I can't believe I'm going to India

2006-12-26T18:08:00.000+05:30

So, how does the story end?

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long, but I have excellent excuses. We didn't have Internet access at any of our hotels after Mumbai (and that was the least of our worries), then we had a 21-hour overnight flight back home, and then I got deathly ill (I think Marcelo did too) with some kind of flu and was bedridden for 3 days. On the third day, I had to haul my ass out of bed, order Darcy around to pack our stuff, and get on a flight to Halifax to spend Christmas at home -- I barely made it. I'm so glad I did it though because I am loving being here with our families, fresh air, and yummy food.

So, I haven't forgotten that I need to tell you all about our crazy last days in India. Thank you to Sonia for organizing the trip for us. The weekend had both incredible highs and devastating lows (I'm being overly dramatic). We saw some amazing things, but it almost killed us. Let me tell you about it. Let me also warn you that this entry is loooong -- book off a couple of hours.

Saturday, December 16: Jaipur
After spending a very comfortable evening in rooms of comparable quality at the Orchid Hotel in Mumbai, Marcelo and I woke at 3AM to get ready to catch a 5:30AM flight to Jaipur. Similar to the Pride Hotel, checkout was a challenge. Their computers seemed to be down, so the guy had to look up information on a bunch of dot-matrix printed sheets and do everything by hand. I made sure that I didn't touch the mini bar in order to expedite the process, but it was still pretty slow and another guest who thought he was more important kept butting in and saying that he had a 4AM pickup to go to the airport (so did we). All 3 of us piled into a mini bus and made it to the very modern domestic airport in plenty of time.

The flight was a piece o' cake ( 1-1/2 hours) and we got to Jaipur right on time at 7. We hooked up with the driver easily and made our way to the Raj Mahal Palace -- a 'heritage' hotel. Before I say anything else, let me stress to you all that if a travel agent ever tries to get you to stay in a 'heritage' hotel, say NO. 'Heritage' means that the place is old enough for them to think that the history makes up for things like cleanliness and safety. The Raj Mahal Palace was an absolute disaster. My room looked like the cheap hostel where I stayed in Rome in 1996. The bed linen was dirty, there wasn't any hot water, there was a mosquito coil in the room, and the windows (which faced the train tracks) didn't lock. There weren't any peepholes and you couldn't call from room to room, so I freaked out every time someone knocked on the door. There were all these construction workers on the grounds staring at me going into my room alone, so it was pretty unsettling. When I slept that night, I put drinking glasses on the window sills in case anyone tried to get in.

Marcelo's room had its own problems. Although it was much sunnier and pleasant in general with no visible dirt on the linen, he had what looked like actual sewage coming out of his shower. On the first day, he thought it was just dirt so he let it run forever and it finally went clear. The next morning, it looked not only brown but lumpy so he took a sponge bath with bottled water instead. We really hope he doesn't have dysentery.

Our rooms (#120, 121) were in a sort of outbuilding, which was separate from the main 'palace' (maybe they were the servants' quarters?). Perhaps the rooms in the main building were half decent, but this was DEFINITELY not a 5-star hotel like advertised to us by the travel agent. At one point, we went into the main lobby and saw a picture of Princess Diana who had stayed there about 20 years back and looked so like she was trying to pretend to have a good time. After the dirty linen and sewage coming out of the tap, the look on her face struck us as so hilariously funny and we made a bit of a scene staggering around the hallway laughing our asses off. They must have thought that we were really enjoying the hotel.

Okay, so aside from the hotel, Jaipur was a beautiful city. At 8:45AM after settling into the Raj Mahal Ass hotel, we met up with our guide (I think her name was Annapurna) and set off to explore the city. She really was an excellent guide. She knew a lot about the city and its sites and she kept up a continuous stream of commentary at breakneck speed.

So, they call Jaipur the pink city because most of the buildings and walls are made with coral-coloured sandstone. I had originally thought that the colouring was for practical reasons, but actually it was deliberately done to welcome Prince Albert of England to the city. Today, Japiur is home to 3 million residents, but originally it was built for 25,000 people. It's one of the few Indian cities that is planned on a grid system so it was relatively easy to navigate. She said that Jaipur was and continues to be a city with an economy based on arts such as sculpture, metalwork, jewelry, carpet-weaving, block printing, and pottery. The city is divided into areas according to these arts (textile district, etc.).

The first site we stopped to see was a beautiful place called the Hawa Mahal, which is an extension of the city palace. It is a facade with ramps behind it that was built so that the ladies of the maharaja's harem could look at life going on in the city without being seen themselves (the ladies were not allowed outside the palace walls). We didn't actually go inside (not sure why), but we took some pictures from across the street.

Next we went to the Amber Fort, which is an enormous palace complex and was the seat of rule before Jaipur. The palace grounds are located at the top of a steep hill, which we traversed via elephant. There were tonnes of howaito-san in line waiting for elephant rides. In my mind, I had pictured Marcelo and I each riding our own elephant with the infinite silence of the desert all around, which was very naive because it turned out to be such a touristy 'half-dead-pony-trail-ride' kind of thing. Marcelo and I both sat on the same elephant in a kind of painted metal cage like a carnival ride. The driver sat on its head and kicked it around to make it do stuff (like lean way in against the stone wall to let us on). We were told that our elephant was very young (30 years old), which explained why we passed tonnes of other elephants and made it up the hill in record time. It was such a bumpy ride that we both had death grips on the metal cage and when we got off our hands were full of paint chips. Marcelo says that he doesn't think he needs to ride an elephant again. :) Nevertheless, it was a great experience.

The first building we went into was a small temple devoted to the Hindu goddess of war (I can't remember her name). We had to take our shoes and socks off before entering and it was all white marble inside. Annapurna kissed each of the steps leading into the temple, rang the bell, and prayed along with several other worshippers. Since I didn't grow up with any religion, I always feel a little awkward in churches, temples, and shrines and I'm a bit envious of how engrossed and serious the worshippers are while performing their rituals. Annapurna said that the goddess of war doesn't represent conflict; she signifies victory in any sense and gives you strength to succeed.

In addition to the temple, there are countless other buildings/areas within the palace walls including the mirror palace (winter palace), summer palace, rooftop party area (I'm paraphrasing here), children's area, wives' apartments, and gardens.

The mirror palace (aka the winter palace) was the most amazing and beautiful place. It is a domed building that is completely covered on the inside with convex mirrors, gold, and both semi-precious and precious stones. When candles were lit inside the rooms, the flames reflected off the mirrors and created lots of light and heat. While the winters were short, they were cold (around 0 C, I think) so without any kind of central heating, this was how they made themselves comfortable. It was so pretty.

The summer palace was located high up in the complex to take advantage of the breeze. Water was piped onto the rooftop and it trickled down through straw mats, which created an air conditioning effect when the wind blew through. The rooftop party area was adjacent to the summer palace and had a large dance floor and bandstand. Parties took place on the rooftop because they didn't have any electricity so their gatherings had to be lit by the starry sky. Isn't that cool? The children's area was also in the same vicinity and had gazebos with hooks for swings and curtains.

There were 12 apartments -- one for each of the maharaja's 12 wives. Each apartment had direct private access to his quarters so that the ladies would not know who was being sent for and would not be jealous. Annapurna said that way back, Hindu women and men had equal status in society and the same access to education and employment. But, when the Muslims invaded, they abducted the most attractive women and forcibly married them, so after that Hindus kept their women inside where no one could see them. In the palace, in addition to the apartments and rooftop areas, there were lots of screened balconies set up where women could see out, but no one could see in. At the front of the palace was a lovely lattice screened walkway where the ladies would shower the maharaja with flowers upon his return from war.

There were a lot of other cool and practical architectural features of the palace. Believe it or not, the entire complex was wheelchair accessible. They had these kind of rolling chaises for old and disabled people, so there were ramps everywhere. The passageways inside the palace were coated with a mixture of plaster, seashells, eggshells, and other minerals so that the walls reflected light and made navigating easier at night. I think she said that dead ends had a different, more matte coating so you'd know when it was time to stop or turn around. The palace had underground tanks that could filter enough water for the the whole city.

After the Amber Fort, Annapurna said she'd take us somewhere where we could see these storied Jaipur craftspeople at work. What we were too naive to realize was that she was taking us shopping to a place where she would get commission on anything we bought. I, at least, was completely oblivious so we went to a place called Rajasthan Textile Development Corporation (see, even the name is a decoy). Upon entering, we saw a small demonstration on carpet weaving and block printing. The block printing was kind of cool. He dipped a wooden stamp in vegetable dye (green from spinach and yellow from turmeric), made an elephant impression on the cloth, then dunked the entire piece in lemon juice. He made another liquid mixture of minerals and salts, which reacted with the lemon juice on the cloth and turned the parts that weren't dyed already bright red. Cool.

After the demo we were whisked upstairs to look at carpets. Marcelo and I are not carpet people, but we had a look anyways and they rolled out at least 20 for us. They were made of all different fibres, including camel hair, silk, and wool. All of these carpets are made by hand (dyeing, weaving, edging, tasseling, washing) and it can take up to 8 months to make one. Prices ranged from $650-$3800 depending on the size and complexity. A little tip for you all: if you have a mild stain on a carpet, use lemon juice; for a tougher stain, use vinegar. The guy was very gracious even after we declined to buy one.

Then we went back downstairs and looked at block printed bedspreads. On each, the front side was made of silk and the back side was made of cotton. Most designs included elephants because they are said to be good luck (Marcelo's family thinks the exact opposite though so it made buying gifts here very difficult for him). I'm a sucker for textiles, so I ended up buying 3. They had a really dramatic way of unfurling the bedpreads and flipping them over to reveal the other side. At one point, I had a shortlist of 7 or so and the guy recruited everyone in the store to hold them up for me while I picked and chose like some kind of socialite. The same guy showed me some pashminas and even though I had already bought 11 in Pune, I got one more because it was this amazing periwinkle colour.

We were almost out of the store when the guy who sold carvings and paintings upstairs accosted us, grabbed my pashmina, and dragged us up to see his stuff. We spent most of our time up there looking at his handpainted cards and drawings of elephants, peacocks, camels, and other Indian symbols. I bought some cards for Christmas and Marcelo bought a bunch of larger pieces. At one point, I wandered away from the counter and the guy asked Marcelo if he wanted to see his 'very special' paintings. In case his leer wasn't suggestive enough, he said, 'erotic paintings'. I was only gone for a second so I have no idea what he would have done if Marcelo had said yes. Was there a little room at the back with a black curtain and an '18 and over' sign? Ew.

At this point we had been shopping for something like 2 hours. We realized later that this was really bitchy of her because she wasted most of our day shopping and she rushed us through the rest of the sites. She had actually also wanted to take us to a jewelry place, but we said no. If we had we might have not seen anything else at all.

After shopping we went to lunch at a pretty decent place, but it was full of white tourists. All of these tour guides are getting kickbacks from these stores and restaurants so they aren't the best places. It's too bad. I don't know if you could pay enough money to get a tour guide who actually showed you what was best in the city. Anyways, we were fed and didn't get food poisoning.

After lunch she rushed us through Jantar Mantar, an ancient outdoor observatory built by Maharaja Jai Singh II that has, among other things, the world's largest sundial that can tell time up to the second. She went through how everything worked so fast that I didn't really understand. But, the structures were impressive.

After the observatory, we tore through the City Palace museum at a crazy speed. Among the notable things that she dragged us by was one of the maharaja's wedding gowns that had 3-1/2 kg of gold thread weaved in. Along the same lines, there was a blanket that had 9-1/2 kg of gold in it. Crazy. There were men dressed as ceremonial guards at the gates between buildings and they kept leaping in front of things so that you'd take their picture. I thought it was really sweet, so I took one, but then they both wanted money. I pretended to be really clueless and just thanked them profusely. Upon exiting the grounds, a pigeon pooped on my head. That had never happened to me before, but I knew exactly what it was without looking. Marcelo cleaned it out for me. We've reached a new level of intimacy.

Promptly at 5PM she took her leave and instructed the driver to take us to a place called Indiana for dinner that evening. After spending a couple of hours relaxing at the ass hotel, we went. Just like at lunch, the place was full of white tourists, but this time the food was AWFUL. The paneer tasted like a pencil eraser. To make things worse, there was 'entertainment' in the form of dancers, one of which was either a drag queen or a really ugly woman. All of them were haggling for tips. I was wondering, are you supposed to stuff a bill in her sari like a stripper? In any case, the place was a terrible tourist trap. Totally McIndia. The waiter tried to keep my change and when I asked for it he hovered over me so that no one else could get the tip. We HATED this place. Although, just like at the hotel, at one point it all seemed hysterically funny and we made another scene by laughing until we cried.

On the bright side, it was pretty late by this time and we had to get up at 4AM in order to catch a train to Agra, so we had only a handful of hours left to go at the ass hotel. I put all my booby traps in place and had a fitful few hours of sleep before I naturally woke up at 3:30AM, took a cold shower, and got ready to start another day.

For more pictures from Jaipur, click here.

Sunday, December 17: Agra

Marcelo didn't have an alarm clock and the TV didn't work, so I knocked on his door at 4AM to get him up. Little did I know that a few minutes later he would be witnessing sewage coming from his tap. Poor Marcelo. We checked out at 4:45AM and waited for our driver to take us to catch the 6AM train. By 5:15, he still hadn't shown up and he was supposed to be there at 5. I called the guy who was taking care of us in Agra and he said he'd handle it. 20 minutes later, the driver arrived looking like he just woke up. He sped, dodged, and wove the car to the train station at a reckless speed -- we thought we were going to die. Once there, he began arguing with a couple of porters who were trying to take our bags out of the car. More than once he forcibly grabbed them away from them. Then, he did a complete 180 and told us that they would take us to the train and keep us 'safe'. We basically said f**k off, grabbed our own bags, and went to find our seats. Thankfully, the car was really easy to find. The only problem was that my bag was about 75 lbs and I could barely get it on the train let alone up on the luggage racks. A very very sweet and strong guy from South Africa, Rene (see picture), was sitting behind me and he very very sweetly hoisted it up there for me. I love him.

One thing to keep in mind when travelling on any train in India is that even if your seats are numbered consecutively, that doesn't mean that they are together. Marcelo and I had seats 34 and 35, but I was sitting two rows behind him and on the opposite side of the train. Thankfully, someone wanted to switch with me, so we ended up sitting together after all. Across from us was a big extended Mennonite family from Southern Ontario (small world). Two of the parents had just started a 3-year teaching contract in Northern India and they had dragged their 3 kids with them. When I was a kid, I remember I didn't even want to change schools and have to meet all new people. They seem to be taking it well.

The train ride was perfectly fine once we were settled in. Vendors came around selling breakfast, chai, etc., but we were too worried about our GI tracts to partake. We zoned out and listened to our iPods and thought that everything looks better with a soundtrack running in the background. By about 11AM, we had arrived in Agra.

The very nice rep from the travel agency came right onto the train to find us. He already had a porter in tow who floored me by carrying both of our suitcases ON HIS HEAD. He looked like he weighed about 100lbs tops and our suitcases weighed at least 125lbs together. He carried them up a huge flight of stairs, down another, and had to crouch down to clear an overhang. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. We were driven to a hotel where we used the bathroom and had a little something to eat before meeting the Agra guide and heading to the Taj Mahal.

The new guide was very knowledgeable, polite, and well-spoken just like the one in Jaipur (I'm sorry to say that I don't remember his name). He knew lots of interesting things about the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort and he took everything at a leisurely pace, which was refreshing after getting bulldozed through Jaipur.

There are no factories/industry in Agra because the exhaust would make the Taj Mahal dirty. As extra precautions, you have to travel the last km to the Taj in a battery-operated car and once there you must wear surgical-type booties on your feet. You are not allowed to bring anything into the grounds except for a camera (no cellphones, iPods, video cameras, sharp objects) and before you enter the gates you are frisked by security personnel.

Immediately upon entering the gates, there is a long, low building that used to serve as an inn. Past this there is a central courtyard with four gates (north, south, east, and west). The south gates lead to a colony where the descendants of the marble workers who built that Taj live. During the years while it was being built, there were something like 20,000 workers living there. The north gates are the ones that lead to the Taj.

The north gates have 22 domes at the top signifying the 22 years that it took to build the Taj Mahal. On the gate are excerpts from the Koran. The letters range in size from 10-100 feet and are designed so that from a distance they all look the same size. The gate is made from sandstone and marble with stone inlay. The sandstone errodes and is repaired every 200 years, but the marble is the original because it never gets scratched or chipped. Most of the inlay is black onyx. In 1905, they tried to repair some inlay by using grey stone, but it faded while the black onyx kept its colour.

The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān as a memorial for his wife. She was 20 years old when they married and bore 14 children and had 2 miscarriages by the time she died at age 39. Before her death, she made the emperor promise that he would never marry again and that he would build her a memorial. No one has ever lived in the Taj Mahal.

All the pictures of the Taj on the Internet and in books are usually from the front, so you can't see that the structure is actually perfectly symmetrical on all four sides. If you look at it from any of its sides (north, south, east, and west), it looks exactly the same. The main dome has a false smaller dome on the inside, so it is really bigger on the outside than in. The reason for this is that while the dome looks impressive from the outside, if the inside was the same size, it would be too overwhelming. Inside are the tombs housing the actual bodies of the emperor and his wife.

Something that really surprised us was that the emperor was not supposed to be buried in the Taj Mahal. Upon his death, he wanted an identical black Taj Mahal built across the river in black marble. This didn't happen because his third son imprisioned him for the last 8 years of his life (he was jealous because he would never inherit the throne) and when he died his son was too cheap to carry out his wishes. So he buried him in the Taj, which was meant only for the empress, and the emperor's tomb is the only non-symmetrical element in the entire structure. Can you imagine how amazing it would have been to have a black Taj across the river?

Seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time really was a spine-tingling moment. It's so immense, white, graceful, and perfect. It was by far the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

After leaving the Taj Mahal we went to lunch at another tour guide-endorsed joint. The food was half decent, but there were more hawkers outside trying to get cash from us. This really creepy little kid was dressed in blue satin with gold earrings and was singing Frere Jacques and winking at us. To this day, I can't get that image out of my head. There was also a snake charmer that had two cobras and a python. He wanted us to take a picture of him and give him money.

After lunch we went to the Red Fort. Among other things, this is where the emperor was imprisioned by his son in the years before his death. 'Imprisioned' is slightly misleading because he had very comfortable quarters and an excellent view of the Taj.

Back in the day, the fort had both a wet moat filled with dangerous reptiles and a dry moat with tigers and lions. You need to go through several sets of gates before you can get past the palace walls. The gates are set at different angles because invaders used to use elephants to charge gates and they can only run in straight lines. The ramp leading up to the gates was sloped downwards so that big stones could be rolled down to impede intruders.

