Mysore - The Sights

The main reason to go to Mysore, was to see the palace there. While not the Taj Majal (what is?), it was relatively close and supposed to be nice. It was OK. The grounds and palace are huge, but I was disappointed by the upkeep. They need to spend some money on this place before it falls down. There was peeling paint everywhere. You can't take pictures inside, so you have to check your camera at the gates.

The other interesting thing was you needed to remove your shoes to enter. I guess this is done so that all the shoes do not wear down the floors, some of which were beautifully tiled. But what cracked me up is that the cleaning people were using these grass brooms to beat, and I mean beat, the dust off the furniture and statues there. I can't believe that does not do more damage than people walking around in shoes.

The Palace

I got to ride an elephant

Luggage Found

On Saturday, 7 days after I returned home, I had a glimmer of hope that my luggage might be returned. The Continental website indicated my luggage was rebooked on the Virgin flight I originally took, just a week later. I was pretty excited. I had already begun the process of listing the contents of my suitcase. Do you know how difficult it is to recreate, 6 days worth of clothes? They wanted make, model, color, size, where and when purchased...this was not a fun process...I know I buy most of my stuff at Kohls, but recreating this was gonna be a pain. My clothes were nothing compared to figuring out how much my camera power cord, UBS cable, plus cell phone and iPod cables...what a night mare. Luckily, I only wasted about an hour of my life doing that before I got the good news. Of course, with all good news, must come some bad news. Of course my bag didn't make that flight. It did make the flight on Sunday and my bag was schedule for delivery sometime Monday. Originally when I filed my claim I indicated the bag could be delivered at any time, if I were not home they could leave it on the front porch. The morning passed, noon passed, it was almost 3pm and I was getting mad. You'd think since my bag was 8 days late, they would try and deliver it 1st thing in the morning. I contacted my friends at Continental:

"They started to deliver at 8:30 and should be done in 6 hours", the nice lady told me.

"It's been 6 1/2 hours", I observed.

"Good point," she replied. "Let me check"

"They tell me they have delivered all of the bags. Are you sure it's not on your porch?

Now, our front porch is nice, but not by any means big. I would k now if my suitcase were sitting on it.

"Have you been home all day, have you checked around your house", she asked?

"No", I replied. "They are supposed to deliver to the porch."

So I walk around the house and there it is, by the backdoor, off the garage. What an idiot! (not me, the delivery person. How would I know it is there!

The good news is that all my belongings appear to be there. Rose and Sean both really like their gifts, even though 8 days late

But what to do now? I should be compensated in some way. Anyone out there ever been though this? Please let me know what I should do.

Welcome Home

I know there are more India stories to be told, however....

To make a long story short, Saturday had to have been one of the longest, worst days of my life. I was travelling for 30 hours starting at 3 AM Bangalore time. I woke up with a stomach ache and intestinal issues. I tried to be real careful while I was there, I ate vegetarian to avoid under cooked meats, I brushed my teeth with bottled water, but still I got nabbed. Not sure how, but that is all water under the bridge. I hardly ate on the flights and slept very little. By the time I got to Newark, I was exhausted. In order to get through customs you need to pick up your luggage. I'm standing by the baggage carousel, when I think I hear my name being called with some others. I figure since the plane was late and I was short on time to get to my flight to CLE that they were going to expedite my movement through Customs. WRONG!

I was informed that my suitcase did not make the flight to NJ and I needed to put in a claim when I got to CLE. I was kinda upset, but also too tired to really care at that time.

Well, 4 days later I still don't have my bag. They did call yesterday to see if there was anything inside the bag that might stand out. I mentioned my Hawaiian shirt, "Good" she said, "that is different". I also told her that in every pocket and inside the bag was my name and contact information, "Good", she said. Not sure I feel better, but she seemed happy.

In regards to the illness, it only took me till Wednesday to feel better, between the sickness, the exhaustion and the jet lag, I was slammed.

The good news is that it was great to get home. Rose, Sean and Charlie were all very happy to see me. Sean and Rose made me a welcome home poster, with flowers and a card. It was great to come home to them. I'd show you a picture of it, but my camera power cord and USB cable are all in my luggage....

