Jet Lag

This is what happens when you are so tired that you can no longer stay awake. I've been waking up at 3am in the mornings and falling asleep early in the evenings (though tonight I am forcing myself to stay up!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/els721/JetLagged

Last day

I am flying out tonight and am in the middle of packing but I wanted to get just a few pictures up I took today - the snaps are here

Life Changing?

Pictures are here

Today I took the team out to lunch to the Raintree Hotel's buffet. Mitali came up with a suggestion to go to Mainland China, a chain restaurant locations in several major Indian cities (http://www.mainlandchinaindia.com). Thiru, however, had heard from his friends that it wasn't so good. Mitali disagreed, she thought it was great. Someone else suggested Momo. So, as has often happened in the past with previous teams, I decided - Raintree. This was secretly where I really wanted to go anyway, so it played out perfectly! I posted a few snaps of the lunch, restaurant, and hotel.

Depending on how my day goes tomorrow, this may be my last blog in India. I fly out tomorrow night to Paris (a 10h30min flight) and then from Paris direct to LAX (a 11h30min flight). I may study on the plane, though I didn't do much of that coming here - I was just too tired!

I have greatly enjoyed my time here. Before I left my manager Ken had told me that this had been a great experience for him (he visited about a year and a half ago while with another company) - he actually used the words life-changing. When I was in college I spent 6 months living in London and then travelling throughout Western and Southern Europe. At the time I was an English Literature major with a great interest in European history, so as you can imagine that was an incredible and life-changing experience. So, it's not as if I haven't been exposed to travel and other cultures. However, this was by far the most foreign culture I have ever been exposed to, and to great personal benefit. I would have to agree with Ken and add this to my life-changing experiences list.

From a personal perspective, this trip has been a great experience. I have seen some of the sights of southern India. I have experienced the traffic. I have experienced some really, really good food. I have experienced the incredible hospitality of the people here. But best of all I have also built friendships which I hope will last.

From a business perspective, I think this trip was crucial. We have been working with CSS for nearly a year, and while Mitali and Arul had visited us in Monrovia, this is the first time anyone from GD had visited their offices. As is always the case, there is no replacement for face-to-face contact. I feel that we will be able to achieve much more because of this trip than we could have without it. Probably the biggest benefit is that communication should improve tremendously. I am definitely coming away with a changed perspective on our offshore initiative.

Finally, I have decided I will have to continue blogging - but not every day like this:). What should I write about next? I am not sure, but any suggestions are appreciated!

Oh The Irony...

We had lunch today at Marry Brown, which is a fast food chain that appears to be based in Malaysia. I wanted to have the fast food experience in India. Marry Brown is modeled on a typical US fast food chain, with a play area for kids and a burger and fries type menu (no beef though, just chicken). I had a chicken sandwich and potato wedges. How was it? Well, a word of advice to future visitors - don't eat at Marry Brown. I did, and I wish I had made a different choice. I find it ironic that the one thing that I eat that is probably most similar to food I eat regularly back in the US is the only one that causes trouble! Maybe I got too used to all the other high-quality food I've been eating.

In light of this I am cutting the blog short for tonight, and I hope to be blogging away tomorrow! (ok ok, I am doing fine, I don't want my hosts to be concerned! It's a partial excuse to get a break from blogging tonight:)

Spoilage

Before I came here I was concerned about being able to find enough or the right kind of food to eat. I knew that I should focus on generally eating in higher-end places, and especially to avoid street food (the assumption being that sanitary conditions here may not be what they are in the US). I am happy to report that it has gone much better than I expected. In fact, it has gone too good.

I realized today that I am getting spoiled. I will be going back to the US in a few days, and I simply won't be getting the quality of food I have been eating here. I've done a few calculations and it looks as if the cost of eating out here is roughly half to a third of the cost of eating out in the US. So, for example, when I eat at a nice place - and some of the places I've been at are pretty nice - it usually costs about the same that I would normally spend on a lunch at a typical chain restaurant in the US (think Mimi's, BJ's, or even somewhere like Daphne's).

For example - the breakfast buffet here at the hotel is somewhere around $13. While I have been here I have switched my eating habits. Normally in the US I eat a very small to no breakfast, a bigger lunch, and an even bigger dinner. Since I've been here I have reversed this - I eat a large breakfast, a large lunch, and pretty much no dinner (I've eaten dinner twice since I've been here). So, the breakfast buffet is my main meal of the day, and let me tell you, it is very, very good. I think it may be the best breakfast buffet I have ever had in my life. My typical breakfast consists of lots of fruit (mainly pineapple and the yummiest papayas ever, the ones that are dark orange inside), excellent potatoes and veggies very lightly sauteed in olive oil with rosemary spices, some chicken sausages, these little south indian fried spicy donut looking things which I can't remember what they're called at the moment, a brioche (which is like a bread muffin thingy) and a bowl of this awesome muesli cereal. The sweet lime juice is excellent as well. There are so many other choices but I stuff myself on all that goodness until I can't eat anymore!

