Heading back to Europe

Well, that's it, my first trip is over. In a couple of hours I'll be checking out and the driver will be picking me up to take me to the airport.

I've had a lazy day, reading by the pool. I did have a quick walk down Church Street to St Mark's and then back down MG Road. I didn't want to have anything too spicy to eat as I'll only have aircraft toilets for the next few hours so I ordered a Nasi Gorang which turned out to be possibly the spiciest thing I've had all week.... Oh well.

I'm actually quite sad to be leaving. I was starting to feel comfortable here and the work was very interesting. I've now got to go back to my old job, but it's only for a few weeks so I'll manage to survive. And anyway, I'm off to the UK next weekend for two drinking sessions, then I've got friends visiting for a weekend and it's the film festival in March, so things will pass quickly.

I'll update with some more thoughts later as I don't feel in the mood for a long post today.

Just a couple of random thoughts though:

People here seem to have a very good habit of covering their mouths when talking on a mobile phone. This means that you don't need to listen to other people's conversations.

People on the streets keep trying to sell me one of the following : wooden snakes, travel chess sets or maps of India.

I've discovered that it is actually not that difficult to avoid beggars and hawkers, just pretend that you know where you are going and keep walking. That may seem rude but the problem is so much larger than anything that can be solved with just a few rupees.

I like it here and certainly look forward to exploring it much more.

Now with added links

I've actually managed to play around with the HTML of the page and add a links list over there *points at the sidebar*.

Saturday

I got up reasonably early, had a good breakfast and then went out for a long walk for about three hours, all the way to the botanical gardens and back.

Here's a view of the city from the hill in the gardens:

This is part of the lotus pond.

A view of the lower part of the gardens

This is the shrine that's at the top of the hill



I've been trying to take surreptitious photos of people to give an idea of the colours and styles of clothing.

On my way back, I saw these very smart cows

Friday evening

Had a relatively quiet one. A couple of beers (at 100R a pint, it would be rude not to) and then I thought I'd try a Chinese place on Church Street called Three Quarters Chinese. Big mistake, it was the first bad experience I'd had here with food.

The waiter (who was amusingly called Adolf) recommended a couple of things and I though why not as one of them was lobster in a crab sauce. The starter was fine, some truly delicious duck but then I waited for over an hour for the main course and when it arrived it was fairly bland and tasteless. The waiters seemed to ignore me most of the time and Adolf only popped by once to see if everything was OK. Nobody apologised for the delay and the bill came to 2700R which is really expensive. Not recommended.

The I just came back to the hotel and watched a program on Discovery with Anthony Head about zombies in Haiti.

Here's a couple of views of the city from the roof of the office:

Where to live

Looked at some flats on Friday, they were all fully serviced thought which is a bit too much like a hotel (and quite expensive, they were looking for around 3000R per day). The first place was right next to the office which would have been handy but the place was tiny. The second place was a bit further away and larger, in a huge complex of apartments. A fairly nice two bedroom place but as I said, fully serviced.

Binesh said that I should be able to get a fully furnished 2 bedroom bungalow in Koramangala for about 20000 per month, which sounds a bit more like it. A driver should cost about 4000 a month (a little more if you also want him to be available at the weekend) and a maid 1400. I think I'll go for that option as it's cheaper and it'll feel a bit more like home. Binesh know a few housing agents, so I'll set him loose on that next week.

It’s Republic Day here and therefore none of the managers are in the office. So I decided to spend the morning going through my mail and updating my notes by the side of the pool. That's my temporary office up there.

Yesterday was quite a busy day; I spent several hours going through some of the processes with the different team leaders and will do the same this afternoon. Today I’ll be talking to the guys looking after the London processes; they only start at about midday local time to be in sync with London.

I went for a couple of beers last night right next to the hotel in a place called “Pub World”. It’s supposed to be five different styles of bar in one room, but to be honest it just looks like one bar… Nice beer on tap though so I had a couple and read some more of Kafka on the shore which is a fantastic book. As I was a bit tired I decided to eat in the hotel and discovered that it was unlimited kebaps and beer for 650R. I only had one beer as I’d already had a couple but will confess to having several servings of delicious kepabs. They are not like kebabs that you get in the UK but are different meats and fish frilled in various spices on a spit, normally served with a mint sauce. They really were fantastic. I had to run away at the end as I’d eaten far too much and they kept wanting to serve me more…

I've just had a truly superb meal at The Coconut Grove on Church Street. The house cocktail to start with, which was fairly alcoholic and served in a fresh coconut, then three or four small crabs in a spicy sauce for starter. Followed up by a prawn curry with rice and a kind of puffy naan. I am now full. All that with a beer (which over here comes in 650ml bottles) cost 750 R which is about 15EUR.

