9/12/04 5:14 PM India
Traffic was a lot worse on the way in, but I got here right at 9. The office building appears relatively modern. BRCM is on the 9th floor. I, of course, got on an elevator that went only to the 8thy floor and had to go up some stairs. Why would you uild a building where only some of the elevators go to all of floors? Why not mark the ones that don't? Hey, welcome to India!
Met with Kannan who gave me a facility tour. It's nice. There are four spiral staircases to single rooms at each corner of the floor. There's a library, a gym, break room and lunge with a bunk bed. Caught up with Abhijit around 10:30 and started to get setup. I have a PC and a 'scope. I need to track down my power supplies. The temp. controller is expected Tuesday or Wednesday from customs.
WTF? Why are there buckets on the floor to catch water drips? In fact, why ar there water drips?! Ahh, there's a pool on the roof and it leaks. I repeat, WTF?
Went to an Afghani place for lunch with Abhijit and Rajesh. Wow, it was really good. The concept was to eat with your fingers, but we all used forks. We ate some fried feta thingies, some corn meal thingies, chicken broth (in a glass with bras holder, kinda cool), some prawns, chicken and some veggie meatball. Abhijit does not eat meat.
Well, lunch sure was a cure to constipation if I had any. The bathrooms here have a shower head positioned near the floor. My guess is that there intended to be used like a bidet. However, there is water all over the floor and a drain in the floor. There's no way to avoid walking in the water all over the floor. I sure hope all of the residue went into the toilet! Gross me out! I need to repeat, WTF?!
Meeting the driver at 6 to 6:30 to go to a supermarket. I've gotta stock up on beer for the hotel room. I’ve heard honking all day long.
9/12/04 3:38 PM India
Woke up this morning at 6:30 feeling pretty good. I'm happy since that means that it will be easier to adjust to India time. I checked in with the Concierge to inquire about my phone. She said that she would order, but that since nothing was open until 9 or 10, that it would be after that before I could get the proper SIM card. I told her that I had plans to go out with Lobo at 10 for touring, and that I wouldn't be back until 2.
I had breakfast. They had a buffet of salamis (chicken and pork), smoked salmon, breads, fruit. I ordered eggs and bacon. The bacon came in a big lump, but there was a lot of it and it was very good. The coffee was excellent. Very strong. I went back to my room and received a call at 8:30 from the 1st floor Concierge. He informed me that my driver was here. I was confused, but figured out that the Broadcom driver was here, not Lobo. Dilemma. Should I keep my plans with Lobo since I made them first and send the driver home, or use the Broadcom driver rather than leave him sitting around doing nothing? Since Lobo works with the hotel, and will get other driving jobs I decided to go with Krishna.
We left around 10:00 AM. We went to the Botanical Gardens. Before arriving Krishna said, "don't take the card". I thought he was talking about beggars. We pull up to the garden and some guy thrusts an official looking ID into the window at me. I take it, and suddenly realize that this is a card! Doh! It turns out that he is a tour guide. Why Krishna wanted to avoid them comes later.
The guide was pretty good. He showed us, Krishna followed, around and seemed to know a lot of the history of the garden, some of the botanical names of plants and where to stand for pictures. He introduced me to what was said to be some garden official to purchase seeds. Who knows? He could have been part of a plot to rip me off. Well, it worked. I bought some ground lotus, jasmine and some other seeds for Rs 1200 or $26. At the end of the tour the guide says that his services cost Rs 950 per half-hour. I really didn’t understand, so I gave him Rs 950 ($21). Then the guide says that he spent an hour and a half with me. That means it should be Rs 2850 ($63). I hand him Rs 1000 ($22) and sy that's it. He agrees. What a rip-off. Now I know why I was asked not to take the card. There was a beggar there who saw me take out my money. It was sad. She was carrying a baby and kept motioning to her mouth, like she was hungry. Sorry, I acquired a hard heart from many trips to Mexico and telling my children "no" so often.
Next we go to the Bull Temple. It's a Hindu shrine. I had to take off my shoes and socks to go in. Since the smallest denomination of Rupee I had was Rs500 ($11), I didn't tip anybody. Sorry guys, but thanks for the tour! Actually, Krishna ended up tipping someone Rs5 ($0.10). Next o the temple was the Rock Park. Bangalore is very lush and has many parks. The beauty of the parks really stand out against the many decaying buildings. We saw some boys playing on a "slide-rock".
