I'm here. Where's the toilet paper?

First I must edify the previous post. Although it was a lengthy journey, I discovered that I had a 10-hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nicely, ThinkSmart put me up in a local hotel - The Empress - that also supplied me with two meal tickets during my stay.

Upon my arrival to The Empress, I fashioned their lunch buffet, and found myself picking at vegetable curry while I watched Australian rugby. Australia beat the Wallabies, 34-20. I left the hotel hungry and wandered the area, rundown and shabby. I have yet the ability to import photos on this trip(please bear with me), but I would've captured a wonderful old KFC-Sheeba's Refigeration maintenance truck that was in front of, obviously, a KFC. Sheeba was fixing the sign. There was no chicken in sight. Or whatever it actually is.

Two Indian lads I met during my unfulfilling buffet lunch recommended the 4-hour tour of Kuala Lumpur, and when I returned from my walk, a tour was leaving. One seat left. I took it. Everyone in the van was Indian, including the driver(a self-proclaimed third generation Malaysian-Indian), so for the 45-minute trip to Kuala Lump, I kept my trap shut.

I went on the tour trip because my lunch lads had told me about the big tower in the city, some 500 meters high(over a quarter mile). On the drive to the big tower, I saw a sign for Infrastructure University as well as a huge billboard for my state-of-the-art Samsung futuristic cell phone that I had left at home, broken. I miss it dearly. But infrastructure - Kuala Lumpur is in need of that - a beautiful city of green and fine artchitecture that is exploding with growth, yet interlaced with poverty and run-down facades. The tower taught me this. For every fine looking anglular temple, there is a nearby shoddy cement building with old dirty blankets and peering eyes looking out. But a degree from Infrastructure University will solve that!

So I arrived here in Hyderabad. Oh, and another thing I learned from my lunch mates: how to pronounce the city name - I thought very important to learn BEFORE you arrive in Hyderabad. I had been telling everyone I was travevling to Hyder-a-bad. But fortunately I was corrected - it's Hyde-ra-bad. It sounds way better. And less offensive. Well, not offensive at all.

Upon exiting the plane from Kuala Lumpur, I was met by three Indian gents, one of them I would be spending a lot of time with - my guide, My Man Friday - Baskhar. (I didn't name him My Man Friday, okay - Vishnu, the CEO of ThinkSmart, told me that over the phone, this morning. "He's your man, whatever you need, he's your Man Friday.") And effective, because now I can abuse him with no regrets whatsoever.

Now I have to leave the office(the only place with internet for me - albeit, a very nice office with a very nice chair htey gave me), so I will only mention one more thing for now.

They honk a lot. I think they do because they don't have a word in Hindi for it. But driving from the airport at 1:00 a.m., the driver guy - learning 4 Hindi names in 5 minutes is tough to remember - the driver guy kept honking about every 5 seconds. Honk. Honk, honk! However, it's really never out of anger like in Los Angeles, but more... to let people know that you are coming, and you may hit them if they do not move immediately. Nice. It has something to do with the fact that Hyderabad is a city of about 1 million people and very few traffic lights, street signs, or well-maintained roads. So it's really out of courtesy. Honk, honk! I am here! I am here! I am here! >> That was in reference to the horns - and me.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The title of the post. Right now, I am typing in the ThinkSmart office, and I have been holding in a Number 2 for an hour. Take a guess why. I went into the bathroom earlier and found no toilet paper - but worse, there was no place where the toilet paper should be. I immediately came back to the office and asked Baskhar where the toilet paper was, and he laughed, "There is no toilet paper, Scott. Welcome to India."

-Scott