The US visit
Saturday, November 22, 2008 1 Comment »In April-May 2008, I visited USA for about 40 days on work. It was one of those rare moments of my life which I would probably never forget - my first US visit, in fact my first visit to any country outside of India. Here is a snippet of those memories.
To talk a bit about feelings before I left to US - though it was going to be a unique moment and first-time experience, it did not make me feel too elated. At home and in our family/friend circles, I was about to join the league of the people who are deemed as america return; not to mention that nowadays every other guy remotely connected with software industry seems to be in the same league (and with the recent economic crisis, I have heard that this title has lost the lusture that it once had). I was more apprehensive than excited - thinking more on lines of how will I manage myself in an alien country with a totally different culture, food habits and most importantly people. More than this, deep inside, I think I was afraid of being left lonely in a far-away land, away from my parents and friends.
Luckily enough, I had an old friend, Prithvi, who lived pretty close to the place where I was landing and he offered to pick me up from San Francisco airport which, more than me, relieved my parents who were afraid of me getting lost ;-).
I boarded the Singapore airlines flight on the morning of 19th Apr. In Singapore I did not get a chance to venture out of airport as the transit time was pretty short but I was impressed by the airport, the vastness, the infrastructure, the colors - even today I think is the best airport I have been. After another brief landing in Hong Kong, I boarded the plane back for one final 11 hour flight over Pacific ocean that terminated at SFO.
Mountain View, CA where I stayed was unusually quiet and calm, like some place of meditation with hardly any people to be seen on streets and mostly devoid of any kind of noise. It was clean and exceptionally beautiful. Though during the first few days, it was chilly cold, the weather improved and in fact on some days it became rather horribly hot - the reason for this absurd variation I don't know yet but thankfully it became normal afterward. Few of my colleagues there helped me in getting acquainted with the place. I learned that there were lot of Indian restaurants around - 4 of them within walking distance while others within few kilometers - some in Mountain View while others a little further away in Sunnyvale, Palo Alto or other nearby places.
To talk a bit about feelings before I left to US - though it was going to be a unique moment and first-time experience, it did not make me feel too elated. At home and in our family/friend circles, I was about to join the league of the people who are deemed as america return; not to mention that nowadays every other guy remotely connected with software industry seems to be in the same league (and with the recent economic crisis, I have heard that this title has lost the lusture that it once had). I was more apprehensive than excited - thinking more on lines of how will I manage myself in an alien country with a totally different culture, food habits and most importantly people. More than this, deep inside, I think I was afraid of being left lonely in a far-away land, away from my parents and friends.
Luckily enough, I had an old friend, Prithvi, who lived pretty close to the place where I was landing and he offered to pick me up from San Francisco airport which, more than me, relieved my parents who were afraid of me getting lost ;-).
I boarded the Singapore airlines flight on the morning of 19th Apr. In Singapore I did not get a chance to venture out of airport as the transit time was pretty short but I was impressed by the airport, the vastness, the infrastructure, the colors - even today I think is the best airport I have been. After another brief landing in Hong Kong, I boarded the plane back for one final 11 hour flight over Pacific ocean that terminated at SFO.
Mountain View, CA where I stayed was unusually quiet and calm, like some place of meditation with hardly any people to be seen on streets and mostly devoid of any kind of noise. It was clean and exceptionally beautiful. Though during the first few days, it was chilly cold, the weather improved and in fact on some days it became rather horribly hot - the reason for this absurd variation I don't know yet but thankfully it became normal afterward. Few of my colleagues there helped me in getting acquainted with the place. I learned that there were lot of Indian restaurants around - 4 of them within walking distance while others within few kilometers - some in Mountain View while others a little further away in Sunnyvale, Palo Alto or other nearby places.
Things I noticed in the first few days of my stay there (some of them I had expected anyways):
Toyota Yaris - rental car that I used for 27 days
Apartment complex where I stayed
Visits to San Fransico and other places:
Near the end of my stay, I visited San Francisco, Santa Cruz beach and Bonny Doon beach with some of my colleagues. San Francisco seemed radically different - with more people, closely spaced buildings and roads though good seemed less organized and not-so-well-layed-out unlike Mountain View and other Suburban areas. There were more people to be seen on streets, a more urban lifestyle. Also noticeable were beggars (who are generally called homeless people) who were virtually absent in wealthy Mountain View and other suburbs.
