A couple notable additions to the Julian album warrant a separate post.  Bob & Heather spent a year in Bangalore as part of the team that started IronPort’s software operations.  While Bob’s day job is IronPort, he is an extremely accomplished photographer and was gracious in volunteering his time for a pro photo shoot of Julian.  Auntie Heather also brought dinner for after the shoot… can’t beat that!

If you are in the market for a photographer for your event in the Bay Area, check out Bob’s work on his website: www.bvzphoto.com

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Julian Saahil Vignoles.
Weight: 5 lbs. 12 oz. (2606 grams)
Height: 18.5 in (47 cm)
Born April 7, 2009 at 13:46 via C-Section at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, California.

Julian and Prachee are doing great.  We hope you’ll get to meet him in person soon, but in the meantime, here are some photos of Julian - keep coming back to this album for updated pictures.

So we’ve been back in the Bay Area for a little over 2 months.  Getting re-settled has luckily gone smoothly even with all the OB appointments and baby prep.  It’s been great to catch up with friends and seeing family means a trip across the bay, not around the world!

In the past the blog has been about the fun things going on in our lives, the trips, the get togethers and in general I tend to post more when we’ve been abroad.  The next adventure is of a decidedly different sort - Baby Vignoles is arriving on or around April 7!  Now while I will try to vary my topics, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of posts in the “baby” category - will try to keep the abnoxious or gross anecdotes to a minimum.

I’ve added some photos to the Baby Vignoles album so you can see the progression over the last 9 months - both Prachee and the baby.  In preparation, we also have a new web address and given the blog a refresh.  Update your bookmarks: www.thevignoles.com

Next post on the blog will be the birth announcement, but if you have FB, we’ll be updating our status as things progress… check back soon!

I am currently on the Rickshaw Rallye from Chennai to Kanyakumari (southernmost tip of India).  From December 29, 2008 to January 8, 2009, please check www.a-teamrickshaw.com for blog posts and pictures!  Happy New Year!

A quick detour out of our Thailand trip landed us in Hanoi, Vietnam for 3 days.  Our friends Craig & Grace, with whom we’ve traveled before (Philippines, Italy & India) said, why don’t we meet in Vietnam over Christmas?  Makes perfect sense to spend Christmas in a Buddhist-Communist (Socialist) country, right?  It turns out that the Vietnamese have embraced Christmas with the same fervor as their pseudo capitalism.

We spent 3 days hanging around the French quarter, going in and out of shops (mostly galleries) with a few detours to see the sights.  Hanoi is a fantastic walking city, especially if you stay at one of the hotels in the center of town such as the Hilton Hanoi.  The culinary highlight was lunch at “Little Hanoi 1,” a hole in the wall Vietnamese place that 4 of us had lunch at for about $12.  The Vietnamese 5 course dinner for Christmas Eve was also very memorable, especially the girls getting a second dessert because the staff thought they hadn’t served it to us!

Craig did a great job on his post about our time together in Hanoi, so I’ll link to his blog and you can read more if you’d like: Who wants to be a Millionaire?

From Hanoi we headed back to Bangkok for one more day of shopping and sightseeing.  Since it was the weekend we headed to JJ Market which is just outside central Bangkok.  This place is massive and you can find just about anything you are looking for.  With the heat and humidity and the sheer amount of stuff and number of people we were a bit overwhelmed.  Prachee picked up a few gifts and we headed back to Silom for some massages

Writing this from the lounge at BKK airport - back to Bangalore tonight.  Next is the Rickshaw rallye, so stay tuned!

Bangkok was next on the itinerary and it didn’t take long for both Prachee and I to realize what a great city it is.  I mentioned on my FB update that I felt like “Goldilocks” because Bangkok seemed to be “just right.”  It straddles many dimensions: old & new, asian & western, provincial & cosmopolitan, laid back & full of energy, clean & dirty!  It seems to have whatever you are looking for and as a bonus the best food in the world.  Thais tend to eat many small meals throughout the day, so on every corner and every alley you can find people who have set up a mini kitchen serving amazingly fresh food.  And despite being on the street, cleanliness is impeccable - even tourists can eat at these impromptu restaurants without any fear of getting ill.

