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One of my favourite getaways from Chennai is Yelagiri hills (details
in my earlier post). This time I went there with my family and my brother in law
Mr.Badri Thirumalai’s family for the XMas holidays. Staying in Yelagiri is a very
relaxing experience and I love it. This time 3 of us (myself, Badri and his son Aravind)
decided to do the 4KM trekking into Yelagiri forests. We went and came back on our
own, but not sure whether we went in the correct trekking track.
We ventured up to an old pond (360 degree view done with Windows Live Picture Gallery
below) in thick of the forest and a little beyond it and when the tracks ended we
turned back :-)
The experience was wonderful and relaxing. The trek route was peaceful, clean and
green, absolute silence almost all the way in the forest – you can hear only the occasional
bird chirps (see the video below), that’s all. It took us less than 2:30 Hours to
complete the trek & return. Next time, probably I will take a “Guide” so that
we can venture more into the forest.
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Last week while in San Jose (CA), my good friend “Ranga” took me for a change to have Ethiopian
food for dinner at “Zeni
Ethiopian Restaurant”. I readily agreed as I like to experiment any food that
is Vegetarian (As I say in foreign lands - No Fish, No Meat & No Chicken).
We went through the menu and
decided to play safe with their ready-made “Vegetarian Combo” (shown above). I didn’t
understand a single item contained in the combo (YE-MISER WOT ,YE-KIK ALITCHA, ATAKELT
WOT, YE-GOMEN WOT, YE TIMATIM FITFIT) but once served and tasted figured out that
all of them are names of different gravy (side-dishes). Each of them tasted like “Yellow
Dal”, “Tomato/Onion Salad”, “Green Salad” and so on. All of these side-dishes were
served on a big bread they call “Injera”
(it looked to me and tasted like a big South
Indian Dosa).
Overall it was spicy, tasty, filling and I loved it!. Thanks Ranga.
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_1.jpg "Dune Eco Village near Pondy") Being
a long weekend, we decided to go out for few days from city. I generally like going
to beach resorts near Chennai in ECR road for a peaceful stay. Since I had been to
GRT Temple Bay & Fisherman’s Cove in Mamallapuram, Ashok
Resort in Pondy I looked out for a different resort. After reading
about Dune in The Man magazine, I narrowed down on Dune
Eco Village in ECR Road at Pudhukuppam, Tamilnadu near Pondicherry University.
Dune is a Eco friendly resort with most of the materials used for construction being
reused and with little chemicals as possible. They say they used more lime stone than
cement, Solar water heaters, the doors & furniture are from old houses, no tar
roads inside the property and so on. Each of the rooms are different than others and
with unique characteristics, the room we stayed had a nice display of Golu (coincided
with the seasonal holidays as well). The resort provides 2 cycles for each room for
the guests to go around the huge property (over 30-40 acres) on the Bay of Bengal
sea shore. The food in their F.U.N (Food U Need) restaurant promotes the hypotoxic diet
of by a French biologist (from their brochure I learned his name was Doctor Jean
Seignalet).
I liked the fact there was no Satellite connection in the room – so no boring TV Soaps
and Serials that my wife can watch or the usual Pogo/Cartoon Network for my son. Each
room had a small TV with built-in DVD Player and you can borrow DVDs from the restaurant
for free, they boost a collection of over 1000+ titles on various Genres. They have
programs to entertain the kids in evening like Milking the Cow, Pot Making, Sand Pit,
etc.
The room rates are expensive especially for an Indian tourist, guess the rates are
fixed primarily with Foreign tourists in mind (I am in disagreement to this practise,
Indian Resorts and Hotels should make it attractive if India wants to attract more
tourists, India happens to be the most expensive tourist destination even for Indian’s
in South East Asia region). They also have programs for Meditation (everyday free
for guests) & Ayurvedic Health treatments (some of which for 14 days were priced
at few lakhs of rupees!)
The items where Dune has to improve:
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ECO friendly tag doesn’t mean cutting corners in service & providing poor amenities
– they need to improve on the quality of the Television, Cycles, Furniture's, Bathroom
Amenities they provide
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Providing a Mobile Phone to all guests instead of In-Room Intercom is a good idea,
but they need to ensure the signal is good. I had to step out of the room every time
when I needed to talk to reception or to FUN restaurant (which was very near to our
room, so I went directly to speak to Chef)
Overall, I will certainly recommend Dune Eco Village for spending few days (not worth
for shorter stays of 1 or 2 days) to relax. Service by staff was generally very friendly,
good ambience and nice food.
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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.
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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).
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போன சனிக்கிழமை குடும்பத்தோடு நாங்கள் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் கோயிலுக்குச் சென்று இருந்தோம். ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம்
என் பாட்டியின் பிறந்த ஊர், ஆனால் இதுவரை நாங்கள் பலர் அங்கேப் போனதில்லை. இந்த முறை
உறவினர் ஒருவர் அழைப்பை ஏற்று அங்கே போயிருந்தோம், நல்ல தரிசனம் கிடைத்தது.
வைஷ்ணவத்தில், இந்தப் பூலோகத்தில் சுயம்பக்த (சுயம்பு, தான்தோன்றி, Natural, Not man
made) ஷேத்ரங்கள் (புனிதத் தலங்கள்) என எட்டு ஷேத்ரங்கள் பெரியவர்களால் கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது.
அதில் ஸ்ரீமுஷ்ணம் (துயத் தமிழில் திருமுட்டம்) விசேஷமான
ஒன்று, விருதாசலத்திலிருந்து இருபது கிலோமீட்டர் தூரத்திலிருக்கிறது. சென்னையிலிருந்து
விருதாசலம் 220 கிலோமீட்டர் தூரம் - NH45ல் சென்று விழுப்புரம் தாண்டியப் பிறகு உளூந்தூர்பேட்டையில்
இடது (Left) பக்கம் திரும்பி 20 கிலோமீட்டர் செல்லவேண்டும்.
இங்கே இருக்கும் புஷ்கரணி (குளம்) - பூமியை பெருமாள் (விஷ்ணுவின் அவதாரமான பூவராக சுவாமி
தூக்கும் போது பெருமாளின் வேர்வையிலிருந்து உருவானதாக ஐதிகம் (நம்பிக்கை). இங்குள்ள ஸ்ரீ
வராஹ பெருமாளை (மூலவர்) வேண்டினால் சொத்து ஸம்பந்தமான தடைகள், பிரச்னைகள் விலகும்,
பூமி/சொத்து இவை கிடைக்கும் என்பது ஐதிகம். அதுப்போல குளத்தின் அருகிலிருக்கும் அரசமத்தின்
அடியில் சேவைத் தரும் அஸ்வத்தநாராயணனின் (ஸ்ரீ நரசிம்மர் சுவாமி) சந்நிதிச் சென்று பிரார்த்தனைச்
செய்தால் குழந்தைப் பாக்கியம் கிடைக்கும் என்பதும் ஐதிகம்.
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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.
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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
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With the
Pondicherry
Pier
behind me (we couldn't find the entrance
to get in to it though)
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The first time I have seen a portable toilet (the blue
boxes) for public convenience in an Indian city. Kudos to Pondy govt.
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The famous pondicherry beach and Mahatma Gandhi statue
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 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.
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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!
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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:
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On time arrival and departure
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Courteous Staffs
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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
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Wide choice of beverages on board - Starbucks Coffee, Tea, Soft Drinks & Juices
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Quick arrival of bags
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Affordable fares and no charge for two check-in bags (In one sector Alaska charged
me $25 for the second bag)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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