Inside, there is an area where the king's throne (the peacock throne) sat and used to house the world's biggest diamond, which is now one of the British crown jewels. This is where people could come to tell the king their problems and seek advice (I'm not sure if just anyone off the street could come).

The 3rd Mughul emperor had a harem of approximately 300 ladies housed in this fort. He had 4 wives and the rest were either concubines or other women he had taken into his care and was not sleeping with (widows of soldiers, daughters, sisters, etc.). It was an honour for a woman to be in the emperor's harem. All children of the harem were cared for by the emperor financially, but only the children of his wives could inherit the throne. Like at the Amber Fort, there were rooftop facilities where the ladies could dance and play without being seen.

The last thing we saw on the grounds was the king's portable bathtub -- a huge, stone tub with stairs on both the inside and out. Even though the thing must have weighed a tonne, it was taken with him when he travelled.

Unlike the Jaipur guide, this one showed us the sites very thoroughly before trying to loop us into shopping. Since we had a little time, we indulged him and looked at some jewelry. Marcelo looked at a lot of stuff, but didn't end up buying anything despite all the begging and pleading from the shopkeepers. I ended up buying some loose stones for my sister because she makes jewelry. I bought a Star of India, which is a black semi-precious stone that reveals a four-pointed white star when you shine a light on it. I also bought a star ruby, which is an actual precious ruby that shows a six-point star. I think I got a pretty good deal.

That evening, we had to get on another train to Delhi. Our wonderful friend from the travel agency (I have his name on a card somewhere) met up with us and took the same train. He organized the porters so it all went much smoother than in the morning. Again, the porters carried our suitcases on their heads up and down huge flights of stairs. Again, even though we were seated in seats 4 and 5, we were in different rows. Can't win.

For more pictures from Agra, please click here.

Monday, December 18: Delhi

By the time we got to Delhi 2-1/2 hours later, we were tired as death and all we wanted was a non-heritage hotel with clean linen, clean towels, and no sewage coming out of the taps. Our excellent driver took us to the Claremont hotel, which had all three things and we almost wept. However, no hot water to be had here either so we took cold showers and called it a day. Soon after crawling into bed, the phone rang (at 12:40AM) and some idiot said, "Good morning, ma'am. Breakfast is served between 6-10AM and you'll have to come down for it." All I could muster was a really sarcastic "okaa-ay" before he hung up on me. Ugh.

We had told the driver that we didn't want to go anywhere before 2PM because we had two consecutive days of getting up at 3. We sort of slept in, got ready for the long ass flight, read the paper, and had a leisurely lunch. In the light of day, we realized that for a 'business hotel and convention centre' it had very few amenities. For instance, you couldn't call long distance from your room. You had to go to the 'business centre' which was a backroom with two 100-year old computers and a couple of phones. There was no Internet access to be had in the rooms either. The safe didn't work and neither did the TV (all channels had static). Again, this is not a 5-star hotel. But, at that point, anything was better than the Raj Mahal Ass hotel.

At 2PM we checked out and met our Delhi guide. Let me just say that I can't even begin to tell you how much we HATED this guy. He was so not anywhere in the same league as the other two guides we had. He was unkempt, greasy, touchy-feely, and he didn't know anything. I instantly was in the bitchiest mood that Marcelo had witnessed so far on the trip. I was practically hissing. Since all the sites closed at 5PM, we figured we only had to spend a few hours with him and how bad could that be? Ew.

We started at Humayan's Tomb, which took a very long time to get to from the hotel. On the way, he told us a few facts about Delhi, including that the population is 16 million and that 13% of the population is homeless. Also, helmets are mandatory for men riding motorcycles, but not for women. There is 93 km of subway constructed, which will hopefully aid in congestion in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Let me just say that I can't imagine all of those people getting processed through the Delhi airport in time to actually participate in the games. Anyways, all the rickshaws, buses, and taxis run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and Delhi University is the biggest university in India. OK fine, so the guy did know some things.

Humayan's Tomb was built for the emperor Humayan by his widow. The architecture is a mix of different cultural symbols, including Jewish (star of David) and Turkish ones (certain flowers). While we were inside the tomb, an American woman said really loudly that the tombs were off centre, but that geometry probably hadn't been invented yet. I'm totally serious. I couldn't make that up.

After that we went to India Gate, which was built by the British in 1921 after the First World War to thank the Indian soliders who fought for Britain. The arch lists all the names of the soldiers who died. After that we turned around and drove up the street to the Presidential Palace. By this point, the guide was really on our last nerve, so I stopped taking notes and Marcelo stopped taking pictures. For the whole afternoon, I was playing 'keep away' and trying to keep Marcelo in between the guide and me, but poor Marcelo didn't want to get close to him either. He kept on touching both of us, which is so weird since we just met and he is basically working for us. When we got back in the car (surprise, surprise), he wanted to take us to watch people make 'handicrafts'. I said flat out no and he protested, but the driver was on my side (he didn't like the guide either). I asked the driver to take us to Le Meridien and to pick us up when we had to go to the airport. Once we arrived we both said a hasty goodbye and hightailed it inside. That was the longest 3 hours of my life.

Le Meridien was such an oasis after being on the tourist circuit for 3 days. India, and especially the tourist racket, had kicked our asses. We used the most palatial bathrooms ever, lounged in the lobby, and had a lovely last dinner at the cafe. The only discordant note was the live entertainment where a guy was singing Phil Collins crap.

At 8PM, we headed to the airport for our 1:45AM flight home. The Delhi airport was chaos -- hot and dirty. In the lineup for screening our bags, I met a guy from Bedford, Nova Scotia who went to the same high school as Darcy. I asked him when he graduated and he said 4 years ago. So, while we're not exactly old enough to be his parents, Darcy could have babysat him or I may have taught him swimming lessons. He had been backpacking in India for 2 months -- what a guy. For more pictures from Delhi, please click here.

By the time we boarded the plane, we were all India-ed out. Everyone I know who has travelled to India told me that I'd both love it and hate it and I have to say that is exactly right. I'm so glad we got to stay in Pune and meet real people, eat real food, and work. Being a full-time tourist is so much more taxing and you get pushed around while everyone is trying to get your money. We saw some great things though, so I'm happy we did all this sightseeing. Thank you again, Sonia, for arranging it for us. Please do not be offended by all my complaining.

Thank you to everyone who made our stay in India fun and safe. And this is it for the India blog. I'm starting a new blog for adventures in and around Toronto (and perhaps Montreal, Halifax, and Boston), which will not be as interesting for everyone here, but might be for you guys in India. I'll add the link to the Links section of this blog in the next couple of days.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

2006-12-15T17:39:00.000+05:30

Made it to Mumbai

Hey everyone. It's 5:40PM and Marcelo and I are comfortably settled in the Orchid Hotel for the night. It was very weird coming back here because this was where we stayed on our very first night in India. Unlike last time, Marcelo and I both have equally crummy rooms. I'm just kidding, Sonia, the rooms are fine. I bought a 24-hour Internet package, so I'm all set.

I was up pretty late last night blogging and trying to pack. I didn't accomplish much except to drag everything out of the closet and throw it on the other twin bed. I woke up at about 7:30 and started the arduous task of sorting through everything and engineering a strategy to get it all in. By 9:30, I had at least folded all my clothes and corraled everything into groups (clothes, toiletries, pashminas, etc.). We went for breakfast and said some goodbyes to David Gomes, the Executive Chef, and the guy who always greets us so enthusiastically at breakfast (I'm ashamed to say I didn't get his name). David offered to pack up some fruit for us to take for the drive to Mumbai, which he delivered to us just as we were checking out.

I was back in my room by 10 and the room was an absolute mess. I remember saying to Marcelo that I really only bought cloth and I gave away the AudienceView t-shirts, so my suitcase should actually be lighter than it was on the way over. That is so not the case. I had to open the expandable section all the way and it is so full that if you stand it up on carpet, it falls over like R2-D2. I can sort of lift it, but it is definitely nowhere near the 50lbs it was on the way here. We've both gained weight.

Marcelo called at about 11:30 to make sure I was on the right track. By that time, the suitcase was closed and I did a very princessy thing of calling down to have someone bring my luggage to the lobby. I don't think I could have fit in the elevator with all my bags. On our way down, I took a picture of the phone in the hallway that has been driving me crazy. Marcelo said something about it on our comments card. We're so passive aggressive.

Checking out was a complete nightmare. There were 4 people there serving us, but we had to tell 3 of them separately that we were checking out. All three of them noted our room numbers on the same pad of paper each time. Someone had already come into our rooms to check our mini bars before we headed to the lobby, but one of the desk clerks kept calling to get more people to do the same thing. We stayed for something like 25 nights and they are worried about losing the cost of a bag of chips? Usually, they ask you if you took anything and they believe you if you say no. I actually put stuff in my mini bar (cans of pop) so they have a surplus. Very annoying. I imagine that people check out all the time? It was like training day. It took forever. The thing about the Pride Hotel is that their intentions are all good, but their execution sucks. If you are going to Pune on business, fight tooth and nail to get into Le Meridien. Again Santosh, we were fine. I'm just cranky.

Pradeep picked us up in a gi-normous SUV, which was good because my suitcase was the size of a small refrigerator. Marcelo has two suitcases now because he bought a small one to go to Goa. We had to drive to the travel agent's office to pick up printouts of our e-tickets for the flight tomorrow morning to Jaipur. The travel agent was very sweet. I think this is going to be a great trip. After that, we went to a Citibank to get some more cash and then we were off to Mumbai.

I took a Gravol, which hit me right away because my stomach was a little empty. I slept for pretty much the whole way. When I woke up, we were already in Mumbai. When we were waiting at the travel agent's in Pune, it was 12:40PM. We got to Mumbai by something crazy like 2:20. Pradeep is the greatest. We were at the hotel and checked in before 4pm. This is so much better than flying. Before Pradeep left, he let me take his picture, so you can all see him. We looked up on the Internet what a nice tip would be, so I hope that I gave him enough. We miss him already.

We were starving, so we had some sandwiches at the hotel cafe. It was strange. You could choose two of chicken, tuna, egg, or something else that I can't remember. I asked for chicken and egg and I thought I'd get some chicken salad sandwiches and some egg salad ones. It turned out to be a chicken salad and fried egg sandwich. It was good though. I'm a sucker for mayonnaise.

Well, we have to check out tomorrow morning at 3:45AM (yikes). I'm planning on going to bed at like 8PM at the latest. I'm exhausted, so it shouldn't be too hard to sleep. Our flight leaves at 5:25AM and we land in Jaipur at 7, so we'll have a full day to see everything. I'm so excited.

Well, I hope I can get Internet access at the hotel tomorrow night. I'm sure I will have so much to tell. By this time tomorrow, I will have ridden an elephant! I didn't take a whole lot of pictures today, but if you'd like to see the few I did take, click here. Goodnight everyone.

2006-12-14T23:26:00.000+05:30

Last day of school

Today was our last day at the SSS offices and I feel a bit sad -- kind of like the last day of school. We spent the day meeting with everyone and wrapping things up. Santosh took us for a lovely lunch at a Thai/Chinese restaurant called All Stir Fry in the Gordon House boutique hotel. Actually, I think the restaurant name is e.e.cummings-ish, so it's 'all stir fry'.

The hotel is in the same building as a huge multiplex movie theatre that has lounge areas and many fast food places, much like the Famous Players at John and Richmond. They were playing both English and Indian movies. There was a separate box office for men and women. The Irish guys (who are now on their way back to Ireland) thought that the seating in the theatre was segregated as well, but actually it's just the line-up. Santosh told me that the lines are separate because it's not good for them to be mixed when it's busy and crowded. He didn't say it explicitly, but I assume that this means that as a woman you wouldn't be jostled or bothered by strange men, which I think is nice. I'm totally making an assumption, so if I'm wrong, someone please tell me.

The restaurant interior was lovely (I know, I need a new word). The entire ceiling was a huge skylight and there was water cascading over it continuously like a fountain. I had a nice veggie dumpling and noodle soup, some steamed dumplings, and eggplant curry. You know, at every restaurant we have been to here, one of the waiters always gives me a comment card so I can rate the restaurant. They never give it to Marcelo. Today, I said that the pieces of eggplant could have been bigger. I wonder if they will change it just for me? The fortune cookies were really buttery and delicious (unlike the ones at home). My fortune was: Depend on the predictability and steadiness of life to support you. I've never gotten that one before. Marcelo and Santosh's fortunes were new to me too. I think Canadian fortune cookies include only a small subset of possible fortunes. I always get the same ones.

Something cool that Santosh told us was that people who belong to the Jain religion are vegan. They do not eat any animal products and at certain times of the year, they also abstain from foods like onion and garlic. Trina, these are your people! Trina, an old friend of Darcy's, is allergic to garlic and is vegetarian.

We lingered for a long time over lunch, so we didn't get back until about 3:30. Once back at the office, Santosh gave us some awesome-looking Indian snacks and sweets. The sweets are in the shape of little fruits that have been cut open. We're not sure what fruit they are mimicking, but they are beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat. Afterwards we had a wrap-up meeting with Santosh and Madhukar to talk about what the team has accomplished this month and how we feel about the project. Marcelo and I both think the automation is going full steam ahead and they have done so much in a short period of time. You will all be amazed when you see these scripts run. This is my first experience being on the client side of a client-vendor relationship, so these kinds of meetings and conversations about how they can make the project better for us are very foreign to me. Whenever I travel anywhere, I always feel like I am the vendor.

Madhukar and Santosh said that they have both been reading my blog. We agreed that it is a great way to share pictures and stories. Madhukar does a lot of travelling in remote areas in the Himalayas and takes lots of photographs, so I think that he is inspired to make his own travel blog. And Madhukar, when you do, you have to send me the link!

After the meeting, Shirish demonstrated our new test management system, TestLink, for us. This is an open source tool that SSS has customized and enhanced. Marcelo has decided to start using it to store and edit our test cases because it has more robust versioning, sorting, searching, and approval capabilities. We are going to put the cleaned up test cases in TestLink and the guys will be able to pick them up and automate them. Should be really cool. After the demo we said goodbye for now. My impulse is always to hug people, but I don't think anyone does that in India. Marcelo says that handshaking isn't popular either. If that's the case, then I assaulted a lot of people today.

Before we left, Sonia came up and gave us some beautiful parting gifts. She gave us each a framed piece of Dhokra art, which is a form of metal casting. It's so interesting and I'd never heard of this technique before. I took a picture of it to show all of you, but it doesn't do it justice. If you want to see it, let me know and I'll bring it in to the office.

We left at around 7pm and decided to go to Le Meridien for our last dinner in Pune. This is the fanciest hotel in town, so we thought it would be fun to see it. And all the hype is true; it is very fancy. Marcelo had to have a cell phone conference call with Santosh and Matt (Milberry) so while he was doing that I went to one of the hotel shops that specialized in Kashmir products, including (you guessed it) pashminas. My original intent was to see how much they were in comparison to the ones I bought already. They were of comparable price, which made me feel good. The man there was so sweet so I broke down and bought two. That brings the grand pashmina total to 11. Most of these are gifts, but I haven't decided which one is going to whom. I love them all in different ways. At one point, I went through a really greedy phase and decided to keep them all for myself, but that passed so entire my family will be ensconced in pashmina this Christmas. They are so warm, soft, and out-of-this-world. I haven't been so attached to an object since I had stuffed animals (well, I still do but you know what I mean).

We were supposed to meet the travel agent who arranged our weekend at 9:30PM back at the hotel, so we didn't have much time for dinner. But, we did go to one of the hotel's nice restaurants anyways. We went to their Thai/Chinese place called Spice Island (lots of Chinese for us today). We started with a green papaya salad that was actually much too salty and I couldn't eat it. The mains were good though. We had lamb and eggplant curry, phad thai, and rice. One appetizer and two mains -- it was the right amount of food. We learned our lesson.

We rushed out of there, but we were miserably late getting to the hotel. The travel agent was very sweet and the trip looks amazing. I think I should be able to blog this weekend from the hotels, so I'll tell you about it in detail then. For now, let me just say that we are going to tour the Amber Fort ON AN ELEPHANT! Darcy is all worried because before I left we saw one of those 'when elephants go crazy' type shows where a zoo elephant threw its trainer into a wall and tried to crush him with her knees. I'm sure, like trail ride horses, these elephants have done this many times. And I used to ride horses as a kid, so I think I'll be fine.

I cashed the rest of my travelers' cheques to pay the deposit on the trip. It was lucky that I did because I discovered that the exchange rate was wrong on the board (manual thing; not electronic) today, so the cheques I cashed this morning had a USD rate of 34 instead of 44. So, thankfully the manager realized the mistake and gave me the money I was missing. I never pay attention to those things.

So, we leave tomorrow at noon for Mumbai. We're driving there, staying the night, and then flying to Jaipur at the crack of dawn. I'm so excited. Pradeep is taking us to Mumbai, so we should be there in 2 hours. :) He's the best.

Well, goodnight to everyone. If anyone from Symphony is reading this, thank you so much for your hospitality. We had a wonderful time in Pune and we hope to be back in the future. I have plans to continue blogging, but on life in Toronto, so maybe you'd find that interesting. Thank you again. Namaste. :)

For more pictures from today, please click here.

2006-12-13T23:19:00.000+05:30

Another wonderful family experience. I'll say it again...we are so spoiled.

This morning, Marcelo and I were graciously and unexpectedly invited to dinner at Chandrashekar's house. We have had so little opportunity to socialize during the day at SSS, so we were delighted to come and meet his family, chat, and have more amazing food.

At about 6pm, we got an email from Sonia saying that we would have a different driver for tonight. I wonder what happened to Pradeep? I hope he is okay. Laxman drove us from SSS to Chandrashekar's place, which is in an area of town that we have never been to before. In this neighbourhood, there are many new building complexes. Chandrashekar says that in their complex, 100% of the residents are working in IT. We left the office at about 6:45PM and the traffic was very light, so we got there in no time.

Once arrived, we met Chandrashekar's wife Brundavani, son Amandeepgupta (4 1/2 years old), daughter Madhulikha (2 1/2 years old), and cousin Pooja. Srihari, who is also on our team, was there as well. He just moved to Pune from Mumbai one week ago in order to start working on our project and he is living in one of SSS's guest houses, which are in the same neighbourhood. Srihari has only known the family for a short while, but the children are so comfortable with him and treat him like a favourite uncle.

Chandrashekar's place is very large (3 floors, I think) with a front terrace and back walk out area. Across the way in the centre of the building complex, there is a lovely yard and playground. It feels like a very safe and fun place to have children.

When we arrived, Chandrashekar's little guy took lots of pictures of us. He and I took pictures of each other taking pictures. Madhulikha was adorable and she spent much of the evening in Srihari's arms.

