Last Thing

One thing I won't miss is the traffic! This light traffic is extremely unusual!

Last Day

Well, today is my last day here in Bangalore and I must say that I had a great time. I was very lucky to have a great driver and meet some great friends at work. The hotel staff was also great and they made my stay enjoyable even though the hotel is little too posh for me.

Last night the guys bought me a Sherwani and I promised them I would wear so they could get a picture of me. I have posted the picture for all of you to see. The guys said was a styling but you can decide. It was pretty comfortable and I thought I looked good in it. I really appreciated the gift even though I got a little embarrassed. Anyone who knows me knows that is just how I am.

Anyway, I will truly miss the guys that I work with here and Lawrence the driver. Goverdahn, Sushant, Sandesh, and Nagadrena were nothing but great to me and they made sure I enjoyed my stay. Those guys will always be friends of mine and I plan on staying in touch with them for a long time. Maybe one day we can get them to the US so I can repay the favor and make them feel at home. Anyway, here are some more pics. See everyone on Saturday night!


Right Pic: Sushant and I (he is in a meeting)!


Bottom Pic: Left to right is Nagendra, Sandesh, me and Goverdahn.

Going out to the Movies with the Fellas

On Thursday, the fellas and I decided to head out to the movies. The plan was to leave work at a reasonable time to make the 8:10pm showing of Vantage Point at theater in the mall. The nice thing about here in India is you can actually select the seats that you want instead of the mad rush that happens in the US.

All was well and we left work. Sushant, Goverdhan, and I headed out the cab while Sandesh rode with Nagendra on his motorcycle. We actually left a little earlier than Sandesh and Nagendra but that did not matter. Lo and behold, Bangalore traffic had something else planned for us. We hit the hugest traffic jam trying to cross a railroad. The drivers don't make much easier nor do the lorries. Everybody is trying to get through and all that happens is everyone gets jammed up.

I think we were stuck there for about 45 minutes and then we got through. We were still confident that all would go well because we had assigned seats and we would only miss the previews. Wrong again! The theater had something else in store for us. They would not let us bring in out backpacks with laptops. We ran around the mall trying to find a place to store them to no avail. In the end, we missed the movie.

So what to do next? We decided to go have some dinner at the Hotel Empire. Again, a place where you eat with your hands. We had a good time there just chatting and eating. After that, we hung outside for a bit chatting some more than called it a night.

I still had a great time with the guys even though we did not make the movie. We certainly tried our best but stuff happens. Anyway, these guys are great and I enjoyed just hanging out with them for the night. I have attached some pictures of us and the mall and eating. Enjoy!

Dinner with the Fellas

On Tuesday night, the guys I work with took me out to a restaurant called Samarkand. It was awesome experience and the food was great. The cuisine is based on the Mughals and I definitely tore it up. The chicken was so good and there was this sauce that was nice and spicy. I could handle eating at the place all of the time.

The only thing that might get some people is eating with your hands. The restaurant will provide silverware if you ask but hey, just do what everyone else is doing. I ate with my hands and I had a great time. Here are couple of picks of the guys (Nagendra, Sushant, Sandesh, and Goverdhan) and I.

We ate a ton of food and then had some desert. I had some ice cream made from almonds that was pretty darn good. I also took my turn with digging into everyone else's deserts as well. Sandesh had this pie that was made out of dates and all other fruits that were smashed together and covered with wheat crust. I must admit that it was great as well. To finish the night off we had this thing that helps with digesting the food. I don't know what it is called but it did the trick.

They swarm

Man, I got to remember to put on bug spray everyday. I just walked out on to my balcony and I got about 15 mosquito bites in about 2 minutes. This place is worse than Ft. Polk, LA.

Missing home

Today, Sunday, I really started to miss home. I had a good time watching the cricket match, India won by the way and they need one more win to win the Cup and under 19 Indian cricket team beat South Africa for the Cup, but after that I really started to miss home.

