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February 22, 2009
Long time gone...
... in Costa Rica.
I've been in Costa Rica for just over a week now and for some reason it feels like I've been here forever. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I have these really wierd adult homesick moments LOL. I ocassionaly wake up, forgetting where I am, and reach over for my guitar... sadly nothing.
I went clothes shopping the other day in MultiPlaza (the most American-esque mall here) and as it turn sout, nothing in this country fits my fat ass LOL.
I did find a really cool shirt in the Nautica store that did fit, unfortunately it was last season's gear and had next season's price tag. Who pays $100 for a long sleeve polo from Nautica? Not I!
Despite my inability to buy clothing or play guitar, I've had a fun time here. I've taken two tours. One of Cafe Britt which I detail in my last blog, another of the downtown San Jose area. Would you believe that their president lives down the street from grocery store in a two story house with only 2 police officers posted outside with standard firearms. What a different world. The gate wasn't even but 200 ft. from his front door and they let us pull right next to it and snap pictures. I would love to live in a country where our president didn't need to be behind half a mile of the most hi-tech security in the world in a ginormous home with a bunker!
Speaking of which, I'm starting to lose touch with American news and it's kinda nice. One thing I've learned from being here in a perpetually spring atmosphere with hospitality abound, is that life doesn't have to be this insane non-stop leap from one disturbing/sensationalized news story to the next. You can actually sit back and enjoy life.
OMG Denny's is the shit here. Not that it actually tastes good or is any different than the craphole back home, but for some reason it has a line, dedicated parking area, guards, and a veranda. What the hell LOL? They even have a club membership. A dinner at Denny's here will set you back no less than $20. Not even joking. It's not really that things in general are more expensive... it's that American things are more expensive. I've taken to eating at the little corner "Sodas" which are mini diners on the street corner that are much less and much better. My trip is, afterall, funded by one of the most frugal fortune 500 companies in existence LOL!
Oh, you probably want some pictures don't you? YOu'll just have to wait!
And yes Sarah, the coffee here (when you brew it yourself) is pretty freakin' amazing. They definitely don't export all the good stuff. Mostly because I've never really seen it in the American supermarkets... once that happens I bet all the great coffee from Costa Rica will be in America LOL.
Posted by Decemberice at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2009
Ah Costa Rica...
... pura vida indeed!
So, I've hopped from India to Costa Rica. It was quite a trip. Another 30 hours of travel thanks to my frugal (possibly too frugal) flight planning. I flew from Hyderabad, India to Frankfurt, Germany (10 hrs). Then from Frankfurt, Germany to Atlanta, GA USA (10 hours). Then I flew from Atlanta, GA USA to San Jose, Costa Rica (4 hours). With layovers, customs, immigration in 2 countries, and security... it was 30 full hours of fun-packed drama. The highlight of which came early on in the trip from Frankfurt to Georgia when some lady in front of me allowed her baby to climb up the back of her seat and vomit all over my pants.
I hope my company's customers realize the crap I go through to flying coach for 24 hours with babies puking on me to keep costs down.
At any rate, I've been here in San Jose, Costa Rica for 4.5 days now and it's actually been a wonderful experience. I don't think I've ever fallen in love with a country so quickly as I did here.
Coffee is one of the main exports here and I happen to be a coffee fanatic so I decided to go on the coffee lover's tour put on by Cafe Britt. It may have been one of the best tours I've ever been on anywhere. The tour guides where amazing, hilarious, and the guy was so cute in his little plantation hat and boots (I tend to believe he has never worked in coffee fields before as his boots looked almost mint as did his uniform.
There are a lot of things I didn't know about coffee. For instance, I'm sure all my friends will mock me (being such a history buff) for not knowing that the coffee we know was first discovered while the Arab world was trying to discover new medicines for the various plagues of their time.
Also, a pope actually put his holy blessing behind coffee. It's good to know that the Holy-see has always focussed on the important things.
At any rate, I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, got to see some of the more beautiful aspects of the country. All-in-all a good time had in Costa Rica. Pura Vida!
Oh, and I have to say, for only having one semester of Spanish I retained a freakin' lot of the language! I'm not doing so bad communicating here. Kudos to my Spanish teacher Ms Caldwell who probably never would have guessed that a dorky underachiever in her high school Spanish class would need to know Spanish for a tour of a Coffee Plantation on one of his various international escapades. LOL Well done Ms. Caldwell, well done.
Posted by Decemberice at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)
I've never seen an adult...
... throw such a big hissy fit in my life!
... dear lord!
I've been doing a lot of travelling lately, and I can tell you first hand that if you pulled some bullshit like this in a US or German airport, your ass would be in prison faster than the video could be posted to YouTube!