At dinner once again, Marcelo and I were the only ones eating while everyone else attended to our every need. Since it was the same at Shirish's, I assume that this is the way guests are treated all the time? Vijay and Sukhi, you didn't tell me this! Again, we were so spoiled and the food was so good. Chandrashekar's family is non-vegetarian, so we had both vegetable and meat dishes. There was chick pea curry, chicken masala, kofta (made from gourd), fish, roti, rice, curd, rasmalai, sweets, apples, and pomegranate. The rice was the last thing eaten and just like Shirish he said that the meal isn't complete without it. He also said that you shouldn't have the sweets (rasmalai, etc.) until you finish the main meal, which I think is the same rule everywhere. I tried to dive into the dessert early, but I was advised to wait. :) Everything was so incredibly delicious. Earlier on in this blog, I have been raving about the restaurant/hotel food, but it isn't even in the same universe as the home cooking that we've had over the past two days. The hotel food always felt very heavy and hard to digest while the home cooked food is lighter and tastier. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to have some real Indian food. Like Shirish last night, Chandrashekar kept serving us more and more food. Everything was delicious and we ate so much! Brundavani and Pooja are amazing cooks.

I asked Chandrashekar to write everyone's names in English, Hindi, and Telugu for me. I love Telugu script. It's so curvy and pretty. He also wrote my and Marcelo's names in Telugu. It's so cool. I tried to write Chandrashekar's name in Japanese Hiragana (I realized later that it should be written in Katakana because it is not a Japanese name), but it's been so long that I forgot some characters. I promised to look them up on the Internet tonight and be ready for tomorrow.

After dinner we took a short walk around the neighbourhood and Srihari and I talked about Canadian vs. Indian weather and festivals. Srihari has only seen snow in the movies, so he was asking how much we usually get. I said not that much regularly, aside from a few big snowstorms per winter. I wonder if people from India would enjoy the cold weather and snow as a novelty? Marcelo thinks it would only last for a few minutes and then they would hate it like he does. I don't hate it, but I definitely can't say that it's fun or comfortable. Srihari asked me what kind of festivals we have in Canada and I said that they are completely different from Indian ones. All Indian festivals have so much history and are centred around religion. I can't think of any big, religious celebrations we have except for Christmas (which most of the time has more to do with shopping than religion) and Easter (which is a big deal for Christians, but my experience only involved chocolate and a bunny). The more I talk about Canada, the more I feel that our country is an absence of everything (history, culture, religion). Of course, I can only speak for my small experience and life. But, other than native culture, what culture do we have that wasn't imported from somewhere else?

Chandrashekar had seen the pictures we took last night of me in Prasanna's sari, so I think Brundavani wanted to dress me up in her saris and other clothes. I would have been thrilled to do so, but she is probably 3 to 4 sizes smaller than me and I know I wouldn't be able to squeeze into the top and slip for any of her saris. I explained this to Chandrashekar and he said, "yes, it may not be possible." Yes, definitely not possible. But, I appreciate the gesture. Before I left, Brundavani put a bindi on me with red powder. Poor Marcelo doesn't get to dress up. All decorative clothing, jewellery, and other things are for women. While we were talking about clothing, Chandrashekar asked me how old I am (maybe something to do with certain styles of clothing?) and he was shocked to learn I was so old. He thought I was 27, so I decided that is going to be my new age. Everyone please go along with it.

We had such a wonderful time. Chandrashekar's family is so beautiful, generous, and kind. It's so nice to meet the families of the guys who are working with us. I'm so glad that we came on this trip at the beginning of the project and started everything on such a positive note.

Well, tomorrow is our last day in SSS's office. We're there for a full day and then we leave at around noon on Friday for Mumbai and the whirlwind sightseeing weekend. I took quite a few pictures today, so if you like to see them, click here. Goodnight all.

2006-12-12T23:34:00.000+05:30

I am wearing a sari as we speak!

We had such a wonderful time at Shirish's place tonight. We are simply overwhelmed with their hospitality and kindness. As I am writing this, I am wearing a beautiful sari that Shirish's wife and mother-in-law wrapped me in and so sweetly gave to me! They also gave me some bindis (I'm wearing one now), jewelled bangles, and a lovely statue of Ganesh, their god. They prepared an amazing meal for us and told us so many things about their food and culture.

We got caught in the worst traffic on the way to Shirish's, so we were about half an hour late. Shirish and his family live at the centre of the city, very close to the main bus and train stations, so the congestion was unbelievable. The Gardiner and DVP have nothing on this road. Pradeep got us there as quickly as humanly possible.

Once there, we met his wife Prasanna, son Atharva (3 1/2 yrs old), father-in-law Shivaling, and mother-in-law Shashikala. Prasanna and her parents are from Pune while Shirish is from an area about 5 hours south of here. Atharva was a little shy at first, but he kept us company for the entire evening until we left at around 11PM. Prasanna used to work in IT before Atharva was born, but now she is taking care of the home as well as going to school part-time. Like all Indians, she speaks her mother tongue (Marathi), Hindi, and English. But, she also has been taking university classes in German and Spanish, so I think she is fluent in both of those languages as well. She told us that she is only a beginner at Spanish, but Marcelo conversed with her and he said that her comprehension and accent were excellent. She is so bright.

They have a lovely apartment that they just moved into this year with an amazing kitchen that was specifically designed by Prasanna to support all the incredible cooking she does. They make everything from scratch, so they buy huge quantities of raw ingredients (lentils, wheat, rice, etc.) and store them in huge bins that are conveniently placed under their pantry shelving. They let us taste some of the delicious preserved foods that they make when the ingredients (e.g. mango) are in season and then keep and eat throughout the year (or even longer if the monsoon season is bad and the crops fail). We tasted turmeric pickle (kills bacteria in your system), sweet preserved raw mango, sweet preserved ripe mango, and a mixture of nuts, including yellow walnuts, cashews, black raisins (good for your stomach), and almonds with their thick shell still intact. In Hindu culture, new mothers soak this nut mixture in water and eat it to regain strength. I think she said that children have it too to grow strong. They also showed us their everyday spices, which are asofotedia, chili powder (hot), cumin seed, coriander seed powder, turmeric, and black cumin. They are stored in a large round tin with smaller round tins inside. They looked so pretty. Like a multi-coloured flower.

Also in the kitchen, they have a small temple where they can sit and worship and be open to God. It was so beautiful that I asked if I could take a picture. I'm not sure if that was appropriate. I think they probably wouldn't tell me if it was because they are so hospitable. In any case, I'll keep that picture to myself.

Prasanna then showed us her saris and jewellery. Saris can be either 6 or 9 yards long. She showed us some lovely ones with intricate gold embroidery. She said that traditional wedding saris are embroidered with real gold thread and are given to girls by their parents when they get married, and in turn passed on to their own daughters or daughters-in-law. Also at the time of marriage, girls receive long gold necklaces with black beads. This is a special kind of necklace that signfies that you are a married woman. Then, Prasanna let me try on some of her jewelled bangles, which she so generously gave to me as a gift.

At dinner, Marcelo and I sat on a lovely blanket spread out on the floor with little Japanese-like tables in front of us. I had thought that we would all eat together, but it was only Marcelo and I eating while everyone else watched us and anticipated our every desire. I'm not sure -- is this tradition? Or was it that we were so late arriving? We were so spoiled. The food was out of this world. We had puris that Shashikala kept making fresh and bringing out for us, ladyfingers (okra), turmeric pickle, cucumber salad, eggplant curry, onions, rasmalai, buttermilk soup, pappadums, pumpkin puris, rice, and daal. They said that a meal is not complete until you eat the rice and daal. Shirish first put the rice on my plate, then poured ghee over it, then the daal, and then a squeeze of lemon. You are supposed to mix it all up together and eat it. It was so amazing. Marcelo was the star guest this evening because he was very skilled and comfortable with eating everything with his hands. I punked out and used a fork because I am hopeless at it. Shirish was very impressed with Marcelo. And so was I!

After dinner Prasanna and Shashikala took me into the bedroom and wrapped me up in the sari you see in the photo. I first put on a little crop top that happened to be exactly my size. Then, I put on a sort of long, cotton slip. Then the wrapping began. It's not really wound around and around. One end is tucked into the slip and the other extremity is draped over your left shoulder. The huge slack in between is pleated many many times, pinned, and then tucked into the waist. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of steps here. I know I couldn't do it myself yet. Vijay, you'll have to show me how and I'll practice. Prasanna says I should practice every day for a month and then I'll get it. Prasanna says that a sari is supposed to hide your body entirely because only your husband is supposed to be able to see your shape. I'm all for hiding my body.

At our parting, they gave us the little statues of Ganesh with a peacock, which was so sweet. With all the wonderful Indian things they gave us, I wish that we had the foresight to bring something nice from Canada. We had gone shopping earlier today and bought them a pretty crystal flower vase and some chocolates. I hope they like them. They were all so friendly, generous, and fun.

When we got down to the car, Pradeep told me that I was looking very nice in my sari. He was giggling too. Prasanna said that if I wear a sari, no one will pay attention to me because I will look like all the other Indian women. I don't know about that. When I got back to the hotel, I felt like I was making my grand entrance (like in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts and Richard Gere are walking through the hotel on their way to the opera. Except I'm nothing like Julia Roberts. You get what I mean).

Well, it is so so late and I should go beddy bye. We took lots of pictures today and this evening, so you can see them in my Yahoo album here if you like. Goodnight everyone.

2006-12-11T09:40:00.000+05:30

Last week at SSS

This was our last Monday at the SSS offices. We'll be here all this week until Friday morning at the latest and then we embark on our whirlwind tour of Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi before flying home through Zurich. Only 4 more nights in Pune and then 3 more on the road. Time has really flown by.

We are both in much better spirits after our decadent weekend in the tropics. This morning, we had breakfast for the first time in the new renovated restaurant. Everything has been redone (furniture, lighting, dishes, cutlery). We no longer get to eat by the pool, which is a shame, but the new space is clean and comfortable. I don't know if it is because we ate so much so late last night, but this morning we were both starving. I had a mix of Indian and Western stuff (paneer paratha, veggie cutlet, plain uttapam, pineapple, pomegranate, pancakes, fried egg, and toast). These days I eat more at breakfast that I used to all day. I need to work out. I'm even a little sore from swimming/floating yesterday.

I'm desperately trying to clean up these test cases. If anyone in QA in Toronto has a spare moment, any help would be appreciated. They want to have them all cleaned up before making estimates (which is fair).

At lunch, we walked to Kobe again and had sandwiches. Marcelo tried something called a 'Russian salad' sandwich. He said that in South America, Russian salad is creamy potato salad. At Kobe, it is a bright green mayonnaisey spread. He liked it though. For dessert we had malai kulfi because we didn't have any ice cream at all yesterday. I'm as big as a house.

After lunch we walked down the street to Citibank so Marcelo could get some cash. At all the ATMs we've seen, they have security guards in the vestibule. This is nice because since there aren't that many international ATMs around, we usually take out a huge stack of bills. My advice to anyone coming here is to buy travelers cheques in USD. You can exchange them at a good rate at any hotel; it's much more convenient.

In the afternoon, Shirish showed us his very thorough documentation on the automation framework. He has put so much work into it and every angle seems to be covered. Marcelo was very pleased with it. Shirish sweetly invited us to his house for dinner tomorrow night and we're very excited to meet his family and try some real home cooking. We kind of freaked out because my friend Sukhi told me that if I was invited to dinner, I should bring a 'hostess gift'. She didn't say what though. So, we were madly trying to find info on the Internet and there wasn't much. Sonia from SSS thinks a crystal vase would be nice, so that's what we've decided on. Unless anyone else has any ideas? Please?

For dinner we went to Mainland China, which is a pretty happening place at night. The food there is pretty good, so we got too excited and went overboard with the ordering. We ordered two appetizers (duck in chili sauce, deep-fried shiitake mushrooms) and four mains (stewed noodles with crab, wok-fried dumplings, deep-fried soft shell crab, steamed chicken with straw mushrooms) plus steamed rice. We ordered enough food for 6, I think. We totally hit the wall and there was so much food left over. Lesson learned. From now on, only one appetizer and two mains. And dessert.

The general manager at our hotel said that my name was on the list for checking out tomorrow, but that he knew it was a mistake. I don't know how that happened. It would have been tragic to be turfed out, but I think that instead someone will not be able to check in tomorrow. Computers -- can't trust 'em.

Goodnight all.

2006-12-10T21:38:00.000+05:30

Back to reality

Sigh. We're back at the Pride Hotel in Pune. The afterglow of the Taj Holiday Village is slowly dissipating, but we're so glad that we went this weekend. It was exactly what we needed. It was absolute heaven. Thank you so much to Sonia from SSS for arranging it for us.

This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn so I could squeeze as much activity (or inactivity) from our last morning as possible. We were among the first people at breakfast and we got a lovely table overlooking the sea. Today I tried the tea that was being served (since the tummy trouble, I have been avoiding tea) and it turned out to be delicious Indian chai tea. At our hotel, they only serve black tea from tea bags (grumble, grumble). It was delicious. As for the breakfast, I started with freshly squeezed watermelon juice, fresh fruit (pineapple, papaya, watermelon, canteloupe), bhel puri, porridge, medu wada, and chicken sausage. After a short break, I went on to my second course of a boiled egg, white toast, another chicken sausage, a mini chocolate glazed doughnut (waddle, waddle), and a glass of mango smoothie (tasted just like mango ice cream). We lingered over tea for a bit and then set off to explore the fort and hotel next door.

The Taj Fort Aguada was where we had originally requested to stay. We poked around the hotel grounds a bit (facilities are open to guests from both hotels) and realized that ours is way better. At least one star better if not more. We are so glad that we couldn't get in and we stayed at the Village instead. One interesting thing about that hotel is that there is a a full-time astrologer. Also, it is built around old fort ramparts from around 1620. We followed the fort wall around the hotel and it ended in an open area with small altars overlooking the water. It was beautiful and serene.

What is isn't serene is being pestered by all the jet ski/dolphin cruise/parasailing hawkers who chase after you with a "hello, my friend!" Marcelo must have turned down at least 12 offers during the time we were walking around the forts. It's a wonder that they can do business at all with so much competition.

After our walk, Marcelo hung out in the chaises longues on the beach and I swam in the sea for an hour. The water may be extra salty or something because it's so easy to float. Or maybe I'm just getting really fat. In any case, I just hung out there and looked up at the clear sky. I loved it. I miss swimming so much when I'm in Toronto. I didn't want to leave. For most of it, I was the only person on the whole beach swimming.

Checkout time was at noon, so at 11AM we hightailed it to the pool to have a last dip and lounge. By 11:15AM, we went back to our cottages to shower and get packed up. The front desk offered to send a golf cart to pick us up, but we roughed it and walked to the lobby. Checkout was a bit more complicated than it had to be because they didn't seem to have very accurate records of web bookings. Marcelo already paid a deposit online and they didn't seem to know about it. They believed us and finally sorted it out, but something seems a little faulty with their systems. I think AV should extend its functionality to include hotel reservations and Marcelo and I could stay in Goa to facilitate. Please?

The whole trip back to Pune went much smoother than the way over. The drive to the Goa airport was fine. Darcy told me that the airport was on terrorist alert because of it being high season, but I didn't think it was any different than the other Indian domestic airport. They're really serious about security and they have scary-looking military guys everywhere with big guns. All bags, including carry-ons, are carefully screened and they must be tagged and stamped in order to bring them on the plane. Even after you've been through security, they get checked again before you board. When we landed in Mumbai, a guard requested to see our boarding passes before we entered the terminal. I know it's all for safety's sake but it makes me nervous that I could be pulled aside at any time and questioned. It hasn't happened yet (fingers crossed).

We flew on Kingfisher Airlines, which is the very same company that makes Kingfisher beer. I think it's sort of like an Indian Hooters Air, but much less racy. I think that the flight attendants' outfits are risque by Indian standards (skirts above the knee). The planes are also very nice with personal TVs at each seat. They gave us little kits with a welcome message, food menu, pen, earphones, Mentos, cream candy, flight schedule, and wet nap. And even though the flight was only 1 hour long, they fed us a full meal (dhan sak, lacy vegetable kebabs, brown rice with fried onions, and bread & butter pudding). It was all pretty good.

When we got to Mumbai, we had a little trouble finding Pradeep because it was so crowded, but we hooked up okay. He told us that the drive back would take 3 hours, but he managed to do it in about 2. The Irish guys in our hotel said that their drive to Pune from Mumbai took them 4 hours. We have the best driver ever.

We got back to the hotel at 7:45PM and we went straight to the Indian restaurant in the hotel. We had a one week break from Indian food, so we're back on the horse again. I had raita (yogurt salad), paneer kadai (cottage cheese in curry), aloo hara pyaz (potato and green onion), kalonji ke baignan (eggplant), sarson da saag (mustard greens), steamed rice, and buttered naan.

On our way back to our rooms, we met up with the guys from Ireland. They had spent the weekend at the Taj Aurangabad and they visited the Ellora caves. It sounded amazing and it's really too bad that we were sick and couldn't go. But, I'm glad we didn't miss Goa.

I took a million pictures today, so if you'd like to see them, please click here. Tomorrow's a school day, so I gotta get to bed. Goodnight everyone.

2006-12-09T18:33:00.000+05:30

Just a perfect day...

Sigh. I just got back to my cottage after having dinner and I took a few minutes to lay in the hammock and look up at the stars through the palm fronds. It is absolutely ridiculous how perfect day today was.

I got up pretty early this morning, Skyped with Darcy for a bit (we love Skype), and then Marcelo and I went to Carvelo Cafe, which is perched on a seawall overlooking the beach, to have our complimentary breakfast. We were a bit early, so we had our pick of tables at the edge of the veranda with an unobstructed view.

The breakfast was buffet-style like at our hotel in Pune, but with a fresh juice bar (orange, papaya, sweet lime, beetroot, pineapple, vanilla milkshake, etc.) and a station where cooks will make you omelettes, eggs, or dosas. The only dosas I've ever had were at Fresh by Juice for Life in Toronto, so I've never had the real thing. The real thing was crispy and thin with a yummy, savoury mixture of potatoes and lentils inside. It was to die for. After we polished those off, we went to the actual buffet, which had both Western (soft boiled eggs, sweet pastries, bacon, sausages, beans) and Indian items (parathas, porridges, idlis, sambar, etc.) in addition to a type of chicken stew (delicious) and fresh fruit (pineapple, watermelon, papaya, apples, pears). There was a do-it-yourself toast station that had little woven baskets available so you can carry your hot toast to your table without the steam getting trapped and making it soggy. We both tried the freshly squeezed pineapple and sweet lime juices. The sweet lime juice was the thing that has been missing from my life -- not too sweet, citrusy, and a bit creamy. Swoon. We lingered there for a long time.

After breakfast, we took a leisurely stroll around the grounds. What strikes us is how quiet it is even though the hotel is fully booked. As late as 9:30AM, we hardly saw anyone except for hotel staff. Walking anywhere in Pune is an act of will and determination, so this was such a treat. We looked at the fancier, much more expensive villas, but we agreed that we love ours the best. Our cluster of cottages reminds us of The Shire in Lord of the Rings.

