The blue travelling diaries

I flew Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow to Boston early this year. It wasn't quite business class. The seats are quite wide and roomy, but the seat belts are the same length as they are in economy, which makes them rather small for premium. Leg room isn't great either because each seat has some kind of block below it making it hard for tall people to stretch their feet out too far. My knees were bent the whole flight. The seats recline decently, but not all the way, so you're still at around 120 degrees. A little better than Economy, but the lack of leg room meant that sleep wasn't going to be easy.

Once you're seated, you get a glass of sparkling wine, which is apparently the only thing they're allowed to serve while on the ground. I'm not sure which authority that rule comes from.

The video screens are small. About the same size as the screens in Economy and half the size of the Economy screens on Jet Airways. The system was slow starting up but quick once it did start up. It appeared to be running X on linux.

Now while Premium Economy is a separate section on the aircraft, there are no toilets in this section. The nearest toilet is in Business Class, but you're not allowed to use it even if Business Class is empty. The toilet in Economy is two sections back, which means a long walk every time you need to use the loo. Not a big problem, but inconvenient.

On the whole it was an average experience. Not at all what I'd expect from Richard Branson's Virgin brand.

Time for another one of these annual summaries. This year was a long one with about 70 flights and me hitting Star Alliance Silver status early in the year. It's too bad all the US domestic Star Alliance carriers suck or I'd have reached Gold too. Anyway, here goes:

• Mumbai, MH, India
• Dubai, UAE
• Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Boston, MA, USA
• Brussels, Belgium
• Rio Grande, PR, USA
• Vieques, PR, USA
• San Juan, PR, USA
• Montreal, QC, Canada
• Hong Kong, China
• Bondi, NSW, Australia
• Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Newcastle, NSW, Australia
• Melbourne, Vic, Australia
• London, England
• Berlin, Germany
• San Diego, CA, USA
• West Yellowstone, MT, USA
• Wapiki, WY, USA
• Wright, WY, USA
• Sarasota, FL, USA
• New York, NY, USA
• Seattle, WA, USA
• Stowe, VT, USA
• Burlington, VT, USA
• Richmond, VA, USA
• Ithaca, NY, USA
• Ann Arbor, MI, USA
• Bangalore, KA, India

I've listed each city only once even if I've made multiple trips there. 19 of these trips were pleasure and the rest business. I will probably not travel as much in 2011.

About 40 hours ago JetBlue announced their All You Can Jet pass (better known to experienced jetters as #aycj). A few minutes ago they announced that the 7 day pass had sold out.

JetBlue introduced the pass last year and I jumped at the offer. I knew that I wasn't going to take time off work, but four weekends was still tempting, so I got mine as did many others. At the end of the 30 days though, a new community was built. A community that communicated over twitter using the #aycj tag as a chat room, that met at airport terminals, most notably T5 at JFK, and a bunch of strangers that identified each other by the little blue button with a twitter tag. A few of them turned into celebrities in their own right.

The hype really built up even after all passes were sold out. There was enough press and blog action that even if JetBlue didn't make a profit off of it, they definitely won many new loyal customers.

So why would an airline do this? The timing of the pass seems to answer that question. Traditionally, the period between Labour day (the first Monday in September) and Thanksgiving is when Americans fly the least. Except for really busy routes, most flights will go empty. This is a great time for airlines to throw out special offers, and it essentially turns into a pricing war between who can offer the cheapest seats.

JetBlue wins this round because they did something completely different. They didn't offer cheaper seats, they offered one very expensive seat that you can take with you for 30 days. The restrictions on booking ensure it isn't abused, and the result is fuller flights, and possibly more people paying $6 to watch movies on board.

I bought my pass this year a few minutes after I saw the first tweet about it, even before the email from JetBlue hit my inbox. Now, a little under two days later, the passes are sold out. It took a lot longer last year, and it will probably be a lot shorter next year.

