at roughly 5'9", I've never considered myself tall, but never really short either, until sitting in business class.
My seat was upgraded from Economy to Business for the Bangalore-Dubai leg, and at the same time, moved from a window t o a center seat.
Sitting in the seat while at complete rest and seat in original upright position, my feet don't reach the floor. My back almost doesn't reach the back of the seat, but that is nicely compensated by the fact that the lumbar support is adjustable... quite odd. The seats are wider by probably 4 inches or so, and the arm-rest is twice as wide, which makes "claiming" an armrest from your neighbor unnecessary and almost impossible.
The food.... ok, not great. The OJ is definitely better than Donald Duck. when asked for what I'd like for breakfast, I picked the poached egg with anda masala. It came in 2 courses... fruit plate and bread basket, and then the main course. The watermelon was a bit rubbery and full of seeds, and one of my grapes was a bit mush. The roll was good, and as a second round I had a croissant which was good. The main course I actually didn't eat much of. I had a single piece of chicken kabob, both because it felt/tasted very heavy, and for the fact I didn't want to struggle to get subsequent pieces off of the little stick. I didn't touch the lamb/mutton one at all. The egg was more hard-boiled than poached.
I had another glass of OJ, and the the FA take the rest. Along with the silverware, there as actually a packet with dental floss and a toothpick, but I didn't need it and forgot to bring it home.
The rest of the flight was basically spent sleeping as it was a 4-8AM local time flight.
Packed up quickly and was off for the walk through the DBX terminal.... which is vast. The DBX terminal is bigger than any other terminal that I've been in, and that includes London/Heathrow and CHI/Ohare, or maybe it seemed that way. They basically have a full shopping mall inside there. It was bustling in the morning, and all the shops were open. I was looking for a bit of junk food and found it in a pretty decent sized store that had everything from perfume to powdered milk. I picked up some Hunters(Pringles) and a couple containers of the little Kinder surprises for Lauren, hopefully I wouldn't squash them on the way home.
I sauntered through the rest of the terminal both to find my gate and a restroom. After finding a restroom, I was annoyed... there was a line. Apparently they designed it so that about 10 gates shared a single men's restroom. And inside were 3 stalls, no urinals. And of those three stalls, one was a stand/squat hole in the ground variety. My stomach wasn't doing great, but I bore through the 10 minute wait as there were about 6 people in front of me. The wait was patient, but I could hear some of the damage that was being done before me and it wasn't a pleasant wait.
There is tons of people waiting in the lounge-style chairs that are in the terminal, and very difficult to find an open seat. There is free wifi, so I sat, and attempted to make a VPN/sip call to bethy which didn't work out so well, but chat and a vid-cam feed from Hayward was good enough for about 20-30 minutes.
About 45 minutes before the flight, I piled into line and checked down into the gate.... 16 hours to go.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
The final legs.....
Packed... ready to go.. i checked out of the hotel.
apparently with my stay, a ride to the airport is complimentary so I decided to ride in a relatively posh camry instead of the little Indica with my replacement driver.
He was driving really fast...... or so I thought. when I peeked over from the opposite back seat, it turns out that he was only going about 80km an hour, but being in city traffic for the last two weeks, we had never approached within 20km/hr of that.
settled into the car, as it was much bigger and roomier with leather seats and the works and dozed off for about 10 minutes on the way. the drive took about 45 minutes.
I got out of the car.... my driver grabbed a buggy for my 2 check-in bags and I mosied over to the check in counter to find with some relief that there are some benefits to checking in online.... a separate lane... which was empty. Gee... wonder why SFO can't have something like this.
After a brief scare that my large bag was 30kg, the porter pulled off my first check in bag to reveal that my big bag was only 20kg... no extra weight surcharge.
Then the check person uttered the word "upgrade" relative to my BNG-DBX leg. Sure... not the16 hour upgrade that I would have liked, but this is 4 hours more of Business Class than I had before.
I made my way to the security check in line, pulled out the 2 laptops and was ready to go through when the lady commented that I didn't have a bag tag on my backpack and that I had to go get one.... .fine... I'm here with time to spare and the line isn't that long.... 5 minutes later I've checked through a different line, only to see another security person make the same comment POST scanning, give the guy a tag, and send him on his way.... nice.
I have about 1000INR left in my pocket... which equates to probably about $20. Most of the stores here are all kinda crap... I would have been in trouble if there was somewhere that had some junk food to snack on, but alas... I guess that's not part of the culture. Besides, in 1:30, I'll be sitting in B-class and I should be able to get stuff to snack on.
unfortunately the connection quatlity here isn't good enough to make good voip calls, but I can still surf a little bit and settle down for one of the last blog entries of this trip.
It's been a great trip so far... a good mix of really cool and interesting experiences and challenges with work to give a satisfied and worthwhile feel to it all.
There is rattling around the contemplation that I really should spend more time in the area, and if JNPR will fund me being an expat to the area. I'm pretty sure it's out of the question, but before I ask, I'll make sure I clear it with the fam plans.
signing off till I reach dubai.....hopefully there will be some good food or stuff on the flight.
apparently with my stay, a ride to the airport is complimentary so I decided to ride in a relatively posh camry instead of the little Indica with my replacement driver.
He was driving really fast...... or so I thought. when I peeked over from the opposite back seat, it turns out that he was only going about 80km an hour, but being in city traffic for the last two weeks, we had never approached within 20km/hr of that.
settled into the car, as it was much bigger and roomier with leather seats and the works and dozed off for about 10 minutes on the way. the drive took about 45 minutes.
I got out of the car.... my driver grabbed a buggy for my 2 check-in bags and I mosied over to the check in counter to find with some relief that there are some benefits to checking in online.... a separate lane... which was empty. Gee... wonder why SFO can't have something like this.
After a brief scare that my large bag was 30kg, the porter pulled off my first check in bag to reveal that my big bag was only 20kg... no extra weight surcharge.
Then the check person uttered the word "upgrade" relative to my BNG-DBX leg. Sure... not the16 hour upgrade that I would have liked, but this is 4 hours more of Business Class than I had before.
I made my way to the security check in line, pulled out the 2 laptops and was ready to go through when the lady commented that I didn't have a bag tag on my backpack and that I had to go get one.... .fine... I'm here with time to spare and the line isn't that long.... 5 minutes later I've checked through a different line, only to see another security person make the same comment POST scanning, give the guy a tag, and send him on his way.... nice.
I have about 1000INR left in my pocket... which equates to probably about $20. Most of the stores here are all kinda crap... I would have been in trouble if there was somewhere that had some junk food to snack on, but alas... I guess that's not part of the culture. Besides, in 1:30, I'll be sitting in B-class and I should be able to get stuff to snack on.
unfortunately the connection quatlity here isn't good enough to make good voip calls, but I can still surf a little bit and settle down for one of the last blog entries of this trip.
It's been a great trip so far... a good mix of really cool and interesting experiences and challenges with work to give a satisfied and worthwhile feel to it all.
There is rattling around the contemplation that I really should spend more time in the area, and if JNPR will fund me being an expat to the area. I'm pretty sure it's out of the question, but before I ask, I'll make sure I clear it with the fam plans.
signing off till I reach dubai.....hopefully there will be some good food or stuff on the flight.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
A Slumdog moment?
after quite a few delays, we headed out from the office to try and do some shopping/power browsing. I say power-browsing in that I have a good idea of range of things that I'm looking for, but I'm still browsing.
We end up pulling in the the bottom parking structure of mall. Mall in the sense that it is probably about a 7-story commercial building that has shops inside. To be clear, they don't have anything near the glitz or glamour of a Valley Faire. We pay Rps 30 to park and hop out of the car.
Sachin says "hey... do you want to go to a temple?" I kinda shrug, but realize that I've not really done anything during my time that is associated with the local culture or religion unless you consider the faith that I've expressed in local society as part of my recent travels. There is some sign that says something about a temple... so I go... begrudgingly... I'm a bit tired already and really want to get going.
