Do you take the Shampoo and Conditioners in the hotel rooms?  Well I do… and I call that project as “Toiletries to the Rescue”.

Lesli works as a volunteer at Phoenix Rescue Mission, 4 days a week, which is about 32.5 miles from our house in Scottsdale each way… she has been doing this for more than 12 years (except for the 2 1/2 years in Florida, where it was City Rescue Mission).  I tried to volunteer there a few times, and figured out that I can’t… since I tried to get too much involved.  But I do see an occasional homeless person wearing one of my shirts… at least that is where my mission clothes make it to 🙂

Lesli did a few food drives for the Rescue mission.  She called it Food to the Rescue and we also did a water bottle drive in 2007 and got over 10 K bottles of water for that summer. One time I went to the Rescue mission a few years ago and noticed that they had places for visitors to clean up and shower at the Rescue Mission and had small soaps and shampoo bottles available (although just a few).  Since then, I started collecting these toiletries when I travel and after we get a bag full of those, Lesli takes them to the Rescue Mission.  Since I take my own shampoo and conditioner while I travel, most of the ones I get are not opened.  Last year I had more than 120 hotel nights… so I hauled in a lot of these suckers!!

Since I have been staying at Starwood properties like Westin, Sheraton, etc.  some of these samples are really nice and I can’t stop smiling, thinking about the people walking out of the Rescue Mission showers smelling fresh like a Westin…

Do a favor and collect these on your travels and donate them to the nearest homeless shelter… they come in quite handy.

The first time I made it to Canada was in April 2012.  I arrived late (11 p.m.) from Phoenix in Toronto visiting colleagues for 3 days of business meetings… I was excited to finally visit another new country and went through Immigration… after initial questions at the first desk, the officer asked me to go a secondary room for further questioning.  We were originally going to play golf in Toronto but the weather turned cold and it was going to snow, so I didn’t take my golf clubs.  I thought the officer got suspicious that I said that it was going to be a golf trip and hence the secondary screening.  After about 20 minutes of wait finally an officer started talking to me… he asked me to show my reservation for the hotel, what I did, phone number of my friend, etc.  I found the questioning a little harsh and finally he let me through… I didn’t expect going to Canada with a US passport was going to be this hard…

Second time.. to Vancouver in June 2012.  My colleagues were waiting outside of terminal  to pick me and go up to Whistler… I got through first check quickly and texted them that I am almost out… then the guy at the exit looked at my form and said I have to go to the extended screening room… arrrggh!!! There were about 10 people waiting and 2 officers.. about 30 minutes wait and finally same routine, what do I do, why am I here, etc. etc.  I got out finally 45 minutes after picking up my luggage.  I started to get a feeling that Canada doesn’t like me….

Third time… Jan 2nd 2013… Rinse and Repeat, go to the extended screening room – it was a busy day or travel and the extended screening room was packed… luckily after 20 minutes an officer looked though line and picked up a few passports based on the “code” behind our forms and stamped my passport and let us out 10 minutes later.  Now this is getting annoying…

Finally in Feb 2013… during the extended screening.. there was not many people, the officer asked me when did I get my US passport… I told him 2002.  Then he asked me what did I do in 2006.  I said 2006?  Nothing… then he looked at something and said… actually 1996.  Were you denied entry into Canada? Then it struck me… rewind back 17 years…

In 1996 for our 1st wedding anniversary Lesli and I went to Montana and to Glacier National Park.  On 2nd day of our trip, driving through the park, we came to the US/Canada border and I thought we could get to the Canadian side of park without any issues… Then we were stopped at the border.  Luckily I had my passport in my bag which was from India then and not even a green card.  The officer told us that we can’t go through and he will not press the issue if we turned around without insisting to cross the border.  Well, we turned around and took a picture at the “Welcome to Canada” sign and drove back to hotel.  I guess he did scan my passport into system and put status “Denied Entry”.  I guess that still exists in the system no matter what passport I use now.

So the officer explained to me that since I was denied entry in 1996, my name is “tagged”… so every time they swipe my passport at the entry point it pops-up that message and they send me to secondary screening, since the details are not available at the entry desk.  So they have to make sure the denial was nothing serious each and every time… no matter how many times I come in and go.  So I asked him, if it is ever going to be cleared and he said “No, it is forever”… nothing I can do about it.

There you go.. I am permanently tagged by Canadian Immigration and have to go through secondary screening each and every time…  So this week when I came to Vancouver I told the officer at entry “secondary screening required” because of 1996… he smiled and obliged to my request.

Now I am getting to know the officers in secondary screening area in Vancouver… pretty soon we will be greeting each other on first name basis… who knows??

I was looking forward to writing this blog… my first time outside of Amsterdam Airport…

I been through Amsterdam airport about 18 times now, since Delta started going through there with acquisition of Northwest.  I had layovers anywhere from 1 to 4 hours… and  I heard you need good 5-6 hours to venture out of airport and see places.  On my recent trip, I had a 6 hour layover coming back from India, so I decided to give it a try.