Here's looking forward to another 4 weekends of travel.

There were but two ways to do it. We could go on for almost two hours, rocking from side to side, getting splashed with sea-spray, all for a little more than the price of dirt, or we could do it in under 10 minutes skimming over the surface and doing one quick turn for 20 bucks. We chose the latter, mainly because it meant we'd get an extra two hours of sleep before checking out of the hotel.

It was day two in Puerto Rico, and we'd gone to bed exhausted after a very long and awesome day spent on the beach followed by hiking the rain forest of El Yunque. Waking up early to catch a ferry for a 90 minute ride to Vieques wasn't exactly an appealing thought, but what choice did we have?

They called him Brooklyn — because that's where he hailed from. A New Yorker all through, he worked as a bell boy at the Wyndham because Puerto Rico was an awesome place to be. I told him our problem, and he says, "Hey bro, I have a better idea...". He whisks out a map and starts drawing, "you head down to Ceiba. There's a tiny little airport there, and you can get a flight to Vieques for $17. That's what I'd do. And they fly out every hour or so while there's only one ferry that'll get you there in time".

So we set out after a decent breakfast for the drive to Ceiba. It wasn't hard getting there, but we got lost nonetheless. Blame it on my inability to read signs in Spanish as they whizz past at 50mph. All the same, we made it in good time, and parked at the little parking lot. Walked in to the airport and were struck by how small it was. There were three airline counters, they looked very similar to what you'd see at any commercial airport. Brooklyn suggested we fly Air Flamenco, so that's what we did. There was also Vieques Air Link (VAL for short) and another smaller airline.

As we got there, a flight was just leaving, and they told us that we'd be on the next one which was in an hour. We were scheduled to get onto a Kayak and Snorkeling tour at 2, and it was 11:30. We figured we had enough time.

That's when the thunderstorm hit. It poured like you'd expect in the tropics. Nothing to be afraid of, except not the kind of weather that a little 8 seater aircraft wants to fly in. We were stuck in Ceiba with no idea of when we'd get to Vieques. It was now 1:15, and we were really upset. It takes just about 8 minutes to fly from Ceiba to Vieques, and 10-15 minutes for a cab to get us from the airport to where we had to meet the tour. The guys at Ceiba signalled the pilot at Vieques telling him to be ready to leave as soon as he landed, and they called for a cab to meet us at the airport in Vieques.

We walked down to the plane — no TSA in sight, which was refreshing — and sat down. We were the only two passengers and sat right behind the pilot. We had an amazing view of the plane and the reef below. We flew so low that you could see right through the water to the coral below. The airplane had no air conditioning, instead there was a little opening in each of the windows to let the wind in. We touched down at Vieques at 1:45, grabbed our bags from the plane's hold and ran outside. Our cab was waiting for us, and got us to the shack that we were staying at. We checked in as quickly as we could and then ran to join the tour. We were a few minutes late, but they were still there going over safety requirements.

In the rush, we'd left our towels and change of clothes back at the shack, so what we were wearing was all that we had, but we made it for the kayak and snorkel trip, and that was totally worth it. More about that next time.

Between the months of October and March, airports like Washington DC and Denver are frequently closed due to snow storms. If you happen to have booked a flight through one of these airports, the airline will cancel it and possibly rebook you on an alternate flight. This may not always be the flight you want.

A couple of weeks ago, this happened to me. I was to fly from San Jose, CA to Boston, MA via Denver. San Jose is fairly close to where I live, so it's the most convenient airport for me. Unfortunately, very few airlines fly directly from San Jose to Boston, hence the stopover in Denver. Early on the morning of the flight, I received a voicemail from United saying that my flight had been cancelled due to bad weather. I called back a little later to check on alternatives.

