Just after jet lag, and spending some time with kids over spring break...
getting back to my blogging... more pictures of Shanghai downtown comming next.. truly amazing..
Its simply amazing... that a country would just block certain sites, especially ones that are free expression.. like google blogger accounts, livejournal, youtube and such...
for crying out loud... even wiki...
we were in a hotel and i guess its strange, it permits to enter new blog accounts, but you can't read em.. same with livejournal.
we just found a way to work around it though... login to your vpn account in the US, and then you are on your way... :)
We also find quite strange stories in the papper, it appears just flavoured to what the people should hear rather than what you see happen.
But the people seem pasionate about what the goverment is doing though... which appeared strange.!
Newpappers had good coverage of sports similar to India, i had seen very good overall news coverage and sports in less papper than what i see here in Oregonian.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Great wall of China
We reached Beijing around 6:45AM, and decided to get a quick clean and head out at 7:30AM for breakfast. We left the Kerry Center around 8:30 or so.
The taxis are like my home India. We called and he asks about 1000 RNB. Then we offered around 500RNB, and then we finally settled for 650 RNB. It was great. experience.
On the drive we saw the future communications center
Here we are at the foot hills before the climb.
There are lots of bears just before the walk. Poor guys, they lost their habitat to the tourists :-(
Me the great trying to conquer the Great wall :-)
Dave my boss, here trying to convey iam late !?
The taxis are like my home India. We called and he asks about 1000 RNB. Then we offered around 500RNB, and then we finally settled for 650 RNB. It was great. experience.
On the drive we saw the future communications center
Here we are at the foot hills before the climb.
There are lots of bears just before the walk. Poor guys, they lost their habitat to the tourists :-(
Me the great trying to conquer the Great wall :-)
Dave my boss, here trying to convey iam late !?
Friday, March 14, 2008
Unforgettable events @ Air China
So to recap, we were supposed to take off @7:30am by United to Beijing, instead we were stuck at PDX until 7:30PM. We managed to get a flight to LAX, and the United assisted worked some magic and got us on to Air China. The tickets show confirmed, and she said we should get boarding pass at the terminal.
So I thought the worse is over!... well... hang on..
We reach LAX, manage to get a shuttle to terminal 2. When we reach the ticketing folks we had another bombshell waiting for us.
The agent claims we have seats, but they are not confirmed :), heck i don't know what that means. She claims united did not confirm, so we are actually on standby for a 1:15AM Flight. She asks to go to united counter and ask them for travel/compensation since its united fault.
We head all the way to Terminal 7, where the united counter is located. Gale checked into it and saz that we are confirmed and don't understand why the Air China folks are giving a hard time. Since it shows as ticketed and ready to go.
She promised that if we come back someone here will take care of accommodation etc. So we are like a ping pong ball back and forth between the 2 terminals.
We head back to Terminal 2, since Dave is this super flying club member, we walk to 1st class check in, A guy called peter was so kind and it was swift with no issues.He basically gave us boarding passes with seat numbers assigned. He also gave us Red Carpet club passes to use while we wait.
We just managed to go to the club level, and just about got connected. Peter was back looking for us. He said we would need to go back to ticketing and get a new boarding pass. When we asked why, he didn't say anything but just said its same seat but new boarding pass. so we follow him out of the security gates again...
Now the same jokers are waiting at the ticketing and grinning at us. She saz i told you to wait, so there is no confirmation yet, but we are on standby #4,5. Oh Crap again...
So we keep standing there venting nothing but fumes, and after that drama she decides to give us the same seats and boarding pass. I noticed on the way back that my boarding pass was missing my Mileage number. Dave suggested to get checked at the counter before boarding.
Now back to security another time, We decide to go directly to the gates before another drama unfolds. I forgot to check at the front desk for mileage so we are at the Jetway. The same joker is now standing there and looking for me. The guy says my bag is large. I showed him two other people carrying about the same sized bags in. Now he says my bag is heavy. He was desperately trying to get my bag to check in, so maybe he can lose it as well?
Dave is insisting it is not heavy, and not big, so we decide to walk in and put this overheard. We told him if it doesn't fit we will check it in. The guy kept following us and said the hostess wont let us in. We just kept waking and the flight attendant didn't worry at all. This guy retreated back!!!
