This is motivating me to make some travel plans…
visited 7 states (14%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
And the vast swathes of India I haven’t been to:
visited 12 states (34.2%)
Create your own visited map of India
And this, is absolutely ridiculous:
visited 8 Countries (3.55%)
Create your own visited map of The World
Posting has been light, mainly because I’ve been visiting family, my sister arrived from Kuwait (with her husband and three daughters), so there are a lot of people in the house right now – 11 in total). It’s a complete madhouse with 5 kids, the eldest 11 and the youngest 2.
And oh, I learned a new victory cheer from my 6 year old niece. This one, who was adamant about not getting her picture taken. You pump your hands in the air, wiggle your hips and go “oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah!” Ok kid, so you beat me at Tekken on the PS2, no need to make a song and dance of it.
Goa has begun to feel like a backwater provincial town that’s doesn’t know how to grow into a big city and doesn’t really care to learn. The whole attitude seems to be, “well it worked 70 years ago when the Portuguese were here with their egalitarian ways and insistence on competence in their civic servants, so it should work now that nepotism and corruption are rampant”.
Goa used to be a collection of small villages. And now, it seems to be coalescing into something strangely different.
Back when residences were mostly extended family homes, it was easy to see to the well being of everyone in the home. When I was growing up, that was changing to being mostly single family homes. My sisters and I were what would be termed latch-key kids. My parents left the house key with a neighbor and we got it from her when we returned. Of course, this being Goa, our parents came home for lunch, which gave them a chance to check on us, make sure we got back from school and got started on our homework before they went back to work.
Now, that makeup is changing. With single family homes being priced out of the reach of most middle class families, they are moving into apartment buildings. And these apartment buildings are like gated communities. The apartment my sister lives in (where I’m staying right now) has a full time guard/gatekeeper, and visitors are scrutinized closely. This is what’s happening almost everywhere in Goa.
Going back to traffic. Back when Goa was a collection of small towns/villages, and had a population of about a million (each village had a population of around 10,000). There were three big cities with a population of maybe 10 times that. The other ‘feature’ was that most people took public transport (that actually worked, even if it started at 7:00 am and shutdown at 7:00 pm) and other than that, the only form of personal transport families had were two wheelers (Vespa scooters) and bicycles. So driving on the roads then could be described as a form of cooperative multi-tasking. Think Windows 3.1. It works great, when you have a few applications and each application takes care not to hold on to the CPU.
Most roads in Goa do not have traffic lights and most intersections do not have stop signs. There are few parking garages, and parking rules/conventions are mostly non-existent. This is not a problem when people cooperate. And that was easy when you knew everyone and when everyone knew you.
Now, that makeup has changed. Most people now have cars. There are very few bicycles and I’ve seen a marked decrease in the number of two-wheelers around. Almost everyone has one car with some of the well off families having multiple cars. The traffic rules and conventions still haven’t changed. It all still works on a cooperative multi-tasking model. You think roller-coasters are scary? Try riding shotgun in a car being driven through 4-way intersections with no stop signs or traffic lights. And friends ask me why I don’t drive here. No way. I don’t want to have an accident the minute I get back to the US.
As an example, one of the local banks opened a new branch in the same building where my sister lives. So I went there with my mom so she could open an account. We met the new account person at the bank, and the first thing he said was, “oh, you’re so-and-so and you live in that building in apartment number X”. Remember, this is the first time either my mom or I had met this person. That’s what Goa’s like.
wherein I discover that Mumbai is not what it used to be.
Categories: travel
Tagged: Adventure, Airport, Customs, goa, India, travel
wherein I get to Frankfurt and wander around and reminisce…
Categories: travel
Tagged: Adventure, Airport, goa, India, travel
Greetings from Mumbai. There is apparently free wi-fi here, and I can connect to the access point and that’s it. So this may probably not get posted until much later.
It’s 3:00 am in Mumbai and it was pouring when we landed. There was so much water on the runway that the pilot used reverse thrust to slow down the 747 and did not hit the brakes until we got almost to the end of the runway. My travel adventure (part 1) hasn’t ended yet. I have another flight to catch (this one, to Goa’s short – only about an hour) and then maybe an hour’s taxi ride to my sisters house in Santa Cruz, Goa.
The last time I had a chance to sit and open the laptop was in Chicago. Where, (naturally), the United flight to Frankfurt was delayed (only by two hours). I wasn’t in any state to do anything in Chicago, so I just sat there watching a 747 come close enough to kiss the terminal as it pulled into its gate. Everyone ooh’ed and aah’ed appropriately and then we stood around and watched for a bit and then drifted off.
As we boarded, I noticed that some of the passengers were especially bitchy and realised that maybe some of my fellow SFO-ORD-FRA re-routees were happy with having to dash to the airport on short notice. Me – I just wanted to get it over with. That didn’t leave any time or energy to be bitchy about anything.
Chicago-Frankfurt, the captain was very apologetic about the delay. Turns out that the plane was delayed getting in from Beijing, and he said that they had loaded up extra fuel and would be travelling a little faster than normal (at 0.86 mach) to try and make up for any lost time.
