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Travelling to Bangalore from Chennai has been one of the easiest by flight before 2001 and the resulted tight Airport securities. In those days, I have done many morning-evening same day return trips leaving home at 5:30AM and coming back home at 8PM. As Bangalore’s traffic grew exponentially and the change to the new Bengaluru International Airport happened, it made these trips difficult. It takes you to travel from Airport to City (or other way) about 2 hours even by Vayu Vajra buses, which I like.
Today for a business meeting around 12PM, I travelled by Shathapthi Express (Train 2007) from Chennai that reached Bangalore at 10.55AM and returned back by Shathapthi (Train 2008) that left Bangalore city at 4:20PM. The journey was comfortable with food being served more than a full-service Airline all throughout the 5 hour journey. The coaches & toilets were clean, ride was smooth & seats comfortable. This is my third or fourth travel by Shathapthi to Bangalore & highly recommend it for travelling in this sector.
During the return ride from Bangalore to Chennai, I watched the movie “The Help” in my MacBook Air, I love train journey just for this luxury, no need to shutdown during take offs and landings & you can charge your laptop without being in Business class.
While boarding in Bangalore City, I strolled into a small Railway Museum displaying olden days Railway equipment & tools. This is a good attempt by South Western Railways, most stations should have one to encourage kids to learn about history and design for future. Its a free entry, nothing kept here is fragile or expensive but still there were two railway staff manning the museum – proving Indian Railways tradition.
 
Every time I go to Bangalore City station and walk down between the platforms in the subway I feel like taking it a photograph – I like that long subway, it gives a feeling of exploration.
Lastly, this bright red coach painted with Mysore Sandal soap advertisement was looking so beautiful on the tracks that I immediately clicked it. I wish they paint all train coaches with more of these bright colours and nice pictures.
Last month I went to Taipei for a business trip of two days. Though I have gone many times to Hong Kong, this was my first visit to Republic of China (a.k.a Taiwan, RoC is the official name of the country). I travelled by Thai Airways, from Chennai via Bangkok to Taipei, roughly about 3:30 Hours each sector.
VISA fiasco
Before the travel I checked out the Taiwanese Ministry of foreign affairs website and learnt that travellers to Taiwan with Indian Passport and a valid VISA to US or UK don’t need an explicit Taiwan VISA. My travel agent who didn’t know about this rule confirmed this after checking and I double checked with Taiwanese embassy in Delhi by phone as well. What they didn’t say is that I needed to visit Taiwanese Immigration website and obtain a self-service Authorization Certificate and carry the printout. Because of this when I landed in Taipei I was sent back to Thai Airways gate by the Immigration official. Fortunately the Supervisor in Immigration gave me a sample printout of Authorization Certificate which I showed to Thai Airways staff, who after a brief confusion did the registration for me and got the printout. Finally I was allowed to clear immigration. Please be warned that Taiwan doesn’t have VISA on Arrival for any nationals other than Hong Kong and Macau. Later in the hotel when I visited the Immigration Website it had spelled this out clearly “The nationals of India, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, who also possess a valid visa or permanent resident certificate issued by U.S.A., Canada, Japan, U.K., Schengen Convention countries, Australia or New Zealand, are eligible for the visa exemption program, which permits a duration of stay up to 30 days. Those who meet the above qualification and have never been employed in Taiwan as blue-collar workers have to apply to the “Advance Online Registration System for the Visitors of Nationals from Five Southeast Asian Countries to Taiwan” of the R.O.C. National Immigration Agency (website:https://nas.immigration.gov.tw/nase) for an "Authorization Certificate" before coming to Taiwan. After completion, the printed-out Certificate can be used by the foreign visitor for boarding the airplane and the immigration inspection”
Sight Seeing
I reached my Hotel in Taipei on a Wednesday morning and had rest of the day free to myself, the meetings were happening only the next day. There are not many places in Taipei city to see, I narrowed my choice to either Taipei 101 (the world’s second tallest building that I have seen in Discovery channel as a construction marvel) and to National Palace Museum. On the day I was in Taipei it was cloudy and drizzling, so I decided to go to Taipei 101. Even within Taipei 101 there is not much for you to see, a big mall – where there were only designer shops which I couldn’t even afford to window shop & a super market. I went to buy ticket to the ride up for the viewing gallery on top, but the girl in the counter warned me that I can hardly see anything on a day like this and whether I am sure I want to pay NTD 450 for this. I decided to go with her advice and skipped the observation deck.
