The day is flying by

It's already after 4pm here in Bangalore, the day is flying by I have two meetings left to go.  Then I will head out and finish up some last minute shopping before I have to head back to the hotel and pack.  I need to try and stay standing as much as possible over the next few hours because I will be on my ass for a long time!

Last day

Today is my last day in Bangalore, my flight on Lufthansa leaves at 2AM which means I have to be at the airport around 11:30PM.  From Bangalore I fly 10 hours to Frankfurt and then layover for four hours.  My next flight to Washington D.C. departs at 1:30 or so Frankfurt time.  The leg from Frankfurt to D.C. is around 11 hours or so, putting my total flying time at this point at 21 hours.  I arrive in D.C at 3:30PM EST and my next flight to Oakland departs at 7:30PM EST.  From D.C. to Oakland it's another 6 hours putting my total trip from Bangalore back home at roughly 27 hours.  Sounds like fun doesn't it!!!  I had hoped to take a quick tour around Frankfurt but found out the security lines to get to the US are so bad I wouldn't have enough time.

My last night

This is my last night in India, I leave tomorrow for the states.  I have quite a long trip ahead of me, I fly to Frankfurt then to Washington D.C. and then on to Oakland where my baby will be picking me up.  Back in the states will be oh so nice, I am taking Wednesday off and will probably head into work on Thursday.  I was hoping to take a four day weekend but it's not going to work out, April is going to be a crazy month.

More rain

I had planned on going out for a bit but the downpour has instead kept me inside.  The Rule of Four turned out to be a pretty good book, I've always like books that the plot centers around hidden meanings in old text.  Very DaVinici code like; however not quite as much action till the end.  Since I've finished that book I will move onto a book that was left for me called The Enemy by Lee Child.  It's supposed to be an easy read so should make for some entertainment on the plane flight home.  Getting any useful work done on the flight home is impossible as the seating in Lufthansa's coach section is unbearably small.  Some day when my company starts raking in the millions I hope we will allow business class tickets on flights over eight hours.

Waiting out the downpour on Sunday afternoon. 

Summer rains

It's just started raining in Bangalore on what was a very nice Sunday afternoon.  I decided not to venture out today as I am tired of dealing with the rickshaws drivers and their constant offers of tours and shopping.  I have decided to stay in and finish a book I am reading "The Rule of Four".  When it rains in Bangalore it really rains, to the point people on two wheelers pull over to the side of the road and wait out the downpour under any cover they can find.  The last two days have consisted of way too much food as I have found my CEO likes to order and order he did.  Starting off with dinner the first night we ordered kababs and beer which are the traditional starter for an evening.  Once that was finished and a few more beers consumer he proceeded to order dinner.  Dinner consisted of at least four different dishes and plenty of garlic naan.  Suffice to say at the bar in which we retired for an after dinner drink I could barely move.  Saturday began with the difficult task of flagging down a rickshaw driver and heading over to the upscale Chauncery Hotel where he was staying.  We then proceeded to shop for a good three hours and discovered an art studio that specialized in abstract works.  After picking out the pieces we wanted we were picked up by our country head and left for a lunch consisting of Afghani food.  Upon arrival I knew I was in trouble, as it turns out this was my CEO's favorite restaurant so food would be ordered in large quantities.  One note, I will definately be adding leg of lamb to my plethora of dishes I like to cook.  As I have been writing this entry the rain has picked up and the streets are already turing to mud and what used to be a series of potholes leading to another street has already flooded.

Google News

So I view google news many many times throughout the day. Google news is a news aggregator, meaning it compiles and organizes many different sources of news based up a topic i.e World News, Sports, US News etc. The cool thing is they now offer a feature where you can customize the categories that are displayed on the page. Also not only can you choose from a pre defined category, you can also create your own based up key words. For example since my business is centered heavily around instant messaging, one of my categories is now instant messaging. Really cool way to stay up on things, and because it is an aggregator from many different sources you can choose the sources you like so you can stay as biased or un biased as you like. The site is http://news.google.com.

Sometimes you don't sleep

Sometimes when I am traveling I don't sleep very well, tonight is one of those nights. It's 3am here in Bangalore and I am in some weird wired but sleepy state. Tomorrow I have some pretty big meetings that will affect our ability as an engineering organization to deliver on some upcoming projects. Funny thing is that's not even really on my mind. I'm just sort of awake counting down the days at this point to when I head back to the states. Back to peace and quiet and my own bed.

Thank the lord!!!

