Early this month I travelled to Hong Kong while returning from USA. When I converted my money to Hong Kong Dollars to spend locally, I noticed they had a difference. Unlike currency notes of other countries say India, US or UK which are issued by Central Banks of those countries, the Hong Kong currency notes seems to be issued by authorized private banks like Standard Chartered, Bank of China, HSBC and others. All these are legal tenders in Hong Kong.

I am in Bay Area, USA for 2 weeks which will take me to Silicon Valley, Redmond (WA) and Los Angeles (for Microsoft PDC '08). Sunday evening I went along with my cousin who lives here to Fremont Temple. This is a well maintained and spacious (considering it is outside India) temple and I was impressed by the newly build area for the south indian gods.

On Monday morning I went to the Intel Museum in their campus in Santa Clara (CA). The museum covers about the history of Intel from memory chips, 4004 to the latest chips; chip fabrication process and basics of silicon, etc. The self visit doesn't take more than 30 minutes and I will recommend visiting this only if you happen to be in Silicon Valley area. Not worth travelling from anywhere far for this. I was told most of this is available online in their website as well.

Seeing the Intel 386 PC on display brought old memories for me. I started learning and doing extensive programming first on this PC - a 386SX (without the math co-processor) computer from Wipro during my school days. It is on this PC I learned my first business programming language - FoxBase and then Clipper. It is amazing the progress we have had in terms of speed and features over the last 23 years - unbelievable.

From Chennai you can buy affordable Air tickets for international destinations including return (two-way) to say Singapore (Rs.15,000 with Indian/Jet) or Kuala Lumpur (Rs.21,000) or Bangkok (Rs.19,000 with Indian/Thai). These fares are still kept cheaper despite the fuel hikes due to the heavy competition and high load-factors. But travelling within India especially to Non-Metros (where you to do a hop from another Metro) tickets are phenomenally expensive. I knew about this but didn't realize the magnitude on how costly they can become until I started booking the tickets for my vacation to Jaipur and Udaipur from Chennai.

From Chennai to Jaipur, only viable options are to do a transit either in New Delhi or Mumbai. The normally recommended option (because of more flight choices) is to fly to Delhi and then go by Road/Train to Jaipur. I didn't want to go by Road as it will be little tedious and since I had only a week time I couldn't get the tickets in Train either. I decided to go with Mumbai as MAA-BOM is shorter taking only One-and-Half Hours, compared to Two-and-Half Hours for MAA-DEL and hence a little cheaper. After few tiring hours of browsing all Airline websites I booked myself for this itinerary MAA-BOM with Jet Airways and rest all with Indian Airlines (as they had more comfortable timings) - BOM-JAI, JAI-UDR, UDR-BOM, BOM-MAA. I normally don't prefer low-cost airlines for family vacations as their flights tend to get enormously delayed, with the only exception for this being Paramount Airways.

As I said earlier the tickets for this travel was very expensive. For one person Onwards (MAA-BOM-JAI) costs around Rs.13,000 and Return (UDR-BOM-MAA) costs around Rs.12,500.

For Jaipur to Udaipur, I thought I can go by Train. Surprisingly the trains between the cities run at odd hours - not convenient with a small kid. So I was left with going by Air even for this sector with one person ticket costing around Rs.5000. You can't drive from Jaipur to Udaipur as it is more than 450 Kilometres. We don't realize how big is Rajasthan (I had earlier assumed Maharashtra to be the largest state in distances between cities there)  until you go and see for yourselves. The Aravali hill ranges (one of the oldest in the world) there has created diverse landscapes, so in Rajasthan you have Deserts, Hill stations, Rich fertile valleys and rivers.

Having done all the Air tickets I thought I was good to go. On landing in Jaipur on 27th (Saturday) I got a SMS from Indian Airlines saying the 4th (Saturday) October flight from Udaipur to Mumbai is cancelled. So I started my vacation with first redoing my return ticket from Udaipur to Mumbai, this time with Jet Airways. That was not all, yesterday when I called to tele check-in in they said the Mumbai to Chennai flight was postponed from 5:55PM to 8:30PM (combined with this flight). With my earlier experiences I knew the Indian Airlines 8:30PM almost never leaves before 10PM, so I went ahead and cancelled it. Redid my Mumbai to Chennai as well with Jet Airways - this made it easy in transit as the baggages could be through checked-in to Chennai.