(a fine supermarket inside Taipei 101)
I found almost all the electronic, even those by Taiwanese OEMs like Asus or HTC to be expensive in Taiwan than in USA or even India.
(The above ultrabook ASUS Zenbook X31E costs NTD 38,900 ~ USD 1313 seems to be expensive than buying it in USA)
A lake is there in an area called Xindian where there was a beautiful park, bridge, food stalls and boating activities.
Commute
Remember that in Taipei very little “English” is used, it is almost entirely in Chinese. So for you to travel from Airport to Hotel by Taxi, it is a good idea (as my hosts advised me earlier) to carry your Hotel Name printed in Chinese characters. That is what I did and after using it few times, I realized how important it was, there is no way I could have made anyone understand the English name of my hotel (as only the Chinese name is used everywhere). I even travelled by Taipei Metro (called commonly as MRT) to return from Taipei 101 to my hotel, it was quite convenient and efficient. You can buy a one-way ticket (they give you a pre-paid token) from the Information counter (to whom you can show the same Chinese character printout of the location) and rest is same as in any other Metro (like in Singapore or Hong Kong). The difference in Taipei Metro station and train is that everything is in Chinese only, only the Station names are in English, with which you can manage to travel just like I did on my first attempt, even managing to switch two lines during my travel. Like Japan there were marked queuing for boarding trains which were followed.
Vegetarian Food
In general vegetarian food is not common in Taipei, but you can find them with a little effort. The challenge is the language and communicating this to the waiter. The hotel were I was booked (I wrote to them in advance by email) arranged me vegetarian lunch on arrival. My host took me to a fine dining Chinese restaurant for dinner and they manage to get me tasty vegetarian food including a Bamboo Root Dish that I tasted for the first time.
 
(In the first photo on the left you see a dish made from Bitter Melon, in the second photo is a Radish soup they served at the end of lunch)
The full photo album of my trip is here.
While on transit in Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok I saw this beautiful sculpture on Scene of the churning of the Milk Ocean – which is an important event in Hindu mythology enacted by Lord Vishnu. I had seen the resemblance to same beliefs and epics of India (Hinduism) followed in Thailand during my first trip there in 1999. Here are the photos (with links to more) of the sculpture that I took with my iPhone4.
World over Microsoft conducts lots and lots of events every year. Their flagship events are two – Professional Developer Conference a.k.a. PDC (this is where they announce the next big thing like .NET, Windows 2000, Longhorn, Windows Azure and so on) and Tech Ed (this is more hands-on current technologies for IT Professionals with some Developer content) happening almost every year in USA and then replicated across the world. About five years back in 2006, they announced a new event by name “Mix” which for the first time tried to bring 3 stakeholders into one event – Business Managers, Designers & Developers. It was started to promote Web development and Microsoft’s new designer tools family Microsoft Expression. This was the first Microsoft event where you got to hear Microsoft’s competitors like Yahoo! & Amazon (Microsoft wasn’t in cloud yet in 2006), which I found to be quite useful to get a sense of where Web technologies are going in general. And the lunch-table discussions I had with such a variety of audience were very interesting.
 
As a Microsoft Regional Director from 1999 and as a Microsoft Partner for many years, these events have become annual fixtures in my calendar.With the new “Build” event that happened last year (instead of a PDC) where they announced Windows 8, it was clear the existing Microsoft events landscape was changing. And indeed it has changed. First casualty was PDC and today they officially acknowledged that there will be no Mix in 2012. Though I feel sad for an event that offered variety and fun, in the last few years unfortunately Mix was made into yet another Developer event by Microsoft. So it was time the event got killed and merged into a unified better event.