So this mall, is in the very congested part of the city, off of a main thoroughfare of a road. The pathway is linked to a portion of the underground parking structure of this mall. we walk around this very narrow path and come to something akin to a turnstyle where we need to pay a small amount of money for entrance, I don't remember how much, maybe Rs. 60 total(maybe $1.30 US).
Then there is the shoe check... don't know if you have seen slumdog millionaire, but the little kids in the movie make money off of stealing shoes from temples and reselling them. I think about it for a moment, and I'm planning on dumping my shoes after another day's wear anyway, but giving up my shoes now is not in my plans.
Whatever... fine.. here take them....
a wash station for the hands(no soap), and we funnel through what feels like an amusement park ride with serpetining railings to handle crowds. then there is a narrow corridor with some interesting animatronics in glass cases that go over the different religions or gods? I don't recall as much of my asian american studies class as I should.
Then we wind around to a big open space... and there is this HUGE 40 ft statue. Sachin soooorta got a shot of it, but there was a guy coming after us for having a camera, which we paid extra to bring in, but Sachin apparently managed to lose the ticket in the last 5 minutes, so we didn't get a good shot.
What there is in the background, is roughly a 40 ft tall statue... right in the middle of downtown, access through the underground parking lot of a mall.
Weird.
After a couple minutes, we filed on past and went to pick up our shoes........ successfully.
Not necessarily a typical religious experience, but in place of driving 3-4 hours each way on the weekend to Mysore, this will do just fine.
We end up pulling in the the bottom parking structure of mall. Mall in the sense that it is probably about a 7-story commercial building that has shops inside. To be clear, they don't have anything near the glitz or glamour of a Valley Faire. We pay Rps 30 to park and hop out of the car.
Sachin says "hey... do you want to go to a temple?" I kinda shrug, but realize that I've not really done anything during my time that is associated with the local culture or religion unless you consider the faith that I've expressed in local society as part of my recent travels. There is some sign that says something about a temple... so I go... begrudgingly... I'm a bit tired already and really want to get going.
So this mall, is in the very congested part of the city, off of a main thoroughfare of a road. The pathway is linked to a portion of the underground parking structure of this mall. we walk around this very narrow path and come to something akin to a turnstyle where we need to pay a small amount of money for entrance, I don't remember how much, maybe Rs. 60 total(maybe $1.30 US).
Then there is the shoe check... don't know if you have seen slumdog millionaire, but the little kids in the movie make money off of stealing shoes from temples and reselling them. I think about it for a moment, and I'm planning on dumping my shoes after another day's wear anyway, but giving up my shoes now is not in my plans.
Whatever... fine.. here take them....
a wash station for the hands(no soap), and we funnel through what feels like an amusement park ride with serpetining railings to handle crowds. then there is a narrow corridor with some interesting animatronics in glass cases that go over the different religions or gods? I don't recall as much of my asian american studies class as I should.
Then we wind around to a big open space... and there is this HUGE 40 ft statue. Sachin soooorta got a shot of it, but there was a guy coming after us for having a camera, which we paid extra to bring in, but Sachin apparently managed to lose the ticket in the last 5 minutes, so we didn't get a good shot.
What there is in the background, is roughly a 40 ft tall statue... right in the middle of downtown, access through the underground parking lot of a mall.
Weird.
After a couple minutes, we filed on past and went to pick up our shoes........ successfully.
Not necessarily a typical religious experience, but in place of driving 3-4 hours each way on the weekend to Mysore, this will do just fine.
Traffic.... adventures
A subject long overdue to blog about.....
Described by another as being very much like and aquarium..... all the fishes go, and manage to get there without bumping into each other, but it looks like utter chaos. "Lane discipline" as they call it is virtually nonexistent, even in the rare occasion that there are lines. It's not uncommon for cars to be mere inches away from each other. When cars do settle to a stop for one reason or another, the gaps between the cars are quickly filled in by the constant swarm of mopeds, motorcycles, and three-wheelers.
for the past week and a half, my driver's name has been Jagadish, pronounced so quickly that sometimes it sounds like Jignesh. For the first week, he wore all white, the second week he wore what looks like acid-washed jeans, but still the same white shirt(and very possibly the same white shirt day after day).
I spent at minimum an hour a day with him, 30 minutes in to work, and 30 minutes back to the hotel. Likely another hour with him as he carted me around for lunch, between buildings, shopping etc.
The little white car is called an Indica. 4 doors, small trunk, right hand drive, I think it was 5 speeds, but I don't know if he really even used 4th gear. I think it's 2 cylinders but am not sure. I think the max speed that we ever reached wasn't much higher than 60km/hr.
He wasn't a bad singer, and I didn't mind the hindi music that he would listen to from time to time. I had a considerable amount of trust in him in that I would often sleep on the way into the office, and sleep on the way home after my exhausted days..... or not, because likely if you are reading this, then you know I'm capable of sleeping in just about any situation.
tonight as thursday night was my last night with him... he is going to his hometown tomorrow and I'll be getting someone different as a driver. We were coming back from a mall from me attempting to do some shopping, and he was driving slightly more aggressive than usual, but... as you know my driving habits a little bit, I didn't mind a bit.
I saw it start, but as it has been well over a week of being used to lots of swerving, honking, and filling in of holes, it was nothing really different. This time it was 2 buses. Jagadish was driving a bit more on the aggressive side... darting in and our, closing gaps... being even more generous with the horn than usual. I thought I saw a smile cracked on his face a couple times as he was busting some crazy moves in traffic, and it meant that I was going to get back to my room a little faster so I had nothing to object to.
2 large buses were side by side for a while, and then staggered... Jagadish was behind one, and apparently the road was going to narrow, so he was hugging the back bumper of one while the one on the left started to give way. The driver of the bus, in typical form, honked his horn to signal that he was there, and was expecting Jagadish to give way. In response, Jagadish honked his horn repeatedly and maintained his position. This horn bantering went on for about 5-10 seconds as a game of chicken seemed to be evolving, with a large bus in front, us in the small white car, and another bus trying to squeeze in from the right. Eventually, Jagadish gave way, and dropped back, letting the bus on the right merge in behind the other bus. Jagadish, also in typical form, found a couple holes as darted forward, filling in a gap as traffic continued to flow.
After about 30 seconds, apparently Jagadish managed to squeeze his way ahead of the bus which we had the horn altercation with. The bus was following closely, but not something that was immediately noticeable as traffic was crawling at about 10-15km/hr. But I noticed the demeanor of Jagadish's driving had changed. There were gaps in front of us that weren't aggressively being closed. There was a gap to our left where an occasional 2-wheeler would squirt past the bus, and traffic was flowing a little bit faster than us on the right. Jagadish was also driving a bit nervously... looking back into his rear view mirror every few seconds. I glimpsed backwards angularly, not wanting to be blinded by the headlights behind, and did notice that the bus was in close proximity, but again, we weren't moving that fast so it wasn't something out of the ordinary.
This continued on for about 3-4 minutes with traffic continuing to flow around us. I was contemplating saying something to him, but I'm the stranger here... and maybe they do things differently.
Nope.
all the sudden a guy appears on the passenger side, and starts yelling at Jagadish... followed by another guy on the drivers side, yelling at him.... the guy from the left side comes around to the right side and joins in the yelling. there is some yelling back and forth and for some reason Jagadish rolls down his window and a shove comes through... then another... more yelling and the guys disappear behind the car. Jagadish gets out of the car and pops the trunk open...
I'm sitting tight.... I had heard that altercations like this happen where the drivers get out, gesture at each other, shout and curse, and then end up getting back into their respective vehicles and drive away.
I turn around as Jagadish rummages through the trunk and pulls something out as the two guys are near the bus behind us.... Jagadish pulls something out and holds it over his head as he is going to swing it down in an aggressive manner. there are no apparently 4 people out of the bus, but not the bus driver.... apparently all these people were really pissed that Jagadish was holding up traffic.
