Things on my mind. George Drapeau's Weblog

Okay, so I didn't quite make it to the southern tip of India; the helpful staff at The Leela Kovalam Beach Resort informed me that I was about 150km north of the tip, where the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea meet.  That would be something to see, but I was happy enough to wake up after my first night in Kovalam, hearing the sounds of the Arabian Sea crashing on the shore below my room.  I can confidently say that I slept better than I did on the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Bangalore.  But hold that thought; let's move on.

I decided to hold off on breakfast so that I could run along the beach below the resort and see a little bit of the area.  Besides, the staff told me that fishermen would be spending the morning pulling in their nets and I wanted to see that.  It was warm and humid; I started off toward the sand.

Turns out, there's not a lot of sand along the shore where I was.  Tides are pretty active, so they don't recommend swimming in the beach there; I can vouch for the need for caution.  I ran past groups of fisherman in a tug of war with the Arabian Sea, pulling in their daily catch and singing songs as a group while they worked.  I didn't recognize any lyrics, but some of you already know that I'm not great at hearing lyrics, especially if they're in Malayalam.

Soon I reached end of the sand; replacing the sand as the definition of shoreline was a rock wall that served to protect shops and homes from the waves.  I decided to cut inland a bit, through a village just north of the resort.  People everywhere greeted me during the run, especially children.  "Hello!" they'd say, often followed by giggling; adults usually said "Good morning" (no giggling).  I must've looked like a goof, tall white guy running to get exercise.

Pankaj At The Pool

I got back to the hotel, overheated from my run, so I headed down toward the infinity pool to cool me off quickly.  Pankaj was there; he set up a lounge chair with a big towel and a cold drink for me to get when I felt like coming out of the pool.  That pool was magnificent.

Just a couple of minutes into my swim, it began to rain.  Not torrential, but steady and warm.  I began to laugh; it felt great to be in a pool, cooling off and looking at the Arabian Sea while warm rain fell on my scalp.  I stayed in for a while but eventually I had to get out and have some lunch.  I know, I know: you feel my pain.

After a nice lunch (including another nice conversation with the chef, who agreed to turn up the spice a notch) I decided to head back to the Living Room to relax (did I mention the Living Room?  It's kind of like The Library, except you can purchase and smoke Cuban cigars in the Living Room if you're so inclined).  That worked; a little later, I moved to the Library for tea and --- wait for it --- snacks.  At this point in the weekend, my big problem is where to relax and how to space out my meals so that I'm hungry when it's time for the next one.

Did I mention how beautiful the property is?  Every once in a while, I'd go to a window or walk outside to look over the cliff to watch the waves crash, or just look out on the horizon, or walk around the buildings.

And did I mention how friendly and helpful the staff was?  No, this is not an advertisement; it's just that everybody tried to do everything they could to make me happy.  I think it's got to be impossible to be unhappy at that place, except when it's time to check out.

Later, I had a pleasant conversation with Archana who was both friendly and seemed to have a firm handle on operations in The Club.  After talking with her about the property and other Leela properties, I want to stay at the other Leelas in other Indian cities.  This is a bad trend; I need a raise.

Ameri-nerd: Update

And again, my day at the Leela was just short of perfect.  While I was in the Library, the nerdy American guy came in and sat down on the sofa across from me.  Soon he began flirting badly with what I can only believe is his assigned butler; I feel sorry for her.

Blessings and Airport Alerts

A second newspaper headline later during my trip to India warned me of al Qaeda threats to hijack planes leaving from India toward the United States (of America, in case you've confused it with some other United States).  Coincidentally, later this week I myself am planning to return home from India to the U.S.  My greatest consolation is that the flights on Lufthansa are so full that terrorists will either

• not be able to get last-minute tickets for my flight, or
• will find my plane so cramped that they'll sit down, look around, and before takeoff will say in loud voices "I was planning on hijacking this plane but it is exceedingly crowded in here!  Take me to airport jail, I do not care, just GET ME OFF OF THIS PLANE!"

On a related note, I've just changed one of my three superpowers (*): the power of instant business-class upgrades.  I suppose it would work sort of like a Jedi mind trick:  I'd go to the airport check-in counter, present my passport, and wave my hand as I said "I would like to upgrade to business class, please" (although I wield great upgrade power, there's no reason to be impolite about it).  The ticket agent would say "Yes Mr. Drapeau, a seat has just opened for you; we apologize that it will be in first class instead of business, but you will not be charged extra for our mistake."  I should think not!

Coming back to my time at The Leela, I feel blessed to have a job that gives me the opportunity to see the world.  Maybe this will wear off at some point, but I'm still amazed that I'm able to travel half way around the world and experience such interesting beauty and people.

*If you could have three superpowers, what would they be?

Here is an example superpower from one of the funniest guys I know: the power of exact change.  You know, like "That hamburger and fries will be $2.65...oh, you had exactly that much in your pocket, huh?"  and "Sir, that BMW will cost $45,739.99...how in the world did you get exactly that much money in your pocket, anyway?"

Yep, this is one funny guy: "Everything he says is funny," says somebody who is sleeping with him, which by the way should narrow the guessing down to one person.  If this doesn't narrow down your guessing to one person, then I'd say things just got a little less funny in his life.