I find it really surprisingly how Indian Airlines is able to get away with these changes and cancellation without worrying a bit about customer satisfaction. It can't be load-factor as the only reason, as even the Jet Airways flight from Udaipur to Mumbai was only 50% full but still they flew and nearly on time. So next time you are travelling with Indian Airlines (Air India) have back-up plans ready (or) fork-up more money the first time and go with Jet Airways or Kingfisher.

Note: For government (AAI) owned Airports that too Non-Metros Jaipur and Udaipur airports were both clean and good looking. The Udaipur airport was the best with its newly done exteriors and modern interiors & rest-rooms.

From Venkatarangan's Jaipur Photo Album (See the other photos as well)

We had a wonderful trip last four days, no rain and we got clear views of all places we went. As I said in the previous post we stayed in "The Trident", Jaipur. Trident is on the highway going to Amber fort, opposite to Jal Mahal. When I booked after seeing the hotel in their website, I thought the Hotel is on the river bank (as shown in the left photo below) and it will be great.  When I actually went there I realized that the hotel is on the other side of the road, and in between there is a park. One good service in the hotel is that of "Kids Club" where you leave your kids safe and they have toys, TV, books, games and trained people to take care. My son Vaageesh loved the place, I wish all other vacation hotels adopt this. The view from the park to Jal Mahal is beautiful but the park maintenance and cleanliness have to be improved greatly.

Day 1: In Mumbai we had few hours for transit from Chennai to Jaipur, I decided to go out of Airport rather than spend few hours inside. We took a taxi and went to Oberoi Mall (Dindoshi, Gen AK Vaidya Marg, Off Western Express Highway) which is probably the closest mall to Mumbai Domestic Airport. It took some 20 minutes one way, we had a good time there and had a great UP style vegetarian Thali (set lunch) at Sanskriti restaurant. We arrived in Jaipur in the late evening and after check in I went to their travel desk (which is oddly not manned by the Hotel but by Avis). When I approached the Avis representative, for planning my itinerary for sight-seeing next few days, he was only interested in selling his "Car Rental" services. He started the conversion by saying and then repeating Avis'es full-day/half-day charges, I had to raise my voice before he started to talk about the itinerary. Though he said it was not required, I insisted on having a "Guide" to accompany on both the days so that we can understand what we are seeing.

Day 2: On the second day we started around 9:30AM and went first to Amber Fort, which is near-by to the Hotel. The fort is not at a high altitude so the car journey to the top took only few minutes. If you wish you can travel royally in a Elephant Ride to the top which costs about Rs.550 per person. Amber fort has a beautiful palaces used by the kings then - a Summer palace and a Winter palace. We then went to see the Madhavendara Palace inside Nahargarh Fort. The palace has 9 compartments for king's 9 queens - it struck me if the king married once more for 10th time, he would have had a tough time expanding the palace!. Each Queen's compartment is self-contained with a Kitchen, Bedroom and Living area - you can see most of these rooms intact with the furnishings & fittings removed. The top of the fort has an excellent view of the entire Jaipur city. Our guide Mr.Rajiv did a great job in showing us all the places and explaining it in detail. (You can see the photo album for more details on what we saw).

For lunch we went to Pink City Restaurant which served good Thali and you can see the cooking clearly as they have an open kitchen. After lunch, we went to Jaipur Mall we saw how the block printing is done in textiles using natural vegetable colours.

Our guide recommended us to try staying in heritage hotels like Samode Haveli in our subsequent trips to Jaipur.