The call centre agent suggested a flight out of San Francisco that was to leave in 2 hours, but there was no way I could make it to SFO by then. He then suggested a flight the following day, but that was too late for me. He then offered to re-book me on American Airlines out of San Jose around the same time that my original flight was supposed to leave. I found this rather suspicious. While he was searching for alternatives, I did the same online, and found that there were still seats available for the night flight from SFO to Boston. I'd have enough time to reach SFO and would make it early the next morning instead of late that night, which was fine.

I pointed out this flight to the agent, and he reluctantly confirmed that there was, in fact, one seat left on that flight. When I checked online, I found that this ticket was worth $734. I'd paid about $150 or $170 for my original ticket, so he was naturally reluctant to get me that seat. It would actually have been cheaper for them to rebook me on American, except that I wouldn't get any miles for that. All the same, there wasn't much more he could do except warn me that any further changes would come at a price.

The flight was packed, and quite a few people were bumped up to first class. I wasn't, but my seat was assigned at the gate. I got a middle exit row seat, with plenty of leg room.

When I checked my mileage account later, I'd been credited over 4000 miles for the flight instead of the 1200 that I usually get for this leg.

Sitting in a bus on the way from Toronto to Montreal, this seems like the only chance I'll get to update my blog.

Anyway, I know I have a long post about my US trip pending, but this one is going to be about my experience in Canada, more specifically Vancouver.

I entered the country on the 7th August from San Francisco. The United Airlines flight I flew didn't serve anything to eat, but I wasn't feeling too hungry anyway. The flight was pretty decent, and on time. We touched down in Vancouver at around 22:55, and I headed off to immigration. Had to fill out one of those customs forms before deplaning - the one that says that you're not carrying animal products, diseases, chemical weapons or case in excess of $10000. I wasn't.

The immigration official was really nice. He greeted me with a bonjour, and when I told him that I'd done some work with the Canada home page, he said that it was about time I'd visited Canada and let me go through.

My uncle and aunt met me outside the terminal and we drove home, but my uncle suggested that I try flying in to Bellingham in Washington the next time and drive in from there - that way I don't need to take an international flight, which is more expensive.

Headed out the next day to explore the city of Vancouver. A few things stand out about it. It's on the coast - on several coasts actually, there are waterfronts on three sides. It has excellent public transport, though the frequency is lower during off peak hours. They can spell and measure correctly (apart from the word tyre which they spell tire), but that's true about all of Canada anyway. There are a lot of gay couples on the streets.

I took the SkyTrain into town. You can get a day pass from the station, and use that for all of TransLink's services which include the SkyTrain, the SeaBus and all the public transport buses in Vancouver and North Vancouver. This really cuts your costs down a lot. The day pass costs $8 and is valid for unlimited trips in a day. The SkyTrain gets you into the centre of town at the waterfront, from where you can take the SeaBus to cross the creek to Lonsdale Quay, but we'll get to that later.

You could instead get off earlier, at Science World, Stadium, Granville or Burrard and walk around those parts of town. There's stuff to do, mainly shopping, but also some sight seeing around there. If you go all the way to the Waterfront, you can start at the Vancouver Lookout.

Get out of Waterfront station, and cross the road to the Harbour centre. Get a ticket for $13 - valid for the entire day, and go up to the top to get a 360 degree view of Vancouver and surrounding towns. On a clear day you can see forever. You can also decide where you want to go from here, because there's loads of tourist brochures available at the top in case you missed them at the Waterfront station.

Once you're done here, get out of the Harbour centre from the Hasting's St exit and turn left to head to Gas town. Gas town is the place where Vancouver was founded, and it still has old cobblestones and some old architecture. The stores in there are very modern though, for example, there's an Internet domain registry a few metres in. There also used to be a Vancouver history show in there, but they seem to have gone bankrupt and the whole place is being auctioned off sometime this August. Walking down Gastown, you'll come across the steam powered clock. You can't miss it. It's a clock about 10 feet tall, has steam coming out the top, and tourists waiting at its base. It lets out a steam whistle on the hour, which is what all the tourists wait for. I didn't.

