Intro to India

Our travels began on a bad note and has only seemed to improve at a painfully slow pace with each day that we are here. First, the Air France/Delta/Northwest mess created all sorts of problems for us and three of us barely made it to the gate for our flight and with no seat assignments to boot. For whatever reason, the flight from Newark to Paris was brutally long. The airplane was freezing cold and cramped, the food terrible. I did watch a movie and managed to sleep -- the only one in the group to get a little rest.

The flight from Paris to Bangalore wasn't too much better. More bad food, movies, and uncomfortable sleep. But we made it to India in one piece and excited to get to campus and checked into our rooms in the guest house. Alas, it would be some time before we got to that point as:

1. There is a convoluted process when you arrive to get a heat-seaking gun pointed at your head to be sure you don't have swine flu (I mean, H1N1) and then passing through passport control. Of course none of this is very well marked, organized, or communicated so you just let all the Indians push in front of you until you realize you should be doing the same.
2. We all got through fever-free and then onto baggage claim, but guess whose bag didn't arrive? Yup, yours truly. They even had my name on a list saying it would be on the next flight and they would deliver it. Fine.
3. Well the whole lost luggage process seemed to take forever. I was passed along to three different people who never explained just exactly what was happening. Even funnier is that I was asked to complete a customer satisfaction survey for how they handled my lost luggage, but the woman answered all the questions for me and managed to check "Exceeds Expectations" for every single measure. Hmmm, I wanted to disagree but it was very late at this point and the group was waiting.

Luckily our bus driver was also waiting but of course he couldn't pull the bus up to the terminal so we had to drag all of our bags along the sidewalk out to the parking lot. Yup, that's how our company rolls. Here's a post-24-hours-of-travel-standing-in-front-of-our-bus shot:

The drive to campus took about an hour with no traffic. First impressions of Bangalore was that it reminded me a lot of Saigon. I couldn't pinpoint why, just a feeling that I got passing shacks and roadside shops to larger corporate looking buildings and the scale of the place felt a lot like the night we first arrived in Vietnam.

At the campus we arrived at the guest house and upon initial glance, it didn't look too bad. It actually looked almost resort-like. That impression would soon change when we discovered that:

1. The beds are basically a piece of plywood with a sheet on it. Back pain what?
2. The shower is inconsistent with regard to hot water. Some days it's ice cold, some days it's hot enough to take a decent shower, but mostly it's just lukewarm. If you're lucky, you get water pressure that is more than just a slow drip drip drip out of the faucet.
3. There are no clocks, so if you didn't bring an alarm...well, you better find one!
4. There is 1 international phone down in the lobby and the handset doesn't work so you have to talk to your loved ones via speakerphone with the guest house attendant attentatively listening in on your conversation.
5. There is no internet access anywhere...not in the room, no wifi around campus, nada. Actually that's not true. You can access the intranet worksite, but that's it. Goodbye world, I'll see you in 5 weeks!
6. The canteen food tastes like vomit. Even the locals agree.

But it is not all doom and gloom. We still have each other to commiserate with and we do have cable television which includes HBO, CNN, and 2 or 3 other English language programming channels. It's also crazy cheap here so "going out big" hardly makes a dent. Next up, our first full day in Bangalore.

New Joyzee

I won't lie, it's been a challenge since I left New York. It's hard enough knowing you'll be away from home and loved ones for 6 weeks, but it's a whole other thing when you still have no clue just exactly what you'll be doing.

In the end, the 3 days we spent in East Brunswick were the easiest 3 days we would have. Mostly HR activities: filling in paperwork, signing up for benefits, etc...But we did have a chance to meet with some senior leaders and some folks who were hired on last year. It was also a nice chance to bond with the other 8 inductees before we were to embark on the long journey to India.

In total, there are 9 of us: 2 women, 7 men. 4 of them will be based in Atlanta, 1 in Chicago, 1 in Boston, 1 in Dallas, and 2 of us in NYC. Everyone seems to get along and perhaps all of the unknowns have brought us even closer. Next up: Bangalore...

Brief respite

Saturday was an early morning as BP was driving me to the airport. I had a great time catching up with an old friend and exploring a new place, but I think we both agreed that we were done with Puerto Rico. It just seemed like so much natural beauty was wasted there -- all of the worst parts of the U.S. present such as tons of fast food spots and strip malls.

I was happy to be heading home but not looking forward to the 5 hour layover in Atlanta. After much much much frustration and trying to speak with 4 different people, I managed to change my ticket to an earlier flight (for a $50 fee) and made it home by early afternoon. Much better than 8pm on 4th of July evening!

I was excited to see B waiting for me and after we arranged to have my bag delivered, we headed home to relax with take-out and watched the fireworks from the living room. Yesterday we wandered around town -- Soho, Chinatown, and Little Italy and then B made me a delicious Italian dinner out of Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. YUM!!!

The relaxation has come to an end though as I am now preparing for a 5 week trip to India which begins tomorrow. I'll be stateside (in NJ) for the next couple of days and then training in Bangalore until mid-August. Exciting! Scary! I will miss B and NYC but I'm ready to start work and refill that empty bank account.

Viernes: la playa and casa Bacardi

Friday was our last day on the beach together so we took advantage of the beautiful morning and stayed out until nearly 2. After lunch we headed out to the Bacardi distillery, the world's largest rum distillery. According to the maps, it should have been an easy jaunt, but it was extremely confusing and frustrating and what should have taken us 10 minutes, took us an hour! But we did manage to make the last tour and learned about the history of Casa Bacardi. We also got tickets for 2 free rum drinks and after the madness of driving out there, we were ready for our drinks!