In this moment of our prayers for “Mix” and for its soul to R.I.P I I will like to look back at some of the moments I have experienced around this event.
Mix ‘06
Bill Gates announced and kicked off the very first Mix at the Venetian, Las Vegas. The big announcement was WPF/E (which became Silverlight later) and demonstration of it on a Nokia phone which never got released.
Mix06 was my second or third trip to Vegas so I didn’t understand well on how lodging in Vegas works. I ended up blowing money (literally) by booking a $400/Night (concessional rate for attendees!) room at the venue itself (Venetian).
Mix ‘07
This event was all about Silverlight!. I am sure most of us .NET enthusiasts remember the demo where Silverlight in a browser with C# code-behind winning over Java Script in a game of chess. Looking back (from a world of Node.JS & Chakra) I was not sure on what we were smoking back then in May 2007.
I found the BBC Radio 1 and Windows Live Messenger social co-browsing (called Messenger activity then) & sharing to be quite cool. Unfortunately it never got released outside UK (just like most of the good stuffs from BBC which are available only to UK Residents due to a antiquated theory of UK Tax payer funding).
What got me thinking was a quote made by “The Economist” Publisher Mr.Andrew Rashbass on a panel discussion (which alone was worth my travel to the US from India). The quote was on how Portable Reader devices replacing paper. Andrew said “it will not happen in short-term, not in mid-term and definitely not in long-term and that BillG can use one, but no one else will use it”
I think this year Microsoft started to highlight that Mix was a “72 Hour conversation”, a tag line I liked & which I consider to have captured the essence of what Mix ‘06 and Mix ‘07 were. The evening party on one of the days was fun and colourful.
After blowing my money staying in Venetian, I realized how lodging works in Vegas – you can get rooms from $40 to $1 Million per night, it all depends on what you are looking for. From this year, I was booking myself a room at $40 in the Stratosphere Hotel. Although it is on the other end of the Strip, it was a good 30 minutes walk in the evening after you finish your dinner near by to Venetian like in the Food court at The Capital Grille.
Mix ‘08
This year the keynote was by Ray Ozzie who outlined Microsoft’s investment in IE and Silverlight, Web Slices and more. Lots of demos this year.
Then it was Dean Hachamovitch talking about how great IE 8.0 was (do you remember this IE?)
Lot of coverage about live streaming capabilities of Silverlight during the then upcoming Beijing Olympics
My fellow RD Scott Stanfield’s company Vertigo demoing the “Hard Rock” app they have build using Silverlight and Deep-Zoom technology.
Coca-Cola sponsored UEFA Euro 2008 & Windows Live Messenger community (what was that I don’t remember other than the photograph below?)
On the corridors of the show, I gave an audio interview to Scott Hanselman on Outsourcing (the hot topic then because of a Presidential Election year in USA).
Mix ‘09, 10, 11
Due to the onslaught of recession, travel budget constraints and thanks to great live streaming of the Keynotes by Microsoft, the next three years I decided to watch it from Home, only trouble being the need to have loads of coffee to keep me awake through the Night in India. I didn’t miss out the individual talks either – all the session videos were made available from Channel9 for download in few days of the event getting over.
Last Sunday I was in Los Angeles area and I visited one of my college classmate after nearly a decade. He works in Downtown L.A. and moved there from Pasadena (CA) for shorter commute (bicycle) to work. I was under the impression that Downtown in L.A. was not so safe a place and very few Desi Indians lived there, especially due to lack of good school districts. But here was my friend living here and he says he is enjoying the time saved due to zero commute. He has rented an apartment in Downtown and he told me the one he has rented is called as Loft’s here. Loft for me in India meant a shelf or chamber provided for storage in a raised position in a building. Here Loft means open floor space rented for residence as un-partitioned floor area, which you can divide into rooms any way you please. The walls were not plastered, AC ducts were open and visible. But the place had a serene, natural feeling to it.
