How to travel the world ( Literally i mean)

Every person likes to travel the world, see far flung exotic places, travel to awesome beaches, see world attractions, experience world class cities.. Everyone dreams of traveling the world. So how do you try and make sure you achieve your dream ..

One set of argument has been Travel Abroad , Travel Young - A set of arguments which portray to travel abroad as much as possible when you are young ( Gap Travel,  Backpack after college  etc)  ( young for me someone  below 30 :) ) . But not many are so lucky/rich to do that.

Other set of argument has been Make your career , money  and then travel the world when you are old .- set of arguments which focuses on making your professional ambitions come true.. make as much money as possible and then retire with a round the world trip with your loved one ... Sounds fantastic . Only glitch - We don't know what our future holds.. we may not have energy , time etc .  

A third set of argument has been - Become a management consultant / business executive  and jet set on client's/company expense ( Live the Clooney life  like in 'Up in the Air')  Most possible choice of all three - if you want to do world travel . Unfortunately there can only be few management consultants/business executives in this world and you got to absolute good to make the initial cut of joining the firm/inner club and then second cut of surviving it ( not to mention forget about your personal life ) . Now  as much as it sounds glamorous and awesome, its still business travel and most of your time is really spent working on client/official meetings at work and back at hotel and you actually hardly travel the country ( you do get the opportunity though)  , but yes on flip side you are the best user and  expert on Airports lounges and Hotel suites and star wood points on this planet.. Again great if you want to see Lima Airport , not so great if you want to chill of at Machu Pichu for a week. All said and done, one of the most possible ways to do it .. Now if you want leisure trip with your loved one/kids .. then it becomes a tough one..

A fourth set of argument is  RTW . take a 6 month off and finish a region/list of countries and be back . Its not impossible but you need to be in right conditions/country/lifestyle/ disposable income/professional situation to do this . Requires great planning to pull this off..

So how does an average person travel the world keeping his job/life and yet savor his vacation time to experience new countries every year with his current energy levels.  .. In my opinion , its difficult but  not impossible and definitely needs some discipline and mindset to do it  and living in below mentioned places gives you good advantage to begin thinking of it.

I am not world traveler yet ( not even close)  but i met some world travelers and this post has been some of my experiences and my impressions by conversing with other fellow travelers.

For me the three important things required for regular intl travel are
1. Time : You need time and energy to travel the place . Be it long weekend to do a one city or 2-3 weeks to do one country .. Different travelers use different timelines to travel each place. So one may take 3 weeks to do entire Western Europe ( just exploring  couple of major capitals) or use the same 3 weeks to do just Spain and France .. But in the end you still need those days off to travel . Critical parameter to even consider traveling abroad.

2. Cost  :  Again obvious and very important . Living in India and planning to do East Asia trip is very challenging . Possible but not effective and its costly  . Cost/Economy/PPP is why some nationalities do just  better than others .

3. Resources: Quite important and quite underrated parameter which affects 1 and 2 .. Explains why some travelers from some countries do just so much better than  most .

Resources is defined as gamut of entire activities/things you need to do smoother and  easy travel .  This means easy access to intl airports which has great affordable connections to destinations you want to travel . Easy access to visa/passport services. Not many realize there is extra cost and time people end up paying just to get the visa . Living in capital city and applying for visa at the destination country embassy makes a hell lot of difference than  living  500 kms away and taking a day  off at work and to go to embassy / pay 100 euros to apply the visa. 

It also means great logistical capability to move around smoothly. Small things matter in travel when you want to do backpack traveling . Resources also means that you get tools/laws to faciliate parameter 1 and 2. Europeans ( ok not all but major western European and Scandinavian nations) are paid extra month's salary as money for Christmas as vacation bonus . Now i call them great extra resources enabling you to do better travel. Imagine you are getting paid one month extra to travel ( This mindset changes things)
Location also matters and i consider great location as great resource to use .


You need all 3 parameters to work fully in your favor to enable world travel. Anything less in any one of them makes it that difficult ..This is why i always felt in my opinion  Americans have not been great world travelers as compared to Western Europeans  because i believe they fare poorly in frames of time . An average American gets 2-3 weeks of vacation compared to 5 weeks in Scandinavia and Switzerland/Austria . That extra 3 week are enough to knock off couple of destinations every year  :) and still spend vacation with family/friends .. Location of Americans also falters them to enable far flung regular world travelers unlike Europeans who in few hours are in new country/region.


 As an example : If you are living in US and you decided to travel to Machu Pichu, Peru  .. Sure living in Manhattan, NY makes it awesome. hop on from JFK and Viola you are in Lima  :) and days later you are staring at the wonder..but how about living in Manhattan, Kansas.  You spend extra money , time just to get to O Hare or JFK to fly , added to if you decided to fly from local airport , flight ticket become so expensive that you start to think , is it really worth it? .. And if you are of nationality who needs Visa to enter Peru , then good luck  :) ( for example an Indian in Kansas, there is no way he is going to Chicago, DC or NY to apply for visa and then fly there again  just so he can get to Peru, He will use that money and chill in Vegas or Lake Tahoe :p)


Its the resources part and balance in all 3 parameters  which makes people from Western Europe and Australia travel more of the world  Australia is a different case and needs some additional explaining but they do just brilliant in all 3 parameters

Another interesting parallel i noticed was .. Many people from countries which are high on Qualitty of Life index  do absolutely well in world travel . Again it reflects on  above basis parameters - They get good vacations, get good money as disposable income( PPP wise) and are in great location of networked society which enables visa free travels, access to world class airports and variety of airlines from low cost to high end to enable varied experience of world travel .. Now i am beginning to understand why are actually ranked best cities/countries to live in  :)


Hence in my opinion , i realized that if you pick to live sometime in anyone of those countries as a resident ( even if that is temporary) it increases your probability of traveling the entire continent/region much higher . I know it sounds obvious , but in my opinion there is slightly finer element as well as not all places in these countries/regions are same. ( living in UK is not exactly same as Living in London in this case)

According to me ,basing yourself in following cities greatly enhances your ability to travel in easier manner .

Europe
1. Zurich/ Geneva/ Munich -  Any of these 3 cities and you have yourself traveling to 50+ countries within  reach . For all non Europeans who need visa,  you have more than 100 countries consulates which processes visas in days . Airports are world class with great variety to choose from Ryan Air/Easy jet and other national carriers to fly to intercontinental destinations like South America and Middle East at decent prices .  Living in these 3 cities also allow you  lap a  great quality of life  ( read 5 weeks of vacation , 13-14 month salary , smart individuals who have great  travel experiences to motivate you , Culture which thrives on taking leisure vacation to be productive workers) All perfect factors to do more traveling  This is as good as it gets to travel :) .

2. London : Behind them London is another great location to live in and travel . Potential  100 countries can be done if you base yourself properly . Possessing the same qualities as above , It does extremely well on Cost and Resource factors,  where i see as only drawback is the time element of it . Londoners don't get same amount of vacation days when compared to Swiss/Germans and with hectic sort of life London thrives in  this can be become detriment to do every year travels  .. However still very much possible to do many countries ..

Other European cities which deserve a mention are Copenhagen and Stockholm ..they do good job doing European travels ,but  if its intercontinental travel,  high airline prices and travel connections due to lack of great connections ( compared to London and Munich) could become a detriment . Nevertheless, if you want to cover all 27 Euro zone nations, they will serve the purpose. If you are in good disposable income category , you have good chance to cover most parts of world as well :)

For those who don't get lucky to live in the above cities , their best bet would be to live in centralized locations/ locations closer to top airports . Austria, Holland  and Germany (Cologne/Frankfurt area)  also helps as you have great connections  to go around . Only challenge comes in getting Visas . However for Schengen its not a problem and these countries still pack the punch .  The only reason i was able to cover all Schengen Countries .

Living in anyone of these places and you are in great position to visit 30 -50+ countries if you plan well ..

Asia Pacific and Oceania

Europe has a great advantage of top infrastructure/ schengen agreement allowing visa free travel to countries/ central geographical location and area of each country and hence  its much easier .. Asia on other hand is a beast. Most countries have poor infrastructure. Asia lacks  good connections at affordable prices. Visas are required for most places and hence traveling entire region becomes challenging .

However on flip side , if you manage to live in these places , there is a good chance for you do most of Asia  nicely .

