I arrived back in LA at 7:30 pm on Sunday. The jet lag on Monday was pretty bad, but today I am feeling a bit better.
Will finish up the Mysore story soon, whenver I get some time.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
New title image
A big thanks to Candace Giancanelli for providing my new title image for Burger Buzz!!
Been busy with work, will continue with my trip to Mysore soon.
Been busy with work, will continue with my trip to Mysore soon.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Trip to Mysore
Well, it is now Tuesday here and I am finally getting a chance to post about my trip to Mysore on Saturday.
I got up early, around 6:30 am, got ready and went down to eat breakfast before I left.
I don't think I have talked about the hotel breakfast yet - it is a big buffet with all sorts of Indian food, as well as plenty of American choices. They have an omelet station with all sorts of ingredients, and a person to cook it for you, 15-20 different hot Indian foods, porridge, cereal and milk, toast, mini muffins, pastries, and sweet breads of all kinds, and fresh cut fruit.
I usually eat a bowl of corn flakes with milk, toast, cantaloupe, and maybe a mini muffin or sweet.
They now know me quite well at the breakfast, and know that I like a cold bottle of water with my meal. No tea or coffee. I think they think that's strange.
After breakfast I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs to meet my driver.
The driver was very nice and, as it turns out, his father lives in Mysore, so he knows the way there and the city very well.
We were cruising along, starting to approach downtown Bangalore when the driver started talking a lot on his phone. Of course, he was speaking in another language (one of the five different languages spoken in Bangalore, as he informed me). I asked if the languages were similar to each other and he said not at all. After a while, he informed me that his friend was also headed to Mysore today - with some people for a tour. He said his friend doesn't know Mysore at all, or how to get there. I instantly felt bad for the people he had with him, and at the same time very fortunate that I got a good driver that knew his way around.
Everyone at work informed me that the trip to Mysore was about 2 hours, which the driver confirmed. Apparently, 2 hours in India is really 3.5 hours. I shouldn't have had that bottle of water for breakfast, afterall. I asked if we could stop somewhere to go to the bathroom, and he told me a coffee shop was coming up that we could stop at. I guess his friend and the other people were waiting at the coffee shop for us, so we could show them the way to Mysore.
On the way to Mysore we crossed downtown Bangalore, which was quite exciting. Lots of traffic (although the driver told me it was light traffic), cows roaming the streets and walking between cars, and lots of American restaurants and stores to see. I saw McDonalds, Papa John's, Dominos, and Chili's all right next to each other. I saw motorcycles with 4 people on them, and rickshaws with 6 people in them.
Our first stop was a river, the name of which I do not know. I don't know the names of a lot of things because I can't always understand what the driver is saying. There were people in saucer-like boats paddling away in the river. Other people were swimming in the water, trash was floating in the water, and several men standing at the edge were peeing in the water. Quite a sight. My driver asked me to excuse him for a minute and he went down to the water's edge, dipped his hand in and patted his head with the water (yes, the same water the other people were peeing in). He proceeded to take off his shoes, and kneel down in front of some sort of little monument. He appeared to be praying.
It was here, at the river, that I met the unfortunate people from the other car. They were three people from Dallas, TX that work for Cap Gemini - a huge IT company that has locations all over the world, including here in India. They were very nice people, and it was great to have someone to spend my day with.
The heat outside makes you feel like you're about to have a stroke at any moment. Hot, humid, and LOTS of people everywhere. Indian people are some of the friendliest people i've met, but there is no concept of "personal space" here in India. You are constantly running into, getting run into by, bumping, nudging, stepping on, and kicking (ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) other people.
We had driven down a side road, off the main road, to get to the river. On the way back out to the main road we stopped at two other places. First, we stopped at a temple.
