Well it's been a pretty good day. First off I'm working from the hotel which is great because I have privacy and a phone right here at the desk - totally unlike the office where I have no phone and no privacy :)
Second I joined the Overseas Womens Club of Bangalore. They meet every Thursday here at the hotel from 10am - 12n so I went to check it out. There are a lot of expat "wives" but one of the women who I really liked said it was fine for single people as well she herself being one. She's lived in India for 27 years- she was married to an Indian but he passed away a couple of years ago. She has four dogs so you know I liked her immediately. And she gave me her card and said if I wanted to get together for dinner to give her call.
Anyway this club has a pretty good racket going on. So you pay to join which is cool because all the money goes to charitable organizations and then they have this pretty cool book they sell called In and Out of Bangalore which gives the low-down on everything. Food, shopping, apartments. And the club publishes a newsletter with activities like road trips and days at the races. So what the heck we'll give it a shot.
Then I decided to treat myself to a hot stone massage - 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated bliss. I came back upstairs, refreshed, relaxed and with a really good vibe going on. Had a very productive phone call with one of my work colleagues from another Sabre company and I'll be going to Mumbai on January 30th for the day to show him my product and pick his brain about doing business in India. And then at some point I'll go back and he'll take me around to some of the companies so I can do research about how they handle corporate travel.
And then I thought what the heck let me go to the galleria which is attached to the hotel and see what kind of shopping I can do. Bought a shirt and some silver bangles. The store I bought the shirt in also has all this amazing bedding - the textiles are wonderful and I don't even know anything about textiles - I just know what I like and this was pretty nice and really inexpensive. In the states the shirt I bought for $13.00 would be at least $35.00 and I can't even imagine how much the bedding would be. And the colors are so vibrant. Maybe it's time for me to re-think the whole black thing I have going on - as if!!!!!
Saturday one of my colleagues, who works for a different Sabre company , and I are going to Mysore. It's about a 3 hour drive and there are some temples and a museum of some sort. The driver who will be taking us is from Mysore or as they like to say - Mysore is his native so that should be very good.
Okay that's it for this post. I've got conference calls all night up to 11:30pm which is why today has been a mixture of play and work.
Oh yeah and at some point I'll take pictures of the property as it really is beautiful.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
HAPPY SANKRANTI
Hello everyone - today is a holiday here - not one where the office is closed but a national festival. They dress/decorate the cows and sheep - not sure if I'll see any of that on my way back from the office. The good thing is there was no traffic. Manojar got me here in record time :)
Sankranti means to go from one place to another place (to change direction). It also means one meets another. The time when the sun changes direction from one constellation (of the zodiac) to another is known as Sankranti.
Manojar offered to take me to his house to meet some of his family and see the festivities and if I had my camera and didn't have to get back to the hotel I would have taken him up on his offer. I figure after 5 months of him driving me around we'll practically be family anyway. He's very sweet and just a baby - only 23 years old. Julian - get your mind out of the gutter :)
Oh so I forgot to tell you all about my shopping experience. I'm not even sure there are words to describe it. The area was like New York on major steroids. People, motorbikes, cars, auto-rickshaws and continous non-stop honking. Talk about an assault on the senses. And it's like all the stores are the same - I was just looking for some inexpensive tops but it was all too much. I walked around for about an hour and then called Manojar and said get me out of here. I immediately went back to the hotel and headed directly to the pool where I happily sat reading my book for a couple of hours.
When I first joined GetThere and was working with Cisco there was an AX employee working on the account named Daksha. She's still with AX and she is living in Delhi but today she is here in Bangalore so I'm going to meet her for dinner. She's Indian so perhaps she can give me some tips on adjusting to all this insanity. Work has been pretty frustrating for me because I send the local contacts an introductory email (none of them put their phone number on their emails) - they send one back to me- nice to meet you - blah blah blah - and then I send one back trying to set up an appointment and I never hear back again. This is typical Indian behavior so I'm really trying very hard to just go with the flow and I'll give it some more time but I don't see how I'm going to be able to do my job if no one gets back to me. And today I'll just chalk up to the festival. At the very least I'm happy to have a familar face to have dinner with.
That's it for now. Thursday I'm going to work from the hotel. The Overseas Women's Club of Bangalore meets from 10-12 here in the hotel so I'll check it out. I think it's mostly expat wives but hey you never know who you're going to meet.
Just got back from dinner with Daksha - you can't imagine how happy I was to see a familiar face and also to get some good info about this place. She told me how you know it's a real pashmina (very important). Real pashmina fits through a ring. And she also showed me a couple of stores in the galleria attached to the hotel where I can do some shopping and get good quality items for a decent price. She also told me that the service apartment she stays in while she is here is pretty nice so I'm going to take a look at it. She said they have a gym, flat screen TVs, free internet and that's in area not as noisy as this one. The only drawback is it would be about much longer to my office. But then again seeing as it's free internet I would probably spend most of my time working from home rather than the office.