There is some scuffling as the altercation moved to the side of the road. No one is really grappled to the road, but it is clear that it is a 2 on 1. No real punches are thrown, but people are jockying for position, and grappling with each other. What I thought(or would have expected in the states) to be a person holding a phone, trying to call the police was actually a guy holding his phone so that he could get the action recorded on his camera-phone. Along the way, someone came up to the car and pulled the car keys out of the ignition! At this point, I wasn't sure what the heck to do... was my driver even going to be alive in the next 5 minutes?
this lasted for about 2 minutes, when a guy wearing a police vest showed up and continued into the shouting and finger pointing mix. I noticed that the other bus pulled up along side the one behind us, had its door open, and there was yelling and screaming out of that bus as well. Being that the road wasn't that wide, the two buses parallel effectively stopped all traffic on the road.
I wasn't sure what to do. They certainly weren't paying any attention to me, which was a good thing as far as I was concerned, but the health and safety of my driver and my subsequent ability to get back to my hotel was an item of concern. I was a stranger in a strange land, unsure of what to do, what to say... so I stayed put. I wasn't sure what benefits the security of this little car would provide me, but I certainly didn't need to willfully give it up.
The finger pointing and yelling continued with the presence of the police officer, until what I think happened is the buses started to move. all of the people who got off took notice of this fact, and as much as I think they wanted to have it out with my driver, they too wanted to go wherever they were headed, and ran to jump on the bus.
With his assailants gone, Jagadish, shirt open, returned to the trunk and put the jack back into the car. At this time I asked him if he was ok, which he nodded in response to, and then I told him "someone took the car keys." He closed up the trunk, came around the side of the car, and saw that the keys were missing. At which point, he ran after the bus and hopped on it!
great.... here I am ... alone, in a car, with no driver and no keys... so I'm watching the bus... hoping that he can get his keys back.
about 100-150yds down the road I see Jagadesh hop out of the bus and walk back to the car..... with the keys in hand.... whew
He gets back in... settles himself, starts the car and off we go.
5 minutes later, we pull into the front of the hotel with him apologizing profusely for the situation. I ask him for the paper that I need to sign, and then for him to get out of the car so that I can take a picture(above). I thank him for his help for the past couple of weeks, give him a cash gift, and he's on his way.
I'll seriously be surprised if I see Jagadesh again.... 1 in a country of 1B people. He saved me untold time in his taking of various backroads and short cuts, and a real thrill to be in the car with as he zips around the streets of Bangalore. and my experience with him certainly ended wit ha bang.
Bangalore is a crazy interesting place.. .and this is just one of the crazy experiences of this trip.
Described by another as being very much like and aquarium..... all the fishes go, and manage to get there without bumping into each other, but it looks like utter chaos. "Lane discipline" as they call it is virtually nonexistent, even in the rare occasion that there are lines. It's not uncommon for cars to be mere inches away from each other. When cars do settle to a stop for one reason or another, the gaps between the cars are quickly filled in by the constant swarm of mopeds, motorcycles, and three-wheelers.
for the past week and a half, my driver's name has been Jagadish, pronounced so quickly that sometimes it sounds like Jignesh. For the first week, he wore all white, the second week he wore what looks like acid-washed jeans, but still the same white shirt(and very possibly the same white shirt day after day).
I spent at minimum an hour a day with him, 30 minutes in to work, and 30 minutes back to the hotel. Likely another hour with him as he carted me around for lunch, between buildings, shopping etc.
The little white car is called an Indica. 4 doors, small trunk, right hand drive, I think it was 5 speeds, but I don't know if he really even used 4th gear. I think it's 2 cylinders but am not sure. I think the max speed that we ever reached wasn't much higher than 60km/hr.
He wasn't a bad singer, and I didn't mind the hindi music that he would listen to from time to time. I had a considerable amount of trust in him in that I would often sleep on the way into the office, and sleep on the way home after my exhausted days..... or not, because likely if you are reading this, then you know I'm capable of sleeping in just about any situation.
tonight as thursday night was my last night with him... he is going to his hometown tomorrow and I'll be getting someone different as a driver. We were coming back from a mall from me attempting to do some shopping, and he was driving slightly more aggressive than usual, but... as you know my driving habits a little bit, I didn't mind a bit.
I saw it start, but as it has been well over a week of being used to lots of swerving, honking, and filling in of holes, it was nothing really different. This time it was 2 buses. Jagadish was driving a bit more on the aggressive side... darting in and our, closing gaps... being even more generous with the horn than usual. I thought I saw a smile cracked on his face a couple times as he was busting some crazy moves in traffic, and it meant that I was going to get back to my room a little faster so I had nothing to object to.
2 large buses were side by side for a while, and then staggered... Jagadish was behind one, and apparently the road was going to narrow, so he was hugging the back bumper of one while the one on the left started to give way. The driver of the bus, in typical form, honked his horn to signal that he was there, and was expecting Jagadish to give way. In response, Jagadish honked his horn repeatedly and maintained his position. This horn bantering went on for about 5-10 seconds as a game of chicken seemed to be evolving, with a large bus in front, us in the small white car, and another bus trying to squeeze in from the right. Eventually, Jagadish gave way, and dropped back, letting the bus on the right merge in behind the other bus. Jagadish, also in typical form, found a couple holes as darted forward, filling in a gap as traffic continued to flow.
After about 30 seconds, apparently Jagadish managed to squeeze his way ahead of the bus which we had the horn altercation with. The bus was following closely, but not something that was immediately noticeable as traffic was crawling at about 10-15km/hr. But I noticed the demeanor of Jagadish's driving had changed. There were gaps in front of us that weren't aggressively being closed. There was a gap to our left where an occasional 2-wheeler would squirt past the bus, and traffic was flowing a little bit faster than us on the right. Jagadish was also driving a bit nervously... looking back into his rear view mirror every few seconds. I glimpsed backwards angularly, not wanting to be blinded by the headlights behind, and did notice that the bus was in close proximity, but again, we weren't moving that fast so it wasn't something out of the ordinary.
This continued on for about 3-4 minutes with traffic continuing to flow around us. I was contemplating saying something to him, but I'm the stranger here... and maybe they do things differently.
Nope.
all the sudden a guy appears on the passenger side, and starts yelling at Jagadish... followed by another guy on the drivers side, yelling at him.... the guy from the left side comes around to the right side and joins in the yelling. there is some yelling back and forth and for some reason Jagadish rolls down his window and a shove comes through... then another... more yelling and the guys disappear behind the car. Jagadish gets out of the car and pops the trunk open...
I'm sitting tight.... I had heard that altercations like this happen where the drivers get out, gesture at each other, shout and curse, and then end up getting back into their respective vehicles and drive away.
I turn around as Jagadish rummages through the trunk and pulls something out as the two guys are near the bus behind us.... Jagadish pulls something out and holds it over his head as he is going to swing it down in an aggressive manner. there are no apparently 4 people out of the bus, but not the bus driver.... apparently all these people were really pissed that Jagadish was holding up traffic.
There is some scuffling as the altercation moved to the side of the road. No one is really grappled to the road, but it is clear that it is a 2 on 1. No real punches are thrown, but people are jockying for position, and grappling with each other. What I thought(or would have expected in the states) to be a person holding a phone, trying to call the police was actually a guy holding his phone so that he could get the action recorded on his camera-phone. Along the way, someone came up to the car and pulled the car keys out of the ignition! At this point, I wasn't sure what the heck to do... was my driver even going to be alive in the next 5 minutes?
this lasted for about 2 minutes, when a guy wearing a police vest showed up and continued into the shouting and finger pointing mix. I noticed that the other bus pulled up along side the one behind us, had its door open, and there was yelling and screaming out of that bus as well. Being that the road wasn't that wide, the two buses parallel effectively stopped all traffic on the road.
I wasn't sure what to do. They certainly weren't paying any attention to me, which was a good thing as far as I was concerned, but the health and safety of my driver and my subsequent ability to get back to my hotel was an item of concern. I was a stranger in a strange land, unsure of what to do, what to say... so I stayed put. I wasn't sure what benefits the security of this little car would provide me, but I certainly didn't need to willfully give it up.
The finger pointing and yelling continued with the presence of the police officer, until what I think happened is the buses started to move. all of the people who got off took notice of this fact, and as much as I think they wanted to have it out with my driver, they too wanted to go wherever they were headed, and ran to jump on the bus.