Having both decided that we were done with mediocre Puerto Rican food, we agreed on pizza at Via Appia. It was probably the best meal that we had all week outside of the mofongo at Parrot Club in OSJ. And with that, my time in Puerto Rico was nearly over. We went back to the condo, packed up and hit the sack for an early morning wake-up call.

Jueves: El Yunque & Laguna Grande

Thursday was our adventure day. We woke up early to get the rental car and then hit the road for El Yunque National Forest. On the recommendation of the rental car guy, we took the scenic route along the coastline and it was well worth it. There were some beautiful beach views and along the road there were tons of local food shacks like the one below:

We had little trouble finding El Yunque and made our first stop at the well-developed visitor center. El Yunque is the sole tropical rain forest in the US National Forest System and we were expecting cool and wet weather. No such luck as it was terribly hot the entire day and even under thick canopy, we were so overheated.

Our next stop was at La Coca Falls, some sad overrun waterfalls just down the road from the visitor center. As crazy as these falls were, they did not prepare us for the madness we would find once we reached La Mina Falls! The hike out is only about half an hour and it's nice, but once you get to La Mina there are hundreds of people cooling off in the natural pools there. It was a zoo!!! On our way back out of the forest we stopped at the Yokahu Observation Tower. At 1575 foot elevation, we had beautiful views of the surrounding forest and the ocean out in the distance.

Our time in the forest went by quickly -- there really wasn't much else to see. So we had a quick bite to eat while I dialed into a conference call for work and then we hit the road again. We had no idea where to go so we first wandered out to Loquillo which is supposed to be a nice beach, but it was a dumpy town so BP kept driving out to Fajardo. Well Fajardo is also a dumpy town so we tried to find things to do to kill time. By accident we found the place where we were to meet our kayak tour so at least we knew where to go!

Eventually we ended up at the El Conquistador Resort which is gorgeous. We were wishing we had found this place an hour earlier, but at least we got a chance to hang out there and enjoy the beautiful views.

Finally we got back to the docks where we were to meet Kayaking Puerto Rico, the group that was going to take us on our bioluminescent bay tour in Laguna Grande. We first got a crash course in kayaking and then we hit the water. Just as we were getting into our kayak, it started to rain and both BP and I were hoping that it wouldn't rain the entire tour. Luckily the rain passed quickly and we got the swing of kayaking.

This tour was awesome! It really was the highlight of our week in Puerto Rico and a not-to-be-missed activity. We kayaked through a dense mangrove forest and although it was still light on our way out, it was quite dark on the return trip, so I was glad we opted for the early-evening tour. Once out into the open lagoon, we had to wait a bit until it got dark enough to see the bioluminescence. It was so cool! You could agitate the water and it would have an eery glow. We were out for maybe 20 minutes before heading back to the docks but we had so much fun and the tour guides were awesome -- knowledgeable, professional and fun! Unfortunately we have no photos from the tour since it was so wet, cameras were not recommended. But at least we have our memories to remind us of the cool experience.

Our drive back to Condado was easy but still took us more than an hour. We witnessed an accident on the highway -- more proof that Puerto Rican drivers are insane. We were just happy to make it back to the condo unscathed. We were glad to have taken the scenic route earlier in the day because the road back was mostly strip malls and fast food joints.

Miercoles: la playa & Old San Juan

Today was a scorcher! We rolled out to the beach early but the sun was so hot we didn't last too long which is just as well since we both had some red and painful spots. :)

After a quick bite to eat we hopped on the B21 public bus and made our way into Old San Juan. Not knowing where to get off, we decided to just watch the other tourists and sure enough there was one stop at which every single person disembarked. I guess this is it.

Old San Juan is a collection of narrow streets, cobblestone alleys and car traffic. The shops in OSJ range from Burberry to the typical touristy souvenir shop selling tchotchkes and "adult" beach towels. There are also a number of restaurants and coffee shops alongside mainland fast food spots. It's easily walkable in a couple of hours.

We stumbled upon the Governor's Mansion, La Fortaleza and then took a walk along the city walls. We escaped the heat at one of the many Starbucks in Puerto Rico. And after a failed attempt at finding the bar at Hotel El Convento, we had a great snack of mofongo and crab at the Parrot Club. After drinks, we headed to dinner at El Asador Grill House before heading back to Condado.

Martes: la playa

We managed to get up an hour earlier and hit the beach again. Today we were smart and spent the $3 for lounge chairs. Not being on the sand helped keep us a little cooler and there was a stronger breeze today. There was also a wall of dark gray clouds looming in the distance and by mid afternoon it finally got close enough for us to call it a day. I got more than enough sun anyway.


Sure enough within minutes of being inside, the skies opened up and the rain hasn't let up. In fact, the photo above shows the sheets of rain and the run-off after the storm (the big black cloud in the water). We were planning to head into Old San Juan today but the thought of shopping and walking around the area in a monsoon just wasn't very appealing. So instead we chilled out at the condo before exploring more of Condado.

Our evening started with happy hour at the La Concha Resort's bar. Very Miami-esque, modern, white leather, interesting lighting. The drinks were pricey but delicious and the poolside cafe looks like a great place to kick back and relax.

After drinks we tried out Ajili Mojili, one of Condado's higher end restaurants that came recommended. Perhaps we all have different ideas of how to dress for a nice dinner, but we looked nice in our dresses and espadrilles whereas several tables still had their beachwear on. Hmmm. At any rate, despite the food being disappointing, the restaurant itself was cute the waiter even cuter. I wasn't feeling great so we called it a night after dinner. Came back here and watched TV before crashing out early.