1. Singapore :  Hub of South East Asia . Changi Airport , Tiger Airlines/Air Asia, not to mention plethora of  airlines connecting Australia, South Africa, NZ, Middle East , Japan and North China from one place  , makes Singapore top dog  in the region . if you are backpacker who wants to explore south east Asia and east Asia . Singapore is just the best thing for you . With its high quality of life allowing you to lead a  good lifestyle, Singapore allows you perfect getaways to the entire region.

2  Sydney : Basing yourself at Sydney , you have a perfect opportunity to hit both Pacific Islands and Major Asian cities . What makes Sydney great as well is high quality of Australian lifestyle and attitude of the city and country allowing you greater freedom to pursue great travel getaways around Australia and  Asia .

3 Hong Kong : I would have listed HK as no 1 if it had gotten itself couple of budget airlines ( I am big sucker of Budget airlines and budget travel) and i believe HK doesn't do that well as SG in terms of budget airline connectivity . hence traveling to places like Thailand gets slightly cumbersome when compared to SG . However only slightly cumbersome  :).  Overall Living in HK  will give you a great shot to do China and East Asia very well . If you have plans to do Siberia/ North Korea and Japan . HK might be your best bet . Although as economy and lifestyle changes taking place in Asia . Shanghai is fast becoming a threat to HK in terms of city to live in and get around .  I predict Shanghai will become like Singapore by next decade as the city to be based if you want to cover all Asia .

Americas
One of the toughest challenge is to cover South and North America . Vastly Huge , they are real tough places to cover in its entirety . I have clubbed South for a reason with North as i am including all nations in Central America as well ..

1. Miami : Yes , In my opinion , If one wants to cover both Americas decently, placing yourself in Miami is a great idea . Not only it has great connections to all of central America and South American cities. With its quality of life , it sets you up nicely to give a shot to visit  Caribbean , Central America, Mexico apart from US much better than many cities of US .

2.  NY : Hands down best connected Airport in Americas . Add in quality of life and you have set yourself well to give a shot to do Canada, US, Mexico and most American countries. Downside : Travel is far and cost sometimes may not be as cheap as you would think especially if you are considering a getaway to Brazil/Chile/Argentina , still much better than most American cities

3. Chicago and LA :  Again the only reason they make it is because of great connectivity to other destinations and that  higher disposable income gives you chance to embark .Presence of consulates in LA can be advantage ( i am unsure if many consulates exists in CHI ) . Location of Chicago can be dampener if you are flying down south to Central and South America ..

Atlanta deserves a mention  for same qualities of LA and NY but i felt as an Indian  ,since visa is required to travel all countries, i am not sure how many consulates are present in the city to get  faster resource at less possible time .

Middle East and Africa

Arguably the toughest segment of the group . Its uniquely difficult to do all countries due to its size, political situation, infrastructure, costs and poor connectivity .

I met a guy who has traveled to 70+ countries in the world and half of them were in Africa and the only way he did that was he was based in Africa for good amount time in an NGO group and thus his job allowed him to travel all central and west African nations..   Africa becomes easier suddenly if you are going for work, however , if you are not ,then its super tough ..

Middle east is slightly easier , however political situation can make it challenging .  Traveling Iraq, Syria is tough ask . Israel while safe and possessing great tourism infrastructure has different challenges to get in.   So is Iran.  However that doesn't mean you cannot do it . It just requires more careful planning.

1. Dubai : Living in UAE can be a great first step to do the entire region . Caveat is you better be in expat/near expat  work lifestyle which gives you good disposable income to travel around . Good connections and good income and you can definitely travel entire middle east with careful planning .

Dubai in my opinion is a  great starting point to do Central Asia . ( i initially thought New Delhi would be great starting point ). It has good connections to Uzbek, Tajik and Turkemenistan .. Bit of planning and effort and you can be in great position to do silk route.

2. Jo'burg/Nairobi /Cairo : Again Africa is a misnomer by many a stretch . However i feel living in these cities can give you a jump start . living in Expat role is definite advantage which would cover the cost and time element . resources is where it will be challenging , however  these three cities  would enable us to do South /East and North Africa at very least  with bit of planning and patience .

I feel living in these cities for sometime ( read 2-5 years ) would allow you to give yourself time and cost to travel the region around it and resources living in places gives you edge to do world travel .


Now for an average traveler, it all sounds obvious that i just listed all major airport cities/alpha cities/ higher income country cities .. but for me these cities place higher edge than their competitors ... There are some places which are historically tougher countries to do . I feel that these living in these cities gives a good opening point than most others .

Happy Traveling folks! :)

5 years on

The other day i realized that it was 2 years since i stepped my foot on Antarctica... getting all nostalgic , i decided a small exercise to identify what i have done .. this week in last year .. and results have been very interesting and surprising ...

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So here it goes ..


Nov 2010 : India :   i came back from my first business trip to New Delhi  Walmart India office , worked in a Distribution Center ( Think Amazon Fulfillment Center)  and was getting ready to head to Hong Kong , Asia’s world city
 
Nov 2009:  Antarctica :Was somewhere in the middle of nowhere  in Antarctic Peninsula with Rob Swan, Craig Bowen , Anant, Le Tuan ( Mr Highlight of the trip) , a rich Sheikh and the rest of the gang  getting a fever of Football manager and experiencing the awesomness called Antarctica..I did a polar plunge during the that week.

Nov 2008 : Austria : I was in Kohlstattgasse, Innsbruck , planning for the first big solo trip Denmark , Poland and Malmo winter trek with Anant ... first snowfall experience… viewed  Mumbai  26/11 from my innsbruck room in shock...

Nov 2007 : Portugal : I was in Coimbra gatecrashing erasmus parties with lanka Sridhar and trying to figure out how do to C# programming . Experienced my  first Diwali Outside india at a lisbon temple.. 8 Euro meal at a temple will still remain as the memory as one of the best dinners ever ..

Nov 2006  : SNIST Engineering College , Hyd  I  came and went out of CAT 2006 exam and was wondering was the 14K INR on Time Hyd well spent or not? ( On hindsight, its been mixed, met some people and kept in touch ever since) . Also thinking who in the wide eyed mind would understand and read 4-1 Language processors .Survived 4-1 and dreaming of holidaying semester of 4-2 was an  interesting feeling


Interesting Lifetimes… screwing up GRE CAT and studying ( hardly studying) LP , Network Security to C#.Net programming to being accountant/analyst title for 2 years in snow laden village before being working out finance and understanding supply chain has been interesting experience.

Looking back , i get a feeling CAT screw up was one of the best things happened to me ...



Here's to hoping for many more stories to come in next 5, 10, 15 , 20 years ...

Adios,
Silent Cacophony

World Cup is Here

Alritey folks, after 4 years of wait , the biggest spectacle of cricket ( yes , twenty20 is NOT ) is back and is back in Indian Subcontinent , ( rewind your memories of 1996 and 1987 Eden gardens was in center of attention on both occassions and so is this time for being given a miss :) ) .

This is the first time i will miss it seeing it live on Tv  , but will  still following it through internet , annd other avenues..  So who are the favourites to win the title ?

lets do a short review of each team and their chances in WC. 3 teams  a post


Kenya : 2007 was a dream run for them  with reaching a top 4  , possibly will be their best run for some years ,  Strangely i still see Steve Tikolo knocking runs around ( for those who dont know, Steve Tikolo has burst into intl scene in 1996 back in his hey days was the best kenyan  player and had created a sense of for for other teams ( ok fear is  exaggerating!! ) , but 40 year old might be past his prime and it might be  last time we might the  kenyan  Kenya might face Canada and Zim but their chances unlike 2003 dream run  will end in group stage  . World Cup  2011: group stage exit

Australia : 4  world cups , including last 3 consecutive wins  , 4 consecutive final  appearances in last 4 world cups dating from 1996 , 29 unbeaten match streak ( last one losing 12 years ago  against pakistan 1999 WC group match at headingley) , Aussies travel back to Sub continent with not being favorites to win !!! . This is huge relief ofcourse for battered captain Ricky Ponting . 12 years of dominance in world cricket coupled with 3 ashes losses in the same period has questioned Aussies chance at winning 2011 world cup .  Inspite of losing their sheen and losing their golden generation after 2007 WC , they have lost only 28 odis out of 98 odis in last 4 years and come to play  2011 tournament as world's  no 1 in ODI.