In the evening: We went to the famous tourist restaurant - Chokhi Dhani which is nearly 1 Hour drive (closer to airport) from Trident. It is a theme restaurant on a wide open space modelled like a typical village market of Rajasthan. Entry fee is Rs.300 per person which includes Dinner. They are open only from 6PM to 11PM. My son loved the rides - you have camel rides, elephant rides, horse cart rides and more. There is also model Rajasthani village houses for you to see. We stood in the dinner queue for over 30 minutes before being let in (crowded). The seating was in the ground with traditional low-height table for eating. The food was rich with lots of butter and ghee in almost all dishes- so be careful to eat limited if you wish not to gain weight. You can unlimited helpings of all the served items.

Day 3: Today we had another guide Mr.Vijay Singh for our city tour of Jaipur. We saw Hawa Mahal from road, I believe there is nothing much to see nowadays inside. Then we went to Birla Mandir and had a good darshan there.  

Then we went to Jantar Mantar (which is near city palace) the centuries old Sun Dials and other instruments which were way ahead of their times in their accuracy of readings. The large instruments there are believed to be used for both Astronomy and Astrology. Our next stop was City Palace.  We saw the 350Kgs Silver urn used by one of the earlier Kings to carry Ganges water during his visit to London. Apart from the usual items that you will see in a palace, there was a huge display of weapons in the Queen's Area of the palace. It had variety of daggers - one that can open up and be turned for maximum damage to the victim, one that shoot apart from the cut, 15Kg swords, metal helmet cutters and more. The kings seem to have spent a lot of money and talent, on fighting wars and building weapons. (You can see the photo album for more details on what we saw)

We had lunch in Peacock Restaurant which had a decent food but a very ordinary service, so if you are not near-by you may want to skip this restaurant.   

In the evening: We went for shopping to Jaipur Haat (which was walkable distance from the hotel) and bought some traditional style dresses. The varieties and the service was excellent, though the dresses were little pricey.

Day 4: We left this day intentionally free, spending the time relaxing in the room. In the evening we went for a walk to Jal Mahal (the mosquitos were too much on the road, making it difficult to walk).

With Dasara holidays for my son from today for a week, we wanted to go somewhere for a small vacation. My initial plan was to go to Bangkok - idea was to combine it with a business conference there and then extend it for next few days for vacation.  Unfortunately that conference got cancelled a week back and I was left scrambling for options. With only a week left, the usual international locations got mentioned and dropped due to lack of time to plan and book - including Nepal (may be next time I will do this), Malaysia & Singapore (we have been there), HongKong (I am going there for few days this month-end) and Dubai (there is no sightseeing apart from shopping I was told). So it has to be within India.

We have been to many places in South India including almost all the favourites. Our memorable once were those to Mysore (especially the Palace), Kabini, Hoysala (Hasan), Kumarakom & Coorg. So we wanted some other place, the only condition being it got to have something that interests a 5 year old (my son). So after many arguments between myself and my wife over the places (Sikkim, Shimla, Dargeeling, Andaman Islands, Gwalior, Goa featured in our deliberations) we picked up "Rajasthan" and managed to get rooms booked with "The Trident" in both places. So finally we have started our trip today to Jaipur and then to Udaipur.

For a Microsoft event I am staying here at Renaissance in Mumbai (A Mariott Hotel) and they allotted me a room in the newly constructed (nearly complete) Renaissance Towers - like in Software we were made to beta test the towers!.

In the morning when I got up and went for my bath - surprise, no running water. The housekeeping didn't even have an estimate of when they will have it repaired and they didn't even show a sign of remorse for their poor service. I had to do a "Luxury" act of brushing my teeth with bottled water, then with the help of perfumes and a set of clean clothes  I went for my breakfast meeting. I was feeling a little better that the person I met was also staying in the Towers and couldn't have his bath either

After an hour, water supply was restored but that too only Warm Water - no Cold Water!

போன சனிக்கிழமை குடும்பத்தோடு நாங்கள் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் கோயிலுக்குச் சென்று இருந்தோம். ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் என் பாட்டியின் பிறந்த ஊர். ஆனால் இதுவரை நாங்கள் பலர் அங்கே போனதில்லை. இந்த முறை உறவினர் ஒருவர் அழைப்பை ஏற்று அங்கே போயிருந்தோம், நல்ல தரிசனம் கிடைத்தது.

