A Weblog…Again

Last Week’s Travels

Last week I went to Venezuela for a one day meeting with a customer.  It was certainly a whirlwind to be sure.  Here was what happened:

• Depart from Chicago on Tuesday on Delta.  Since I have no status on Delta, I was one of the last people to board the plane.  Needless to say, there was no room for my rollerboard and even though I told the flight attendant that I had a tight connection in Atlanta and that I was in Caracas for only one day, I had to check.
• The flight from Chicago to Atlanta was running late and my 1 1/2 hour connection time evaporated to 30 minutes.  I had to sprint through the terminal, hop on a train to get to a different terminal, but I made it to the flight.
• I landed in Caracas at about 10:30 pm, which was 1 hour late.  I patiently waited for my rollerboard at baggage claim.  I changed $100 to the local currency while I waited, and waited and waited. 
• The carousel stopped moving and my heart sunk as my bag was nowhere to be seen.  At about 12:30 am, I managed to speak with someone from Delta and filed a missing bag claim.  He told me that the bag should arrive in Caracas on Wednesday night at about 10:00 pm.  I told him that was useless for me, because I was returning on Thursday morning.  I told him to hold on to the bag and have it waiting for me at the Delta check-in counter.
• I got to my hotel, checked email and went to sleep at about 2:00 am.
• My alarm rang at 4:00 am and I took a shower and wearing the same clothes as the day before I made it to the airport at 5:00 am.
• I met my local contact and we had an uneventful flight to the Las Piedras airport, which is near the oil refinery town where I was headed.
• I delivered about 8 hours of knowledge transfer to the client and headed back to the Las Piedras airport that same day at 5:00 pm.
• I was feeling relaxed and had a few beers since the flight wasn’t until 9:00 pm.
• Well, at 9:00 pm they announed that there would be no flight.
• We had 2 options:  1) stay one more day, but I would then have to delay my return; or 2) take a taxi back to Caracas, which was about 300 miles.
• I opted for option 2 and we drove the whole night through country roads. (I saw a donkey cross the road right in front of us as we were careening down the highway at 70 mph).
• I finally got to the hotel at 4:30 am, took a quick shower and was at the airport by 5:00 am.
• I waited 1 1/2 hours in the Delta check-in line before getting to the front.  Lo and behold, they had my bag and nothing was even missing.  This really lifted my spirits, because I was positive that the bag was gone for good.
• The flight was leaving on time at 8:00 am and I even managed to carry my rollerboard on the plane with me.
• I finally made it home by 6:30 pm and I was wiped out.
• I slept early and woke up the next day and worked.  At about 4:00 pm, I took the train to O’Hare to catch a flight to New York City.  I was heading to NYC for a friend’s wedding.  Due to inclement weather, I didn’t get into NYC until after midnight. 
• In NYC, I hung out with friends on Saturday, went to the wedding Saturday night, and took a flight back to Chicago on Sunday at 1:00 pm. 

Luckily for me, I don’t have to travel at all this week, becaue I could use a break.

One lesson I’ve learned when flying with Delta is that they have 9 different "zones" for boarding.  If you status, you are in Zone 1 and can board immediately.  If you don’t have status, then the closer up to the front you are, the higher your zone number.  I thought I was being smart when I picked my seat assignment to be up front, so that I could disembark quickly.  If I had been sitting at the back of the plane on my way down to Caracas, I would’ve had a lower zone and I would’ve found room for my rollerboard.

Back From India

Got back from India this past weekend.  Overall the trip was uneventful and a bit boring.  We did get a chance to catch up with old friends in Delhi.  I had meant to write more while in India, but somehow the logistics just weren’t right.  The power would go out every day from 10:00 am till 1:00 pm, there was no wifi, the kids were always around, etc.  Anyway, I’m back now and need to get my act together and be more productive.

India Arrival

Got to India 4 days ago.  The American Airlines direct flight from Chicago to Delhi was simply excellent.  Though it was fourteen and a half hours, it was mostly during the night, so it was easy to sleep.  Also, the Boeing 777 was equipped with individual seatback entertainment systems, which made the time pass by very quickly.  Now all they need is power in every seat and wifi on plane and then it would be a breeze.  Comparing my recent trip to Sydney on United with this American flight makes me wonder how I can stand to travel on United.  The United flight had the old style single movie projection and the food was horrible.

