Learn from Melbourne...

Melbourne is doing something that really excited me. They are putting up bicycle stands for people to take the bike for short to medium distance travel. See one stand above... It is a great idea for people that come to office in car or public transport to use these for small distances. You can leave it at next stand. There is a fee for use and longer usage plans are available.

One thing that I think should be included is helmet rental. I wanted to try out one but was told by a passerby that helmets are required for usage. I am a visitor. Why would I roam around with a helmet around my back?

Worst Experience

I'm currently staying at Renaissance Orlando Airport Hotel in Orlando, Florida. This is by far the worst hotel (value -for-money wise) that I have ever stayed in. They charge $9.95 per day (+ tax) for Internet!!! Majority of hotels give Internet for free and few have nominal charges. This is exorbitant for something that should have been free to start with. Being a 4-star, the rates aren't cheap, breakfast is not included and this is extortion. Amenities in room are basic, nothing great, in fact they are not even 4-star grade as many 3-star have better room layout and amenities. Unfortunately, I'm stuck here for next 3 days. Never again.

Holiday Inn Express at Des Moines, Iowa was a much better hotel that this. And that's just 2.5-star.

What?

I am feeling the need to write something, anything... Nothing on mind right now... Actually a lot on mind but since most of that is confidential, nothing is left to share as of now... weather has been crazy here in Bismarck. Yup, that is where I am in case I forget to mention about it, at latitude 46.78 and Longitude -100.75 in a small city. I have learned that Maza in this state is the smallest city in USA! Now I suddenly feel that I'm a BIG city :)

Need to Write

I need to get back to the writing something on this blog. Long time have passed and lots of things have happened. Perhaps, I can post them this weekend. Let's see. Keep watching.

Visit to Carson City

I reached Carson City, a small sleepy town of 50,000 people, midnight on last Monday. The journey was long with pretty long stops in between - first at Heathrow and next at Los Angeles - both long halts.

However, I really enjoyed the view I got from London to LA. The flight path and time meant that I had an opportunity to see 3 sunrises and 3 sunsets in a single day! Seems unbelievable? Let me say that we crossed the earth's shadow two times in flight path. That should be enough to explain.

This is closest I have ever been to north pole. The view was brilliant. Hudson Bay looked magnificent. Now, I want to go even closer to north pole. This is second best view I have ever seen from a flight. The best still remains flying over snow-capped peaks of Himalayas on the way to Leh from Delhi. That was just superb.

Today morning it was good warm weather here. But in afternoon, it started snowing and the mercury is now at 6 degree below zero. Earlier post has the pictures.

Carson City, Nevada

Terrorists attack the duty-free shops this time

Did you get the twist? With new boarding rules in place, no hand-baggage, and almost all airlines prohibiting liquids on-board, the biggest people that I think will loose out are duty-free perfume shops. No sales. In fact, I wondered why they are still open? I haven't seen anybody inside them. The sales girls are outside the shop trying to get the customers but I don't think they will get any given the current scenario.

Nothing Better

Well, if you have Internet and nothing else to do, what do you do? blog. Some would differ from me on this, with "chat". However, here I am at KLIA airport waiting for flight gate to be opened, blogging. I tried to kill time with some games and reading some useful material but it gets boring. The airport is good but the seats are not comfortable. Waiting seats don't have a back either and only few recharge points. Finally, found couple of them but the plug won't fit neatly. Anyway, "jugad" works and I get the pleasure of writing another blog.

Yesterday

Here is my important timings for yesterday...

5AM: Slept (burned the midnight oil)
7AM: Wokeup
9AM: In office
5PM: Ready to leave
upto 6PM: Waiting for mail from offshore
6.15 PM: Decided to leave anyway
6.15 - 6.20 pm: called up all cab companies... no cab
6.20 - 7.40 pm: tried to hail a cab... there is huge traffic jam... all over KL... no empty cabs... tried calling again during this period from mobile too... that didn't help either
7.40 pm: returned to office... keep calling cab companies after every 15 mins...
8.40 pm: thought I will have some food... went to coffee shop... closed... :(
8.45 pm: back to office desk... again called cab... they said no... i got frustrated... i told them u get a cab here, i'll pay double... she tried for 5 mins for me... got a cab (on double charges)...
8.53 pm: cab arrives... i'm in cab...
9.00 pm: i'm in cab
9.30 pm: i'm still in the cab... hungry, angry and tired... now working on laptop... nothing better to do...
10.15 pm: reached hotel... finally...
10.20 pm: called room service... good they are still serving... ordered some food...
10.30 pm: waiting for food to arrive... called up the room service again... finally it arrives... set the alarm to 5 AM next day morning for an 8.30 presentation... need to be in office at 8...
i don't remember any times after that...

