India, here I come…

My bags are packed and tomorrow is the day I leave for India.  I’ll go from DFW to Chicago with a quick layover and then it’s on to Delhi.  I’ve got some Ambien in case I need help sleeping on the flight but I’ve also got some DVDs I can watch and gobs of work to do so I shouldn’t be bored.  Let the count-down begin.

Random Movie Quote
Elwood: It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
Jake: Hit it.
The Blues Brothers

International travel is expensive

The next installment in the series, Chris’ Trip to India, is about the cost of international travel.  Of course it should cost more than local travel.  However, I just finished booking my trip to India and was stunned by how quickly everything added-up.  Does it make sense?  Sure.  Does that fact make it any easier to open my wallet?  No.

Airfare

I’ll be flying coach (ugh) so the airline ticket wasn’t as bad as it could have been but it still wasn’t cheap:  $1,600 – round trip.  Had my company been kind enough to pony-up and reimburse me for a business class ticket, it would have been around $10,000 (holy crap!).  I can’t say that I blame them for making me fly coach (though I may curse them during the 16-hour flight).

Hotel

The hotel was the next surprise.  I tracked down the hotel that was recommended to me – the Park Plaza Gurgaon – and went about setting check-in and check-out dates, bed preference and so forth.  When the daily rate came back, coffee nearly shot out of my nose.  13,500?  Oh wait…Rupees.  My bad.  I used the trusty Google currency conversion search string (13500 INR to USD, if you’re curious) to convert to US dollars.  Lo and behold, $340 per night.  Still pretty high.  Especially for a 10 night stay.  I’ll let you do that math in your head.

To Summarize

To make a long story short (actually, I suppose I’m making it a bit longer…oh well), I think I’ll have to camp outside our Accounts Payable department and hound them for my expense reimbursement check.

Preparing for India

So, I’ll be headed to India in (gasp) two short weeks to visit the 70-person operation my company recently acquired in Delhi.  I’ve started the necessary preparations and – in doing so – realized that my traditional communication crutches (Twitter, Text Messages and other services via my trusty AT&T Tilt) won’t be readily (or at least cheaply) available to me.  I’m looking into the cost of International calling and data plans but I’ve also decided to prepare for the worst case scenario: little or no cell phone use.

I’ve taken care of the obvious and gotten the wife setup with Skype on her MacBook so we can talk to each other for free.  Granted, that’s once we figure out our respective schedules given the time zone gap.  Who ever heard of a ten and a half-hour time difference?  Where does the half-hour come from, anyway?  Oh well.

Because I may not be able to Twitter in real-time as often as I’d like (see international phone issue, above), I intend to blog much more regularly – perhaps even daily (crazy, right?).  I’ll try to cover any travel woes, interesting occurrences and sights worth seeing (bringing the trusty camera along, of course).

To get things started, this post (yes, this very post you’re reading right now) will now include some experiences to-date.

Visa

India requires a Visa for US visitors so I sent all the paperwork through an expediter.  Thankfully, my company is paying for the Visa and expediting fees.  As work may require that I return to India from time to time, I applied for a 10-year Visa.

Vaccinations

I went to a travel clinic last week and got my first round of vaccinations.  I hadn’t been to a doctor in well over 10 years so I had forgotten the joys of the needle.  Here’s the list of vaccinations now coarsing through my veins.

1. Hepatitis A & B (that one stung a little)
2. Typhoid
3. Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (TDAP)
4. Polio Booster

In addition, they prescribed an anti-malaria pill (to combat Malaria, obviously) and Zithromax (a strong antibiotic – just in case of something that Pepto Bismol can’t remedy).

Other Stuff

I’m stocking up on Pepto Bismol tablets, Purel and insect repellant with a Deet content of 30% or greater (damn those mosquitoes).  Overly cautious?  Perhaps.  But if I contract Malaria or a severe case of Montezuma’s revenge, it won’t be for lack of trying.

More India-related updates will follow.  Stay tuned…

Random Movie Quote
Bunny Lebowski: Ulli doesn’t care about anything. He’s a Nihilist.
The Dude: Ah. Must be exhausting.
The Big Lebowski

Twitter Following: Growing, Attention Span: Shrinking

I started using Twitter many months ago but only in the last 6 weeks or so have I truly come to appreciate all it has to offer and – more importantly – made an effort to increase the number of people I “follow.”  My current stats are as follows.

Following: 23
Followers: 42
Updates: 214

I know my stats are pretty weak when compared with others and especially with the Twitter elite but I’m very pleased with the results.  Frankly, the only downside to increasing the number of Twitterers I follow is that I have THAT much more to read each day.  I absolutely enjoy the content and have discovered some really great stuff that I never would have stumbled across on my own.  However, I find that I am often distracted by the barrage of updates.

I suspect that the obvious answer is to simply not look at my feed until I can give it the appropriate attention it deserves.  Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.  Time to muster that often elusive will power and just do it, damn-it!  Or rather NOT do it…damn-it!

Random Movie Quote
Harry: Yeah I called her up, she gave me a bunch of crap about me not listening to her, or something, I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention.
Dumb and Dumber

Welcome to Thompsonite!

And now, a brief, scripted introduction to Thompsonite.

Harvey: What was the name of Chris Thompson’s new blog?

Floyd: You know, I don’t really recall.  Starts with a T!  Let’s see.  Tim?  Tommy?  Tippy?  Tappy?  Thomas?

Harvey: Maybe it’s at the top of the web page.

Floyd: Oh, yeah!  It’s right here.  Thompsonite!  I was way off!

The names have been changed to protect the innocent but – clearly – a special “thanks” is due to The Farrelly Brothers for Dumb and Dumber.  So many classic quotables, so little time.