Bangalore Trip, Day 1b
Jan. 31st, 2012 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisWhile 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.
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.
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Sounds familiar
Date: 2012-01-31 10:14 pm (UTC)Smart idea to get picked up tomorrow. Landmarks is one thing...learning to navigate the mass of people is a different matter entirely.
But oh, the food on Air France! C'est magnifique, n'est-ce pas?!
I'll be anxious to get your read on Indian breakfast...
Enjoy! And thanks for letting me live vicariously through your experience!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-31 10:23 pm (UTC)I love being in a car in India. Nobody goes in a straight line; the cars move several feet to the left and right as they travel down the road (like every driver in Delaware) but seem to never crash. I hope you get to try to cross a major thoroughfare by foot. You may want to take an antianxiety med first.
Good luck on your first day!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-31 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-31 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 12:40 am (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada
no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 04:46 am (UTC)And on the hotel WiFi - what, you don't travel with a router to provide NATing? :)
Have fun while you're there - and don't upset any cows!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 02:25 pm (UTC)And CDG is far enough out from Paris that all you see is light industrial areas and farmland when the plane is taking off; you didn't miss a killer view of the Eiffel Tower. =)