• •The people are incredibly nice. Often, they want to practice their english with native speakers, so you will find yourself being engaged in conversation with everyone.
• •Even though you may be tempted, DO NOT ORDER A STEAK AT ANY RESTAURANT. It’s not that they will be offended. If it’s on the menu, it’s there for a reason. It’s not going to be good, though. I told a friend I was going to India and going to have a steak, so I felt obligated. It’s not that I wanted to offend anyone, I thought it would be ironic. Little did I know the levels the irony would take. It was the most dreadful piece of meat I’ve seen. Not only did that cow die of old age, it must have laid alongside the road while someone performed some ceremony for days on end.
• •Chinese food is really good there. India is part of Asia and pretty much every restaurant had some “traditional” asian cuisine on it, but prepared with very subtle Indian spices.
• •If you like Indian cuisine, you will be in heaven. Most places offered sampler meals. It can get pretty hot, so be prepared. Also, it appeared that the majority of people ate vegetarian. So, you will be asked (or not, so prepare to ask for) “veg” or “non-veg”.
• •Enjoy the ride where ever you go… the roads are packed with toy cars that make MG’s look huge. Well, about 1/3 of the vehicles are “cars”, another 1/3 are powered (kerosene more likely than not) rickshaws and the remainder being scooters. Helmets aren’t really even suggested and don’t be shocked when you see little kids sitting up front on the scooters. The Britt’s planned all the road ways so you’ll see everyone on the wrong side of the road, but side is really relative there. The lines are more suggestions than real restrictions. Think New York city with 3 times the honking, more chaotic driving, but with none of the road rage. Yep… again, see bullet number 1. Honking is just the way they let everyone know they are there. No one yells or screams, everyone is relaxed. They even honk at the traffic cops who sometimes try to direct traffic. It’s all a game. It’s more fun at night. There are no orange flags, flares or reflectors if there is a breakdown. Trucks just carry football size rocks in the back and lay them out around the vehicle as they fix a flat, for example. When they are done, they just drive away leaving the rocks in the road. Two incidents worth noting:
  • →I saw only one accident. It looked like a bus hit a scooter. Everyone helped move the scooter out of the road. The driver was walking around and didn’t look seriously hurt.
  • →I saw only one fight as a result of some traffic incident. Two men were in each other’s faces raising their voices and gesturing at the vehicles. A group of people gathered around them. Just as it looked like they were going to escalate into a physical altercation, they both broke out into big grins, waved at each other and returned to their vehicles. It was like they put the show on for us as a joke, but just couldn’t keep it up.
• •If someone offers, go sight seeing. My trip was 11 days with (obviously) a weekend in the middle. Get the vendor/company you are visiting to take you on a trip. They either a) want your business or b) want to keep your business. Most of them probably never will see the sights on their own, so they will enjoy it, too.
  • →On saturday, we went on a tiger safari. Now, I’m sure I was safe the entire time, but it felt more like if Jurassic Park was set in the backhills of Kentucky. The bus was an old city bus that was closing in on 40 quicker than I am and our main source of protection was the chain link fence that went over the class of the windows. Well, all the windows except the driver window. I guess he was trained in special martial arts he could employ in the case of a Bengal tiger breaking through the windshield. The park was divided into sections with man made stone walls with gates made up of more chain link fences and steal sheets slid back and forth letting the bus through. It was actually pretty exciting (in a good way). The only ohmygodwhathaveIdone moments were when we went down a blind turn at the bottom of a hill and came face to face with a bus coming right at us (no edges/side rails on these loose gravel/dirt roads) and when the “tour guide” standing on the steps by the door (right behind my chair) opened the door so some guy could get an uninterrupted shot of the fully grown male tiger walking next to the bus. YES! YOU READ THAT RIGHT!  He opened the door with the tiger right there. I quickly determined the kids looked like easier prey than me and slouched down in my chair waiting for the screams. Nothing… the tiger and tour guide were in on the joke together or he had just ate when the last bus came through.
  • →On sunday, we went and toured some palaces dating back a few hundred years. They were really interesting and, surprisingly, the Britt’s did a decent job keeping them up after they took over. The odd part about this visit was, while waiting in line (5 hours from Bangalore), I ran into 4 people from AOL who I used to work with (one from here in Columbus). They were in Bangalore on business and decided to go site seeing, too. Makes you think the world’s a little smaller…

  

• •Learn to barter… if you are going to buy souvineers, do not pay full price. This is one of the countries (like 99% of the world) that assume you will barter with them. Don’t be nervous. Determine what you want to spend, offer less, don’t be rebuked when they act insulted and talk about their family, etc… When it’s all done and if you buy something, compliment them on the item and let them know you think they both got a fair deal. It’s part of the experience. You can make it bad or enjoy it. If you don’t like something, just walk away. But if you look and try, you can get decent deals on hand crafted silver, wood carvings and other fun stuff