After our walk, we sunscreened up and headed to the pool. There were a lot of howaito-san basking in the sun and turning into lobsters. We chose a lovely spot under large canvas umbrellas that offered shelter from both the sun and the bird poops. I went for a quick dip and then we literally lolled around for 4+ hours. Marcelo read his book and listened to his iPod. I did the same in addition to having a lengthy nap. When I woke up, we ordered some beers from the pool bar -- Kingfisher for Marcelo; Corona for me (I know, I know...I just felt like it). At about 2PM we surrended our chaises and went for lunch.

For lunch at Caravelo, we sat outisde again on the veranda, but a little further away from the edge due to the hot sun. We ordered an assortment of small snacky things, including fried calamari, vegetable pakoras, samosas, bruschetta with eggplant caviar and salsa, and chouris (Goan smoked sausage) sandwiches. I know that sounds like a lot of fried food, but we counterbalanced it with watermelon basil martinis. These martinis were amazing -- a perfect blend of flavours with no jarring notes of any kind (like this whole experience).

After lunch, we went back to our cottages to reapply sunscreen before checking out the beach. When I got to my place, I saw that my room had been cleaned and someone had folded my beach towels into swans and left them on my bed. Marcelo didn't get any swans. We've realized that for some reason I have the better room this time, but I think it's karmic retribution for the 'woman's grotto' in Mumbai. Marcelo's place is still lovely...he just doesn't get swans. Or a bathrobe. Or slippers. Or complimentary magazines. Or a French press coffee maker. But other than that, they're the same. Oh, and I have 4 more windows. :)

The hotel provides comfy chaises longues on a small section of the beach for lounging. Marcelo read his book and I went for a swim in the ocean. On this beach, there are tonnes of little businesses trying to get you to do stuff (jet ski, parasailing, massage) or buy stuff. These ventures have nothing to do with the hotel and it's a bit intrusive, but if you swim out far enough no one will follow you. You just need to worry about getting run over with a jet ski. While out there swimming I met a woman from Montana who has been living in Germany for the past 35 years and had lived in Mumbai for 4 years back in the 80's. She said that this is her 7th stay at the Taj Holiday Village and that her first stay was when the hotel opened in 1981. I guess back then the beach was completely pristine and there weren't any jet skis or restaurants at all. Even with all the activity, it is a lovely beach and the water is so warm. I must have stayed out there for an hour.

I thought I would run up to my room, take a shower, and make it back in time for the sunset. Marcelo says that I missed it by 2 minutes or so. That's it. I'm going to have to stay for another day. I wish. I did get to see the pretty pink sky though.

After freshening up, we went for a drink at the bar. They were playing some great trancy music. Marcelo had a cucumber sake martini and I had a passionfruit mango one. Like the watermelon ones earlier in the day, they were perfect and really refreshing.

We wanted to go back to the Thai place for dinner, but there was an enormous private party being held in and around that restaurant. So, we went to the Goan establishment called the Beach House. It was a beautiful, airy, open room. We ordered semolina-encrusted mussels, shrimp and pineapple salad, prawn peri peri, coconut curry with mushrooms and peas, naan, and steamed rice. I think I was still too full from lunch and the prawn reminded me of the ones at the Pride Hotel that I had immediately before I got sick, so I didn't end up eating much. But, we ordered a dessert anyways called Bebinca, a layered gelatinous nutmeg and molasses cake with vanilla ice cream. There's always room for B-E-B-I-N-C-A.

There are seriously not enough hours in the day. We finished dinner at about 10:45PM and I need to get to bed in order to get up early tomorrow and have the full experience before they drag us kicking and screaming to the airport. I wish I had more time. This place is absolutely wonderful. If any of you have a chance to come here, plan to stay at least a week at this hotel and no other. It's perfect. I took about 100 pictures today, so if you'd like to see them, please click here. Goodnight everyone.

2006-12-08T22:46:00.000+05:30

Can you die from happiness?

Goa..is...fantastic. This hotel is unbelieveable. After a 15-km, 45-minute drive from the Goa airport, we arrived at the Taj Holiday Village where we checked in while sipping actual fresh coconut water directly from the coconut. After receiving our keys, we were whisked away to our cottages in a little golf cart that seats 6. The first stop was my cottage (literally, my own little house with a front yard, two chaise longues, a hammock, a patio table and chairs, a porch with two benches, king-sized bed, plasma TV, DVD player, cotton robe, terry cloth slippers, and 6 windows!). Marcelo's place is just across the way. From my yard, I can actually see the Arabian sea. We both said that this is the first time in a long time that ANYTHING has made us squeal and clap our hands. We never want to leave.

We arrived just as the sun was going down, so we didn't see much of the grounds in the daylight. We took a dimly-lit walk down the beach, which is lined with beach restaurant after beach restaurant. There are lots of water activities like jet skiing, parasailing, and boating, so people were in the process of closing these operations for the night. Large groups of strapping, young men were hauling large boats out of the water and up onto the sand. Very impressive. I could watch that all day. We walked all the way to the other Taj hotel next door called Taj Fort Aguada. That was the one that we had originally wanted to stay in. It is built around an old 16th century (I think) fort and it is recessed into the cliff face. I think I prefer my little cottage though. It's like playing house for grown-ups.

We wandered back up to the main building and continued on to the Banyan Tree restaurant for dinner. It is a Thai restaurant that is built around an ancient banyan tree. We were two of only six people in the restaurant tonight, but everything was excellent! We had our best meal in India bar none. India is actually quite close to Thailand, so it's no wonder that the ingredients and cooking skill were so good. We had shredded papaya salad, crispy tofu cubes in chili sauce (best ever; I'm not kidding), phad thai (had to try it), diced eggplant with basil, and green curry with chicken. And yes, of course, we had dessert (sweet bananas with honey and coconut ice cream). And we washed it all down with a bottle of white wine. The food was amazing (even better than Salad King) and all service was incredibly attentive. We've had huge, stupid smiles on our faces ever since we got here.

We had a driver lined up to take us around, but we both decided that tomorrow we just want to soak up what the hotel has to offer and stay put. On the agenda for tomorrow is having breakfast at the beach cafe, taking a yoga class from the in-house guru, lounging by the pool, having drinks at the swim-up bar, and taking a dip in the ocean. I could die; this is so much fun.

I finally got the Internet access to work and it's wireless, so maybe I can blog from the hammock? I know. I'll shut up. I'm beat, so I'll say goodnight. I took lots of pictures today, so if you want to see some more, please click here. Night all.

2006-12-07T09:56:00.000+05:30

Goa Trance

Goa Trance is is a style of music that grew out of the infamous, days-long rave parties on the beaches of Goa. In my case, it just means that I can't think of anything other than our trip to Goa tomorrow. I am so excited. I can't wait to look at the Arabian sea and breathe in some fresh air. It looks like the the weather will be fine, so all I need to do is keep healthy.

Marcelo was tormented again last night by the giggly girls in the next room. Last night, they came in at 2AM, slept for a bit, and then started getting ready to go out again at 5:30AM. Marcelo no happy, but he doesn't want to complain because he says they are just having fun on their vacation (isn't he nice?). Only one more night.

This morning, we got on the elevator with two regular-sized men. Instead of going down, it started going up and we picked up another modestly-sized guy. By the time we got back to the third floor, the elevator wouldn't take any more people (message said that we as a group were 'overweight'). So, the third floor people took the stairs and we continued. On the second floor, a guy got on anyways and the elevator didn't insult us right away. When it finally did, I got off and told Marcelo I'd meet him in the lobby. I walked down to the first floor, but there was a sign saying please take the elevator to get to the lobby. On the first floor all the people from the third who had walked down were gathered. We all waited on the first to get on again, but every elevator was full (and 'overweight') by the time it got to us. So, we had to try to catch it going up, get in, and stake a claim so that we could get back down. It probably took 15-20 minutes total to get to the lobby. I think they should just pry open the windows and let us jump. For many reasons. One more night. (Again, Santosh, I'm just cranky. We're fine. Honestly.)

My breakfast is gradually getting more interesting. I went for the methi paratha, veggie cutlet, and onion uttapam this morning in addition to my wimpy banana pancakes (light as air today) and pineapple. Marcelo is right back in the game using Indian condiments and sauces.

After speaking with Sonia yesterday, we found out it will be Pradeep who will take us to the airport tomorrow and pick us up in Mumbai on the trip back (strangely, there are flights from Pune to Goa, but no flights from Goa back to Pune, so we have to fly to Mumbai and drive). I feel so much better knowing Pradeep will be driving us rather than a stranger. It's like having my dad come pick us up. Arriving at the airport in Mumbai won't be nearly as scary as when we first arrived.

On the ride here, we saw a truck full to overflowing with already-inflated balloons. It looked so adorable. We were saying in the car that Pune (nevermind New York City) is actually the city that never sleeps. I think North Americans use that expression to say that the stores and restaurants are open all night, but they don't mean that people are out and doing stuff all the time. Here, it literally does not matter what time of day or night it is, the streets will be FULL with people and there will be traffic jams, cars honking, and it will be impossible to cross the street. This is a real 24-hour city and I imagine it is the same across India. We thought that it is no wonder that India is a centre of yoga and meditation. People need to deliberately go somewhere quiet because it DOES NOT EXIST in everyday life. I think what will strike me the most when I go home is the emptiness of the streets on weekends and at night.

For lunch, we walked to Pizza Hut (yeah, yeah), which has both North American and Indian menus. In the interest of preserving happy tummies at least until tomorrow, we had garlic bread with cheese and a Veggie Lovers' pizza. You know when you go to the States and you NEVER order something 'for two' because it actually means 'for six'? Well here, it's the opposite. The medium pizza for two was a dainty size, which was perfect for lunch and we were able to also have a warm chocolate cake and ice cream.

After lunch we looked in a few shops, including a children's store, Crossword (a bookstore), and a mini department store. No matter where you go, there are tonnes of people waiting to serve you. It must be disconcerting for someone from India to come to Canada and go to The Bay or Canadian Tire and try to find someone who will help them. There are also security guards at the door and on each floor.

The afternoon was spent diligently trying to clean up and reorganize the Online test cases. We managed to get through 50 or so cases, so only about 150 left to go. It feels good to actually get this sorted for once.

For dinner, we went to Kobe (our usual lunch place) so that logistically it would be easy to get back to the hotel. Marcelo had a yummy-looking Lamb Shashlik sizzler that had cubes of lamb, rice, green beans, tomato, spinach, onions, pineapple, green pepper, and french fries in it. I wimped out again and had grilled chicken and fries with a side of garlic bread. I think I'm going to get scurvy soon.

Pradeep had us back to the hotel in no time. Once I got to my room, I realized that my toothpaste is missing. I always leave it on my bathroom counter next to my toothbrush and floss. Nothing else seems to be missing. My iPod, pashminas, webcam (actually Katherine's -- thanks Katherine, it works well!), clothes, shoes, and other toiletries are still here. Just my toothpaste is missing. I have extra with me, so it's no big deal, but it seems really strange.

Well, I will leave you all with that mystery. I'm going to bring my laptop to Goa so hopefully I can get online and publish from there. If not, I'll have a super long entry with lots of pictures when I get back on Sunday. Goodnight everyone.

2006-12-06T10:01:00.000+05:30

We do not heart this hotel, but Santosh, please do not worry. We're fine.

Last night I slept like a baby, but Marcelo had a much rougher time of it. I guess that a wedding party or something is staying on our floor and they were running around the hallways ringing doorbells (there is a REALLY loud doorbell for each room), screaming, and stuff. I must have slept through, but Marcelo was woken up. He was too polite to call the front desk and complain. The elevator still doesn't work and construction continues through the night just like on Restaurant Makeover. And that GD phone in the hallway won't stop ringing -- it's what woke me up this morning; not my alarm clock. Okay, that's enough bellyaching from me. It will be a relief for both of us to stay at a different hotel in Goa on the weekend. Only one more night! And Santosh, if you are reading this, we are fine. We don't need to be moved to a new hotel. There are things that annoy us, but we only have one more week and we wouldn't want to get used to a new place. Thank you for thinking of us.

The poolside restaurant was packed at breakfast this morning. Lots o' new people. I'm inching my way back into my former breakfast favourites. Today, I had a cheese and chili paratha alongside my fried egg, white toast, mango pancakes, pineapple, and pomegranate. We still love eating in this restaurant for breakfast. We just can't face it (or smell it) in the evening. This is a picture of our regular breakfast table.

Oh, before I forget, I added a link to Marcelo's Flickr album on the right panel. Marcelo is a much better photographer than me, and he has some great pictures of Aga Khan Palace, Karla Caves, and the hotels we've stayed at. He will gradually be uploading more pictures to that album, so check often.

Our plans are getting firmed up for our last weekend in India. Instead of staying for 3 nights in Delhi with a day trip to Agra, we are going to fly to Mumbai on the Friday, stay one night, fly to Jaipur (which looks amazing), sightsee, stay one night, take a train to Agra, see the Taj Mahal, take a train to Delhi, stay one night, and then get on the plane to Toronto. I know this sounds crazy and hectic, but we really want to see Jaipur and Sonia thinks it's a good plan. Wonderful Sonia is making all the arrangements for us.

At lunch today, we went back to Kobe and I had the exact same thing as yesterday (head hung in shame). Marcelo had the same as me. I think that this, more than any other, is the time for comfort food. And I must stay in good health to prepare for this weekend. I must. Strangely, they were playing Bryan Adams the entire time we were in there.

I'm trying my best to clean up as many test cases as I can so that the team can keep being really productive. We have so many old test cases that are incomplete, so it's going to be a huge job. But, it's one that we desperately need to do anyways. Everything is going to get so much better with the automated scripts.

Since yesterday's trek to the Taj was such an ordeal, we went to Seasons for dinner, which is walking distance from the office. It works out well because they are open all day and Pradeep can hang with his peeps while we are eating. They serve dinner kind of late here (starting 7pm), so we couldn't order off the dinner menu. We had stuff from the 'Quick Bites' menu instead. Marcelo had fettucine with pesto and I had a chicken burger and fries (I know, I know). Marcelo said the fettucine was actually very good and it came with a generous amount of garlic bread. My chicken burger was perfectly fine (fresh bun, lightly spiced) and was served with very McDonald's-ish fries. For dessert I had fig and honey ice cream (very figgy and yummy) and Marcelo had rasmalai, an Indian dessert similar to gulab jamun with pistachio, saffron, and condensed milk. While we were in the restaurant, they played Rod Stewart, Air Supply, Chris de Burgh, Michael Bolton, and Vanessa Williams -- all cheese all the time.

When we got back to the office, Pradeep was still chatting with his friends, so that made us feel less guilty about him waiting there for us. The ride to the hotel at 8PM felt like it took only 5 minutes. I think we've hit on a great, new evening routine.

Only two more sleeps until Goa. My health is good and I hope I can hang on enough to enjoy the weekend. I'm going to starting packing tonight to make sure I have everything I need (bathing suits, book, sundress, sunglasses, sunscreen...). Hee hee. I know. I'll shut up. Have a good night everyone.

N.B. For some reason, I'm having difficulty inserting pictures tonight. I'll see if I can add more later.

2006-12-05T14:50:00.000+05:30

What does 'ein scheize' mean?

So, this morning we tried to take the hotel elevator to the ground floor like we do every day. Today, a large, angry-sounding German man was already in the elevator when we got on. Before we got to the ground floor, the elevator switched directions and started going back up again (this is when the German guy said 'ein scheize'). So, we all got off on the 4th floor (one floor above ours) and took the stairs instead. By this time, a poor guy with a big suitcase had joined our group. When we got to the first floor, there was a sign saying to please take the elevator to get to the ground floor. Since we tried this already and it didn't work, we soldiered on and got to the ground floor by the stairs. However, the way was blocked off by a tarp nailed across the doorway. At this point, the German guy was on his last nerve and so was the guy with the suitcase. The guy with the suitcase starts yelling for help and then the German guy tears the tarp open like the Incredible Hulk and storms into the lobby. We meekly followed behind.

This in addition to the constantly ringing phone in the hallway and the construction that goes on until way past midnight is kind of getting to us. I casually asked Marcelo at breakfast IF any rooms at Le Meriden did open up, would he like to move there instead. He said that he already checked online and there are none. :( It's really not that bad, but we are associating this place with being on our deathbeds on the weekend (again, being overly dramatic -- we weren't that sick).

It is a lovely, temperate day in Pune. I am gradually eating more again, but still not back into the deep-fried Indian breakfast from before. Today I had two, perfectly made eggs over easy, white toast, rose pancakes, pineapple, and bottled water. Marcelo is more back on the horse than I am and he had the aloo paratha, pohi, veggie cutlet, and onion uttapam.

The day is so much more leisurely now that I am not doing formal training. Marcelo and I are spending time reorganizing/cleaning up test cases to feed to the team to automate. The goal by the end of January is to have all of Online automated and ready to run. From the looks of it, I think it is more than feasible.

At lunch, the punking out continued. We went to a place down the street called Kobe Sizzler. Their specialty is these huge, fajita-like platters of sizzling meat and vegetables. Marcelo had one with Kobe-style beef and lots of vegetables (cabbage, spinach, peas, onions, tomato, etc.). This was too much cooked food for me, so I completely wimped out and had a chicken/cheese sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off and fries. And a Diet Coke. I know. I know. I'm ashamed. We had Indian dessert though -- kesar pista kulfi, which I think is Indian ice cream with ground pistachios and ginger. Yummy.

The afternoon glided by easily. Shirish came by to ask me some excellent questions. They are so on the right track. I can't wait to see what they produce by the time we leave.

As far as dinner goes, we would rather eat from our mini bars than go to any of the hotel restaurants again. Even the thought of it makes me queasy. So, we asked poor Pradeep to drive us all the way across town to the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel to eat in the Whispering Bamboo restaurant (an 'Oriental' restaurant). When we came out of the office, Pradeep had like four of his other driver friends hanging out in the car with him (there are tonnes of other drivers for SSS hanging out and waiting). I think that Pradeep is totally the life of the party in that group. You'd never know it because he's so quiet, but I think he quite popular. We have the coolest driver. And if anyone from SSS is reading this, please don't think I am complaining. I'm so glad Pradeep is enjoying himself while he's waiting around for us.

So, the drive to the Taj was crazy. So much traffic. I took a short video clip of part of the ride and uploaded it to youTube. You can see it here. Note that our car is stationary and in the left lane. All the motorbikes, bicycles, and rickshaws that are passing us on the left are on the sidewalk.

We got to the Whispering Bamboo at about 7PM but just like our hotel restaurants, it doesn't open until 7:30. So, we walked around and hung out a little by the pool. This hotel doesn't look that much better than ours and it's on a very noisy stretch of road. I thought that someone would kick us out of the pool area because we weren't guests, but the only person who came by just asked us if we'd like a drink. Yes, we're spoiled.