What I really miss is my wife, my cats, and being at home with them. I miss spending time with them and I miss American TV. I don't mind watching TV here but there is not a lot of programming on that I like so it gets old quick. I also miss my car and the freedom of being able to go wherever I want whenever I want to go. I also miss my friends, my Sister and nephews, my co-workers and US traffic.

Oh well, I am just complaining and I will get over it. Anyway, I come home on Saturday so I just need to get over it. I was just feeling this way because I was off. Once I am back to work on Monday all will be fine.

Being bad tastes so good

I was determined to be respectful to the people of India so I was not going to eat any beef while I was here. I did not want to have somebody serving me beef who is totally against eating beef. In case you didn't know the cow is sacred in India. Well, I couldn't take it anymore so I ordered a burger from room service. I figured that if I ate in my room I wouldn't feel as bad for eating beef. I still feel bad but the burger sure tasted good. Now that I got my beef fix I am pretty sure I can make it until I get home on Saturday.

Since I am talking about food I will go into the menus. Most menus will have a "veg" and "non-veg" menu. Some people will eat chicken and it can be found in most restaurant menus. As a matter of fact when I went last night to have a beer with Sandesh at the local sports bar, Amoeba, I had some spicy crispy chicken strips. They were darn good, nice and spicy and made my nose run.

Another thing that seems funny is the Pizza Hut, KFC, and TGI Friday's that are down the street from hotel. They always appear to be busy so I guess people here like it. I am not sure how the food is because I haven't eaten at any of them but you can click on the names to check out the menu if you like (except for KFC because I can't seem to find a menu on the net). I will try and snap some pictures of them and post them. That is it for now.

Cruisin around Bangalore with Lawrence

Today, Lawrence took me around Bangalore to see some sights and do some shopping. We had a great time even though the traffic was just as bad as any other day. I got to see a lot more of Bangalore than I usually see and I was able to pick up some gifts for the family. Oh yeah, I was also finally able to get some chapstick. I took a ton of stuff that I will never use and forgot the one thing that I would need, lip balm. It only cost 20 rupees so I am not complaining because that is a little more than 50 cents.

A funny story on that. I went to the concierge desk to ask if they had chapstick or if they knew where I could get some. I was talking to the lady there and when I asked her she seemed like she didn't understand what I was talking about so I started to go into the whole thing about my lips are in pain, and dry and crusty. She let me go on for awhile like an idiot and then she finally said, "Sir, I do know what lip balm is." I thought it was pretty funny because I looked like a typical foreigner but you probably had to be there.

Back to the story at hand. So Lawrence took me to get some gift shopping done. He took to a store that sells stuff for the home and miscellaneous stuff like rugs, bed covers, scarves, carvings, jewelry, tea and spices. The shopkeeper was great and he showed me all kinds of wonderful things. The rugs are beautiful and so are the scarves and carvings. I wanted to pretty much buy everything so I had keep putting stuff to the side so we could discuss the price when I was done.

Once I was done looking at everything it was time to figure out the price. Right off the bat, 800 bucks. I almost fell over. Things aren't as cheap here as I would like them to be so we had to start taking things away. I could tell he was getting frustrated with me because I just plain refused to pay the price that he wanted me to pay. What can I do? I am a cheapskate and I just couldn't imagine paying the price that he wanted me to pay plus I knew that if I did Michelle would give me a swift kick in rear for paying that much so we continued to haggle and work on the price.

No matter what I told him that I was willing to pay he kept quoting me a higher price. I understand that he needs to make money too but I argue just to argue and I wanted to see if I could get everything I liked for a cheaper price. I had to laugh because at one point he had to tell me that the price I wanted to pay was just not going to happen. I had fun with him anyway but was still unable to get all the things I wanted for the price I wanted to pay so I had to leave without some items that I wanted. Oh well, maybe I can come back here again one day and get them.

After that, Lawrence wanted to take me to more places like the last one for shopping. I kept telling that shopping only irritates me and I don't enjoy at all but he insisted I just go in and look. I obliged and every store I walked into I just told them I wasn't going to buy anything so I was in and out quickly.