Yes they lost Gilly, Haydos, Mcgrath, Warne . Yes Ponting , Clarke are woefully short of form. Yes They lack a good slow bowler to exploit the sub continent conditions but to write off them  will be a mistake teams  will pay  . They still have  a great opening pair of inform Shane Watson and Brad Haddin , Michael Hussey maybe injury struck m but he is still a force to reckon with, David Hussey , Cameron White are still handful for most teams and if Clarke and Ponting hit the form , god save the opponents . Their bowling unit alos looks formidable although lack the grittiness of 2007 and 2003 . Still Lee, Johnson, Tait can be pretty destructive , Weakest link is still slow bowler but  i wil not write them off.. Remember this was the team who won 1999 world cup from jaws of defeat ( defeating windies in 1999 set the tone for the rest of decade ) , 1987 they have done the same thing coming with struggling team . 1996 was when they were still not favourites and yet were close to win  (if not for the histronics of Da silva and Jayasuriya ) , 

I will still put my money on Aussies to  make the semifinals and maybe even finals , not because they are favourite team but because they are  side with  enormous history, spirit and attitude .

Watch out for Punter and his new crop of people . My bet : Semifinals appearance the least,  wining the world cup at best

India : yeah my  national team , the best test team in world, and 2nd best team in Odis,  after 28 years , India finally are arriving Wc as tag of  favourites. Tendulkar playing his last world cup has one trophy missing from his cabinet , and he is desperately trying to avoid the  tag of greatest player not have been part of world cup  squad( Ponting was part of 4 world cup campaigns just to put into perspective) .. Luckily for Tendulkar, not only his form  , but also the team he is part of can be considered India;s best chance to win the world cup . 2003 was the golden generation which missed it by a huge error in the final ( Zak was an idiot  !!)
2007 was lost even before it  began . 2011 they  start off as favourites and the most formidable team in the world .
Yes batting looks phenomenal . Sachin, Sehwag , Gambhir, Yuvraj, Kohli and Dhoni are  major forces and they can create havoc , add in Yusuf Pathan and you  have a beast of batting lineup on paper ( yes papertigers ! but it remains to be seen how they can hold up at home with pressure to win .

Bowling is not too bad although it can be little pale when compared to batting . everything revolves around Zak , who i am sure has learnt his lesson from 2003 , He remains  the best bowler of  this decade for India amd everythung depends on him. Bhajji can be good option although i am never sure how good wicket taker he is .. with Praveen Kumar , nehra, patel, Indian bowling looks a little weak and if team can thrash 2 of them , India is in trouble..

with no spare wicket keeper, Dhoni is under strain to bat , keep and captain and if he misses one of them, India is in spot of bother

While This is the best indian team to have graced a world cup start , It could well be decided by one man perservance to bring the one thing he cherishes  the most now : Sachin  Tendulkar.
His last outing in a tournament which has seen him take his aura to next level ( be it his 140 against Kenya on dusty cuttack pitch in 1996  or swashbuckling 98 against Pakistan at Centurion in 2003) , This is the one thing  his billion followers want him to grab and hold.    India;s chance to win the world cup depend on one man : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar .

My prediction : Semi final berth atleast and then rest depends on other factors, 

Football Musings

Jan 30/31st always is exiciting day for all football fans across the world.  Transfer  deadline ends in less than 36 hrs and its great to see Telegraph , news of the world, espn , guardian, and many others sucking on the any news they get from the "sources".

Suarez hogs headlines as Liverpool snap up the Dutch Giant Ajax striker  . from 30,000 Ft it looks a great buy , Suarez is in awesome form for Ajax and his world cup form ( saving his howler againts ghana, which was ofcourse shadowed by Gyan ) was something of a  phenomeno, Liverpool finally has woken up from slumber , It was high time Liv'pool  get a quality signing and owners stuck with their original theme to wanting to buy new players ..

But they recieved a "jhatka" less than 24 hrs with the talisman Torres wanting to move away to my team Blues.. Now ofcourse the reds rejected  his transfer request , but nevertheless , it brings in an interesting end to this transfer window , with less than 48 hrs to go , Torres, Anelka, would sweating as to where their futures would lie( fyi : Livpool asked Chelsea on 50million pounds buyout and anelka to start the negotiating the buy of Torres, now tats big money! )

My opinion : Chelsea should go for one last gasp.. Torres is still young when compared to Anelka and is hungrier to play  in UCL , which Liv pool doesnt lool like playing until 2013 ., Naturally he is determined to move , Part of the reason is Torres  moving away could be this . He is one guy who stuck to Livpool during the crisis apart from Gerrard ( diff is Gerrard is Livpool man and Torres moved to  Merseyside outfit from Atletico Madrid to just play for that and get into  big league, no offence to Los Colchoneros fans )
Thus with Livpool moving to 7th last year and  no signs of making better than that , Torres move is very much understanable

And from Chelsea side, its still a good move, mind you chelsea is still looking  for a 3rd good striker to team with Drogba who at 32 is no longer that potent force he was couple of seasons ago, With neymar bid failing, and with David Luiz deal collapsed  chelsea atleast needs to improve the strike for the second half of the season and work on  improving the midfield and defence in the summer, thus torres would be great addition to the blues, he knows english football  and  he is used to pressure of the big clubs, on negative is his injury pronnes , but hey i would still put him better bet than Neymar, who lets face it might be a prodigy but is unproven in English Football arena ( except in fantasy football where he is a legend in makiing :)  )

 David Luiz deal falling off is a big disappoint ment for me , He is a young gun and future star in making , Although  i hoped Chelsea would have done better than that , They could have gone for Simon Kjaer , who in my opinion is the one of the best young defenders in the continental europe .  I hope ancelotti rises to occasion coming season and improve the defence. Midfield is what i am worried as a fan , Lampard will be 33 in June , We need some young guns as long term replacement for lampard.. Eden hazard is great prospect , but i suppose wenger is looking to snap another frenchman to his pseudo french boys team


Finally I hope... Chelsea kick off their campaign to attack  the leaders man u in their pursuit of what i think could be last win for Sir Alex( Man u wont win in 2012 :P) . and as i type this my mouth dropped open as i read Spurs try to secure Aguero in a failed 38.5 Mill GBP bid.  Holy Cow.. what is redknapp thinking ??

Looks like its all set for an exicting end to the finish line? who will  be most content? most rich? most exhilirated ? . We need to wait until 11pm CET

Arvind

P5 Veto

Just skimmed this post was wondering . why in the hell is france still P5 ?
http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/20/germany_makes_its_case_to_join_the_p_5_america_shrugs



France and UK ( 2 Euro nations comprising of 120 mil popln is not the force which it was in mid 20th century ... Time for upgrade .
Japan, India, Brasil , Germany .. One of them should be included ? which one though should be Interesting one

Personally in my opinion instead of expanding p5 , france and Uk should be replaced by single EU seat
and thus it should look something like

1. USA
2.China
3.EU( France, Germany and UK to leadthe way, EU policy should design  this change on how it should be lead)
4.India
5.Brasil

(Thus this way , world popln of almost 3.3 Mln is represnted and also would include all major regions.. Japan maybe also be not a bad choice considering their economy but with their weakining of global clout , it brings out a difficult choice.. )

But high time France substantiate itself on why it should be in P5 .

2011 : travel What does the year beckon

2011 : what do we have in store in travel .,
Both NYT and lonely planet have come up with their own versions of places to go around the world .
For the budget backpackers like me, LP also included Budget destinations in its list .

For more on these, you can check it at

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/travel/09where-to-go.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=travel

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bangladesh/travel-tips-and-articles/76216

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/travel-tips-and-articles/76164

So , yours truly has also come up with a list for myself to do in next months and years

So some of  places and regions which are in my list to do ( in no particular order are )

1. North Korea

2. Australia

3. Siberia and East Russia   (inclu Sakhalin Province)

4. Israel

5. USA

6. Ukraine

7. Central Asia ( all the "stans")

8. Northern China ( Beijing and Beyond)

9. Turkey

and finally

10. Morocco

Should be keeping me busy to do this next few years but yes bigger decade plan is to  visit them ..

Now as Ravi Teja says in his movie " Kick" movie .. idi ra kick ante ... kinda holds true here .  :)

Anyway ..  time to start off this . North China  for this quarter has been confirmed to do . Now starts  the exciting process how and budget allocation and roi ..

Should be fun doing this ..

Cheers,

Arvind

random thts

Sitting in the what Milton Friedman describes as the greatest experiment of capitalism , Its amusing to see that the political system which appeals to me most as an individual has been something the present day  Norwegians live in

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/global/14frugal.html
this article made me sit up and ponder. two questions
1. Did socialism really fail?
and
2. Did capitalism really succeed ?