Head further down to the end to find the statue of Captain Gassy Jack - the founder of Gas Town. As the story goes, the area was wilderness except for a solitary sawmill that processed wood from the nearby forests. The mill owner did not permit alcohol on his premises. Captain Jack promised the mill workers whiskey if they'd build him a saloon, and they built it and had it operational within a day. So, whiskey came to the land, and the economy flourished with Gas town - and later Vancouver growing around it. The town gets its name from captain Gassy Jack, who got his name because of the tall stories he told.

There are guided tours of gas town that start from the statue, but you'll have to find out the timings. You can leave Gas Town soon because you'll probably want to get back for dinner anyway.

The next thing you can do is take the SeaBus from Waterfront station to get across the creek and take bus number 129 or 130 from there down to Lynn Valley. The bus stops just outside the park, and hiking trails. Cross the road and look for sign boards. Lynn Valley has a suspension bridge and a couple of hiking trails that you can walk along. Alternately, just go down to the rocks and sit by the shallow stream. Be careful though because it gets rough as it goes along, and people have lost their lives here.

The suspension bridge itself is not as long as the Capillano Bridge which is where all the tourists head out to, but there's a huge difference in price as well. The Capillano bridge is $26.50 for people from outside British Columbia, while Lynn Valley is free for everyone. There's also fewer crowds at Lynn Valley.

I chose not to do the full trail - mainly because I had a laptop and tripod on my back, but many people did go through. I prefer hanging out near water, and it was very inviting. The water is cool and very clear. You'd feel like bottling some of it and carrying it with you. It's constantly flowing, and flowing fast, so my guess is that it would be fairly pure.

Once you're done with Lynn Valley, take the same bus back, and cross back to the Waterfront. You have several choices here. I chose to take a right and walk down by the Sea wall. There's a little park by the waterfront and that's also the place where all the sea planes land. Quite an interesting audio-visual experience if you've never seen it before. There's also a few restaurants out here, but they look fairly expensive. While walking, I saw a very expensive looking BMW parked on the side of the road with the windows rolled down. The car was still there when I walked back a few hours later. I don't know what that says about the crime levels in Vancouver, but that same night there was a shootout at one of the local nightclubs.

I kept on, and reached the famous Stanley Park. Now, when I got in, I thought a park was a small thing. Central Park and Hyde Park were two of the largest parks I'd seen in the world, but I could easily walk across them in a short time. Stanley Park is nothing of the sorts. It has a couple of lakes, a pond, a Native American village, a couple of Hiking Trails, a forest, a boating club, an open air theatre, several gardens and a highway going through it. Grease - the musical - was playing at the theatre as I passed. It's easy to get lost in there, so keep your eye on the map and on the various landmarks around.

A second option would be to walk down from Waterfront to the Burrard bridge. You can cross the bridge on foot, or take a ferry across. You'll find the Vancouver Museum, the Maritime Museum and the space centre on Granville island. It's not really an island, but I'm guessing it was at some point.

Vancouver also has a bunch of farmer's markets that are open on weekends, so if you get a chance, go down there and mingle with the locals. I've been in love with farmer's markets ever since I visited Borough market in London. I'd also suggest looking up Upcoming for stuff to do in Vancouver on the days that you're there, and maybe even contact some of the locals on CouchSurfing and ask them. I've found both places very helpful.

Now, if you've been heading along at a good pace, you've probably still got a bit of daylight to go. That's assuming, of course, that you're travelling in summer, which is the best time, for various reasons. Let's talk about food first before we go further.

