Author: prasadchavali

Technology Geek, Passionate about Travel, Photography and Cutting Edge Technology

Vacationing in Mexico… East Indian Style!!!

On By prasadchavaliIn Travel ExperiencesLeave a comment

Haven’t been able to write anything for more than 2 weeks now… because of two things…

1. Vacation in Mexico (Bucerias) for a week,
2. At home all week (9 days) for first time this year, catching up with life….

So now I am back on the road and starting to reflect on my vacation in Mexico and the fact that I have to wait almost one more year before taking another Mexican vacation….

First time I traveled to Mexico was back in 1997 to Juarez across the border from El Paso to visit the American Consulate to get my passport stamped for visa renewal. I was there for only a few hours, and noticed how “close” to India it looked like.

Then I didn’t get to Mexico again till 2004, to a small town called “Bucerias” north of Puerto Vallarta, courtesy of my Mother In Law, who started going there in winter. She finally moved into her own place there now and lives 6 months out of the year. So I have been there 10 times so far, and realized how “at home” I feel now everytime I go there.

Being from India has its pros and cons when you travel to Mexico.

Pros:

1. When you are trying to get out of airport, Time Share people don’t mob you… they must think either I am Mexican, or cheap, whatever it is, works for me… I walk right past everyone.
2. Walking in the streets, nobody is notices you.. no vendors, no solicitors….
3. When you ask for “Pecante”… I get spicy food, they don’t feel like they have to hold back for me…

Cons:
1. Everyone thinks I can speak Spanish… I tried to use my limited spanish vocabulary and they would start full conversations, and I have to say “whoa…. all I know is few words”. On my last trip we got pulled over by a cop and I was in passenger seat and he started talking to me in Spanish thinking I could convey the meaning to the others in the car… and he was quite surprised that I can’t.
2. Well I can’t think of anything else… who cares, you are in Mexico 🙂

When I first went to Bucerias in 2004, I was stressed out a bit… your phone didn’t work, you have to go to an Internet Cafe to check emails (at 56 kbps). Growing up I never had a real vacation where you absolutely do nothing… but over time I realized doing nothing is such a beautiful thing on vacations. Yes, I do work a bit, but I don’t mind the view and the fact that it makes you feel relaxed without worrying about what’s going on.

Lot of people don’t even know where India is in Bucerias, one year, a waiter brought a map and was amazed that I am from other side of the planet and we looked so much alike. I used to think I am the only “East Indian” guy in Bucerias, but on my latest trip we met a couple of gals from Vancouver, who are originally from India. We ended up talking as if we knew each other for a long time…

The most stressful thing on my recent vacation… to decide where to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner… tough life.

No matter where we eat everyday, one thing is certain… we end up at the same place every night for nightcap… Mark’s Bar & Grill in Bucerias. Shout out to Jan and Mark for creating such a wonderful place to eat, drink and be happy…

Here is the link to Bucerias… you should visit some time… Best of Bucerias.

Here is the link to Mark’s Bar & Grill.

We live in a “frozen” world… food wise that is

On By prasadchavaliIn General1 Comment

I have been working on 4 different topics for my next post, then I thought I should get this one out, since it has been on my mind a lot lately…

Do you watch “Kitchen Nightmares”? Lately Lesli (my wife) started recording “Restaurant Impossible” and “Restaurant Stakeout”, have you heard of those? As you start watching these shows, you will being to ponder. What have I been eating? How to spot a good restaurant from a bad one? Is it fresh or frozen? So I started going through some of my experiences and align them with these shows and started to put a few things together. The following are my observations only.. some of them are assumptions and may not be actual… How about that for a disclaimer? (No food was harmed in writing of this blog).

It all started 20 years ago while I was working as a manager for big Fast Food chain on Campus and they announced release of their “Grilled Chicken” sandwich and we will be receiving “equipment” soon. When we received our package, it consisted of an iron ring, a spatula and a lid. The instructions said… “when you receive your grilled chicken, place it on the hot plate inside the iron ring, pour some water, put the lid on and let it heat 3 minutes on each side. That’s because the meat already came pre-cooked, with perfect grill lines… there is no way in hell we are grilling chicken breasts in kitchen taking risk of them cooked incorrectly by hourly employees. It makes perfect sense – quality control and risk management. Till today I still can’t get over the fact how much of the fast food comes already prepared.

