1st & 2nd August 2009

It was going to be a wonderful weekend, I was sure. Sachin hired a Chevy Impala and started driving to Philadelphia (actually to Malvern, some 40 miles west of Philly). That was at 2 pm. Praveen left from Charlotte in a Camry some two hours later. Praveen had the company of a friend, but Sachin wasn’t so lucky. He had to drive alone for some 750 miles.

Praveen said he’d reach by 4 AM and Sachin said he’d reach by 2 AM. So I decided not to sleep on Friday night until they arrived. I got some Yuengling beer for us all. That’s Pennsylvania special for them, to welcome them to Pennsylvania.

When I called up Sachin at 1.30 AM, he was some 400 miles away. And Praveen was 200 miles away. So I went to sleep and I was woken up at Ragz* (i.e., 5.30 AM) by Praveen’s call. Whew, he had reached before Sachin!! I served him the welcome drink (Yuengling, of course) and then we went to sleep. Praveen slept on the sofa and I went back to my bed. And almost two hours later, I got another phone call. Finally, Sachin had arrived. He didn’t eat or drink anything, and headed to bed straight away.

When we woke up, it was 10 AM. The complimentary breakfast at my hotel would have wound up. I went to give a try. They were just closing the place, so I grabbed a small milk carton and came back to the room and we made coffee and had it. We had nothing to eat and we also needed time to get freshened up. So we ordered food from a Chinese restaurant and by the time we all were ready, the food was ready. The sweet and sour pork wasn’t the kind that we expected. It was more like pork bajji. It wasn’t too good either.

After lunch, we started thinking what to do, where to go. Once we thought we’d go to the Valley Forge national park closeby. Then we unanimously decided to go to Atlantic City. Google mamu said it is 87 miles and takes an hour and 37 minutes. So be it, we got ready and headed east in Sachin’s car. Sachin had to drive, again. Praveen’s Camry was taken by his friend and I was too inexperienced to drive my Kia Forte.

The drive to Atlantic City was a bit boring. Initially there was a lot of traffic and so we took more than two hours to reach there. Luckily, there were enough private paid parking areas. 10$ for 12 hours. Good deal. We went to the beach and it was boring. Too many people (and a lot of Desi Log too) and ‘beach babes’ were rare..

So we went to Hard Rock Café there. While we were waiting for our turn, Praveen went to the casino and played and lost 75 cents. The loss was too much for him, so he came back to us and we decided to loose money the good way, by drinking beer. Sachin stuck to his usual, Guinness. I had Coors light and Stell Artois. Praveen had Guinness and Shock Top. Neither Sachin nor I could stand the smell or taste of Praveen. As usual, he is weird, totally weird, and unpredictable too.

After beer, we had nothing to do there, so we contributed to the toilet and headed back to Malvern. We changed our clothes from shorts into something decent, jeans. And we headed to Delilah’s, the gentlemen’s club in Philadelphia. I took my car out, to give some rest to Sachin. And I realized that I wasn’t inexperienced, I was just under-confident to drive it earlier. Anyway, my car isn’t as powerful as Sachin’s. but with Sachin’s help, I was able to drive correctly to the club.

I had been to that club once before, but it was at 1.15 AM that I had reached there, and I wasn’t charged an entry fee. This time we reached at 12, so we had to pay 15$ each. But it was worth every penny. Praveen and I bought some beer and we just stood there ‘enjoying the proceedings’. After rejecting some 4 or 5 ladies, I finally gave in to an East Asian lady. She asked my name and I pronounced it and also spelt it for her. She could not pronounce the ‘R’, and she made me LOHAN :-(. And during the lap dance, she told me that her ex-boyfriend was an Indian and she is a Thai and all. And then I saw Sachin walking into the room with another lady, but I wasn’t stupid enough to concentrate on him :-D. After the lap dance, she had no time to look for other customers, as the club was closing. So she started asking me about Indian food. I felt pretty funny to discuss food with her, but that being one of my favourite topics, I did. She asked how to make biryani, and how the rice smells so good and all. I told her about the different spices such clove, cardamom etc. She had never had an Indian curry with coconut in it, and so she was surprised to know that we Indians also use a lot of coconut, so explained that only the people from the west coast of India are fond of coconut..