வைஷ்ணவத்தில், இந்த பூலோகத்தில் சுயம்வக்த (சுயம்பு, தான்தோன்றி, Natural, Not man made) க்ஷேத்ரங்கள் (புனிதத் தலங்கள்) என எட்டு க்ஷேத்ரங்கள் பெரியவர்களால் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளன.  அதில் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் (தூய தமிழில் திருமுட்டம்) விசேஷமான ஒன்று, விருத்தாசலத்திலிருந்து இருபது கிலோமீட்டர் தூரத்திலிருக்கிறது. சென்னையிலிருந்து விருத்தாசலம் 220 கிலோமீட்டர் தூரம் - NH45ல் சென்று விழுப்புரம் தாண்டிய பிறகு உளுந்தூர்பேட்டையில் இடது (Left) பக்கம் திரும்பி 20 கிலோமீட்டர் செல்லவேண்டும்.

இங்கே இருக்கும் புஷ்கரணி (குளம்) - பூமியைப் பெருமாள் (விஷ்ணுவின் அவதாரமான பூவராஹ ஸ்வாமி) தூக்கும்போது பெருமாளின் வேர்வையிலிருந்து உருவானதாக ஐதிகம் (நம்பிக்கை).  இங்குள்ள ஸ்ரீ வராஹப் பெருமாளை (மூலவர்) வேண்டினால் சொத்து சம்பந்தமான தடைகள், பிரச்னைகள் விலகும், பூமி/சொத்து இவை கிடைக்கும் என்பது ஐதிகம். அது போல குளத்தின் அருகிலிருக்கும் அரசமத்தின் அடியில் ஸேவை தரும் அஸ்வத்தநாராயணனின் (ஸ்ரீ நரசிம்ஹர் ஸ்வாமி) சந்நிதி சென்று பிரார்த்தனை செய்தால் குழந்தை பாக்கியம் கிடைக்கும் என்பதும் ஐதிகம்.

(கோயில் புஷ்கரணி குளம்)	(ஸ்ரீ பூவராஹ சுவாமி கோயில் கோபுரம்)
(நாங்கள் தங்கியிருந்த ஆனந்தா லாட்ஜ்)	(ஸ்ரீ அஸ்வத்தநாராயணனின் சந்நிதி)

Last week my son had the whole week off from Tuesday through Friday for his school annual day. My work in office was relatively light, so I decided to take him (of course along with my wife ) for a tiny-vacation. We had been to almost all resorts in Mamalapuram near Chennai, so we decided to go to Pondicherry. Though I have travelled through Pondy numerous times (on the way to Cuddalore or further south) and been to few places there, I haven't stayed and seen Pondy in its entirety, that way it was an ideal choice.

From Chennai, Pondy is only 3 Hours drive - you have two choices for the route. One route through the scenic "East Coast Road" where you pay a toll-fee of Rs.45 from Chennai to Pondy; or the multi-lane world class NH-45 from Chennai to Dindivanam where you pay toll-fee of Rs.20 twice. I went by ECR and while returning come by NH-45, while coming back we had darshan in Panchamukha  Anjaneyar (which is at near equidistance from both ECR and NH-45). Driving my Honda City in NH-45 was a joy by itself, the car did (thanks to the wide road) effortlessly 120Km/Hr most of the time, of course I could've done more but the official speed limit was 80 Km/Hr !

We stayed in Ashok Resort (a part of ITDC), which had decent rooms overlooking the sees at good rates (Rs.4000 for Standard AC Room per night). The food and service was good considering that it is a public sector hotel.

