India - Part 1

I guess I have been back long enough to give my impression of my trip to India.
This is part 1.

I went to India for a few weeks for work. You may be wondering why I would go half way around the world for work, read more here. The short answer is, we are working with Thomson/Technicolor/Paprikaas in Bangalore India. They will be doing all sorts of work with us up to and including features.

The team I worked with in India all left a week before I did. Since I tend to spend most of my time at the application layer instead of the networking/storage/hardware layer, and there were only a few machines, I probably would have just gotten in the way.

So anyways, I had to fly several continents away, about a 24 hour trip, by myself. I tend to be slightly reserved when forced upon new experiences, so this was a great chance for me to grow.

First off, Lufthansa's international business class is amazing. Seats that go flat, personal video monitors with tons of movie choices and food. Lots of food. The best way to describe it is imagine spending all day at a nice restaurant with no dress code. You show up, wait for an hour or so, and then they start feeding you. Then they encourage you to take a nap. Then they come by and feed you again. Then again more naps. And eventually they serve some sort of dessert and allow you to sleep even longer. Yes, it is that good.

My first leg was SFO to Frankfurt. After 11 hours, I had to make use of the facilities. Had I known I could sit in the business lounge, it would have made my search for a bathroom much easier. The first two were under construction or being cleaned. After finding one and allowing nature to finally take its course, I went to the gate, which happened to be the same gate I flew in to. Unfortunately, Lufthansa has this weird gate setup in Frankfurt, where they have the basic gate lounge, but check your tickets before entering the lounge, not before boarding the plane. So what this means to people who show up before the agents is that you sit down in the lounge, when the agent does show up, you get ushered out to stand in line so you can go back in and sit down again. Annoying and slightly frustrating.

The second leg, Frankfurt to Bangalore. The flight was just as wonderful. The airport. Hmm, the best way to describe it is this, the airport was being replaced the next week. For an international airport, it was showing its age and definitely a tad bit scarey. Getting off the plane there surrounded by hundreds of Indians, being one of the few caucasians, and possibly the only native english speaker, it was a tad overwhelming. Oh, and there was no AC, it was about 90 degrees and although Indians pride themselves in being clean, they haven't bought off yet completely on the whole deodorant thing. Nothing against them, after a few days, you get used to it, but it was a tad much for my first real breath after 20 some hours of flying.

After making my way through customs, I had to wait for my suitcase at the baggage claim. Another thing to note about Indians, they have a different view of personal space than westerners. So instead of a nice orderly wait at the conveyor belt, it was more like being in a can of sardines with people trying to help take money off of you by getting your bag for you. I opted out of this service, but ended up being forced in to it when one of the "helpers" grabbed my suitcase due to the big white X on it. Turns out my bag needed to be scanned by customs before I could leave. For those flying to India, don't bring a second laptop, they don't like it and want to charge you for it. After being told that I would get off this time, I then grabbed my bags and tried to leave, where the friendly staff who helped me with my bag decided it was time to be tipped for his service of wheeling my bag over to the scanner. When tipping at the airport, its never just one guy. I was surrounded by 6 or so. Meanwhile, my friend, who was there to pick me up at the airport, was yelling at me to leave and to not give them anything. I tossed them 50 rupees and ran with my bags to my friend.

And the most difficult part of my trip was now over.