social me)

Watched these:

• Lightning talks - consisting of 5 minute talks. The one that I liked best was regarding Mac OS X widgets. The idea is that since these widgets have access to the system() function and make use of Web 2.0 stuff most of the times, a simple injection (JSON injection / Cross site scripting) has further implications compared to normal web applications. This means that such flaws can easily give remote system access. The speaker (Thomas Roessler) then showed a gmail widget that was vulnerable to such attack. It would be interesting to find out if such vulnerabilities can also be present in the iPhone.
• Just in Time compilers - breaking a VM. Interesting mostly because it shows what can be done with Just in time compilers and that includes not just Java but also other stuff like javascript and actionscript.
• Modelling Infectious Diseases in Virtual Realities - a scientific talk which shows how a disease in a virtual reality, in this case it is WoW (world of warcraft) can be used to further understand modelling of infections and recovery. The speaker also gave ideas on how this knowledge can be used to efficiently contain an infection and also suggestions to Blizzard to reintroduce infections in WoW.
• Toying with barcodes - just watched this one. Excellent stuff. The talk was very flowing and had a good sense of humor injected as well. The speaker (FX) showed how security is really underestimated in the technology that is probably most used to track physical objects - barcodes. He picked on postal services, automated dvd rental systems, newspapers showing 2d barcodes, and a few other examples.
• “Building a hacker space” - some of the original ccc founders gave their ideas on what to do and what not to do if you want to start a hacker group. Stuff like providing the guests with ample caffeinated drinks .. fun and quite motivational I guess.
• Making cool things with microcontrollers - where the speaker (Mitch) kept referring to his sexiest toy.. a mind bendin, hallucination inducing spectacles. Worth a watch.
• more coming up

The schedule looks good with lots of potentially high quality talks.

Interested in the following:

• Toying with barcodes
• Port Scanning improved
• The Virus Underground
• An analysis of targeted attacks from 2005 to 2007
• The demise of electronic voting in The Netherlands
• Playstation Portable Cracking
• Sex 2.0
• OpenSER SIP Server
• Ruby on Rails Security
• Cybercrime 2.0
• Relay attacks on card payment: vulnerabilities and defences

Anyone going / interested ? 80 euros

So, a week has passed since I moved to Cyprus!. My flat is great, houses are wonderful, and atmosphere is ok. People in general are really laid back, sometimes they beat us Maltese at it, especially police can be very useless, worse than Malta. So? This is the office where I am working, well actually we own part of it, not the whole building! Well, who cares about work?

Let’s speak about the place. This weekend we have been to the Cyprus rally, as you can see Chris was waiting for some action with his camera. There were a couple of cars going extremes and almost into an accident, but never happened!! Driving here, is..erm..ok.. in the sense, they respect the rules, but the bigger bike you have, the less you need a helmet, and yes they have these extensively modified japanese cars as we have in Malta(dawn il hafna hsejjes ta’ turbo zzz…..), so they have hamalli!!! Btw, this is my new cossie!

Weather is fine, hotter than Malta. On Sunday, at least the part where I live, is worse than a deserted island, this is the main road of the area where I live on a Sunday at around 12, deserted! At least, on Sunday evening we went to an Irish pub and it was quite nice

Well that is it for now, nothing extreme as India, Cyprus is different, but still is fun. At least I didn’t have an extreme culture shock or my stomach worse than Iraq! Phew, a good welcome always helps

Hi Guys,

So this is the last post about India, well for now This time I am not writing much, as the title says, let the pictures speak for themselves.

