Our second day in India...

India is really an interesting country; there is so much to see, to hear, to smell and taste... And it truly is a diverse culture. For those who are not aware, there are 22 official languages spoken in India. The primary language in Chennai is Tamil Nadu, although as our friend and contact Lorraine indicated, the primary language of India is Hindi. Lorraine indicated that she only spoke 11 of the 22 languages!!! I guess being bilingual just doesn't cut it here. Interestingly enough, Sanskrit, which is probably one of the oldest recorder languages (3500 years), is the basis for every Indian language, which probably explains how one could possibly speak 11 languages.

We took some time to visit our partners today, and view their training facilities; let me tell you that the drive was a real blast, and really is not for the faint of heart. I counted no less than 20 really close calls, and maybe 30 times where we came within an inch of trucks, cars, motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles and of course, the ever present autorickshaw:


The visit to the Training center, which is located in Velachery, was really a great experience. After a couple of hours, it was time to return to the hotel, and we experienced what is bound to be a fairly common occurence. An unfortunate motorcycle rider was hit by a bus that simply did not stop on an obviously red light. Since almost no riders wear helmets, and the impact was almost 30km/h, I can tell you that it was a pretty tough to watch. The funny part to this story is the traffic officer (which are stationned at every important intersection), running not to the injured motorcyclist, but rather to the bus driver, who he then suddenly clubbed into submission for his error. Lorraine indicated that there are deaths on a daily basis on the streets of Chennai, and I believe her.

Since I've only had about 4.5 hours of sleep today, I am going to hit the sack in a few minutes, but I wanted to get something up on the blog for today. I will take some time tomorrow to add more, as our hosts are planning a trip for us, to view the region known as Madurantakam.

We have finally arrived in India...

Just thought that I would let everyone know that we had arrived in Chennai, India. The trip, although long, was not that bad! Getting through customs and picking up our baggage was a breeze. Our contacts were waiting for us (although our flight was almost 45 minutes late); as we stepped out of the rather humid airport, we hit the much more humid weather outside (at 1h30am). Our contacts were not kidding when they told us that driving here was interesting! There is no real concept of traffic laws here; most drivers simply honk the horn and flash their headlights to indicate that they are about to overtake. Turn signals are simply not used, and everyone drives at whatever speed seems appropriate to them! It was a blast getting to the hotel!

The hotel is very old, and has some very interesting history. It was previously the residence of the Raj (in the pre-independance days of India), and then became a very luxurious hotel in the days of the English colonisation. With constant improvements, the Taj Connemara has become one of the most luxurious hotels in all of Chennai. The level of service here is beyond description; I have never in my entire life, had so many people waiting on beck and call for any possible request I might have.

Here are a couple pictures of the hotel:




These are only a few of the pictures I have taken so far; I will update the blog with more details of the hotel in the coming days.

We have arrived in Frankfurt...

Just to let everyone know, we have arrived in Frankfurt... We had a pretty uneventful flight, and we have a couple of hours before the next one!

The Business Class lounge has a number of interesting amenities, such as on tap beer and unlimited gummy bears!?:


I also realised that I had not taken a picture of myself since we left, so here is one, 13 hours into our trip and about to leave Frankfurt:


Since we couldn't get a clear view of the plane that would take us to Chennai, I snapped a picture of this other 747-400, just like ours, as we were about to leave:


I also got the chance to snap a couple of pictures as we were about to take off:


We had really clear weather when we left Germany, so I snapped a couple pictures of Frankfurt and the German countryside:



I also took this particular picture for Nathalie, as I thought she might enjoy the view from the level of the clouds:

It's crunch time...

So now we are a couple hours from the beginning of our voyage... Almost 18 hours flying, and overall, about 26 hours; I imagine that we will also take a couple of hours to get out of the airport and get to the hotel when we get to Chennai. I was getting a little concerned about the weight of my luggage, so I broke down and bought a scale; good news, my bag weighs in at 66.5lbs!!! Both of my carry-on bags are below the 12lbs mark, so I can safely fit a few more items. I'm a little wary of the scale, as it seems to be exagerating my own weight!!!

I also took a few minutes to get some last purchases, such as a voltage converter and a Compact Flash card reader. I want to be able to get the pictures out of my camera and posted here! I have to be at the airport at 13h00 today, and I have a few last things to take care of, so I will go, and post more if I can today!