Then a few years ago I went to late lunch with a customer to a Chinese restaurant. Our order arrived very quickly and it burned my customer’s mouth when he tried to eat it. He spit it out and said, “damn microwaves” – I asked why… he said.. there is no way that food could be that hot in such a short time on a traditional stove, the only way it could be so hot is the microwave. Since then, I have been noticing temperature of food quite closely.

Watching the above mentioned “shows”, it is pretty apparent that quick service comes with a price, most of the time it includes frozen food or re-heated left overs from a big batch. Also, fresh food is tough to get and always tastes the best and costs more too. Have you tried to eat seafood in Jacksonville, Florida and Denver, Colorado?

Now some of the so called high end hotels I stay at, all have restaurants, some big, some small. The big ones (chains, signature restaurants like Palm) are good, but most others resort to frozen food. One time I ordered wings… the ranch dressing was still cold and solid in middle and Celery is slightly hot, may be a little too much “thawing” – every wing was “perfect”… so must be pre-packaged. Then I looked through their entire menu… it is all setup for quick preparation… probably 2 or 3 separate packets thrown together and heated. The golden test here is to try to customize… if you say, can you make it without sauce or certain vegetable, they will say it comes pre-mixed… then it is probably not fresh. Don’t get me wrong here, there are a lot of good pre-made meals – like soups – the same perfect taste every time reheated to perfection 🙂

Then today I ordered flatbread and same soup I had last night at this new hotel, that went through major multi-million dollar renovation. The soup is good – same “EXACT” copy of what it was yesterday – the Chef can’t be this consistent every day. The flatbread is also elegant and fancy looking, mushrooms arranged perfectly on it, no uneven spots, but the actual bread is still brittle from reheating (probably not enough moisture) and the waiter tried to convince me that it is one of the best thing “chef” makes… Ok, I buy that… NOT!

On a positive side, we went to a Chinese restaurant at the end of street from the Condo we were staying at in Vancouver. It looked like a dive from outside, but when we went inside, half of it was open kitchen and half seating area… Bingo… I like open kitchens… you can see the chefs tossing noodles, stir frying orders, not reheating in microwaves.

It is tough to find these “fresh” restaurants since most of them use frozen stuff… but you can find these now and then… one of the Mexican places in Roswell, Georgia, family owned, in a strip mall, but always the best… they make all their salsa from scratch. Talking of which, I am looking forward to lots of fresh food on our vacation coming up in the small town of Bucerias north of Puerto Vallarta… No Chains, just family restaurants.

So in conclusion.. here is what I started doing…

1. Read Trip Advisor and Yelp reviews, most of the problem ones get weeded out here.
2. Look for places with open kitchen or have “specials” that are not printed (have you seen some restaurants that have same specials all month?? I did :))
3. Try to find non-chain restaurants… this idea has risks, since not everyone has high quality, so have to be selective and ask either bartenders or locals for suggestions.

Please share your thoughts and experiences, as this will help me eat better in my travels. Believe it or not I have been ordering a lot of soup and salads recently…. Eat Healthy!!!

Closing on Million Miles of travel recorded…

On By prasadchavaliIn GeneralLeave a comment

How often do you travel? Have you wondered where you been in the world?  When I was trying to keep log of all my travel, I came across a site called FlightMemory.com back in 2007.

(Click the banner to see the details)

Flight Memory is free and when I joined there were about 50 K users on it. I think it is close to 130 K users now.  The site is based in Germany and there are a lot of users/travel recorded in Germany.  But you can customize it to show US as your default map.

I started recording all my travel, even prior to 2007 (whatever I could remember), so I have 987 K miles recordes so far, probably will hit million miles here next month.  The cool thing about you get detailed statistics by year and all places you been, what seat you were sitting in etc.  You can click on the banner to see the basic public stats.  Of course the stats require accurate data entry including flight numbers, times, seat numbers, etc.  As you can see it is one of hobbies/obsession (whatever you want to call it).  One of the pieces of data you can record is the “tail number” – the registration that is on the plane towards the rear.  I try my best to get that information and found a few interesting notes.