School in Bangalore slum area
Village feast, cooking for everyone.
Village feast, cooking for everyone. (2)
Village feast, cooking for everyone. (3)
Village feast, cooking for everyone. (4)
Eating at the village feast, using banana leave as plate.
Typical village woman and kids.
Ramesh, the centre welding master.
Delhi - Red Fort Entrance.
Typical scene, yeah it means brotherhood.
Bahai Temple.
Cool people!!
Cool people!! 2
Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal 2.
Me and the Taj.
Taj Complex.
Last day party with staff and other volunteers.
The cook preparing spices, Mr. Toilet, I’m soon there!
Cooking for the children on the last day.
Village people.
Typical men / scene at the village centre, i.e. l-pjazza tar-rahal!
My trusted source of milk in India.
Poor people living in centres, no IBM sponsor, stolen billboards changed to home.
Fishing for cat fish in the centre pond.
On the way to the lake, going for a swim.
Swimming in the lake, for those wondering no it is not clean at all but I still went in
Eating with the children.

HI guys and geeks and (super social saying) e-friends,

hope life is fine. So the 2 months journey came to an end, well coming to an end tonight. Wish I could stay another month at least but I already have plans, but if I knew, I would have planned for a 6 months stay at least.

It has been a long time since I posted last, but we had heavy monsoon. Internet here doesn’t work well on a sunny day, so imagine in a heavy raining day! We didn’t even have electricity for about a week! Fridge?? no.. no we do not have fridge lol!

Well, how was India?

Nature, impressively beatiful, wonderful, althought I was attacked once from a crow! (not the best experience I had in India)

Indian Kids? They are really, but really beautiful.. still me and the other volunteers are still wondering how they can be so beautiful when you never see a beautiful grown up indian lol!

Indian women don’t shave their legs but they shave their arms.. (no first hand experience..at least the legs part :p)

Indian Food is really good in the North, in the South it is not bad, in the centre where I was, it was really crappy. In fact I was confused most of the time if I was shitting or pissing!

Although these people are really poor, you can find a television in almost every house around, even in houses where they have the roof made of leaves!

I’ve been to a garden where a legend states Krishna (One of the Hindu Gods) was born. They have a room in the middle of the garden, which they leave open with a bed. Every night they leave food there. Every morning they find that the food is gone, and that the bed was used. During the night, neighbours hear noises but never saw anything, and they believe that Krishna, every night goes in the garden and is dancing with women, many women as they say, every night! Well to be honest, the person who takes care of the garden, seems to have fun in this bed every night, dancing with women!! (ghandu wicc ta nittien ta vera!)

I’ve been to a village activity, where some people cook food for all the village (picture available at a later stage in life). It was awesome. All village people sitting on a hill, they cook food (food? no wonders, typical rice, samber and ragi balls) in big pots, to mix things they use tree trunks as the pots are really big, and you need around 3-4 men to mix these things. Plates? Banana tree leaves! Bowls? some kind of small leaves stiched together with small sticks you find under trees! Yeah it was fun, really nice atmosphere. Just before we started to eat, this hairy, long beard and hair guy stood up in the middle of everyone and starting shouting and then everyone was clapping, well I found out he was the village priest. All priests I’ve seen, they are all weirdos!

I’ve been to Taj Mahal! It is really beautiful, much more than what it seems on picture and tv documentaries!

If I have to come back, will I? For sure yes, and for sure I am coming back, but this time it has to be some longer period, something from 3-6 months

Well enough for now, have to rush off to the centre so that they can take me to the airport after eating..

hope to see some of you while enjoying (as Sandro says) a .MT beer!!

cya

Only in that beautiful country: Japan.

Hi guys,

Since the last time I posted nothing out of this world happen, and since I sent the address of where am I to Sandro and he still wonders where am I, as it is a long address in the middle of nowhere I thought of (finally) upload some pics from the dial up connections and tell you more about me, and where I am.

So, first of all, I am in a centre called Don Bosco Ajjanahali. Ajjanahali is the name of the village it is situated in. This centre is in the middle of a forest, far away from society and it is so on purpose. It is a centre for children who used to abuse drugs, or has been a victim of child labour and who don’t have a family or so. So they try to keep them far away from cities so they don’t get again any old habits.

Well, first of all this is my room , erm no sorry, this is my room :). Quite attractive ay? Yes, that net on the bed is because of flying creatures in the night, they have a lot of them around So, as soon as I would out of my room, I have this beautiful scenery / view . Nice ay? Obviously around here you don’t hear cars or people, just birds and animals shouting and singing etc. This is a picture of the centre from the same hill I see from my room.

