The IT Nerd

The journey back to Canada was….. scary in more ways than one. Let me explain how starting with the drive to the airport. Here’s what it looked like from my perspective:

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The drive was nerve wracking. Partially due to the volume of traffic, partially because of the risks that people take by cutting people off or trying to move forward by any means required. Staying in your lane? Nope? Speed limit? No need for one. It was a very long 45 minutes. To put that in perspective, it took me 20 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel when I arrived. That was when I foolishly thought I was used to the driving in this place.

Things at the airport actually went pretty smoothly. Once I got past the security checkpoint which required you to hand over your itinerary and your passport for examination by an Indian soldier with a machine gun backed up by another Indian soldier with a machine gun, I checked in with Air Canada. That was quick and so was clearing passport control and security. Even boarding the flight was efficient and civilized. Unfortunately that’s where the good part of my journey home ended.

The first six hours of the flight (which was 14.5 hours long) were uneventful. I managed to watch Passengers, the last four episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, and four episodes of the second season of Cyberwar which is a show I’d recommend to anyone who is interested in hacking and the people who pull off hacks. But that changed when a passenger became a problem. From my vantage point which was almost across from him on the left side of the plane, he was belligerent in multiple languages And though I did not see it, he had apparently assaulted a woman in front of him. When he was confronted by flight attendants, he then soiled himself and that was not pleasant to smell. Now the flight attendants worked really hard to keep him calm “ish” for the rest of the flight, but it was clear that they were concerned enough that the you could feel the speed of the plane increase. I thought we were going to divert to the nearest airport, but we managed to land in Toronto 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled landing time which was scheduled to be 5:05 AM this morning. That’s where things got real. The plane taxied directly to a gate that was away from any other aircraft and Peel Regional Police boarded the aircraft. I managed to get my phone out to record a video. Sorry about the shakey cam:

They held us on the plane while this was going on and then for about 15 minutes afterwards. When we finally deplaned, I spotted him in the arrivals area:

That’s him standing on the right while the cops question the flight crew on the left. I went looking online to find out what if any charges were laid and I was unable to get those details. But seeing as it doesn’t take much to get tossed into jail for causing a disturbance on a flight, I imagine that he will be doing some time the grey bar hotel.

After that excitement, it was a trip through customs, picking up my bags which was made easier because of the Tile Sport, and then getting picked up by my wife for the ride home. I got home at 6AM and crashed until noon where I did some laundry and then went out to see a client.

Now, let me wrap up a couple of loose ends. I previously mentioned that I would have to use multiple contact lenses in a day because of the pollution that was present in India. Since getting home, I’ve had use two different cleaners to get them back to a state where I could wear them comfortably. One is Clear Care Plus which is a peroxide based cleaner that I normally use. That takes six hours to clean my contacts. But before I use that, I use Boston Simplus for four hours. As for my skin, it hasn’t completely recovered. But it is way less itchy than it was 24 hours ago. That shows you how bad the pollution was.

That about wraps things up from my latest trip to India. It was a different sort of trip with some unexpected twists. I have to come back in the near future, and it will be interesting to see what experiences that brings.

I’m completing my last day in India and I want to wrap up a few things before I head to the airport for my 14 hour flight home. First of all was the smog issue. Now it wasn’t as bad as I heard it was going to be. Apparently according to the locals, it was a lot better than has been in the last few weeks. However, this is what I’ve seen during my stay here:

You can see the smog in the above picture. If that’s better, I’d hate to see what’s worse. Also, I have noted that my skin is very itchy which is something that I had never experienced here before. Besides that, I am lucky that I brought two pairs of contact lenses as they have become unwearable by the time the business day is over and I have to swap them out for a fresh pair if I want to be able to see and be comfortable while doing it. That’s also something that I have never experienced before. It will be interesting to see how long it takes my body to recover from this smog.

Now one thing that I have not done to this point is show you the sights of Gurgaon. Here’s what the drive to and from my client looked like:

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One thing that caught my attention was this:

The sign says “Be Alert, Accidents hurt.” No offense to anyone who is Indian, but drivers are insane here. I can’t believe how people drive around here as this sort of driving would land you in jail in a lot of other places. Not to mention that there is a very liberal use of the horn. I said early in this trip that this no longer bothered me. That was true until today where I was back to feeling like I was taking my life into my own hands by being driven around these parts. It also didn’t help that in the parking garage at my client’s office, I almost got hit by a car that must have been doing 60 KM/H in a space where you shouldn’t be doing anything over 10 KM/H.

Now, some final notes about the Le Meridian Gurgaon. One is in the form of photos of the lobby:

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This is a stunningly good looking lobby that is clean. When I say clean, I mean that I can never find a speck of dirt. It’s pretty freaking impressive. There’s a bar and two restaurants that are in the lobby that can take care of your eating and drinking needs like this in my case:

This is a Kingfisher beer which is a local brand of beer that is available elsewhere. I really liked it and I’ll be seeing if I can grab a few cans of it when I get home as I really liked it.

On the whole, this hotel has top shelf service. I will admit that they sometimes struggle with service at breakfast if you show up for breakfast at 7 to 8:30 AM. But beyond that, I have zero complaints.

I also got a chance to do a final workout today. Here’s the result:

While I was working out, I got to watch a wedding celebration which was unique to see. I wished that I took some photos, but I was focused on my workout. That was a shame as it was really interesting to watch.

The hotel did have problems with the TV service this week where for significant periods of time you could not watch TV. Well, when I got back to my hotel room, I found this:

The manager of the hotel personally signed an apology letter on letterhead which is on great quality paper. Now this is how you do customer service. Rogers and Bell Canada, you need to pay attention as this is how you treat customers.

Here’s the bottom line. I really would recommend this place if you need to stay someplace in the Delhi region as this is a great place to stay.

Now, while this was a business trip with very limited amounts of time to get out and do something other than business. I did have the opportunity to go out and get this for my wife:

I dragged along my client to negotiate the price of these items at a shop that was not a place that tourists would go to. On the left is a scarf. On the right is a jacket. The middle is a fridge magnet which was tossed in as part of the deal. Originally, it was going to be 15000 Rupees. That’s $294 CDN. My client managed to get that down to 12500 Rupees which is $248. Could I have done better? I don’t know. Maybe I could. I guess I am taking the view that any discount is a good discount. And it is likely better than anything that I could have done on my own. Whatever. I know that my wife will really like these items.

Now, by the time you read this, I will be on the way to the airport to fly home. I plan on arriving somewhere between 3 and 4 hours ahead of my flight to make sure that I make my flight on time. And I will be posting my final part of this travelogue when I get home. Stay tuned for that.