There is a restaurant called Cascades (now I believe it's the Palm Terrace) at the Hilton Waikoloa on the Big Island of Hawaii that is competing for the top spot, but of course that one is much more expensive. And, the service simply doesn't compare to the service you receive here.

The service at restaurants here is generally much better than in the US as well. There are more people available to wait on you, and they are usually very attentive and polite. At times it can become too much (like when I want to scoop my own food onto my plate, I don't need someone doing it for me).

In Other News....

Pictures are here

Today I had lunch with Jai and the QA Director (or at least one of the QA Directors - there are many teams at CSS). This is becoming predictable, but we ended up at yet another Thai restaurant today that was of course really tasty.

After lunch I was able to visit the south wing, which is CSS' main headquarters (the GD team is currently housed in east wing, a build just a couple of kilometers away from the south wing. Aside from these there are 3 other wings - if you guess what they all are you get 1000 points).

Late in the afternoon Arul took me on a small tour of a site I did not want to miss - St. Thomas Basilica, a cathedral here in Chennai. Apparently it is one of only 3 churches in the world that are built over the tomb of one of the Apostles of Jesus. Take a look here for the explanation and additional links. It was very cool to see, and, being a Christian, it also had personal meaning to me. Also, it looks like its been mostly Portuguese Catholics that have been involved with this church. I also noticed one of the bishops is a Carvalho (my mother's family has this name, I am one-half Portuguese) so I needed to get a snap of this.

The cathedral is right next the beach, so after this we went to the beach and I got to see what that is like here. The breeze was great and the temperature was perfect (it was right around sunset). There were many people on the beach, some young people there after work, some families, and quite a few people selling food from carts and booths. There were also lots of dogs, and a few horses (with riders, of course). The sand was not quite as good as I am used to (I am from Hawaii after all), and while the water looked warm, very few people were swimming.

It's a hard life

I went ahead and moved all my pics to picasa web albums (thanks for the suggestion Adnan), so all is now well with my bandwidth. I am also posting a couple of videos, which you can find here.

This morning I went into the office, and by 1pm Sathya and I took off. We had decided that in the office it was too difficult to get any significant chunk of time to plan without being interrupted, distracted, or have Sathya pulled away to some other meeting. So, we had lunch, and then according to our agenda we came back to my hotel where we spent the next 4 to 5 hours creating a plan as to how best to achieve the goals that have been set forth by the powers that be. It was a very productive session - sometimes it is very helpful to be away from other distractions so that one can focus on completing the task at hand. It was also rather pleasant - we sat at a shaded table in perfect weather next to the pool, me sipping at the sweet lime juice that they serve here that I have really come to like, and Sathya at coffee (even in 85F weather). Yes, I realize it's a tough life being a manager, but someone has to do it.

Lunch update - we had lunch at "Noodle Shop" in the food court at Spencer Plaza. I thought it was going to be Japanese-style food, but it turned out to be all things Thai and Chinese that have noodles in them. So, I had the Pad Thai, which is a favorite of mine, and it was pretty yummy.

Sorry, no pictures today.

Temple City

Today we headed to Kanchipuram, which is known for its ancient temples. Kanchipuram is a small, crowded city about 80 kilometers from Chennai. We drove through some agricultural areas where they were growing rice, as well as some pretty poor village areas. I took about 100 snaps today, as they are known in India (or at least by Sathya), and whittled down the list (not by much) - click here to see the snaps.

We visited 3 separate temples. I took pictures all along the way. The drive itself was on a highway which had a median so was much less nerve-racking than yesterday's drive. Before we got out of the city though we also stopped at a petrol station and I took a bunch of snaps there, as well as a 2 videos. But, I decided not to upload the videos because - get this - since the month of February began I have already exceeded my monthly transfer limit on my hosting plan. I usually only have 50GB of transfer and I am already at 100GB. The culprit? That 150MB video. I was shocked when I saw how many times it has been downloaded - about 791. So unless someone has downloaded it a lot of times (my parents admitted to about 5 times themselves), there are a lot of people looking at this thing. I'll need to get these things somewhere else. Anyway, what I wanted to point out is all the horn beeping! It is a constant thing here. In the US we don't use our horn much and it's usually to "yell" at people that are doing the wrong thing. Over here they use them constantly to communicate to others to get out of the way.

Kanchipuram itself contains many temples, some of which are more than 1000 years old. The ones we visited were dedicated to various Hindu gods. Going inside these was an awesome experience. The stonework is extremely detailed, and depicts all sorts of Hindu gods and many tell a story. Every temple also has a large pool of water (one of which that has a 35ft high statue submerged beneath the surface - the tank is drained once every 40 years and only then can one see the statue).

There are Hindu priests at every temple. At one temple a priest guided us around and stuck to us like glue...until I finally made a donation. But, I also made sure to get a picture with him! Another one of them placed a bindi on my forehead (for a donation as well). This was at a temple in which we could not enter the inner sanctum - only Hindus were allowed to enter . There were people there that were there to worship, and I felt somewhat like I was intruding on their privacy (not to mention the bindi on my forehead which I really wanted to get rid of). But, there were many other tourists so I guess there's no harm. And I made a donation:).

