Thursday, February 4, 2010
Return Confirmed
I will be leaving Kolkata on Thursday March 18th and arriving in San Francisco on Friday the 19th.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Finally
We managed to get 12 holes of golf in on Sunday. We played at The Tollygunge Club in Sourth Kolkata. The cost wasn't bad for a private club (~$50 for 18 holes) and it was reasonably well maintained. As it is the dry season here it the ground was hard as a rock.
We were required to use caddies (my first time ever being caddied for), which was fine as it only cost about $2.50 for the caddy. I ended up tipping mine 200% as I couldn't help but feel that I owed him more than $5.
The hotel provided us with clubs, tees and balls for free. The clubs and bag looked like they were purchased about 30 years ago, but they served their purpose.
As I was teeing off on the 4th hole I noticed my caddy running back down the 3rd fairway. Even with my fairly limited caddy experience I was fairly confident his job as a caddy was to hang around me rather than to head in the opposite direction at a dead run. Turns out he looked in the bag as we were leaving the 3rd green and noticed that there was no 6 iron in it. He came back from his run empty handed and extremely freaked out and asked me if there was a 6 iron in the bag at the start of the round. I told him I had no idea and that even if there was, which I doubt as I don't think I ever used it, it wouldn't be a big deal at all if it was gone as the clubs were ancient. Unfortunately my caddy's English was not quite up to the task of understanding my complete lack of concern. He made my colleague call the hotel from the 4th fairway and confirm that there was never a 6 iron in the bag. The hotels response was...we have no idea and we don't particularly care if it's there or not. My colleague relayed this to my caddy in Hindi and while he wasn't thrilled he at least was willing to continue the round.
I ended up playing ok. I had a sandy birdie on the 10th and hit a couple of huge drives. My putting was atrocious and I was wishing by the end of the round that my 9 iron, PW and SW were with my 6 iron rather than in my bag. We had to quit after 12 holes due to it getting dark.
I took the picture below from the 10th fairway right before I knocked my 5 wood pin high from 230 yards. I think my camera may be good luck.
After the round we stopped by the mall so my colleague could make a purchase. The photo below was taken from the top floor of the mall.
We were required to use caddies (my first time ever being caddied for), which was fine as it only cost about $2.50 for the caddy. I ended up tipping mine 200% as I couldn't help but feel that I owed him more than $5.
The hotel provided us with clubs, tees and balls for free. The clubs and bag looked like they were purchased about 30 years ago, but they served their purpose.
As I was teeing off on the 4th hole I noticed my caddy running back down the 3rd fairway. Even with my fairly limited caddy experience I was fairly confident his job as a caddy was to hang around me rather than to head in the opposite direction at a dead run. Turns out he looked in the bag as we were leaving the 3rd green and noticed that there was no 6 iron in it. He came back from his run empty handed and extremely freaked out and asked me if there was a 6 iron in the bag at the start of the round. I told him I had no idea and that even if there was, which I doubt as I don't think I ever used it, it wouldn't be a big deal at all if it was gone as the clubs were ancient. Unfortunately my caddy's English was not quite up to the task of understanding my complete lack of concern. He made my colleague call the hotel from the 4th fairway and confirm that there was never a 6 iron in the bag. The hotels response was...we have no idea and we don't particularly care if it's there or not. My colleague relayed this to my caddy in Hindi and while he wasn't thrilled he at least was willing to continue the round.
I ended up playing ok. I had a sandy birdie on the 10th and hit a couple of huge drives. My putting was atrocious and I was wishing by the end of the round that my 9 iron, PW and SW were with my 6 iron rather than in my bag. We had to quit after 12 holes due to it getting dark.
I took the picture below from the 10th fairway right before I knocked my 5 wood pin high from 230 yards. I think my camera may be good luck.
After the round we stopped by the mall so my colleague could make a purchase. The photo below was taken from the top floor of the mall.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Me and Nic Cage
Just booked a whirlwind trip to Bangkok. Leaving Kolkata at 1:55 am on Saturday 2/13, getting into Thailand at 6 am, spending Saturday and Sunday there and then flying back to Kolkata at 11:30 pm Sunday night.
Anybody have travel tips for Bangkok?
If you're curious this is the reference made in the title of the post.
Anybody have travel tips for Bangkok?
If you're curious this is the reference made in the title of the post.
Salmon sounds good
We met yesterday with one of the managers at the hotel. He wanted to meet us since we are going to be here for so long. We took the opportunity to complain a bit about the high price of laundry, but other than that it was a pleasant little discussion. The one thing that caught me off guard was when he told us that he was going to set up a meeting for us with the head chef. The purpose of the meeting is to allow us to tell the chef our specific culinary/dietary desires/requirements. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to tell him.