The beautiful french quarters area of Pondicherry with its white buildings on the side lanes of the beach	With the Pondicherry Pier behind me (we couldn't find the entrance to get in to it though)
The first time I have seen a portable toilet (the blue boxes) for public convenience in an Indian city. Kudos to Pondy govt.	The famous pondicherry beach and Mahatma Gandhi statue

After spending few hours in San Jose Tech Museum I took the local VTA bus 180 to travel to the Great way mall. I was not sure on the direction of the bus to take, their call centre was unhelpful answering my query, then I asked one of the bus driver who guided me to take the bus going in the"Fremont BART" direction. After Seattle Bay Area seems to have a decent public transport system, which made me like this US city a bit. There is nothing exceptional about the mall other than it is big and you get all designer stuffs here.

To kill time I went to Century Cinemas there to watch "Hellboy II" - why Hellboy, because there was no other movie I would have liked. The movie's story is completely fictitious and unbelievable, but the graphics and effects are superb.

I was in San Jose area and had the whole day to spend before my return flight (Jet Airways from SFO to BOM) in the evening. So I started the day with my friend dropping me in San Jose Tech Museum.

First I went to see the IMAX movie "The Alps" which had breath taking views and an emotional story - an expert climber had been wanting to climb the "Eiger" mountain in the Alps which had killed his father 40 years back.

Then I went to see the exhibits, which included a Silicon IC (Chip) manufacturing, Gene therapy, inventions, solar energy and many more. It is a must see museum for today's students.

I wish we had something like this in India - may be in Bangalore Indian IT giants can take a clue from their Silicon Valley counterparts to fund one. What impressed me was the web page creation kit they have - in every exhibit you can insert your bar coded ticket to get a photograph of yourself and at the end you can post all of them into your own custom web page, cool!

This time while travelling within the USA, I selected to fly with Southwest Airlines. Most other airlines especially in the USA are using the Oil price rise as a good excuse to cut all the "services" they are offering to customers and deteriorating in every aspect. Southwest seems to be using this great risk as a clear opportunity to differentiate itself as a provider of great service. You might ask what great service, I could list the following:

1. On time arrival and departure
2. Courteous Staffs
3. Accommodating change request whether it is to prepone a flight at the gates or with no fees postpone your ticket online even for the lowest fare
4. Wide choice of beverages on board - Starbucks Coffee, Tea, Soft Drinks & Juices
5. Quick arrival of bags
6. Affordable fares and no charge for two check-in bags (In one sector Alaska charged me $25 for the second bag)
7. Finally, few tables in every gate with 110V Power sockets to charge your laptops/accessories and USB Power sockets to charge your iPods and phones.

Last weekend while doing some room cleaning, I came across an old photo album (you remember those chemically processed photos from photo studios). It was the photographs of my first USA trip in 1999. I selected few of them and uploaded it to my online album. You can see me "younger" than today and without spectacles .

(Below) With Actress Ramba in Frankfurt Airport (1999)	(Below) With Actor Vijay in Frankfurt Airport (1999)
(Top) In 1999 in New York with World Trade Center (Twin Towers) behind me in the horizon	(Top) In 1999 in New York on top of the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) observation deck

BTW, I don't know Actor Vijay or Actress Ramba in person. Just happened to get out from the business class together with them and I requested them for a quick "snap". Fortunately I remembered to carry my pocket camera in my backpack then (of course, nowadays every one has a Mobile Phone with Camera).

Today I came to Bangalore for a meeting. Having heard the horrifying stories of travel from city to the new airport at Devanahali I got booked by train. I should have left by Shadapti Express leaving Chennai at 5:30PM yesterday, but due to last minute business meetings I reached Chennai Central station late. I was in the platform only at 5:32PM, by then all I could see was the last bogie with a giant "X" mark as seen in Bollywood movies. I had to avoid the glaring look of a porter in the platform at me. Missing the train, I travelled today by flight from Chennai to Bangalore and return.

After long delays, several false starts and Protests against closing the old Airport, the New Airport at Devanahali was built by a consortium of Siemens (Germany), Zurich Airport & L&T finally opened itself on May 24, 2008. The old HAL Airport was certainly brimming out of capacity and facilities, Bangalore certainly took a long time in getting a new airport. Is the long wait worth it?. Overall "Yes", but several things could have been done better.