Anyway, signing off for now. I feel much better - was really starting to get down today.
Sankranti means to go from one place to another place (to change direction). It also means one meets another. The time when the sun changes direction from one constellation (of the zodiac) to another is known as Sankranti.
Manojar offered to take me to his house to meet some of his family and see the festivities and if I had my camera and didn't have to get back to the hotel I would have taken him up on his offer. I figure after 5 months of him driving me around we'll practically be family anyway. He's very sweet and just a baby - only 23 years old. Julian - get your mind out of the gutter :)
Oh so I forgot to tell you all about my shopping experience. I'm not even sure there are words to describe it. The area was like New York on major steroids. People, motorbikes, cars, auto-rickshaws and continous non-stop honking. Talk about an assault on the senses. And it's like all the stores are the same - I was just looking for some inexpensive tops but it was all too much. I walked around for about an hour and then called Manojar and said get me out of here. I immediately went back to the hotel and headed directly to the pool where I happily sat reading my book for a couple of hours.
When I first joined GetThere and was working with Cisco there was an AX employee working on the account named Daksha. She's still with AX and she is living in Delhi but today she is here in Bangalore so I'm going to meet her for dinner. She's Indian so perhaps she can give me some tips on adjusting to all this insanity. Work has been pretty frustrating for me because I send the local contacts an introductory email (none of them put their phone number on their emails) - they send one back to me- nice to meet you - blah blah blah - and then I send one back trying to set up an appointment and I never hear back again. This is typical Indian behavior so I'm really trying very hard to just go with the flow and I'll give it some more time but I don't see how I'm going to be able to do my job if no one gets back to me. And today I'll just chalk up to the festival. At the very least I'm happy to have a familar face to have dinner with.
That's it for now. Thursday I'm going to work from the hotel. The Overseas Women's Club of Bangalore meets from 10-12 here in the hotel so I'll check it out. I think it's mostly expat wives but hey you never know who you're going to meet.
Just got back from dinner with Daksha - you can't imagine how happy I was to see a familiar face and also to get some good info about this place. She told me how you know it's a real pashmina (very important). Real pashmina fits through a ring. And she also showed me a couple of stores in the galleria attached to the hotel where I can do some shopping and get good quality items for a decent price. She also told me that the service apartment she stays in while she is here is pretty nice so I'm going to take a look at it. She said they have a gym, flat screen TVs, free internet and that's in area not as noisy as this one. The only drawback is it would be about much longer to my office. But then again seeing as it's free internet I would probably spend most of my time working from home rather than the office.
Anyway, signing off for now. I feel much better - was really starting to get down today.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Yesterday I sightseed and today I shop
Snow White's Cottage
The Seven Dwarfs
Stray Dog in Cubban Park
Camels Eating from the Garbage Dump
This is the temple of the elephant faced god - Ganeesh.Yesterday was a rather interesting experience. I went with a driver - Girish (he would not let me photograph him) who is a native Bangalorean. He took me to all the different areas in the city but since there is no part of this city that is untouched by construction it was still hard for me to figure out how to get from point A to point B. But since I have a driver for the entire time I'm here I'm not going to worry about it.
Because it's not rainy season the park that everyone talks about Cubbon Park and the Botannical Garden do not truly represent how lush and beautiful they are during the rainy season. And honestly although all the guide books say that one can spend a lovely day sitting in Cubbon Park honestly I'd rather sit at the pool here.
So you know I've been seeing lots of stray dogs and cows but yesterday I witnessed something truly unusual and even Girish commented on it. There will be a photo below - I saw two camels eating out of the garbage pile. Now I asked Girish about the garbage and if it was every picked up and he told me there was pick up twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening.
I find that a little difficult to believe.
The first place he took me yesterday was to a Hare Krishna temple. Now before entering any temple in India you must remove your shoes and in this particular temple you were not allowed to take the camera so unfortunately I have no pictures. Let me tell and I realize I'm dating myself here but after growing up in the 70s and seeing all the white suburban kids singing and chanting Hare Krishna it's really quite a different experience when you see all the native Hindu visiting the temple and praying to the god. I was the only white person there and they did quite a bit of staring.
He then took me to another temple where you pray to the elephant face god - Ganeesh. And he told me the story of how Ganeesh got the elephant face. Ganeesh was the son of a god whose name I can't remember and at his mother's request he was guarding the door to the room where she was taking a bath. He would not let his father in because he was respecting his mother's wishes. In a rage his father cut off his son's head. When the mother came out of the bath she was distraught and so the father told the servants to look for the first head they could find and put it on the body of the son. The first head they found was that of an elephant and so you have Ganeesh the elephant face god.
We also went to the botannical garden where you will see by the photographs they have the Snow White Cottage complete with statues of the 7 dwarfs. Needless to say I found this quite amusing.
