George Varghese

Air France works its magic

2010-12-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

I headed to the next desk that I was directed to and it looked like it was going to be another couple-hour wait. Things weren't looking so good, looked like there was another flight to Manchester at ~8am the next morning. It was 7 or 8pm by now and I was already scoping out places to sleep in the area. When I was next in line, I saw them handing out hotel coupons out to a lady who was stranded, just like me. She was holding a Mexican passport. This meant that she either had a Schengen visa already, or they gave her one for the overnight stay. The thought that I might be able to get out of the airport and see a bit of Paris that night did a lot to boost my morale.
So I walked up to the counter, and, as suspected, she offered me a free hotel stay for the night and a meal. Then she asked if I had a visa (uh-oh). I shook my head, hopes semi-dashed. She proceeded to explain to me that she could try and get me a one day visa but it would be the French Police's decision at the end.
After a half hour wait (during which I fell asleep at my chair), Air France staff woke me up and handed me my passport, letting me know that my visa had been granted. I hurriedly walked over to the counter, half listening to the nice lady's monologue about my meal options and location of my hotel. All I could think about was how I had about 11 hours left in Paris and how much sight-seeing I could fit into that time frame. Considering that I was under-dressed for the cold in Paris and clueless about public transport in that illustrious city, I assumed that it was going to be a long night. (In hindsight, it was a lot longer than I could have imagined at the time.....)

Stranded in CDG

2010-12-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

Philly to Manchester!
So I was going to be on vacation for a couple of weeks, headed to England for Christmas and New Year's with family. Paris was just supposed to be a two hour layover..

Things started off pretty quiet. Was going to be flying out on the evening of the 22nd from Philadelphia.

This is what my itinerary looked like PHL-CDG-MAN, powered by a combination of Skyteam carriers. Awesome..

After a wait at the Delta line for a bit I find out that my ~6pm flight has been moved to ~10pm. That meant I wouldn't make my connection from CDG to MAN. I wasn't too worried, they offered to rebook me on a later flight from CDG to MAN, meaning I got a bit more time in CDG to enjoy the environs of a French airport. First time transiting through France so I wasn't too disappointed.

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport

Got to Paris unscathed. 12pm local. Flight to Manchester at 6pm. Plenty of time to wander around aimlessly and absorb the overwhelming 'Frenchness' around me. Not the nicest airport I had been to but definitely had a very 'designer' vibe to it.

On account of my original flight having been delayed, Air France was nice enough to offer me a meal ticket. Here's me, with ~~what it got me~~ the remains of what it got me at the cafeteria. (A chicken salad sandwich used to reside in the empty casing you see to my right).

Feeling nourished and excited about my short flight to Manchester, I proceeded to the gate indicated on my boarding card. Couple of hours to kill, walked around, read my book.

I realize at 5pm that my 6pm flight is no longer showing up at my gate. Weird. Walked to the larger monitors, same thing, no mention of my flight. But it was here a few minutes ago, surely I can't be unlucky enough to have two delayed/cancelled flights on the same trip?!

After an hour long wait at an Air France information desk I am told that my flight was indeed cancelled (no surprises there) and that I would have to go to another desk to find out about if there is another flight I could be put on. A quick survey of the flights out of France that night told me that I was going to be sleeping in the airport this 23rd of December 2010.

Leaving Philadelphia

2009-03-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

So I left Philly this morning, was kinda overcast and misty. Flight was delayed by almost an hour. Have a layover at Orlando,FL which is where I'm at right now. 80 degrees here. Looked amazing from the sky, lakes et al. Should be leaving for Austin soon. For some reason my phone is not letting me rotate pictures.