See you all in a month and a half!

About where we are going...

I realised that I have already mentionned that I was going to Chennai, I have never bothered indicating where exactly it was located:


Here is a link to the Wikipedia page on Chennai, which contains quite a bit of excellent information. On the way there, we get to fly over a number of different countries on the way, although I am not exactly sure about the flight plans. If I get some details on them, I will make sure to post them.

One day and counting...

Strange that with all the planning that went into this trip, I find myself running around, with some last minute shopping and preparations. I realised that both pairs of shoes that I wanted to bring along are falling apart; it'll teach me to get cheap shoes from a discount outlet!! Today's to-do list includes getting new shoes, getting a haircut (already have a real job, so that part is done!), packing my bag and stopping by work to set up my list of contacts, leaving an out of office message, leaving a voicemail message and picking up a few office supplies...

A pretty full day if I say so myself, so off I go; I will add more later!

A new toy for Mac Mini owners...

Although add-on drives have been available for the Mac Mini since almost day one, Miglia Technology has announced the availability of TVMax, an add-on drive with a twist; it has some very interesting digital video recorder functionalities while it perfectly matches Apple's Mac mini:



TVMax lets Mac users watch TV in window mode or full screen, convert VHS tapes to DVD quickly and easily and best of all, TVMax records in MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX formats. When bundled with EyeTV 2.0, TVMax is also ideal for iPod Video owners thanks to the exclusive One Click iPod export function.

TVMax is bundled with EyeTV 2, which lets users watch, pause, rewind and skip forward live TV, schedule recordings, access online TV guides, edit recorded TV shows and more. TVMax is also supplied with an infrared remote control. The TVMax is priced at US$249.

Some luggage details...

I found out that one of the airlines we will be flying has different limitations for luggage; Air Canada, which we take for the first leg of our journey, has a limit of 3 pieces of luggage, with a maximum weight of 70lbs. a piece, while Lufthansa, which we take for the second lef of our journey, has a limit of 2 pieces of luggage, with a maximum weight of 70lbs. I had planned on having two carry-on baggage and one piece of luggage, my big rolling duffle. But I took the precaution of packing my regular duffle bag, just in case I bring some things back from my trip (such as some of the equipment we sent ahead of us, or perhaps a boatload of knick knacks for people back home. Although I have received no special request, I know a few people that would probably enjoy a little souvenir!

While on the subject of luggage, I picked up a Fast Track Rolling Duffle from Mountain Equipment Coop; here's a picture from their site:



I have to point out that this was a gift from my dad and his girlfriend, for my birthday. This was the bag that I had selected and that fit all of my specific criteria (and being bloody difficult, my criteria can be pretty specific). I highly recommend it currently, just for the excellent quality of construction. I have yet to travel with it, but I think that my little trip will really put this bag through its paces. I picked the 120 litre size, to leave ample room for anything I might want to fit in there; trust me, there is enough space in there to fit more than I could possibly carry or drag. I am planning on packing today, and get that out of the way first and getting a feel for the weight and volume of the bag. Then I will simply have to concern myself with the last minute details of the trip. I will make sure to add some more information before I leave...

And a few more changes, part 2...

Of course, the expected changes happened this morning; we are changing hotels. Apparently, The Royal Meridien is not all that it appears to be, so we will be relocated to the Taj Connemara, which is apparently much nicer. Here are a couple of pictures:










As soon as we arrive, I will post some larger and more detailed pictures!

My itinerary...

So today is the last day I go to work until I leave on Tuesday; I have a fairly full schedule today, with two meetings this morning before I have to give a presentation in the afternoon. The guys from the team and I also thought that it might be nice to go for a couple drinks, and have a last minute chat... As I received my itinerary yesterday, I thought that I would also share some details about that, so here goes:

Ottawa to Toronto: Leave at 16h00 and arrive at 17h05


Toronto to Frankfurt: Leave at 18h10 and arrive the next day, 7h35


Frankfurt to Chennai: Leave at 11h30 and arrive at 23h45


Total travel time = 26 hours!!!


Should be an interesting experience, to say the least! As I had mentionned previously, I went to pick up my Visa on Wednesday afternoon; picking up the Visa took all of five minutes. Unfortunately, it was not exactly a great day, as we also found out that our preparation week had been removed from the schedule; this will make things a lot more difficult, but not necessarily impossible. Roll with the punches, as they say!