It was great doing some relaxing Sunday and Monday, and getting settled in. I worked from home Tuesday/Wednesday to re-acclimate myself. Today it's off to the office for the first time. If I don't get my luggage soon, I'll need to do some shopping as most of my work clothes are in my luggage....

TGIF - "I'm Going Home"

While I have enjoyed my trip, both on a personal and professional level, I'm glad today is my last full day in India. I have spent time with friends, eaten some great food, seen some awesome sights and met really nice people, but I'm ready to go home.

To quote Chris Daughtry:

I'm going home, back to the place where I belong,

and where your love has always been enough for me......

...But these places and these faces are getting old, so I'm going home.

Well I'm going home.

I miss my family. I know my being away for extended periods is not easy for Rose or Sean. Being able to talk to them on a regular basis and sharing stories with them via this blog have helped, but I'm looking forward to spending face to face time with them (and even Charlie) on Sunday.

I still have many stories and pictures to post in the upcoming days, so please check back for updates...

I know I should be working......

Good news for all my co-workers is that things have been going very well on the support side. The team has done a great job on the e-mails and chats that have come their way, which is allowing me this time to quickly post this JIT entry. Ash and I met at 6:00 am this morning (after working to 10:30 pm) to be on-site for the AU shift, as we start the first day of phone support. It was a nice drive in as most people are still sleeping. As we were waiting for the elevator, Ash mentioned that the "lift operator" may be asleep. First let me tell you that the elevators for our five floor building have attendants that push the buttons for you. The funny thing (or sad, depends on your point of view) is that we've stopped at the wrong floor, gone in the wrong direction or just plain stood still more than once with the help of our experts. So right on cue, the doors open and there he is, sitting on his stool, fast asleep. Of course I don't have my camera ready. Ash pushes the "3" button himself and we proceed to our floor (correctly, nice job Ash!). All this without our friend waking up.

After getting settled and making sure things are going well with the team, we head back to the elevators to get some coffee. We wait 5 minutes and the door opens to a full car of empty water bottles. We decide to take the stairs. The door is locked at our exit point, so we go down one more level to the parking garage and head for an alternative escape route. When we finally get to the coffee shop, the security guard is sleeping and the barista is sleeping. We wake him up to get our coffee and proceed back to the elevators. This time it opens immediately, no attendant in sight and we proceed back to the office without any issues.

Mysore - "Will you please go away!!!!!"

One of the attractions in Mysore is the market there.

It was so cool walking around looking at the wares the vendors were selling. There were spices,

powdered dyes,

flowers for special occasions,

and fruits and vegetables.

While the atmosphere was just as expected, vendors calling out to buy their stuff, I had one man follow me around for 10 minutes trying to sell me these cheap looking and sounding wooden flutes. The best part was he was showing me how each one worked. He would not go away, I tried being nice, not so nice and rude. Nothing worked. Finally, Cheryl said to ignore him. The fact that I was responding to him meant I was interested. Well even ignoring him did not work. It wasn't until we left the market and walked to our car that he finally gave up. Persistent little bugger!

Mysore - The Trip to Mysore

Cheryl suggested a trip to Mysore to get out of Bangalore and see some more of the country. The Taj Majal was out because it required a flight and overnight stay. Too much time required for a two week visit. Mysore is not close, 3 hours each way, but doable in one day. Fellow expats, Monica and Emma decided to join us. At 6:45 am with pillows, bread basket and bottled water packed we headed out. The good new about leaving so early was that traffic was pretty light. The bad news was that our driver was one of those people that drive right up to lights, traffic back-ups, road blocks and speed bumps (Right don't get me started!) at full speed, then slams on the breaks at the last minute. So we are on the Bangalore-Mysore road cruising at 100 kph (about 62 mph) when we come up to the first roadblock. The police set up these barriers so that all the traffic has to wind around the barriers going from full speed, two lanes to no speed one lane. It's crazy! The we are at full speed again and come up to a speed bump. I assume that these are in place because we were approaching populated areas, but who knows. I couldn't count how many roadblocks and speed bumps we hit on out trip. But for each one it was the same, wait to the last minute and slam on the brakes. The scenery was interesting. There were sugarcane fields being harvested and rice paddies being planted. That was surprising to me, I think of that mainly in Asia. Who knew?