On our first night after arriving we ended up at an Italian restaurant in West Silom where our hotel was located.  After 4 days of Thai food for lunch & dinner in Phuket we were ready for some pizza!  The next day we started with a river boat “bus” ride up to the old part of Bangkok where the holiest temples or Wats are located.  First was the Grand Palace & Emerald Buddha, followed by the Reclining Buddha - for me the highlight of cultural Bangkok.  We then made our way to Banglamphu market, Soi Rambutri & Khao San Road which are the “backpackers” areas of the city.  The streets are lined with stalls selling everything imaginable and you can graze on the great Thai food carts while you shop.  We’d been snacking all day, so we had a light dinner with the backpackers on Khao San and headed back to the hotel.

The next day all plans had to revolve around having lunch at Chote Chitir, a hole in the wall restaurant that had gotten rave reviews in the NYT travel section and was also highly recommended in our Lonely Planet.  If you know Prachee, then you understand how a whole day in a city could be planned around meals!  Since the restaurant was near Khao San Road we decided to head back there to continue our exploration of the area.  This time we did a bit of shopping - I am now the proud owner of “Thai Fishermen” pants… don’t ask!  The morning flew by in our exploration of the endless streets and alleys of Banglamphu and soon it was time for lunch.  Thanks to Lonely Planet we were able to actually find Chote Chitir and since it was nearly 1:30pm, we found that we had the pick of the 5 tables in the place.  Prachee excitedly asked the owner for her recommendations on what to order and soon the dishes started to arrive: first, the Mee Krob - a house specialty of thin fried crispy noodles with a delicious sweet and sour sauce; second, black pepper and garlic prawns; third, raw mango salad with grilled salmon (both Prachee’s and my favorite); & fourth, banana flower salad.  The proprietor asked if we wanted steamed rice, we kindly declined - who wanted to waste valuable stomach real estate with rice!  Let me just say, there wasn’t much for a “doggie bag” - Chote Chitir lived up to the hype!

After lunch we “rolled” to the hotel, picked up our bags and headed to the airport for our trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.

After 2 years in India it was rather sad that we had not yet done a South East Asia trip (with the exception of Singapore).  It was a conscious decision to focus on trips in India and the idea was to do a month long backpacking trip at the end of the assignment prior to moving back to the US.  Given that there are two and a half of us, the whole backpacking thing went out the window.  Prachee calls it a “baby moon,” I call it one last hoorah!

What better place to start than the beach!  We flew from Bangalore to Phuket via Bangkok and stayed at the Kamala Beach Hotel & Resort which was recommended by our friend Phil.  It was a chill place - exactly what we were looking for.  Lots of reading by the pool and the beach, broken up by fantastic (southern) Thai seafood and walks on the beach.  We’d definitely recommend the hotel even though we were a little out of place as we had not arrived on a charter plane from Northern Europe.  Tons of Scandinavians, Dutch & French staying for 1-2 weeks at a time.  I love doing nothing at the beach, but I don’t think I could do it for 2 weeks straight!

Kamala Beach is also 15 minutes by taxi to Patong, which is probably Phuket’s best known town/beach.  It is kind of a mini-Bangkok with the bars, clubs and nutty night life.  At this point this is not necessarily our scene, but we were glad to be so close and we spent one evening in Patong.  We were also very fortunate because they were having a “Beach Festival” for 4 days which included about 60 or 70 food stalls all along the beach boardwalk highlighting all the different types of Thai cuisine.  We were planning on eating at a restaurant, but when we saw all the food stands we couldn’t resist and ended up eating as we walked.  After coming from India it is a pleasure to be able to eat from the street vendors with no fear of getting sick - the cleanliness & professionalism is fantastic!

Prachee is usually the big fan of massages, but during pregnancy the kinds of massages are restricted.  On the beach, there are a couple of massage beds every 20 feet and of course our hotel had about 10 of them - perpetually busy!  On our last morning we decided to get up early and start off the day with a massage.  Prachee chose an oil massage (gentle) and I chose Thai (when in Rome…) having never had one before.  For the next 1 hour this diminutive Thai woman proceeded to pretzelize me, using her hands, elbows, forearms and feet - using her entire body weight as leverage.  I often wonder why I don’t like massages - to me they are just the ultimate luxury.  Somebody labors (for very little money ~$10 for 1 hr) in order to relieve you of your physical pain.  I guess it’s just my personality, but physical pain is something you endure, not relieve.  For this reason, Thai massage appeals to me - in order to achieve the relief you have to endure 1 hour of pain!