4 forms of society has made up think and wonder what is going on ?
China, India, USA and norway these 4 countries , their political system, their economic shift and their basic  belief in life and its agonies and happiness  is making me think what is really going to work in 21st century ?

2008 great recession has showed the fallacies of american dream just like 2010 has showed the ruptures of australian cricket (bad example but as cricket fan it works apt)

the human rights record, censorship, inequality  highlight some of the issues which china needs to work upon to treat itself as global power and moral police worker for the planet .(although current day affairs show that china is not interested in taking up the role although would happily take up the seat albeit with new keyword  soft power)

India unfortunately has slighly larger share of problems, corruption , inequality between cities and towns , a really bad functioning of democracy ( my opinion is india's political system is pseudo democracy , since to be a democractic society , people needs to elect freely on their own free ideas the best form of government and since more than 60% of people living do not even know how to read. write or understand . the whole concept gets distorted and the people vote out on the ply on best promised deals... so when people do not themselves know what is correct for them due to illiteracy, democracy becomes a distorted and biased idea)

but anyway my opinion aside, india still suffers from being at crossroads of the  development with rising urban development , poor infrastructure and distant rural soceity coupled with western influx of societal ideas blurring the concept of "indian" way of life.. Still  the fact that it has remained stable despite all ills and that fact the biggest curse popln also will act as biggest propellant for human development ( youngest population and  highest workforce popln in the world in next 3-4 decades) makes the place an exciting  countrry to watch .

Norway : low popln with high socialist measures make its super attractive place to retire i think.. yes weather gets cold. yes you pay 50% tax and end up living in a boring , street of ugly oslo or beautiful little tromso but nevertheless, the gains you get in welfare of society and indvidual cannot be discarded..


Well  now  i think i will compare with laissez faire of Asia.. and i will say life here is not too bad if you know what you want

On sepearte and final note ,Capitalisam and Socialism have never truly represented in its truest form in the society. What America and Russia displayed in 20th century can at best be called their version of the societies and it will be interesting to see how  the likes of Russia, China, India, Brasil, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa will run it  in this century..

It might be Samuel Huntington , the American political scientist was probably partially right  about 21st century .. but nevertheless... if 2 countries in 20th century could dazzle and glitz us with so many events, theories, and history,  imagine what these 11 could produce along with USA  and other key actors ( Iran, Iraq, Af-Pak, Venezuela, EU, North Korea, Rest of Middle East) come up.. Ending on a very cinematic note. 21st century looks as cinema made with Bollywood script of mixing up ( political soceities) coupled with A list stars of Hollywood..

Lucas and Spielberg , Are you wondering  as what could be next epic movie in making ?

Cheers from Hong Kong

Arvind

Bilderberg Group?

One of the things which has amused and intrigued me in recent time was BilderbergGroup .

Does anyone know what Bilderberg group is and does? If i do a survey of 1000 people from all countries , chances are maybe less than 5% of people would know what it is and thats exactly why its has been running for all these years .,..

So ,,What is Bilderberg group ?
 Bilderberg Group  can be defined in a crude manner as World Economic Forum upgrade  or can be said as secretive executive forum  of wef .. .indeeed it exists and is not myth as some spook mentions it

Who attends the meeting ?

130 elite people from the "West"  attend the event . These people are most the influential people in politcs, business,  bankers, royal family .. are part of the group .. 2/3 come from European Union nations and remaining 1./3 come from the other part of the atlantic.  Some of the participants in the previous meetings were Barack  Obama , Queen of Netherlands, CEOS of major firms like IBM, Xerox,.Nokia, Prince Charles , Timothu Geithner, Henry Kissinger, Paul Volcker,Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Jose Manuel Barosso, Angela Merkel,Bill Gates..

Where do the meetings take place?

Usually the meetings are sceretive ,and media coverage is  not allowed. But they do nicely let people know where they meet .  It could be  cosy and exotic place like Kitzbuhel or sleek and gorgeous Istanbul .. The 2010 meet was held in sitges, spain .

What do they  do ?

its bassically a  group who meet and discuss about world issues . 2010 meeting had discussed following issues . (soruce official website)

• Current Events: North Korea, Iran and Non-Proliferation
• Global Cooling: Implications of Slow Economic Growth
• The Growing Influence of Cyber Technology
• Is Financial Reform Progressing?
• US and European Fiscal and Financial Challenges
• The European Union and the Crisis of the Euro
• Promises of Medical Science
• Energy's Promises and Challenges
• Security in a Proliferated World
• Social Networking: From the Obama Campaign to the Iranian Revolution
• Europe-US: A New Approach
• Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Region
• Can We Feed the World?

Now what amused me most  was the idea the 130  people from Influential west come once a year for gala evening to discuss the problems of the world in an informal gathering attending in as private capacity , when half to almost each and every problem soolution /impact and effect is in principle determined by one nation "China " .. Thus my next question which i ask  is Is Bilderberg group irrelevant ? If yes ,then why it does get continued  year by year and press  balking behind them to get a snap or slight picture .,


Second Question  i have .. Whats the whole idea of a single west meeting together ? Understandable  during 60s, 70s, the event made sense in a wide west world .. But in 2011 .. with macro dyanmics of the world changing so fast , its hard to imagine what the result of such event makes sense of global  world .. Why not include influential people from  growth markets as well ... G8 was moved to G20 as wider talks scenari0. Why not bilderberg expand its membership ?

Finally . How does Bilderberg group connect with  other instititions like bretton woods system , or the the national governments of US and China ? Surely Sino-US relations on key areas like Nuclear Proliferations, Iran and North Korea cannot be undermined. And if  people from one of the group attend this event and other doesnt ? what are the implications in understanding the viewpoint of these issues, when chances are  bilderberg particpant already has biased or even different viewpoint because he is part of the group.. I know it sounds too far fetched but it nevertheless is a point to ponder  about

So my question is as we head towards a sam huntington puts in "clash of civilization - a new world order" as a multipolar world with different pillars  along USA to govern the planet , Will Bilderberg group change?  as the new order forms out or will it become one of those razzmatazz event of  glitz and secrecy for the elite west to dream and charade their  synthetic glamour aided by Chinese investements .


Arvind .Ganti
Date : 17th Jan 2011 .Location : Hong Kong

India and why it wont be superpower and comparitive analysis with other BRIC nations Part 1

The other day while flipping through TV channels, i came across the World Economic Forum India Economic Summit Debate , a 3 day event which recently happened in New Delhi. The focus of that session was whether India was hungry for super power status . Due to my interest in International Affairs and especially India's relationship with Global world, I decided to stop flipping the channels and started watching the debate.

The panel , quite distinguished ,had Rahul Bajaj, Chairman of Bajaj Motors, Dr. Anil Gupta, Prof Strategy , Insead, Singapore, Shoma Chaudhary, Managing Editor of Tehleka ( remember Tarun Tejpal? ) , Sudha Pillai of Planning Commission and Shekhar Gupta of India Express along woth Nik Gowing of BBC World News UK.

Having heard some of the points and comments made by them , i could not help but thought about the comparison between the BRIC nations and how their Geopolitical position coupled with other factors will place them on the superpower list .

Thus i decided to write this piece to put across these nations and mention out some of the factors which could help me move in achieving the all important OECD Developed Country Tag and also in process gain more global and political clout in world affairs.

Superpower in my words defines a nation state which not only safeguards its national interests but also works towards the greater good of the region, union or the global interests . Not only they possess superior military and diplomatic clout, they also act as torchbearers for global economy and function as policeman to nation states againsts rogue organisations and combat global conflicts . Ok I am not Political science student yet , so i my definition may not be completely correct.

Also Superpower is too generic term to describe any country . There is political, economic, social, developmental ramnifications to entire debate . So to label a country superpower without considering all factors is all too generic .

Anyways i decided to do the following exercise wherein i will try to compare the nations based on factors like education , geopolitics of its region, development, economic clout , political clout on global affairs, domestic environment etc .

So I thought about India first and here were the some of the initial thoughts which i had

INDIA: As a permanent member of security council ?

My first reaction? Nah ? Not possible atleast in near future?

why ?

1. Geopolitics of the South Asia.

One of the biggests problems India have which will impede its ambition for global powerhouse of 21st Century is its geography .

Yes, India's Geopolitical problems will probably supersede and will decide the way how INdia will implement and even change the way its foreign policy is conducted with its neighbours, .