Read more…
Categories: travel
Tagged: Adventure, Airport, goa, India, travel
This morning I was finishing packing and was about to leave a note for my house sitter when I got a text message. It was United Airlines, saying that my 1:55pm flight to Frankfurt was delayed and would now be leaving at 6:00pm.
After a heartstopping moment of realising that I would miss the Frankfurt-Bombay, and Bombay-Goa flights, making my journey take 4 days instead of the three. Thanks to the power of the internet, I quickly called customer service.
That’s right, in the internet age, you’re much more likely to get your problem solved by calling a real person.
wherein robbers made off with the copper cable connecting the only telephone exchange in the town my parents live in to the rest of the nation, leaving the place without any wired telephone or DSL service. Hence, this may be my last post while the local government department gets its act together.
So what is Goa like? Let me offer up three “news” articles from local newspapers
1. Faithful throng Talaulim for Touxeamchem Fest
Faithful throng Talaulim for Touxeamchem Fest HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, JULY 27 — On a Sunday marked by some heavy downpour, Talaulim in Tiswadi invoked the blessings of its patron saint (St Anne), even as people of all faiths thronged the historic 16th century St Anne’s Church to make a wish at the traditional Touxeamchem Fest.
Touxeamchem translates as “of the cucumbers” (or can be translated a little loosely as “our cucumbers”). To continue…
More famed for its miracles of gifting the childless with children, this year too couples brought their gifts (children) and placed them at the feet of St Anne’s statue. Fr Lourdinho Pereira said around 28 childless couples, who received favours, met him personally.
Wow. Someone’s been busy. Note that neither the reporter nor the editor saw anything wrong with this bit.
2. Age-old ritual kick-starts fishing season in Agonda
Age-old ritual kick-starts fishing season in Agonda HERALD CORRESPPONDENT CANACONA, JULY 27 – The traditional fishing season has commenced in Agonda on Sunday with the commemoration of an age-old annual ritual at both ends of the shore. Traditional fishermen from coastal Agonda annually carry out customary puja, where hundreds of coconuts are broken and cocks are sacrificed offering them to Hill Gods, while feni and toddy is poured into sea to please Sea God.
No, not those cocks.
Feni and toddy : local moonshine made from cashew (fruit) and coconut sap.
3. Stray cattle menace on the rise in Salcete
Stray cattle menace on the rise in Salcete NT NETWORK MARGAO: As stray cattle become responsible for road accidents in the city and other areas of Salcete, the Margao Municipal Council and respective Panchayats are yet to take action with regard to the same. According to sources in South Goa Collector’s office, the South Goa district administration has asked the Margao Municipal Council to take strict measures to prevent the cattle menace.
That’s right. Goa has stray cattle that menace traffic. Soon to be a horror film. Maybe they can convince Buffy that the cattle menace is a harbinger of the evil horrors to come.
This is also notice that my English speaking and writing skills will regress to 19th century British governmentese.
Categories: personal · travel
Tagged: goa, news, telephone, travel
The Singapore zoo has a section open at night (from about 7:00 pm through 11:00 pm) and there are walking trails and guided electric bus tours. I went on it last night.
There’s a bus that runs from Orchard road, stopping at various hotels and goes to the zoo, so I decided to take that. The first problem came up when the bus arrived outside my hotel and it was almost full. There was a large crowd waiting, and clearly the operators had not expected that many people. They scrambled to get those of us who could on board, and tried to soothe the people who couldn’t by trying to arrange for another bus to arrive. The people at the other stops were also a little miffed to put it mildly, specially the German and Danish tourists.
Well, we got to the zoo and I walk in, there’s a tribal dance with fire eaters going on in the outside courtyard. There are also fast food (local equivalent) restaurant selling $4 bottles of water. Inside the paid area, there was a line of around 400 people waiting for the guided tour.
The guided tour takes place in a “tram”, which is essentially a low slung, electric “bendy” bus, with the sides cut away. I wait, get on and we set off with warnings about not using the flash on your camera and dire warnings about keeping all your body parts within the confines of the bus.
We set off and soon the atmosphere changes. Parents hush their kids, other parents get into long winded descriptions of what their kids should expect to see and the couples start cuddling. Us foreign tourists just look around with bemused expressions and smile at each other.
The zoo is simply amazing. They have managed to replicate the natural habitat of different asian and african wildlife, from the spotted hyena, to the giraffe and the elephant. There’s also nothing like rounding a corner and coming face to face with a rhino. Those things are scary. (That’s when a few children started screaming.) The hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) were cute, snorgling in the water. The papa elephant seemed a little depressed, was shaking his head from side to side, and mama and baby elephants were nuzzling over in the meadow on the other side.
About a tenth of the way into the tour, we were given the opportunity to get off and go on walking trails. These were marked trails through the jungle. On foot, the experience was completely different – I was much closer to the smells and sounds (and in the fruit bat habitat, the touch). It was funny watching some people get freaked out by the fruit bat. It’s a fruit bat people, it’s not going to suck your blood. It was also amazing watching someone trying to impress his friends by leaving the trail on the “leopard trail”. It’s a leopard fella – to it, you are prey. Do not leave the trail. Fortunately a trail warden prevented disaster. (And no, I’m not sure if he was ‘fined’ 
).