As we approached a big gate on foot, children were running up to us from all directions trying to sell us things. We were instructed by the drivers not to buy anything from them. They are VERY persistent. As we passed through the gate, we could see an enormous garden stretching out to both sides with beautiful green grass, flowering trees, and people relaxing. Directly down the middle was a wide path, with a building at the end that looked like it belonged in the movies. The path was lined with uniform green shrubs, and palm trees filled the backdrop. When we got up to the building, we were instructed to remove our shoes (and socks) before entering the temple. There were hundreds of pairs of plain, brown-colored, old and worn-out leather shoes and sandals arranged neatly; and then there were the four pairs of bright, obnoxiously colored, new and sparkling clean Nike shoes, that were ours. In the center of the interior of the temple were three, ancient-looking boxes, with an equally old cloth draped over each one and held up in the middle in a tent shape. From what I could understand, I think these were the late family members of the King Tipu Sultan. People walked around and prayed. Outside, there were many stone caskets surrounding the temple, I don't know who was in them. We collected our shoes, and walked back to the car - through the same mob of children who still insisted we buy something from them.
Last stop before we hit the main road again was a museum. I don't really know what the museum was all about, but the building was the oldest thing I have ever seen. I can't believe it was still standing. Inside were various things to look at, and lots of crowds to fight through the narrow halls. Museums are not really my thing, so even though this was unlike any museum I had ever been in, it wasn't the highlight of my day. It is worth noting that I didn't think temples were my type of thing either, but it was a pretty cool experience.
Back on the main road, we traveled a few kilometers before taking another side road. We were headed to another temple. I got out and took pictures, but the temple was closed. We could not go in. This was to be the last stop before we reached the city of Mysore.
Upon arrival in Mysore, the driver dropped me at a place to eat lunch. He gave me his cell number to call him when I was finished. Lunch turned out to be a buffet of Indian food. This didn't make me the happiest person alive. I was elated to find the steamed white rice, and what was labeled "grilled chicken". It was NOT grilled chicken. It was little chunks of chicken, cooked in a brown, gravy-like sauce. I decided to try it. All the other Indian dishes they had looked disgusting to me. I went back to the table with my pile of white rice and "grilled chicken". The rice was excellent, the chicken was not. The chicken tasted great, the part that was not so great were the bones in it. It was cut up into these tiny little chunks with the bones left in it, so it was impossible to eat without swallowing the bones. I just ate the rice. I went back up and found dessert on the buffet to help fill the now-massive void in my stomach. I had a little piece of mango cake, some sort of strawberry, whipped cream, and chocolate chunk dessert, and a scoop of strawberry ice cream. Dessert was delicious. I phoned the driver and he found me on foot. We were now about to do the single, most-terrifying feat I have ever attempted in my life: cross the street.
If you've not been to India you are probably laughing right now, if you have, you are legitimately fearing for my safety as you read this (and maybe still chuckling a bit, because I am a humorous writer). For those of you in the first group, allow me to set the scene for you. Imagine the busiest city street, from any major US city (NYC, LA, etc), that you can. Ok, got it? Now, replace 50% of the cars with small, 3-wheeled buggies (auto rickshaws, or tuk tuk's), and motorcycles. The people driving the cars are all teenagers that just got their driving permit, have been given a rental car with the full insurance, and told they should reenact their favorite action movie sequence as accurately as possible. The rickshaw and motorcycle drivers are driving twice as bad as the car drivers, and the bus and truck drivers think they are in a Mini Cooper with no brakes. Take away all painted lines, all lights and signs, all rules of the road, and add an extra horn with a dedicated horn-honker to each vehicle. Crossing this madness is a very delicate, and expertly choreographed motion. One false move and the stray dogs will be eating you for dinner. Luckily, I survived.
After lunch I went to Mysore Palace.
This is getting long, so I will continue in a new post.
I got up early, around 6:30 am, got ready and went down to eat breakfast before I left.
I don't think I have talked about the hotel breakfast yet - it is a big buffet with all sorts of Indian food, as well as plenty of American choices. They have an omelet station with all sorts of ingredients, and a person to cook it for you, 15-20 different hot Indian foods, porridge, cereal and milk, toast, mini muffins, pastries, and sweet breads of all kinds, and fresh cut fruit.
I usually eat a bowl of corn flakes with milk, toast, cantaloupe, and maybe a mini muffin or sweet.