Well then I take the kids to school, obviously, if they see you with a camera at shool, this is what happens Then there is the assembly and then back to the centre.

Then usually I visit our cook, whose name is Gangamesh. This is the guy who makes that spicy food and make me go to the toilet more often than usual lol. And the normal day continues. Then it is football time in the afternoon and then the usual day proceeds, as I explained in other posts.

Well, for now don’t have much to say, here it is Sunday morning and still 8am in the morning, just woke up, so don’t feel like socializing much neither.

Well hope you enjoy the pics guys

Hi guys,

Hope you are all well. So after 5 weeks here, obviously I couldn’t avoid not going to a typical Indian restaurant, although my stomach situation most of the time is worse than the situation in Iraq. Obviously, no tourist restaurant or things like that, a real restaurant, where it is dirty more than the dirtiest place in Malta You know the typical old Maltese tea shops? With light blue wall painting, and most of it is black with dirt and things like that? Yeah those kind of restaurants. So, as an image it is not welcoming at all, but still, if you are around it is worth a visit. Even the people that are inside, THE ARTISTS, they are cool. And yes, you can smoke everywhere here, even in shops, restaurants, bars, homes, anywhere.

So, as soon as you go in a restaurant, you have to leave your shoes outside… as you cannot wear your shoes in the area where you eat or pray or things like that…, you have to wash your right hand, as that is the one you will eat with. There is no need to wash your left hand as you won’t be using it to eat, that is just used to wipe the ass after having some friendly conversation with the toilet.

Once you go in and sit down, yeah, apitizers!!! Yeah they have them as well, but guess what? Instead of peanuts, or garlic bread or so, they get you a plate with cucumbers, uncooked onions and a small plate with 4 different spices on it, with cool colours, like bright orange, yellow and things like that. Obviously, the uncooked onion is not spicy enough for the indians, so you have to dip it in all the spices and eat it. If you ask for water in restaurants, it is free, you can take as much as you want, but obviously, depending on the restaurant standard, some water is good for drinking, and some is not. So it is worth to have some Indian guide with you, or else, you would just notice from the way the restaurant looks if water is good or not for drinking, the image says it all

Well, then it is time to order food, obviously especially in non touristic restaurants, no english menus or english speaking waiters and even worse sometimes, no menus at all. So they just have like 3 options, 3 different spicy sauces (these are the only 3 options) and then you choose, or rice or ciabatti. Once you order the food, cuttlery doesn’t exists. Again, you can ask for cuttlery but in touristic restaurants, in these kind of restaurants they don’t even know what a fork or knife is. After you wait for something like 10 -20 minutes for the food, the kind of waiter starts delivering food. Obviously, don’t expect that all the people on the same table will be served at the same time, your friend / partner might get the food like 5 minutes before you, but don’t hesitate the waiter, it is more than normal. That is how catering is in these areas.

Well once you eat, you can always ask for more ciabbatti or rice, they are for free and they can get you as much as you want. After lunch? Time to wash your hands, so you go to this common “Clean” washing sink, and wash your right hand. Towel? Tissues? who care, there are just pieces of newspaper and you have to wipe your hands with them. Once ready you order the drink, typically, they order or coffee, or tea or hot water. Usually I order hot water as that is the best around, coffee I don’t drink, and tea don’t know they way they make it, but it is not that good….

Once you are ready of all this process you pay, usually it is always a fight with the owner for a good price (as we are coming from a rich country, that is what they say) and then you pay. Receipt, cash point or some other type of fiscal things don’t exists at all. Well, then you pick up your shoes (yeah, no one takes someone else shoes or so, you can really trust that here) and you leave the restaurant.

Then an hour later you might want to visit some interesting place called the toilet, it can be nice lol

cya

HI Guys,

you know the spitting of “aldo, giovanni e giacomo”? When they do something wrong or stupid and they start spitting at each other? Yeah, that happens here for real. While playing football or while working on something, if you make something stupid it is very normal that the captain of the team or your work mates, just spit at you, well at least one of them in the style of aldo… lol!!! And they do it seriously.