With his assailants gone, Jagadish, shirt open, returned to the trunk and put the jack back into the car. At this time I asked him if he was ok, which he nodded in response to, and then I told him "someone took the car keys." He closed up the trunk, came around the side of the car, and saw that the keys were missing. At which point, he ran after the bus and hopped on it!
great.... here I am ... alone, in a car, with no driver and no keys... so I'm watching the bus... hoping that he can get his keys back.
about 100-150yds down the road I see Jagadesh hop out of the bus and walk back to the car..... with the keys in hand.... whew
He gets back in... settles himself, starts the car and off we go.
5 minutes later, we pull into the front of the hotel with him apologizing profusely for the situation. I ask him for the paper that I need to sign, and then for him to get out of the car so that I can take a picture(above). I thank him for his help for the past couple of weeks, give him a cash gift, and he's on his way.
I'll seriously be surprised if I see Jagadesh again.... 1 in a country of 1B people. He saved me untold time in his taking of various backroads and short cuts, and a real thrill to be in the car with as he zips around the streets of Bangalore. and my experience with him certainly ended wit ha bang.
Bangalore is a crazy interesting place.. .and this is just one of the crazy experiences of this trip.
Being away....
So the thrill and the business of being here in Bangalore has been hectic.... the combination of being able to talk twice a day, and see Lauren over video cam has been incredible and I don't know how I would have done without it.
On tuesday during lunch, the feeling of being distant finally set in, and I've been ready to go home since. This is a great and incredible place, and again, with the exception of the travel time and being away from family, this is a great place to be, but I'm far from home and I miss things.
as of right now... 3:40PM on thursday, with about 36 hours to go, I have a weird anxiety that I haven't felt for about 16 years.
when I was just out of high school.... I was lucky enough to go on a trip to europe with my uncle, aunt, and two cousins.... It was a great and memorable trip, but after 10 days, I was also ready to come home. so much so, that during the 13 hour flight from Amsterdam to SFO, as much as I tried, as much as I wanted, i couldn't sleep. upon gathering our stuff at SFO, and piling into the car, I settled in, and was asleep before we pulled from the curb.
i'm starting to get that same feeling.
I have some gifts that I hope people will love and appreciate.
I'm more eager than ever to see my wife and little girl.
I long to play with my two funny cats at home.
and I'm afraid all of this will result in an anxious inability to sleep on the plane and rest appropriately to let me enjoy these things when I have the first opportunity in 2 weeks.
I'll try...
On tuesday during lunch, the feeling of being distant finally set in, and I've been ready to go home since. This is a great and incredible place, and again, with the exception of the travel time and being away from family, this is a great place to be, but I'm far from home and I miss things.
as of right now... 3:40PM on thursday, with about 36 hours to go, I have a weird anxiety that I haven't felt for about 16 years.
when I was just out of high school.... I was lucky enough to go on a trip to europe with my uncle, aunt, and two cousins.... It was a great and memorable trip, but after 10 days, I was also ready to come home. so much so, that during the 13 hour flight from Amsterdam to SFO, as much as I tried, as much as I wanted, i couldn't sleep. upon gathering our stuff at SFO, and piling into the car, I settled in, and was asleep before we pulled from the curb.
i'm starting to get that same feeling.
I have some gifts that I hope people will love and appreciate.
I'm more eager than ever to see my wife and little girl.
I long to play with my two funny cats at home.
and I'm afraid all of this will result in an anxious inability to sleep on the plane and rest appropriately to let me enjoy these things when I have the first opportunity in 2 weeks.
I'll try...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
the Thai adventure
Last night I was beat.... tired.....
After a day I knew was going to be interesting because of challenges with work... went in... was unsuccessful in contacting our vendor... and then went to go visit another partner that we do outsourcing to.
Spent some time there, met lots of people, talked about what I had in store for my group and where the data centers were heading towards, and then took them out to a nice lunch.
Meanwhile... things were going south for the colo project.... fortunately, Reliance was right around the corner from where I had lunch, and I made a stop on in and I talked to their big boss of the area...about the challenges with the project and what needed to be done to clear things up and make sure there was good communication moving forward.
After that.. that brought us back to the office at about 4:20... check email.. .and then talk to another internal person about data centers, what help I would need from him and his group, and what I hoped DCIS could provide in the coming months and years.
and that took me to almost 6..... then my guy wanted to be dropped off first on the way back to the hotel till almost 7:30 due to rainy traffic.
so..... I was tired... alone.... didn't really want to go out and forrage for food...and had heard that the thai restaurant in the hotel was supposed to be very good.
It was drizzling a bit so I walked on through... took a look at the menu to see if the things that I wanted were on there... then proceeded to ask for the lonely table for one. It was a quaint little restaurant with a bit of a tiki feel. set on top of a small body of water, wicker chairs with nice cushions to go with the white tablecloth setting.
I started with a drink which was something called a blush.... I realized after I got it in a martini glass that it was pink, and probably a chick drink. Lychee juice and pineapple? I don't remember, but it was pretty good.
I ordered what I would have ordered out of our favorite places in the US... Tom Kah, and yellow currey.
the Tom Kah came, and it was quite tastey.. a little more creamy than I'm used to, and definitely more creamy and sweeter than my biggest goose would have liked, but it was pretty good nonetheless. It had a considerable amount of foliage in there which I didn't take, and just left it in the bowl.
So... it was rainy on the way in... and I knew since leaving the office, that there were some storms going on.... lightning flashes on the horizon, but I couldn't tell where they were coming from, or hear the thunder over he din of the city.
all the sudden .... a creaking and a crashing to my right... I had been a little desensitized by the fact that the city is loud, the kitchen was loud, and the thunder and lightning were loud as well.
A large branch of a tree, what I could only estimate as probably 3-400 lbs of foliage crashed down on top of our side of the building and in the water adjacent to the restaurant. bits and pieces of the tree and branches scattered through bits of the restaurant and caused quite a stir.
I was not next to the area, but somehow ended up on my feet regardless.
After about 10 minutes, then I settled back down to my meal.... yellow curry with prawns and pineapple, and a side of rice. Not really what I was expecting, but luckily I wasn't that hungry either. the waiter scooped me some rice, and poured 2 scoops of the curry over the rice. I took a bite, and was met again with a lot of folliage.. and it was a little bit spicy as well. Maybe my appetite was shaken a little bit by the commotion, but the food just wasn't really what I was hoping it would be.
I signed for the bill, staggered up to my room... and settled on in... exhausted.
After a day I knew was going to be interesting because of challenges with work... went in... was unsuccessful in contacting our vendor... and then went to go visit another partner that we do outsourcing to.
Spent some time there, met lots of people, talked about what I had in store for my group and where the data centers were heading towards, and then took them out to a nice lunch.
Meanwhile... things were going south for the colo project.... fortunately, Reliance was right around the corner from where I had lunch, and I made a stop on in and I talked to their big boss of the area...about the challenges with the project and what needed to be done to clear things up and make sure there was good communication moving forward.
After that.. that brought us back to the office at about 4:20... check email.. .and then talk to another internal person about data centers, what help I would need from him and his group, and what I hoped DCIS could provide in the coming months and years.
and that took me to almost 6..... then my guy wanted to be dropped off first on the way back to the hotel till almost 7:30 due to rainy traffic.
so..... I was tired... alone.... didn't really want to go out and forrage for food...and had heard that the thai restaurant in the hotel was supposed to be very good.
It was drizzling a bit so I walked on through... took a look at the menu to see if the things that I wanted were on there... then proceeded to ask for the lonely table for one. It was a quaint little restaurant with a bit of a tiki feel. set on top of a small body of water, wicker chairs with nice cushions to go with the white tablecloth setting.
I started with a drink which was something called a blush.... I realized after I got it in a martini glass that it was pink, and probably a chick drink. Lychee juice and pineapple? I don't remember, but it was pretty good.
