It’s been a leisurely few days here in Mahabaleshwar spending Christmas with Craig’s family. His aunt and uncle own 2 hotels here in Mahabaleshwar — Shreyas Hotel and the Shreyas resort. His family (and us) are occupying all of the rooms in the resort and most of the rooms in the Hotel. It’s made this portion insanely cheap since all of our lodging and food has been free courtesy of his family since they own the restaurants that are on the hotel premises. Booze has been pretty cheap as well with King Fisher’s running us about 800 rupees for 24 cans/bottles.

During the day, we all went to Elephant’s Head Point and Kates Point which are 2 of the lookout viewpoints here. They both gets you a good view of the horizon and the unbelievable polution. Thank god I had my polarizer since it cut down a lot of the glare from the sun against the smog. We took a bunch of photos, including some panoramas which Fil has already uploaded to Flickr.

Walk-way to Elephant’s Head Point:

All of us at Elephant’s head (self-timers and camera balancing are my friends):

Jumping shot at Kates Point (I’m always behind the camera for the cool ones!):

For Christmas, Craig’s family had a DJ come and we partied most of the night to songs like Eminem’s “Smack That”. Yes, “Smack That”. The most hilarious portion may be when the DJ did the “slow dance” portion and ordered everyone on the dance floor. Nothing like family members slow dancing to tunes from the 80’s

Time here has been very, very leisurely with plans ebbing and flowing since this is a really small hill town. We leave for Goa tomorrow night (the 27th) on an “ultra-luxury” bus called a “Volvo” which may or may not be affiliated in to the automobile brand.

It feels like our trip is winding down, but it’s funny to think our crazy days and nights are still ahead of us in Goa. I’m looking forward to meeting up with Suraj who will be joining us on the 30th in Goa for new year’s then continue with us to Kerala. A lowlight of the trip moving forward will be that it will just get hotter and hotter since we’re progressively moving south. Eep.

To end this entry, it’s fitting to show you our trip’s new mascot. It’s my pleasure to present you Dirty Craig:

I arrived safe and sound in Mumbai the other day and have been desperately trying to acclimate myself to the sudden weather change from 20 degrees Fahrenheit in Beijing to the 90 degrees in Mumbai. Having grown up in Vancouver, my comfort zone seems to be 40 to 80 degrees. Anything outside that range, I’m pretty uncomfortable. In a conversation this morning, however, I decided I would prefer to freeze to death than overheat that’s for sure

My time in Mumbai has been largely unremarkable as I didn’t have too much of an affinity for this city. We went to the famous Elephanta Island for an afternoon where I found out that (a) the elephant that was on this island was relocated to a zoo a long time ago and (b) it’s hilarious to see Chaitanya get attacked by a wild monkey for his bottle of drinking water

Fil joined up with us today and we’ll continue the rest of travels together. We’re leaving tommorow morning for Mahabaleshwar to meet up with Craig, which will be great since I haven’t seen him since before Thanksgiving. Suraj will be joining us closer to New Year’s in Goa and is the first time any of us have seen him since his departure from Seattle in August.

Here are 2 photos we took one from my tiny point-and-shoot and one from Fil’s Fuji F31d.

This one was taken inside the cab from Shaheen’s aunt’s place to the restaurant of the night. The cab had this crazy blue colored light inside that we asked the driver to turn on:

Fil is a genius when it comes to panaromas! This one was taken in the famous Trishna restaurant:

Goodbye Mumbai, hello Mahabaleshwar!

My final day came and went in Beijing and I was thinking about the cultural aspects of my trip. Thus far, I’ve only spoken about my smart ass comments about freedom and coffee and random ramblings about sight-seeing.

My trip here has been quite the cultural experience for me. I do know some Cantonese, but not enough to even claim that I speak any. I know even less Mandarin (read: none). Since Mandarin is by and large the predominant language out here in Beijing, it has been impossible for me to communicate with anyone except to say ‘Thank You’. Navigating cabs, ordering at restaurants and even trying to buy stuff at the store has turned into monumental tasks. It’s eliminated the independence that I’ve gotten used to living in a country where I speak the native language.

To make matters worse, the locals here are completely puzzled, shocked (some even disgusted) that I’m Chinese but can’t speak the language at all. They can’t conceive of a reality where this happens, or even that I was born somewhere other than China. When they found out that I used to be fully fluent in French I swear it almost throws them over the edge

One of the biggest adjustments I’ve had to make is not getting any coffee. I previously mentioned this a few days ago, but my love affair with coffee is less of an addiction and more about just loving the taste of it. There is something ritualistic about having a morning cup of coffee on the way to work or at my desk that is completely missed here.