Apart from that it is very normal that you spit, after you ate, you go on the kitchen sink, and you get that “biela mil-qiegh ta l-istonku, kollha hadra, kannella u maqquda” and you spit.

Even when you go to markets, or cities or bus stops or whatever, if you look around, the ground is all full with spits. Very normal people while they are walking they just spit most of the time, and real nice ones

Even our fathers here, my neighbour who is a father / priest, first thing he does in the morning as soon as he walks out of his room is get one of those real ones from the edge of his stomach, and spit it out. In fact I try to avoid him in the morning, because most of the time, he really does spit and a real lot!!

hi guys,

So 3 weeks are over and more. Just thought I’ll post something normal, like how I am doing in India (do anyone of you care? :P) and how’s a typical day.

So first of all finally I am managing to sleep full nights, after 3 weeks. I had 3 weeks with sleepless nights, the only 15 minutes or so I slept I had a nightmare, waking up with the feeling like “I don’t want to die now!” and shit like that. Yeah, the pills effect. Apart from that I had a real fucked up stomach, thanks to their food, all the time with pain. But started to take milk each time before I eat, so now it is much better. Yes, I tasted milk directly from the cow, not even boiled, it was good, and guess what, it was warm and thick yeah!!

Well, usually I wake up at 6am, have a COLD shower and wake up the senior kids at 6:30, as the seniors (there are like 20) sleep in a different room from the juniors, you know they have pubic hair, and start being shy of running around naked everywhere. Well, as instructed by the brothers here, as soon as I go in, say good morning and clap my hands, anyone who doesn’t wake up I have the permission to throw a bottle of water, in fact, no wonder they all wake up immediately.

After I make sure they all wash (yeah it is like a gym shower room, all boys naked etc running around) and you are just there looking at them, as obviously, most of them don’t like to wash. Then they have 15 minutes stretching on the roof. After that they have 1 hour studying. Then at 8 we have the SPICY breakfast, and then they clean the whole place till 9am.

Then, I walk with them to school, something like 1.5miles walk, really nice through a poor village, all those primitive farming tools etc. At school, sometimes you see an indian child with blue or green eyes, or a little bit TOO white to be an indian. Asking around you learn that such children are all the fruit of the work done by travellers lol. Travellers just pass by, they find an indian chick, do some work and leave after a week and she is left with a baby. Yeah, travellers!!!!

Once I am back (yeah I sound like a house wife) I wash my clothes, or clean the room or do what is needed. At 11 I have tea, then I go and help the tech guys. Yeah, painting a wall, making goal posts (welding etc) and putting them in a football ground, that is all tech lol In fact yesterday I dag a 1 metre deep hole, and around 60cm wide, with some of them, obviously nothing with electrity, everything manual. But it was fun.

Then at 1 we have lunch, and from 1:30 - 2pm table tennis or just fooling around the place. Then from 2-4 help again the techs, apart from friday, where I give computer lessons lol!!! After that, we have tea and football from 5-6. Yeah football, stick by their rules. As some of you might know, raising your leg more than 90 degrees in football, that is a foul, dangerous play. Here, during a football match you see flying kicks, people falling or flying or whatever. All the ground is empty and a crowd of 20 people where the ball is, everyone kicking the ball, yeah it sucks to play proper football here, but it is of great fun, although you end up bruised on a daily basis.

After that time to shower again, and at 6:30, till 7:15 I just go on the roof and listed to some music. Typical, yeah, anathema, cure etc. You know we have a magnificent view over here and once on the roof, a magnificent view, temporary piece from anathema, perfect combination

Well from 7:15 till 8:00 I stay in class with the seniors, and make sure they study, just running around in class etc. AT 8 we have dinner. After dinner, till 9 you just play with the kids, like 6 people hanging on to you.. who pulls you from your tshirt, who pushes you, who grabs your hair (thank god i dont have much) etc. then at 9, thought of the day and off to sleep.