Today was quite interesting, the morning in the office and then I went to the Infosys campus which is just outside the city for lunch and a tour. There are 41 buildings set in parkland and 16000 people work there. This being India, outside is very poor and covered in cows, whereas the inside is perfect lawns, fountains, a golf course, a library and more restaurants than you can shake a stick at.

I had a walk after getting back and took some more photos, I think I'm starting to get a bit more used to this place already.

tomorrow I'm being taken to visit some flats, we'll see what that's like.

Work

First day at the office yesterday, went very well. The offices are nice even if the space given to each person is very small compared to what we would consider normal in Europe. There would be a riot if we tried giving people desks that small in Brussels. The lights went out three times or so during the day but the PCs just get on working. I think they must have the mother of all UPS in the cellar. Lunch was in the cafeteria which is on the roof. That seems to be the standard thing in office buildings. Good use of space though.

The traffic is like nothing I have ever seen before. It took an hours to go about 8KM yesterday morning. There are no lanes and ever free space on the road is filled with cars, buses, motorbikes, autorickshaws and cows. There were even motorbikes using the pavement to overtake.

It seems that eventual the project will be split between two locations: JP Nagar, which is where it is now, and the Infosys Campus at Electronics city. It seems the best place to live would be Koramalanga which is between the two. Lalith, who is the project manager, will arrange for an agent to show me some places later in the week. He told me that the average price for a furnished flat is between 1000 and 2000 USD per month. Looks like again there is a big difference between the prices for Indians and foreigners!

Off to JP Nagar again this morning for a meeting with Supriya, the ops manager and then meeting Binesh, the transitions manager, for lunch and a tour at the Infosys campus. Looking forward to that as it's supposed to be quite something.

Had a lovely meal last night in a little place on Church Street called Queens. Chicken dish with garlic naan and a fresh mango lassi for 270R, that's about 5 EUR.

Right, the driver is here so I'm off to face the traffic again.

Finally got the net access working at the hotel. So here are some notes and things I made over the last couple of days.

I can’t update blog at the moment as I don’t have administrator access to the laptop and therefore can’t change the proxy settings. I’ll try and upload this from the office in the morning.

21 January

About 9 am: Woke up at 3.30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Now on plane to FFT, slight delay. Bugger me; I’m on my way to India!

Somewhere north of Greece, heading toward the Black Sea. Seats in business class are very comfortable! Having a glass of wine, just watched Frasier and now a Bollywood movie, turned on just in time for a musical number J Hmm, hindi hip-hop. It’s erm, interesting.

There’s a channel with just Indian pop videos. The women are giving me TRFH.

They keep serving me wine. I like this!

Just north of Instanbul.

The flight goes right over Tehran. About 9pm Indina time, somewhere near the Iranian/Pakistani border. It’s sounds so cool to say that!

Wow, I’m here! Quite an experience at the airport. People everywhere. But my car was there, first time I’ve ever had somebody waiting for me with my name on a sign!

Hotel is superb. Eating the fresh fruit that was brought to my room as a welcome gift. Will try to get to sleep tonight and get up at seven.




22 January 2006

Just been for a walk. Wow, that was quite intense! Traffic everywhere, as a white person, people keep coming up to me. Autorickshaw drivers offering an hour long tourist trip for ten rupee. Was walking along the street and some guy in his fiftiesjust started talking to me. I’d read about that in the guide books, we ended up having quite a long walk. He was called William and is a chef. We chatted and walked across Cubon Park and up to the market in Central Street. Cars, bikes, buses, rickshaws everywhere. Lots of colour everywhere. Women in beautiful saris. Popped into the catholic church, was odd to hear a mass being said in Kannada! Of course it turned out that my new friend was not just being nice for nothing. At the very end he took me to a craft shop where I resisted the sale pitches and then he mentioned that his work place had been on strike and that it was his daughter’s 16th birthday today and could I offer a gift? I gave him 100 rupees and we parted ways. ‘twas a bit disappointing but I guess everybody has to make a living. Oh, saw my first cow! It was wandering along the pavement at a bus stop. It’s hot and I’m a bit jetlagged so not feeling too hot at the moment. I’m going to rest for a bit and then maybe go for a swim later.