Prachee and I both finished a great new book at the beach in Phuket so I wanted to encourage you to read it if you haven’t already.  The White Tiger is Aravind Adiga’s first novel and the 2008 Man Booker prize winner.  For those of us who live in India, the narrative strikes close to home, but regardless, it is an exceptionally written novel with a unique and dark story that you won’t be able to put down.

Next is Bangkok, followed by Christmas in Hanoi.  I will try to post individual blogs for each, but we’ll see how that goes.  I’ll probably post photos at the end once we get back to Bangalore.  Check back soon!

Two big pieces of news have been slowly filtering out through email, Facebook and I’ve alluded to them in previous posts on this blog.

1. Prachee and I are expecting!  He or she was made in India and we are looking forward to April 2009 with equal measure excitement and trepidation.  If you’ve seen Prachee lately there is not much point to keeping this news “under wraps.”

2. The “three” of us are headed back to the Bay Area in January 2009.  Prachee’s job here in Bangalore is wrapping up and she’s looking forward to new challenges in Marketing with Cisco’s Security Technology Group.  I am in job search mode, so be on the lookout for my resume in your inbox soon

There is no doubt that we’ll miss India, Bangalore and the friends we’ve made these past two years (see next two posts), but we are looking forward to being closer to our families and to the new challenges of 2009.

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Sukh Sagar - this is my favorite local eating place.  The food is good, service is fast and I’m going to dearly miss my Tomato Onion Uttapam with Coconut Chutney!

The Food - I mentioned Sukh Sagar by name, but there are many other places and food that I will miss dearly.  From having 20 Rupee lunch (about 50 cents) at the Laxmi Darshini in New Thipassandra; the Onion Rava Dosa at Dosa Stop; the Indian-Chinese Noodles at China Pearl; the Biryani at Eden Park; the Kababs & Nizam Rolls at Siddique in Shivajinagar; and of course the heavenly breads: naan, roomali roti, phulka, roti, paratha & chapatis!  I bought a tandoor to take back with me and I hope I can re-create some of my favorites at home!

The Naren Workout - it’s amazing to be able to workout with a personal trainer, to have someone there to motivate you, to push you and be waiting for you on those days you just don’t want to go to the gym.  I really enjoyed my afternoons with Naren, even though his job was to keep me in a perpetual state of soreness!

The Venu Pickup & Drop-off - our driver Venu has been one of the constants of our time here in India, always punctual, reliable, trustworthy and professional.  I enjoy driving so I look forward to having the car to myself again and turning it into my personal karaoke booth.  What I will miss however, is getting dropped off and picked up right in front of wherever I am going, truly a luxury.

Flat 610 at Embassy Tranquil - our oasis in India.  We’ve truly enjoyed the space and tranquility of our apartment as well as entertaining on the fantastic private terrace.  We were lucky to find a building with like-minded neighbors that is both close to the center of town and to Prachee’s work.

Being so close to Aai & Papa - although we haven’t been to Pune to visit Prachee’s grandparents as much as we would have like to, our frequency has been much better than when we are in the US.  We’ve enjoyed having them just an hour flight away and being able to see them several times a year.

Bangalore Weather - I just can’t say enough about Bangalore’s weather, I absolutely love it.  No jacket or sweaters required!  Our windows are open year-round with breezes cooling you off even during the 2-3 “hot” weeks each year.  Even the monsoon is enjoyable in Bangalore as it usually arrives in the evening so you can fall asleep to the sound of the rain.  Definitely not your typical Indian weather!

Waking up to the papaya vendor in the morning - with the windows open I can hear him clearly even though he is 6 stories down.  I don’t know what he looks like and I am not sure he even sells Papayas (his call just sounds like he’s saying Papayas), but I will definitely miss my distinctive India “Alarm Clock.”

Our friends in Bangalore - we have the photos and the memories, but we’ll miss the great friends we’ve made over the last two years.  I hope that we’ll see each other again soon in India, in San Francisco or somewhere in between!

Thumbs Up - somewhere between Coke and Jolt but with a bit of “Masala” kick.  Thumbs Up is one of those truly Indian things.  In my 2005 post New Year’s in India (of my first trip to India) I closed it out by saying what turned out to be prophetic words “A Thumbs Up for the road and it was time to leave India, content in knowing that I’ll be back soon.”  I’ll say it once more, with the knowledge that it will be true again and the hope that it will be soon.