Archive for January, 2009
January 24th, 2009
>мебели стара загораonline casinocatvnew International Airport is about an hour north east from the city. And they weren’t kidding about the fact that the painted lanes in the road are optional. Huge overloaded lorries are transporting all kinds of goods at 2:30 in the morning and we are weaving and darting between them, with what seems nothing but pure idiocy. The driver is flashing his brights as he comes up behind them and honks his horn as he passes. We pass marked speed limit signs, but it doesn’t really matter. The lights on the dash of the car don’t work and there is no way to even see how fast we are traveling. The roads are relatively good – they look new. Except for one thing and that is the presence of giant speed bumps placed every few kilometers across the road. The onlt thing warning you of an impending date with a 2 foor high bump is a very dim blinking red light on the right side. Essentially, had I been driving I would have had to figure out how to expense a new transmission.
We pass over a bridge and the driver exclaims that we are now int he city limits and then all of a sudden the smell hits me. I have no idea how to descibe it. Rotting socks? Decaying flesh? I have no idea but it takes my excitement away as we enter Bangalore. It’s very dark and we are zooming through intersections that have yellow blinking lights on all four directions. “This can’t be good,” I am thinking. My driver does a good job of flashing his brights as we come into an intersection, announcing our presence, but he doesn’t slow, and I am just bracing for impact. A car traveling in our direction is only 25 meters in front of us but as we both cross the intersection it is common to have a car from the cross direction pass betweenn us – all at over 60km per hour. It is surreal and a crazy introduction to the driving habits of Bangaloreans.
The Leela Palace is impressive. I arrive and there are several levels of security present. They stop the car before it reaches the centrally places entrance and ask you to walk through a metal detector and place your bags through a x-ray scanner. I don’t think they have any idea what they are looking for. The guy who wands you over with the metal detector wand does so half-heartedly and when it beeps, he doesn’t stop. I check in only to find out that my reservation is for Friday, but not until 2:00pm so I have them book me a night now, but the room I requested won’t be ready until he current occupant checks not. No worries, I just want a bed.
January 23rd, 2009
Wow, I am tired. One interesting note when I came through customs in Bangalore. I had a ‘X’ in white chaulk on my bag. Apparently, they scan the bags coming in and if they see anything that looks like electonics they mark the bag so customs can go through it. I had some electronics in my carry-on but only a power supply in my checked bags. Had I known about the ‘X’, I should have taken my bags to the bathroom and scrubbed it off.
Well, I come up to customs but I told them I have nothing to declare as that I am taking everything I bring in back with me when I leave. The older customs agent wasn’t having any of it, even though he was very nice and get a smile on his face. Well, I show him the power supply and explain that it is just a power supply, when he looks over at my other bags and wants to open them up too. This is going to be bad.
He has me lay my bags out and opens them up. He sees the hardware in the checked bag and his eyes light up – like he won the lottery. If I only knew how right I was at that instant. He then asks me how many laptops I am carrying my other case. I reply with two and his eyes get even wider. He explains that I am limited to only bringing one laptop into the country and that I would have to pay a tax on it. Also, he wanted me to pay a tax on the equipment he found in the carry-on. We negotiated down to a total import price of $750 and I was to pay a 33% tax on that. I was pretty nonchalant about it as that I was just going to put it on the corporate AMEX card, but he kept asking me if I thought that the company would re-imburse me. Apparently, he didn’t really know how corporate AMEx cards work so I replied, “Maybe” just to see if I could get him to bite. He motions for his supervisor and he comes over and directs me to a back room. I ask the supervisor, “How much?” He reples $60. I tell him I will pay $50 and he then says I should pay in Euros then. I ask him how many Americans he has seen with Euros in their wallets and I get a shake of the head. “You get $50,” I tell him and the money passes hands and I am out of the terminal in a flash.
I meet up with a guy who has my name and company on a placard and we hurry outside and load my bags into his car. I take a quick snapshot of a wild dog scurry by me while the bags were being loaded. The air is dry and sweet.
January 22nd, 2009
I am going there. I know not what to expect. Other travel blogs just leave me wanting more details. The few people that I know that have been there don’t describe it well enough.
January 22nd, 2009
How hard is it really to design an airport? It seems the people who are tasked with that decision forget about VOC (voice of the customer). I landed at Charles de Gaulle around 4am and headed for my next gate. Unfortunately, it requires mind reading to find it. You have to find the right escalator to go down, the correct bus to get on, the correct stop to get off and then the correct corridor to go down only to arrive at another security check point to go through. I’m glad I had 4 hours. On the return trip I only have 60 minutes. It is going to be interesting.
That bus is what took us to our Airbus 330. We had some handicapped people on the flight and they took them down to the bus by opening a door in the glass just beyond the pillars that go to the ground. A special lift truck came up and carried them down. Hell, I was scared for them watching them get into the lift.
We get to the airplane in a remote section of the tarmac and we have to walk up the stairs in the snow carrying our bags. Not a big deal for me, but we had older people and several adults dealing with small kids. I felt for them.
January 21st, 2009
I’ve gone quite a long time between posts. I kinda don’t want to do that anymore. I am going to try and get one post a week. Hopefully, that is achievable.