They now know me quite well at the breakfast, and know that I like a cold bottle of water with my meal. No tea or coffee. I think they think that's strange.
After breakfast I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs to meet my driver.
The driver was very nice and, as it turns out, his father lives in Mysore, so he knows the way there and the city very well.
We were cruising along, starting to approach downtown Bangalore when the driver started talking a lot on his phone. Of course, he was speaking in another language (one of the five different languages spoken in Bangalore, as he informed me). I asked if the languages were similar to each other and he said not at all. After a while, he informed me that his friend was also headed to Mysore today - with some people for a tour. He said his friend doesn't know Mysore at all, or how to get there. I instantly felt bad for the people he had with him, and at the same time very fortunate that I got a good driver that knew his way around.
Everyone at work informed me that the trip to Mysore was about 2 hours, which the driver confirmed. Apparently, 2 hours in India is really 3.5 hours. I shouldn't have had that bottle of water for breakfast, afterall. I asked if we could stop somewhere to go to the bathroom, and he told me a coffee shop was coming up that we could stop at. I guess his friend and the other people were waiting at the coffee shop for us, so we could show them the way to Mysore.
On the way to Mysore we crossed downtown Bangalore, which was quite exciting. Lots of traffic (although the driver told me it was light traffic), cows roaming the streets and walking between cars, and lots of American restaurants and stores to see. I saw McDonalds, Papa John's, Dominos, and Chili's all right next to each other. I saw motorcycles with 4 people on them, and rickshaws with 6 people in them.
Our first stop was a river, the name of which I do not know. I don't know the names of a lot of things because I can't always understand what the driver is saying. There were people in saucer-like boats paddling away in the river. Other people were swimming in the water, trash was floating in the water, and several men standing at the edge were peeing in the water. Quite a sight. My driver asked me to excuse him for a minute and he went down to the water's edge, dipped his hand in and patted his head with the water (yes, the same water the other people were peeing in). He proceeded to take off his shoes, and kneel down in front of some sort of little monument. He appeared to be praying.
It was here, at the river, that I met the unfortunate people from the other car. They were three people from Dallas, TX that work for Cap Gemini - a huge IT company that has locations all over the world, including here in India. They were very nice people, and it was great to have someone to spend my day with.
The heat outside makes you feel like you're about to have a stroke at any moment. Hot, humid, and LOTS of people everywhere. Indian people are some of the friendliest people i've met, but there is no concept of "personal space" here in India. You are constantly running into, getting run into by, bumping, nudging, stepping on, and kicking (ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) other people.
We had driven down a side road, off the main road, to get to the river. On the way back out to the main road we stopped at two other places. First, we stopped at a temple.
As we approached a big gate on foot, children were running up to us from all directions trying to sell us things. We were instructed by the drivers not to buy anything from them. They are VERY persistent. As we passed through the gate, we could see an enormous garden stretching out to both sides with beautiful green grass, flowering trees, and people relaxing. Directly down the middle was a wide path, with a building at the end that looked like it belonged in the movies. The path was lined with uniform green shrubs, and palm trees filled the backdrop. When we got up to the building, we were instructed to remove our shoes (and socks) before entering the temple. There were hundreds of pairs of plain, brown-colored, old and worn-out leather shoes and sandals arranged neatly; and then there were the four pairs of bright, obnoxiously colored, new and sparkling clean Nike shoes, that were ours. In the center of the interior of the temple were three, ancient-looking boxes, with an equally old cloth draped over each one and held up in the middle in a tent shape. From what I could understand, I think these were the late family members of the King Tipu Sultan. People walked around and prayed. Outside, there were many stone caskets surrounding the temple, I don't know who was in them. We collected our shoes, and walked back to the car - through the same mob of children who still insisted we buy something from them.
Last stop before we hit the main road again was a museum. I don't really know what the museum was all about, but the building was the oldest thing I have ever seen. I can't believe it was still standing. Inside were various things to look at, and lots of crowds to fight through the narrow halls. Museums are not really my thing, so even though this was unlike any museum I had ever been in, it wasn't the highlight of my day. It is worth noting that I didn't think temples were my type of thing either, but it was a pretty cool experience.