We went to the famous crooked street:
We later visited the piers, there were artists on the streets near the piers - painters, dancers and unusual artists:
After spending some time in Pier 39, we visited the Golden Gate Bridge - probably the most renowned bridge in the world.
Another day, we went to Santa Cruz and Bonny doon beaches. The Santa cruz beach was pretty crowded as it was a weekend. Bonny doon beach was very quiet and devoid of people.
So, I had a nice time there though I could not visit as many places as I would have liked to. And of course, I was there on work and not on a picnic so my schedule usually was to go to office in the mornings and come back in the evenings.
On 1st June, I boarded the flight back to India. This time I got 8 hours in Singapore and so I got the transit visa to go out of airport and visited a couple of places - the free tour by Singapore tourism board that took us to Suntec city, a big shopping center. Merlion statue was at a walking distance from here. Overall, I was impressed by Singapore's tremendously sophisticated infrastructure, which was even better than San Francisco but the weather was hot and humid which made me a bit uncomfortable. Singapore has so many Indians that it almost felt like I was back in India. Some memorable pics:
Fountain of wealth, Suntec city, Singapore
Sky scrapers in Suntec city as captured from inside the fountain of wealth
Merlion statue, Singapore
Singapore
And then in few hours I was back in namma Bengaluru :-)
- Incredible and huge freeways, very well planned towns, well organized roads with people following lane discipline strictly. Honking was considered rude. Driving was enjoyable experience - atleast for a newcomer like me.
- People were warm and kind hearted. From my perspective, the culture there seemed to be more introvertish in nature and personal freedom was given a lot of importance.
- The sheer number of Indians living in California was just amazing. I got to know that Indians were the second highest group of Asians - after Chinese in California.
- I could easily get a rental car at Avis by just showing my Indian driving license and company id - no questions asked. I thought the guy was more than glad to rent me a car (of course the money would be sponsored by my company).
- When I fell sick once, I had to wait 2 hours in the hospital before I could get to see a doc. The health care system seemed to be not as efficient as other things in the US.
- There were atleast two occasions I witnessed where white guys abused a group of Indians - all in a matter of split seconds. It happened this way - there would be a group of Indians on the side-walk generally around the Indian restaurants and someone would swear loudly from inside a passing car.
Toyota Yaris - rental car that I used for 27 days
Apartment complex where I stayedVisits to San Fransico and other places:
Near the end of my stay, I visited San Francisco, Santa Cruz beach and Bonny Doon beach with some of my colleagues. San Francisco seemed radically different - with more people, closely spaced buildings and roads though good seemed less organized and not-so-well-layed-out unlike Mountain View and other Suburban areas. There were more people to be seen on streets, a more urban lifestyle. Also noticeable were beggars (who are generally called homeless people) who were virtually absent in wealthy Mountain View and other suburbs.
We went to the famous crooked street:
We later visited the piers, there were artists on the streets near the piers - painters, dancers and unusual artists:
After spending some time in Pier 39, we visited the Golden Gate Bridge - probably the most renowned bridge in the world.
passing over the bridge
Golden gate bridge from a distance
Another day, we went to Santa Cruz and Bonny doon beaches. The Santa cruz beach was pretty crowded as it was a weekend. Bonny doon beach was very quiet and devoid of people.
Santa cruz beach
On a roller coaster
The quiet Bonny doon beach
So, I had a nice time there though I could not visit as many places as I would have liked to. And of course, I was there on work and not on a picnic so my schedule usually was to go to office in the mornings and come back in the evenings.
On 1st June, I boarded the flight back to India. This time I got 8 hours in Singapore and so I got the transit visa to go out of airport and visited a couple of places - the free tour by Singapore tourism board that took us to Suntec city, a big shopping center. Merlion statue was at a walking distance from here. Overall, I was impressed by Singapore's tremendously sophisticated infrastructure, which was even better than San Francisco but the weather was hot and humid which made me a bit uncomfortable. Singapore has so many Indians that it almost felt like I was back in India. Some memorable pics:
Fountain of wealth, Suntec city, Singapore
Sky scrapers in Suntec city as captured from inside the fountain of wealth
Merlion statue, Singapore
SingaporeAnd then in few hours I was back in namma Bengaluru :-)
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1 comments:
nice...lots of gud pics :)
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