I still feel weird when I think about it!!!

Then we drove back towards Malven, with Sachin again helping me in keeping the car in the right lane. We went to a Walmart in King of Prussia to buy breakfast for the next morning. When Praveen and I came out of Walmart, Sachin was already sleeping in the back seat. And once we reached my apartment, Sachin hit the bed straight away while Praveen and I shared a beer. No no, not in the same glass (although, I don’t think Praveen would mind that). And we went to sleep at 4 AM.

When we woke up, it was already 1 PM on Sunday afternoon. We had a lot of food leftover from previous day’s afternoon, so we gobbled that up, had egg bhurji and bread and apple fritters. Praveen made tea from the natural and decaffeinated tea bags lying in the room.

Praveen left at around 3 when his friend came to pick him up. After he left, I discovered that the sofa he slept on for 2 nights can be easily converted into a double bed!!

Sachin left at 5. After that, I felt really bored. So I went to sleep at 7, and woke up at 8 AM on Monday morning. 13 hours of non stop sleep!!



* - Ragz alias Raghavendra is a friend of mine. He is known as 530 because of his roll number in 1st year engg (which was the first number in our class, and thus was more famous than other numbers). So we – his classmates – substitute all occurances of 530 (and its variants) with Ragz.

From Bangalore to Valley Forge

Finally, my 2nd international official trip, after a gap of four years and a half!!
Thanks our travel desk's policy of having to reach the airport 3 hours in advance, and to the maniacal driving of the cab driver (even though he was 50+!!!), I arrived at the airport 3 hours and 10 minutes before departure. I had no problem in checking in, with my check-in luggage weighing 11 kgs (and my laptop bag, around 4 kgs). I finished the emmigration formalities early, as there wasn't much crowd (especially because arrangements are such in BIAL). I had 2 hours to wait for the flight. The only timepass was to get into every duty-free shop at BIAL. But the problem there is, a saleman immediately comes and asks you what do you want. Next time, I think i'll wear a t-shirt that reads, "no, I am just looking around".. Whatever it is, Johnny Walker Blue Label costs only 146$ in BIAL (some 7500 rs i think) what costs over 17k in retail shops in karnataka!!
The Air France flight departed on time. Fortunately, I had got an aisle seat. It was in the last row (after watching Air Crash Investigations, I know that last row is the safest place in a plane!!). I was happy that I chose Air France over Lufthansa, because Air France offers tv for individual seats. The food was also nice, but there was only one kind of beer available, heineken. So I had only one can of it for the whole trip :-D. I started watching the movie 'I Love you, Man', but fell asleep as the movie went on. When I woke up, we were flying over Pakistan. I did not watch that movie any further. Instead, I watched 'yes man'.
The plane landed in Paris at 8.30 AM local time. And moving from that exit terminal to my boarding terminal was a bad experience. I wonder why they force people to go through all the checks again!! But I was done with these formalities within an hour. I had 4 more hours to do nothing, with no euros in my hand. I withdrew 20 euros from my forex card, and spent almost all of it on beer and food. Not enough, I withdrew another twenty euros from my indian atm card (just to try) and spent all that too on beer and food. Food and beer are so expensive there. A pint of budweiser, which costs 45 Rs, costs 5 euros. That's a whopping 300 Rs!!! Friggin' no other choice. Even the choice of beer is poor. In all the shops, I could only see budweiser and heineken.
Then I took a stroll along the corridor of the duty-free shops, visiting some of the shops. Here blue label costs 135 euros. That's more than 146$, isn't it? So booze is expensive in paris duty-free compared to bangalore duty-free!!!
It was quite boring to sit there, and I was afraid to sleep, lest I might miss the plane. Even the internet seems very expensive at 5 euros an hour. Wi Fi costs twice as much.
Finally, it was time to board the US bound flight. A racist security officer stopped me and examined all the things I had. He even squeezed my shoes and twisted them. Then he opened my laptop, even my pringles chips box and when he opened my laptop bag's pocket, he saw my prayer book. Then he opened my passport, saw my name, and simply let me go. Bastard, f*cking racist. I wish I could kick his nuts right there.
This time, I took a nap as soon as I was on my seat. Sadly, I was seated between two other guys and the space was cramped. When I woke up, we were flying over England. I had food and heineken and watched 'rab ne banadi jodi' and then 'the international'. Some time pass. Sleep was elusive, mostly because I could not relax my body at all. So I would go to the back of the plane and stand there, drinking soft drinks once in a while from the self-service cart.