Vancouver is very multi cultural. You'll find every cuisine in the world here, but there is the Vancouver flavour added. This is where asking the locals on couchsurfing comes in handy. Many of the restaurants I saw were multi-cuisine, with flavours from Greece, South America, Lebanon and Asia all in one. There's also specialty Korean, Japanese, Mexican, Italian and Indian places. I lunched at a restaurant called Character's and had a Greek dish called Dolmates. This is vine leaves stuffed with mince and served with a thick white sauce, roasted potatoes and tsatsiki. Now tsatsiki is a special greek dressing that goes well with just about anything. I've had it with gyros before, and now with this. A must try. I can't say that there's any cuisine that's specifically Canadian, or a Vancouver speciality. They just add something with the blend.

As sunset approaches, head back to Gas town. The place is all lit up by night, so walk around again, and maybe get some dinner here. If you're willing to spend a lot on dinner, you may want to eat at the tower instead.

Head up to the Lookout and get a view of Vancouver by night. The ticket you bought earlier in the day is still valid, so you don't need to spend any more. If you're going to take pictures here, make sure you have a lens with Vibration Reduction, or use a tripod. Long exposures can really enhance Vancouver by night.When flying in, I spoke to a Chinese Canadian girl who was studying Japanese Literature History at U Vic. I asked her if there was a lot of French spoken here, and she said that it wasn't because it was full of Asians. What I saw was a little different. There were all kinds of Europeans around, and quite a bit of French was spoken. There was also German, Spanish, Italian


If you're spending more than a day in Vancouver, you could take one of the city tour buses. There's the grayline opentop buses and there's the green trolleys. They cost $12, and you can go around in 2 hours, or you can get off the bus at various stops to explore and stretch it over the entire day. They also sell tickets for various attractions on the bus itself.

On the way out of Vancouver, I decided to use public transport. I took the SkyTrain into the city, and had lunch with an old classmate of mine. Then headed down to Burrard station and caught bus number 491. The day pass works on this as well. The bus runs through most of downtown before it gets out of the city. It starts at Seymour and Davie, and heads to Hastings, then Burrard Station, then Nelson, Howe and Granville before heading south for the airport. Burrard was late enough in its route to avoid another city tour, but close enough to not make me walk too much.

I walked a bit down Dunsmuir, Howe and Hornby before getting to the bus stop. The art gallery and court house are on Hornby, and there's a Roman Catholic Cathedral on Dunsmuir that's built in Gothic style. This is also the only church in Vancouver where the bells are rung by hand during Sunday mass.

Now bus number 491 won't take you all the way to the airport. It takes you to airport station, where you need to change buses. Cross the road from the bus stop, and walk into the bus terminus (there's also a few bus stops on the road, but these aren't what you're looking for). You need to find the stop for bus number 424. Route 424 heads to the airport terminal and then further on. You'll most likely find a lot of travellers around here, so just follow them. Make sure you get off at the right terminal. Visit the translink website (http://translink.bc.ca/) in advance to figure out what you want to do. This could also help you in planning your trips around the city and getting schedules.

After a while at the airport - there's no free wifi btw - I boarded Westjet flight 626 for Toronto. I'd already checked in online, so I only needed to pick up my boarding pass and check my luggage at the airport. Security was fairly painless. There's no concept of "Selected for Secondary Security Screening", better known as SSSS on your boarding pass, but you do need to scan your laptop separately.

Goodbye Vancouver, and I hope to visit again. I'm sure there's more for me to do, but I'll do that when I've planned well.

On my return from California to India, I flew via Hong Kong. The flight timings left me with about nine hours in Hong Kong, and little idea of what to do. I learned that I could take the airport express into the city, and if I returned on the same day, I only had to pay one way. I quickly grabbed some breakfast and a map of the city, and jumped onto a train.

While on the train, I figured out the scale of the map, and realised that Hong Kong is really small - that's if you look at it area wise. Turn your head upwards, and small wouldn't quite fit.

I got into town, and found my way out of the station. The road is two or three levels up. It was still fairly early in the morning, around 6:30am or so, and there were low clouds all along. A light drizzle kept starting and stopping.