Back on the main road, we traveled a few kilometers before taking another side road. We were headed to another temple. I got out and took pictures, but the temple was closed. We could not go in. This was to be the last stop before we reached the city of Mysore.
Upon arrival in Mysore, the driver dropped me at a place to eat lunch. He gave me his cell number to call him when I was finished. Lunch turned out to be a buffet of Indian food. This didn't make me the happiest person alive. I was elated to find the steamed white rice, and what was labeled "grilled chicken". It was NOT grilled chicken. It was little chunks of chicken, cooked in a brown, gravy-like sauce. I decided to try it. All the other Indian dishes they had looked disgusting to me. I went back to the table with my pile of white rice and "grilled chicken". The rice was excellent, the chicken was not. The chicken tasted great, the part that was not so great were the bones in it. It was cut up into these tiny little chunks with the bones left in it, so it was impossible to eat without swallowing the bones. I just ate the rice. I went back up and found dessert on the buffet to help fill the now-massive void in my stomach. I had a little piece of mango cake, some sort of strawberry, whipped cream, and chocolate chunk dessert, and a scoop of strawberry ice cream. Dessert was delicious. I phoned the driver and he found me on foot. We were now about to do the single, most-terrifying feat I have ever attempted in my life: cross the street.
If you've not been to India you are probably laughing right now, if you have, you are legitimately fearing for my safety as you read this (and maybe still chuckling a bit, because I am a humorous writer). For those of you in the first group, allow me to set the scene for you. Imagine the busiest city street, from any major US city (NYC, LA, etc), that you can. Ok, got it? Now, replace 50% of the cars with small, 3-wheeled buggies (auto rickshaws, or tuk tuk's), and motorcycles. The people driving the cars are all teenagers that just got their driving permit, have been given a rental car with the full insurance, and told they should reenact their favorite action movie sequence as accurately as possible. The rickshaw and motorcycle drivers are driving twice as bad as the car drivers, and the bus and truck drivers think they are in a Mini Cooper with no brakes. Take away all painted lines, all lights and signs, all rules of the road, and add an extra horn with a dedicated horn-honker to each vehicle. Crossing this madness is a very delicate, and expertly choreographed motion. One false move and the stray dogs will be eating you for dinner. Luckily, I survived.
After lunch I went to Mysore Palace.
This is getting long, so I will continue in a new post.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Mysore Pictures
These pics are from a trip to Mysore on Saturday, will post details and more pics when I get a chance. Just wanted to get these up for all you guys begging for pics :-)
View from a temple on a mountain near Mysore.
Mysore Palace from inside the gate.
Mysore Palace from outside the gate.
Apparently vanilla is spelled differently here.
My driver and car for the day.
Normal street scene - near one of the temples we visited.
We took off our shoes and went in this temple, there weren't many pairs of Nike shoes outside.
Cow in traffic - quite normal around here.
View out the front of the car while driving - this is very light traffic.
View from a temple on a mountain near Mysore.
Mysore Palace from inside the gate.
Mysore Palace from outside the gate.
Apparently vanilla is spelled differently here.
My driver and car for the day.
Normal street scene - near one of the temples we visited.
We took off our shoes and went in this temple, there weren't many pairs of Nike shoes outside.
Cow in traffic - quite normal around here.
View out the front of the car while driving - this is very light traffic.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
India - Day 1
Having arrived in India at 4:30 am, I only went into work for a few hours in the afternoon today.
I got a driver from the hotel to take me to the office. Everyone is super friendly here, and always interested in hearing all about your day. Work is very nearby - probably less than 2 miles from the hotel. After the long ride from the airport, I am used to the crazy driving. We quickly arrived at the main gate of the technology park, which was very heavily secured - men dressed in camouflage and holding machine guns were standing out front. There were probably 15 other security guards with billy clubs that looked like they had been used a lot.