Dinner at the Whispering Bamboo was terrible. The decor was nice, so we were all set to like it, but the food was awful. If anyone who is reading this is planning on going to Pune, do not go here. We ordered lotus root stems, chicken dumplings, braised tofu and mushrooms, chicken with pickled ginger, and 3-Flavour Noodles. The lotus root was deep fried and in a generic sweet sauce, the chicken dumplings had a dense lump of tasteless ground chicken in them, the chicken with pickled ginger tasted like really sour lemon chicken, and the noodles tasted like the smell of our hotel restaurant (ugh). The braised tofu was okay. This was also the most expensive meal we've had here so far. So, it was very disappointing all around. But, since we are too polite, we said everything was good and just didn't eat much.

The COOLEST thing ever happened on the drive back. We saw actual elephants in the traffic among the cars! It was dark, so they were hard to see, but we drove right past them. They looked like moving buildings; they were so huge. A couple of guys were riding on them close to their heads. That made the entire evening worthwhile. That was so cool.

I heard from my friend, Darryl, that is has snowed a bit? I hope it's all clear on Dec 19 for our landing in Toronto. I'm looking forward to being back and seeing you all. Goodnight everyone.

2006-12-04T20:25:00.000+05:30

Howaito-san

So, after the tummy trouble, Marcelo and I have (food-wise) turned into the anti-us. I had absolutely no Indian food today and Marcelo only had a little at breakfast. I think it's a combination of the stomach bug and a bit of ennui. For the first two weeks, we were pretty much eating Indian food 3 times/day every day. I think we've reach a temporary saturation point. So, to all my foodie friends, I apologize. Maybe we'll bounce back in the last week.

One interesting thing that Marcelo had for breakfast today was a sort of panini-like sandwich with creamed corn inside that was made in one of those infomercial-ish sandwich presses where you take a white bread sandwich, smush it, and it makes two triangle halves. Darcy and I have one. I had no idea it was so ubiquitous. Today's breakfast picture is Marcelo's plate because I wimped and had two dry pancakes, pineapple, white toast, and mineral water again.

As for the training, we have officially finished the formal lecturing by me, which I'm sure is a relief to everyone. Our fourth resource just started today, so the guys will be transferring their knowledge to him. The poor guy had to meet us on his very first day of work at SSS -- he must feel overwhelmed. Our entire team is in a temporary hotelling space right now until the new building is ready for them to move into on Dec 19.

At lunch, we went back to Mainland China and had dim sum dumplings and soup. Very tummy-friendly. I think that the novelty of being in India is wearing off, so I'm starting to get cranky about stuff like not being addressed directly (waiters only talk to Marcelo). I started butting in and answering because it was really getting on my nerves. I may not be welcome at this restaurant anymore.

In the afternoon, Shirish walked us through two possible frameworks for approaching the automation project. One was to record test cases (like we tried to do) and the other was to use programming instead and extract data from Excel spreadsheets, which was really cool. The spreadsheets contain all the steps and data, so anyone who can use Excel can literally create an automated test case that is run by a QTP script. It's really flexible and powerful. It takes a lot more skill to program those scripts than to record a macro, of course, but Shirish did this type of thing for years already, so he's ready to make it happen. We were amazed. I can't wait for you guys at AV to see it.

On our way back up to our offices, I noticed that someone was drying red chilis on the roof of the building next to us. When we came back down at the end of the day, they were gone so I guess it doesn't take too long in this hot sun.

Dinner was a wimp-out again. We asked our driver to take us to Pizza Express straight from work and we had a really quick dinner of Quattro Fromagi and Ham/Cheese/Olive pizzas and made it back to the hotel before 8. I'm looking forward to a great night's sleep.

The most exciting news of the day is that we are booked at the Taj Holiday Village for this Friday and Saturday night. This wasn't the hotel that we originally wanted to stay in, but it looks amazing as well. The hotel is directly on the beach and we will be staying in garden view cottages that have their own balconies and private lawns. The pool looks fantastic too. We'll see when we get there, but I think this weekend will be a lot of lounging and not too much doing. Maybe snorkeling. I'm soooo looking forward to it.

Hope you all are well. Goodnight everyone...

2006-12-03T16:28:00.000+05:30

Back in action

Hey, everyone! Rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. We are alive and (knock on wood) well and we had a great day of light sightseeing. Since we couldn't go to the famous Ajanta and Ellora caves yesterday, we visited some less touristy but still spectacular ones called the Karla Caves.

This morning began like Valley of the Dolls -- 1 Ciprofloxacin, 1 Gravol, and 1 Imodium. I may have been over-cautious, but I didn't want to risk anything for the hour-long drive to the caves. The Gravol made me sleepy, but other than that I was quite comfortable. When I came down to breakfast, every person working for the hotel seemed to know that I was sick. We were waited on hand and foot at breakfast and given advice on what and what not to eat. Our maitre d' said not to drink water immediately after eating a banana (have to wait 10-15 min). I ended up having banana pancakes, pineapple, white toast, and water. No complaints from tummy.

We hired a different driver for the day to take us to the caves and he was excellent. I was afraid that the road was going to be bumpy all the way, but most of it was pretty smooth. On the way, we went through one toll booth as well as two other checkpoints where unofficial-looking guys with clipboards were collecting cash. Our driver took care of it, but it didn't really look above board to us. The 50km ride took a little over an hour and we arrived mid-morning.

The Karla Caves and temple are at the top of a small mountain. Our driver (I'm ashamed to say that I don't know his name) drove us as far as he could and then we walked the rest of the way up the steep staircase. There were tonnes of people going up and down and the passageway was lined with vendors selling snacks, drinks, and little packages of flowers, coconuts, and fruit that serve as offerings at the temple. There weren't any other Western tourists so we attracted a bit of attention. The climb was steep, but very short. If desired, you could hire four strapping boys with bamboo sticks to haul your fat ass up the hill in a kind of chaise. It reminded us of the Simpsons episode when Homer was dragged up the mountain in his sleep by the sherpas.

Once we made it to the top, we saw there was an enormous, stagnant line-up of what looked like hundreds of people waiting to get in. We couldn't take the crowd, so we wandered around the hillside a bit and took some pictures of the view. We thought we'd wait until the crowd dispersed, but people kept coming and coming. Then, Marcelo realized that all those people weren't waiting to see the caves; they were waiting to worship at the temple. So, we easily popped in to see the caves only and at some points we had the place to ourselves.

These caves are said to be over 2000 years old. The main cave was quiet and vast. This was the only cave you needed a ticket to get into and it is beautifully kept. The ceiling is ribbed with curved wooden beams (like the body of a ship), which Marcelo says is actually the original wood. The friezes and other sculptures are intact enough to easily see what they represent. The large elephant sculptures have lost their trunks and tusks, but back in the day the tusks were made of real ivory.

We explored the rest of the smaller caves as well. The small ones had little decoration and looked very utilitarian. They all had what looks like a kneeling stone in the doorway, so perhaps they are shrines. We climbed a steep, dark, narrow staircase to get to the final upstairs cave. This one smelled like tinkle. A guy hanging out up there took our picture as we were taking pictures. I deserve it since I do this to people all the time. It makes me feel like a celebrity.

The drive back was a piece o' cake and I dozed most of the way. Before going to the hotel, we stopped off at Central again where Marcelo bought a little suitcase and some sandals for our beach weekend in Goa. On domestic flights in India, you're not allowed to take ANY liquids or gels in your carry-on, so we needed something small to check in. While Marcelo was trying on shoes, I wandered into sportswear and saw that they are selling New England Patriots hoodies. I wonder who buys them?

On the cab ride back to the hotel, I had a huge panic attack because I couldn't find my camera. I guess I had jumped out of the cab and left it on the seat, so our driver sweetly pocketed it for me for safe keeping. I heart India.

Due to the past 2 days of tummy trouble, we are trying to avoid anything deep-fried or spicy, so tonight we punked out and ate at Pizza Express. We had garlic bread, a marguerita pizza, and a pizza funghi and it was GLORIOUS. It was gentle on our tummies, familiar, and a nice change of pace after eating 100% Indian for the past 2 weeks. We may have a lot of howaito-san food this week while we are feeling a bit vulnerable.

We're leaving India exactly 2 weeks from tomorrow. Time flies. To see more pictures from today, see here. Until tomorrow...goodnight everyone.

2006-12-02T09:58:00.000+05:30

I think they call it Montezuma's Revenge?

Okay, so no caves for Marcelo and Kaori today. We're doing much better than yesterday though. I think Marcelo is actually up and about. He probably could have gone on the trip, but I don't think he wants to go alone. As for me, there is no way I could be more than 3 paces from a bathroom, let alone drive for 5 hours on a bumpy road. I'm disappointed that we're missing the caves, but it wasn't meant to be. There are some other caves closer by that can be done in a day trip, so we might do that tomorrow . We'll see.

I have taken so many pills in the past 38 hours. Check it out:

3 Ciprofloxacin (antibiotic)
4 Imodium
2 Acetominophen with codeine
1 birth control pill (I can't believe I remembered to take this)

The only things I've eaten since those GD prawns on Thursday night (maybe that's what this is all about?) is 2 1/2 white rolls and 3 bananas. So, my question is, how on earth can I be going to the bathroom every hour if I haven't eaten anything? Am I actually passing parts of my internal organs? Sorry. Just wondering.

I actually am feeling much better, but I do not heart India at the moment. There is a lot of construction going on in the hotel and there is a phone out in the hallway that rings constantly. I'm trying to make believe that I am at home so I drew the curtains, hid all the newspapers, and turned off the TV. I've just been lying on my bed and listening to my iPod that has the book-on-tape version of Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris loaded on it. David Sedaris is saving my life.

I think that all you guys at AV must be at the Christmas party right now. Hope you are having a good time. Maybe tomorrow some of you will be hung over and we can all be sick together.

2006-12-01T12:24:00.000+05:30

Sick

Hello everyone. Marcelo and I are both sick. Last night we had fevers, chills, nausea, etc. We both stayed at the hotel today and we're taking the antobiotics that our doctors gave us at home. I'm feeling better, I think. I hope we can still go to the caves tomorrow, but it's not looking good so far.

I'll update you all tomorrow.

Poor us.

2006-11-30T19:14:00.000+05:30

Missing India already

I had a dream last night that I was back at home and the trip was far in the past and I really missed India. I think I was a passenger in a car and I was thinking that it's so quiet (no honking, weaving, cows, dogs, carts, bicycles, motorcycles). I've really fallen in love with the place. Speaking of dreams, during my pre-dinner nap yesterday, I dreamt that Marcelo got tackled by Alicia Silverstone in a restaurant and I didn't try to help him. He was holding my camera at the time and I just knelt down, took my camera, and let her have at him. I'm not a good friend. I told this to Marcelo at dinner last night and this morning he told me that he dreamt that he got attacked by Molly Ringwald (as she looked in Pretty in Pink; not now).

Today was a beautiful, sunny day in Pune. Marcelo, unfortunately, has caught a cold. I feel like I might be getting it to, so I'm scarfing down vitamin C and echinacea -- I need to be healthy for the weekend. The hotel is much more crowded now with new 'howaito-san'. November/December is supposed to be conference season in Pune.

Are you all tired of hearing about everything that we eat? Breakfast is getting repetitive, I know. I'll put the picture in, but there was nothing that we haven't had before. Again, I'm so spoiled (ho -hum, Indian breakfast with 10 different items -- same old, same old).

I think that the SSS guys are getting saturated with information. I've been talking for about 2 weeks now, and I think we've reached critical mass. Tomorrow, we're going to quickly finish everything that is left (tickets, funds, utilities) and then I'll kick them out of the nest. They're anxious to start working, I think. A new resource is starting next week, but Marcelo thinks they should transfer the knowledge between themselves rather than me talking to this poor guy by himself for 2 weeks.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I noticed today that the security guards (one per floor) will stand up from their desks as we walk by them up the stairs. Again, it makes me feel like royalty. We' not worthy.

For lunch today, we went back to Sarjaa. I've thought about it, and this place that the best Indian food we've had so far. The naan is almost too hot to handle and is dripping with butter. I noticed today that my tummy has gotten noticeably bigger. Maybe we'll start skipping the butter...hmmmn...I think about it. We had our first aloo gobi of the trip. It was awesome -- large wedges of potato with cauliflower in a medium spicy sauce. Everything is good at this place.

In the afternoon, we had a meeting with one of SSS's automation experts and he talked in general terms about how they will approach automating our testing since the application is so configurable. It was so warm in there and I'm perpetually exhausted, so it was all I could do to stay awake, or at least appear awake. I kept drinking water, pulling my hair, digging my nails into my arm. I think I pulled it off, but I'm not sure.

Earlier on in the day, we noticed 3 young, slightly geeky, white guys and assumed that they were in software too. I met one of them in the elevator. Wesley is from South Africa, but he is working for MSN in Dublin with his two colleagues, Eamon and Peter. They are staying until Dec 15th just like us. At dinner tonight we ran into them again, so we had a drink and chatted. Wesley, Eamon, and Peter don't really like Indian food, so they don't heart India like we do. It doesn't sound like they are having a very good time. In describing life in India so far, Eamon kept saying, "Jesus F***ing Christ." With the Irish accent, it sounded pretty funny (that's funny ha ha).

For dinner, the maitre d' chose prawns with butter, lemon, and garlic for me. It was like having 4 lobster tails, but slightly smaller. I'd never had a prawn in my life. It was very much like lobster and it had these long, dainty legs draped everywhere. I'm so full.

On a completely unrelated topic, Darcy and I got our pictures back from the Toronto Half Marathon. There were photographers at the finish line who took at least one picture of every finisher and you could order them if you liked. We did because, hey, it was our first half marathon. Darcy gave me permission to post his picture. They are too big to insert, so please see today's photo album here.

Well, I'm slightly drunk and ready to drop. Goodnight all.

2006-11-29T22:40:00.000+05:30

Cultural Exchange

Today while training, we got sidetracked a bit by talking about Indian and Canadian everyday stuff. It started when I asked the guys to write the correct spellings of their names for me so that I could send them on to Brian to create AV email accounts. Chandrashekar wrote his name in English and then I asked him to write it in his native language script. I knew from the presentation by the SSS VP that there are more than 10 different scripts in India, and I was curious to see how they looked written by hand. Chandrashekar’s mother tongue is Telugu, so he wrote it in that script first. It's really beautiful and when he's writing, his motions are as if he's doing calligraphy. Hindi is the national language (learned in order communicate across India), so everyone can converse, read, and write in Hindi in addition to their mother tongue. Chandrashekar wrote his name in Hindi below the Telugu and it's a completely different character set.

Shirish’s mother tongue is Marathi whose script is very similar to Hindi, so he wrote his name for me in Hindi only. Bhaskaran is from Tamil Nadu, which is in the very southern tip of India, so his mother tongue is Tamil. Again, the Tamil and Hindi scripts are very different from each other. All of them are so pretty. I tried to take a picture of the notebook pages they wrote on, but it's a little hard to make out (see album here).

This conversation led to many ignorant questions from me about schooling, work, and social structure in India. They sweetly humoured me, and this is what I learned:

School

Children start some type of schooling when they are 2 years old. The divisions are as follows:

2 years old: Play Group
2 ½ years old: Nursery
3 ½ years old: Lower KG (Kindergarten?)
4 ½ years old: Upper KG
5 ½ years: 1st Standard (Primary School)
6 ½ years: 2nd Standard
7 ½ years: 3rd Standard
8 ½ years: 4th Standard
9 ½ years: 5th Standard (High School)
10 ½ years: 6th Standard
11 ½ years: 7th Standard
12 ½ years: 8th Standard
13 ½ years: 9th Standard
14 ½ years: 10th Standard
15 ½ years: 11th Standard (Intermediate School)
16 ½ years: 12th Standard

Intermediate School is like junior college in the States or CEGEP in Quebec. You have to choose a major (i.e. medicine, engineering, commerce, civil service, etc.). All engineering students, regardless of specialty (chemical, civil, electrical, computer, etc.) have to learn about computers and know at least one programming language. After Intermediate School is university. You can earn a Bachelor’s degree in 3 or4 years, just like in Canada. 60% of the workers at a company like SSS will have a Bachelor’s degree; 30-40% will have a Masters (!). Children living in a city like Pune will attend private schools all the way through their education. In less prosperous areas, more government (public) schools are available and well attended.

Caste system and education/employment

There are approximately 130 castes in India. The caste system is at least a thousand years old and is based on occupation. So, in general, people who have the same occupation are in the same caste. Your caste is determined by the occupation of your ancestors from ages ago. When you are born, you get a caste certificate, similar to a birth certificate. Like a birth certificate, it’s a document that stays with you your whole life and does not change.

Admission to schools as well as employment depends on your caste and sex. Equal opportunity measures have been put into place, so at any given school/job, 30% of positions are reserved for women, 20% for SC (Scheduled Castes), 20% for ST (Scheduled Tribes), 20% for OBC (Other Backward Classes). SC, ST, and OBC are castes that are viewed as lower level.

Marriage/Children

If your parents agree, you may marry someone outside your caste, but this is unusual (they think 0.1%). Children from the marriage will inherit their father’s caste. When you are born, you are given a first name, but your middle and last names come from your father (e.g., my name would be Kaori Hiroshi Furue). As a woman, when you get married, you take your husband’s names. So, my name would be have been changed upon marriage to Kaori Darcy Fiander. Men have the same name their whole lives.

If as a couple, you have only one child and that child is female (and you cannot have more children – sterile, etc.), the government will pay for your daughter’s education and they’ll give you 10,000 rupees. This is only for families with one girl child. If you have two, you do not qualify.

Work and Family

Family is very important in India. Unlike in North America where we have mostly nuclear families (parents and kids), in India parents, kids, grandparents, and inlaws frequently live together. Because of this, daycare is not very common. Usually, grandparents or other family are available to care for the family's children. In addition, since women are the primary caregivers, in the workplace it is understood they can only work from 10-5 because they have to take care of their children.

Only in IT-related fields do people work Monday-Friday with weekends off. In most occuptations, everyone works 6 days/week. In manufacturing, they have Thursdays off because there is no power on Thursdays (a conservation measure, maybe?). In government, they have Sundays off. Someone like our cab driver works 7 days/week and is on call 24/7. Shirish says there is no part time work in India. People work a minimum of 8 hours per day, but most work more.

In turn, Chandrashekar had lots of questions about Canada, including the cost of living (housing, transportation, gas, food), vegetation, regional differences, weather, etc. I'm always amazed to meet people who are interested in Canada because it seems so dull to me in comparison, but as much as I think it's different and interesting here, they must feel the same way to some extent.