  1. One time I was leaving Hyderabad back to Frankfurt on Lufthansa and the plane is the same one I arrived on 3 weeks ago.
  2. As much as I fly delta,  I have been on one plane more then 3 times – a lot of them 2 times, but I guess they mix up planes quite a bit on same routes.
  3. The registrations follow a standard – all North American planes start with N, the ones in India VT- (not sure what it stands for), etc.

Obviously I am in top 1% of people recording the data on the site.

Spent close to 100 days on planes in the last 6 years and been to moon and back twice 🙂

Give it a try even if you travel lightly…

Now that was a close call…. my most memorable travel story.

On By prasadchavaliIn Travel Experiences4 Comments

I missed a lot of flights some international, some with long delays and overnight stays, but this story is the one I remember the most.

It happened in 1997, but I still remember as if it happened yesterday. I was working for Motorola then and had a round the world trip that stopped in 6 countries to do training for our software. The last stop was in India on my way back home. I was in Madras (Chennai now) at my Brother’s place along with my parents and had a flight to Bombay (Mumbai) and connecting on Swiss Air to Zurich/Atlanta/Phoenix.

Believe it or not, travel in 1997 was so different, no cell phones (at least in India), security where you can walk to the gate, Smoking sections on planes and lot less airlines. At that time there were only 2 airline options in India – Indian Airlines (Govt Run) and new and upcoming Jet Airways. Motorola booked all my flights and at that time we had business class travel for everyone going international. My flight from Madras was at 6 p.m. – reaching Bombay around 7:45 p.m. and my international flight from there at 1:20 a.m. – so I had 5 1/2 hours layover. I checked in around 4:30 p.m. at Madras and they told me that the flight is delayed by 2 hrs due to late arrival of aircraft (this excuse remains current even now). So I thought that will cut my wait in Bombay, so no issues. Some people rushed over to the last flight from Jet Airways to Bombay and they accommodated a few. My agent said, since my ticket was in First Class, they don’t have an option in Jet but she thought I should make it in plenty of time. My parents and brother were tired of standing, so I told them to leave around 6:30 p.m. and went to the lounge.

7 p.m. – Was notified that flight is now 3 hrs late and will reach Bombay at 10:45 p.m. – still got 2 hrs + to catch my connection..

8 p.m. – The flight is now 3 1/2 hours late – will reach Bombay at 11:15 p.m. – getting a little too close to comfort.

9 p.m. – the plane is here – just a matter of loading people and taking off… everybody is on the plane by 9:30 p.m. – yes, I may make it after all…

9:50 p.m. – why are we not taking off? What? someone is missing? – they have to figure out if he/she dozed off somewhere or went back home..

10:15 p.m. – we are closing doors now – estimated arrival time mid night – 1 hr and 20 minutes – I can still make it right?

10:30 p.m. – why are we still on taxiway? Lots of international flights landing, we are not cleared yet…

10:40 p.m. – finally took off – Captain comes on PA, apologizes for the delay, that was not in his hands.. will STEP on it and get us there as soon as he can.

12:15 a.m. – landing in Mumbai – just barely 1 hour + left… I am now thinking my chances are 30-40% to make the flight – most flights close an hour before take off.

12:20 a.m. – I spot a baggage guy and ask him I can get bags quick since I will try to rush to the international terminal, he asks my bag color/type – disappears into the bottom of plane, comes out in 3 minutes with my 2 suitcases… I still remember his face… what a help!

12:30 a.m. – come out of domestic terminal – the only option to get to International terminal is to wait for a shuttle (yeah right) or get a cab… I only had a few Indian Rupees left… Enter Mr. Singh (I don’t remember his full name) – he asks if I want taxi, I said yes to International terminal – he said 500 Rupees – I said, I only have 200, he says, you got dollars? Yes, $20 (equivalent of 720 rupees at that time) I will take you… I said let’s go, told him I have 40 mins now to make it… he said, get in back seat and DUCK… what, yes, duck?. He said, there are about 10 speed bumps between here and International terminal… and he is not going to slow down… ok? I said yes and here we go….