• For one, a Metro (Train) facility should have been planned and executed which could have provided convenient connectivity from City to Airport. Without a train link the new airport is putting pressure on the already crowded Makkri Circle Area and Bangalore-Hyderabad National Highway. For me it took 75 minutes in the morning (9AM) today to reach Jeevan bhimanagar from the new Airport and while returning in the evening (5PM) took me nearly 90 minutes. I was told by the taxi driver that 90 minutes in the evening is good, it had taken him two days before over 2 Hours (120 Minutes) to get to Airport.
• Second, the waiting area and facilities in the departure terminal could have been better, at this moment they are very basic and ordinary. For example as the photograph below shows there is hardly 30-40 chairs for people to sit in each gate. Certainly each gate will have a flight capacity of over 100 passengers on average, so it was more crowded than the old airport. The lack of facilities at the gate made me wonder whether Siemens wanted to recreate in Bangalore Airport, the same poor facilities that you will find in Frankfurt Airport. The last time while transit to USA I was in Frankfurt Airport and I could get to buy only a Bagel and a Donut to eat - I couldn't even find a Pizza outlet.

The best mode of transport to and from new airport seems to be the  A/C Buses (Vayu Vajra) run by BMTC. It costs about Rs.150 for travelling from Old Airport area to New Airport. To know more about Bengaluru Airport you can go to the official website, which unfortunately seems to be down at this moment.

For my summer vacation this time I selected Kodaikanal. I booked my ticket to travel from Chennai to Kodai road by Pandian Express in Class 1A. I thought this to be First AC, but we were pleasantly surprised to see a AC coupe (H1 compartment). It was well furnished with wide beds, washbasin, wardrobe, curtains and even toilet occupancy indicators (like in flights). Good comfort provided by Southern Railways for just Rs.1336 per seat. With excellent facilities like this by train, budget airlines have tough competition for them (especially with rising flight prices). From Kodai road, Kodaikannal was about 2 hours drive.

This is one of my usual rants after a trip to USA. Early this month I left to US for a business trip which included Mix '08 conference in Las Vegas (my third in a row). I normally fly BA from Chennai straight to West coast because it is the shortest and has minimum stopovers (or) fly with Singapore/Malaysian Airlines due to their service and food. This time I decided to fly with my favourite Airline - Jet Airways as they fly to US now and I also got a good deal for Business class (Jet calls it Premium class) at Rs.190,000 ($4750) roundtrip with taxes (Chennai to Newark (EWR) via Brussels & back).

Onward

The first experience was in Chennai Airport (which used to be my airport of choice in India) where it was total chaos from entering till boarding, may be because it was a Friday and there were at least 8 to 10 flights taking off within a few hours window. You normally see Jet Airways friendly staff everywhere for domestic sectors, surprisingly there were not even one outside the counters and the counters too were thinly staffed for this international sector which was running full as well.

The minute you boarded the experience starts to be a different one and the in-flight service for which Jet is famous for was excellent. I got an absolute flat-bed (which the air hostesses makes it for you on request), big flat screen for entertainment, night-suit & a designer personal hygiene kit. Each seat in Premiere also provides you with USB Port for charging and 110V AC Socket for charging. Two things Jet can improve on the in-flight experience, one increase the selection of food (like Malaysian they can do a buffet on wheels) and the second to improve the number of regional language (Tamil) & comedy video content.

Jet flies 3 flights currently from India (Mumbai, Delhi & Chennai) which arrive in Brussels one after other in say 10 minutes gap of each. And they take off to 3 destinations in North America (Toronto, New York JFK, Newark EWR) in 10 minutes gap of each. So you have a good hub and spokes model for choice here. When you land in Brussels, there are hardly any ground staff from Jet to guide you to the lounge or for other assistance. The good thing is that in Brussels Airport, Jet Airways has a well-equipped lounge on their own with a good spread of breakfast selections.

When you land in USA (Newark EWR) the lack of ground staff from Jet Airways continues. Even though I was flying Business, my bags took more than 45 minutes to arrive in the belt and no one to help you on that. Since I had to go to the West Coast (San Jose and then to Vegas) I decided to spend the day in New York with one of my early mentors and good friend Mr.Shivraj who is an independent IT Consultant there.