1. flight out of columbus was canceled due to poor visibility at O’hare… got on standby for earlier flight that was delayed and ended up at O’hare at the same time as canceled flight… not much weather problems… [American Airlines]
2. flight out of O’hare to london was delayed 3 hours due to mechanical issues that only Boeing mechanics could fix… couldn’t get them there in time, so switched to a 777
3. travel agency changed original booking and didn’t arrange for my baggage to be checked all the way to bangalore (I should have noticed, but was ignorant)… had to leave immigration at heathrow, go to baggage claim, get on express train to new terminal, check in bag, go through security in under 50 minutes to make flight… made it with 5 min to spare [British Air]
4. arrived in bangalore at 4AM… someone suggested arranging for a car at the hotel to pick me up… it was one of the smartest things I did… there was a mass of people outside the airport trying to get you to let them drive you wherever you were going (which would have required me to know where I was going) [Taj Residency]
5. didn’t rent a car, don’t rent a car… it’s chaos on the streets! The hotel can arrange for a car, you could get pay a motorized rickshaw driver (equivalent of a taxi) to take you most places or, if you are there on business, have the company you are meeting pony up for a car. They’ll do it. They want your business.
6. don’t drink the water… everyone will tell you that… that also includes ice… no ice. I listened and didn’t really get sick (pollution… more later), but one of the people I went with must have because he got pretty sick. Everyone will offer you plenty of water bottles, warm soda (couldn’t find a cold can of diet coke to save my life) and coffee and tea. I used this as an opportunity to pretty much break my caffeine addiction. I don’t know if I’m healthier for it, but I’m definitely more tired.
7. don’t breath the air… ok, good luck with that, tell me how it goes! The air quality is terrible in city. I went out of the city on the weekend and it’s perfect, but in city just suffers from too much smog, vehicle pollution… some folks are burning kerosene along with their gas… I’d get up in the morning to hit the gym, but after I was done with the treadmill, my lungs burned and my head hurt. It was the pollution… seriously, I’m not THAT out of shape
8. Ok, slight tangent… the gym. State of the art equipment in this hotel, clean towels, water bottles, everything you could ask for. I’d get up and go somewhat early (6-ish). It was just me and the security guard. He’d follow me around (me with my ipod blaring in my ears) and stand by me just in case I needed something. Again, seriously… the guy was very friendly, huge smile, kept offering me another towel or bottle of water. I smiled back and nodded towards my towel and bottle. He’d stand right next to the treadmill near my arm watching me. Now, I missed my kids, but this guy really helped fill that void left by a 4 year old (once you realize he’s not creepy, just WAY TOO FRIENDLY). With his broken english, I never learned his name, but I called him Stan and for an hour each day, he was my faithful companion as I lifted weights, ran a few miles and inhaled more pollution than I want to think about.
9. Plan your trip when there is a chance of snow… It was in the 80′s, no humidity and not a cloud in the sky when a freak snow storm in March hit Columbus, Ohio. For those of you up North, just trust me here… a foot of snow fell in 12 hours and pretty much everyone in the city was locked down for 3-4 days. My wife would have been fine, but she was left with our mini-van with my SUV at the airport. She wasn’t thrilled with me
10. midway through the trip, the airport workers union started threatening a strike. Concerned we wouldn’t make our flights, we modified our departure plans and got the least risky flight options home. Leaving Bangalore was fine, but in Delhi, the signs of the strike were obvious. It appeared that the main workers on strike were the janitorial staff. We had an 8 hour layover. We couldn’t actually get into the terminal (where the airline’s business class lounge was located) until 4 hours before our flight. There was a general “waiting area” outside the terminal, but the janitorial staff hadn’t cleaned in 2 days. It was a pit. There were newspaper and television reports all over the place taking pictures of people walking through the trash. At one point, I had a photographer come up and ask me if I would walk through the refuse while they took pictures. I kindly refused. You’d be surprised how many people agreed to do it. [King Fisher airlines from Bangalore to Delhi]
11. 4 hours later, we were able to go through security… Here’s a nugget to remember, if you see a long line in security, it’s perfectly fine to bribe the security guards to bring you to the front of the line and bypass everything. You still have to go through security, but $5 will get you ahead of the pack.
12. Fly business class if it is at all possible… for no other reason than having a nice place to relax when you are waiting for your flights. The food wasn’t bad, drinks were free and no one bugged you.
13. Indian airport security measures don’t meet the standards of the major airlines (gosh, wonder why?). So, prepare to go through the same questions and inspections on the gangway down to the airplane. [British Air]
14. For some reason, the airline food was better going TO India than it was coming home.
15. They will pass out your immigration card to fill out… do it on the plane and try to get quickly to the lines. They pass you through fast, but still. It was 5 AM after around 17 hours of traveling already… (leaving bangalore, going to delhi then O’hare).
16. I dragged my bad to the bag checkin for my return flight home… pretty smooth
17. Got to the terminal in O’hare, grabbed a triple Venti white chocolate mocha from Starbucks to celebrate and staggered to the gate.
18. It’s O’hare, so the flight was delayed 2 hours. I spent the time watching a bunch of high school kids waiting to start their trip to Mexico with 3 very nervous looking teachers.
19. It was good getting home.

Next… The people and things to do…