Posted by Decemberice at 07:14 PM | Comments (1)
February 07, 2009
Back to India...
... and Hyderabad.
I rolled into Hyderabad, India several days ago but I've been too busy to post until today. India is incredible... just as I left it. You can't help but love a country who's domain suffix is ".in"
The getting here was a bit of a close call though. It started in a podunk airport in WA state that was supposed to fly us to Seattle (my nearest international hub) but that didn't quite happen. First they told us they couldn't fly us because there was fog in Seattle. Then they told us the plane was broken and they had to get a new one. Then they told us about the fog again. Finally we just rented a car and headed out to Seattle. Well, I'm glossing over our interaction with the airline which was pretty damn baffling.
I hate you AVIS... and let me tell you why: Who's sick joke was it to give us a Chrysler PT Cruiser? We spent about 20 minutes just trying to figure out the buttons as cars have changed significantly since 1950 and we didn't have any cultural context for it's crazy ass '50's design. I've never been more convinced that Chrysler deserves to go under.
So we began our fantastic voyage in the 50's mobile. I was driving REALLY fast. You see we only had 2 hours to make it to Seattle... some people would consider the trip from my town to Seattle a 4 hour journey... they fail to consider "higher speeds" as a solution.
We rolled into Seattle in a frenzy as there was like a 15 minute window to catch the checkin for our plane. We somehow stumbled upon the route to SeaTac using a combination of google maps and staring at planes taking off in the sky.
Once there we literally lept out of the rental car foddered the poor lady to get through the stupid checkout so we could catch our flight and then ran through SeaTac just in time to miss check-in.
Luckily we were dealing with the world's greatest airline Lufthansa. They totally let us check in late then porsonally escorted us through security so that we would catch the plane. It was amazing just as everything about Lufthansa is.
I don't know at what point I fell in love with Lufthansa and decided to leave the life I knew to live in their terminal in Frankfurt... probably after they served amazing German cuisine on the flight (first time I've ever liked airplane food). Or perhaps it was their selection of German microbrews. Who knows... but just be aware that if you lose contact with me, I'm living my dream with Lufthansa in an airport Terminal somewhere in Germany.
OK, so the flight from Seattle to Germany was nice. The flight from Germany to Hyderabad was the first time I've ever had issues flying, and I fly a lot. First of all, we'd already been flying for 10 hours and travelling for about 20. Then we board the next leg which is about 8 hours and the plane is an OLD airbus with like 2 sq ft. of space...
The guy on my left kept sniffling his nose... the entire flight. I put on my iPod to avoid it but soon realized that though I could no longer hear it, it was living on in my brian. Then the person to my right was nice... but just didn't get the point. She kept trying to tell me about things that I needed to see while in Hyderabad. I kindly explained that this is not my first time to India or Hyderbad... then she carried on telling me I needed to see the Charminar, so I let her know I'd already been there twice. Then she told me "But you've got to see it". I just shook my head. She also did not observe the international gesture of putting headphones on to have some alone time. No. She tapped my arm to tell me about the places I've already seen.
Finally, I feigned illness to get her to stop, but then the flight attendant though I was really sick. So seconds before we land they insist that I take some chamomile tea. As we are barrelling towards landing, everybody has their trays up and I'm holding a scalding cup of tea... which is getting unstable.
We finally landed which was cool because I wasn't sure I was going to make it through. Our German pilot who had no discernable accent up until that point busts out with "We've landed here in beautiful HYYDDURRABADAAAH". Apparently Germans only pronounce city names with an accent. Either way he was a Lufthansa pilot so I consider him somewhat like a prime minister in my new life as a Lufthansa groupie.
Hyderabad built a new airport since I'd been there last. It was beautiful. Kinda like a hanging garden decor... a hanging garden with the slowest baggage handlers on earth.
We got to the resort which is absolutely amazing. In fact, today there are numerous celebrities here. Granted they are Indian celebrities who I don't recognize at all, but hey!
My room looks like something out of a James Bond movie. It's got mod design down. Well except that my standing lamp is on one of those christmas tree power cords that you press with your foot to turn it off LOL but that just gives it character. There is this room controller next to my bed which controls all of the lights and ac and stuff, even turns on the DND sign. It's great. It has a freakin' 360 degree shower cell in room. How beautiful is that.
Things are going as planned thus far. Next stop San Jose, Costa Rica. Unfortunately, we will be staying at a Best Western there. I'm not quick sure how we made a leap from a 5 star celebrity resort to the Best Western in central america but hey, I'll deal.
That's about it. Nothing majorly exciting so far. We'll see what next week holds as I still have a week here before taking off to CR.
Later!
Posted by Decemberice at 01:43 AM | Comments (0)