Sunday, May 06, 2007

Cant think of a title

Finished reading a book of short stories by Yiyun Li. It gives a very nice perspective on china. I have read Amy Tan earlier - both these book though very different in styles makes me realise how similar the family structure/ values are in china & india. Its uncanny - its almost as if you could replace characters from chinese to indian and keep the story the same. It also leaves you with a feeling how lucky we are to be in India.

On another note got this insight from someone- The one child policy has created quite a rupture in chinese society. It has led to amongst other things lack of mobility of the workforce as the married couple has four people holding them back (dont think i need to elaborate how !).

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Spend the last three days in a fairyland - an amazing resort in Chiang Mai - a 52 acre property with villas, temples, lakes, paddy fields, colonial houses ...

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

La dolce vita

Going on a longish break - off to italy for 18 days. Yipeeeeeeee !! Been some time since I took this long a break last few have been more for 5-7 days. Choices to travel are so mind boggling that its almost paralyzing - I was contemplating 5 diff options - Scotland (already have visa !), Turkey / Jordan (never been to that part of the world), Prague, Vienna etc (heard only superlatives about them), Morocco/ south of Spain (exotic + part of spain i have still not been to) and finally italy (it has as i put to a friend a good mix of urban spaces, culture & natural beauty)

Scarcely had I frozen on that when I realised choices don't end there - How do u drop places when almost everything is a must do ? Nat geo top 50 list has 4 mentions from Italy !!! 1000 places to see before you die devotes in excess of 50 pages on this country - You get the picture I suppose. I also do not want to do a whirlwind tour which just touches various places. Hence it became a big project of reading, surfing, and talking to decide how to cut out options.

1st to get chopped were the Italian Alps, the Lakes, Dolomites, Milan, Sardinia, Bologna, south east Italy (heel of the shoe) amongst others. Still find 17 days not to be enough (why can't we teleport and not waste one day travelling !!)
Rome (3 days), Venice (2 days), Florence/ Siena (3 days),Sicily/Etna (3 days), Naples / Amalfi/ Pompeii /Capri(4 days)- that leaves a measly 2 days. There is Cinque Terre which beckons, Tuscany demands more days, Italian riviera and the beaches which sound wonderful, and the already identified places - the time I am spending in them doesn't seem to do justice to them.

Hence have decided to take one day at a time, have a broad itinerary in mind but will add/ drop places as the trip progresses. Surprisingly the clubbing scene is not that hot in italy - or maybe it just needs more exploring !

p.s. nobody is allowed to comment on my weight till one month after I return - how can I go to Italy and not eat & have wine

Resolutions

1) Reach out to people more
2) Not lose temper too often
3) Make an effort to date someone
4) Get the house in a little order