Usually I just meet the other 2 volunteers (belgian girl who is my age and a puerto rico woman, who is like 58) and see a dvd or so on the laptop. Then off to sleep.

well that is a typical day, but later on I will post more about the daily adventures one encounters once here lol.

Hi guys,

yeah finally back online. Monsoon, you can imagine or heard some news, I mean nothing works well here, more and more with the monsoon effect.

So, the more time passes the more I realize how advanced we are in telecommunications. I used to hear Sandro always complaining as Vodafone Malta are always slow to implement new technology, like the 3G etc, or we always used to say we have slow internet, or the famous Datastream support call “it wasn’t me”. Well, here is shit years behind guys!! Imagine, having a prepaid mobile. So to have a number, first of all you must have an indian ID card, or you find some cuc ready to come with you to the shop and buy the sim card on his name. Regarding contract I don’t know how it works yet, but prepaid it sucks. So to charge your account, you have to go to a shop, give him money and he has a mobile (from the mobile company) where he sends an SMS with your telephone number and the amount of money you want to charge your account, and you have to wait at the shop till he gets a reply that it will be charged. Sucks no? Still, remember that during this process, no one understands english, and very typical you give them 150 rupees and they try to charge your account to 100 rupees, and if you dare asking them what happened, they start shouting “mobile charges.. expensive.. modern world.. you come from rich country” in other words “hey fuckin tourist, you’re rich and I want to steal you 50 rupees, now shut up and walk on..ok?”..

internet…well.. apart from internet cafes in the city centre, where you are administrator and you can do what you want (heard this sandro? :P) there are no restrictions …regarding time…you pay 15 -20 rupees per hour, and a person is in charge in keeping the time for you. You have to write down your name on a book when you go in, they write down the time you went in and literally force you to confirm that with your watch (don’t ask me why) and when you are going out they count the minutes. Then obviously, “jaqtaw ghad dritt” where there is an extra minute or so lol. Now still it is relatively slow compared to ours in internet cafes. where I am? A normal home connection, don’t mention speed, it is dial up guys so you can imagine to type this article, and when I press publish… it can seem like an eternity. well that is internet.

women rights..yeah..do they exist here? So first of all, a typical woman life here is get born from someone (you know called parents, if you are lucky enough you will have a pair of those), and go to school until you are 14. Start chasing some boys (unless your father chose 1 for you already, most common.. not arranged weddings are happening in India, but tendency is that your father won’t be that happy with you) get married, get shit loads of kids, and work as hard as you can while your husband smokes cigarettes with all other husbands in the village centre. Yeah that is life, you see women carrying sticks on their heads, water, washing clothes, cleaning (erm kind of) and cooking outside, anytime of the day… and anytime of the day you see their husbands smoking cigarettes outside, next to a “meghza” or chewing tabacco. Yeah that is the trend. I thought it was my impression but I checked with other volunteers and yaeh, it is the norm. “Taz-zibel, biex tahdem ma ta l-iskamel” you have to be a women (eh..ara tghidux li ghandna iktar cans li nsibu xoghol ahna l-irgiel lol!!!)… etc.. In fact then you go to the city centre, where there are the commercial Levis, Adidas shops, and sales girl don’t exist, sales men are most common, again yeah “dak il ferq fil gemb chalie, u dawk il mustacci !!!!”… well yeah, those are the women rights in India.

They are huge, massive, black, sometimes even with a hint / touch of brown, sometimes solid and sometimes liquidish.. stinky and you find them everywhere. On the streets, in the fields, on the pavements, in schools, in house gardens, in city centres, in remote villages, squashed from a car, or squeezed from the kids while playing football barefooted or on the way to school..or even eaten from other animals, or packed and carried (again) by women. Guess what it is? yeah you guessed it, COW shit fellows!!!!!