We were out from 10am to 5pm and when we got back to the hotel I was exhausted. My box of peanut butter, crackers etc. had arrived so I made some crackers, kicked back and relaxed.
Today after breakfast I finally went to the front desk and told them I was not happy with my room so tomorrow they will show me two different rooms and let me choose which I prefer. My peeve with this room is it is on a corner and I can't really see the gardens and my balcony has no privacy. So I figure since I'm here till the end of the month the least they can do is change my room to something I prefer.
Anyway, Manajor just called to confirm he will be here in 20 minutes and he is going to take me to Commercial Street where I can shop for some shawls and silver bangles. I do have a shawl but it is wool and just way too hot for me to be wearing and since most of my shirts are short sleeved I need a shawl so as not to stand out - yeah right as if they can't take one look at me and know I'm not a native.
Oh yes and one last little piece of amusement regarding television. They do get lots of the American shows here. The other day I watched Seinfeld.
Signing off for now.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
My second day in the Office
Well I am slowly but surely becoming acclimated. Today is my second day in the office. I have the same driver - Manojar. He is very nice - doesn't speak English very well but somehow we manage to communicate. Honestly I really don't think the traffic is as bad as everyone says. No worse than driving from Long Island into Manhattan and certainly much more entertaining. I'm not driving so I really don't care. So that's a picture of my driver and here are some other pictures I took from the car.
Tomorrow I've hired a car and driver who speaks English very to give me a tour of Bangalore. Right now I've not a clue as to districts - what is north or south or east or west.
This is actually a hospital - i have no idea what it is like on the inside but pretty majestic looking on the outside. Manojar told me they perform heart operations for free there for people who can't afford medical care.
Tomorrow I've hired a car and driver who speaks English very to give me a tour of Bangalore. Right now I've not a clue as to districts - what is north or south or east or west.
On Sunday I'll go to MG Road and Commercial Street which are the shopping districts - go figure :)
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Bangalore Here I Be
Well I'm here safe and sound but I have to say the Bagalore airport is hilarious. I can't even imagine how long it would have taken the luggage if my flight had been full :)
I think the baggage conveyor was about 100 years old and I thought it was going to break down any second. A new airport is scheduled to open March 28th.
So I got my luggage and the driver from the hotel was waiting for me. Of course the rupees are like play money to me right now so I have no idea what I tipped everyone - I think it was alot :)
Checked in to the hotel and unpacked and it's about 8:30am right now. I won't be going into the office today - too exhausted but I signed in and checked my emails. I think I seriously need to go to sleep right now but first I'm going to get some breakfast.
The hotel room is nice enough but I'm on a corner so I can't really see the gardens from the balcony. And quite frankly I'm too damn tired to care right now. The important thing is the bathroom which is FABULOUS. Haven't even explored the rest of the hotel.
Okay - so I went down for breakfast and the buffet is really nice and I was able to have Jewshi which for those of you who don't know is nova, onion, tomatoe - the only thing missing was the bagel. Totally cracked me up - nova (lox) in Bangalore.
Then I checked out the gym - not bad. But now I'm totally knackered and am crawling into bed.
I think the baggage conveyor was about 100 years old and I thought it was going to break down any second. A new airport is scheduled to open March 28th.
So I got my luggage and the driver from the hotel was waiting for me. Of course the rupees are like play money to me right now so I have no idea what I tipped everyone - I think it was alot :)
Checked in to the hotel and unpacked and it's about 8:30am right now. I won't be going into the office today - too exhausted but I signed in and checked my emails. I think I seriously need to go to sleep right now but first I'm going to get some breakfast.
The hotel room is nice enough but I'm on a corner so I can't really see the gardens from the balcony. And quite frankly I'm too damn tired to care right now. The important thing is the bathroom which is FABULOUS. Haven't even explored the rest of the hotel.
Okay - so I went down for breakfast and the buffet is really nice and I was able to have Jewshi which for those of you who don't know is nova, onion, tomatoe - the only thing missing was the bagel. Totally cracked me up - nova (lox) in Bangalore.
Then I checked out the gym - not bad. But now I'm totally knackered and am crawling into bed.
From the Lounge at Heathrow
Well you know how I was starting to think I packed too much. British Airways confirmed that when they informed me my big bag exceed the 32 kilo weight limit by 6 kilos. So the very nice baggage handler who I gave big bucks to waited with my luggage as I jogged to the Excess Baggage Shope and yes - that's really the name of the store - and asked the guy to sell me the cheapest bag that would hold 6 kilos. I then proceeded to transfer all the stuff I knew weighed the most - that would be the 8 cans of shaving cream, the hair dye, the 3 bottles of body wash, the 3 tubes of body lotion and just a few clothes. Now I just have to remember what that ugly little bag looks like and remember to pick it up off the luggage carousel. Okay everyone - stop laughing because I know you all gave me a hard time for taking all that over.
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