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Saturday, June 04, 2016

Short Trip to Big Apple

Prelude

It's been in the talks for a long time, but the business trip to meet the team I worked with for so long had never materialized.
Suddenly there was a plan, around mid of May, to travel to New York around end of the month.
Original plan was to travel during the week of May 15-21. However, that was too short a notice. Also, our Mom's Silver jubilee birthday was in that week.
I got a confirmation on May 11 that we'll be traveling. I didn't expect anything to finalize in couple of days, given how our organization works (flight tickets and hotel reservations).
So I suggested we travel during the week of May 22-28. I say "we" because my manager planned to travel during the same period. Let's call him Mr.M.
Looking back now, I don't think we could have traveled during the week of May 15-21. Our flight booking and hotel reservations were finalized on May 20th.
We definitely couldn't have made it in the earlier week. We had to struggle to get everything done preparing for the week of May 22-28 itself.

The Trip

Saturday, 21 May 2016

I packed my bag. First, I picked a large suitcase, but after filling with what I needed, we realized it's almost empty, that is, not even one-fourth full.
So, we switched to a smaller suitcase that could be carried as a hand bag into the flight! Even this was half empty!
Since I wanted to take some sweets and cookies, we went for shopping in the evening. First to Karachi bakery.
Bought two fruit biscuit boxes weighing one kg each. And a gift box for Fred, my dotted-line-manager for whom I've been working for in past few years.
We also wanted to buy some sweets, but my mom didn't like the taste of any of the sweets there. Also, the price seemed too high.
So we went to Alam's in Tolichowki and bought Kaju Katli. A one kg box, and a half kg box.
All the five boxes fit without any trouble in the suitcase. Since it was loaded with food items, it was very risky to carry it as hand luggage.
Especially at London Airport.
So I took a small backpack to carry some gadgets, important documents and a set of clothes for emergency.
I didn't sleep well in the night because the flight's scheduled departure was at 0715. Which meant I had to be at the airport by 0415.
So I booked the cab to come to our place at 0300, accounting for any delays, since it takes almost an hour to get to the airport from our home.
It would take much less time at that ungodly hour, but I didn't want to take any chances.
I tried hard and managed to sleep before midnight.

Sunday, 22 May 2016

I woke up a few minutes before the alarm sounded.
Somehow I still had a few things to pack up. I was ready and left from home at 0305.
We reached the airport before 0400. I checked in the suitcase filled with sweets and cookies.
Since I was traveling business class, I was directed to go to the only lounge in the airport.
I had a quick breakfast; like omelette, few glasses of fruit juice, and tasted few other items there.
There wasn't much to offer anyway. I stayed there until around 0640, and left to board the plane.
I was served omelette again as breakfast, along with few other items as part of a full course breakfast meal.
I was quite full after that and went to sleep, only to wake up minutes before the plane was about to land.
That meant I had missed the lunch. Everyone else had finished up their lunch and were getting back to their seats.
The seat belt sign was switched on few minutes later. I didn't worry too much because I had a lot of time at London.
The next flight wasn't until another 6 hours!
I had to travel to Terminal 3 from Terminal 5. We had landed at a C gate in terminal 5.
Since I didn't know where the next flight was, I went to the A gates by foot. I realized later that I should've taken the train.
I was then told to go to terminal 3. So took the bus, which traveled for almost 15 minutes.
I then realized how small Hyderabad airport was! London Heathrow airport, in comparison, was gigantic!
The gate for the flight wasn't announced yet. It is generally announced about an hour in advance. But I still had more than 5 hours to go.
So I went to the British Airways lounge. Had some food, browsed the internet, freshened up a little, took some pics, etc.

Overall, it was a heavy lunch. I had the in-flight meal too after boarding! I was stuffed in the end.
So went to sleep again, only to wake up when we were about to reach New York.
I wasn't really hungry. After departing, I was one of the first to disembark since I was standing closest to the exit door.
So I blazed through the process and was out of the JFK airport within 20 minutes from the time I got off the plane.
Outside, I was asked whether I was looking for a cab by someone waiting for passengers. I thought he was a Yellow cab driver, so I followed him.
I just asked him couple of things, as I was instructed before. "Would you accept credit card for payment, and will you provide me a receipt?"
He said 'yes' to both, so I went ahead. I felt cheated in the end because he overcharged and sent me an email instead of a printed receipt.
Apparently, it should have been just $70-80, but the amount in the end was $155 plus tip, implied $178.
I didn't know at that time, so I went ahead and paid using the corporate travel credit card.
I'm still not sure whether that would be accepted at our company.
Anyways, I checked in to the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park hotel without any trouble, and registered myself as a rewards member for WiFi access.
I informed Mr.M that I checked in and told him that we'll catch up in the morning. He was in room 1106, I was in 420.
Luckily I was allotted a room that had a view of the Liberty Statue across the Hudson river. Although Mr.M asked for it, he wasn't given such a room.