To put this in perspective our hotel has 5 different restaurants including a 24 hour buffet/diner that servers burgers, salads, pasta and a whole array of Indian food, a Japanese place with a sushi bar, a western style bar and grill, a Pakistani place, and an Indian restaurant. I could easily go for a month without eating the same item for dinner twice. Pretty much the only cuisines missing that I really enjoy are Mexican and Mediterranean, but I can't imagine sitting down with the head chef and saying, yeah, I really like all you have to offer, but you know what would make it even better? Burritos.
Here are a few pictures (taken from the car) of Kolkata's Birla Temple.
To put this in perspective our hotel has 5 different restaurants including a 24 hour buffet/diner that servers burgers, salads, pasta and a whole array of Indian food, a Japanese place with a sushi bar, a western style bar and grill, a Pakistani place, and an Indian restaurant. I could easily go for a month without eating the same item for dinner twice. Pretty much the only cuisines missing that I really enjoy are Mexican and Mediterranean, but I can't imagine sitting down with the head chef and saying, yeah, I really like all you have to offer, but you know what would make it even better? Burritos.
Here are a few pictures (taken from the car) of Kolkata's Birla Temple.
Friday, January 29, 2010
At least it slowed down due to my advanced age
I got on the treadmill this morning and it asked me three questions: how long I wanted to jog for, how fast I wanted to jog and my age. The first and second questions had easy answers (as short a time as possible and very slowly respectively), but the last question was tricky. I entered 29, stopped, shed a tear, found the delete key, and officially ended my twenties by entering 30.
The team here was nice enough to buy me not one, but two birthday cakes today. About 25 people crammed into my office and sang happy birthday. I made a bit of a mess of the whole thing as in India you apparently kick of the singing of Happy Birthday by blowing out the candles, while I, having celebrated most of my birthdays not in India, was waiting for them to start singing so I could blow out the candles at the end. Eventually they started singing, but when I didn't blow out the candle fast enough half of the people stopped. Once I finally figured out what I was supposed to do and blew it out there were about 3 different groups at different points in the song. I explained afterward how the traditions differ lest they think me a complete moron.
Another tradition I learned about is for each person present to feed the birthday boy a bit of cake and then smear a smaller (hopefully) bit of the cake on the birthday boy's face. Luckily not everybody participated, but as you can see in the picture below more than a couple of people did.
The team here was nice enough to buy me not one, but two birthday cakes today. About 25 people crammed into my office and sang happy birthday. I made a bit of a mess of the whole thing as in India you apparently kick of the singing of Happy Birthday by blowing out the candles, while I, having celebrated most of my birthdays not in India, was waiting for them to start singing so I could blow out the candles at the end. Eventually they started singing, but when I didn't blow out the candle fast enough half of the people stopped. Once I finally figured out what I was supposed to do and blew it out there were about 3 different groups at different points in the song. I explained afterward how the traditions differ lest they think me a complete moron.
Another tradition I learned about is for each person present to feed the birthday boy a bit of cake and then smear a smaller (hopefully) bit of the cake on the birthday boy's face. Luckily not everybody participated, but as you can see in the picture below more than a couple of people did.
The third and final tradition is for everybody present to kick to birthday boy in the butt. I'll leave you all to decide for yourselves if this tradition was followed.
I've included a few photos of the last couple of weeks below.
Victoria Memorial
Victoria Memorial
New Market
We were out looking for a laundromat so we didn't have to pay $3 per pair of socks at the hotel.
This is a shot of the office party that we had here last Friday.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Ramblings
I was just haivng a conversation about my how my expectations for India have lined up with my experiences so far. I figured I might as well share it with all of you while it is still fresh in my mind. I'm not sure if what I'm saying makes any sense at all, so feel free to completely ignore this if you so desire.
India has been much less a shock than I expected it to be. Talking to people in the States I got the impression that I was going to step off of the plane and feel like I had stepped into a different world. That, for the most part, has not been true. I have seen things here that I would never see in the US. I've seen people picking through trash dumps on the side of the road. I've seen people bathing in the river. I've seen cows walking down the street. I've seen barefoot (young) teenagers working on a construction site.
At the same time I've seen and done any number of things that were no different from what I've seen and done at home. I've seen an office full of white collar workers come into the office everyday and do the exact same work that I do in San Francisco. I've been to a suburban mall and walked past the Subway in the food court. I've eaten lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant. I've drank (very bad) coffee at a coffee shop. I've slept in an enormously comfortable bed at a 5 star hotel.
The thing about India that has really struck me is not the poverty, it's the sense that half of the country is in the 21st century and half of the country is in the 19th. There is poverty in the States. Anybody that has walked the streets in San Francisco or Seattle know that, but somehow it is different than the poverty here. I'm not sure how to describe the difference other than to say in the States it feels like a portion of society just couldn't keep up to the pace of the race, here it feels like they were never even told that there is a race.