That was the craziest 10 min Taxi ride of my life… Mr. Singh was honking, swerving, jumping speed bumps… and he got me to International terminal at 12:40 a.m. – he said – “RUN, I will get your bags”… I trusted him to follow me, not to take off on me, and started running and I saw him dragging my 2 suitcases behind into the terminal. I reached Swiss Air check-in counter at 12:45 a.m. – 35 mins to take off… then I find out…

LIGHTS OUT!!

No body home. I guess they closed the counters, Mr. Singh arrives, says sorry, that he will wait outside if I needed taxi to take me to a hotel… I go over the counter and find couple of employees doing paperwork in the back. I showed them my ticket and asked what are my options…

12:50 a.m. – The Check-in Agent calls Gate Agent and says “I have a Business Class passenger arrived late from a connection, if I send him in, will you be able to take him?” – the gate agent says – “we will give you 10 extra minutes and close the door at 1:30 a.m. – no exceptions…”

Here we GO!!

Picture this… Me running with my computer bag, The agent with radio and my boarding pass, one of the attendants with a trolley with my suitcases (too late to check bags, so they have to take it to the gate)… dodging the peak passenger traffic at Bombay airport, trying to get to the gate…

1:05 a.m. – Immigration counter – got permission to go through Crew line – #4 in line…

1:10 a.m. – get to the counter, the agent tells the officer, we are in a hurry, trying to get me to the gate… now, this is another face I still remember… he goes, “SO?” He checks my passport, green card, looks at me and says “Where is your Facial Hair? Is this really you?” – I guess I had a goatee in my Green Card and clean shaven at this point… he was in no hurry to stamp on my passport. I had the urge to jump over the counter, the story would have been much more different If I did…

1:15 a.m. – finally at X-ray – again through crew line… will we make it?

1:20 a.m. – security done… wouldn’t you know it, the plane is at Gate 10 and we are at Gate 1 🙂

I don’t remember how many people I knocked down and scared off, it was a last ditch effort run… 1:28 a.m. – at Gate 10… The Gate agent was in touch with us over radio through out and was looking for us to show up..

The guy pushing my suitcases goes down the stairs to get them loaded, I gave him whatever Indian rupees I have left, got to the boarding door.. there is a flight attendant standing at the door and gets my boarding pass and yells to the gate agent who was walking away….

HEY, ARE YOU SURE THIS GUY IS IN BUSINESS CLASS??

Those words still echo in my ears… was I too young? too Indian? Looked like crap from the running? WTF, I am right here holding my boarding pass…. after the confirmation from Gate Agent, she lets me to the left into Business Class… then I realized I was the only the 2nd Indian looking guy in the entire business class section … ouch!

I couldn’t call till I got to Zurich to notify my family that I actually made my flight… since then I made a few and missed a few, but on that exciting day, a few people stepped up to help me… the guy at plane to get my bags, Mr. Singh, The agent at check-in, the guy running with my bags… I am thankful to all them for not only helping to make the flight, but also for the experience and memories…

Sleeping in different places and time zones….

On By prasadchavaliIn General, Travel ExperiencesLeave a comment

Part of being a world traveler is the ability to sleep in different beds and timezones as required.  This is one aspect of travel that wears you down… so I had to figure out way to make the best out of it… as I woke up on Feb 1st in India, I looked back at Jan 2013 and realized where I have been… so here it is:

Date Place Slept Time Zone
1 Jan 2013 Scottsdale Mountain +/- 0 Hrs
2-6th Jan 2013 Vancouver, Canada Pacific -1 Hrs
7th Jan 2013 Scottsdale Mountain +/- 0 Hrs
8-10th Jan 2013 Atlanta Eastern + 2 Hrs
11-14th Jan 2013 Scottsdale Mountain +/- 0 Hrs
15th Jan 2013 On a Plane Eastern – GMT + 7 hrs
16th Jan 2013 Mumbai, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
17-18th Jan 2013 Hyderabad, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
19th Jan 2013 Rajahmundry, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
20-21st Jan 2013 Hyderabad, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
22-23rd Jan 2013 Agra, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
24th Jan 2013 Jaipur, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
25-26th Jan 2013 New Delhi, India Indian +12.5 Hrs
27-31st Jan 2013 Hyderabad, India Indian +12.5 Hrs

No Wonder, I feel a little tired at the end of the January 🙂

Employee, Colleague, Friend and Life Coach… a Tribute to Janett

On By prasadchavaliIn General2 Comments

This is probably not a rambling… it is a heartfelt tribute to Janett Chambers.