This morning I was seriously hung over from all the carbs and deep-fried food we had yesterday. I ended up having only cubes of watermelon and mineral water for breakfast, so no photo today. We went to a new place for lunch though. It was a restaurant inside an apartment hotel called Seasons. It was a Indian/Chinese buffet and they had lots of salad and lighter food, so that was a relief. I started with a clear vegetarian soup with garlic, bok choy, carrots, and cauliflower. Marcelo has a the lightest cream of chicken soup in the world. It was really chicken broth with a teaspoon of cream and some shredded chicken. At the buffet, I had: cucumber corn salad, egg and pineapple salad (classic, creamy egg salad with pineapple in it), raw carrots, raw cucumber, raita (yogurt salad), murg lahori (chicken), Mexican eggplant (eggplant slices with tomato and peas), adraki paneer tikka (cottage cheese), dal palak (lentil and spinach), veg hakka noodle (chow mein-like thing), batata song (potato), and methi mutter malai (creamy peas and fenugreek). And we had naan on the side, of course. All the curries were yummy. I really enjoyed the egg and pineapple salad. Since this is what we do now, we had dessert too. I had mud cake (dark chocolate square), fruit tart (chocolate-filled pastry shell with whipped cream, fresh fig, plum, kiwi, and pineapple on top), strawberry mousse, and an anonymous 'Indian sweet' that was like a small piece of sponge cake soaked in rose water. The mud cake reminded us both exactly of Duncan Hines chocolate cake.

We declared victory over bundles finally. Tomorrow is Venue Config and Legends. There is only so much you can take in, so I think we're going at a good pace. I really want to finish all the content by Friday though.

Something that Marcelo tuned me into was North American TV shows dubbed in Hindi (I think). So far, Marcelo has watched Scooby Doo, Mr. Bean, and Full House. Tonight, Sylvester and Tweety was on, so I took a little video snippet so you all could watch too. I think Speedy Gonzales is speaking Hindi with a Mexican accent. To see the video, click here.

We had dinner in the hotel at Dhaba again. It's an excellent place and a lot of locals come to eat there too. With the light breakfast and semi-light lunch, I was ready for the buffet. So, I had chicken kabab, paneer achari, subz makhani, sum aloo punjab, sarson da saag, dal pancharatna, steamed rice, and buttered naan. For dessert, the chef insisted we try the gulab jamun. He said it's made by boiling and stirring milk for a long time, cooling it, making a paste, rolling it into balls, deep-frying it, and then soaking it in rose water syrup. It was like a really good Timbit...in rose water syrup.

Tonight, for some reason, my Internet connection wasn't working. I told the Front Desk and they said they'd send someone up (it was 10PM). I was thinking, "What, do they have system administrators working around the clock?" So, a few minutes later, two IT guys came to my room, fiddled around, and fixed it for me. Wild.

A very exciting piece of news is that we are all booked for our weekend visit to the Ajanta and Ellora caves. We'll be leaving on Saturday morning, seeing the caves, and staying overnight at the Taj Aurangabad. Check it out! I'm SO drinking beside the pool.

Well, I'm spent as usual. Goodnight everyone and until tomorrow...

2006-11-28T18:59:00.000+05:30

Working for the weekend

Okay, you guys, guess what?! Marcelo and I have the rest of our weekends in India planned already. Next weekend will be an overnight trip to the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, which are about a 5-hour drive away. The weekend after that we are going to Goa for a beach holiday (eeeeeeeeee!). Vijay, I know you think this is a waste of time for us since tropical beaches are the same everywhere, but we're suckers for the sun and sand. The hotel that we really want to stay at is the Fort Aguada Beach Resort, which is built on the ruins of an old Portuguese fort. It's very swank, but we may be able to get a corporate discount (fingers crossed). Now that I spent so much on pashminas, everything else in the world seems affordable. The next and last weekend, we are flying to Delhi and going to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra. The Taj Mahal is the most popular tourist attraction in India and we couldn't miss it even though it is far from us. It worked out well because we were supposed to fly through Delhi anyways. So now, we'll have a weekend between our flight to Delhi and our flight to Toronto instead of doing them in a row. Should be much better. Sonia from SSS has been such a huge help in planning our leisure time. I hope there is someone helping the SSS guys at Casero?

Today began with our usual breakfast. The same little kitten from last night was there again along with an older, scruffier cat. They both tried their best to catch some crumbs off tables, but the waiters are tenacious and efficient in chasing them away. If I could get away with it, I'd sneak them up to my room, but I doubt I'll be able to pull it off. There were lots of new people at breakfast this morning. One thing we've noticed is that the travellers at our hotel are not very friendly. No one is introducing themselves or saying stuff like, "Where you from?" The woman behind Marcelo at the buffet kept on giving him dirty looks like he was holding her up. I'm thinking, "Hey lady, we were here first. You just checked in last night." Our code word for white travellers in India is 'howaito-san', which means 'Mr./Ms. White' in Japanese. Howaito-san was cranky this morning.

Breakfast was delish as usual. I had the familiar items (pineapple, potato corn croquettes, egg bhurji, creamed corn, aloo paratha, medu wada, upma) as well as two new variations on staples (masala uttapam and masala idli). Masala uttapam is a white, sour pancake with tomato, coriander leaves, onion, and spices in it. Masala idli is plain idli cut up into chunks, tossed in masala (spice) and deep-fried. What will I do when I go home and I can't have three different deep-fried foods for breakfast? Poor me.

There is a lot of construction going on in the hotel. They are completing redoing the lobby and central atrium. Up until now, the work has been hidden by large cotton dropcloths. Today, they exposed some of it, and they have this amazing wooden scaffolding lashed with ropes that starts on the bottom floor and goes all the way to the top (5th floor). We think the scaffolding was built piece-by-piece by physically climbing up the structure as it was being built. It is incredible (I had trouble uploading this picture, so please see today's photo album). Renovations and construction are done at lightning speed here in India. We drove by the new SSS office site last week and it was a shell. The plan is to move some people there within 2 weeks. At first, I didn't believe it, but now I do. Marcelo said that if his downtown Toronto condo was being built in India, it would be done already instead of being 1 year overdue.

Today at work was another bundle day. They're really getting it and asking all the right questions. They are now familiar with season ticket, family pack, flexible concept, fixed concept, Desktop bundle sales, and Online bundle sales. They are already thinking about usability improvements, which is great since we need fresh eyes to notice these kinds of problems.

At lunch, we returned to the same place as yesterday, Sarjaa. The menu is huge and everything so far has been spectacular, so we're probably going to be locals there. Marcelo made excellent choices for us again: murg reshmi kabab (chicken and vegetable kabab served with creamy slaw), jhinga koliwada (deep-fried prawns tossed in masala and served with spicy slaw), palak paneer (smooth spinach and cottage cheese blend), gosht bhuna (spicy mutton curry), plain rice, and garlic naan (butter-drenched naan, absolutely covered in fresh garlic). Um, I have to say that we haven't had ANY bad Indian food in India yet. Everywhere has been so fresh and delicious. And we're hard-to-please high-maintenance princesses now. So, lunch was no exception. The chicken was the best chicken I've had in my life bar none. Marcelo said that it must have been marinated in yogurt for a long time. The meat was velvet soft and the sauce was creamy and perfect. The prawns were a spicy contrast to the chicken and the spinach dish. The mutton's texture was like slow-cooked stew meat -- it fell apart when you touched it. The garlic naan was good, but I was so self-conscious afterwards. We both subtly had some of my Listerine Pocket Paks strips before going back to the office. I think we'll stick to the plain, buttered naan from now on. For dessert (yes, now we're having dessert at lunch too), we had something called cassata, which I think it actually an Italian word. It was a frozen ice cream dessert with a sponge cake base, three layers of different flavoured ice cream, and a top coat of nuts. This is my new favourite dessert. I like it even better than the kulfi.

The afternoon was uneventful except that someone I didn't know sat in my office while I was in the training room and used my phone. I barged in by mistake because I assumed only I was using that room. I just grabbed my bottle of water and left and didn't mention it to anyone. By the time I cam back an hour later, a little sign was put up on my door that said the room was reserved for me. I'm so coddled. Marcelo got a similar sign too.

In the evening, Marcelo had to interview a possible new resource from Bangalore, so we had dinner late. Just before we went down, it started pouring again. That makes 3 times in a little over a week when usually they don't get any rain at all in winter. We seriously brought it with us.

So, because of the rain, we had dinner in the hotel again. We thought we'd go to the poolside restaurant because it's not a buffet, so in theory we'd eat less. Here is what we ended up having: mulligatawny soup (Marcelo), sweet corn soup with chicken (me), chicken kerala kabab (chicken leg stuffed with minced lamb), jeera aloo (potato with cumin seeds), peas pulao (rice with peas, crispy onions, and peanuts), and buttered naan. Our line of thinking was that we wanted chicken and potato. Then, we thought we should have a vegetable. So, we picked the peas pulao because then we could have rice too. But, what happened was that the chicken was an appetizer. So, our main courses were rice, potatoes, and bread. Then we thought, "Hey, we should have dessert." Something called Honey Noodles with Ice Cream sounded interesting. I was honestly thinking it was vermicelli, honey, and ice cream. It turned out to be deep-fried rice noodles soaked in honey, dusted with powdered sugar, and topped with sesame seeds. With vanilla ice cream on the side. So, basically funnel cake. Nevermind trying to fit into the economy airline seat, I hope can make it through the metal detector archway.

Goodnight everyone.

2006-11-27T18:49:00.000+05:30

SSS Rocks

I just got back from the SSS offices and I have to say that I don't think there is any way this automation project can fail. The team is so sharp and experienced. We took some time today for them to explain to me how they'll approach the automation project, what they need from us, and what their next steps will be. They've done this a million times before, so aside from the info they need from us, they know exactly what to do and how long it will take. When Marcelo first told me we'd be using Indian resources for automation, I wasn't sure how it would go, but now I can safely say it's in the best hands. We will learn a lot about QTP and automated test planning/execution from them.

This morning I had my first little spot of tummy trouble. Nothing serious, but I had to let Marcelo go down to breakfast alone and I joined him later. It was no big deal. It was probably that green chili pepper masquerading as a green bean. Since I was so rushed, I forgot to take my customary picture of breakfast, but it was pretty much the same as usual: paneer paratha with mango pickle, medu wada, plain uttapam, rawa upma (rawa is a particular grain; upma = raw), sezwan idli (sezwan = schezwan; in this case, with tomato and ginger), and potato croquettes. Yeah, my stomach wasn't really that upset. One of the maitre d's came over while I was writing stuff down and explained everything to me. I've noticed, here at least, that if you show an interest in food, the chefs, cooks, waiters, etc. are happy to explain things to you. It's so nice.

In the paper this morning, there were a few articles on the marathon. Apparently, we were mistaken before about the number of participants. There were actually 50, 000 runners; not 30,000! So, that would be almost twice as big as the New York City marathon. The men's winner was a Swedish man of Moroccan descent, Said Regragui, 32, who finished in 2:18:23. The rest of the top ten were from Tanzania, Eithiopia, Kenya, and Russia. I guess one of the really elite Tanzanian runners got sick in the middle of the race from low glucose levels, but he dragged himself to the finish anyways and came in 21st. Normal blood sugar is 70 to 150 mg/dl and his had dropped to 32. On the women's side, the top three finishers were Kenyan. Hellen Nzembi Musyoka, 19, came in first and this was her very first international appearance. I've seen her around the hotel. The runners are still in town and they were having breakfast with us again this morning. I took another clandestine picture of them. I am officially the papparazzi.

We've already started discussing our plans for upcoming weekends. We are either flying to Goa for a beach weekend, or travelling 300 or so miles to the Ellora Cave Temples. For our last weekend, we'll probably fly to Delhi on the Friday, stay for the weekend, see the Taj Mahal, and then fly from Delhi to Toronto on the following Monday (21.5 hour flight!). Needless to say, I am so excited.

For lunch today, we went to a restaurant around the corner called Sarjaa. When we exited the building, Pradeep automatically brought the car around for us thinking we'd be going far. I think that he waits outside all day and is on the lookout in case we need him. When you have a car service in Canada, is it like this? Again, I feel so spoiled. We're giving Pradeep an enormous tip at the end of the month.

At the restaurant, they had both Indian and Chinese food, but we opted for the Indian of course. We had paneer malai kabab (cottage cheese and vegetable grilled on sticks), gosht seekh kabab (spicy ground mutton sausage on sticks) , mutter paneer (peas and cottage cheese), murg adraki (chicken with ginger), and naan dripping with butter. The gosht seekh kabab was so good -- spicy and served with shredded cabbage and onions tossed in the same spices. The paneer kabab was bland, which was nice after the spicy mutton and it was served with the same slaw but in a mild creamy dressing. The mutter paneer and murg adraki were both excellent scooped up with the butter-soaked naan bread. We asked for medium spicy, but it was pretty mild. We're still getting the 'white people' spiciness, I think. SSS's holiday party is on December 9, so maybe we'll get to try the real thing there.

The afternoon was spent practicing bundle configuration. We did season tickets and tomorrow we're going to do family pack. Then on to venue configuration. All the formal training should be wrapped up by the end of the week, and then they can start planning the framework and writing actual scripts. I'm really excited to see what they can do. They said the scripts will reuse as many functions as possible, so they should be much shorter and faster than the ones we tried to make.

Next to the SSS building, two new buildings are being constructed. I took pictures last week because I was so impressed that there wasn't one piece of heavy machinery on the site. People (men and women) are using shovels to digs and sacks to carry dirt. Even so, they put up an entire floor in less than 5 days (see photos). Everything here is done so efficiently with little or no equipment.

At dinner tonight, we went to the poolside restaurant. I expressed an interest in lobster a few days ago, so the maitre d' has been wanting me to come by and have some. Chef Gomes from Dhaba was there tonight too and he said he would make it for me. It turned out to be Lobster Thermidor -- a very heavy, creamy, cheesy preparation. It has some lemon juice in it too, which I'm sure cancelled out all the fat. It was actually really good and I ate almost the whole thing. Even though I was having a French dish, I still got some naan bread, which was a good thing because if only Marcelo got it I would have been jealous. Marcelo had tandoori chicken.

While we were eating, the dirty little kitten that I mentioned last week was crawling under our table and meowing really loudly. She reminds me of those poor little kids who sell flowers in traffic when the cars are stopped. She had the same look on her face and she was really persistent. I really wanted to feed her, but I'm sure the waiters wouldn't want that, so I didn't. I was hoping my window faces that direction so I could throw down some stuff from my mini bar, but it doesn't.

For dessert (yes, I had a whole lobster and I'm having dessert -- don't judge me), I had something called Royal Falooda, which was a pink, rose-flavoured ice creamy drink with vermicelli and little tapioca-like globules in it. It was yummy and cold.

For some reason, the pictures of the kitten and my lobster are being inserted sideways. For more pictures from today, see here. I'm actually back in my room early tonight, so I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep. Until tomorrow...

2006-11-26T16:50:00.000+05:30

Marcelo and Kaori's Pune International Marathon

Today was a marathon in more ways than one -- we completely outdid ourselves. We got up at 6:15 in order to have breakfast and get to the start line by 7:30 AM. Breakfast was awesome as usual, and I had an especially big appetite. You are all familiar with most of the things (plain idli, creamed corn, papaya, pineapple, poha, banana pancake, vegetable cutlet, and medu wada). The only new item today was the aloo paratha, which was stuffed with potato -- there are no words for how good it was.

The theme of the day was being in the right place at the right time. One of the race volunteers was in the lobby, so she gave directions to the start line to the rickshaw driver for us. This was our first time in a rickshaw and it's not nearly as scary as it looks. It's like being in a golf cart/carnival ride. They are everywhere, so it's the most convenient way to travel. But, since rickshaws are so small (the steering mechanism is like a moped), the drivers tend to weave in and out of traffic and go through red lights, kind of like bicycles do. But, like I said, it's surprisingly not scary. To view a short video of our ride, see it on YouTube here.

There were tonnes of people both participating in and watching the marathon. The race began at one end of a bridge crossing the Mutha river. There were military-looking guards keeping people from walking across the bridge to watch, but he sweetly let us through. We made it in time to see the first start (wheelchair division), which was closly followed by the men's full marathon. Many of the runners were running barefoot. I got a short video clip of the front of the pack as they ran across the bridge, see here.

There were several different sub-races going on: women's half marathon, men's 10k, women's 10k, under-19 8k, under-17 5k, under-15 4k, senior citizens' 3k, as well as the enormous AIDS Charity Run. Marcelo and I stood and watched people cross the start line for 30 minutes and then we gave up -- they just kept coming and coming and coming. The paper said that there were 30,000 runners in total across all events.

We made our way through the streets on foot to get to the finish line at Nehru Stadium. This is the first time we actually walked around and it wasn't bad. One thing I absolutely love in India is the stray dogs. No one is threatened by them and they are allowed to roam free in the streets. They are skinny, but not unhealthy and they have such a relaxed attitude. They'll sleep anywhere (including in the street) and they don't beg for food. In North America, they would be stray dogs, but here they're just dogs.

We managed to find our way to the stadium. The entrance was way too narrow and there were so many people. We met one of the officials by chance when we went the wrong way around the stadium and he led us in. It was the worst crowd situation I've ever been in. People were packed tightly together and it was all I could do to keep up with our new friend. If it wasn't for him, maybe we wouldn't have gotten in at all. At certain points, the forward movement stopped but people kept pushing, so I started to think of the message that the hotel would have to send to AudienceView and our families along the lines of 'sorry to inform you, Marcelo and Kaori were crushed at Nehru Stadium'. Don't worry. It really wasn't that bad.

The stands held 20,000 people, but we weren't allowed to go up there unless we were in one of the races. So, we staked out a spot on the lawn that was blissfully spacious. The first finisher came across the line at about 2:20. I couldn't make out the announcement, so I don't know who won, but he looked African. The finishers were staggered quite far apart. I missed the winner, but I got some footage of some of the top 10 runners, see here. Some official-looking young security guards lined the last leg of the race for the first 4 runners, but after that they dispersed and not many people were paying attention to the runners anymore. The focus was really on the party in front of the grandstand where a band named Asma (?) was playing and a radio personality was entertaining the crowd. Everyone was milling around there, so it was relatively easy to slip out.

We set out again on foot for a little bit. I bought a strange fruit snack from a street vendor for 7 rupees. I think he totally fleeced me, but we're talking about 20 cents here. The fruit looked like a green apple, but it was soft inside kind of like an avocado. He cut it up for me and sprinkled spicy chili powder in it. It was interesting.

