We’re home! After 3 weeks of reasonably busy traveling we’ve finished all of the major travel we plan to do this year. I’ve already flown 100,000 miles this year and Heather is close behind with 70k. The honeymoon trip we just finished was fantastic and we’re both filled with many stories, some wacky, some not, from other ends of the earth.
Our final leg of the trip was in Japan. We visited Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe, however, somehow I didn’t manage to take a single picture in Kobe. On with the pictures.
September 10th, 2008
Bob
Here they are, New Zealand in all of the glory that I could capture in our 10 days there. We drove over a significant portion of the north island. We did a sail boat trip in Auckland, did these Luge things and drove sprint cars in Rotorua, played golf in Hawke’s Bay, drove over roads that neither the GPS nor Google maps would show us, went caving in Waikomo and finally stayed at the nastiest airport hotel ever :-). It was a tremendous adventure and we’re looking forward to our return journey some day.
For now it’s Japan time. We’re hanging out in Kyoto as I type. We landed a few hours ago and took an express (though not a bullet) train from the Osaka airport to Kyoto. Time to go find some dinner!
New Zealand Pictures
September 1st, 2008
Bob
Proof. We came, we saw, we conquered, the Gold Coast of Australia
August 22nd, 2008
Bob
We landed in Auckland this afternoon and we’re just getting settled at the hotel. We opted for a GPS and a name brand rental car this time and on both counts we’re feeling they were worth the extra couple of dollars. The New Zealand dollar is much nicer to us than the Australian dollar was; The NZ dollar is trading at a 19% discount to the US dollar. So far touristy things seem cheaper here than they were in the place we were at in Australia. Tomorrow we’re going on a sail boat in the late afternoon to go see the city from the water. Compared to a similar cruise near our hotel in Australia (which we didn’t do) it’s about half price here.
We’ll be here in New Zealand for 10 days before venturing off to Japan. I have the pictures from Australia uploading but the internet connection here isn’t fast like a rocketship, instead its fast like something that’s not fast. I’ll post the link later.
August 22nd, 2008
Bob
We took the 14 hour flight out of SFO last night in style, 1st class! The flight was great, we slept the majority of it and relaxed the rest of it. We landed around 6:30AM in Sydney and then found our way over to the domestic terminal to hop up to Brisbane. The rental car we got was from this company that’s definitely not a huge multi-national. You take a shuttle for some parking lot to a parking lot, and then they have a handful of rental cars there. We hopped in to our slick Hyundai something-or-other and quickly noticed that the prior renters had definitely been purchasing rental insurance. The power steering pump is definitely on its last legs and somebody has hit a curb or two at speed (it pulls to the left). The brake rotors are warped bad enough that the car feels horrendous under braking. It’s nice 
The hotel is pretty darn nice. We’re right on the beach and there are good size waves breaking just off the shore. The water is a pretty light blue and well, it feels a bit like Florida. Except that it’s kinda cold (it is winter) and not humid.
August 17th, 2008
Bob
I’m back in Bangalore. It was my idea; but the project (different from when I was here last time) needed it. So here I am. I bought tickets on Friday and flew on the following Tuesday. After burning a few miles for an upgrade I got to experience United’s new business class. Wow. These guys have turned their lackluster pile of crap business class seats into something really, really nice. Fully lie-flat seats, 110V power plugs, 15″ TV with on-demand. They even have RJ45 plugs in the seat, can’t wait until these are enabled. It’s a nice setup for long haul flights and, finally, it makes Lufthansa’s business class look like crap. Dig it. The hotel I’m staying at this time pales in comparison to the hotel I’ve managed to stay at in the past. It’s nice but its not 5-star nice. Check out the view from my room. If you’re curious this is the Ista Hotel, Bangalore.
July 19th, 2008
Bob
Today was my last day in the office here in Bangalore. I finished the year off with a phone conference in the morning, 4 interviews, the debrief from the interviews, an exit interview of sorts with the boss, a going away celebration and final chats with 3 of my colleagues. What a day. But now, its all over. Days shy of 1 year in India and weeks shy of a complete 18 months out of the country we’re all set to return to the good ol’ United States. We fly out of Bangalore’s brand new airport on Sunday evening and land at SFO in the middle of Monday, May 26. We can hardly wait to see you all! What a wacky set of travels.
May 23rd, 2008
Bob
Step 1: Flush toilet
Step 2: Insert mop into toilet
Step 3: Flush toilet so as to rinse off the mop
Step 4: Mop the floor
I couldn’t make this up. The guy that’s out there mopping the floors right now here in the building is using this technique. +2 points for efficiency.
April 18th, 2008
Bob
There are a few more pictures from these buried in blog posts, but these are all of the image galleries I’ve posted since I’ve been here. Enjoy.
Kyoto and Osaka, Japan
North Island, New Zealand
East Coast, Australia
Kumarakom, Kerala, India
Mysore, Karnataka, India
Sweden and Ireland
Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India
Tokyo, Japan
Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India
South Indian Hindu Wedding, Bangalore, Karanata, India
Favorite pictures from throughout Ukraine
April 15th, 2008
Bob
It seems that every few weeks some organization is going on strike. The auto rickshaw drivers went on strike so that they could raise their prices. The truck drivers (and then they got support from taxi drivers too) went on strike to protest the details (mostly who pays for them) of having speed governors installed in their vehicles. Supposedly any truck or taxi drivers caught driving when they should have been striking were being stopped by protestors and having their tires slashed. So much for the teachings of Gandhi. Imagine what this did for traffic. The airport workers threatened to strike once and then supposedly did strike (I wasn’t flying, didn’t pay attention) because they’re closing down the existing airport in favor of a new airport that is ~25KM away (1.5hr drive). Yes, you understood that correctly, this group of employees is striking because they’re mad that they’re losing their jobs (or are unwilling to relocate, I’m not sure which)
Today some organization near my house is striking. I have no idea who they are or what they care about or even where exactly they are. But I called Pizza Hut (the same crappy Pizza Hut from the US, though here it’s the best pizza around) this evening for my semi-monthly pizza delivery and when I answered the unusual question of “where do you stay” (instead of what’s your phone number) I was told that they could not deliver pizza to my location tonight.
(more…)
March 31st, 2008
Bob
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