Had a nap for a couple of hours and then went back out again, I need to try and get used to this. It’s probably just jetlag, but every time I go out, I feel a little spaced out and it all seems a little surreal. It’s so different here, the sheer amount of people everywhere.

Bought a map for 200 R.

Chatted with guy who has room opposite mine. He’s from the Gideons and had just been out to see the Infosys campus. Seemed nice enough for a happy-clappy.

Currently in a little bar called ‘Pecos’ on Rest House Road, just off Brigade road. Brigade Road is full of shops and even fuller of people! There was a cow on the road in front of the hotel, just wondering against the traffic in Residency Road, and there is a lot of traffic there! It’s a tiny, slightly run down bar on two floors. Seems ok so far, having a beer and listening to Santana. Oh, a small cockroach has just run across the countertop! Dark bar, walls covered in posters from the 60’s and 70’s. Beer barrels and the gas for the taps on top of the bar. Don’t think there is much to drink apart from beer as all the shelves behind the bar are filled with CDs, cassette tapes and, I kid you not, 8track cartridges.

Tomorrow is first day of work, driver is picking me up at 9. I think I’ll just eat in the hotel and try to get a good night’s sleep at a decent time.

The women’s clothing is really beautiful, lots of brightly coloured saris.

I think I may have upset one of the autorickshaw drivers who hang around the hotel entrance. When I got back earlier he was insisting on taking me for a tour of all the sights, for 10r for an hour. Although no doubt I would have ended up in a shop belong to a friend of his and would have ended up paying a lot more than 10. I said maybe later but then he was there again when I went back out a couple of hours later. He recognized me, smiled and pointed at his watch as if he’d been waiting for me all this time. Of course he offered the tour again. It’s difficult to get rid of him as just a simple ‘no’ does not seem to be enough! I just had to be slightly rude and carry on walking away while repeating, no, not interested.

Shit, I’ve just jumped as a cockroach scuttled under my arm. India is going to take some getting used to! I’m now paranoid and checking everywhere for insects.

Only men serving drinks which is odd as in the west it’s more often women who work in bars. I suppose the law has only just changed and before you know it there’ll be loads of Australian girls working in all the bars here, the same way they do all over the world. This is a rock bar but the waiters are all in white shirts and black waistcoats and bowties. They must be really hot as there’s no air-conditioning, only a few fans.

Kingfisher beer is not bad. 37 R for a beer.

It’s strange being the odd one out. Not everybody does it but there have been a few people who have openly stared at me as I was walking in the street.

I thought the pavements in Brussels were bad but they are nothing compared to the ones here! Huge holes, slabs of concrete that don’t quite fit, drops of 30cm or more to the level of the road. At one point on Residency Road they are working on the sewers at the side of the road, they were wide open and only wooden walls to keep things flowing. The smell was intense. And this was right next to a new shopping mall selling all the usual western labels. Lots of contrasts like that from what I can see.

The bar is advertising a full English breakfast for 60R, that just over 1 Eur.

As a gesture to the empire I had a gin and tonic in the hotel bar.

Gah, they are starting to play Bob -Marley. I really do find reggae to be very dull. Time to leave I think.

Very nice meal in the hotel. A garlic naan really does have quite a lot of garlic in it!

Almost there

Well, in about six hours time, I need to get up to go to the airport.

Jean Paul is driving me there so we had a few drinks with Bertrand and a 500g steak at the Belgica this evening to celebrate my departure. Then a couple more drinks with Popom near my place. I'm still a bit tired from the banks drink last night but hopefully by the time I arrive in Bangalore tomorrow I'll be tired enough to sleep and therefore hopefully not suffer too much jetlag. The guys in Bangalore called this morning to confirm that they have booked a car and driver for me for the week, he'll be at the hotel on Monday at 9 to take to the offices.

I'm as excited as Gary Glitter in a primary school but will try and get some sleep now.

Almost there, just two more days to work and then I'm off! Tomorrow is most of the morning and lunchtime giving a client presentation and then in the evening there is an office do with free food and drink until 1am. I may not stay that long (but then again, who knows!). Just to be on the safe side, I'll probably do most of my packing this evening.

Not mush else to report so have a couple of news links:

Tigers, barmaids and finally monkeys

Another weekend over. Did a bit of clearing out today, getting rid of odd socks, that sort of thing. Was a bit tired after hitting several bars with Jean-Paul last night. Ended up in the Rock Classic drinking vodka, listening to a cannibal Corpse live album being played very loudly and looking at the lovely goth waitress. 'twas a good night!