We caught another rickshaw (we're old hat at this now) to the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel, which is a swank 5-star that was totally booked when Marcelo was arranging our travel. It's definitely fancier than our hotel, but I like ours better -- more homey. We wandered around a bit and then had lunch at the cafe. We ordered fresh lime sodas (exactly what we needed) along with wada pav (deep-fried potato croquette on a white bun), mini samosas (our first samosas this trip), and aloo tuk (deep-fried potatoes tossed in spices). Everything was so good. The wada pav was like a little Indian burger. If you look at the picture of the aloo tuk, you'll see what looks like a green bean on top of the potatoes. I had thought this was a green bean, but actually it is a deep-fried green chili pepper. I popped the whole thing in my mouth and ate it in one fell swoop. The error of my judgement quickly took over my mouth and I had to leave the table and regroup in the bathroom. It wasn't that bad though. Could have been much worse with a smaller chili.

After lunch, the intention was to do a little walking/window shopping. This quickly turned into me spending a whole lot of cash, but I think it was worth it. First, we popped into the Nike Store and I bought an official India cricket practice jersey for Darcy as well as a t-shirt with one of the national team's player's name and number. They look cool. Then, and this is the really disastrous part, we popped into a store selling pashminas, silk scarves, blouses, jewelry, and rugs. I started by looking at the blouses and bought a nice one for myself. Then he showed me the handmade silk scarves and I just had to have 4. Then he showed me the pashminas. First he took out the cotton ones, then the cotton/wool ones, then the 100% Kashmir Pashmina wool (from the beard of a goat only) ones, then the 100% Kashmir Pashmina wool with embroidery. I've never felt anything like this Pashmina wool in my life -- it is other worldy. I ended up buying 4 of the most expensive kind. Vijay, I think they fleeced me here, but I couldn't say no. You'll have to tell me how stupid I was when I get back. The great thing with a foreign currency is that you have no idea what you are spending. I wouldn't let Marcelo tell me until we'd left the store. The people working there were so grateful; they gave Marcelo and I free jewelry boxes and small vials of saffron.

Lastly we went to a very North American-like department store called Central. There were multiple floors of men's clothes, women's clothes, shoes, housewares (lots of pressure cookers), and food. Marcelo bought some Indian sweets and I had the most delicious samosa.

By this time we had been out for 9 hours, so we grabbed another rickshaw back to the hotel. At one point, the driver had us smack in the middle of a huge intersection with traffic about to come in all directions. People are very alert here though. I haven't seen any accidents since that first night in Mumbai.

We had grand intentions to take a rickshaw and have dinner somewhere else in the city, but after relaxing at the hotel for 3 hours, we didn't want to go anywhere. Instead, we went back to Puran Da Dahaba, the traditional Indian restaurant on the first floor. The food here is exceptionally good -- we are lucky it is in the hotel. We started with the usual peanuts, pappadums, and appetizers (lentil soup, fried fish with vegetable slaw, and mutton liver). The mutton liver was great -- I'd never had it before. It was in a sweet, slightly spicy sauce. The soup was amazing -- fragrant, but with a latent spicy kick.

It was the manager's wedding anniversary, so he sent each of us a piece of pineapple cake. I don't have a photo because I inhaled it without thinking. It was a very light, moist sponge cake with whipped creamy icing and fresh pineapple -- best cake ever, I'm serious. I saw the same cake in the carousel in the other restaurant on my way back up to my room. I couldn't totally eat a whole one for dinner.

I was taking notes on the names of the buffet items, so the corporate (executive) chef, David Gomes, came over and explained EVERYTHING to me. Here are some of my notes:

Vegetarian

paneer amritsari: a cottage cheese dish from Punjab.
subzi khada masala: subzi = vegetable (cauliflower?), khada masala = whole spices. Khada masala comprises spices like cardamom, cloves, and ginger.
kalonji ke baingan: kalonji = onion seed. This dish has onion and eggplant.
sarson da saag: made from mustard leaves.
rajma masala: with red kidney beans.
dal vegetable shorba: this soup starts with vegetable stock made from cooking vegetables with khaga masala. After boiling for 2-3 hours, ginger, garlic, and chilies are sauteed together, then then vegetable stock is added. Sometimes white flour is also added, along with salt, lemon juice, and coriander leaves.

Non-vegetarian

patayali shahi gosht: patayali = place in Punjab, shahi = royal, gosht = mutton.
gosht biryani: rice with mutton and khada masala.
dahiwala kukkad: dahiwala = curd, kukkad = chicken.
gosht shorba = mutton soup.

Fruit (all of these fruit grow in India)

pineapple
papaya
pomegranate
sweet lime (very mild lime)
bananas
guava (this is what I had on the street!)

Desserts

cham cham: milk-based spongeydessert from East India. Topped with pistachios and edible silver.
pedha: small rounds made of milk and saffron.
chawal kneer: chawal = rice. Rice with nuts.
gajor halwa: grated carrot with pistachio.

Some other tidbits from Chef Gomes:

khada masala spices are good for strengthening your immune system
curry powder is not curry
no preserved foods are used in his restaurant

He also let me watch them make a piece of naan and cook it in the tandoor. There was a tray of little balls of dough covered with cloth on the counter. The cook pressed it onto a disc, flipped it around a little, and then slapped it on the wall of the tandoor. It puffed up in no more than 10-15 seconds and he removed it with metals tongs. Chef Gomes says you should always have butter with naan unless you're allergic (suits me!). The naan is so good here. We get to eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven. Again, we're so spoiled! Marcelo and I both had two orders each tonight. I hope we can fit in the economy class seats on the flight back.

I took a tonne of pictures in addition to the ones you see here, so if you want to see them, click here. Well, it's been a full day and it's back to work tomorrow. Hope you are all well! Goodnight.

2006-11-25T18:11:00.000+05:30

We kicked the ass of Pune today

What I mean is that we saw SO much stuff today. After consulting with the travel desk at the hotel, we decided to go to the Aga Khan Palace (where Gandhi was imprisioned), Parvati Hill (the highest point in Pune), Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, Shaniwar Wada (a historical fort), and the Pataleshwar Cave Temple (a rock cut temple).

But, before I get into the details, let me start from the beginning. Last night I was absolutely spent, so I went to bed at 11PM and slept a glorious 9.5 hours until 8:30AM. I felt so much better. We just caught the tail end of breakfast at 10AM and I had an enormous appetite. As usual, there were many new things as well as variations on old ones. I had shira (a sweet grain dish that I can't seem to find any information about on the Internet), plain uttapam, medu wadas, puri bhaji (deep-fried bread with spicy potato curry on top -- crazy good), idli with green candied fruit (not really a fan -- too sweet), sambhar (a mild, watery, tomato-based lentil soup with vegetables that Marcelo says is for dipping idli into), potato corn croquettes, and a rose pancake that was pink inside and tasted daintily like a rose. Some more elite runners were at the next table. I think they were Russian. They were so young -- must have been teenagers. The six of them couldn't weigh any more than 600 lbs total, but they put away a lot of food. This is the best place to carb load. I do it every day, but without the marathon running.

On our way out, the man who cleans our rooms said hello to us and asked us how the service was. He told me that he's the one who cleans my room every day. Everyone at this hotel is so nice it breaks my heart.

Along the same lines, Pradeep drove us everywhere today and waited for us as we saw things. We weren't sure if we were supposed to call him on the weekend, but he didn't seem bothered by it. We aren't going to call him tomorrow though.

So, today we started at Aga Khan Palace. The palace is where Gandhi was imprisioned by the British in 1942 with his wife and secretary. He was arrested for inspiring Indians to resist their British-imposed participation in World War II due to the fact that they would be fighting for a democracy while being denied one of their own. This famous movement was called Quit India and is beautifully rendered in this painting (note the image of Gandhi in the mountain). The room that he and his wife slept in was on display as well as some of his personal effects.

Gandhi's personal secretary had died of a heart attack just six days after arriving at the palace. On one of the walls of the palace, this is what it said about his death:

Within a week of detention at Aga Khan Palace, Gandhi suffered a grievous bereavement. He lost Mahadev Desai, his faithful and able secretary who had served him nearly thirty-five years without any rest and who had "reduced himself to zero".

On the morning of the 15th of August 1942, he died of heart attack. Gandhi stood by the bedside calling out, "Mahadev, Mahadev". In anguish, Gandhi said, "if he only opens his eyes and looks at me once, he won't go". Mahadev never opened his eyes.

With trembling hands, Gandhi washed the body and annointed it with sandal and decorated it with flowers whispering, "Mahadev, I thought you would do this for me. Now I have to do it for you."

The authorities had brought a lorry with police and Brahmins. They wanted to take away the body and cremate it. But Gandhi would not have it. "No father can hand over the body of his son to strangers", he said. "Mahadev was more than a son to me. I would like to perform his last rites myself. But if the Government cannot take me outside, I am prepared to hand it over to friends, but I won't hand it over to the jail officials."

Gandhi sat thinking for a moment, then he said, "I do not want to make the death of my son into a political issue. If government will not allow me to go out and cremate the body nor hand it over to friends, I will have the cremation here."

Ultimately the Government yielded. In the afternoon a mournful little procession followed Mahadev's bier to a corner of the palace grounds. Gandhi followed the body with a staff in one hand and a pot of fire in the other. After a short religious ceremony, Gandhi lighted the pyre and soon there was a blaze. "Mahadev has lived up to the 'Do or Die' mantra", he asserted. "This sacrifice cannot but hasten the day of India's deliverance."

The gardens and paths around the palace were lovely and quiet. We passed underneath a stone tunnel where some fabrics and snacks were being sold. I bought the most beautiful silk sari for my mom. It is made of pure silk, but it was only 918 rupees ($26 CDN). I took way too many pictures to display in this blog, so I made a Rogers photo album, which you can view here.

Next we went to Paravati Hill, which is a hilltop temple and museum. It is the highest point in Pune (2100 feet above sea level) and has an amazing view of the city. We had no idea it was so big. To get to the top, one must climb 103 steps, which was challenging in the heat. There were lots of goats and kids trotting around the area. We also saw some birds that look like ravens only smaller with iridescent blue feathers. There was an Indian chipmunk that looked much like a Canadian one, but with prettier, more dramatic markings.

Before going into the temple area we had to check in our shoes, so we walked around the temple and museum in sock feet. Our soft, white soles got some splinters in them, but we got them all out before heading back. The temple was very beautiful, but I don't think we were supposed to take pictures of it -- a monk caught Marcelo and he got scolded.

The museum was interesting -- lots of artifacts like silver jewelry, wooden and copper utensils, and ancient coins. I was amazed to see ancient versions of what we think is a Swiss Army knife. I think the Swiss stole the patent on that one. The guard was super friendly and he turned on the overhead fans just for us -- I guess we must have been sweating a lot. I don't have any pictures inside the museum because after getting yelled at by the monk, we weren't sure if it was allowed. For the few pictures I did get (mostly goats), see here.

Next we went to the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, which is a huge museum housing the private collection of the museum's namesake. We had that problem that occurs at the Louvre where there is so much to see, you start breezing by a lot of really amazing things. As with the temple museum, there were many everyday living things like coins, utensils, combs, furniture, fabrics, clothes, lamps, and vessels. They also had beautiful, ornate dark wooden doors and windows. All items regardless of type had intricate decorative detail. Most artifacts were from the 18th and 19th century, but some stone statues were as old as the 9th century. I don't have any pictures at all because photography was 'strictly prohibited'. Poo. I bought some catalagues though.

By this time we had run out of cash (my fault for buying the sari and catalogues). We wanted to go to a bank, but Pradeep thought we should go to Shaniwar Wada first. It cost 100 rupees to get in, so we couldn't afford to enter, but we walked around the perimeter. Shaniwar Wada is a palace fort built in 1732AD that served as the seat of the Peshwa rulers. There were lots of Indian tourists and people relaxing around the grounds (picknicking, playing cricket). For more pictures, see here. Our tour around the perimeter was the first time we actually walked in the streets in Pune (we've been carted around everywhere so far). We thought it would be scary due to all the traffic and lack of sidewalks, but it wasn't. There's lots of people walking and the traffic moved pretty slow.

We stopped at Citibank to get a wad of rupees. The bank machine gave us our balances in rupees so it looked like we're loaded! Bank machines are a little hard to come by in the city. Or perhaps, we can't identify them because we can't read the script.

Lastly we went to the Pataleshwar Cave Temple. Apparently, it was carved out of a single enormous stone. There are stairs leading down to a sort of gazebo where university students hang out and study. Further in is a dark enclave with several altars. I saw one man praying in stages -- first ringing a brass bell, kneeling, and repeating this as he moved further into the darkness. It was a very quiet and peaceful place. The stone must absorb a lot of the noise because as soon as we left, the traffic sounds were deafening. For more pictures, see here.

Once back at the hotel we relaxed for a few hours. The runners were all trickling back to the hotel after picking up their race kits (they all had really low numbers, so they must be good!). I had sent my laundry out this morning and checked the 'Tomorrow' box (btw, the options are Today, Tomorrow, and Express), but it was ready this evening. I don't know what they do, but my clothes smell fresh, but not of detergent, and they look like new! I'll say again that I'm so spoiled. I wish I could send my laundry out at home.

For some reason, the managers wanted to treat us to a complimentary dinner at the restaurant where we usually have breakfast. I think today is the last day of the Oriental Food Festival that has been going on since we arrived. Tonight we had the usual starters (fried peanuts, pappadum) as well as some other appetizers (fried mackerel, deep-fried potatoes in spicy honey sauce, and baby corn sates). For our main course, we had the buffet (prawns in oyster sauce, deep-fried vegetarian balls, eight jeweled fried rice -- jewels are candied fruit, potato and corn mix, chile mushroom, chili chicken, and fried okra with red chili paste). Tonight one of the cooks, Shahbaz, introduced himself to me and showed me all the food, including the vegetable/fruit sculptures. What I had though was a bouquet of flowers was actually carved from zucchini with green onions as stems and a papaya as the pot. He also showed me some watermelons sliced with curvy vertical cuts. We exchanged email addresses and he promised to send me pictures every day of the sculptures they do.

Tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM, the gun goes off for the start of the 21st Pune International Marathon. We are going to go to the start line and watch them go and then travel to the finish line at Nehru Stadium. I'm am so excited. Goodnight everyone.

2006-11-24T19:19:00.000+05:30

Elite marathon runners...at my hotel! We eat the same breakfast!

We found out the coolest thing today. The Pune International Marathon is the day after tomorrow (November 26) and a whole bunch of the elite runners are staying at our hotel. There were about 20 Kenyan runners having breakfast at the same time as us. They were so beautiful and tall. Mostly men, but there were a couple of girls too. Then, in the evening we saw more elite runners checking in, but they were a bunch of tanned, white guys. I'm not sure yet where they're from. Maybe we'll see them in the bar...but they're racing on Sunday, so maybe not.

I hope I'm not boring you all with the play by play of the food. I can't help it. They keep serving new things at breakfast, so I have to try them and find out what they are. I was feeling a little bit of fish hangover from last night, so I didn't have much this morning, but the new things that I tried were: egg bhurji (egg with peppers and green onions), cheese uttapam (soft, sour, white package with cheese), and mulli (radish) paratha. The mulli paratha tasted like it was stuffed with cabbage, but Google says it's type of radish. I made the mistake of taking my malaria pill after only eating a little breakfast. That in combination with the sleep deprivation made me feel like of nauseous and absolutely exhausted. Lesson learned.

We were supposed to do bundles today, but I couldn't face it. I need to make a real lesson plan first because I'm afraid of confusing them. So, we put that off until Monday. Instead, we took a look at the bug system, set up Online, and tried to run through some test cases. Everything was going wrong with the build though. We got a big, fat system error when trying to begin to create a new customer, which I know was not in the tagged version. Richard is going to look into it for me though, as usual. :)

At lunch, we were waited on hand and foot again by the office boys. They brought us paneer, biryani, roti, and pickled onions with lemon. We are so spoiled. Then, they brought us ice cream and sweet yogurt with pineapple. Marcelo had vanilla and I had macadamia, I think. To die for, as usual. The office boys are so adorable and sweet.

The afternoon was low key and we left fairly early. As soon as we left the office, it started pouring again. Apparently, it is very very unusual for it to rain ever in the winter let alone twice in 2 days. I think we're bad luck.

Tonight there was a banquet for the elite marathon runners. I was hoping to catch another glimpse, but they were behind closed doors. I want to try to watch some of the race on Sunday. Hopefully it won't rain. I can't picture how they will close the streets though. There are millions of people everywhere on these convoluted streets.

Marcelo and I went to the bar for dinner. I had a forgettable veggie platter. At some places, we've found that they make this faux spicy sauce out of ketchup that looks like the real thing, but is so disappointing. I really couldn't eat it. My first less than perfect experience. Marcelo had a lamb cutlet, which he said was very good, but heavy. And he had specifically wanted something light -- best intentions foiled.

So, tomorrow we begin our first weekend in India. We'll probably stay around Pune and explore. I can't wait. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow night.

2006-11-23T19:15:00.000+05:30

We heart India

Marcelo and I continue to lead the charmed life in India. We both overslept, so we had to rush a little bit through our daily poolside breakfast. This morning, the restaurant was full of people. Perhaps there is a conference or something. Usually, there is only 10 people tops. We've become so spoiled -- I was annoyed that I had to wait at the buffet. But, I powered through and got my share of methi paratha (Google says that methi is fenugreek), vegetable idli, vegetarian cutlet (deep-dried potato and corn croquette-like thing served, strangely, with BBQ-flavoured potato chips), onion uttapa, medu wada, and sabudana khichadi (a globular grain cooked soft and mixed with herbs-- very mild). What will I do when I can't have an Indian breakfast buffet next to the pool every morning? Sigh.

I realized today that I didn't know our driver's name and I was referring to him as driver (not to him, of course), just like Karen on Will & Grace. Our driver's name is Pradeep and he is an excellent and ridiculously punctual driver. When he says he'll be there in 2 minutes, he means it literally.

Training continues to go well with the team. We've gone over installation, online setup, customers, orders, series config, and performance config. They have been studying on their own, so I find that they know way more than I have told them. They're so quick. You know how they say that IT workers in India could take your job because the labour is cheaper? Well, not only it is cheaper, but it's better. They're kicking my ass. If Marcelo decides to get rid of me, I'll understand.

Santosh continues to take care of our every need. Today for lunch he made reservations for us at a place called Mainland China. It was a very upscale-looking restaurant that could have been in any city in the world. We had the most delicious prawn dim sum appetizers. It was upscale-type dim sum (like you'd get at Lai Wah Heen), but it was priced like in Chinatown. Then we had mapo tofu (a Chinese spicy tofu and ground meat dish) made from lamb, stir-fried 'buddhist' vegetables (zucchini, bamboo shoots, baby corn, black fungus, broccoli, cauliflower, and bok choy), and steamed rice. The food was dished out for us by the waiter and my tea cup kept on being magically replenished without my knowledge. The bill cam to 788 rupees, which is like $22 CDN -- insane. The bathroom was amazing too. Marcelo said that in the men's bathroom, there was a sign saying that you could purchase things like reading glasses of varying prescriptions, contact lens solutions, and woollen shawls from the restaurant if you needed them. Wild.