Internet issues

2008-07-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Because of issues with getting a decent internet conenction where I am at currently, I'm suspending this blog till i get to Bangalore on the 26th of July :)
Will update after that

Basketball - Leeds

2008-06-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

Decided to go play some basketball with a couple of people today. The weather was pretty 'Londonlike'. It was overcast, kept drizzling once in a while and all that, but we decided to brave the elements and go out to play. It was just 4 of us so we figured we would manage somehow. The park that we were headed to was in a nice-looking area. Quite green, was fun.

One thing I did not mention before, cars are pretty small in the UK

Some graffiti vandalism

Goodlooking places

Had an interesting hoop, the net was positioned such that a rimless shot would just bounce back out
Needless to say, it got pretty wet during the course of the game, and by the time we were done, we were pretty drenched

Out and about in Leeds

2008-06-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

We decided later on to take a walk around the city (which I was told isn't much). It is pretty small, and looks pretty much like any other modern city, only quieter I guess.

We decided to stop at the institute where my buddy studies for a bit and I noticed some interesting things..
Firstly, accountants are geeks..

Yes, Grand Theft 'Audit'. I kid you not, actual front page of an accounting magazine.
An intriguing (pool?) table. Can someone tell me why it looks so different? Yellow and red only?

Leeds

2008-06-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

After my short stay in London, I took a (4.5 hour) bus to Leeds, which is to the north-east. Arun, my friend from way back in the day (HKG or so in the old Asian School) is doing his ACCA here (some accounting stuff :/). He lives in an interesting little house in Leeds. The owner is a Bangladeshi guy, its a 3BR place, and each room is sublet to different people. Since a couple of his roommates were away, we had plenty of room.
Arun's friend from Oman, Fahad, was also staying with us. Leeds is a nice city, pretty small and quiet. There is a very large Pakistani population here, they seem to own most of the local stores and businesses. We had food from Pakistani places for the most part, pretty good food.
Yesterday we decided to eat at a Subway. Pretty much the same as in the US.
with Arun
with Fahad

London

2008-06-17T00:26:00.000-07:00

We decided to hop on the tube and go see the 'London Bridge'. I was promptly told that the 'London Bridge' is probably not what I wanted to see, and what I was talking about was the 'Tower Bridge'. Apparently this is a common touristy error.
Exhibit A:

So apparently the 'London Bridge' that I identified with when I saw photographs of London is actually the 'Tower Bridge'. The 'London Bridge', which is also over the Thames, is not really of much consequence.
The pictures I took did not turn out so good, partly because it was quite overcast.
Here are a couple...the river is of course the Thames

London underground to King's Cross

2008-06-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

In order to get to the city, we had to take a Bus to Hammersmith, and the underground to King's Cross. The underground has a nice color scheme

Some interesting advertising too..

George Bush arrived the same day as I did, apparently they don't like him much here (surprise surprise)..

Out in Roehampton

2008-06-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

After our life threatening run-in with Roehampton's finest, we walked over to the local gas station where I decided to purchase a sandwich for breakfast. It was 1.90 pounds. Reasonable, chicken and bacon on wheat. My friend, being brahmin had to hunt a little extra to get something edible.
Roehampton is an interesting little town, looks to me to be straight out of a show on BBC1.

The Roehampton mafia

2008-06-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

For simplicity I have been referring to where I was staying as 'London' but that is inaccurate. The apartment that I was staying at is in a place called Roehampton, around a half hour from the city. We decided to take a walk out and grab a bite to eat before we went anywhere.
We walked out of the apartment building and two minutes hadn't passed before I got an interesting cultural experience.
We were walking to a supermarket and a kid (he must've been 13) was standing across the street. He was dressed quite interestingly, hoodie two sizes large, fitted hat on backwards. Not to be racist, but things like Ali G, "Langley village in the house!" and wigger did come to mind. As he saw the two of us walking out, me being the tourist, camera in hand, he posed an interesting question.

"Aye, you takin a picture of me?"

We looked at him for a bit, I shook my head and walked off. Not before I took this picture of course

I was informed by my friend that he was one of the 'upcoming gangsters' of the area and I should humor him lest his pre-adolecent ego suffer and he goes home to mommy and cries. Danebury's conveinence store, the choice recruiting ground for gangs in Roehampton. Sigh..