Saturday I was up at 7 for some ungodly reason so went out for a walk and took some photos around town. Bought a bigger suitcase for only 50EUR and found this in the FNAC. Looks quite interesting as it's more of a practical guide on living there. Just what I need! I'm just dipping into it at random at the moment.

Well, that's it for today, I'm tired. This time next week I should be in India...

Friday

Well, I have my visa. A bit of a wait at the embassy again, but I got it. It's starting to sink in that I'm going to be leaving here in a couple of months. It exciting and a little bit nerve wracking too.



Had a nice quiet evening after another fairly crappy day. Just had some wine and watched Constantine again. It really is a lot a of fun. Not exactly like the comic but they capture the essence of it very well. And Rachel Weisz really is kind of lovely.

I think that's it for tonight. I want to get up on time tomorrow and get the washing done, go into town to buy a suitcase and all that other crap.

See y'all later.

Visa, hotel and stuff

Hooray, I got my visa! I finally got the letter from India and after waiting for two hours in the Indian embassy this morning I've been granted a one year business visa. I'd asked for two, but I can only assume that as the letter from India mentioned one year, they decided to go with that instead. Still, that's one worry out of the way! I just need to go and pick up my passport tomorrow at 17.00, which gives me a nice excuse for leaving work on time.

The hotel is also booked and confirmed. There was a bit of doubt as apparently there is a trade fair on that week and so hotels were all booked. However the place the Bank has a relationship with, the Taj Gateway, made me an offer for a higher grade of room. It's more that we normally pay, but apparently the room has wooden floors, plasma TV, etc. I wonder if they'll notice if I take the TV? It's not like I'd be nicking towels or anything.

The Lonely Planet mentions the restaurants as being very good but expensive. Seeing as the deal we have with the hotel includes 15% off in the restaurants, I'll have to give them a try. Another good thing is that the hotel will arrange for a car to pick me up and bring me back to the airport. I was wondering how I was going to get cash in small enough denominations to pay for a cab or an autorickshaw. I have no idea what kind of denominations the cash machines dispense over there.

Still, apart from that, a fairly crappy day at work. But it's the weekend soon! I need to go into town on Saturday and buy a suitcase as I don't actually have one.

That's all for the moment.

Did a couple of productive things today: I called the landlord to let him know I was leaving. I've just typed up the official letter to confirm that. So, as from the 1 April I will no longer have this apartment! Another good thing is that as I will not have anywhere to live, I can't have my start day delayed, which frankly was a little bit of a concern.

I've also written to the gym to cancel my membership (not that I used it very often). I mustn't forget closer to the time to cancel the insurance on the flat as well as Belgacom and all that.

The tax advisors have advised that it's best I de-register at the commune too, it will make my tax status clearer.

I've almost got all the paperwork I need for my visa. I should be getting the letter from the Indian company tomorrow and then I can go to the embassy. I'll see if I can get a three year visa right away, it would save a lot of hassle.

I've looked at the banks in India and apparently there is no problem for a foreigner to open an account although it may only be possible for six months at a time, I'll need to look into it some more.

I'll just leave you with this, 'cause I think it's ace. It's by Mitch Clem.

More India stuff

Found a couple of fairly interesting pieces about the expat life in India:

This one

and this one

Also found a list of potential areas to live in :
Palace Orchard, Cunningham Road, Richmond Town, Langford Town, Jayanagar, B.T.M. Layer, Indira Nagar, Burton Road and Airport Road.
Most of these seem to be in the south of the city. As Electronics City (where I'll be working), is in that direction, that seems to make sense.

Good night, and good luck

Saw this film today and loved it. Very well done, not at all preachy and it assumes that the audience has a little intelligence and some knowledge of the McCarthy era. And it's very relevant to the world today. Both in the climate of fear that McCarthy took advantage of and the use of television to inform and not just entertain. Clooney really is a talented so and so. I knew that he directed the film but had forgotten that he also wrote it.

My favourite line by Murrow in the film was : We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

I feel this is something that pinpoints one of the many scary things going on in the world. Freedom of speech and thought and belief is something worth fighting for.

I wandered into town afterward to see if I could find a book about McCarthy and that era. Nothing to be found but I did pick up Tell me no lies by John Pilger which is about investigative journalism and has a section on Murrow and McCarthy. I also found India : A history which looked quite good. The popped into work for an hour or so to tidy up some stuff. I really can't wait to change jobs...