I also got to see a group of American Hare Krishnas who looked like they were on a pilgrimage.

One can only enter the temple grounds barefoot, so we had to take off our shoes in order to walk around. Because of the various items animals as well as people leave around, I had to really watch my step to make sure I didn't step in anything unpleasant or dangerous.

Go Slow...Unless You Have an Appointment With God

Today was the first day I have had available to go sightseeing. So, Sathya being the most gracious host that he is planned a few things for me to do today. We first went to a new mall called Citi Centre - click here for pictures. Citi Centre was just about the closest thing I saw to a western style shopping area so far. It was about 5 stories high and was filled with many western brands. We had lunch on the roof at a restaurant which had a fantastic view of the surrounding areas. It was interesting to see the clientele at the mall - they were mostly young Indians, most of whom were wearing western-style clothing rather than the more traditional clothing I normally see. I also spotted several groups of white people there (a rare sight in this city)!

After Citi Centre we went to a place called Mamallapuram (see pictures of the drive and temples here), which is a seaside area that has several ancient temples (built around the 7th century AD), as well as some posh resorts. The temples are very cool, take a look at the pictures. It was also nice to be next to a nice warm ocean, and the weather was perfect (the temperature and humidity here is EXACTLY like Hawaii, so it's perfect for me - though I hear it gets much warmer in the summer).

Supposedly the temple near the shore is only one of seven that were built, the other six being underwater now. Apparently the tsunami that hit this area in 2004 uncovered more evidence of the existence of the other six temples, as well as uncovering some additional ruins that were previously underground. There were also lots of squirrels living in and around the temple. Don't know why.

The drive to Mamallapuram took out of Chennai and into the countryside. Now, the city driving hasn't really been a problem for me - while it's a bit crazy I don't worry about it. Today though was the first time since coming to India that I was nervous while riding. We took a highway which was basically one lane each direction with no median. At highway speeds (50mph and above) vehicles would regularly pass each other even into oncoming traffic (the oncoming traffic would slow down a bit and swerve to the shoulder). The really scary thing was that buses would do this regularly, and there were a lot of buses. To make this more crazy, the motorcycles and auto-rikshaws that can't quite keep the highway speed were also riding on the road, motorcycles usually on the shoulders and auto-rikshaws right onthe highway.

To add to that, once we were on the highway there were many areas where people and many animals would be living right on the side of the road. The people were constantly crossing, and the animals (dogs, goats, and cows) occasionally did the same. At one point we came within a hair of smearing a goat (fortunately we were only going about 10mph at the time).

Fortunately, thanks to the excellent driving of Lakshmanan we made it back safely.

Local police seemed to be particularly concerned about the danger of some of the driving habits here. There would regularly be barriers the police place across the road that forces traffic to stop and negotiate through the set of obstacles. They also had placed speed bumps on one section of the highway. When in the city of Chennai at every major intersection I see all kinds of signs warning people of the dangers of driving fast or recklessly, or talking on their cellphones while driving. One sign I like in particular - "Go Slow...unless you have an appointment with God."

An International Sensation

Lunch Update - ate at a Chinese and Thai place today (yes, it was both). Had the Thai Chicken Curry, and it was seriously good. Oddly it also reminded me of home (I am a Thai Curry junkie:).

An International Sensation

It seems as if my blog is now famous - it is now an international sensation (defined as such by the fact that it is being read by people in 2 or more countries). It has been interesting doing this blog and reading some of the comments that people have posted. So, in light of my mostly uneventful day I thought I'd respond to some of those who have posted comments (and some who have not, but I wanted to say something to anyway).

Adnan - I was beginning to doubt if I could count on you for comic relief, but you came through:). No problem, you can be my co-author. So, how long did it take to come up with all those titles? Check out Adnan's blog at http://www.adnanmasood.com/.

Joe - you wanted to see more pictures of the city streets, buildings, people, etc, so here you go. There is also a movie that I recorded while we were driving that is umm about 150MB and several minutes long, so it's big. You can find it here.

Mom - ok, ok, I love you too.

Felina - you are only allowed 1 comment per day, please.

Shino - I would've taken a picture of the toilets, but Arul told me it would be a bit strange to do - and I'm trying to be culturally sensitive!

Lixa - just say no

Illy - you're the best QA Manager that has ever worked for me in my entire life. Really. You're in the top 100%...well you're also in the bottom 100% but I'm an optimist so we'll look at this from a positive perspective.

Ken - thanks for the idea to create the blog. Also, I learned how to cross the street today (a very small street, but it's a step in the right direction:), so Olde Curiosity Shoppe, here I come!

Rob - if Rob is reading my blog, then I know I have arrived! So how much $$$ do you think my blog is worth??? I'll send some traffic your way since my blog is so popular now:) - check out http://www.softwarebyrob.com/.

MJM - I completely agree with you. We should make it happen.

Matt J. - please make it happen, that is why we hired you, to make stuff happen.

Mitali - thanks! I was hoping they were!

Mark - I actually did accidentally drink the water, sort of - brushed my teeth a couple days ago and rinsed with tap water out of habit and then realized what I had done. But, so far no problems:).