I reached San Francisco this afternoon - at 11:50 AM Pacific Time.
It was a short trip - comparatively speaking. The trip via Singapore usually is long and arduous - with a long transit time at the gorgeous yet artificially boring Changi airport. However, my travel agent was kind towards me - she booked me on a flight to SFO with just a 2 and 1/2 hour lay off at Singapore - time just enough to to avoid atrophy of my limbs and freshen up.
I spent almost the entire trip either sleeping or watching Tamil movies. One of the advantages of traveling Singapore Airlines is you get to see Tamil movies and these are trimmed just enough to interest you - all movies on SQ are trimmed to 120 minutes. I saw two Vijay movies - Sivakasi on the Hyderabad-Singapore leg and Aathi on the Singapore-SFO leg. I also saw Rang De Basanti which I thought was a brilliant movie with a poor climax - almost an anti-climax if you were to mention that.
Landed at SFO and breezed through customs except for an interesting experience of filling up the custom declaration form for a US citizen. :) Yes - this man was from the villages of Bihar, cannot speak or write a word in English but flaunted a US passport and the immigration's officer requested me (I was next in line) to translate what the guy said and also fill his form. Interestingly this guy spoke in Hindi and I was struggling to follow him. The immigration officer asked me later why I found it difficult to understand that guy - I said we don't share the same native tongue and that was why. That was all the guy actually asked me. He gave me a straight 3 months I-94 without even wanting to know why I had landed in the USA.
Checked in at the Hotel and then had a quick lunch with some packed food items I had brought. Later I called up Hertz and rented a car and started driving around the place. I have not ventured into the freeways yet!
I am back in the bay area after almost 3 and 1/2 years - a lot of nostalgia and some deja vu moments too. The country seems to be almost exactly the way I left it way back in 2003 :) - something you would not notice in India - every trip to India would throw up something startling new. Maybe these are signs of a developed economy. Nothing interesting other than that so far other than getting locked out of my room. I did not take the room key card with me - took the front desk guy 10 seconds to issue me a duplicate. :)
I called up home to let them know I reached safe and sound. Will talk to them again tomorrow when I get to work. The office buildings - an awesome sight for a first timer here - are just a stone's throwaway from the suite where I am put up. The place is gorgeous - close to the lagoon and cars seem to zip by unmindful of the speed limits.
Got a call from my wife's cousin and then a cousin of my father. I plan to use Skype to talk to people.
Will be back tomorrow with more tour jottings.
It was a short trip - comparatively speaking. The trip via Singapore usually is long and arduous - with a long transit time at the gorgeous yet artificially boring Changi airport. However, my travel agent was kind towards me - she booked me on a flight to SFO with just a 2 and 1/2 hour lay off at Singapore - time just enough to to avoid atrophy of my limbs and freshen up.
I spent almost the entire trip either sleeping or watching Tamil movies. One of the advantages of traveling Singapore Airlines is you get to see Tamil movies and these are trimmed just enough to interest you - all movies on SQ are trimmed to 120 minutes. I saw two Vijay movies - Sivakasi on the Hyderabad-Singapore leg and Aathi on the Singapore-SFO leg. I also saw Rang De Basanti which I thought was a brilliant movie with a poor climax - almost an anti-climax if you were to mention that.
Landed at SFO and breezed through customs except for an interesting experience of filling up the custom declaration form for a US citizen. :) Yes - this man was from the villages of Bihar, cannot speak or write a word in English but flaunted a US passport and the immigration's officer requested me (I was next in line) to translate what the guy said and also fill his form. Interestingly this guy spoke in Hindi and I was struggling to follow him. The immigration officer asked me later why I found it difficult to understand that guy - I said we don't share the same native tongue and that was why. That was all the guy actually asked me. He gave me a straight 3 months I-94 without even wanting to know why I had landed in the USA.
Checked in at the Hotel and then had a quick lunch with some packed food items I had brought. Later I called up Hertz and rented a car and started driving around the place. I have not ventured into the freeways yet!
I am back in the bay area after almost 3 and 1/2 years - a lot of nostalgia and some deja vu moments too. The country seems to be almost exactly the way I left it way back in 2003 :) - something you would not notice in India - every trip to India would throw up something startling new. Maybe these are signs of a developed economy. Nothing interesting other than that so far other than getting locked out of my room. I did not take the room key card with me - took the front desk guy 10 seconds to issue me a duplicate. :)
I called up home to let them know I reached safe and sound. Will talk to them again tomorrow when I get to work. The office buildings - an awesome sight for a first timer here - are just a stone's throwaway from the suite where I am put up. The place is gorgeous - close to the lagoon and cars seem to zip by unmindful of the speed limits.
Got a call from my wife's cousin and then a cousin of my father. I plan to use Skype to talk to people.
Will be back tomorrow with more tour jottings.
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