Once we got past that he took me to the local shopping so I could buy and idly stand to take home. An idly stand is used to make these little rice cakes. They taste so good and I wanted to be able to make them home so I was happy to be able to pick one up. The store wanted to sell me the biggest one they had but I kept telling them there was no way I could take it home and I needed a smaller one. Luckily they found me one and we were on our way.

The last thing I wanted to get was a Cricket jersey for the Indian National Cricket team. So we walked up and down the street while Lawrence kept asking everyone where we could find one. Nobody knew so I thought I was going to go home empty handed and I was fine with that. We hopped in the car and started to head back to the hotel.

I was telling the fellas that I work with that I wanted to get a jersey and they said I could probably only get it at a Nike store since Nike is licensed to make the jerseys. Lawrence and I had decided that we would try and find one before or after work next week. Luckily, out of the blue I saw a Nike store. Lawrence stopped the car, I ran in and walked out with my jersey.

The last thing I have is a video clip of us driving around. I tried to get Lawrence in the video but I didn't do a good job of it but you can still see him and hear him talking. The guy is great and I really enjoy talking to him and listening to everything he has to say about India.

As Ice Cube once said, "Today was a good day."

Watching TV in India

Well, TV in India is lot like TV back home, a lot of channels but nothing on. I think I have about 100 channels in my hotel room but I swear there are some duplicates in there plus a few that are just static. Aside from that, there are plenty of movie channels to watch but some of them are in a language I don't understand so I usually just click on through. There are plenty of news channels to watch as well.

I am of the opinion that the people here love the news. Everyone is always reading the paper and like I said, it seems that every few channels is a news channel. The next kind of station that I see all the time is music video stations like MTV and VH1 (they have those as well). The difference is that there is actually music videos on their music channels.

And lastly, the sports channels. They have ESPN but it is not like ESPN back home. Most of the coverage is on Cricket and Soccer. When flipping through the channels, I can usually find and cricket match to watch so I don't mind. I only get frustrated when there is nothing on but soccer because, to me, soccer is just too boring to watch.

So, to end this post, I am going to link or embed some of my favorite commercials that I see on TV here. People that know me know I can't stand commercials but these crack me up for some reason. Especially the coke commercial with the guy driving the car. I love it when she screams and then he screams. That makes me bust a gut.




Well, I will keep looking because I am having trouble finding the commercials on youtube. Just keep checking back and maybe I will have added some of my other favorites. Oh yeah, they sell crap on the TV here just like back home.

Driving to Work

I said that I would get some video uploaded of the drive to work but that seems harder than I thought so I am posting a few pictures.

So the distance the office building is about 10 miles from my hotel but the drive can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an 1 hour and 15 minutes depending on the traffic we encounter. Luckily for me Lawrence, the driver, is great to talk to and he tells me all about Bangalore and India in general.

These pictures don't truly show how backed up the traffic can get. Sometimes the traffic is so far backed up that we just sit wait for about 10-15 minutes. Lawrence and I just chat and he asks a lot of questions about America. I in turn ask him a lot about India and what goes on. The guy is pretty amazing because he speaks about 5 languages. He definitely makes the time pass and I am glad to have him as a driver.


Of course, I have to the obligatory picture of a bull pulling a wagon and yes , there are plenty of cows on the street as well and they tend to back up the traffic.


Watching the people drive here is plain amazing because the roads are pure chaos. Motorcycles weave in and out and all of the cars are jockeying for position like a Nascar race. I laugh all of the time because it seems to me that the drivers are actually communicating with each other using their horns. At least here when someone honks their horn the other person will usually get out of their way.

A little taste

Finally! Thanks to Donn I was finally able to upload this small video of the drive to work.

I promised I would get some footage of the drive into work. The drive usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour for me to get to work but today traffic was light so I think it only took about 40 minutes. Here is a quick clip of the traffic. I will get some other clips when the traffic gets really backed up. Enjoy!

Cricket? Yeah, I am addicted

Okay, I am a cricket fan. The more I watch this game and learn about it the more I love it. Once I realized that I couldn't keep comparing the game to baseball I really started to understand what is going on. So here is small overview of the batter position for those of you who may want to learn a little about cricket.