While leaving for Singapore, I was debating whether to carry my fast lens. I decided to save weight in my bag and not carry it. So, unfortunately, I don’t have too many good photographs.
Pictures from the night safari
I’m hoping to get better ones today at the bird sanctuary and the orchid garden.
Categories: travel
Tagged: night safari, Singapore, travel
Woke up this morning and had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Unfortunately, they were all out of Mangosteens. But they had papaya! After breakfast, my colleague and I went to Chinatown. We got there a little early, at around 10:00am, most of the shops weren’t open yet.
We took the subway to Chinatown.
I had to buy a ticket
The subways are amazing here. There are 3 main subway lines (and 4 light rail systems) that cover most of the country. A network of buses makes up the rest. Most people here do not have cars, and it’s a fun place for a pedestrian (that is if you don’t mind the heat and humidity).
The things you can get fined for in the subway
Note that technically, while the durian is banned on the subway, you’re not fined if you bring one on.
The old parts of Singapore are a maze of tiny alleys and sidewalks, reminding me of Bombay.
That’s one steam boat I’d have liked to have taken
My colleague had a lot of shopping to do, so I just wandered around. After all the shopping, we went over to the Raffles hotel. Of course, I walk in as if I’m a guest there (the room rates at The Raffles start at $800/night) and try to find the bar. And fail. We finally give up and go ask the concierge, who promptly whips out a map and draws directions to the Long Bar. Oh yeah, it’s that sort of place. You need a map to get to the bar.
The inside of the hotel is just amazing. Redolent of the colonial era, with high ceilings, white-washed walls, rattan chairs… it was a little surreal.
I guess they didn’t want people to turn around and leave…
Back in the day, this was all the air circulation you got
The bar was also full of tourists, taking pictures of the waiters in their dhotis:
Now, I could wear that!
And the litter on the floor, since it turns out that in colonial times, the uppity locals just swept the crumbs from the tables on the floor. That tradition seems to have continued, although I wonder what happens when there’s a large influx of tourists. Does the floor get ankle deep in peanut shells?
We finally got our drinks – the whole point of going to the Raffles in the first place:
The skies then opened up and let loose with a torrential downpour, putting paid to my plans of walking back. I let my colleague convince me to take a taxi back to the hotel.
Oh my god. The food. The food.
First day here, I have breakfast in the hotel, get into the office and spend the morning in meetings where we discuss business processes and how technology should be used to make them work. I was to understand later how this becomes relevant.
I get to talk to the other folks here – all of the technically competent. And the people here are a very diverse group. Right now the Filipinos have the edge, and the Singaporean, Indian and the Chinese are right on their heels. The Germans, British and Americans are a decided minority. I was glad to see that a very large proportion of the developers here are women (close to 35%). That is compared to the 7% or so we have in San Francisco and was a nice change to be in a normal environment like that.
The only problem I see is that the culture here is very heads down and task focussed. They’re all like “give me my task, tell me when it’s due and go away”. Which is not the way my company works. We like a lot more collaboration – mainly because some of these processes are dynamic and change during the process of code development.
So lunchtime rolls around and a group of us decide to go for Indian. We go downstairs, hop into the subway (more about that later) and go to Little India. Once there, we walk into a cute little South Indian restaurant, looking just like one would in Bombay and place our order. Which is where their business process falls down. The meals come with a free drink. And two of us in the group did not want a soda with our dosa. Which was a problem, because their ordering system would not accept a meal order without a drink. After some back and forth while we desperately tried to avoid doing any tech support, we went ahead and got bottled water with our meals.
The food is incredible. I sat there eating my idli and vada and dosa, breaking the idli to dip it in the sambar and licking my fingers clean after each bite. Mmm. And this was just my first meal here.
That evening, we went out for drinks and later, everyone wanted to go eat at the buffet in my hotel. Now, used to hotel food in America, I was naturally horrified. And everyone kept assuring me otherwise. So I decided to go ahead, since I could satisfy my food explorations another time.
The hotel buffet is a restaurant inside the lobby of the hotel. It was surprisingly packed and we had to wait 30 minutes for a table. We had our beers so we didn’t mind waiting. Once inside, we hit the buffet: it was less of a buffet and more of an attempt to duplicate the hawker stalls, There were different food stalls inside, and you could walk around sampling a little of everything. There was Thai, and Singaporean, and Indian and Chinese and Korean food.
I had Singapore’s national dish: Chicken rice. The dish is exactly what it says. The chicken is boiled, and once it’s cooked, dunked into ice water. The broth is used to cook the rice. That makes the rice extra delicious. The highlight of the evening was discovering that the fruit bar had fresh mangosteens. I’d never had one before and oh wow, they are yum. I think I’m going to find a grocer that sells those and get some to eat over the weekend.
