Saga De Delhi

I finally had a chance to spend some time in New Delhi. I traveled to New Delhi by Rajdhani Express. In my boggie, four compartments were occupied by a group of family members and all members of this group were born with self-powered speakers in their throats… they were so loud I wonder their dreams also could be heard loud and clear…

After reaching New Delhi, I had been very occupied for first few days. But on Monday, I did get some chance to enjoy an evening with Jee2Chacha and family. Honey and family were also a default part of this outing. We went to Great Indian Mall in Greater Noida.

While waiting for Chacha/Chachi to finish the shopping, I noticed Costa on the ground floor…

And on other side of the foyer, CCD was put up…

Honey was kind enough to pose with this Pindi Baluchi guy… 

Next day, I flew back to Ahmedabad by SpiceJet. 1D terminal of New Delhi airport has become operational and the change was very visible.

This is SpiceJet checkin counter. Spacious enough.

On other side, there was a cafe too.

Waiting area after security check was spacious compared to the old terminal and plenty shops are there to spend your time while waiting for your flight.

I am disappointed though that despite this being a very brand new terminal, it is not even close to some terminals of US which were built decade ago.

This is Check In area of Ontario, CA airport. Looks so professional…

And this is O’Hare airport, Chicago’s waiting area after security check. 
They are made so professional and I wish GMR could do equally professional work in New Delhi. 

Saga De Ammerikka - 2

After my previous blog entry, I had planned few more before I returned back but time flew so fast that I just had no opportunity. I could not even take enough pictures of my travel this time. But to conclude this series, here is what I could capture.

From NJ, I had a stop over at Darshan’s place and as usual, my Nescafe coffee was replaced by Dunkin’s. While leaving one of his DD stores, I noticed below sticker on the door!
Have a look at www.dunkinbeatstarbucks.com! 

While on our way back from his recently acquired gas station, at a traffic light, I noticed this beautiful Starbucks building…

From Philly, I went to Jacksonville for a day’s stopover and then to Orlando. My Orlando stay was a bit relaxed. One evening, I visited Seaworld with Bhavesh & family.

No, he is not Bhavesh… :)

Major attraction of Seaworld is Manta – the inverted coaster ride… Its so scary… Once you are seated, you are hanging upside down. If I ride it, I am 1000000% sure that world would be less one person even before that ride finishes…

Nirav – Bhavesh’s son had a great fun on Trampoline.

And while Nirav was waiting for his turn to Trampoline, Bhavesh’s another kid Mayur was all set for cute poses…

And I was not the only one taking pictures in Seaworld.

Next day, I left for a two days visit to LA. I did not get any chance to pull out my camera in LA too. On my way back to NJ, I was at Ontario, CA airport waiting for my flight.

I realized in this trip that traveling light was very fun and cost-effective too.

Surprisingly, Ontario airport Terminal 4 does not have any Starbucks :( and I am scared to try any other coffee…

I returned to NJ and though I was staying at Mitulbhai’s place, I did not get any chance to take pictures of his kids. Next day, I left for JFK to catch a flight back home.

I stopped by Doha and it was evening time there.

Starbucks is absent on this airport too. But while loitering through a book store, I noticed a virtual presence of Starbucks anyway…

Its 30 mins past 10pm here. Few hours back, I underwent the dental crown treatment on two teeth. One of these tooth was live and thus to cut it, Dentist injected the anesthesia. Its effect is still dominating my tongue and cheek. Dentist has put temporary crowns on these teeth and since both of them are too brittle, he could not drill them deep enough for ceramic crowns. So, I will end up getting metallic ones. Third tooth is yet very tender and is planned to be crowned in the first week of June.

Saga De Ammerikka - 1

Whenever I have to go Ammerikka, Singapore Airlines is my preferred airline not because it passes by Singapore but because its so punctual on time and professional in service. Till now, none of my flights were delayed nor I had any BAD experience of in-flight service. So for this trip too, I planned to fly Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately, Singapore Airlines was almost Rs. 30,000 expensive compared to Qatar Airways. Moreover, Qatar offered only ONE stop where as in Singapore Airlines, they were two.

So, I decided to go with Qatar Airlines and booked my tickets with the lowest aiffare.

My flight from Ahmedabad was at 0530HRS. I kept awake the night of 4th to adjust my body to US time zone. But it was very challenging. When I reached Doha airport, though I was awake, I was almost sleepy. I forced myself to grab some pictures though…

Welcome to Doha… picture from within airport…

I did not notice any noose in this airport. Passengers were transported to and from plane by bus.

The airport has a nice but expensive shopping area…

Most shops were of perfumes and cosmetics and liquor with very few of electronics.

First I thought this is jus an arrival/departure display area but ….

…back of it was an internet cafe.

After a quick breakfast of home cooked food and coffee, I fell asleep for next 10 hours on this 14 hours direct flight to New York.

A one hour delayed pick-up brought me to National office at 7:30pm. I was feeling very tired and sleepy but I wanted to finish some work before calling a day. So only way I could keep myself awake was to pour some Java Chip in my eyes…

So I ended up in a nearby Starbuck and just the smell of it inside made me feel 50% fresh!

This is my drink – tall Java Chip – light ice, double pump of mocha and double blended!

I have received my new laptop and its lying in a box front of me. Looking at the picture of Java Chip has brought me 10% of energy :)… so I might have a look at it before calling a day.