Like baseball, the batter is trying to score runs but he is also trying to protect the stumps. The stumps? Yes, the stumps. The stumps are 3 vertical sticks behind the batter that have 2 bails, small pieces of wood, lying on top of the stumps that form the wicket. The bowler, or pitcher, is trying to hit the stumps and knock the bails off to get the batter out. The batter is actually trying to use the bat to keep the bowler from hitting the stumps.

And finally a quick update. Even though India lost on Sunday to Australia, they have chance to move on to the finals if they beat Sri Lanka today. As of now, Sri Lanka has finished batting and now India is due up. India's defense was outstanding they were able to get 10 wickets before 50 overs. If you want to know what that means I suggest doing a little reading and then try watching part of a game. I will try to keep adding some information about cricket as I continue to learn what is going on.

I am a Zombie

I am pretty much a zombie now. I don't know what the problem is but I cannot sleep at night. I might have slept a total of 6 hours over the past 2 nights and I think I might go insane. I try to go to sleep and all I do is lie there in the dark. When I finally fall asleep I pretty much toss and turn all night. The past 2 nights I have fallen asleep about midnight, slept on and off and then I am wide awake at 4:30am. This wouldn't be a problem if I could just get up and go to work but unfortunately, I don't go to work until 11am and leave work at 8pm. This makes for a long day. I am not one to take any type of sleeping pills so I guess I am just going to suffer through it.

Part of the problem might be the coffee here. The coffee is like rocket fuel with a boost of nitro.

Things I have learned about India

No pictures in the post, just an overview of some things that I learned about India. Feel free to ask questions in the comment section and I will try to answer them if I can. So here we go.

Cricket
Cricket is huge here. Cricket is loved here like we love baseball, football and basketball. Today was a big game for India. They were playing the Australians in the Quarter Finals and needed to win to move on. Unfortunately, India did not win but I did watch most of the game in the lounge while to talking to one of the employees of the hotel. I already spent some time reading about the game but he helped me understand it a little bit better. Cricket is like baseball where each side has a chance to bat but only once per side. So basically there is only one inning in Cricket even though the game goes on about the same length as a baseball game. I won't try to explain the game here because I don't fully understand it yet, I understand about 75% but I am sure I will have it down before I leave.

The Local Paper
Anyone who knows me knows that I have stay up with current events. Since I got the morning paper in my room I decided to read it front to back. This is what I learned.

Large Numbers
In India, large numbers aren't written out like we write them out and they don't use millions or billions. When describing large numbers, Indians use the word Lakh. A Lakh is basically 100,000 so when they are talking about 3 million they would say 30 Lakhs. When written out, which I understand is not common, it would be written as 30,00,000 instead of 3,000,000. You can read more about this here.

Celebrities
Celebrity news is just as big here is it is at home. Not only is there plenty of news about the celebrities here, the newspapers thoroughly cover the Oscars. I even spotted a small article in the paper about Brittney Spears being able to visit her children. That is all I have to say on that.

Drinking and Driving
Drinking is not big here in India, at least people here don't partake in it like a lot of us do back in the US but India still has its problems with it. I have read a few articles about people being killed in drunk driving accidents and the Government is even trying to rollback the "Last Call" time from 11:30pm to 10pm. Of course the hotels are pushing for a "Last Call" time of 12:30am. I can't even imagine getting behind the wheel of a car drunk and trying to drive in the traffic here. That in itself deserves a big fat label of "STUPID". I will get some video footage and post it within the week.

Yoga
I spotted daily yoga tips in the paper and I am not ashamed to admit that I tried a couple of the exercises. I am not sure if I got much benefit but I am here for awhile so I will report back on that.

Corruption in the Government
Yup, across all levels just like home.

Strikes
India has those too. Right now the Lorry (Truck) drivers and cab drivers are on strike. From my understanding and from I can gather this has to do with putting speed governors on the cabs and trucks. One driver told me that they wanted to govern the speed of cabs to 36 mph and the speed of trucks to 50 mph. I am not sure how true that is but I am sure that all of our cab drivers and truck drivers would probably strike too.