I walked down the road for a while trying to figure out where on the map I was. The cool thing about the map that I had, was that all major buildings were listed, so it was easy to figure out where I was once I saw the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and Bank of China. It was then easy to decide where I wanted to go and plan out my route for the next few hours.

Hong Kong is walkable for the most part. All department stores and office buildings are near each other, as is the Hong Kong park and Banks. It's also possible to get around without actually walking out into the open because all buildings are connected to each other.

Hong Kong has good public transport. Bus services are run by various companies, but it's seldom necessary to take one. A popular form of transport is the city tram. These trams run along fixed rails across the city, and it's crazy how close each tram runs to the one in front.

I decided to start my day with a visit to The Peak and get a view of the whole of Hong Kong city. There are multiple ways to get up to the peak. There's the hiker's trail, a road for driving, and buses, but the most fun ride has to be the peak tram.

The first thing you notice when you get into the tram is that the floor is made up of a series of concave sections. They look like steps, but they're all along the same horizontal level. Once the tram starts, you realise what they're for. The tram starts picking up elevation, and gets pretty close to a 45 degree incline. The steps on the floor are for people standing in the tram to hold their grip. The tram has wooden seats and no seat belts. Windows are largely open, and it's recommended that you keep your hands inside.

The greenery around is amazing. Don't miss the little streams of water and flowers growing on the side. It's very pretty.

The real view though, is from the top, when you see the entire city enveloped in clouds. It's a sight that will stay with me forever.

Hong Kong is really close to the equator, and the humidity is really high.The cloud cover should protect you from the sun, but you can lose a lot of water perspiring, so carry a bunch of juices with you.

Reaching the peak is just part of the adventure. Once you get up there, you get to the start of the peak trail - a common trail for morning walkers and runners. The trail is 2 kilometres long, with markers every hundred metres. It was about 7:15 when I got there, so I decided to do part of the trail. I walked down for half the distance. On the way you pass a little waterfall and a lot of great views.

After getting back down from the peak, I headed out to Hong Kong park. The park houses Hong Kong's walk-through aviary and the teaware museum.

The aviary is a large net with trees and a pond inside. A bunch of captive birds are allowed to fly free in there. They have several species of birds from South-east Asia including Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. I believe some of them are migratory and come from as far away as Siberia.

The teaware museum in Hong Kong park walks you through the history of tea making in China. Different utensils and recipes are on show. They have a few videos in addition to all the models.

You can also access the Internet from here. Two Windows PCs sitting in the corridor are permanently connected to the net. You can only use Internet Explorer however, so if you need to chat, use a web based messenger, and if you need other services, forget it.

The last place on my list was Ocean Park. To get to ocean park, you need to take a bus from in between the Lippo Towers. You can buy bus tickets as well as entrance tickets for Ocean Park at the bus stop. The bus takes you all the way to Ocean Park, and brings you back. Once there you enter and go through on your own.

Take note that you can find discount booklets at the airport which offer you discounts to various places, Ocean Park included.

Ocean park has several sights to see. For visitors from most other parts of the world, the Panda Habitat would probably be the biggest attraction. They have two Pandas - a male and a female. They aren't caged in, but are separated from visitors by a moat. The entrance to the panda habitat is accessible for people in wheelchairs and mothers with baby strollers. Try not to use the flash when taking pictures as this could disturb the animals. The same goes for other areas in Ocean Park. Near the Panda Habitat is the Butterfly house and a pool with flamingos.

Ocean Park is made in two parts - the upper area and the lower area. The lower area is connected by road to the rest of Hong Kong. The upper area isn't. The only way to access the upper area is via Cable Car from the lower area.

The cable car ride itself is slow and scenic, but if you're afraid of heights, it probably isn't for you. You can get a really good view of the South China sea from there.

On the other side, you can go for several shows if you have the time. I didn't, but I did have time to visit the aquarium and the shark enclosure. The aquarium is small, but pretty. They have a collection of Jellyfish, razor fish, clown fish, sea horses and more. There's a large tank with Sting rays and other fish, and they're really graceful gliding through.