Once we were in the aircraft Dave suggested i check my mileage situation. So i walked out of the aircraft and the same joker was standing there. He claims nothing can be done now for mileage and i will need to check at Beijing. I told him its unlikely i would be able to do that, and wanted the credit entered now. When he refused i asked him to give me his name and agent #.
This is the hilarious part. He closed his ID card to i wont be able to take note of his name, and said he will call his supervisor, everything is fine.
The supervisor calls out his jokers from Front desk. Now the front desk lady comes out, and said all counters are closed and they cant enter any mileage anymore. I told her i gave my numbers during ticketing and they purposefully missed it. Asked her to give me her name and the other guys name. Now she said,"OK, give me your ticket and i will get this fixed". She came back after only2 Min's or so with my new boarding pass that had the mileage credit on it.Finally we got that squared away and back in my seat.
So much for the most adventurous, ridiculous journey... Air China sucks.They have no concept of service, almost everyone in the counter seems lost and running like crazy. It looked like they were just trying to be mean and stupid. They chickened out when I asked them the names for fear that i might call and complaint. But any case, we think the worse is over and it was a good lesson on survival on a trip to china.
If Dave was not around, they would have checked my bags in and most likely lost em too..., glad i wasn't alone.
So I thought the worse is over!... well... hang on..
We reach LAX, manage to get a shuttle to terminal 2. When we reach the ticketing folks we had another bombshell waiting for us.
The agent claims we have seats, but they are not confirmed :), heck i don't know what that means. She claims united did not confirm, so we are actually on standby for a 1:15AM Flight. She asks to go to united counter and ask them for travel/compensation since its united fault.
We head all the way to Terminal 7, where the united counter is located. Gale checked into it and saz that we are confirmed and don't understand why the Air China folks are giving a hard time. Since it shows as ticketed and ready to go.
She promised that if we come back someone here will take care of accommodation etc. So we are like a ping pong ball back and forth between the 2 terminals.
We head back to Terminal 2, since Dave is this super flying club member, we walk to 1st class check in, A guy called peter was so kind and it was swift with no issues.He basically gave us boarding passes with seat numbers assigned. He also gave us Red Carpet club passes to use while we wait.
We just managed to go to the club level, and just about got connected. Peter was back looking for us. He said we would need to go back to ticketing and get a new boarding pass. When we asked why, he didn't say anything but just said its same seat but new boarding pass. so we follow him out of the security gates again...
Now the same jokers are waiting at the ticketing and grinning at us. She saz i told you to wait, so there is no confirmation yet, but we are on standby #4,5. Oh Crap again...
So we keep standing there venting nothing but fumes, and after that drama she decides to give us the same seats and boarding pass. I noticed on the way back that my boarding pass was missing my Mileage number. Dave suggested to get checked at the counter before boarding.
Now back to security another time, We decide to go directly to the gates before another drama unfolds. I forgot to check at the front desk for mileage so we are at the Jetway. The same joker is now standing there and looking for me. The guy says my bag is large. I showed him two other people carrying about the same sized bags in. Now he says my bag is heavy. He was desperately trying to get my bag to check in, so maybe he can lose it as well?
Dave is insisting it is not heavy, and not big, so we decide to walk in and put this overheard. We told him if it doesn't fit we will check it in. The guy kept following us and said the hostess wont let us in. We just kept waking and the flight attendant didn't worry at all. This guy retreated back!!!
Once we were in the aircraft Dave suggested i check my mileage situation. So i walked out of the aircraft and the same joker was standing there. He claims nothing can be done now for mileage and i will need to check at Beijing. I told him its unlikely i would be able to do that, and wanted the credit entered now. When he refused i asked him to give me his name and agent #.
This is the hilarious part. He closed his ID card to i wont be able to take note of his name, and said he will call his supervisor, everything is fine.
The supervisor calls out his jokers from Front desk. Now the front desk lady comes out, and said all counters are closed and they cant enter any mileage anymore. I told her i gave my numbers during ticketing and they purposefully missed it. Asked her to give me her name and the other guys name. Now she said,"OK, give me your ticket and i will get this fixed". She came back after only2 Min's or so with my new boarding pass that had the mileage credit on it.Finally we got that squared away and back in my seat.
So much for the most adventurous, ridiculous journey... Air China sucks.They have no concept of service, almost everyone in the counter seems lost and running like crazy. It looked like they were just trying to be mean and stupid. They chickened out when I asked them the names for fear that i might call and complaint. But any case, we think the worse is over and it was a good lesson on survival on a trip to china.