Funnies (Comic Strips)
They got 'em in the paper too. The same ones we read at home plus some local flavor.

Cell Phones
I thought we Americans overused cell phones. Guess what? We can't touch the itizens of India on the use of cell phones. You can SMS (text message) for just about anything here. SMS is advertised everywhere and for everything; I even think that one could open a bank account with a cell phone, just kidding. It does seem that everyone has a cell phone here. I asked a person how much cell phones cost and monthly plan rates so here it is, get ready to be jealous. From what I got one could purchase a cell phone for about Rs 1000 ($25). From there, per minute use for outgoing calls is Rs 1, yes that is 1 rupee and too small to convert to dollars. Every month after that the cell phone is recharged for about Rs 300 ($7.50). We pay a lot more at home and use the phone far less.

That is it for now. Feel free to ask me questions and I will try and find the answer. Until then, I am attempting to learn how to speak the local language, Kannada, from the nice gentleman, Lawrence, that takes me to work everyday.

Rickshaw Rollin'

I was advised by a couple of people who already traveled to India not to do this but I don't listen very well and decided I would take a 1 hour spin in a rickshaw. I was standing outside of my hotel deciding which way down the street I was going to walk when I was approached by about 3 different rickshaw drivers. I had no intention of going on a rickshaw ride but the 3rd rickshaw driver I met, Mr. VinayKumar, convinced me to go for a ride with him. I decided to go with him because he didn't really pressure me and we BS'd for about 20 minutes. I figured he was a nice enough guy so we hopped in his rickshaw and got to rollin.


If you have never been in a rickshaw just imagine it as a really small 3 wheel car that is driven using handle bars like a motorcycle instead of a steering wheel. Mr. Vinay let me know that traffic would not be too bad today since it was Sunday and the ride should be relaxing. Had it been a weekday he said he would have to swerve in out of traffic to get us to our destinations. He stilled swerved in and out but there was really no cause for concern. Things do get a bit scary when a bus is passing on the left and starting to merge, if you can call it that, into your lane at the same time. I didn't really worry about it because I figured he knew what he was doing. The first thing one must get used to is the constant honking of horns; drivers are constantly honking their horns.



Our first stop was the Court House. Mr. Vinay informed me that this Court House is were people challenged the rulings of lower courts. Kind of like our Circuit Courts I guess. He also told me that there is a higher court than this Dehli and I am guessing that works like our Supreme Court but don't quote on me on that. The picture I took is not so great but the building is pretty amazing and huge.


From here we made a u-turn, of course we did not wait for the traffic to allow this u-turn, to see the Government Building across the street from the Court House. Mr. Vinay informed me that the statue is of the first Prime Minister of India after India's independence from the British Empire. He then went on to explain to me the meaning of the flag of India. The saffron or orange color symbolizes the purity of a flame, the white symbolizes peace and the green symbolizes the Indian peoples relation to the soil. The wheel in the middle represents the law of dharma. More can be read about the flag of India here.
After all of this, Mr. Vinay took me through the back streets of old Bangalore. I didn't take any pictures at this time but I was surprised when we came out of the back streets and there was a huge hotel right next to it. The back streets were really tiny, not even enough room for a car to drive down. Little shops sat along both sides of the streets and people wondered along the roads. I plan on going out with Mr. Vinay again when I have more time and I plan taking some video footage so you can all see what driving is like in India.

The Setup

So here I am, I finally made it to Bangalore after some long flights. I left Phoenix, AZ at 12:32pm on Thursday February 21st and arrived in Bangalore around 2am Saturday February 23rd. Overall, the flights were smooth, uneventful and on time. Here is a quick overview of each leg:

Phoenix to Chicago


Distance: 1440 miles
Flight Time: About 3:30 hours

I don't have a lot to say about this flight except that I had to sit in the middle, no isle or window seat available. I got over it pretty quick because I knew I was sitting in business class during the next two flights. All I did was have some water, watch part of the movie Spun and read some of my book. We landed in Chicago, I made the long walk from my arrival gate to departure gate. I found a place to have a sandwich and then I called my lovely wife.