Late evening when we walked few blocks away from his apartment for dinner, we were approached by at least half a dozen homeless people living in the streets for money (change). When travelling in USA, I normally ignore these people for fear of my safety and keep walking away. My friend said he feels it is more humane and safer as well to just acknowledge them, say sorry or I have no money and keep walking. You learn something new everyday.
He took me for dinner to Curry House restaurant in Little Tokyo. I presumed Curry House meant Indian food but it turned out to be a popular Japanese chain. I was happy I got vegetarian meal complete with Soup, Starters and a spicy curry to go with Rice. I liked the food, it was tasty and I have added this to my list of (vegetarian) cuisines I have tasted so far & liked.
I am here in LA region this week for Microsoft’s Build conference. Today to get from Simi Valley to Anaheim (where the conference is going to start from tomorrow) I decided to take the train. Yes, I said it right, Trains do run in USA and they are pretty good and frequent especially in California around Bay Area and Los Angeles. Any day I will prefer to do this in USA than to sit in a car for hours seeing nothing but Tar roads and concrete falls on side of Freeways. In my last visit to USA I had travelled in local metro train in Bay Area (from Cupertino to Downtown SFO) and they are the cheapest (costs around $10 compared to $120 by Taxi for the same journey) and some times faster (due to traffic in peak hours in roads) mode of transport. Previous to that in 2007 I had travelled in Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver, Canada.
The travel by Amtrak from Simi Valley to Anaheim (CA) took about 2 hours (starting at 10:51AM and arriving around 1:05PM), took a 20 minutes stop in LA Union station. It was convenient, I could seats easily in Unreserved cabin itself, there was power sockets to charge your laptop or iPad and costed only $22 per trip.
 
I have been a Microsoft Regional Director from 1999 and I cherish the opportunity to get to know the legends of IT Industry especially in Microsoft Technologies. Regional Directors aren’t Microsoft employees–they’re independent developers, architects, trainers, and other professionals who provide a vital link between Microsoft and the developer community.
Today the day before Microsoft Build conference, we all had a party in Carlsbad, CA at one of our fellow RD’s mansion (OK, not really a mansion but a Track home). I have been to Carlsbad, CA few times before it is a lovely city in San Diego county and is popular for its lovely beaches, Golf courses visited by celebrities and of course Legoland.
The party was held at the house belonging to Tim Huckaby, Founder of Interknowlogy & well known technology speaker. TimH is popular in Microsoft circles for throwing the parties which are exceptionally fun to attend and this one was no exception. We had tasty Mexican catering with snacks, drinks and juices on plenty. At the end of the party with burdened hearts & tons of fond memories we all bid farewell to our RD Manager at Microsoft – Kevin Schuler.
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(Thanks to Guy Barrette for the above photos)
Today I travelled from Chennai to Los Angeles with transit in London by British Airways. The in-flight entertainment choices in BA are limited, for the whole month they have only few movies and just one episode each of Comedy TV Series like Big Bang Theory & 30 Rock. And it is the same choices for in-bound and out-bound flights, so I am sure when I am returning from US I won’t have any options to watch. In Business they have power outlets on each seat so I am sure I will watch something in my Laptop. The service by in-flight crew was fine, but still short of what Asian Airlines like Singapore or Jet Airways or Cathay-Pacific offers.
I have travelled through Heathrow many times from 1998, but still I am not a big fan of LHR. The Airport is huge and takes lot of time to travel from one terminal to another and the monorail system is limited compared to Singapore Changi Airport. The BA lounge in London had good facilities like Shower, Wi-Fi, Lots of PCs to work with headphones, good selection of food and drinks.
Few days back out of blue, I got an email from one “Robert Ziegler” from Berlin,Germany. In the email what caught my attention was inclusion of two photographs of me taken in 1999 inside World Trade Center, New York and another taken with WTC behind me in the horizon. I remembered that I had posted these two photographs in blog under a post titled “my USA 1999 Photos”.
