Thread by @gauravsabnis

Sigh, my mind is also split like this. I've dreamed of visiting Vietnam for decades, for the nature, people, and of course food. But I've also dreamed of visiting the Galapagos since I read Origin of the Species.

Korea and Alaska are admittedly newer bucket list entries.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1500500832168689667

Both are teenage crushes.
It was during a late night rain break in some test cricket that I came across Full Metal Jacket on the local cable channel.
Omg, y'all remember that from the 90s? When local cable providers had there own "channel" with a schedule and all?

Anyway, this movie blew my mind. I had only seen "patriotic" war movies till then. I was like, whoa what is this? Then Alka or Vijay talkies had Platoon playing. Watched that. Really got into Vietnam. Scoured World Book, Britannica, etc. No internet in those days.

All I had heard about Vietnam until then was "only country to defeat America in a war" and that was always impressive, given that all the Americans seemed like invincible cowboys. And these rice farmers defeated the country that defeated the soviets? And so pretty!

Galapagos is funnily connected to an actual teenage crush. I read Origin of the Species just to impress a girl. Okay, not *just* for that. I was a science kid. But Origin of the Species wasn't sold on the streets for cheap like Mein Kampf. You had to go look for it as a kid.

At that time, I was vying for her attention with a bunch of extremely smart guys, including math Olympiad medalists. So 16 year old me picks up the book from the Garware College library, just to sound smart the next time we were at a group outing. 🙈🙈

Did not work at all. She was not impressed at all. 😂😂

But it eventually paid off. My nerdiness impressed @k_rupal several years later hehe. And her top choice is Galapagos.

So ummm I guess Galapagos it shall be.