The shark enclosure is nothing much to check out, and one can give it a miss.

Time was ticking on, and I had to head back to the city. I got on the next bus, but was stuck in traffic as soon as I got back into Hong Kong. It would probably have been better to walk once I'd gotten back, but the bus won't let you off before the end.

Now visiting parks in Hong Kong is nice for the morning, but really, that isn't what Hong Kong is about. Shopping and food are the primary attractions in Hong Kong, and if you have the time, seeking out good roadside eateries should be on your list. I didn't have much time, so walked into an office building and looked around for where most people were heading at lunch time.

I ended up at a food court with a wide range of local food. One meal really isn't enough to recommend something, so I'll refrain from giving any advice in that area. Walking around the same area brings you to some of the biggest department stores. You can walk from building to building without getting out, wading through a sea of stores. It's a shopper's delight.

Prices were a little beyond my budget, and my little back pack wasn't going to carry much. It was also getting pretty close to departure time, and had to head back to the airport.

I got onto the next train, and made it to the airport quite close to boarding time. I'd recommend getting back to the airport at least 45 minutes before boarding time which should give you enough time for a shower and a change of clothes before you board. You'll need it.

Hong Kong was hot, humid and a treat. I'd love to go back there and spend a little more time. I hear the night life is great and the night view from one of those tall buildings is breathtaking.

I've got many more photos up on flickr and some videos on youtube.

Update:

I've returned to Hong Kong a few times since my first trip, and I never stop liking it. I've also discovered that you can make it between the airport and the city for far less if you use public transport instead of the airport train. You need to take a bus from the airport to Tung Chung and then take the train in. If you're going to stay for more than a day, it's worth it to get an Oyster card. You need to put in a deposit for it, but you get it back along with your balance when you return the card at the end of your stay.

From Tung Chung, you can also take the cable car or a bus to head to the buddhist monastery at Ngong Ping. They have a very large bronze statue of the Buddha at the top of the peak. Another destination is the fishing village of Tai'O. There's a bus from Tung Chung to Tai'O. It's a long ride and there's just one or two stops on the way. Most of the village is actually built on the water with boats parked outside or under people's houses. They step out and sail away. It's quite interesting to just walk around the village and note how it's built. Just after dark we were looking around for a restaurant, and saw some people eating in an open area, so we walked in. It turned out to be someone's house and they didn't speak English. Then one of the kids from the house showed up and she spoke a little English and pointed us to the nearest restaurant.

At Tai'O you can also go on a little boat ride for HK$20. If you're lucky, you'll see pink dolphins, but even otherwise, the ride is quite nice. It's also a good place to watch the sunset.

For food, three things I recommend are the Dim Sum, the Custard Buns and the Cham — a drink of coffee and milk tea. The latter is guaranteed to help you through the worst jetlag.

Sunday - May 2, 2004

Flight was good. Friend of mine from VJTI was on the same flight on his way to San Francisco. Landed about 5 minutes late, which was okay. Stood in the wrong line for about 5 mins before someone told me that i had to go straight to immigration. Finished with immigration - wanted to take some photos there, but couldn't think of anything to shoot.

Then i went to collect my baggage, but i was too late, so did not see my flight number on any of the belts. Asked someone, and he told me that it was on belt 6, but since the baggage had already been removed, my suitcase would be on the floor in front of the belt. I found it there along with 4 other bags.

Walked around the airport looking for the limousine ticket counter. Found two cops who only spoke Korean, but somehow managed to get directions from them. Got my ticket - 12000 Won. I had already changed a few dollars @ 1130 Won, but I'll need more now - to pay the hotel and all.

Limousine was good, and i think i should have taken photos along the way, but the roll in the camera is the 100 speed one, which is not suitable for moving targets. Will try and finish this roll soon, but it's raining today, so conditions are bad.