Right, ironing and maybe I'll start sort out some stuff to throw out. I need to start clearing out all my junk.

Hungover

Hello internet *waves*

A little bit tired and sore today. Was out with the boys last night, as it was Friday and all that. Beers at the Bastoche, a very nice meal at Le Khnopff with, of course a couple of very nice wines. Then to a the Havana Corner for cigars and whiskey, followed by 'one for the road' at le Corto and then one or two more for the road at the Gauguin.... During the evening we decided that a little weekend gastronomique in Champagne should be attempted before April. Hopefully we can fit that in!

Had a bit of a wander to see if fresh air would help. I picked up a 250GB USB hard drive so that I can just put all of my music and junk on it to take with me. Only cost 150 Eur in the sales at Mediamarkt. It's very nice and minimalist and should do the job.

Yesterday was a shitty day at work but I did get my flights booked for the end of the month! We only just managed to get me on a flight as there were virtually no seat left. I'm leaving Brussels on Saturday the 21, flying to Frankfurt and then on to Bangalore direct, arriving at 00.25 on the 22 January. Heading back there was no flight available before 02.15 on Monday the 30 January, arriving back in Brussels at 10.00 in the morning on the Monday.

The timing of the flights is a bit odd and I may be a little tired when I get back. I had a quick look and the trip should give me about 25,000 airmiles already (as it's all business class, you do not want to know the price of the flights). Not a bad start!

Still working on the hotel though as the Taj Gateway is apparently full that week. Hopefully that will be all sorted on Monday. I still need to get a visa, hopefully the required invitation letter from the Indian company will have arrived by then.

Right, I'm going to laze about in the bath and read FHM.

Later dudes.

Reading

I've finally got round to reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and it's brilliant. I really need to get more of his stuff. Fave line so far: "Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."

Also re-reading Infinite Jest which is also fab even though I'm on page 600 and there's still not much of a plot. I feel that could be part of the point though.

And some short horror stories by John Connolly. He writes a great crime novel series that started out being just a very good serial killer type thing and has now become something very gothic and dark. He rocks.

Hmm, is it just me or is this just a bit like a boring diary that everybody can read? Still, it's kinda fun in a way. *waves at whoever is reading this*

Nothing too exciting to report today. The head of the branch mentioned that he had approved my trip for the end of the month when he wandered past my desk. I did find a nice sounding pub on the good ole Wikipedia.

And this paragraph from http://www.virtualbangalore.com/ made me giggle a little bit:

Dress
Informal. Skimpily dressed women(no matter how normal by western standards) will be stared at. Wear jeans or skirts and you won't feel uncomfortable unless you are very beautiful. Suits for business meetings.

I should be ok then. :-)

I've been trying to find stuff on the net about where are nice places to live but there does not seem to be much out there. I'm not overly interested in an area with a large expat population but I guess the best thing to do is see it and maybe ask the guys down there what they recommend.

Well, that's it for me today.

First Post

Well, everything needs to start at some point doesn't it. I guess the main point of this here blog thingy is to keep track of my movements and document the upcoming trip to India. I spoke to my new boss-to-be today and it looks like I'll be over in Bangalore for a week at the end of the month. As long as final approvals are given of course, can't upset the client in any way by having me out of the office :-/ Hopefully it will all go ahead and I can meet the guys down there and start looking around for a nice area to live it. It's starting to sink in that I'm actually going to live over there!

The good news is that the 3 April is confirmed for the start date. I now need to start getting all my vaccinations and see what the expat package will be. I think that getting rid of the flat and putting my (somewhat limited and shitty) belongings into storage. I wonder if I can get the bank to ship over some of my books and DVD's though...

In other news, booked the Eurostar to go to Oxford for the piss-up on the 4 Feb. I mentioned on the board that I'd be in the UK on the Friday and from that sprang the idea of a pre-Oxford Bash London Bash. So we'll be meeting up somewhere in Soho on the Friday. I just need to book the hotels now.

Speaking of the board, everybody is watching a Finnish library webcam for some reason. So far we've had a bald bloke, a nun and some woman in a red hat who has been there for hours. It became a bit of a soap opera for a while but now I think we've broken it. I wonder what the webmonkeys there will think when they see a massive jump in connections for no particular reason.

So there you go, my first blog post. Wasn't that fun.

Flickr Testing

HPIM0713
Originally uploaded by Lonewolf_.

Just trying out the Flickr blog this function. This was breakfast on New Years's day.