So, after our customary 2-hour lunch, we returned to the office and continued with training. At about 5PM the skies opened up and it started to pour. It rained for probably about an hour, which is very rare for winter. The team told us that usually it only rains during monsoon season, which is 4 months long ending in October, I think. So, this was special. We all went up to the covered rooftop cafeteria and watched the rain. The team told us that it can rain for up to one week solid during the monsoon season.

The rooftop cafeteria is awesome. They have free homemade chai tea up there that was so good. Very milky and sweet with ginger. I loved it. They also sell snacks up there, but that will have to wait for another day. The team had lots of questions about what Canada was like. They asked what kind of national cuisine we have and we said that there really isn't one. I think they didn't get that. Answers to that question are always about Canadian ingredients (Maritime lobster, Alberta beef, etc.) and not Canadian preparation. I hope to get angry comments from you all in Canada along with a list of our national foods because I can't think of anything. And don't say poutine. I mean, I love it too, but I don't think we should brag about it.

Marcelo and I were wondering what they would think if they visited Canada. There is so much to see in India (temples, forts, hill stations, tombs, caves), but what would they possibly want to see in Toronto? Niagara Falls? CN Tower? That's all I got, so please, send me your ideas.

Well, Vijay, I got a picture of the team for you, so you can see who everyone is. From left to right is Bhaskaran, Shirish, and Chandrashekar. Bhaskaran and Chandrashekar said that they are from the same area as you. Maybe when you come to India for your brother's wedding you could meet everyone?

For dinner tonight we stayed in and went to the poolside restaurant where we have breakfast. We were admiring the display of whole fish and shellfish next to the chef's station and the maitre d' sweetly identified all the fish for us (pomfret, sardines, small mackerel, large mackeral, lobster, crab, and something he translated as princess fish). Then he asked us if we wanted to eat a whole fish. Of course we said yes and it was whisked away and cooked sort of Chinese-style. It was cut into pieces, stuffed with garlic and herbs, battered, deep-fried, topped with a slaw of red pepper, carrots, green onions, and garlic and displayed with the head and tail. I know I've said this about everything, but it was incredible. The fish was really fresh so even though it was mackerel, it wasn't fishy. The sauce was sweet, a little bit spicy, and full of garlic and the batter was light and crisp. It was huge. We ate almost the whole thing and didn't have anything else on the side, so unlike the rest of our meals, it was all protein.

I took a lot of pictures of the chef and cooks. They kept on setting the wok on fire (to clean it, maybe?). After a bit, I think they were performing for my camera. :) I noticed from the pictures I took of the team and of the cooks that the people here do not smile for photos. Japanese people don't either...I'm not sure why. It makes my toothy grin stand out even more.

Marcelo said that before dinner he watched a live yoga class on TV. It was held outside by a famous yogi whose names escapes me and there were what looked like thousands of people there. Apparently, the yoga classes that we take in Toronto are very similar to this one, so we're actually getting the real deal, which is nice to know.

I think that the people at SSS are planning weekend sightseeing for us. I. AM. SO. EXCITED. I'll take pictures and blog, of course. Goodnight everyone.

2006-11-22T23:43:00.000+05:30

SSS stands for Symphony Secret Services

So, a really funny thing happened today. Marcelo and I met with one of the senior vice presidents at Symphony, Shirish Deodhar. The first thing he said after the introductions was, "is it you who has the blog?" I guess that the marketing department must subscribe to a media service (like AudienceView does) that pulls down pages with any mention of the company. So, the service found my blog and he read it! I was so embarassed. For everyone at Symphony Services who is reading this now, I hope I didn't offend anyone with my ignorant assumptions. Marcelo and I have nicknamed the company SSS (Symphony Secret Services) because they know everything. :) But, rather than crawl back into my shell, I'm still going to blog about the rest of our trip, but perhaps I will behave myself a little more.

Today began with another all-carb all-Indian breakfast. Most of the items were the same as yesterday, but with slight variations. The paratha of the day was cheese (cheddar? I could be totally wrong) and green chile, and the idli was tomato rather than spinach. A new thing I tried today was rawa upma, which resembled a really thick but smooth couscous with spices and cashews. The chef said that rawa is a kind of grain. It was so delicious. Marcelo and I think it's probably one of those things that you can try to cook yourself, but it would be a disaster.

Then our driver picked us up for our daily commute to the office. I didn't mention before that he is our own personal driver so we can call him at any time. I've never had a driver in my life (except for my dad and that was only before I got my drivers' license). We feel quite unworthy.

Along the same lines, when I got to my office, there was a fresh bottle of water and an ice cold Diet Coke waiting for me. Santosh explained to Marcelo that there are 'office boys' who do operations/administration work. Basically, you can ask for anything and it will be brought to you immediately (coffee, tea, projector, computer). And when I say immediately, I mean in less than 5 minutes.

Also in the same vein, Santosh asked us if we'd like to go out or stay in for lunch. We decided to stay in, so the office boys set my desk with actual flatware and brought paneer, biryani with green beans, raita with corn, roti (thin flatbread), and pickles. We ate leisurely then went back to the training room. When we returned, everything was magically cleaned up.

Basically, Marcelo and I are being treated like royalty. Everyone is so incredibly hospitable. It is amazing and I'm sure this is why India has had such great success in the software industry -- they really know how to take care of people. We are going to be such high maintenance princesses by the time we get back.

It turns out that the Symphony team that is working for Casero is on site in Toronto right now. Marcelo and I were wondering how they managed to get clothes to prepare for November/December in Toronto. We brought our summer clothes to come here, but it's winter here now and it's almost 30 degrees, so I don't think there are winter coats, scarfs, mittens, hats, or boots to be had at any time. Everyone has been so nice to us, so could all of you guys at AudienceView pop over to Casero and make them feel welcome? Come on, please?

In the afternoon, we had the meeting with Shirish Deodhar and Madhukar Bhatia (also in upper management) where I died of embrassment (re: blog). Since I had expressed such an interest in India in my blog, he started the presentation with information on India and Pune. Here are some cool things he told us:

India...

has 3 times the population of the US in 1/3 of the land area.
is the world's largest democracy.
has free press and a strong legal system that is critical of its government.
has 20 national languages, 1600+ dialects, and 10 scripts (so, 10 writing systems -- isn't that wild!). So, it is like having all of Europe in one country.
conducts all higher education in the English language.
has the 2nd largest pool of scientific and technical staff.
graduates 300,000 engineers YEARLY (7 times the number in the US)
Even though there is poverty in India, Indians are reported to have a high level of tolerance and satisfaction due to strong belief and faith. Indians believe in being satisfied with what you have and if you are given more, it is fated.

Pune...

has a population of 3.5 million people.
is at an elevation of 2000 feet.
is not a state capital, so there is no political unrest (happens where politicans reside).
in combination with Mumbai is the financial centre of India. 40% of corporate tax comes from this region.
graduate 80,000 engineers YEARLY from Pune schools alone.
was ranked #3 by Forbes magazine for 2006 Emerging Global Cities

Shirish also talked about how the goal of our relationship is for the team in India to be like an extension of our QA group in Toronto. So, rather than being just a resource pool they would become experts on our system and be in a position to add value. Judging from what we've seen so far, I'm sure they will.

We stayed kind of late at the office tonight (6:30PM) and the traffic was so much worse. Lesson learned: must cut out early. We had a late dinner at the hotel's traditional Indian restaurant (this may sound like a lot of Indian food, but we can't get enough). It was a buffet, but like the other buffets we've seen here, they serve you appetizers first. We had deep-fried fish, peanuts, pappadum, and a vegetarian mix of okra, potato, and paneer. After this, we were pretty full so we nursed our vodka and tonics for over an hour and then grazed the buffet. It's too bad we weren't that hungry because the food was so good. We had some different curries (spinach, eggplant, potato) with rice and I had a small bowl of curd. It was very light, slightly sour, and very healthy-tasting. Hungry or not, we sampled a bunch of Indian sweets, including gulab jamum (deep-fried dough soaked in rosewater syrup) and chocolate barfi (fudge-like bar). The barfi had this edible foil on it that stayed intact when you touched it, but melted instantly in your mouth (I know, I know, like M&M's).

I thought I'd give Marcelo a break from my never-ending photo documentation of our meals, so I don't have pictures, but I did get one of the paan we had at the end. My Lonely Planet guide says that paan is a mixture of betel nut, lime paste, condiments, and spices wrapped in a paan leaf. I think ours had some fruit in it too. It functions as an after dinner mint. It was very fragrant and tasted kind of like menthol, but not really. Marcelo thinks that we got the tourist version because he had one before and it was so strong it almost blew his head off. I think that some versions can actually make you high.

So, another day in India has come to a close. I really need more hours in the day. Goodnight all.

2006-11-21T20:51:00.000+05:30

First Day of School
This morning before our first day working at the Symphony Services office, Marcelo and I enjoyed a delicious complimentary breakfast outdoors beside the pool. The cutest little dirty kitten was sneaking underneath tables despite the staff's best efforts to shoo her away (people like me have probably been feeding her). As for the breakfast, alongside the typical Western tourist fare (eggs, sausages, toast, etc.), there were many yummy Indian choices (well, in my case they weren't "choices" because I ate one of everything). It turned out to be an all-carb all-Indian breakfast for me, including: paneer paratha (flaky flatbread with cheese inside), poha (rice with herbs, veg, and peanuts), medu wada (deep-fried, dense little doughnut), onion uttapa (pancake with onion), and palak idli (airy, spherical, couscousy thing with spinach in it). Everything was amazing.

The drive to the Symphony offices was more entertaining than TV. It was a nonstop stream of humanity and activity. Tonnes of people out in beautiful, colourful clothes, millions of little shops side by side that were no bigger than one of our cubicles, ladies in saris sitting sidesaddle on mopeds, perfectly balanced despite the rough road. I took several videos of the ride and I'll let you know if I figure out a way to post them.

When we arrived at the office, there was a placard greeting us by name. I always wanted to see my name in lights (hee hee). We met Santosh, the manager of our group in India. He led me to my air-conditioned office that was stocked with notepads, pens, pencils, erasers, bottled water, and a Diet Coke (how did they know?). At first we thought we'd both be in the same little room, but then Santosh brought Marcelo to the much nicer office next door. After the 'woman's grotto' in Mumbai, I was suspicious that he got the 'men's office'. But, then again Marcelo is the manager, so I'll let this one slide (insert emoticon here).

Later on he took us on a tour of the building, which houses 400 employees. Most work areas were very similar to the typical open concept we're used to. The best part was the open air cafeteria on the top floor that had spectacular views on all sides. The atmosphere up there was really fun -- lots of people chatting and having a good time. Pretty much everyone who works there looks like they are in their 20's, so the feeling is similar to a university campus. Most of the employees were men, but there were a good number of women too -- some in traditional Indian dress and some in jeans and baby tees.

After the tour, we met the team who will be working using Quick Test Pro to automate our test cases. The team consists of Shirish G. Kabade (team lead), Bhaskaran Jayakodi (analyst), and ChandraShekar Pallerla (analyst). We gave everyone AudienceView t-shirts and pens (thanks, Eggy! And btw, Sonia is very small so that shirt will fit her fine). Then we demonstrated the installation and online setup processes. Everyone was very keen, smart, and quick to learn (I'm going to have to study hard to keep up).

At lunchtime, Santos drove us to a fancy resort-type restaurant where we had a feast of Indian dishes. I learned that Marcelo is quite the expert on Indian food. I don't think we've had anything yet that he hasn't tasted before. We started with an enormous plate of vegetarian appetizers (paneer, baby corn, cauliflower, mushrooms, green peppers, and potatoes all encrusted with a spicy marinade). Then we had daal, kofta (vegetarian meatball-like thing), raita with a cherry on top, curry with green beans, roti, and the BEST BUTTERED NAAN BREAD IN THE WORLD. It was so good I could have fainted. I learned from watching Santosh that you're supposed to break it up using only your right hand. Needless to say, I was pathetic at it. We spent 2 hours at lunch and came back to the office wanting to do nothing other than crawl under our desks and sleep.

In the afternoon, we toured them through the Online functionality. By the way, the Star Trek bundle preload doesn't have any payment methods available when you try to buy it, but all the payment methods are selected on the bundle and at least Visa is accesible to all roles including Internet (any ideas, anyone?). We cut the afternoon short and took the wild ride again back to the hotel. We were still so full from lunch that we skipped dinner altogether and have been tucked into our rooms all evening. I hope I can sleep more than 4 hours tonight.

Tomorrow we start Desktop functionality. I really should do some prep, but I'm about to drop. Goodnight everyone.

2006-11-20T23:17:00.000+05:30

What day is it?

Sooooooo sleeepy! It took about 2 days from door to door, but Marcelo and I are both safe and sound and ensconced in the adorable Best Western Pride Hotel in Pune. We both agreed that the trip actually wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Don't be fooled. The picture on the right of us looking pink and rested is us in Toronto BEFORE the whole excursion began.

We started in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. With a last-minute dash to the finish I managed to shoehorn everything into my suitcase, which weighed EXACTLY 50.0 lbs on the nose (free baggage weight limit). Check it out!

The flight from Toronto to Frankfurt went by really fast because I sat next to this really fun guy, Mikey, a sound engineer who was on his way to Croatia to shoot a documentary for National Geographic. You may recognize him from the Food Network show, Restaurant Makeover. Mikey has been doing the sound for every episode since Season 2 and he had a special cameo in the Jeremiah Bullfrog episode that aired last week. We chatted for around 4 hours, so before we knew it, we were in Frankfurt.

Let me tell you that Frankfurt is a smoker's paradise. They had these little islands with embedded ashtrays where happy smokers could lean and puff. Along the same lines, apparently Frankfurt is the birthplace of Davidoff cigarettes, which must be special because Tim and Todd both convinced Marcelo to buy some at duty free for them.

We had a few hours to kill, so we had a light German breakfast of cold cuts and pastries (we were tempted to order the classic breakfast of sausages, pretzel, and 1/2 L of beer, but it was 6:30 AM).

Then we boarded the Air India flight that would take us to Mumbai. This plane had 84 rows of economy class plus both business class and first class (upstairs). The seat division was 3-4-3. Marcelo and I were in the two middle seats of the row of 4 (ugh). At one point I baled and snuck into the flight attendants' area and passed out on an empty row of their seats. They were so sweet to not kick me out until I woke up on my own. The Indian vegetarian meal wasn't bad at all.

Towards the end of the flight, there was a passenger medical emergency and a woman had to be evacuated from the plane before anyone else could go. The angriest baby in the world really didn't want to be in the stuffy plane any longer (nor did we) and bellowed for the last hour while we were waiting.

After that things got a little rough for poor, spoiled me who has never been to a third world country. I knew, in theory, that there is extreme poverty and suffering in some parts of India, but that didn't prepare me for having to ignore the woman and baby who followed us to the taxi (it was 2AM) and begged us again and again for money. More beggars gathered around the taxi before we pulled out. I definitely wasn't ready to drive by a man who has just gotten into a scooter accident and was writhing on the ground in pain with blood pouring out of his mouth while a crowd gathered but didn't seem to be helping him. Our taxi driver didn't stop and we continued on to the hotel where we checked in and I cried for an hour.

The next morning, after 2 hours sleep, I felt better. We had a late breakfast and Marcelo, who has been to many third world countries, told me that I'll adapt quickly. We'll see.

One interesting thing we realized was that Marcelo's room was much better than mine (bright, airy, with hardwood floors, city view, new flat screen TV, living room area, and marble tub) and was outfitted to be a men's room (shaving mirror, men's toiletries). My room faced the inside atrium, was 2/3 the size, had a horrible moldy-smelling carpet, less towels, an ancient telephone, no living room, and was outfitted with women's toiletries. We paid the exact same price for our rooms. Then Marcelo told me that when we were checking in, the reason why I was sent to see 'guest services' instead of the front desk was because "women check in at guest services". We nicknamed my room the woman's grotto.

We wandered to the rooftop pool area and looked out at the view. The Orchid Hotel is a 5-star hotel, but it is built immediately next to the poorest-looking shacks I've ever seen. Rich and poor pressed directly up against each other. This is also something I knew in theory, but had never seen. I felt like an overfed fat cat. I felt like Marie Antoinette.

In the late afternoon we went to the domestic airport for the last leg of our trip (Mumbai to Pune). The flight was a sweet 35 minutes in length, which by this time was a piece of cake. A lovely young driver hired by Symphony Services picked us up and took us to the hotel. It was the most amazing ride. We saw a herd of huge, black cows with massive curled horns moving in the traffic along with the cars. There were baby pigs and goats just grazing free in the middle of clusters of homes. The most adorable schoolchildren with matching uniforms were coming home and there were people, people, people everywhere on bikes, mopeds, rickshaws, trucks, buses (stuffed to the rafters). We were amazed, and then the driver told us that it's not very crowded now because it isn't rush hour.

I think Pune is, in general, a wealthier part of the country than Mumbai and the atmosphere feels more relaxed. I don't regret staying the night in Mumbai and having a meltdown though because it really woke me up to reality.

Our hotel is lovely with excellent Internet access so I can blog and Skype to my heart's content. Marcelo and I attended the Oriental Food Festival in the hotel restaurant and ate very good Thai and Chinese-inspired food. Marcelo has been very patient throughout this trip while I have taken pictures of everything we eat. For my foodie friends, I'll publish all my pictures to a photo album so you can see all of them.

Well, I am absolutely exhausted. I have to be up in 5 hours to start work and meet our friends at Symphony Services. Hope you are all doing well.

2006-11-17T23:07:00.000+05:30

Less than 24 hours until take-off

For everyone whom I haven't already exhausted with this story, yes, I am going to India! Can you believe it? My company, AudienceView Software, is employing some analysts in Pune to help with quality assurance and they're sending me to train them on our software application. I only found out about this trip 11 days ago, so the past week has been a whirlwind of getting a visa (big, sweaty ordeal), vaccinations, prescriptions, supplies, and madly researching places to see.

We're taking off tomorrow at 5:10PM and I still haven't packed. I think I have everything I need -- I just need to cram it into my suitcase. We're flying first to Frankfurt, hanging out for 4 1/2 hours, and then continuing on to Mumbai. We stay for one night at the Orchid Hotel (pretty swank!) and then take a puddlejumper the next day to Pune where we will check in for 28 nights (sounds like rehab) at the Best Western Pride Hotel (also supposed to be pretty swank despite being a Best Western).

I've never been to India before, so I may have gone overboard with the precautions (vaccinations, malaria pills, antibiotics, Imodium, charcoal pills, Gravol, mosquito net, etc.). I'm also having a hard time wrapping my head around 35 degrees Celsius in November (should I bring jeans?).

Have a great month everyone and I'll see you in December. I promise to try to post often and upload my pictures. Namaste!