We next drove by the Parliament building and the High Court. Then we went to a lake to watch some boats, but no one was sailing. Some girl was banging on the car window as we left motioning to her ears like she was deaf. My hard heart had not softened from my last encounter, but she sure was persistent.
We next went to CIE, an emporium. I thought I would only be in 10 to 15 minutes. One and half hours later I emerged. I looked at four Persian carpets for our house. Since I couldn't decide on which ones to buy, I bought all four. Then I bought some silk shawls for Mom, Claudia, Mom and Gogey. I also bought some jewelry for Kristen and some table runners and a tablecloth for the aforementioned ladies or gifts for others. Everything there was negotiable. I got a 25% discount on the carets, 25% on the runners, 20% on the shawls and about 33% on the jewelry. I was the most successful on the jewelry because I threatened to walk away. I actually saw the salesman start to shake as I stood up. I thought, "Cool, I must really be getting close to his cost! Maybe I will buy them." So , I did.
For each of my three purchases, CIE ran my credit card. On the third try the credit card company denied it for suspicion of theft. It took a while to work it our, and now everybody in India knows my mother's maiden name, my birthday, my US address. Great!
Finally back to the hotel at about 3:30. Installed the India SIM into my phone. Connected again. Ah crap, I lost my original SIM. Man, I need a beer! Hey, I'll call Masis.
Masis met me at the bar in the hotel. We had a couple of Kingfishers. Since I hadn't eaten lunch I wanted to go to dinner. Masis had just eaten. We split up and agreed to meet back at the bar at 7:30 for more beer and a cigar. I had diner at Citrus in the hotel. I had some ham and eggplant linguini. A little salty. I sat outside, but got a little nervous as the mosquitoes came out after the sun went down. Hustled out to avoid getting malaria. I sure hope the pills work.
Masis showed up at 8:00. e works to California hours , so he didn't reset his watch. Since CA is off by 12.5 hours, he neglected to account for the half hour. I smoked a Bolivar. It appeared to by about a 5x50. Pretty smooth, but a little dry. Masis passed on the cigar.
Talked to Kristen on the phone for about half an hour. Of the Rs850 talk time I bought, I used 650. Yikes, I guess I'll need more time.
9/11/04 4:15 PM India
Now I'm on the plane to India. I didn't sleep very much on the first leg, but just dozed for about an hour. Wathced Hidalog and Stepford Wives. Yikes! Dont' rent those at home. With all my worry about the connection it was relatively ewasy. There was a show about the airport before landing. I didn;t get any audio, but noticed a bit about tunnels. They aren't tunnels really, but a Skyline, or raised train. Or, I guess I missed the tunnels. Approacjing the gate, an American man approaches me and says, "Hey I saw you in LA". Hmmm, how did he remember me? Fag? Nah, he has a family. Must be my incredible good looks. Well, it turns out that he is staying at the Leela as well. He's been there before. Cool! I found a buddy.
The menu is different on this flight. I get two meals. Shrimp or Goose app., lamb or halibut entree, cheese dessert. Dinner is chicken, salad and crumb cake. The booze is the same. I had a very good Chardonnay on the first leg. They have Warsteiner and the well gin is Baombay Saffire. Man, they really try to make you comfortable.
The guy next to me this time is a young Indian-looking American from S.F.
9/11/04 3:28 AM FrankfurtWow! Dinner was great. Of the choices I had, Ihad the Snow Crab (a little salty from too much mayonaisse), the asian salad came as default. The guy next to me asked the flight attendant for her recommendation. She recommended the past. So, I had the ravioli. Good thing. The fish smelled a little fishy. I had the cheese for dessert.
I was watching Harry Pooter, but I switched to Hidalgo. I am enjoying some Kirschwasser. It is llike a cherry flavored cognac. It's alright.
9/11/04 12:59 Frankfurt
Ah crap! I just lost everything I wrote.
