Like a Salvador Dali Painting...

Okay... so get this. The last time i was in India, Raj introduced me to a "Tata Indiacom Wireless Modem". It's about the size of a common "flash drive"/memory stick at home, and plugs right into a USB port, providing the user with an instant, country-wide wireless point of access for the Internet. You can literally be driving down the street, plug in the modem, and then access the Net, your e-mail, or whatever else. We bought one, and i have been using it since we got here. Then i thought, "hey, i'll try to blog while we're travelling around." So... pulled out my laptop, jacked in the little modem, and booted up. Sure enough, up comes the wireless network! Cool! Access to e-mail, net, etc. all there while there are 10 of us packed like Sardines into a vehicle the size of a Ford Explorer.


But then it got REALLY weird. Check this out. Our driver couldn't find St. Thomas Mount (the site where "Doubting Thomas" was martyred in about 70 AD (more on that later), so i went to Google and typed in the site. Sure enough, i found the address, and 25 minutes later, we were there.



But then it got REALLY REALLY weird. After leaving St. Thomas Mount, we wanted to see the Tomb of St. Thomas, located inside the St. Thomas Basilica (it's one of 3 churches supposedly build over the bones of an Apostle of Jesus Christ in the world). It was all the way across town, and again, the driver, being Hindu, didn't really know where it was. No problem. I went back to Google. I quickly located the Basilica, plotted a series of directions from St. Thomas Mount to the Basilica, and began shouting directions from the back seat to Annand, who translated them for me to the driver. 35 minutes later, we were standing at the Basilica.

But then it got REALLY REALLY REALLY weird. After th Basilica, we wanted to go to an American-style restaurant called Sparky's for dinner. The driver had absolutely no idea where it was (or what it was), and so i looked back again to Google for plotting and waypointing. In addition, i loaded up Google Earth, got satellite flyby maps, and was able to show him geographical intel of the college across the street from the restaurant. "Oh yeah... i know that place" he commented, shaking his head as we looked at it's roof and surrounding from an arial view on my laptop. 30 minutes later, we were enjoying nachos at Sparky's.

So, a truck load full of 10 Americans ricocheting off of the streets of an Indian city, using satellite imagery from Google Maps via a wirelessly bound laptop trying to locate 2,000 year old monumnts and an American style restaurant nestled between kiosks and coconut salesmen. Wow! If i had a Dali-style mustache, i'd have it waxed into vertical handlebars.

Want to see the map and rough locations? I saved a Google Map with all points mentioned above. Click here (how cool is that?)!