I researched a bit on what you can do in 5 hours and there were quite a few helpful blogs/articles.  I wanted to get a “feel” for the place before venturing out on my own, or even spend a day or two there.  So I checked out the tour details at the kiosk inside of airport…. 45 Euros – for a 2.5 hours tour.  Reviews said, these tour guys will back in time and won’t miss your flight… found out that their first tour leaves at 8:30 a.m. and since my flight was going to arrive at 7:30 a.m. from Mumbai, I was going to have plenty of time…

As it turns out the flight from Mumbai was 45 minutes late and we landed around 8:15 a.m. – I got out of the plane and rushed to the tour counter and the board said next tour is at noon… since it was 8:31 a.m. The lady behind the counter was apologetic, and I thought my lost my opportunity this time, and started wondering if I should go out on my own… then she called the driver and said they haven’t left the airport yet, and we can run down if I wanted to go… I said Yeah, and she confirmed my passport was US and we started our speed walk to the tour van.  I had to clear immigration and it was a breeze and within 10 minutes we were at the curbside and I jumped in to the waiting bus.  The 5 people already on the van were a little agitated due to the wait and one of them even said if he missed his flight, he is going to fine me… later we all became good buddies 🙂

So here we go…

My primary purpose of the tour is to experience what life is like in Amsterdam.  I know a lot of people want to go there to “cure their Glaucoma”, or peek through windows of Red Light district.. both of those were not on my agenda… I have been to about 15 countries so far… and it is amazing how many things are “common” between all humanity…

Our van driver was quite good in English and funny… I was still trying to wake myself up and get into a groove… of course, there is a “talker” on the bus who started asking all kinds of questions… good thing, he was asking what I was thinking of asking.. about elevation, people, taxes, transportation, etc.  When I heard their tax rate (VAT or something) is 21% I realized what we had is not bad after all.  The tour was going be mostly driving around with only a couple of stops… I was ok with that… but, our first stop was a Cheese Factory… Come on… after all this time, you are not going to show me weed or red light district first… Cheese Factory?  I guess it is a popular stop since there were other tour buses there.  I didn’t take any pictures of the people trying to explain how they make cheese and wooden shoes, I want to get on with the tour.. but we end up spending almost 25 minutes there walking through gift shop… I know better not to buy any “crap” that Lesli will throw away.

Back on bus, we started going through backroads and next popular spot was the windmill.

I guess this is a big photo op… the driver/guide offered everyone to take their picture in “reflection.  I did the best I could with my iPhone and also tried to get the flowers and water… but not the same without full gear.

Almost an hour into our trip, I was starting to get antsy… we only have 1.5 hours left and one of the fellow passengers wants to be back by 11 to catch his flight.  We convinced him that he can still catch his flight if we return by 11:30, so we can squeeze every minute out of the trip.

When we finally reached the city, I can see the real beauty and appeal of it.  The whole city is full of canals and roads on each side, narrow, barely enough to fit one car and no matter how many turns we took, there was always another canal in that direction.  After a few minutes, I lost track of what is where and just started enjoying the scenery.  Yes, we drove through the street with “Red windows”.. even that early in the day there were girls sitting in chairs behind it…

The buildings (including the RijksMuseum) were outstanding… most of the building sidelining street are almost same height, stacked next to each other and tiny.  BTW, we saw the world’s smallest apartment/hotels – just one window wide and 3 floors high.  Of course there are a lot (I mean a lot) of coffee shops with brownies, but also neat roadside cafes, restaurants, boutique shops… I am sure you can spend days enjoying food and window shopping here.

Then we came across this world’s best seed store… obviously they are not selling Tulip seeds… all windows are decorated with weed plants… Good for them.. instead of trying to fight it, make it legal and tax it 21% or higher…

More than anything else, what impressed me most about Amsterdam is the transportation.  I have never seen so many buses, trains, trams, bicycles in any western city.  I guess they don’t have many options.  With such narrow streets and passage ways, either you adapt or get stuck in traffic jams.  It was nice sunny day, but still a bit chilly, but everyone was on the streets.  Moms driving kids around in their limousines..(bicycle with double basket seat in front), people jogging, walking, using scooters, boats, what not…

One of the passengers dropped off at the Canal cruise.  I didn’t have time to do it this time.  Another one stepped out at the museum and was going to take a train back to airport.  I know I will get more opportunities to do some of these things in future, now that I feel a bit comfortable with the city and getting around it.

We drove back to airport on one of the few “highways” they have and back at airport by 11:30 a.m., a quick passage through immigration again and I was in the lounge by 11:45 a.m. Read though my emails, freshen up and at reached my gate by 1 p.m. and took off around 1:4o p.m.

Even though I didn’t get to see a lot, or capture some of the beautiful sigths, I enjoyed getting out into the city.  I need to pack my camera bag, and spend a full day and get to the Tulip Gardens to get a full experience of Amsterdam… City of Love.