Once we landed in Delhi, the disembarkation process as a breeze along with baggage claim.  Boy, was it humid when we landed though.  We stayed at the Intercontinental at Nehru Place, which is a nice hotel with a great pool and fitness club.  I had some minor complaints, but all in all quite decent.  I only stepped out of the hotel once in 2 days to get a SIM card for my cell phone.  I went to the first mobile phone shop that I saw and goet a Vodafone SIM.  The process for getting a SIM in India is not exactly easy.  I had to show them 2 proofs of identification (i.e., passport and US driver’s license).  I then also had to provide a passport sized picture.  There was then a 2 page application that needed to be filled out.  I had to use my hotel as my local address.  After about one hour, I finally got the SIM, which works perfectly.

On Tuesday, we took the flight on Indian Airlines from Delhi to Allahabad via Kanpur.  We flew on a propeller plane that was small and hot; I guess they wanted to conserve fuel by skimping on the air conditioning.  It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant.  But it was only about a 2 flight, so it made little difference.  The biggest issue with the flight was our excess baggage.  Because it was a small plane, they only allow a single bag to be checked in with a maximum weight of 15 kgs.  We had 4 seats, so were eligible for 60 kgs.  However, we had 93 kgs worth of baggage.  For each excess kg they charge 95 rupees.  So, I had to pay nearly 3300 rupees for the baggage fee. 

After arriving in Allahabad, it has been smooth sailing.  Not much new to see in the city and it is hot and sticky during the day, so no one feels like doing something.  I did go for a jog yesterday at noon when the sun was at its brightest.  No one does that here, so they thought it was a little strange, but it felt great to sweat and really feel the heat and humidity.  In this kind of humidity, the environment can not be ignored and you know that your body is alive.

Sydney Wrap Up

Last Friday night, we saw The Dark Knight at the Sydney Imax.  Apparently, this Imax theatre is the largest in the world.  It is enormous, but since we were running a bit late, we were sitting rather close up, so it seemed a bit distorted.  I think the optimal viewing would be at the very rear.  In any case, The Dark Knight was a rather good movie.  It was gritty and hard-edged and definitely not meant for kids since some of the themes were complex.  In order for there to be good, there also needs to be evil; a Faustian bargain if ever there was one.

On Saturday, I had the day to myself.  I took a long jog, probably around 4 kilometers, from my hotel to he Opera House and up to the Botanical Garden.  Once I get over the first 10 minutes of jogging, my body starts adjusting and I don’t get fatigued or out of breath.  At about 30 minutes, my legs start hurting a bit.  All in all, I’m pretty pleased with myself.  Now, I just need to keep it up for an extended period of time.

Since I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to do, I decided to head to Newtown, which is a near Western suburb of Sydney that is a bit bohemian.  I was walking on King Street and came across a Crumpler store.  The last time I was in Sydney, I bought the Cusomary Barge.

This time, I wanted to buy a messenger style bag that looke a bit more professional, but was also large enough to hold all o my stuff, so I settled on the Dreadful Embarassment.

Looking at the prices on the US website, it appears that it is cheaper to order it here in the US than it is to buy it in Sydney.  I wonder how that is possible given that it is manufactured in Sydney.  Hmm…well, in the future, I guess I’ll just get my Crumpler bags in the US.

Another Sydney Dinner

Last night, the account manager for the client that I’m working with took the client and myself out to dinner.  We went to a restaurant called Meat and Wine in Darling Harbour.  As the name implies, it primarily focuses on steaks and wine.  Like most decent steak places, it wasn’t cheap.  I had a pumpkin soup, which wasn’t very good at all.  It was just pureed pumpkin with some cream.  For my main dish, I had a filet cooked Medium.  I am no steak expert, but it was jusk okay.  What is interesting here is that they also give you side sauces (I chose a creamy garlic) to go with your steak.  This would be sacrilege at a US steak house.  We also went through 3 bottles of various Australian Shiraz’.  These were all very heavy and thick wines that had a lot of character and depth.  These certainly were not sipping wines.  The bill for the six of us must have been close to $1000.  Oh well, I guess that is the cost of doing business.