Come to think of it, India is the only major country in the world which is situated in such a neighbourhood where each of it considers India as threat . To put it other way, one of the ways which a nation progresses in achieving global clout is by maintaining good relations with its neighbouring country , be it militarily, diplomatically, trade and development wise, economic wise and even on cultural exchange wise ( Think Germany-Austria economic relations, UK-Ireland, China-South Korea Trade, US-Canada etc ) . Notice that some of them have hatred, rivalry, past history of bloodshed but on today's front they try to use it their advantage the cultural, historical relationship in a positive one. India unfortunately is not so lucky .

India boasts of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Bangladesh , Nepal as its neighbours , Barring Nepal , none of them are allys. Worse we have had wars/conflicts/tensions with each one of them in last 63 years . Although India and China are having weak political relationship ( Arunachal Pradesh, Dalai Lama and Tibet still are the thorns between the nations), Economically , this could be a partnership which India should not afford to lose, China is India's second biggest trading partner after UAE and the Trade between the nations is setting the trend of whats to come in future when the manufactuing hub of china meets services hub of India. Thus its imperative for India to improve its economic relationship with its Asian Neighbour and this could also be decisive step in India's pursuit of UNSC seat if China and India remain on good terms on trade wise. Yes, China will still object to India's claim due to power shift in South Asian Politics but if trade develops to something better in future between nations, China might still end up not "rejecting" .

On other fronts, relationship with Pakistan will be something which will define the way South Asia will move in this century, with Af-Pak / US/ NATO all involved, India might be actually be relieved its not spending its time in Af-pak politics although India is doing lot of development activities along with UN which stakes it claim with any pie which the region offers . Definitely , This relationship and how US , China and even Russia will evolve something with Pakistan and Taliban will determine India's power in the region. It could well be the litmus test for India to see if it can try to rise and maintain its status as Regional Power and as well as Soft Power.

Thus, it remains critical how India's Foreign Policy with Pakistan evolves as time goes which will determine how the region will shape . With China working to increasing its friendship with its karakoram neighbour and taken the relationship to the next level ( the development of gwadar port ,and linking gwadar with urumqi as the long haul infrastructure link between the isolated western China and arabian sea) , It will be interesting how india handles both its neighbours .


2. Economy vs Governance

India's economy is the shining bright beacon in this period of financial and economical doom and gloom. Post liberalisation in 1991, India has managed to achieve astounding success on growth . Maintaining a healthy 6-8% growth during 2007-2010 crisis indicated the stability and optimism the nation has when compared to some other nations.

Yes, we all have seen the way cities like Gurgaon, Bangalore have taken the world by storm. Unfortunately the very growing economy brought out the loopholes of our system. Even though we seem to grow 8%-9% economic wise, our governance is not even matching up to half the growth set by economy and this will what probably impede India's bid for superpower. India seem to be the only country where Electricty lost is so huge that it actually can be accountable as % of GDP lost . We also seem to have infrastructure which is at best described as " basic" . Our urban infrastructure is turning out to be a nightmare and if not solved very soon , it will be become a limping leg to the healthy body .

We need atleast 20 metros rolled out in next 5 years , not to mention to upgradation of countless national highways into expressways/which could help trade and goods improve its efficiency. More importantly we need a sound governance system, which would enable the maintenance of its infrastructure. Unfortunately to be blunt , It would take us quite some decades to achieve this , the factors which would also depend on how the next point is tackled.

Thus while India’s growth rate is marching forward, its also carrying the infection of the governance, failure to cure would cripple the very health of the indicator which India is thriving in its current day.


Continued Next Post

Random Observations about India's Capital

1. Delhi Metro is one of the best metros in the world, sadly the same cannot be commented about its commuters 

2. Satellite City Gurgaon ranks 11th in life after work index in some ranking . i will say ranking methodology was pretty generous on the city 

3. The air in the city is so powerful that it would enable  your old allegeries unleash itself  within minutes to such an extent that even air from central africa would be ashamed of it

4. " Gaadi ke bina kya jeena yaaron" that seems to be the motto of Gurgaon and Noida Municipal Authorities.


5. Guess Kalmadi and Co did one hell of a job with CWG . I see cleaner roads, cleaner games village post event  and even cleaner chaos at T3


6. Price of a cinema ticket at Gurgaon multiplex was more expensive that Price of a ticket in South Western Europe  :O.. kya baat hai.. Gurgaon is on fire.. 


7. I finally managed to see the residences of these politicians.. Absolutely down to earth homes considering their revenue through scarlet corruption as Nani  Palkivala .Guess thats called humblness 


8. One of the best things which Dilli boasts which even NYC , London or Tokyo will not have is the parantha wali galli.. and in general Dilli ka food.. Respect!!


9. Whats with Indianized Names of the Metros ? New Fad  i suppose :)

Still on positive side, Delhi has lot of offer both for tourists or residents , 


As for me, my memories lie with understand the yellow line from Jahagirpuri to Huda City center and how the metro distracts your attention to kendriya sachivalaya when you are interested in going to Guru Dronacharya or Sikandarpur. 

Hopefully i will start blogging again

I never really am a blogger , but i guess there comes a time where you feel the need to start writing something , else you lose the writing skills :)


After loong time i am back again , lots of travels happened between the time of this post and the previous post and i hope i can try to recount my travel experiences from now .

On the flip side, i started showing lot of interest and enthusiasm understanding the politics and international affairs landscape, living in Europe paved me way to understand the complexities of different countries and how they function and my travel experiences enabled to appreciate the great art of global affairs. My interest in Global Affairs include geopolitics of the world states, European states , India and its Globalization, Foreign policy of India and macroeconomics and its impact.

Hoping to have a continued momentum on this to make an suitable impact .

Travelogue Ep 1 part 1 : 33 hrs of Western Europe

My first travel outside Iberian Peninsula started with a long and ardous journey from Madrid to Innsbruck . Mode of transportation for first 28 hrs of journey was bus . Yes , you heard it rite a normal coach bus spanning across 3 countries. before this trip , the longest time i ever spent on a bus was between Kodad , a tiny village near vijaywada and Hyderabad, a journey of 300kms which took about 5 hrs . so coming with that experience , 28hrs of travel covering 3 countries on an uncomfortable seat was a slighly overwhelming initially . Anyway , i booked my trip with first leg: Madrid-Zurich on a bus via Barcelona, Montpelier, Grenoble, Geneva , Bern, Lausanne and then a Eurocity(EC) Express train from Zurich to Innbruck.

Starting the journey at 9am from Madrid Estacion de sur , as i bid good bye to my brother who was waving from the platform , it could not help but remember that i am starting another journey on to unknown. Leaving the known lifestyle of Iberia, it was hard to imagine i need start again on cultural journey this time in the unknown lands of alps and central Europe, the diversity of Europe hit me hard as i thought this .

Anyway bus started rolling over the streets of madrid, soon leaving the city and venturing into rugged landscape of spain , the next stop of the journey was Zaragoza( also known as saragossa) . This was the time Saragossa was hosting Expo 2008 with water and sustainable development as its main theme. So naturally 3 hrs later as we reach near the city limits , we are welcomed with great theme decorations of city for Expo. Zaragossa transformed itself into a mini globe with people, companies , around the world congregrating for the ocassion . It did look special with Water Tower rising high among the zaragoza landscape . With loads of shows , thematic squares displaying water as main theme and a river aquarium which became the biggest freshwater aquarium , Zaragossa was on the world map . Interestingly 10 years ago , It was another iberian city which got a chance to showcase its might , Lisboa. Till date Lisboa cherishes parques de nacioes as a historical landmark in its glorious history , a fact which ascertains the fact expo 98 was regarded as one of the best expo in the history

After Zaragossa , the bus started rolling and after sometime we stopped for a lunch break in a nearby motel. Since i packed my food while i left , i did not much issues with food on that day .

After lunch , the bus started its way to catalunya with barcelona its final destination where we change buses for central europe.

Barcelona , the vibrant city on med sea, one of the most popular cities on Europe, a true backpacking paradise, a walk through la ramblas , placa de catalunya could not help but think how different barcelona is diff from madrid

Rivalry between these two cities are unparalled as it is one of few countries in Europe which doesnt fall in primate city category , for more information on primate city . pls google primate city or check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate_city.