India has been much less a shock than I expected it to be. Talking to people in the States I got the impression that I was going to step off of the plane and feel like I had stepped into a different world. That, for the most part, has not been true. I have seen things here that I would never see in the US. I've seen people picking through trash dumps on the side of the road. I've seen people bathing in the river. I've seen cows walking down the street. I've seen barefoot (young) teenagers working on a construction site.
At the same time I've seen and done any number of things that were no different from what I've seen and done at home. I've seen an office full of white collar workers come into the office everyday and do the exact same work that I do in San Francisco. I've been to a suburban mall and walked past the Subway in the food court. I've eaten lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant. I've drank (very bad) coffee at a coffee shop. I've slept in an enormously comfortable bed at a 5 star hotel.
The thing about India that has really struck me is not the poverty, it's the sense that half of the country is in the 21st century and half of the country is in the 19th. There is poverty in the States. Anybody that has walked the streets in San Francisco or Seattle know that, but somehow it is different than the poverty here. I'm not sure how to describe the difference other than to say in the States it feels like a portion of society just couldn't keep up to the pace of the race, here it feels like they were never even told that there is a race.
I'm still here
Sorry for the lack of updates. We worked all day both Saturday and Sunday last weekend so there hasn't been a whole lot to say. Unfortunately it's looking like we'll be doing the same this weekend so the prospects for interesting, blog worthy, non-work experiences are looking bleak in the near term. I was particularly disappointed to have to work last weekend as we had a tee time to play 9 holes on Sunday afternoon. I'm hoping that when everything slows down a bit in February we'll be able to golf at least once.
This past Tuesday was Republic Day in India. It's fairly similar to the 4th of July, but with fewer fireworks. This was the first time I've ever been in a foreign country for a meaningful local holiday. It was odd to have absolutely no concept of the holiday that was being celebrated. I felt a bit left out, although it was nice that there was no traffic. I was talking to some of my colleagues here who have been to the States and they mentioned having a similar reaction to Thanksgiving.
The office we are in has a cafeteria. The cafeteria has three different vendors that come in each day and serve lunch. One vendor is vegetarian and the other two serve meat dishes. The food is very simple, homemade dishes. Lots of lentils, potatoes, cabbage, paneer (cheese), green onions and rice. There is also generally one or two Chinese dishes as Chinese food is extremely popular in Kolkata.
All of the vendors also server nan or roti with their meals. Nan and roti are types of flat bread. Nan is generally a bit fluffier than roti and roti is usually, if not always, made with whole wheat flour. I don't think I've had a lunch or dinner here yet that didn't include nan and/or roti. We've actually picked a different vendor at times based on the fact that our favorite vendor was out of roti. Partly this is because the bread is also used as a utensil by most folks. I'm getting to be an expert at corralling paneer with roti.
The lunches are extraordinarily cheap. You buys a book of twenty tickets for 500 rupees. Each ticket is good for one all you can eat meal which means that each meal costs 25 rupees or roughly 55 cents. Contrast this with the cost of laundry in our hotel where I'm paying $3 to wash a pair of socks and $7 to wash a pair of jeans. Luckily that cost is covered by work.
Just found out I get to fly business class on the way home. That is going to make the flight a heck of a lot nicer.
This past Tuesday was Republic Day in India. It's fairly similar to the 4th of July, but with fewer fireworks. This was the first time I've ever been in a foreign country for a meaningful local holiday. It was odd to have absolutely no concept of the holiday that was being celebrated. I felt a bit left out, although it was nice that there was no traffic. I was talking to some of my colleagues here who have been to the States and they mentioned having a similar reaction to Thanksgiving.
The office we are in has a cafeteria. The cafeteria has three different vendors that come in each day and serve lunch. One vendor is vegetarian and the other two serve meat dishes. The food is very simple, homemade dishes. Lots of lentils, potatoes, cabbage, paneer (cheese), green onions and rice. There is also generally one or two Chinese dishes as Chinese food is extremely popular in Kolkata.
All of the vendors also server nan or roti with their meals. Nan and roti are types of flat bread. Nan is generally a bit fluffier than roti and roti is usually, if not always, made with whole wheat flour. I don't think I've had a lunch or dinner here yet that didn't include nan and/or roti. We've actually picked a different vendor at times based on the fact that our favorite vendor was out of roti. Partly this is because the bread is also used as a utensil by most folks. I'm getting to be an expert at corralling paneer with roti.
The lunches are extraordinarily cheap. You buys a book of twenty tickets for 500 rupees. Each ticket is good for one all you can eat meal which means that each meal costs 25 rupees or roughly 55 cents. Contrast this with the cost of laundry in our hotel where I'm paying $3 to wash a pair of socks and $7 to wash a pair of jeans. Luckily that cost is covered by work.
Just found out I get to fly business class on the way home. That is going to make the flight a heck of a lot nicer.
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