Now, its 2 PM... the morning presentation went well... lasted 2 hours... another presentation at 3PM... need to make arrangements for that...

It wasn't the worst day... not even close to that... but now I can write about bad days... if, I happen to have time and connectivity on next day... connectivity... that reminds me of this article

Kuala Lumpur, Rains, Traffic Jams and Blogs

Seems like a strange combination, isn't it? Today, Kuala Lumpur received a decent amount of rain (not that much, I thought) but that results in huge traffic jams (I heard there were flash floods in some parts of city). I couldn't call any cab - none available - and after my efforts to hail a cab for one and half hours resulted in no transportation, I felt hungry, angry and uneasy. (There were huge crowd waiting like me to get a cab.) So marched back to office. After day-night-and-day long toil, after I only slept for 2 hrs last night, and required to return to work at 8 AM next day, the best I could do, given the conditions, was to write a blog. Strange circumstances, strange outcome! (well, not that strange, but I would have been listening to Kenny G if it wasn't office)

So much for their claim to be a developed country! They need to upgrade their newly built infrastructure.

Malaysia Visit Update

Well, I finally have some time to update the blog. In the meanwhile, I have visited the PC fair at KL which was great.

On Janamashtami, I went to ISKCON temple after a full day of fast. It was great except for getting a cab on return. I met Anurag there. Here is a picture of me and him.



After that, on weekend, I visited Aquaria @ KLCC. The trip ended prematurely before I could enjoy it completely. Here is a chameleon relaxing.



Then went on KL city outskirts tour. Visited the Royal Selangor factory. They are the world's largest pewter maker. Here is my picture next to the world largest beer mug. This mug can hold more than 3,000 litres of beer.



And I took some pictures of twin towers too. My hotel is pretty close to it. Here they are:

A view from the front of twin towers. (From main entrance)


In their magnificent glory (from the KLCC Park)


East side view from the skybridge (170 meters, 41st floor, twin towers). West side view is not so great. Also it was not a good day for pictures.


View of KLCC park from the skybridge


Me @ skybridge


Petronas twin towers at night. I think its one of my best shots given the conditions. No tripods and no SLR. Just a mere 3 MP camera. This picture is serving as my laptop background for time being.


Do you find the pics interesting? Leave a note.

Malaysia

If you noticed a lull in the posts, that's because I have moved my base to Delhi for various reasons. Right now, I'm in Malaysia on short trip.

The country is hot and humid and I don't like the weather here. It rains pretty often for my comfort.

The twin towers are magnificent but they could have been much better. The looks aren't as soft as empire state bldg in NY. The Suria KLCC is a good hangout for any kind of activity.

Haven't had much time to myself. Will posts some pictures once I'm back to Delhi.

Sun Tech Days, Chennai, 2006

Well, I have just attended Sun Tech Days at Chennai. Somehow, I always feel that event management is not the first priority on their agenda. First day was running a hour late. Though, the music fiesta at the day end was great. I really enjoyed the Gattam. But again, there were not enough seats to sit so I was standing for a fairly long duration till I finally found a seat once audience started rushing home. For reasons unknown to me, I could not get a train ticket to chennai so have to take a bus ride. I don't recommend anyone taking a bus to Chennai from Bangalore. Its too much pain.

Second day was better though again the event management showed off their weakness. Food served on both days was not up to the par and I just don't like the T-shirt throwing in events like these. Crowd (should I say mob?) goes crazy for these T-shirts and many get injured. This is not for weak-hearted. Why can't they just give it to ones who participate or give it to all. I think, they didn't expect this much crowd.

Also, I feel that they should stop doing multiple tracks. I feel like attending more than one but have to sit out another due to concurrency. Somehow, there is duplication of information across sessions. They should streamline and review the contents of all presentation so that it is crisp and upto the mark.

Overall, barring few sessions, I felt it was not worth travelling 500 kms in a bus to watch this event.