Rivalry among barcelona and madrid in some ways resemble the rivalry which Mumbai and Delhi present . ( barcelona as mumbai and madrid as delhi ) . you can help but compare as u traverse across these cities . But in personal opinion i found both cities enchanting but will pick barcelona ( med sea tilts the balance here :) )

My stay in barcelona was short as i had to head to Zurich soon . But having been to barcelona a month before , i was very much familiar with cityscape and so no issues boarding the next bus .

My next post will cover the second leg of the journey ( Spain to Alps)

Just a final thought , If you ever intend to travel Iberia, make it a point to give atleast 10 days of tarvel if you are covering spain and portugal in total as spain is big , bigger than u think ,

So final one liners as i leave iberia


1. Dont talk rude about Football ( Real Madrid or FC barca or real vs barca ) . you are going to face music :)
2. Spain and Portugal are known to be most relaxed among all European countries . If a party is scheduled for 9pm . dont expect ppl to pour before 10 . both countries follow same pattern . It is a culture shock even for someone who is not from this region ( read central europe esp Germany and Austria)
3. Greetings to women : this is also another major culture shock ppl outside Europe see , pls follow proper etiquette here . maybe its unknown first time , but you will learn it .
4. Portuguese is not spanish , I know many people know this and yet many people dont know this . They are differnt langauges. similar sounding , latin grammar as base , part of romance lanaguges but they are essentially two different languages
5. Spain business hours are slightly different from European style , so this works well for some and doesnt for many . ( Read spanish siesta , )
6. Spain and Portugal are both famous for bullfighting , but there is essential difference between them . In spain , after the fight, the bulls are killed whereas in portugal the bulls are left free ( I could not think anything but the essential theme which these two countries show to the world)
7. Portuguese doesnt follow European time . odd one out in continental europe. some ppl do forget this :)
8. Veggie guys are going to face some prob . Ham rules in Spain , Sea food in portugal . Outside madrid, barcelona , lisbon and porto , it is very diff to get veg food. ppl rely on their own cooked food or basic salad, frites. Indian food availability outside big cities is still a dream :)
9. Coffee in portugal is another great experience . It is amazing but you have it say it right . if yoiu say coffee , you are going to get a black coffee in small 30 ml cup ( expresso ) . also coffee is served after every meal inlcuding dinner , doesnt matter whether dinner was served at 11pm :)
10. Wines rule in this part of the world. so make sure u get the best of rioja, porto wines.
11. Travel is still unfortunately a biggest handicap among cities in both countries ( more so in Spain ) , start difference from france ( similar country in area) .
12 . Buses are best ways to travel . unless ur are keen to try to the new AVE ,
13. from Travel perspective the most known path ppl take
Madrid-Toledo-Segovia -Lisbon -Sintra-Cascais back madrid . Expect to add Algarve or Porto if you have extra days in Portugal . Alternatively The spanish triangle of Cordoba-Granada-Seville can be combined with Algarve .

Off Beaten track for both countries is North . The douro valley , braga and viana de castelo are excellent trips , similarly a trip to guggenheim , asturias is a great experience


More travel tips, details, information use rick steves guide or lonely planet .

Thats all here .

here are some of the pics
Plaza Mayor, one of the largest squares in Europe



Puerta de Alacala






Placa de communicaiones



Prado Museum





Gran Via ,







The Royal Palace, Madrid


Nou Camp , Barcelona





Sagrada Familia








view from hostel , la ramblas







Next post Travelogue part 2 ep 2 : central european sojourn

back after hiatus

hello
I am back after long hiatus . its almost year since the last post , this time i am hoping to blog regularly .

Time swiftly passed in these last 18 months, and i loved every moment of my time in last 1.5 years .

My stint in portugal came to an end. It turned out be one of the most memorable experiences of my life , then started a new life in spain first and then later in snowy alpine lands of innsbruck .
I am now in innsbruck from last 15 months with GE . Its been a fantastic experience living and working in austria.
completely different from portugal in every aspect. My time in Austria also made me travel junkie . When i left Portugal , i only travelled portugal and India in my whole lifetime and now as write this on lovely september afternoon , i am privileged to have travelled 18 more countries in same timeframe . Each travel journey made learn and yearn for more. Traveling made to think , reason beyond norm, Endless planning , airlines permutations and combinations, hostel searching , trip planners from wikipedia and virtual tourist to good old lonely planet , it challenged me to make decisions , work in a team with my friend, and at same time enabled to learn more about Europe and myself.

So next posts will feature my travel experiences and my learnings .

I am Back

Yes .. Finally i am back blogging . Its been long time since i wrote a post . the reasons for absence are numerous like partly it was that i was lazy and partly i was busy with some other activities .
From now on i will try to pen down the travelogues in Portugal .

So after my first week of Portugal . i soon got adjusted to the culture, living style of Portugal and so days were passing swiftly . I began my first travel in country during Diwali . It was 9th November , my first diwali outside my country . I knew being a non traditional bastion for indians , i wasnt expecting anythin spectactular display of fireworks .. and yeah i was right . I took a day off from the work and went to the capital - Lisbon , the reason being i knew that there was a temple in Lisbon and that quite a significant amount of hindu population lived in Lisbon.. so we started on thursday night from coimbra to lisbon . The journey was an experience. we contacted the only guy we knew from Lisbon - an indian, Sowmya to tell him that we would be coming over his place and told him that we would join him by 10-11 pm .he said he would be waiting for us at some place as he wud be returning from office that time . We agreed to meet there . It looked all smooth and all set but it turned out to be something different . We reached the Bus Station at around 8.15pm to check in the bus to Lisbon and Ticket lady gives a shocker saying that next bus is the last bus and it starts at 10pm.

we had no other choice except to sit and wait for the bus . Finally the bus came at 10pm and we left for Lisbon .. The bus was painfully slow . It was 12am and we still did not reach lisbon ..Sowmya finally gave a message that he would be leaving and gave us the directions to home . We were puzzled .. It was new city , different langauge, and most importantly it was almost 1 am . we were not sure how to go ahead to the place he said. Finally we reached Sete Rios , Lisbon at around 1 am . The place we were heading was Amoreiras- Campolide.. We had no clue how to go there . There were two buses which ply in that route but we werent sure about the timings and whether buses ply at this time.. Metro in Lisbon closes at 1am . so we ruled out metro . Using broken portuguese phrases gestures and English we reached a place jsut outside Alvalade Stadium.. and then we saw few taxis coming .. We did not want to use taxis because we werent sure abt safety plus we thought it wud be costly .. Finally with no choice left . we reached for taxis. He looked old and mean . I was wondering what would be happen next .. Me and Sridhar got down and told the address ..He started moving taking taxi in zig zag roads.. i was confused .. but to my relief he took to the right place and we reached my friend´s place at arnd 1.15 am. it was cold , dark night and we managed to pull off ourselves in a strange city .

Pointers

• Lisbon is one of the safest cities in Europe. You can roam on the streets even at 2-3 am
  
• The modern part of Lisbon just looks like anyother major city like Mumbai or Delhi .. Nothin Spectacular ..
• Taxis in Lisbon start at 2€ which incidently is cheaper thn Coimbra ..
  
• Metro in Lisbon is not very well expanded.. covers most of the parts but not all and Metro closes by 1 am
  
• Buses in Portugal are no different than india .. They are slow and they do not start at the given time with the exceptions of International Departures
• Roads in Portugal are smoooth . Great for driving
  
• Portugal Main Cities - Lisbon- Coimbra- Porto are connected by the main Highway A1which is called Highway of Portugal
• Metro sign in Lisbon is designated as Half M written in Red
• The Main Transport Hubs in Lisbon are Oriente, Entrecampos , Sete Rios and Santa Apolonia

In the next step i will recount about my Travel experience in Lisbon and Nazare ..

Bom fim Semana.. Adeus

First week In Portugal (oct 14th-oct 22nd)

After my first day i feel like telling the first week here ..it was one of the those amazing week which i can think of . soon after my day 1 was over, i was at my office on day 2 . office is closeby a 30 minutes walk .. which was instrumental in me shedding some kilos of weight .. daily walk of 1 hr made my day and since coimbra is elevated town everything from houses to mercados and offices look on top of hill . so my daily routine is climb down my hill walk on straight ground for some time and climb up hill again .. its quite tiring and you sweat profusely by the time you reach office even though the outside temperature is 5 degrees.. coming bak to the topic.. i reached my office after and then antonio introduced me to my boss- Jorge Marques. My boss has got a style of his own. he is an achiever . manages offices on two continents on with elan. He is a guy who would inspire any new comer like me and i am happy to say i have got a great boss heading my company .