Apartment at London

2008-06-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

I had a relatively interesting stay in London for a day and a half. I was living in an apartment where there were a couple of Turks, a German and my buddy who is Indian. The people seemed pretty friendly and I got plenty of "so what do you like better, New York or London" type questions. Apparently New York city is the crowning jewel of modern North America :).
The rooms in this apartment are extremely small, there is barely enough room to stand and turn in. A bed, chair and a cupboard barely fit into it. I have heard stories from friends about how rooms in London tend to be on the smaller side, but you need to experience it to truly appreciate what they are talking about. Apart from that it was pretty normal.
Here are some views from the windows.

First meal here

2008-06-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

So we decided to stop at McDonalds on the way home to get a bite to eat. It is def. expensive compared to the US, close to 1.5x. But McDonalds at London are definitely not ghetto at all, like the ones we have in Philly. I was able to ninja some shots in..

Finally got to London

2008-06-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

arrived at London after a relatively uneventful flight. Virgin Atlantic is not all that bad. Met a friend at the airport and took the subway..i mean the underground to his place. The subway map struck me as a little interesting.. here is a comparison :

The actual trains can get a little claustrophobic...

Newark Airport

2008-06-14T23:41:00.001-07:00

I have about 3 hours remaining until i can check in, so I am sitting at a kiosk at the airport, paying 25c a minute for internet. Scary how it is this expensive even today.

Reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, kinda interesting this far.

Can't upload any pics since my phone cant connect to any of the random wireless networks around, most of them are secure.

rain..

2008-06-14T17:31:00.003-07:00

So I went to center city to visit a friend of mine this afternoon..seemed like a regular sunny day...

A couple of hours later, when I was headed back, the skies looked a little grey..

Needless to say I was caught in a torrential downpour halfway home...

Hopefully this wont interfere with my flight tomorrow

itinerary

2008-06-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Flight

VS18

Depart

Sun, Jun 15 08:05a

Newark Liberty International Apt, US (EWR)

Arrive

Sun, Jun 15 08:00p

London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)

Flight Time

07hr 55min | Economy

Aircraft

Airbus A340-600

Flight

VS350

Depart

Wed, Jul 02 10:00p

London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)

Arrive

Thu, Jul 03 11:45a

Mumbai, IN (BOM)

Flight Time

08hr 15min | Economy

Aircraft

Airbus A340-300

Transfer from Mumbai, IN (BOM) to Delhi, IN (DEL)

Flight

VS301

Depart

Wed, Aug 20 01:15p

Delhi, IN (DEL)

Arrive

Wed, Aug 20 05:55p

London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)

Flight Time

10hr 10min | Economy

Aircraft

Airbus A340-600

Flight

VS17

Depart

Wed, Aug 20 08:25p

London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)

Arrive

Wed, Aug 20 11:05p

Newark Liberty International Apt, US (EWR)

Flight Time

06hr 40min | Economy

Aircraft

Airbus A340-600

equipment

2008-06-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Since I wanted to ensure that this whole trip goes well documented, I decided to invest in a camera. I chose the SD1000 cause it was cheap, and cause of CHDK.
I hope I can do something interesting with the latter.
I also invested in an iriver T60.
Both seem to be alright. I haven't loaded CHDK on the camera yet, I guess I'll post again once I've done that.

so, a travel blog

2008-06-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Since I am finally getting a real vacation, after around 3 years, I decided to document it on this little blog of mine. A pretty neat feature that blogger has is the fact that it lets you send an MMS/email from your cellphone that can be automatically posted on your blog. I'm hoping to grab a wireless network or two when I am in London (if they have random wireless networks floating around that is) and upload some interesting pics from my phone.
Also kinda interesting that im starting this on Friday the 13th.