Bangalore Trip, Day 1

I'm not in Bangalore yet, but so far, it’s been a good trip.

The flight on Air France was on time and because I was sitting in the back of the 777, I was one of the first to board.

When I booked my flight initially, I had to settle for an aisle seat as there were only 10 spots left on the entire plane not booked. But once our plane was fully loaded and we departed, I noticed there was typically 1-2 seats per row unoccupied. WTF?

Each seat did have its own LCD touch panel and entertainment system but it was nothing like as polished as Virgin America’s “Red” system. Hell, my ancient Dlackberry had better touch control & response.

The food, however, even in economy class was the best I’ve had on any airline: a pasta salad with shaved smoked salmon, your choice of beef shepherd’s pie or gemelli pasta with a tomato sausce & Merlot wine and closing with cheese, a banana-chocolate cake and your choice of tea or coffee. And some hours later, just a bit before we landed, there was a breakfast of a small muffin, yogurt, orange juice and other beverages.

Our flight path was a little weird. We departed from Dulles, cut over Maryland and flew north-east, deftly avoiding Delaware airspace, but then turning north to travel the length of New Jersey before scooting out over the Atlantic towards Nova Scotia, and then Newfoundland. What is this power Delaware has to instill fear in Air France that New Jersey doesn’t? I think New Jersey should look into this.

After many hours of the Atlantic at night from 35,000 feet, we scooted south of Ireland, skipped overtop the westernmost point of Wales and cross the Channel into France. We landed at Charles De Gaulle Airport on time and then proceeded to taxi. And taxi. And taxi. I think we taxied through Marseilles in the south and doubled back.

Alas, we did taxi to terminal 2E and my Bangalore flight was to depart from terminal 2C. My fellow travelers walked a considerable distance through various habitrails, up & down levels, through empty lobbies, etc., to get to the nearest hub. It’s a lovely airport but the pedestrian flow is as arcane as Toronto’s old Terminal 2 used to be. Yeah, that bad.

Finally, I spotted the signs directing me to 2C and followed them… to a shuttle. Once the bus was full, it drove a large circular pattern, taking us past our plane at 2E gate 22 *twice* before finally getting us to 2C. Alas, all of us on that bus and several others had to go through security all over again at 2C. It took 45 minutes, perhaps the longest security wait for such a relatively short line that I’ve experienced recently. Worst of all, the bottle of Coke Classic I purchased at the concourse in Dulles was deemed to be illegal here and had to be tossed.

OK, what is it with airports and Coke Classic these days? This is the second time in as many flights that a bottle of Coke purchased at the airport was deemed to be a terrorist weapon. When I last flew from San Francisco, I was pulled out of the security line and was re-examined –and the Coke bottle swabbed & tested—because, as they explained when I asked what was up, I was drinking a Coke prior to boarding. In France, they just said “no drinks,” and tossed the intact bottle into the trash. Is this some sort of Pepsi-sponsored anti-Coke gov’t policy I somehow overlooked?

Naturally, the only screaming baby on the plane was two rows behind me. And curiously, the kid only really revved into high gear when the flight attendants and some important statement to make on the public address system. I think I acquitted myself well by asking the flight attendants in French on behalf of the folks in my row: “Excuse me, could you repeat that as the screaming spawn of Satan two rows back completely drowned out you and indeed the jet engines.”

No in-flight wifi and no electrical outlets for one’s electronics. It’s like flying in the Middle Ages. Bastards.

I’m sitting at my gate in Charles De Gaulle currently as I type this on my laptop. Michael’s multi-function European electrical adapter is working flawlessly, allowing my toys to get fully juiced before the next flight.

The airport is charging a significant rate for wifi (about $10 for 90 minutes). While I’m in withdrawal at the moment, I wanted to at least type this up in full so I could maximize any small block of wifi time I purchase. I also strongly suspect the use of cookies will prevent me from logging in with the laptop, then with the tablet, then with my phone. Bugger.

I did have a great sandwich here at the airport though. After all, if you can't get good bread in Paris, where else would you go?

So far, the trip has reminded me how much I really do love travel. I really need to win a lottery so I can do this more frequently.

Bangalore Trip, Day 1b

While still waiting for my plane in Paris, I found I could get 15 minutes of free wifi from the airport system. I quickly powered up my laptop to check on Facebook, Google+ and LiveJournal, my mobile phone to download all of my home & office email (and check in with FourSquare), and my tablet to update my Google Currents subscriptions with more reading material for the flight.