Return

For return I started from Seattle flying to Newark (EWR) by Alaska. Since Alaska doesn't have a baggage alliance with Jet Airways yet, I couldn't do through check-in, which means I have to get the bags and check in again manually in Newark. And once I arrived in Newark there was hardly any signs or directions to which terminal other airlines are flying from. The good thing, the airport had information staffs everywhere who guide you correctly. I went to AirTrain counters where they guided me to Terminal B (That's from where Jet Operates). I went to the Northwest lounge offered by Jet Airways (for which you have to go to a separate gate and security check) and found they carry nothing other than liquor and orange juice, absolutely nothing to eat. So I came out and had the only good vegetarian item I could find (Pizzas) in the gate. The return journey was more pleasant at Brussels, with Jet Airways ground staff taking good care of passengers, guiding them to lounge, etc. The Jet lounge at Brussels didn't have a shower but they arranged for one at the near-by Diamond Lounge on their own free.

US Airports and Carriers

Compared to other full-service airlines in USA, I found Alaska to be more on time, efficient and cordial service. One thing I don't understand is why do they want to charge for the Entertainment (Digi Players) and for the measly food they serve on board. United, Alaska and all other carriers in US, charge you like $5 or $10 for a frozen food packet and for Entertainment screen. This is the same procedure even on flights over 4 hours like the one I took now from Seattle to Newark or the earlier one I took from Newark to San Jose which was like 6 hours. They charge like $250 or more for coast to coast and they still want to charge $10 more , it is not that I am complaining about the additional charge it is the lack of good choice in food. I see all the flights I travelled in this trip were running full and I read that they are making good profits for the last 12 to 18 months. Still all the flights you travel with US carriers are old and aging, which I can understand because many of them after 9/11 are still in bankruptcy protection or just out.  What I don't understand is the lack of service mostly in-flight (I certainly don't believe it to be racism), complete in-difference to paying customers which you don't see anywhere in Asia. For example, in the Alaska flight today they missed for several seats serving juices & snacks. When I asked (so too few other customers) she just brought her own selection and that was it. I was offered an Orange Juice, when I asked her that I actually want a Tomato Juice, she just ignored it (I am sure I was very clear) banged the cup and left.

One of the things you will find it clear once you have been through few US airports is that they have a total lack of infrastructure and space for security screening. Almost all the airports are old and aging, when they were planned there was no concept of passenger screening so it all happens in long lines in cramped corridors. 

For a business meeting tomorrow I had to come to Bangalore.  It so happened in the last 5 to 6 years that I almost always did morning-evening same day return flights from Chennai to Bangalore due to my schedules and my dislike for Railway stations. Considering the growing hassles of the hour-long queues in Airport securities and the praises I was hearing from my colleagues/media about the improved service in Indian Railways I decided this time to give Train a try.

Just now I reached Bangalore after travelling by Shatabdi Express that reached Bangalore Cantonment at 10.20PM (STA 10.05PM)  which started from Chennai at 5:30PM sharp. The overall experience was very good, I am certainly pleased and I want to do this more often than the flights - I guess this is more greener as well.  Comparing to Indian Railway's historic (lack of) standards everything was clean including the coaches, seats, toilets and above all the stations at both end.  I travelled in the Executive coach and the service was certainly good, they kept giving you something to eat through out the journey - Samosas, Cool Drink, Biscuits, Cashews, Wafers, Coffee/Tea, Soup, Dinner and Ice-Cream. I was surprised to hear that they had PA systems in the coaches in which they kept announcing things like crews names, delays, approaching station, time of arrival, etc.

Above all I liked the idea you can be connected through a data card through out the journey and keep working on your laptop catching up on your work. For instance, in the first one hour, I finished most of my pending emails and in the next few hours 3/4th of a book.

Keep up the good work Indian Railways, Thanks Mr.Lalu & Team for giving us a good experience.