The last half an hour of the flight was quite eventful. Soon after the captain announced descent, the plane started rumbling and then shaking more. I switched my tv to flight details and could see that the plane was losing altitude suddenly (which was more evident when I got the feeling that the ground under me was collapsing) and then climbing a bit and then descending at normal pace. And everyone in the plane seemed tense. Now I knew what it means to travel by Air France!! I had never had this kinda experience in a plane before this (although I had pissed all over the toilet once in a JetLite, when the plane went into turbulence as I was peeing). The last 2000 feet or so were the most horrid, with the plane shaking too much and turning in both directions. I wasn't sure at that time if this happens usually. I was sure that it doesn't happen usually when all the people clapped once the plane landed!!!
Then I passed through emmigration (silly americans ask too many questions before granting stay). When I went to the cab area, a guy came and asked me if I wanted taxi. I nodded and he took me to his car. As we were walking, he said he will charge me the same amount as normal taxi, 85$. It seemed a bit more than what I was told, 75$. But then he went on to mention that he had come to pick up a passenger who had cancelled his trip, so he had to go back empty. I was confused until I saw the car, a Lincoln Limousine. Whew!!!!!! Sitting in the car gives such a majestic feeling. Luxury is abundant inside the car. The driver was friendly too, although his grammar was very poor. I thought all americans spoke english well. And he could not understand some of the words I used, 'afraid', 'confident' etc... Quite strange!!!!!!!
I arrived at my hotel, Embassy Suites, which is owned by Hilton. Reminds me of a Shivanand joke, "wow man, you are going to paris and then to hilton". The room isn't very spacious, but good enough for 2 people. And I am alone. No cooking area, just a microwave and a coffee maker and a fridge. The convenience store down there has some microwaveable burgers, and with the restaurant (http://www.ebarlounge.com/) in the hotel serving nice food, I should have no trouble.
But I did, when I went to the restaurant. Again, not much of a choice of beer. I had corona. Without knowing the quantity, I ordered calamari (squid) and caesar salad. I could eat only about three-fourth from each plate, that too after a real struggle. That when I was terribly hungry. Now I know how much I should order.
Then I went to sleep at 9 PM. When I woke up, it was 4 AM, and I wasn't sleepy or tired anymore. After passing time on the laptop for 3 hours, it was time for breakfast. The buffet place was pretty crowded, that being a Sunday morning. I tried my best to control my calories, gobbling green melon and water melon as much as possible, still I could not stop myself from having an omelet with mushrooms and cheese.
By 10 or so, Saravana (a colleague from Bangalore, who is staying not-so-closeby) dropped by. He is familiar with the area, so we walked towards a small shopping centre.. err.. center... We reached there by 11.30. The place isn't pedestrian friendly. There are only trees and lawns by the road side. No footpaths. People don't seem to walk at all. We only saw one lady with her dog. We had to walk on the lawn most of the times and when we could not, we had to get down on the road (and bear the fear inside us for being fined by the cops for jay-walking).
The pub in that area, Dylan's pub, hadn't opened yet, so we took a stroll around a park there and came to the shopping centre.. oops sorry, same mistake.. center... at 12. The pub hadnt opened yet. So we went to the asian restaurant on the right of it. Saravana wanted to lunch at an indian restaurant on the left of the pub. But I managed to convince him not to have the food one gets in India everyday. We had some nice south east asian food, and then we shopped at the supermarket and walked back to the hotel.
After a while, Saravana realised that he had not much money for the next few days. So another trip to the shopping center.. damn, i got the spelling right this time... now the pub had opened, so I drank a pint of miller lite, while saravana had only water. Then we bought 2 six-packs of beer for ourselves. Saravana preferred budweiser and i could not convince him to go for beers that aren't available in india. I guess that's ok, because he doesn't get to drink that often in india. I took guinness and we walked back to the hotel. The Guinness is lying in the fridge, and I am controlling my urge to drink some. All because I don't want to take too many calories in one day....