They are very picky about having a badge to get in, which I did not have. Someone from Paprikaas was supposed to meet me at the gate with a badge, but I had arrived a few minutes early. The guard demanded I get out of the car and stand in line to get a badge, which I did. By the time I got up to the window the guy from Paprikaas was there with the badge. We both got back in my car and the driver took us to the building. Before the car was allowed in, they were doing something with a very strange/scary looking device with an antenna sticking out of it. I think it was some sort of explosives detection. I was told that security has been increased since the attacks on the hotels in Mumbai last December.
I got the grand tour of Paprikaas and met a bunch of people today. They are located in a HUGE technology park with lots of giant buildings, and even a mall with lots of restaurants. Paprikaas has 3 floors of the building they are in - 9, 10, and 11. I am on the 10th floor with the majority of production, IT and more production is on the 9th floor, and the 11th floor is a team of 75 people dedicated to Dreamworks. They have a dailies viewing room, ping pong room, acting room with mirrors all around and a video camera to record reference, HUGE training room equipped with dual projectors and an audio system, and a couple different cafeteria type rooms with tables and chairs to eat at. The production space is all fancy, colored cubicles. It's a very nice environment, not unlike studios in the US.
After my brief visit, the office assistant took me down to the mall so I could get something to eat - I was starving!! They have a ton of Indian restaurants, as well as Subway, Pizza Hut (which is extremely popular), KFC (also quite popular), and Baskin Robbins. I had Subway today.
The drive back to the hotel was fun, I now really enjoy riding in a car here. It's fun to watch all that is going on around you - Women sweeping loose dirt off of the dirt below (and I mean literally - piles of dirt), piles of garbage on the sides of the road growing as people throw more stuff on them, and children digging ditches with very primitive tools.
Back at my hotel, they go around the whole car with a mirror to look underneath for explosives, and they carefully inspect the inside and the trunk. After we go through the gate I must go through a metal detector and let them search my bag before I am allowed in.
I am exhausted, and very thirsty. I call room service to get me a bottle of water. It took 30 minutes to get the stupid water and when it arrived, a lady called me and said a man is waiting outside your door, please open it. I opened it to see a smiling indian man holding a nice basket lined with a cloth napkin, and a bottle of Aquafina laying neatly inside. It was all I could do not to laugh.
I am finishing up on my computer, checking my email, and getting ready to go to bed when the phone rings again. It is the same lady, and she says "There is a man outside your door with a bottle of wine, please let him in". I ran to the door and let him in - he ran into the room and left a bottle of wine in a basket on my table and quickly left. I had no idea what was going on or why they were giving me wine - I had not ordered it. It got the best of me and I decided to call room service to ask where it came from - the guy said he would find out. He called me back a couple minutes later and said "For you, the wine is complimentary". I still don't know where it came from or who paid for it.
What a long day, it will feel good to get some sleep.
12 days to go...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Arrival in India
It's official, I'm in India!! There is a little bit of culture shock right now, but not too bad - I prepared myself well before I got here.
Flight to India was pretty uneventful - I slept through most of it.
I was quite nervous about getting through immigration and customs, but it was simple.
When I got outside, there stood two Indian men smiling ear to ear as I made eye contact with them, holding a sign that read "Mr. Brian Burger" - these would be my drivers.
I didn't have the heart to correct them on my name, as I do everyone else. They were very nice and spoke very good english.
I was prepared for a rough ride to the hotel, but it started out fine, on what looked to be one of their major highways. There were 3 lanes on each side, with lines painted to separate them, but that's where the similarities to US highways end.
I had my nose buried in my blackberry reading all the emails about bike rides to the beach and snow cones that all you people in CA are enjoying. I wasn't paying any attention to what was going on with the car. Pretty soon we stopped and I heard "Have a great stay, Mr. Burger" - I freaked out because I wasn't paying attention and thought we were at the hotel already. I started shoving the phone back in my pocket, gathering my belongings, and taking off my seatbelt. Only to have the car roar off once again as I looked out the window at the man that had helped with my baggage. He was standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with what looked like a homeless man's shelter behind him. I quickly realized we were just dropping this man off - I have no idea if that's where he lives.