Sadly, I didn't get quite all of the email on my phone before the time was up and I wasn't able to renew for another 15 minute free block before my flight. I got just enough email to learn there was a major production crisis as I was about to board. Figures. I leave the country and my production data center goes to hell. I think that's just the servers sending a message that they miss me already.

Once seated, the second leg of my trip started with a WTF moment before even leaving the ground: the flight attendants walked the length of the plane in both aisles, spraying insecticide from two cans in each hand. The announcement claimed it was required by regulations but I've never heard of such a thing. My bet guess is that India requires this of all inbound flights to guard against bugs much nastier than those found in France but that's just a guess on my part. I'll research this more later.

This leg was on an Airbus 340. Again no outlets, no wifi. I'd expect this of Aeroflot but had thought better of Air France. Then again, lunch starts with a salad with chicken strips, followed by morsels of lamb in tomato sauce with broccoli puree, wrapped up with Camembert cheese, mandarin oranges and chocolate mouse. The mousse alone has assuaged my wifi-less indignation.

BTW, one more reason to love France: their Coke Classic doesn't use high fructose corn syrup. Viva la république!

The runway was enshrouded with fog and we immediately lifted up into clouds so my view of France was effectively non-existent. I did get some nice views of the Alps as we trucked around the north of Italy, then south over the former Yugoslavia. Not having a window seat, however, I had no control over the window shades so any view of the edge of the Mediterranean, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Arabian peninsula and such were lost.

We landed on time at a shiny, beautiful airport in Bangalore. The airport itself would have been perfectly at home at any major western city: clean, well lit, nicely organized --but with tighter yet still less intrusive security than US airports.

I was sitting in the last five rows of the plane so as we disembarked, I got to walk practically the length of the aircraft. Wow, 100+ people can really trash a passenger cabin! I feel sorry for the clean-up crew. And walking through the business class section with their individual pleasure pods and the premiere class with their ultra-deluxe pleasure pods was a bit much.

What was the first business I saw upon arriving in India? Pizza Hut. The second? Subway. *sigh*

Customs & Immigration were no more invasive or sluggish than arriving in Toronto. My luggage appeared on the carousel within a reasonable amount of time and helpful airport attendants directed me to the area where hired drivers would be waving their signs to identify their clients. I made nearly instant contact with my driver and he walked me to the waiting area while he went to collect his car from the parking lot.

There were a number of baggage carts helter-skelter around the waiting area so I did what I usually do: I rounded them up and stacked them into a single efficient line. My driver caught me finishing this as he pulled up.

"Oh, you don't have to do that!" he said.
"I'm Canadian, I can't help myself."

His car was small but very clean & tidy. I didn't recognize the model or make at all so I'm presuming it's a local brand. It was a fairly pleasant 45 minutes drive to the hotel, and we were only nearly crushed between two dump trucks just once. Keeping in mind that all of this is happening at 1am makes me eager (from a safe distance) to see it during the daytime rush hour!

The hotel itself is pretty nice. The lobby is very impressive: lots of carved wood paneling and marble. My room is on the small side by western standards but has all of the conveniences: a regular full bathroom, a small fridge, coffee accoutrements, a desk, dresser, comfy bed and free wifi.

The room itself feels like it was shabbier at some point in the not too distant past, then tidied up with a coat of paint & cheap labor before sliding in upscale furniture. It's the little things I notice, like the paint crew not properly taping the baseboards or removing outlet covers before painting the walls, leaving bad edges. It's those things which take an otherwise fantastic room and cheapens it more than a little.

On the wifi: it's about 1.5 Mbps upload & download (yeah, I always speedtest every hotel I stay in), and I understand that since IP addresses are expensive, there's only one assigned to my devices using the room number and registration code. Thus, I can update my mobile phone via wifi, then power it down and re-use the IP on my tablet, then power it down and re-use the IP on my laptop. Not exactly efficient, but OK, that's the way things are done here.

I've received email from my local colleagues indicating the Ketera Software offices are within a five minute walk from the hotel. One person has volunteered to collect me tomorrow so I'm going to take advantage of that to get my bearings and look for daytime landmarks. There's a lot more to do to get myself fully comfortable but that'll wait for morning.

Signing off now at 4am Bangalore time/5pm Eastern time/2pm Pacific time.