Here are some random observations and resulting thoughts from a day spent sightseeing south of Chennai...

• India has quite a collection of fascinating road signs...including...

• "Go Slow Unless You Have An Appointment with God"--more than a few people seemed to want that appointment to be before sunset today...

• seen on the back of a taxi: "How's My Driving?"--unfortunately there was no 800 number to pass along comments...

• "Accident Prone Area"--basically could be posted at every intersection and along virtually all curves and/or straightaways...

• "No Sound Horn"--posted in English...maybe posting in Tamil or Hindi or Urdu or any of the other 30 or so national languages would help?
  

• "My Town My Pride Keep It Clean & Green"--Evidently someone from the Sierra Club was contracted to help the region develop a community pride slogan...
  

• "Avoid Cellphones While Driving"--some things are becoming universal...
  

• located a few blocks from our hotel is the "Giddiness Research Centre"--probably a relaxation clinic for overstressed drivers...or passengers from out of the country trapped in a hired van...
  

• Where else but in India can you see, within just a couple hours, a crocodile fight...a goat fight... and a monkey fight?

• Agility observation: Josh Weygandt sure can move fast when charged by an upset Papa monkey...

• In the "You Had to See It to Understand It" category... Karl sharing some hand sanitizer with a nagging lady selling necklaces was priceless... words won't be accurate... just ask him sometime...
  

• Note Home: Wendy--I am more amazed than ever at all the great photos you have taken out moving car windows through the years... all I got today were blurs and poles, but at least I got something before my battery died...
  

• If the Bay of Bengal counts as part of the Indian Ocean I have now been in three of the four oceans of the world and I plan on asking our pilot from London to San Francisco if he can make a quick stop somewhere in the Arctic Ocean on the way home to get number four taken care of...
  

• At the crocodile park, one sign described the food given this particular species with a "fish" and "cow" symbol...I want to know why a crocodile can eat beef in India...but I can't?
  

• Swerving around a cow crossing the road engenders much different emotions than doing the same in Idaho... perhaps because these cows are gods (?) and the ones I've dodged in Idaho have usually gotten out of my father-in-law's pastures (By the way--Happy Father's Day Papa!)
  

• Seeing your first roaming cow along the roadway is an experience like...well...I'm not sure what it is like...but it is an experience everyone should have...so if you didn't come on this trip start making plans to get over here to finish the work in 2009!
  

• Several times I could swear I heard Darrel Waltrip saying--"Boogity...Boogity... Boogity Boys...Let's Go Racing!"
  

• And I know I heard him shouting--"They're trying to go three wide in the corner...and that just won't work...someone has got to lift (our driver never lifted!)...how did they do that...I've never seen driving like that at Bristol or Daytona...
  

• Tow trucks over here are labeled "Recovery Van"
  

• Should you ever see the words "Mutton Gongura" on a menu make sure to order it...but do not plan on feeling your lips for at least 48 hours...which means I should have feeling back in mine sometime Monday...
  

• Visiting a crocodile park means there is only one way to sign off your blog...you guessed it: "See Ya Later Alligator...After While Crocodile..."
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