After the ice breakers wid the colleagues at work , i soon started my work on day 1. was directly rolled in the ongoing project and yeah my work life began .. after working for couple of hours .. i soon realised i was hungry .. i did not have anything to eat and then i had known that lunch time was about to begin .

Most of my colleagues eat out at the restaurants and few go home . i was invited by my colleagues to join for lunch at restaurant . The lunch hours in Portugal are quite long . we get 1.30 hrs of lunch time .. i was initally perplexed as why so much time was given for lunch and when i went to restuarant . i realised it ..Food is very important in Portuguese culture. It is this time they get time to catch up with people and talk.. Portuguese love to eat , talk , sit in restaurants and relax in the lunch break .. Even the dinner ,they eat lot and the most important thing i noticed about dinner is Portuguese people love to eat late . i have seen people start their dinner at 11am which goes till 12.30 -1 am too and some restaurants do no start serving before 9-10pm . Newayz when i went to lunch with colleagues to a restauarant . i did not expect that i would be encountering my first of manyof the new cultural experiences.. we all sat down and soon bread came and then i saw wine coming up .. i was surprised to see white wine (vinho branco) coming up .. and thats when i got my first cultural experience.. Portuguese people love to drink wine and it is social habit and customary to serve wine with food. Soon i was drinking wine which was quite good and was trying to see the food menu and i was not surprised.. Menu only had

1 beef
2 pork
3 Turkey
4 Fish
many dishes involving the one of the above four as main ingredient . i was left choiceless.. i was feeling hungry and there were no other restuarant closeby and tats when one of my colleague talked to the kitchen guys to include the some vegetarian salads or eggs.. they said they could involve eggs.. so at last i got eggs but ofcourse it came wid fish .. i was shocked because people here dont just prepare eggs or omlette. these serve as side dishes to main one.. It was hard one but yes i had eggs and i tasted fish for the first time in my life .. I am not proud saying that but yes i realised sometimes u are stuck in situations where you donot ahve much choices.. and thats when some hard decisions need to taken . I would say i did not relish the food but neverthless i was a great experience for me as i was thrown in the most challlenging scenario i could ever face when i was in a new country and was just 24 hrs old.. me and my friend decided we better bring our own food next time as it also saves money which would have been spent eating daily at a restaurant..

Newayz after my culinaryexperience , it was work usual and soon the days of the week started to fly and very soon weekend approached.. my first weekend in the new country and thats when i got to know that AIESEC was having a local conference at a place called Sao pedro do sul in north central part of the country. we were also invited and thus my first weekend i was spending outside coimbra .. we were picked on friday by Luis and Artemisa. and soon we were speeding fast on highway which actually connects Portugal and Spain . It connects between the cities of Coimbra , Porto to the Spanish city of Salamanca, which also like Coimbra is a University Town. while we were driving , it was the first time i saw the speedometer hitting 150kmph/hr and soon it reached its highest of 190km/hr .. There was absolute no sensation and we felt like we were moving normally .. realised that nature and quality of roads make a huge impact in driving a fast car.. now i realised why F1 cars can so zoom fast and yet driver does not ahve any effect. I realised that apart from the technical specs of car and the ability of the driver , it is equally important to see the nature of surface on which it is driven . Newayz it felt great going at 170 km-180km/hr and soon we reached Sao pedro do sul . The accomodation was actually a pousada juventude which is the portuguese word for "Youth Hostel". It was a very neat hostel providing all basic amenities and cheap rates for youngsters.After arrviing we directly went to party and partied whole nite till 4am . it was dance fun booze frolic,jives and tats when i heard Tunak Tunak Tun of Daler Mehandi sung by portuguese guys .. Boy oh Boy the guy is famous all over the world.. First i heard this from a group of Chinese and Japanese Aiesecers in an international conference and now it was portuguese.. He must be proud that his songs are international. It was great start of getting introduced to fellow aiesecers. The next day it was serious business for AIESECers, The conference was to introduce the newbies into the organisations and i saw the common thing among all people was smartness and ability to understand and respect the other cultures-one of the qualities you would find in aiesecers all over the world.

We dd not take part in the sessions as it was not meant for us and so we were helped by few aiesecers to take around the whole place. so we spent the whole morning and afternoon session exploring the place . We went around with Maria , a Ceeder from Romania, Sridhar and Luis

Sao pedro do sul is small village in north central portugal around 200km from Spanish border . It was pictersque village with lush green tress and fields of olive around the village. we went around the whole village and to the old age hospital which uses the hot springs to cure the diseases of the old . It was great to see a rural town . That was time i felt like i was in Europe. Typical restuarants with people seated outside having a morning cafe .People relaxing , taking short strolls or reading newspaper. it was great experience. we went around the river and the inatel place. By the time we finsihed out tour we we were very tired and so we headed back to the conference.





Later the evening passed quickly talking to people , relaxing .. nite was party time.. partyin went till early morning 6am and it was great opportunity to socialize with people . The last day of conference was pretty much the same.. we did not ahve much to do so we just watched tv , talk to people , share our experiences of living in india and sleeping . i also remember it was amzing day because i happen see the Formula 1 Final race at the hostel wth all portuguese f1 fans . Kimi Raikonne wins a dramatic race and the championshi. Although it was weird to hear as it was all in portuguese .. My first Portuguese f1 commentary.. missed your commentary -- steve slater ..

Finally it was the end of conference at 7pm and we slowly moved out by 9pm..It was great weeknd.. got a chance to explore countryside portugal and meet various people . I would say a satisying end to a weekend and great start of my days in this country ..
Inspired by Teresa , i am also feelin like starting observation pointers

• Portuguese eat late . be it dinner or lunch
  
• lunch hours are long usually lasting for more than 1 hour
  
• Professionally Portuguese are punctual but outside work not much of difference when compared to India. expect them to be late alteast 10-15 minutes
  
• Portuguese love their fish and football
  
• Portugal driving is opposite to that of india
  
• Wine is served with food and it is common to see wine everywhere
  
• Buses in coimbra are much costlier than the rest of the country and aparently as costly as Amsterdam and Brussels
• Coimbra is known Ciuidade dos Estudantes
  
• In portugal greeting a people is done by shaking hands if its man or kissing on their both cheeks if its woman .. was quite a shock first time..
• Coimbra is loaded with restaurants and cafes, and you would find some activities at these places all the time
  
• Portuguese find it offensive if people think it is part of Spain which many think . and alos they find insulting that the language spoken here in portuguese and not spanish
  
• Roads in Portugal are very good and are comparable to other parts of Western Europe but what sets portugal apart from others is the high rate of accidents on these highways
  

Adeus.. for now..

Até Logo ..

Day 1 in Portugal

Since i am bit late on starting this blog . let me recount my experience of my day in Portugal. it was Oct 14th i landed on Portela Airport, Lisbon . my intial feeling was odd. i never felt that i was in Europe. Although i was in awe of Lisbon when the flight was descending .. the sight of Rio Tejo joining Atlantic Ocean,Ocean itself the connection of Lisbon with Setubal with the longest bridge of Europe.. Vasco Da Gama Bridge.. it was all stunning overview from 1000 ft above the ground .. but the moment i landed . it felt an odd feeling that Lisbon was unlike of what i had in mind.. It pretty much resembled Delhi.. and NCR region a bit , probably because the airport was on the modern part of city .. Airport itself was not very big .. and unlike Milan it was also not crowded.. the first thing i noticed was .. there was no security personnel in the whole airport!!! .. was i dreaming ? is this an international airport or a shopping mall?everyone was moving so freely.. there were no security checks.. no stoppage of baggage at all and withinseconds i was out of airport .. waiting for Antonio ... it was in complete contrast with Delhi Airport where i was standing in line for hours in the middle of the night . Maybe thats why this country is ranked one of the safest and peacful countries in the world...