I ordered what I would have ordered out of our favorite places in the US... Tom Kah, and yellow currey.
the Tom Kah came, and it was quite tastey.. a little more creamy than I'm used to, and definitely more creamy and sweeter than my biggest goose would have liked, but it was pretty good nonetheless. It had a considerable amount of foliage in there which I didn't take, and just left it in the bowl.
So... it was rainy on the way in... and I knew since leaving the office, that there were some storms going on.... lightning flashes on the horizon, but I couldn't tell where they were coming from, or hear the thunder over he din of the city.
all the sudden .... a creaking and a crashing to my right... I had been a little desensitized by the fact that the city is loud, the kitchen was loud, and the thunder and lightning were loud as well.
A large branch of a tree, what I could only estimate as probably 3-400 lbs of foliage crashed down on top of our side of the building and in the water adjacent to the restaurant. bits and pieces of the tree and branches scattered through bits of the restaurant and caused quite a stir.
I was not next to the area, but somehow ended up on my feet regardless.
After about 10 minutes, then I settled back down to my meal.... yellow curry with prawns and pineapple, and a side of rice. Not really what I was expecting, but luckily I wasn't that hungry either. the waiter scooped me some rice, and poured 2 scoops of the curry over the rice. I took a bite, and was met again with a lot of folliage.. and it was a little bit spicy as well. Maybe my appetite was shaken a little bit by the commotion, but the food just wasn't really what I was hoping it would be.
I signed for the bill, staggered up to my room... and settled on in... exhausted.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
My troops are down and probably out...
I think whatever troops I've had that help me deal with food from the states are down and likely out. I think the food on friday dealt them a liquifying blow.
i've tried to bolster them recently with some meds, but hopefully this will run its course into a solid defense soon. Until then, I'll shoot for the bland side of food.
I tried last night as I went to a Ruby Tuesday for the first time(we don't have these on the west coast), but the food was only soso....
Hopefully today will show some signs of solidity.
i've tried to bolster them recently with some meds, but hopefully this will run its course into a solid defense soon. Until then, I'll shoot for the bland side of food.
I tried last night as I went to a Ruby Tuesday for the first time(we don't have these on the west coast), but the food was only soso....
Hopefully today will show some signs of solidity.
Here is the view of the main part of my room. How quickly I made it a mess.
This is the view from my window/balcony. quite lush. I haven't gone out onto the balcony a lot. some other people from Juniper in the past told me to be wary of monkeys, but I haven't seen them yet.
Picture of the bathroom. shower stall and separate tub. I haven't used the tub yet.... the shower stall is interesting in that it can be used as a sauna as well, so it's fully sealed from top to bottom.... makes taking a shower quite loud in there.
Walk-in closet.
My morning schedule
My morning schedule is a little bit more set than my evening one, largely due to the fact that there is a finite window where I can be in contact with my little girl.
For the first week at least, my sleep hasn't been great. I tend to be up late working part of the US morning shift, and then up my typical early, probably around 4AM.
I try to go back to sleep until at least 6AM when the workout facility opens, and have had varying success at that. So I can work out earlier or later depending on how much sleep I get, but given the time difference, I try to be in my room from 8AM-9AM to try and catch the equivelant of 6:30-7:30 PM Pacific time when the little girl goes to bed. So, I try to work out, and then shower/get ready for work/breakfast all revolve around when I can get in touch.
Luckily I'm able to VPN into work, and use a IP Softphone to connect and make calls out of my desk extension. That coupled with my USB video camera, can have a mini teleconference with Bethy and Lauren.
hopefully I get about 15-25 minutes with the family and then head out to meet my driver at 9AM.
Evenings on my side are a little bit more flexible with the exception of Monday and Friday's as bethy and Lauren are home on a more lax schedule.
I've been finding ways to keep busy with movies and tv shows that I have on the netbook, but the morning and PM sessions soften the burden of being 20 travel hours and 8,700 miles away.
For the first week at least, my sleep hasn't been great. I tend to be up late working part of the US morning shift, and then up my typical early, probably around 4AM.
I try to go back to sleep until at least 6AM when the workout facility opens, and have had varying success at that. So I can work out earlier or later depending on how much sleep I get, but given the time difference, I try to be in my room from 8AM-9AM to try and catch the equivelant of 6:30-7:30 PM Pacific time when the little girl goes to bed. So, I try to work out, and then shower/get ready for work/breakfast all revolve around when I can get in touch.
Luckily I'm able to VPN into work, and use a IP Softphone to connect and make calls out of my desk extension. That coupled with my USB video camera, can have a mini teleconference with Bethy and Lauren.
hopefully I get about 15-25 minutes with the family and then head out to meet my driver at 9AM.
Evenings on my side are a little bit more flexible with the exception of Monday and Friday's as bethy and Lauren are home on a more lax schedule.
I've been finding ways to keep busy with movies and tv shows that I have on the netbook, but the morning and PM sessions soften the burden of being 20 travel hours and 8,700 miles away.
Afternoon at the movies
One of our greater EIS group, Samar Nayak, spent a good part of the day showing me around to a couple shopping places(to be discussed more after I return to the states), and then ended up at a movie theatre and watched "2012" today.
Its interesting how culture can be different even in the simpler things.
Popcorn - yes.. they still have it here, but there's no butter.
Hot Dog - chicken dog. The guy squirted the mustard on it, then picked up the red bottle and proceeded to squirt.... mayo? nono... stop!!! he then handed me a ketchup packet.
Assigned seating - really.... interesting. I thought I had heard other people in the office yesterday discussin different rates when it came to going to a movie, but Samar wouldn't let me pay for the ticket so I didn't see the different pricing structures.
National Anthem - yes... before the movie, you are asked to stand as they show/sing the national anthem. No flag present till the end, but a show of respect nonetheless. interesting
Intermission - there was a break for a couple minutes in the middle of the movie. I don't know exactly how long the movie was, but interesting that they do an intermission.
The quality of the movie theatre was pretty good... the seats were nice, and the atmosphere was good from the standpoint that there weren't half a dozen posers taking calls in the middle of the film.
The movie was a bit incredulous and predictable, but entertaining both in experience and in viewing.
Its interesting how culture can be different even in the simpler things.
Popcorn - yes.. they still have it here, but there's no butter.
Hot Dog - chicken dog. The guy squirted the mustard on it, then picked up the red bottle and proceeded to squirt.... mayo? nono... stop!!! he then handed me a ketchup packet.
Assigned seating - really.... interesting. I thought I had heard other people in the office yesterday discussin different rates when it came to going to a movie, but Samar wouldn't let me pay for the ticket so I didn't see the different pricing structures.
National Anthem - yes... before the movie, you are asked to stand as they show/sing the national anthem. No flag present till the end, but a show of respect nonetheless. interesting
Intermission - there was a break for a couple minutes in the middle of the movie. I don't know exactly how long the movie was, but interesting that they do an intermission.
The quality of the movie theatre was pretty good... the seats were nice, and the atmosphere was good from the standpoint that there weren't half a dozen posers taking calls in the middle of the film.
The movie was a bit incredulous and predictable, but entertaining both in experience and in viewing.
my digestive system
I've been pretty good with the food and water situation so far. Today is Saturday and I think I finally had my first effects.
Last night I went out with a bunch of Juniper folks to dinner... they were drinking and smoking and celebrating being converted from contractor to perm status. I was switching off between water, 7-up, and what they called "fruit punch" which I believe was a creamy drink, not as thick as a lassi, but a sort of a fruit blend.
After I received the drink and took a sip, I wondered if they get the milk for this drink in the fashion that I saw people on the sidewalk milking the cows..... I tried to block that out for the rest of the night.
anyway... between last night, and lunch during the day friday, I think I had the most heat that I've had on the trip so far... and I think I paid the price for that today a little bit. I was up early in the morning on the can for a little bit, and then just before the movie started, I think I cleared out more of my colon. I'm feeling pretty good now, but I think I'll see if I can have some rather bland food for the day, along with getting a little more fiber. Diet so far tends to be heavy on chicken, light on the fiber. I have some cliff bars, hopefully that will help.
