US travelogue

Its been a long time since I wrote on my blog. Was busy lately doing many things, changed the job, then went on recruitment spree, going to various college campuses interviewing the next probable colleagues of mine. Well this was in the month of october when every week I was going off to some place for a day or two.

Well my US visit was equally short, 2 week thing. Ordinarily I would have been too excited to pack off to another destination but this time it was different. I was actually tired. It was an official visit to our headquarters.

I travelled Cathay Pacific and went via Hongkong. The journey to and from hongkong is pathetic. The plane is so cramped. Never get a window seat in this plane. You just cant get in and out. To top the problems, there was a very fat guy besides me who found moving extremely diffcult. Huh the ordeal was finally over at san francisco. My first impression of US was well...a disappointment. Although there are many things in US which I cannot compare to India but when compared to Bangkok it was not a drastic change. We took a taxi to Santa Clara and were relieved to be at our hotel 'Sierra
Suites'. It was a sunday when we reached.

Well all was not bad. The area where our hotel was located was very nice, full of restaurants offering all kinds of cuisines. We went to a Cinese restaurant for dinner but well it did not inspire the indian taste buds to eat more.

Next day onwards was office as usual. Our office is extremely artistic. The 4 buildings are shaped in the form of boats approaching each other. I hopewe could get an aerial view. It was hard for me to believe I was in US. Our office has lots of Indians and Chinese (or the likes) and very few Americans. Everyone is very nice and courteous and also thorough professionals. I admire the way they work. We used to get all sorts of cuisines in office but nothing suited my taste of zunka bhakri and chicken curry. Each day we were served a different cuisine - Mexican food, chinese,
japanese, indian and many many more regular items like sandwiches, pizzas, salads etc.

Thanks to my school time friend Shilpa and her cute little baby, I always had their company. I also had my colleagues with me. Evenings would generally mean a walk in the nearby park and phone calls with Shilpa. Durign the week Shilpa took me to Santana Row. This area made me feel I was in US. Got to see what I can call an american lifestyle and the american crowd. We had a nice dinner at an italian restaurant. I also did some catching up with some of my relatives in US either over phone or personally.

Weekends - I had just one weekend with me and I tried to make the most of it. Saturday was spent in shopping, and had a lovely indian lunch at IndianBuffet.com. I recommend it. You miss your local food when outdoors and this time I was dying to eat indian food. Sunday - the only day I did sight seeing. Shilpa inspite of her busy baby sitting schedule made it a point that she takes me to san francisco. We were fortunate to see the air show oraganised by US forces. This had a flip side though. The entire traffic was going towards san francisco and towards golden gate bridge and the entire 101 (to be said as one "o" one and not as one zero one) was jam packed. To add to it there was an accident. After a one and half hour drive we were just about in san francisco searching for a parking. San francisco welcomed me with beautiful sunny weather. In Gautams words(Gautam is Shilpa's husband), SFO was never as beautiful as this. We walked along the bridge. Saw the alcatraz from the bridge. The entire bay was dotted with lots of boats. On the way back, we went thru the city and saw the crooked street and the north beach. Oh my God the streets of SFO are so difficult to drive on. Saw downtown SFO and it was time to head back.

The second week and also the last week in US. My US collegues (mostly managers) took us out to a mexican restaurant for lunch. So sweet of them especially since I saw the hectic schedule that each one had. On the next day, the other team members took us for dimsum brunch. This is one experience I loved. What a food variety and also some of it was a bit was well....not good to sound. We had a parsi girl with us who helped us not to eat things we would have not been able to digest (mentally i mean) eg stomach of a cow. Let me put up a photo here.
Trying out chopsticks..


This is all I could do in the short span in US. Oh did i mention that I got a superb camera a canon powershot S3 IS. On our way back, we halted at hongkong and took a bus ride in the city int he early morning hours. Most of the things were closed and all we could get was a glimpse of the tall buildings and bay of kowloon.
This is what we saw in hongkong.




I dont know how you find this travelogue while reading but i am surely lacking the enthusiasm while writing. Reason - I lost my entire video shooting due to some camera problem :( and this is the reason why i am really unhappy.