If Dave was not around, they would have checked my bags in and most likely lost em too..., glad i wasn't alone.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
My first visit to China (day 1)
This is my first visit to china. (Thanks to my company). My boss Dave asks me to get a reference guide (Lonely Planet, China) to take a look at what places to see in and around. The book seems pretty good, he give me a good show and tell of whats around places where we will stay. We plan to fly into Beijing, see how the city has transformed itself to prepare for Olympics. So I' am all excited right....
Woke up way early for my pickup from Raja tours, he drops me around 5:15am, breeze past ticketing. Excited to see scanners at ticketing, which scans passports, and also scans and checks validity of VISA to china.. phenomenal!
Now we also get boarded for a 7:30am takeoff... then the pilot calls for at tension. He says "People i get all kinds of lights which i turn the engine on.. not a good sign :-)". So we wait for maintenance crew to come assess the damage. Finally they call it a day and say the flight is not getting anywhere. So we all rush out, waiting for out turn to be called a number we were assigned on the Jetway.
Dave tries to work his magic to see if we can get some way out before the hold on the SFO airport is lifted. Apparently due to weather the runway is on hold and no flights takeoff or land. Dave was more hopeful that the situation is not that bad... Finally our #25 gets called, the agent works her magical fingers and manages to get us out tomorrow.. early 1AM flight out of LA via Air China. Not sure what the maintenance @Air China is, but we decided to trust them this time :-)
Working away with the free wireless in PDX, and typing something up my blog with some real content.. i.e more than 3 or so lines i have written in the past several months since i created an account. I don't know how others manage to do this... I' am worried i will expose my grammar to others.... Crap i don't care anymore...
so we are waiting in this wonderful Red Carpet club (thanks to Dave for extending all the compliments my way).. this is wonderful in spite of the delay.
Hopefully good luck is coming our way and China Air would not overbook or bump us...
Lots of time to chat with Dave... we discuss about Spitzer :-), religion, food abroad and spread out with some work discussions...
For people who don't know Dave... he is one who can just have a slide and talk/blog/dance (??? maybe)...for an hour, very interesting and engaging personality... (its focal time, damn.. i have to say something good er else :-)
I will keep you posted....
BTW: don't worry about any grammar mistakes...English is after all my 2' nd language :-) If anything is left... its the bad spellchecker not me!
Woke up way early for my pickup from Raja tours, he drops me around 5:15am, breeze past ticketing. Excited to see scanners at ticketing, which scans passports, and also scans and checks validity of VISA to china.. phenomenal!
Now we also get boarded for a 7:30am takeoff... then the pilot calls for at tension. He says "People i get all kinds of lights which i turn the engine on.. not a good sign :-)". So we wait for maintenance crew to come assess the damage. Finally they call it a day and say the flight is not getting anywhere. So we all rush out, waiting for out turn to be called a number we were assigned on the Jetway.
Dave tries to work his magic to see if we can get some way out before the hold on the SFO airport is lifted. Apparently due to weather the runway is on hold and no flights takeoff or land. Dave was more hopeful that the situation is not that bad... Finally our #25 gets called, the agent works her magical fingers and manages to get us out tomorrow.. early 1AM flight out of LA via Air China. Not sure what the maintenance @Air China is, but we decided to trust them this time :-)
Working away with the free wireless in PDX, and typing something up my blog with some real content.. i.e more than 3 or so lines i have written in the past several months since i created an account. I don't know how others manage to do this... I' am worried i will expose my grammar to others.... Crap i don't care anymore...
so we are waiting in this wonderful Red Carpet club (thanks to Dave for extending all the compliments my way).. this is wonderful in spite of the delay.
Hopefully good luck is coming our way and China Air would not overbook or bump us...
Lots of time to chat with Dave... we discuss about Spitzer :-), religion, food abroad and spread out with some work discussions...
For people who don't know Dave... he is one who can just have a slide and talk/blog/dance (??? maybe)...for an hour, very interesting and engaging personality... (its focal time, damn.. i have to say something good er else :-)
I will keep you posted....
BTW: don't worry about any grammar mistakes...English is after all my 2' nd language :-) If anything is left... its the bad spellchecker not me!
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