The VP/Country Head out here took us to lunch today, WE GOT TO EAT STEAKS!!!! Finally no Indian food just a nice juicy rib-eye steak with mashed potatoes and garlic bread. My stomach is so very pleased at this moment, wish I knew about this place earlier.

Smells....

You smell things here that you have never smelled before.....things that you wish you have never smelled.

Taking things for granted

Last night I could no longer stand to eat any more Indian food, I decided to try and find an Italian restaurant. That proved to be quite difficult and the ones we did find were all in hotels which meant they would be quite expensive. Instead I settled for Japanese food thinking that some nice sushi a little sake and rice would be a perfect change. We sit down at this very nice Japanese restaurant with everyone bowing as we enter the place and greeting us with Japanese "hellos". The waiter brings us the menus and asks if he can make some recommendations on the menu, we say,"Sure why not". We're hoping he'll explain all the different types of raw fish and various of the delicacies we are used to in the States. This recommendation was more along the lines of "We don't have this and we don't have that", basically over half the menu they did not have. Not only did they have very little raw fish they had no sake (they were out) and no Japanese Beer (apparently the owner of UB has a lock on the beer industry here and only allows Fosters to be imported). Overall the meal wasn't that bad but it sure wasn't what I was hoping and it was not even on the same planet as what I get at Tokie's or Honda's back home.

Wrapping up the day

Finally slept for more than 5 hours straight without waking up, so I think I got around a solid seven hours of sleep last night. Pretty cool here, you can pour cement at any time of the day midnight is not to late. Probably the only time they can get the cement trucks down the streets here. When there is traffic and you have to cross the street you sign up for what seems like a very dangerous game we like to call Bangalore Frogger. The fun part about this game is there are different difficuly levels depending on the time of day. Early morning is easy, around 10 AM the traffic doubles. Lunch can be tough but not as hard as 7-9PM. Thats where you get into the advanced levels. By the way speed bumps, speed limits, and crosswalks have no meaning. Just because you are the cross walk doesn't mean they won't run you over. And if you do get hit it's your fault as you should not have been in the way. So coming back from Goa I didn't realize how crappy the air quality is here till this morning. All the buses, auto rickshaws, mopeds, motorbikes, and cars pollute the holy hell out of the air. Expect for your throat to hurt and your eyes to burn, just wear it and move on because more than likely an auto rickshaw driver is bearing down on you.

I REALLY MISS ITALIAN FOOD AND A GOOD BURGER WOULD BE NICE!!! Indian food is good and I like chinese but seriously I need some nice prosciutto and stinky aged parmesaen.

So I started working out today, got up in the morning hit the circuit of pushups, dips, sit-ups and lunges. When I got back from the office I walked on the treadmill for 25 mins at a 15 degree angle. We'll see how sore I am tomorrow, but after being on the beach at Goa and remember what I used to look like when I was boxing it's time for a change. I just ordered room service and I need to check my email (had 5 come in as I was writing this).

Dad, this guy has you beat by a long shot! His belly was gigantic, I watched him waddle up and down the beach both days I was there. He sold boat rides, boogie board rentals, and who knows what else. I had to take the picture cause of the belly, the man could cast a shadown that if he stood over you would turn daylight to dark. 

Now you have an Indian family walking down the beach. The women are in saree's and the young boy has on long pants. It was really interesting to see all the different cultures in one place. You had the French with the men wearing g-string speedos and the women all in g-strings. Then you had some of the European women going topless, then you get Middle Easterners with the women in long shorts and tee-shirts. Then you have us Americans, fat, out of shape, white as hell because its winter back home. Also didn't see many Americans the place was mostly full of Brits. From what I gather some of them come down there for months at a time. Goa is super cheap towards the end of the season which is right now, it's just a bit hotter. 

The contrast between cultures is amazing in goa, here you have a European family walking down the beach. Looks like California, typical fashion guys in boardshorts and women in bikinis. 

It was quite normal to see cows on the beach, these ones were squaring off. Other times you would see dogs chasing the cows around and tourists scurrying out of the way so they don't get trampled. 

Here is a better view of the beach scene, as you can see there are plenty of places to relax and have beers brought to you all day. 

Long distance view of the beach we hung out at. Basically all along the beach and all within a few feet of each other are open air bars. They all have a little bar area, some with pool tables, they all serve the same cheap beer, and cheap food. 

The road to Baga

We saw this on the way into Baga which was where we were staying. There is a famous bar there called Tito's that supposedly started the scene in Goa however many years ago.