I decided at this point that it was best I pay attention to what was going on with the car. As it turns out, I should have continued reading my email.
The ride was definitely an experience. So, back to the differences between US and Indian roads. In the US, the big, red octagon-shaped signs wih the word "STOP" in the middle of them usually mean to do just that. Not in India. In India it means "Please blow through this intersection as fast as you possibly can whilst blowing your horn without regard to the cyclists, cars, and giant trucks heading through from the opposite direction". I guess that wouldn't fit on a sign, so they just went with "STOP".
We went through at least 3 of these signs in just this manner, but that was nothing compared to the man peeing on the side of the road for the whole world to see, the stray, malnourished dogs that roam the streets in search of a fresh pile of garbage to eat, and the hundreds of near (and when I say near, I mean within inches or less) collisions we had with pedestrians, motorcycles, bicycles, and trucks large enough to make our compact car MUCH more compact.
If all that wasn't enough, we were on the Indian equivalent of the 405 freeway, traveling at over 100 kph, and every couple of miles or so there would be these GIANT speed bumps. The driver would slam on the brakes and go over them as slowly as humanly possible, but we still bottomed out on a few of them.
I finally arrived at the hotel, and they were waiting for me and greeted me. I was shown to my room and since then have been settling in. I am heading to work in another hour or so (at 2:45 pm local time). I sure will be tired tonight.
Hopefully pictures to come soon.
Flight to India was pretty uneventful - I slept through most of it.
I was quite nervous about getting through immigration and customs, but it was simple.
When I got outside, there stood two Indian men smiling ear to ear as I made eye contact with them, holding a sign that read "Mr. Brian Burger" - these would be my drivers.
I didn't have the heart to correct them on my name, as I do everyone else. They were very nice and spoke very good english.
I was prepared for a rough ride to the hotel, but it started out fine, on what looked to be one of their major highways. There were 3 lanes on each side, with lines painted to separate them, but that's where the similarities to US highways end.
I had my nose buried in my blackberry reading all the emails about bike rides to the beach and snow cones that all you people in CA are enjoying. I wasn't paying any attention to what was going on with the car. Pretty soon we stopped and I heard "Have a great stay, Mr. Burger" - I freaked out because I wasn't paying attention and thought we were at the hotel already. I started shoving the phone back in my pocket, gathering my belongings, and taking off my seatbelt. Only to have the car roar off once again as I looked out the window at the man that had helped with my baggage. He was standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with what looked like a homeless man's shelter behind him. I quickly realized we were just dropping this man off - I have no idea if that's where he lives.
I decided at this point that it was best I pay attention to what was going on with the car. As it turns out, I should have continued reading my email.
The ride was definitely an experience. So, back to the differences between US and Indian roads. In the US, the big, red octagon-shaped signs wih the word "STOP" in the middle of them usually mean to do just that. Not in India. In India it means "Please blow through this intersection as fast as you possibly can whilst blowing your horn without regard to the cyclists, cars, and giant trucks heading through from the opposite direction". I guess that wouldn't fit on a sign, so they just went with "STOP".
We went through at least 3 of these signs in just this manner, but that was nothing compared to the man peeing on the side of the road for the whole world to see, the stray, malnourished dogs that roam the streets in search of a fresh pile of garbage to eat, and the hundreds of near (and when I say near, I mean within inches or less) collisions we had with pedestrians, motorcycles, bicycles, and trucks large enough to make our compact car MUCH more compact.
If all that wasn't enough, we were on the Indian equivalent of the 405 freeway, traveling at over 100 kph, and every couple of miles or so there would be these GIANT speed bumps. The driver would slam on the brakes and go over them as slowly as humanly possible, but we still bottomed out on a few of them.
I finally arrived at the hotel, and they were waiting for me and greeted me. I was shown to my room and since then have been settling in. I am heading to work in another hour or so (at 2:45 pm local time). I sure will be tired tonight.
Hopefully pictures to come soon.
Flight to London...continued
So, I forgot to mention one very ironic thing about my flight to London.