Last night I went out with a bunch of Juniper folks to dinner... they were drinking and smoking and celebrating being converted from contractor to perm status. I was switching off between water, 7-up, and what they called "fruit punch" which I believe was a creamy drink, not as thick as a lassi, but a sort of a fruit blend.
After I received the drink and took a sip, I wondered if they get the milk for this drink in the fashion that I saw people on the sidewalk milking the cows..... I tried to block that out for the rest of the night.
anyway... between last night, and lunch during the day friday, I think I had the most heat that I've had on the trip so far... and I think I paid the price for that today a little bit. I was up early in the morning on the can for a little bit, and then just before the movie started, I think I cleared out more of my colon. I'm feeling pretty good now, but I think I'll see if I can have some rather bland food for the day, along with getting a little more fiber. Diet so far tends to be heavy on chicken, light on the fiber. I have some cliff bars, hopefully that will help.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Breakfast
I've been meaning to write about the breakfast, as it is actually one of my better meals of the day. Not that the other food is bad, but its an opportunity for me to have a bit of balance.
I went in for the first time a couple days ago and at first thought, it was just a buffet... small... about 20 different items, but gooe enough for a breakfast. Fresh juices, an omelette station, some pastries, a big chunk of ham, and some chaffing dishes full of assorted items.
I started on the right side and worked myself to the left.... chicken sausages, breakfast steaks, bacon, grilled tomatoes, then sauteed mushrooms and ... baked beans... wow.. .this is pretty heavy food for breakfast... then it hit me... English breakfast!!
The sauteed mushrooms were quite good. unfortunately, that looks like the dish that changes from day to day. There were veggie quiches one day, cream of spinach another, and today there were butter boiled carrots.
I've tried the orange juice, which was a little different than you'd expect, possibly they don't use valencias, the watermelon juice wasn't as sweet as I'm used to, maybe from the standpoint that I usually have the variation that we get at Mexican restaurants like in San Mateo.
today I finally had a hankering for a pastry, maybe because I've been working out in the mornings and my body might be craving some carbs.
either way, breakfast is a nice way to start out the day here.. I tend to rush it as part of my morning schedule, but it's nice to sit down, even for 10-15 minutes and have a meal.
I went in for the first time a couple days ago and at first thought, it was just a buffet... small... about 20 different items, but gooe enough for a breakfast. Fresh juices, an omelette station, some pastries, a big chunk of ham, and some chaffing dishes full of assorted items.
I started on the right side and worked myself to the left.... chicken sausages, breakfast steaks, bacon, grilled tomatoes, then sauteed mushrooms and ... baked beans... wow.. .this is pretty heavy food for breakfast... then it hit me... English breakfast!!
The sauteed mushrooms were quite good. unfortunately, that looks like the dish that changes from day to day. There were veggie quiches one day, cream of spinach another, and today there were butter boiled carrots.
I've tried the orange juice, which was a little different than you'd expect, possibly they don't use valencias, the watermelon juice wasn't as sweet as I'm used to, maybe from the standpoint that I usually have the variation that we get at Mexican restaurants like in San Mateo.
today I finally had a hankering for a pastry, maybe because I've been working out in the mornings and my body might be craving some carbs.
either way, breakfast is a nice way to start out the day here.. I tend to rush it as part of my morning schedule, but it's nice to sit down, even for 10-15 minutes and have a meal.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
There are a couple things that I should blog about the hotel that I'm in... Oberoi...
So the first one... as I'm about to take off for it agian.. .is the workout facility. I found the place on Tuesday night before a call.. I walked around to find it in the hotel. I'll try to get pictures of this later, but it has a big ... basin? full of water and covered with flower petals... kinda like pot porri? which creates a nice scent. Then you go down some very nice steps to the spa area. The work out facilities are on the right.
Its nothing special really when it comes to the equipment... actually a little bit sparce in the fact that it doesn't have anything for doing abs.
3 treadmills, 2 elipitical, 1 bike, and some freestyle things here and there...
typical of a decent hotel where they provide towels, headphones for watching/listening while on the equipment.
but what I hadn't experienced before was the guy... walking around... making sure that you had a towel.... when you finish your water, taking the bottle and giving you a new one. Even cleaning the machines after you are done.
I could get used to this.
So the first one... as I'm about to take off for it agian.. .is the workout facility. I found the place on Tuesday night before a call.. I walked around to find it in the hotel. I'll try to get pictures of this later, but it has a big ... basin? full of water and covered with flower petals... kinda like pot porri? which creates a nice scent. Then you go down some very nice steps to the spa area. The work out facilities are on the right.
Its nothing special really when it comes to the equipment... actually a little bit sparce in the fact that it doesn't have anything for doing abs.
3 treadmills, 2 elipitical, 1 bike, and some freestyle things here and there...
typical of a decent hotel where they provide towels, headphones for watching/listening while on the equipment.
but what I hadn't experienced before was the guy... walking around... making sure that you had a towel.... when you finish your water, taking the bottle and giving you a new one. Even cleaning the machines after you are done.
I could get used to this.
Dinner Wed Night...
A combination of a couple of efforts, first being my attempt to stay up and get my schedule more adjusted to local, and second, the opportunity to visit an old friend, let me to venture out for the first time last night for dinner.
Santanu is an old friend that I worked with back in the TIBCO Finance days. Before there was organization and progress for the lab space there, Santanu single handedly keep the environment up and bumbling along. As I worked to get the space better visibility, funding, and work improvements to the space, he continued to be an integral part of the team. It had been roughly 8 years since I had last seen him.... him continuing to stay with Reuters and move onto Paris.
I got back from work a little bit before 6:00PM, and told my driver that I might go back out, but that if I didn't contact him before 9PM, to just go ahead on home. It's weird having someone at my total beck and call, but that seems to be the norm around here, and you definitely don't want to acclimate to the driving habits. As I mentioned, I was still quite tired, but also had the situation where I needed to go out and get something to eat, so I chit chatted with him briefly about where the place was and then dozed off in the back seat.
Apparently he didn't REALLY know where the place was and it was a little bit of an adventure. I woke up from my mini nap at the wrong place... royal orchid hotel.... which I guess the place was near. There were a couple spells where my driver parked the car, ran out to talk or find directions, and then come back.
Eventually we did spot the place as it is right next to a TGI Fridays, and you can spot their awning from quite a ways away. But after we spotted it, it was difficult to get to and it took another 5 minutes.
Dinner was ok... it was indian food. Quite tasty. Some chicken, some fish, some prawns in curry. I was really tired throughout the meal, so I didn't need to eat a whole lot.
After that I found my driver, headed on home without incident, called home and crawled into bed.
Santanu is an old friend that I worked with back in the TIBCO Finance days. Before there was organization and progress for the lab space there, Santanu single handedly keep the environment up and bumbling along. As I worked to get the space better visibility, funding, and work improvements to the space, he continued to be an integral part of the team. It had been roughly 8 years since I had last seen him.... him continuing to stay with Reuters and move onto Paris.
I got back from work a little bit before 6:00PM, and told my driver that I might go back out, but that if I didn't contact him before 9PM, to just go ahead on home. It's weird having someone at my total beck and call, but that seems to be the norm around here, and you definitely don't want to acclimate to the driving habits. As I mentioned, I was still quite tired, but also had the situation where I needed to go out and get something to eat, so I chit chatted with him briefly about where the place was and then dozed off in the back seat.
Apparently he didn't REALLY know where the place was and it was a little bit of an adventure. I woke up from my mini nap at the wrong place... royal orchid hotel.... which I guess the place was near. There were a couple spells where my driver parked the car, ran out to talk or find directions, and then come back.
Eventually we did spot the place as it is right next to a TGI Fridays, and you can spot their awning from quite a ways away. But after we spotted it, it was difficult to get to and it took another 5 minutes.
Dinner was ok... it was indian food. Quite tasty. Some chicken, some fish, some prawns in curry. I was really tired throughout the meal, so I didn't need to eat a whole lot.
After that I found my driver, headed on home without incident, called home and crawled into bed.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
a drive into work...
I'm pretty sure I can fill up a camera with all of the interesting things that I see on the way to work.