Hi guys,

It is me again So back to the middle of nowhere, in this rehab centre. Therefore, back to dial up internet, so I doubt if I will be uploading any images. Will try to resize them, well, will check later

Well, finally, getting used to the way of life, you know eating spicy all day long, lack of water (was advised from indians themselves, never to drink water unless it is from a sealed bottle, not even from good restaurants.. never trust any water) sucks well… but the rest it is really fine.

The cultural shock finally is settling in, at first, felt a little bit ackward, like wtf did I came here for? I could have chosen a better place, but now it is fine.

Well, yesterday been to the forest with the kids, nice walk. We found a big tree, and you can imagine 40 -50 kids, aged from 7 -14 all climbing on this tree. This was a wild berries tree. And everyone picking up these berries, for sure they are so so sour! bleh, really not good, but they like them and ate a lot of them. Not to show them I didn’t like them, as you know it is like a kind of offence, I had to eat around 10 of them… on my way back, was almost going to puke all the way back lol!

Well, finally experiencing monsoon…if we had such rain in Malta for only an hour or 2, well we would be all flooded for sure. But what is funny and great is that the kids love it. Instead of staying inside, they all go out running in the rain. They fill buckets with water and throw them to each other (ghar mil marc ta filghodu l-ahwa!) and they all scream and run around.

Then we played football, obviously their ground was all mud. Again, it was fun though, even if you fall, you know the results, all brown from head to toes lol and hell, it is really slippery!! And, yes I did fall as soon as I tried to make my first step. Going down to the ground, there was a brother who told me “mind it barefooted, it is really slippery” and I said “yeah, I am not that dejjaq ta used to such things” and as soon as I made my first step, obviously, I fell.. he looked at me “I told you” with a “haxxej” smile on his face lol

Yesterday evening, we had from 8:30 - 9:30 dancing session. Well they have a hall, they have a sound system (high volume, but no sound quality, they still have tapes) and everyone dancing in this hall, though I must admit it was real fun. These kids are all super bending etc, so you can imagine their dancing.. but it was fun again Though they were playing Indian music, but guess what? Most of it was electro, and quite hard.. will ask the “deejay” (btw he is the children’s cook, called Ganga) what music he was playing..

well that is all for now guys, quite a relaxed article this time

Enjoy…

HI,

yeah posting again. I am posting more frequently since I have 2 days in the city centre, so next post will be from the middle of the jungle, so in a week or so.

So, transport and traffic in India, cool, crazy, good drivers

Most common are motorcycles, old cars, tractors / carts and buses.

Traffic education: none, that is what makes them good drivers. You can make a U-turn in any road you like, any place, any time no matter what other cars are passing. If you don’t honk the horn, you’re not good to drive. You can hear constantly horns honking, it seems its a tradition. Indicators? Who bothers about them, what is their use? Zebra crossing? Why should you car? to cross a narrow road with zebra crossing it takes you from 20 - 40 seconds, impressive Driving? yeah fine there are lanes, in narrow roads, you can see 3 -4 cars overtaking each other, 2 of them being on the wrong side, so what? No wonder they have 85,000 traffic fatalities a year You can cross from one road to another on a T junction on any side of the road, there is no need to respect your lane. IF you have a bike you can even cross roads from the pavements. Bus drivers? They are all racing against each other, all the time!!

Bus status? well, this one, very similar to maltese buses, those kind of old ones, but even dirtier. But you won’t find a flag of Bob Marley or a set of good speakers in their buses, or those small pictures of naked women hanged to the mirrors, no way.. nothing of that So, in bus hamallagni, we beat them guys

Cars, very old, typical TATA, lada, perhaps an old (classic) ford vans (yeah, MR Henry Ford, your classic cars are allover the world mate!!) and sometimes the typical hillman, hunter, cortina cars lol (police have the hunter and hillman cars). Every now and then you see a new matiz or hyundai. On the way to Bangalore (city centre) I was in a TATA jeep, with like other 10 people (yeah squeezed!) and on the traffic lights there was some kind of honda cabriolet, really common in Malta. ALl the guys where like yeah, latest model beautiful. The nice thing was that the driver was a what they call sexy indian, with a woman. The woman had that smile on her face, like “yeah it is me in this car, you’re jelous? what are you looking at?”..