Chicago to Frankfurt


Distance: 4343 miles
Flight Time: About 7:30 hours

So I talked to Michelle for awhile and then it was time to board the flight. We started boarding about 45 minutes before take off. I got to my seat and I was happy to see how much room I had and that I would not have any difficulty getting up to go the bathroom even though I was sitting next to the window. All my happiness started to fade away as we waited, and waited, and waited to take off. We finally took off about an hour after our scheduled departure time. The pilot said all would be well and that we should still land on time in Frankfurt.

Once we were in the air it was time to get comfortable. The chairs on this flight were pretty comfortable since I could recline and kick my feet up. Again, I read a lot on this flight and watched the movie Michael Clayton. The movie was pretty good but the video monitor was terrible and sometimes I had trouble seeing the screen. I got about 3 hours of sleep on this flight and ate a lot of food. I can't tell you what I ate because I can't remember but I felt like the flight attendants were bringing food or drinks every 10 minutes.

Once we got over Frankfurt Airport the pilot told us we were being held in a holding pattern because of too much airport traffic. We circled for awhile and finally landed about an hour late. This was a little cause for concern for me because I had never been to this airport and I had no idea where my departure gate was.

Frankfurt to Bangalore


Distance: 4614 miles
Flight Time: About 8 hours

When I got off the plane in Frankfurt I was happy knowing that I only had one more leg to go and then I did not have to be on a plane for 2 weeks. I was pretty much already sick of flying at this time but I couldn't really call it quits and hang out in Frankfurt so I went to find my gate for my next departure. Frankfurt airport is a little confusing but the signs are in English so getting is to the next gate is not that hard just a bit frustrating. I actually felt like the signs were tricking me and taking me in the wrong direction. At one point I came into the main part of the airport where all of the restaurants and shopping were. I got concerned and wondered if I went past the security check points. All was well and I made it my gate.

Boarding works a little different at Frankfurt airport then it does at most US airports. At most US airports you can sit in the waiting area and when it is time to board you give your boarding pass to the agent waiting at the door. At Frankfurt the boarding area is gated off and you wait until the agents are ready to let you in. When they let you in, they scan your boarding pass and then you wait. When it is time to board you just walk onto the plane. I don't know which way is better but they are definitely different.

The airline for this flight was Lufthansa and I have to say that their business class seating is pretty awesome. I posted a small picture of my seat with the TV. Everything is done using a small remote control next to your seat. If you want to lie down then you press a button, if you want the sit to recline, just press a button. There was a fair amount of programming to watch and since I couldn't sleep anymore I decided to watch 3:10 to Yuma and Gone Baby Gone. Again, I felt like I was getting food every 10 minutes but no complaints here. I had a pretty good dish that was prawns, curry sauce and rice.

The bad part of the flight is I could monitor where the plane was, how fast the plane was going and how much time we had left. That is not a good thing for someone like me who checks there watch every 5 minutes because I kept checking how much time I had left. I did get a pretty nice picture from the window of the plane. I think we were over Iran or somewhere around there when I took this.

Bangalore
We landed at Bangalore International Airport around 1:30am and got off the plane pretty quick. Getting through immigration was not a big deal but it took forever for the bags to come out. I was a little concerned while I was waiting at the airport because I was told by our coordinator that the cab drivers were going on strike so I was not sure how was going to get to my hotel. My bags came out, I went through customs and luckily someone was waiting from the hotel I was staying at.

The drive to the hotel was about 5 minutes and only took me about 10 minutes to check in. I got up to my room, called Michelle and talked to her for awhile, took a shower and fell asleep for a long time. I think I went to bed at about 3am in the morning and I woke up about 3pm in the afternoon. Even though I am awake now I feel like I could go right back to sleep. I need to stay awake so I can adjusted to the time change before I go to work on Monday.

For now, I am going to unpack, take another shower and find something to eat. I hope to be able to get out and about on Sunday and see what is going on around Bangalore. So for now here are some shots from my room and I will update as soon as I get a chance.