Today, to name just a few(because I'm forgetting htem all there were so many)....
1) about 20 chickens hanging off the back of a moped..... still alive
2) people milking a cow on the side of the road
3) truck with about 20 guys hanging off the back
4) a little girl straddling a motorcycle that a man(her father?) was driving... no helmet
and more... I'm sure...
This is an amazing city
Today, to name just a few(because I'm forgetting htem all there were so many)....
1) about 20 chickens hanging off the back of a moped..... still alive
2) people milking a cow on the side of the road
3) truck with about 20 guys hanging off the back
4) a little girl straddling a motorcycle that a man(her father?) was driving... no helmet
and more... I'm sure...
This is an amazing city
out of the airport....
So I finally made it out of the airport. Sachin, my local guy is there waiting for me with the driver.
We pile into the little car and make our way towards my hotel, the Oberoi, which I've heard is pretty nice.
There is relatively little traffic on the road, but I can tell the driving situation is going to be amusing. quite a few of the little motorcyle-driven 3-wheeler things are on the road, and people pointlessly meander across the road. Lots of honking, but honking here is more "I'm here" than our "get out of my way" that I'm used to in the states. Obviously the drivers here are more conscious of their driving habits than people are in the states.
The roads are in ok state... .there are lots of potholes and speedbumps, but the driver maneuvers them expertly. in 30 minutes or so we arrive at the hotel. I can't wait to see the city during the day. They scan my bag through some security measures, I sit down with the concierge briefly and he shows me to my room.
Hardwood floors, a sizeable looking bed with 4 big pillows, a samsung LCD tv, dvd player, sofa, walk in closet, separate shower and tub, balcony. I'll take pictures later, I'm trying to catch up on the writing first.
I unpack a little bit and give sachin some of the things that I've brought for him. He sees how much chocolate I've brought and he says "oooh... too much!" well... it's not like I'm going to take it back with me, so I'll just go along with plan and be generous in handing it out.
I could tell I was starting to get tired as I was getting short dizzy spells/disorientation. Not anything serious, but obviously a sign.
After a little while, I settle down into the room, crack the laptop and make a call to bethy... good to hear her voice... I have a little bit of time to settle in some more and decide to take a nap. the time difference as I relate to it is 1:30 off of 12 hour flip. She is going to get the little girl from my parents, and I'll catch her online at about 7:30 her time, whch is 9:00 my AM.
I get my nap in, and wake up wondering why my computer hasn't rung...did she forget to call? no... just back from my parents a little bit late... 7:45 and I hop on the call. I hadn't taken the time to setup my camera yet, but I can see/hear the little girl. :) We talk a little bit and she goes to bed.
Breakfast arrives for me in the room and I snack a little bit. I'm still pretty wary about food, but need to eat something along with the Malaria pill that I take and my normal Centrum.
the shower is decent and I'm almost completely dressed by the time my guy knocks on my door.
I wrap things up and head into the office.
So I wasn't quick with the camera.... and hopefully it will happen again... but we got stuck behind a 4-wheel flatbed something being pulled by a bull. The driver deftly passed him, but it was still quite a site. Next time I'll get a shot of it.
I settled into the office and met a couple of people... saw the data center etc.... i'll try not to write too much stuff here work associated....
so then we skipped to lunch.. and the jet lag was starting to set in. we went to some place called IndiJoe... buffet... pretty good.. .a mix of chinese and indian food. I ate relateively lightly. I had some strawberry drink which was pretty good, but I wondered about the ice cubes.
After lunch we head out to go get a cell phone. Nokia store... simple phone. After this I head back to the office, and it's about 4:00 and head on back to the hotel. Rest a little bit before a 10:30PM(my time) call.
I relax down into the chair, have a quick call with bethy and lauren.... and basically need to tell behty to turn off their side of the webcam or else I'll never get rest. I can sit and watch her for hours :).
We pile into the little car and make our way towards my hotel, the Oberoi, which I've heard is pretty nice.
There is relatively little traffic on the road, but I can tell the driving situation is going to be amusing. quite a few of the little motorcyle-driven 3-wheeler things are on the road, and people pointlessly meander across the road. Lots of honking, but honking here is more "I'm here" than our "get out of my way" that I'm used to in the states. Obviously the drivers here are more conscious of their driving habits than people are in the states.
The roads are in ok state... .there are lots of potholes and speedbumps, but the driver maneuvers them expertly. in 30 minutes or so we arrive at the hotel. I can't wait to see the city during the day. They scan my bag through some security measures, I sit down with the concierge briefly and he shows me to my room.
Hardwood floors, a sizeable looking bed with 4 big pillows, a samsung LCD tv, dvd player, sofa, walk in closet, separate shower and tub, balcony. I'll take pictures later, I'm trying to catch up on the writing first.
I unpack a little bit and give sachin some of the things that I've brought for him. He sees how much chocolate I've brought and he says "oooh... too much!" well... it's not like I'm going to take it back with me, so I'll just go along with plan and be generous in handing it out.
I could tell I was starting to get tired as I was getting short dizzy spells/disorientation. Not anything serious, but obviously a sign.
After a little while, I settle down into the room, crack the laptop and make a call to bethy... good to hear her voice... I have a little bit of time to settle in some more and decide to take a nap. the time difference as I relate to it is 1:30 off of 12 hour flip. She is going to get the little girl from my parents, and I'll catch her online at about 7:30 her time, whch is 9:00 my AM.
I get my nap in, and wake up wondering why my computer hasn't rung...did she forget to call? no... just back from my parents a little bit late... 7:45 and I hop on the call. I hadn't taken the time to setup my camera yet, but I can see/hear the little girl. :) We talk a little bit and she goes to bed.
Breakfast arrives for me in the room and I snack a little bit. I'm still pretty wary about food, but need to eat something along with the Malaria pill that I take and my normal Centrum.
the shower is decent and I'm almost completely dressed by the time my guy knocks on my door.
I wrap things up and head into the office.
So I wasn't quick with the camera.... and hopefully it will happen again... but we got stuck behind a 4-wheel flatbed something being pulled by a bull. The driver deftly passed him, but it was still quite a site. Next time I'll get a shot of it.
I settled into the office and met a couple of people... saw the data center etc.... i'll try not to write too much stuff here work associated....
so then we skipped to lunch.. and the jet lag was starting to set in. we went to some place called IndiJoe... buffet... pretty good.. .a mix of chinese and indian food. I ate relateively lightly. I had some strawberry drink which was pretty good, but I wondered about the ice cubes.
After lunch we head out to go get a cell phone. Nokia store... simple phone. After this I head back to the office, and it's about 4:00 and head on back to the hotel. Rest a little bit before a 10:30PM(my time) call.
I relax down into the chair, have a quick call with bethy and lauren.... and basically need to tell behty to turn off their side of the webcam or else I'll never get rest. I can sit and watch her for hours :).
Becaus e I'm getting old and don't remember everything
so travelling to Bangalore is a unique opportunity and experience. I've gone through quite an interesting array of thoughts and experiences just over 24 hours into my 2 week trip, and I'd like to not forget them. when it comes down to it, I likely will.... my memory isn't as good as it used to be.
So i'll start off with a little bit of pre-departure.
The plan was that the little girl was going to go up to Auntie Andi's house with Grandma to celebrate June and the imminent arrival of Lauren's cousin. through the morning, we went out for breakfast, went to the playground for a little bit, and stopped at trader joes to pick up some last minute snacks.... and she was supposed to nap somewhere along those lines....
she didn't nap..... "hmm... that's not supposed to happen" as she would mimic one of her favorite tv show personalities, Widget from Wow Wow Wubzy(sp?). so... she ended up coming to the airport with me to see me off... sortof. She fell asleep just as we got the to airport. I got to give her a couple of kisses and I was into the terminal.
I only needed to check in my one bag, but the line was long... and it was all for the same flight. I was moving, as all the desks were being used.
What the heck.... the banners say 2 items of 23kg each. the information from my travel agent said 30kg total.
I realize that I'm the only Chinese or oriental person in line, interesting, but not unexpected I guess.