I met Janett in 2005, she was the project manager for a client I was trying to work with.  Then she started working part-time for us and eventually became full time in 2006.  She had a demeanor that even some of the customers were scared of… which came from experience, attention to detail and overall confidence.  Some customers wanted to change project manager since she tried to keep them honest.  Even I sometimes used wonder who worked for whom…

In 2007 she accepted to take the role of Director of Development and probably created most of the structure we have now in India office.  Her contribution to getting things organized is invaluable. In 2008 May when we moved the offices to Jacksonville, she didn’t make the move, because she was not comfortable in being part of the bigger group I was joining… we kept in touch now and then.  She went on to become part of a Traffic Systems company in Scottsdale and was traveling a bit…

Before I moved back to Arizona in 2011 Jan, I found out she was not working because of an illness and didn’t have many details.  I tried to contact her via Facebook and one email I had and after a few months finally got in touch with her around October 2011. I met with her in person and noticed she is a little weaker physically but had the same personality and openness to life.  I heard her stories of her struggle with Cancer (details omitted due to personal respect).. and I didn’t realize that she is still going through regular treatment and not in remission.

She started her own company to be a Life Coach and wanted to work with me on a couple of projects.  That re-engagement has become one of crucial turning points of my career.  Our sessions were intense, she was able to get me to refocus on my goals and motivation.   Since then, I was able to get the Training Institute I wanted going, Expanded the office and went from 20 then to 40 currently and changed our approach to customers and projects.

Her next biggest contribution came in November 2011, when she came to Cabo with the other project managers we had at that time and worked with everyone on dealing with customers, situations, creating structure, etc.  I think we had a couple of breakthroughs for people during that week.  She was weak, still dealing with Cancer and not able to stay up late, but did her best to engage.  She I traveled from Phoenix to Cabo together and when we got on the plane she said: “This is my first trip out of US in all these years (she had to get passport just for this trip) and I usually don’t trust people on what they can do, but I know you will take care of everything for us, so I decided to come”… I didn’t realize the importance of that statement till later.

After our trip she worked on a few more things and early 2012 started to wind down due to the demands of her treatments and kept in touch via emails.  She used to send me emails about various topics – the last one was in March 2012 called “How to Change Perspective” – Part 2.  In April, I got another email given me an update that she adjusted her new routine and would start writing again on a regular basis.  I got busy with opening of new office and growth and noticed she is no longer on Facebook either.  I dreaded the worst and couldn’t pull myself to call or write to her.

Then just before Christmas, her son called to talk to me a project me and Janett started working for him and he is ready to start on it again, after a few updates, I asked “I hate to ask how is your mom doing?” – and he was silent for a minute and said “Prasad I thought you knew, that Janett passed away in October.  She didn’t want to have a funeral, so we didn’t make an announcement”.  After that I am not sure what I talked him about, but it hit me that I lost one of my best friends, well wisher and role models… It is tough to keep it together every time I remember about her.

Her last email to me asked me to do one thing (quoted below).

“I have asked my friends and family to launch a star http://www.standup2cancer.org/ it’s only $1.00 to make it happen. I like the idea of the sky filled with my stars. You can attached to another group or start your own group.”

I still kick myself that I didn’t have a star for her in time… So my request to you is take time and fill the sky with stars for someone you care about and fighting cancer. I feel blessed that I crossed paths with Janett and may her soul rest in Peace!!

http://constellation.standup2cancer.org/24330

You call that a Carry-On??