The email said “Three years ago we -Robert Ziegler and Stefka Ammon- started working on our private project MY_WTC. It is our goal to explore the question of the site’ s myth via (mostly) tourists’ photographs of the World Trade Center in New York City (August 5th 1966 – September 10th 2001). Also we would like to find out why so many people took pictures of themselves in front, on top of, inside or next to the WTC. Our project is about exploring the “specific aura” of the World Trade Center from the angle of tourists from all over the world”.
Interested, I went to the site and found it to be neatly done with wonderful photographs and comments from people around the world and it was fascinating to see how WTC as a common connection was getting them in one place here. Immediately I submitted higher resolution of the two photos (1, 2) I had taken and Robert quickly got them approved and made them live. I then exchanged few emails with Robert, learned nice titbits about Berlin from him and I told him how to say “Hello” in my mother tongue Tamil – it is said as “Vanakkam” (shared him a link to a song on Vanakkam from Madrasapattinam Tamil movie). What a small world we are living in!
Yesterday while returning from Singapore to Chennai in SQ flight I saw this Egyptian movie “Khaltet Fawzeya” (Fawzia’s Secret Recipe). Hollywood and Kollywood movies are always there, but if you are lucky you get to watch wonderful hand-picked movies in Flight Entertainment and most often Singapore Airlines comes with good selections. The movie was described as “Fawzia is a poor woman, who has a magical, secret recipe for achieving happiness in life. She marries five men and lives with her large family in her small home”. The movie didn’t disappoint & was true to this description as well.
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The first few scenes start off on a high comedy note, with Fawzia shouting in the midnight complaining about her present husband, then the whole neighbourhood coming to her support and she demanding and getting Divorce from her husband. She then asks the next man to help her to marry her and the whole sequence repeating for 4 times. The story happens entirely in a small Egyptian neighbourhood (though a slum it is shown clean and friendly, no gangsters or dark lanes) where Fawzia who has been divorced four times live with all her kids alone in a small house of her own. Each Thursday all her former husbands join for a family dinner bringing with them gifts and foods, each father taking care of his Son/Daughter. All her former husbands admire Fawzia for her strong will, caring nature and they show true affection and respect to her after divorce, she calls them affectionately as her brothers!. Fawzia has earned the love and respect of her small locality, she helps the ladies to prepare Jam in her house as a community activity, then distributing them free to kids around the graveyard, takes care of a fallen from fame dancer, a single lady friend of hers who is struggling to live after her love dies. Fawzia’s fifth husband learns her liking for a private bathroom (now all of them sharing a community bathroom), constructs a private one for her but authorities demolish it for they lack money/power.
The movie is directed by Egyptian Director Majdy Ahmed Ali, and Ilham Shaheen (the main cast who did the Fawzia character) has done a great performance in bringing out a down-to-earth practical lady with a strong will. Her will is tested by events and deaths (of her former husband, her good friend ‘dancer’, her first son) but after initial pain and sorrow, she overcomes them with resilience. The movie has many small fine touches by the director, like the scene where two men driving into their street seeing Fawzia’s large family eating together mistaking it for a Ramdan community dinner and joining them without being asked or asking; the last scene where all her former & present husband join together in building a beautiful bathroom (again!) for Fawzia with each one of them bringing something special to it; a wealthy rich lady leaving a flower bouquet in the grave of her loved one, then immediately the kids around picking it up and selling it; when Hood (fifth husband) complains that Fawzia’s mother didn’t come to their marrige, Fawzia countering that his sister too didn’t come.
Overall a comedy movie but an undertone message about how to take on life as it comes and how to care for others around you. Don’t miss watching this fine cinema. You can see a trailer of the movie (in Arabic without subtitles) here.
Apart from this movie, the other International Movies from the KrisWorld listings that I was interested to watch were: Two Girls from Egypt, I love Hong Kong, 20 Cigarettes & Outside the Law. I hope I find those movies too sooner.
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