They had a whole bunch of movies to choose from on the plane, but the featured movie was Benjamin Button. I decided to watch it again.
I thought it was ironic enough that the featured movie was BB, since I worked on it with the company I am flying to India for, but it gets better. One thing that I didn't notice in the movie before (perhaps then it didn't mean anything to me), was that when Ben leaves Daisy to raise their daughter, he goes to India!
After BB was over I looked for another movie to watch. They had Slumdog Millionaire which I have been wanting to see anyway, so I watched that. To those of you who warned me not to watch it before I went to India, you were half right and half wrong :-)
They had a whole bunch of movies to choose from on the plane, but the featured movie was Benjamin Button. I decided to watch it again.
I thought it was ironic enough that the featured movie was BB, since I worked on it with the company I am flying to India for, but it gets better. One thing that I didn't notice in the movie before (perhaps then it didn't mean anything to me), was that when Ben leaves Daisy to raise their daughter, he goes to India!
After BB was over I looked for another movie to watch. They had Slumdog Millionaire which I have been wanting to see anyway, so I watched that. To those of you who warned me not to watch it before I went to India, you were half right and half wrong :-)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Arrived in London
Well, here I am in London - sitting in the wonderful British Airlines lounge and typing on a lousy british keyboard (took me about 30 minutes to find the @ symbol earlier).#
The first flight was great, and I was very happy to be in business class.
Longest flight i've been on before this was from the west coast to the east coast of the US.
They served dinner and breakfast on the plane - I have never eaten a meal on a plane til now.
For dinner they served a salad and bread for a starter, I chose the chicken curry for the main course (to get myself ready for India). Wow, I have no tolerance for spicy stuff AT ALL! It came with rice and veggies which I ate. Dessert was a fantastic cheesecake with some sort of ginger sauce and sliced almonds on top. Oh yeah, and they gave me this really cool little box of truffles (not really so much cool as it was tasty). Champagne to drink with dinner as well!
For breakfast I had Special K cereal with strawberries on top, raspberry yogurt, a banana, a blueberry mini muffin, and a strawberry-banana smoothie. Good stuff!
Well, I have to run now to catch my next flight. I'll be in India soon - and just as I was getting used to being surrounded by all these people with wonderful british accents. Feels just like work!
More later.
The first flight was great, and I was very happy to be in business class.
Longest flight i've been on before this was from the west coast to the east coast of the US.
They served dinner and breakfast on the plane - I have never eaten a meal on a plane til now.
For dinner they served a salad and bread for a starter, I chose the chicken curry for the main course (to get myself ready for India). Wow, I have no tolerance for spicy stuff AT ALL! It came with rice and veggies which I ate. Dessert was a fantastic cheesecake with some sort of ginger sauce and sliced almonds on top. Oh yeah, and they gave me this really cool little box of truffles (not really so much cool as it was tasty). Champagne to drink with dinner as well!
For breakfast I had Special K cereal with strawberries on top, raspberry yogurt, a banana, a blueberry mini muffin, and a strawberry-banana smoothie. Good stuff!
Well, I have to run now to catch my next flight. I'll be in India soon - and just as I was getting used to being surrounded by all these people with wonderful british accents. Feels just like work!
More later.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
India
As many of you know already, I will be off to Bangalore, India in the next couple days. I will be over there for about two weeks for work.
I will be trying to post to this blog at least once a day, assuming I have a sufficient internet connection.
Check back for updates and photos along the way.
I will be trying to post to this blog at least once a day, assuming I have a sufficient internet connection.
Check back for updates and photos along the way.
Finally, I have a blog!
Well, it has been a long time in the making, but at long last, Burger Buzz is here!
This blog is mainly intended as a showcase for my photography, and a place to write about my adventures.
I do tend to have a lot of adventures, sometimes unintentional, so there should be plenty o' content rolling through for you stalkers to read.
Hope you enjoy.
This blog is mainly intended as a showcase for my photography, and a place to write about my adventures.
I do tend to have a lot of adventures, sometimes unintentional, so there should be plenty o' content rolling through for you stalkers to read.
Hope you enjoy.
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