The hotel is one building away from the bus terminal, so i just walked it. Had to check in on the 5th floor. My room is on the 7th.

The room is nice. It's a studio apt, with attached bathroom, and kitchen. Also has a TV and DVD player, a wardrobe, a washing machine and iron/ironing board, so i shouldn't need to pay for housekeeping.

After I'd checked in, settled in, and watched Ice Age - the second half of it, I went out. The sun was still up till past 7:30. I went looking around for dinner, since i was starving by then.

There's a mall under the hotel - actually i think it goes on all around the block. The world trade centre is next to my hotel, and the mall is below it. I need to take pictures of that place - it is huge and glass.

I found quite a few food places down there. Most of them have everything except the prices written in Korean. I learnt an important lesson - no use being able to read a language if you can't understand what the words mean.

Luckily, most restaurants have samples of all dishes or pictures put up for you to pick from. I had some spicy seafood thing. I'm not sure though that that was representative of spicy food here, or else, Korean food isn't very spicy.

The dish was a mistake simply because i have never figured out how to eat crab with either a spoon or chopsticks. At least not while it's still in the shell. I decided to go desi and eat with my hands. Was the only person around doing that, and the last to finish eating.

It was closing time before i finished, so i sped up, returned the dishes, and said Kamsahamnida to the lady. She offered me Mul (water) and said Annyeonghi geseyo.

I then walked around a bit in the mall, which was closing down slowly. They have the biggest book store in Asia right there, and it just went on and on. All books in Korean though.

Finally, got out of the mall, and found my way to the glass tower, where I was supposed to go Monday morning.

Returned to the hotel and went to sleep.

Monday - May 3, 2004

Woke up at 9 and was in the office at 9:45 today. Had the meeting in the afternoon when the rest of the team had arrived.

I'd lost the password for the laptop (well, actually the problem is that the Ctrl and Caps lock keys were interchanged). Called up Yathin at 11:30 (8am Bangalore time) and got the password from him, along with other laptop info.

11:30 is also lunch time here, so we went out then. Went to a French place called marché. It's supposed to be an international line. They have Italian, and Korean and Japanese food there. And all the french stuff as well - salads and breads and all. I had some prawn rice. The other guys had spaghetti, and some Japanese soup.

Everything is automatic here. It took me a while to figure out how to flush the toilet - my method was to use the 'manual override' found behind the toilet seat - I suppose most Koreans would use one of the buttons on the right. Oh, whatever. Some of the doors still require to be pushed/pulled.

My card key for my room also tells the elevator which floor to go to.

That evening we had dinner at 6:30pm. We had boiled pork and kimchi, and assorted vegetables and sauces. I took a few pictures.

Finished off at the office at 8, and went strolling through the mall. Looked at some of the clothes stuff, and they have nice outfits, but a little expensive. Not going to buy too much.

Tuesday - May 5, 2004

Today we had some kind of chicken curry with ttokkapi. It was very nice. I think I'm improving with the chopsticks. They have stainless steel ones that are really thin and hard to grip, but I'm getting the hang of it. Today I was able to pull pieces of the chicken out of it.

For breakfast I had fried noodles at another food court. None of the guys at the shop spoke English, and the guy at the counter needed to tell me something. Finally he picked up the clock and pointed to the time indicating when it would be ready.

In the meantime he gave me a coke. I walked around and took some pictures in the bright sunlight. Today is a nice day.

After lunch we went around the mall checking out all the hardware. Then got back to the office and had a long meeting that got over a little while ago.

Tomorrow is a holiday because of children's day. Will be going sightseeing. There's also a river nearby and they have a cruise. I might go for that sometime.

For dinner we had boiled ribs with different kinds of mushrooms and the usual assortment of vegetables and kimchi. It's quite an expensive dish. I'll get all the Korean names later. I can read the names, but cannot remember them. Need to learn to remember what the letters look like.