Sydney Views

A couple of nights ago the local SE took me to the bar on the 36th floor of the Shangri-La hotel.  The view from there is stunning.  It has a great view of Darling Harbour as well as the Opera House.  If you can stomach the outrageous prices for cocktails ($20), I would highly recommend it.

After we had a couple of drinks at th Shangri-la, we wanted to grab a bite to eat.  There is also a restaurant called Altitude on the top floor.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a table since we didn’t have reservations.  We then went to a rather pricey and famous restaurant on The Rocks called Rockpool.  Apparently, the chef is a celebrity.  The menu was primarily geared towards seafood.  I had a sashimi appetizer, which in Australia is correctly called an "entree".  For my main course, I had a bass filet in a Indian coconut curry sauce.  The sashimi was fresh, but a bit boring.  The bass was excellent and spicy, which of course is more suitable to my palate.

Sydney – Day 3

Today was my first day meeting with the client.  Like many engagements where I come onsite, not everything was set up, so it was slow going.  Since the AXG is an integration product, it obviously has a lot of dependencies on other systems.  Therefore, to test AXG, it is required that other systems also be configured correctly. 

For lunch, we went to a German brewery.  This was the first business luncheon where everyone was drinking.  In the US, that would simply never happen.  The day lasted longer than I would have liked.  By 6:30, I was getting tired.  I got back to the hotel and was famished, but the weather was cold and wet, but eating over-priced hotel food didn’t appeal to me.  I remembered that there was a decent looking pizza joint on George St.  Luckily, I was able to get a table quickly and ordered a half bottle of red.  I ate my pizza and drank my wine and was sufficiently buzzed.  By the time, I got to the hotel, I simply just crashed for 2 hours with the lights and TV on.  At around 10:30, I managed to turn the lights off and crash until 6:00 am. 

Sydney – Day 2

After a pretty successful night’s sleep on Saturday, I woke up early Sunday morning and went for a jog on the pier from my hotel, the Park Hyatt, to the Opera House.  It was a chilly morning, but the views were amazing and the sun felt good.  Once I got back to the hotel, I warmed myself up by spending about 20 minutes in the wet and dry saunas at the hotel.  On weekends in The Rocks, they have an open air market where they close off part of George St.  I managed to find a nice, silver bracelet for myself.  I then met my sister-in-law and her kids and we walked from the hotel to Woolloomooloo, which is a wharf that has a number of high-end restaurants.  After some looking around, we settled on going to a Mediterranean restaurant called Manta.  The food was decent, but pricey.  In particular, I had a white cod that was sprinkled with truffles in a butter sauce.  After a leisurely lunch, we walked to the Centerpoint Tower where we had dessert at a chocolate bar called Max Brenner.  At that point, the weather took a turn for the worse and it started pouring and getting colder.  Luckily, it cleared up a bit and we were able to walk back to the hotel.  I skipped dinner and called it an early night at 10:00 pm, because I wanted to get up early and work out.  All in all, a relaxing day in Sydney.

Off to Sydney

On the flight from Chicago to San Francisco right now.  Man, this is going to be a long trip.  Another hour before we land and then a 2 hour layover in SFO before the very, very looong flight to Sydney.  I’m glad that I decided to get to Sydney on Saturday morning.  I’ll really need some time to get used to the time change. 

Aside from visiting with my sister-in-law and her kids, I’m at somewhat of a loss as to what I want to do while I’m there.  With a high temperature in the 60s and lows in the 40s, it really dampens my desire to walk around and explore.  Especially since I was there with my wife and son last November for 3 weeks.  We saw a fair amount of Sydney and some of the surrounding environs.  Since I’m staying at the Park Hyatt, I’ll be right across the way from the Opera House, which will be a treat.  Plus, I’m sure I’ll be able to frequent some of the pubs in The Rocks.  It seems to me that Sydney offers more natural beauty than museums and other sites.  I think I would like to go see a beach or something even though it will be freezing cold.  Anyway, business first and then some pleasure…