Newayz.. coming back where i left i was out of Airport waiting for Antonio to pick me up.. It was all arranaged.. AIESEC would be picking me up at tha Airport and then we head to coimbra directly to my accomodation , which was also arranaged... thanks to them it all went hassle free.. newayz.,..soon Antonio and Hugo picked us up .. me and Sridhar ( other trainee from Hyd .. who came wid me ) moved seperately as Hugo´s car did not have enough space to put our luggage..and so we split.. me and Antonio went near the taxi stand and soon a merc came in .. yes. merc are taxis.. here...the meter starts at 2€. and it changes to 15 cents .. it was expecting we were going to Bus station (Alto Carro) or Train Station . but i was wrong .. we were travelling across the streets of Lisbon.. and soon entered the University of Lisbon and tats when i came to know AIESEC was having a Natl Conf today.. and so my first day itself.. i met all aiesecers from portugal . they came from porto, coimbra, other aiesec lcs of lisbon, faro .. it was nice experience.. i would say breaking the ice with the people arnd. Noticed the spirit of AIESEC is same just it as was in India.. i called back home to my parents and bro to say i reached safely.. and then i just sat in @ office.. using net and meeting other @ers who were busy in their conf..

the conf ended late at 10pm ..then all @ers left to their respective places.. we and @ers from coimbra headed towards Bus station as bus is one of the cheapest options to goto Coimbra.. It was literal running with luggage as the tat was the last bus of the day.. we managed to catch the bus in time.. bus journey was boring.. could not see any landscape of Portugal as it was nite .. just noticed.. lisbon shines at night and its quite beautiful city..tried to sleep in bus but could not .. by the time we reached coimbra i was completely exhausted.. started at 8.30pm the day before from Noida,, and it was midnite GMT time.. completely tired wid journey.. met Luis at the bus station .. he is my landlord and my buddy .. took to our room.. it was grt apartment fully furnished ..nice and cosy..the first thing i did was hit the bunk.. it was 12.30 am .. and the next day at 9am i was to be at office.. It was amazing first day in new country .. loads of experiences.. meeting people.. it was great exp overall..

Looking forward at Perth

The last 72 hrs has been one of the most dramatic times for cricket. never imagined that rivalry between countries could go so intense.. and irony is both these teams are not playing to their arch rivals but are playing to themselves. I always liked Aussie style of playing cricket- dominating , aggresive and ruthless ... i still remember the punchline which Ponting used in 2003 world cup - Intent and Intimidate.. but the recent test match against india would be in his minds for long time. 2nd test between India and Australia would be regarded as a cricket match with worst umpiring. even the attitude of aussie was not up to mark which is expected from a champion team. Bhajji getting ban was unfair and it showed how immature mike procter continues to be.. even after his showdown with indian team in south africa in Jo'Burg few years ago.. Bucknor was shown the door..tour was in jeopardy .. finally after dramatic set of events unwhirled themselves .. india proved its point about harbhajan ban and pathetic umpiring . and hence.. bhajji is back at Perth .. and so is Bowden ...


Perth , being one of the fastest pitches on the planet throws up a mouth watering contest between two teams who are heated up and it looks like Ponting would love to make a record of 17 vics and also prove kumble´s men that his bunch of blokes do have some ´spirit´. while kumble and his boys would try to erase the the sydney nightmare and try to win at venue which can be considered as a nightmare for indian batsman... Hoping perth pitch lives up the bill..

even though series is over .. the remaining two tests will still continue to attact crowds.. thanks to the events of Sydney.. waiting for 16th jan ... the only sad part for me is the match at my place will start late night and i gotta do night outs to watch it .. lol... i guess.. i mite do it ....

me signing off now... gotta do few things now...

cya... tchau ....

Portugal.Europe´s West Coast

Portugal , westernmost country of Continental Europe is also one of the smallest European country . with size as big as coastal Andhra and population of 10 million which apparently is less than the population of Kolkata . it can be righteously said that it is a small country. Also the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores are also part of Portugal. Though a small country it boasts of high standard of living and quality of life with economist ranking of 19th in world as the "country with best quality of life" ascertains the fact.
Presenting few facts about Portugal because country is so small that it is not even noticeable on map .. so here are few things about this amazing country.

Facts about Portugal

• Capital and the largest city is Lisbon with metropolitan population of 3.3 million .
• Lisbon in Portugal is called as Lisboa and the people as Lisboaetas
  
• Whole of portugal can be covered at a stretch from northern city of Viana de Castelo to southern city of Faro in few hours.
• It follows GMT time. only country in Mainland Europe to do so.
  
• All the webportals are maintained as .pt .. yet to see a portuguese website which has .com
• Calling code is +351
  
• the language spoken is Portuguese. Many mistakenly think it is like spanish .. Although they are similar to some extent . portuguese is completely different from the way it is spoken. But it is possible that a spaniard be understandable with spanish if he speaks very slowly.
• Portuguese spoken in Portugal is different from
  
• Does not have mediterranean climate although the southern province of algarve does posses similar characterstics .
  
• Have got of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world .
  
• Warmest European Country . temperatures in lisbon feels like you are back in India.
  
• North Part of Country is fertile with one of the greatest appellations region in the world present at Douro valley. Centre is filled with plateaus and mountains with Portugal´s only ski resort present in Serra da Estrela Mountains and South is enchanted with plains, wineyards and beaches.
  
• All the major cities of the country are situated next to river . Lisbon is on the banks of Rio Tagus (Tejo in Portuguese), Coimbra on Rio Mondego and Porto on Douro River.
  
• Azores and Madeira mosty are mountanous regions with highest mountain peak in Portugal situated in Azores.
• Portugal is famous for wines and corks. It is the world´s largest producer of cork and it has given to the world some of the finest wines including the Port wine.
  
• Football Crazy Nation with Cristiano Ronaldo holds a demi god status just like our Sachin Tendulkar.

According the legislation of EU . portugal divison is done the basis of the regions . and it contains following regions .
Mainland Portugal Divisons

Norte . -- North Portugal ( Porto is the main city )
Centro - Central part of the country ( Coimbra is main city .. city i live..:))
Lisboa - National Capital region
Alentejo - some of the best wine yards of portugal are situated here
Algarve - southern part of the country

The biggest cities of the country are Lisbon , Porto, Coimbra , Faro, Setubal, Evora, Braga and Aveiro.

Now it is time i tell about the place where i live.

Coimbra ( Cidade dos Estudantes)

Coimbra is the third biggest city in Portugal . It serves as cross roads of Portugal being situated midway between Lisbon and Porto. Coimbra is a University Town. It is often known as Oxford of Portugal. Home to one of the most important universities - University of Coimbra , coimbra is truly vibrant and youthful city. Its heart beat - the 35000 students which live their life in a true blue coimbra style.

My first impression of the city when i landed here are the narrow street lanes which gave the true European Flavour which i read in books and saw in discovery programmes. Another interesting thing about coimbra is nature and the lifestyle of the people here . It truly gives you the experience of living in rural European society in an medieval yet urban life of coimbra .

The biggest attraction of the city no doubt is the university of coimbra . Founded in 1290 by King Dinis , It is one of the oldest universities in continous operation in the world. The picture shows the main courtyard of theUniversity. University was originally started in Lisbon but was later moved to coimbra first in 1308. It moved back forth between Lisbon and coimbra in 14th century before in 1537 it was definitvely moved to coimbra during the reign of Joao III. University main governance is lead by Rector,Senate and University Assembly. University has 8 faculties (Letters, Law, Medicine, Sciences & Technology, Pharmacy, Economics, Psychology & Education Sciences and Sports Sciences & Physical Education). University also houses a famous library called Joanina Library, a baroque library which houses more than 250000 volumes of priceless books which are dated from 13th century onwards. It is one of the famous monuments in the university. If you ever visit coimbra, you must visit this place.

Another thing which i liked was the monumental stairs. it is series of 125 steps which is at the entrance of the university . It is one of important spots whenever any revolt or strike has to be made by the students . And it forms great help for seniors when they rag their juniors by making them run those steps. Quite imposing stairs i must say it holds its name.

One of the main things which you will observe when you live in a student city is the student community itself. Coimbra is no different . The student community be it the local university students or Erasmus Students makes it melting pot of discussions and community socializing . Two of the biggest student festivals of Europe happen in Coimbra. They are Festas das latas (Latada) and Quiema das Fitas. I will tell about these two festivals later coz i am no mood to type anymore at the moment.

Right now enuf of info gyan . it is time. i get back to my work. will tell you about coimbra , its traditions and my impressions in future posts ..
I would like to thank Teresa (Aiesecer who is rite now experiencing her exchange phase in India ) for creating an urge in me to write this blog .. i would say reading her blog kinda inspired me to write my experiences in Portugal..Thank You Teresa. Hope u have a blast in Jaipur . Ok me signing off now .. I guess you wont be too botherd abt my spelling , grammatical and tense mistakes in the blog coz i dont proof read it . i hope i would be conveying my point if sentence is grammatcially incorrect. Newayz.. will write later .. have fun .

Até Logo ... Tchau..