On By prasadchavaliIn Travel ExperiencesLeave a comment

Ever since airlines started charging for checked in bags, this whole carry on situation gotten out of control.  You see people trying to carry as much as they can without having to spend any money… who can blame them?

Now, the so called frequent travelers can check bags for free, but they all bring carry-ons also to “Save time” – I am part of a couple of travel blogs, where I read people saying checking bags wastes them time, they lose their bags, etc.  In 2012, I had one bag delay total of all flights.. small price to pay instead of dragging them everywhere.  I do agree sometimes you have to wait for bag, but I am in no hurry to run to the hotel and sit at bar or rush home to go to bed, so I factor in the wait into my travel.. In fact, I started walking to the baggage claim in Atlanta airport, which can take 10-15 minutes so by the time I get to the baggage claim, 99% of time bags are already there… just walking with a backpack around terminal has set me FREE!!

Now, the carry on bags created problems in other areas…

Boarding – everyone is rushing to get on first since baggage bins seems to be running out fast.  Even in First Class, you see the same, actually worse, they bring on 2 big bags and try to get it in quickly… with my backpack situation, I am more relaxed to board since it fits under the seat.

But the reason I started this topic today was the experience I had at security check point.  If you saw the movie “Up In The Air” – you probably noticed the stereotyping George Clooney does on which security line to choose… in fact, the situation is very real, sometime you have to switch lanes if there a family with 2 kids and strollers… it takes them time to unpack everything and pack up on the other side of X-Ray – again, not complaining, just happens all the time… then this morning, I thought I picked the line that seems to be moving fast, the guy infront seem to be very organized and BAM!!! Not one, not two, not three… count 5 – that is how many bins he needed – between the 2 bags he was carrying he pulled out stuff that reminded me a rabbit out of hat magic trick and then add on the 2 layers of jackets and 2 laptops, even the TSA agent came and asked if all this stuff was his.. never seen that in my travel life before.. teaches me a lesson to not stereotype 🙂

So thinking out loud… will this get better? Nope, it will only get worse as baggage fees seem to generate a lot of revenue for airlines… so patience and understanding are the only way to deal with it.

It may sound like an endorsement (but it is), the best thing to happen to frequent travelers is TSA Pre – In Atlanta I get through this line 2 out of 3 times – don’t have to take shoes off, jackets stay on and Laptop in Computer.. reminds me of old times (pre 2001).. just look forward that being everywhere…

Happy Travels!

The art of airport pickup….

On By prasadchavaliIn Travel ExperiencesLeave a comment

Many of us have done this… picking up someone at the airport.

If it someone that is visiting after a long time, you will park your car in garage and meet them when they come out of terminal.

If it someone you pick up often, you will try to master the “perfect pick up” – you start based on arrival time + baggage pick up time if any, and scoop them up from curb side within 5-10 minutes of them reaching there… seen a lot of people strive for this.

Waiting for my own pickup, I have seen a lot of different kinds of people, different tactics to avoid the cop or airport security person walking the curb side.  These tactics change based on time, rush, weather and car type.

  • Classic looper – keep making loops around terminal until their pickups comes outside and call or wave them… see these guys go around multiple times.
  • The Waiter – will pick the prime spot and wait with car running, until he has been told to move, drive up a bit and push the time limit again.
  • They Are almost here – keep either passenger door or trunk open and look as if they are here… it doesn’t work always.
  • Designated Waiter – leave someone in passenger seat while you go inside – they talk to the enforcer and tell them an excuse, I have seen the enforcer make the waiter call the driver to come out…
  • I don’t care – Leave the car go inside, the enforcer asks whose car is it, looks around, they don’t like to tow or write ticket unless they really have to… and when they reach their patience limit, the driver will come out running and saying sorry, and start to move… and in some cases avoids the ticket
  • And then there is the perfect pickup – Cell phones and Cell Phone waiting lots helped this form … as soon as the bags start coming, everyone gives a green signal to their pickup contact – who is in Cell Phone waiting lot – and show up at the door at the right time, load them up and go… You should see the joy and proudness on some of these pickups..

Probably we have done one or more of the above in our lives, but when you think about it – it is a form of ART and what you do is always the “right” tactic 🙂