So... after 20 minutes in that line, I stand in another line for 10 minutes to pay an additional $50 for my overweight luggage. Doesn't matter that I only had a single bag instead of 2. Ding against Emirates there. also ding against them in the fact that they only have a single person doing the next step, and I have to stand there for 10 minutes while one person helps one group in front of me.
next is the security line... it moves, but people are stupid as usual.. I get singled out because I'm wearing loose clothes(my typical shorts, lined sweats on top, t-shirt with a long sleeve shirt on top). I have no metal of any sort, but whatever. this takes about 20 minutes
I got to the airport about 2:00 and finally got down to the terminal about 3:10 for my 3:45 flight. I dash in, grab a sandwhich and a bottle of water(ouch $11.50 or so) and hustle down to the terminal.
I'm in boarding group D, and they start at like K or something.... I guess I am at the relative front of the plane in row 28... first, business, and a small chunk of economy in front of me.
I have a window seat, which means I get to cache a bit of my stuff next to me... i pull out the netbook, 12-cell battery, book, snacks.
I settle down into my seat... and a nice person comes by with a hot towel.... cool!
The seat back in front of me is pretty fancy.... probably about a 7" screen, and ICE thing that pulls out with a keyboard etc on it, a power plug, USB plug.
The selection of entertainment is also impressive... there are lots of movies to watch. After we take off, I take a short nap and then settle into Star Trek... not really impressive on a 7" screen, but the movie is entertaining nonetheless. I doze in and out...
the meal comes... and the veg people are served first, then there apparently is a shortage of veg. that sucks. I'm not veg, but still... how could they run out? where did they think they were going, oklahoma?
the person next to me has some weird type of jitters... he seems like a nice enough guy, and I allow him the usage of the armrest as I have the window to lean towards, but there are some lines I'm willing to draw when it comes to my foot space.
I continue to doze in and out as I'm watching Julia/Julie... not a great movie, but Stanley Tucci is pretty amusing.
I busted out the netbook and watched an ep of Get Smart in there somewhere too. I did meet a couple rather interesting people though... a person that runs an Enterprise Architect firm down in SoCal that does SAP consulting... and the person next to me works for Accenture doing Baan stuff. Met another person that has worked at IBM for 21 years.
The flight lands and we are in Dubai... when it came down to it, 15 hours wasn't so bad. not something I want to do for a weekend, but whatever.
I pile out of the plane an into the dubai airport... its dark outside and the airwalk(or whatever you call it) is pretty cold. The terminal is pretty spectacular, I'll have to take a pic of it on the way back. They have a mini-ish mall there so I walk around a bit... look at some Nokia phones etc.
I finally settle down into a lounge chair, and crack open the netbook... there is wifi!! so I crack open the work laptop, log into VPN and see if I can make a call from the softphone to home.
Bethy answers the home line but it seems the connectivity isn't great... there are long gaps, but it's good to hear her voice.
I mosey down into the checkout area for the connecting flight and finally get seated.. smaller plane, older, not as many amenities... I hope that the seat next to me is open, but alas, no such luck.
I talk to the nice person and apparently he's a consultant that does operational readiness for airport terminals. very nice guy and we chat it up a bit. apparently he fly's quite a bit(surprise) and so he gets his meal before me but is kind enough to wait.
I try to sleep for most of that flight.
I unpile from the plane in Bangalore, then run into some customs problems... apparently they don't like the fact that I've brought two laptops into the country. my work laptop, and the netbook. geez.. would have been nice to know these things from my travel agent.... costs me about $160 to hold onto it during the trip.
That's all for now... next entry will start roughly 4AMon the 10th.
So i'll start off with a little bit of pre-departure.
The plan was that the little girl was going to go up to Auntie Andi's house with Grandma to celebrate June and the imminent arrival of Lauren's cousin. through the morning, we went out for breakfast, went to the playground for a little bit, and stopped at trader joes to pick up some last minute snacks.... and she was supposed to nap somewhere along those lines....
she didn't nap..... "hmm... that's not supposed to happen" as she would mimic one of her favorite tv show personalities, Widget from Wow Wow Wubzy(sp?). so... she ended up coming to the airport with me to see me off... sortof. She fell asleep just as we got the to airport. I got to give her a couple of kisses and I was into the terminal.
I only needed to check in my one bag, but the line was long... and it was all for the same flight. I was moving, as all the desks were being used.
What the heck.... the banners say 2 items of 23kg each. the information from my travel agent said 30kg total.
I realize that I'm the only Chinese or oriental person in line, interesting, but not unexpected I guess.
So... after 20 minutes in that line, I stand in another line for 10 minutes to pay an additional $50 for my overweight luggage. Doesn't matter that I only had a single bag instead of 2. Ding against Emirates there. also ding against them in the fact that they only have a single person doing the next step, and I have to stand there for 10 minutes while one person helps one group in front of me.
next is the security line... it moves, but people are stupid as usual.. I get singled out because I'm wearing loose clothes(my typical shorts, lined sweats on top, t-shirt with a long sleeve shirt on top). I have no metal of any sort, but whatever. this takes about 20 minutes
I got to the airport about 2:00 and finally got down to the terminal about 3:10 for my 3:45 flight. I dash in, grab a sandwhich and a bottle of water(ouch $11.50 or so) and hustle down to the terminal.
I'm in boarding group D, and they start at like K or something.... I guess I am at the relative front of the plane in row 28... first, business, and a small chunk of economy in front of me.
I have a window seat, which means I get to cache a bit of my stuff next to me... i pull out the netbook, 12-cell battery, book, snacks.
I settle down into my seat... and a nice person comes by with a hot towel.... cool!
The seat back in front of me is pretty fancy.... probably about a 7" screen, and ICE thing that pulls out with a keyboard etc on it, a power plug, USB plug.
The selection of entertainment is also impressive... there are lots of movies to watch. After we take off, I take a short nap and then settle into Star Trek... not really impressive on a 7" screen, but the movie is entertaining nonetheless. I doze in and out...
the meal comes... and the veg people are served first, then there apparently is a shortage of veg. that sucks. I'm not veg, but still... how could they run out? where did they think they were going, oklahoma?
the person next to me has some weird type of jitters... he seems like a nice enough guy, and I allow him the usage of the armrest as I have the window to lean towards, but there are some lines I'm willing to draw when it comes to my foot space.
I continue to doze in and out as I'm watching Julia/Julie... not a great movie, but Stanley Tucci is pretty amusing.
I busted out the netbook and watched an ep of Get Smart in there somewhere too. I did meet a couple rather interesting people though... a person that runs an Enterprise Architect firm down in SoCal that does SAP consulting... and the person next to me works for Accenture doing Baan stuff. Met another person that has worked at IBM for 21 years.
The flight lands and we are in Dubai... when it came down to it, 15 hours wasn't so bad. not something I want to do for a weekend, but whatever.
I pile out of the plane an into the dubai airport... its dark outside and the airwalk(or whatever you call it) is pretty cold. The terminal is pretty spectacular, I'll have to take a pic of it on the way back. They have a mini-ish mall there so I walk around a bit... look at some Nokia phones etc.
I finally settle down into a lounge chair, and crack open the netbook... there is wifi!! so I crack open the work laptop, log into VPN and see if I can make a call from the softphone to home.
Bethy answers the home line but it seems the connectivity isn't great... there are long gaps, but it's good to hear her voice.
I mosey down into the checkout area for the connecting flight and finally get seated.. smaller plane, older, not as many amenities... I hope that the seat next to me is open, but alas, no such luck.
I talk to the nice person and apparently he's a consultant that does operational readiness for airport terminals. very nice guy and we chat it up a bit. apparently he fly's quite a bit(surprise) and so he gets his meal before me but is kind enough to wait.
I try to sleep for most of that flight.
I unpile from the plane in Bangalore, then run into some customs problems... apparently they don't like the fact that I've brought two laptops into the country. my work laptop, and the netbook. geez.. would have been nice to know these things from my travel agent.... costs me about $160 to hold onto it during the trip.
That's all for now... next entry will start roughly 4AMon the 10th.
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