bikes…well no big bikes, again old bikes, sometimes a new but nothing big, no harleys, no racing bikes, no Kawasaki ZXR lol. The best bike you can get at the moment with the biggest horsepower is the latest Honda Nero 250cc. Get a black bike of these, a moustache, cool hairstyle (ferq fil-genb) and you’re in to date the hottest chicks in town!! Helmet? It is legal only for the driver, well legal, maybe you will see 1 in 20 drivers with the helmet, the rest, relax, why bother? Even our Priests who have bike, why bother wearing a helmet? What is funny though, passengers on bike are not forced legally to wear a helmet, and most of them are parents taking kids to school, so you see a father with the helmet and 3 (yeah 3 kids) kids without helmet lol. Sometimes you see a whole family on a bike, yeah true, like mum and dad, 3 kids Well a small word about helmets, impressive Schumacher and Alonso did a huge hit in here. Many helmets are replicas of their helmets, some of them are “scary” replicas lol, some of them are good replicas, really good

Well tip for travellers: Mind how to cross the road, traffic lights, zebra crossing, no respect man. When there is a red light, usually it has a countdown displayed, like 120 seconds. AS soon as it is 20 seconds, although cars are passing through the other road, no worries man, just drive into them and honk the horn and you will be true. Some of you know that I really like to drive, and fast, but hell, I’m scared to drive here!!!

again, some means of transport pics

Auto, cheap means of transport, kind of taxi. There are 1,000’s of them in city.

Old bike with typical India Style customization.

Typical City street scene.

Blue bus, depending on the colour it got something to do with regions.

Very nice Fernando Alonso Helmet Replica.

HI geeks and guys (i know it is a commercial greeting, but WTF!!)

I just impressed some indian people with a card reader to upload some photos lol!!

well, learnt a lot of things. Today I’ve been at Bangalore centre (As I’m like 60Km away from any kind of society, in a remote centre in the middle of a jungle/forest/ mountains).

All I am doing is walking kids to school, playing football, basketball, volleyball and kind of tennis. you have to stick to their own rules, weird rules, whatever, but still it is fun

Well what I’ve learnt is that indians rarely loose hair (like i did lol) so they all are so proud with their hairstyles. THey all carry a pettner in their back pockets, if you don’t have one, you’re outdated man! (in malta it is the other way round lol!)

Buses? don;t try to understand schedule, routes or whatever. ON each bus stop “Il kunduttur” starts shouting the destination name and if it matches where you need to go just go up. if you manage!!! no queue ideas, you know every one pushing. buses, have people hanging on the back, and also sheep etc on the bus lol. people carry everything in the bus

IT is a very dirty country, but hey, it is really beautiful City centres not that it impressed me so much, but where I am situated, in the middle of nowhere, it is so wonderful. At night all you hear is different kind of animals screaming or shouting or whatever.

The city centres, have these cool small shops, like tailors, ironing of cloths (no electric irons, just one with boiling water or have to be heated on a cooker ), tv and video repair (mmm…. from the sceen I doubt if he can really fix things :P).

Well that is all for now as I have to rush back to the centre, as I am sleeping at the city centre overnight so tomorrow I leave to the middle of nowhere.

Well, the post above might sounds as a pessimistic one, but none of it!!! Although they are ages behind, cities are hectic and dirty, it’s a total different world from ours which anyone would really like! different culture you know (nahseb qed nigi daqsxejn ikkulturat!!! lol!!!)..

some pics, enjoy

General Pic
General Pic
General Pic

Quoting an email from Robert:

Yes they do eat spicy all the time even in the morning at 7 am

Yes all they do eat is rice, stinky pancakes (not good) and some hot hot sauce with rice

you have to eat rice with your right hand (with the left you clean the bottom) so it is an offense if you eat with the left..

and the secret of eating rice without utensils is by putting sauce with rice so it sticks together

He could only access gmail in simple mode because the connection is .. dialup