The guy next to me who travels a lot, is very young, says that the flight must be full, because business class is full. Ah well, it's OK with me. Glass of champagne before take-off, very nice. Funky that they won't let you use a cell' phone at all while in the plane. I had hoped to talk to Kristen and the kids before take-off while they were in the carpool line, but I had to jang up.
Had an intersting experience with the luggage. The German chick who checked me in said that Lufthans makes speciual allowance for the short turn around on my connection so I could take all of my luggage on board. Whew! Uh-oh, this guy at the gate says I gotta check it. No way! I guess I argued well enough that I have it on board tucked behind a seat. I can almost see it. I'm sure I'll have to check in in FRankfurt, but there I don't care. At least I know the chances of it being on the same plane as I am are greater.
There are individua;l monitors in each seat. THey show news and the current location of the plane in various level of ground detail. Right now it is showing a news channel for the second time. THe guy next to me says that it will show a variety of movies that you can select too. Very nice.
Hmm, a menu...a napkin for my tray...let's see...Snow Crab or Tenderloin Hors d'Oevure, Asian Mix w/ Balsamic salad, Guinea Hen, Grouper with Risotto or Raviolli Entree, Brie with Goat Cheese, Cheescake or Fruit for Dessert.
Headphones are working great, but volume is almost max'd on Beethoven's 6th, I hope I have enough room to crank it on the 9th.
9/10/04 1:44 PM PST
Well, I am now siutting in the Lufthansa Business Class lounge. Not to bad to get here really. The van trip in was very interesting. Fernando, my driver, was a chatty guy. It was nice really, because it made the trip go by a lot faster. THe traffic was great which surprised me goint into LAX on a weekday afternoon. Fernando started off by asking my advice about a court situation he had. He was a ,little hatrd to understand since he had a thick Mexican accent. So, tyhis chronology will be rendered through this filter...
It seems that he has been driving with ACS for one year. Two days ago he got a ticket for running a red light(?) As far as I can tell he said that he was driving three pilots to the airport. He was following a line of limo's. I don't know how that plays into the red light. In any event, he was worried that slamming on his power brakes would send the pil,ots, none of whom had a seat beltl on, into the windshield, so he rolled the light. He got caught by a camera.
The question, yes Fernando was this long winded too, ACS paid his ticket, but he ewanted to fight it. He was able to get the court to return ACS's money, but a court date had been set in ACS's' nam. Should he assume that the court would take care of the court date, and that he not show up? I advised that he call the Clerk of the Court. Whew, any easy one.
From then on we talked about California's bad drivers. As Fernando said, they know how to drive fast, but they don't know how to drive. We talked about birds and gardens and coyotes and butterflies and kids. Quite the philosopher, Fernando.
Got to the airport and saw the horrendous line. YIkes! Why does that line only have 4 people in it? Hey, what does that sign say? Business Class? Y-E-E-E-E-S! After a couple of minutes of chatting up the cute German chick, I'm through! She directs me to the lounge. She must be a mind-reader too. But, first Security.
I saw a Security enttrance when I first entered the terminal. But, the German chick pointed to the blue sign when she said "lounge". I of course, headed to the blue sign. Ahh, the end of the line. THose people next to me must be going to a different set of gates. Bummer. Looks like they have a long way to go. But my line sure is getting long fast.
"Sir! sir!", said a man in the long line. Phew, not me. He's talking to the TSA guy. THen the TSA guy says, "everyone from here on must get to the back of this", the long line, "line". Oops! Looks like I cut. Sorry everybody, but unless the TSA guy drags me out of here, I'm stayin'. Zip-zip, I'm through security! Where's the lounge?
There are two floors of lounges. Each airline, or group of 'lines, has their own. Not very big, kinda run down. Not as sexy as I thought it would be. Now I have a dilemna. What to drink? I gotta pick something and stick with it. THere's beer wine and liquor, self-serve. It's all the best type of booze in the world...free! Oh well, I guess I'll stick with old-reliable...beer. It's a Beck's, well, now it's two Beck's.
One thing cool about the lounge isa that it looks over the check-in area...suckers! Actually, it's not very crowded right now. I did fill out a Lufthans frequent flyer program thingy. Great, more spam. But, I am using my trip philosophy thagt I learned on my Oceanside train trip. Ask early, ask often.
Plane boards at 2:20. It's 2:00 now. Better shut down.