Culturally at the Microsoft office in Beijing, everyone has been super friendly and very accommodating. I’ve been taken out to dinner several nights, helped with directions and even taken out for nightlife around the city. It also helped that the test lead and architect are both from Redmond and native English speakers. It was nice having the solace of their company a few of the nights to actually have some “normal” interaction, instead of strained conversations in English with random people on the street.

One big cultural difference between the Redmond and Beijing office how confrontational the people are. In Beijing, everyone is so agreeable and almost to a fault. In spec reviews and feature discussion meetings, people seem to rarely disagree and instead talk 1:1 after the fact which is many times counter-productive since they need to involve the feature team anyways. In Redmond, there’s no shortage of Type A personalities, so conflict and confrontations in meetings are typically in endless supply I’ve been fortunate that my current team doesn’t have that issue and our team cohesion is really, really high. Then again, maybe you’ll have to ask my team when I’m not around and they’ll tell you a different story

So on my final day in Beijing, I bid it farewell. I’m a bit sad to leave but more excited to be reunited with the guys in India and to have some relaxing time in 80-90 degree weather.  My parting words on Beijing are to state 5 things I’ve learned while being here:

1. There is no such thing as a line, ever.  When you think it makes sense for people to line up, the locals ignore all common sense and will skip the line and push you. This even happens in the Microsoft cafeteria.
2. You know you’ve adapted when you can ignore the occasional whiff of foul odor of urine while walking down the street. If you cringe, you’re still an outsider.  Me? After 10 days, I’m still cringing.  If I ever return, I hope I’ll be able to say I never get used to it.
3. You can buy a fake Rolex anywhere in Beijing.  Anywhere.
4. Generally speaking, the dirtier the restaurant, the better the food.  It’s been proven time and time again throughout my time here.  However, there’s a fine line between good tasting food and what it’s doing to my intestinal tract.  I’m praying that I haven’t harbored a tape worm along my travels.
5. Traffic lights are mere suggestions.  As a pedestrian, adopt the herd mentality and cross the street with large groups of people regardless of what your common sense tells you.  Cars and buses seem to to have no problem hitting individual pedestrians, but if they hit a large group, I figure that’s when people start going to jail and getting their fingers cut off.

I’m off to India!

Here’s the random update from my life:

• Went to my first NFL game last Sunday and surprisingly I loved it. It helped that we whooped Chicago and along the way caused 5 false starts. I might actually like this whole football thing.
• Craig left for India last Thursday for 3 months as he pursues his outsourcing business. You’d think I’d be used to my best friend always leaving town, but each time it happens there is a big void in my life. I already miss you bro.
• Work has been a bit crazy as we figure out our release strategy and form the product plan for our new product that is shipping next year.
• I leave for my 4 week trip in China and India in exactly 16 days and I haven’t really done any preparation for the trip. This is adding further stress at work since I have that much less time to get things in order before I leave.
• I have to scramble to make a dessert to bring to Thanksgiving dinner at Matt and Denise’s tonight. I found a recipe I want to make but realize I don’t own an electric mixer. God almighty.
• My sister is finally coming for a visit this weekend. I really wanted her to come for the entire long weekend, but alas, Canadians don’t celebrate turkey day on the same day as you Americans. I’m getting ready for a weekend of bonding, eating and laughing. My sister is the best.
• I just signed up for a model and lighting photography class in early December. It was $200, but I figure it’s worth it because (a) I’ll finally get some formal instruction and (b) class is only 8 people.

That’s all, I’m off to try to beg/borrow/steal an electric mixer for this cheery cheesecake recipe. Wish me luck.

So far the trip to India has been a blast. The food, the people and the crazy commute to work in the morning are making for an unforgettable trip.

The traffic is so insane, there is never a dull moment in our commute to or from work.  The best is after work when we’re rocketing through major intersections with 6-8 lanes of cars and motorcycles on a 3 lane street.  Every day we wonder if we’re going to be involve in a multi-car and multi-pedestrian accident.  Luckily, we’ve come away unscathed, as well as everyone around us.

The people here are so friendly, especially our Microsoft team members. They are so accommodating and are so eager to learn.  It’s refreshing to give a presentation and see that not a single person has their face burried in their laptop and everyone is genuinely interested in what you have to say.  I’m going to chalk that one up to their enthusiasm rather than my presentation skills

In the last 48 hours we’ve:

Ridden a camel:

Eaten the famous Hyderabad biryani:

Bargained for souvenirs:

Witnessed a wedding celebration

I love India!

P.S. - Big thanks to Shashwat and Vishal for bargaining their butts off tonight at the outdoor market, and putting up with me and Didi’s souvenir obsession!