He had arrived in the afternoon since he was traveling by a different airlines, Emirates.
I then called up Sriram for a quick catch up. He took me to Wogies, a small but nice place that was very close to where I was put up.
Sriram's place wasn't too far either. Wogies was somewhat in between.
After a quick dinner, we walked to Wall Street, took some pics by the Raging Bull Statue.
We continued to walk around a bit, and finally came back to the hotel by around 1am.
That was a really long day! Began in Hyderabad, ended in New York.

Monday, 23 May 2016

I woke up before the alarm sounded. I observed later that I woke up before the alarm sounded on all days. So I was ready to go by 0725 as planned.
I met Mr.M at the hotel lobby. Neither of us had been to this office at WFC in Brookfield place, which was downtown.
We had quick breakfast at 'Pick-a-Bagel' opposite the office building.
We hadn't realized we were right in front of our office building until after we were done with our breakfast.
We went in to the office, got our entry passes for the day. Met a few colleagues, and the official discussions kicked off!
Contrary to what I anticipated, the sweets and cookies didn't have many takers. Most people were extremely conscious of their waistlines.
Just about quarter of the boxes were consumed by end of the day. So Fred had to take a box, and Bahrom (another colleague) took another to their home.
I went for lunch to a nearby place along with Mr.M. I think I had a chicken roll, similar to what we get at Chipotle, just that this wasn't Chipotle.
Dinner was a team event. Few people from the uptown office at One Bryant Park (OBP) had come down. We went to Le Bar, which was part of Le District.
Attendees were Fred, Eoin, Nick, Bahrom, Lophing, Steve Hirsch and, of course, myself.
We dispersed from there around 2000. I was a bit surprised because the sun hadn't set yet. Fred, Bahrom and I hung around until about 2045. The sky was still not dark.
Then I walked with them till their train station, that is, Rector Street. I walked back to the hotel and reached the room around 2130.
I adjusted the telescope a little in the room, took some pics of the Liberty Statue.
I wasn't very tired, but we had to go early next day to OBP, so I forced myself to sleep before midnight.

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

I woke up early and was ready by 0715. We went to the Rector Street station, bought a weekly unlimited Subway pass.
We then hopped on to a train that goes to Times Square 42 Street, the closest station to our office uptown.
Neither of us had much idea of where to go from there. I thought Mr.M would know, but he seemed lost.
I was surprised he forgot the way even though he had visited that office before and went there for a week!
Anyways, I used some GPS magic to figure out the direction we needed to go.
We had breakfast on our way to the office, very lose to broadway theater.
Similar to the day before, the sweets and cookies weren't a hit as people were too conscious of calories.
I had scheduled some meetings for the day in the previous week itself. However, I hadn't planned it well. So, I almost missed lunch!
I finally scrambled and got out around 1500, got lunch to the desk and finally had it around 1600.
Francis was kind enough to take us out later, around 1800, to Times Square, and then for a short walk in Central Park.
Finally we came back close to our OBP office after about three hours of walking.
We (Francis, RKG, Mr.M and I) then had dinner at HB Burger, which was apparently the place a lot of the MDs usually go to.
I went back to 31st floor of OBP to get my bag, and then we left for our room by around 2130.
This was a tiring day, but I didn't feel sleepy yet. So I browsed the TV channels a bit, before being bored and went to sleep.

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

I had met Chaitanya on Monday. He had relocated to New York about a year or two ago. We used to work in the same office at Hyderabad, so I knew him.
His manager in New York wanted to catch up with us for some help their team wanted from us. So they invited us (Mr.M and I) for lunch.
Since the lunch was close to WFC, I had to go there, at least for first half of the day.
I woke up before the alarm rang, as usual. Got ready and called Mr.M that I'm ready to go.
However, he just woke up because of my call.
He suggested I carry on because he would take time to get ready, and that would be a waste of my time, waiting for him.
I agreed and left for the office. I had my breakfast alone at Olive's in Brookefield Place.
Then went upstairs to 7th floor where my temporary desk was. More meetings and discussions ensued.
We then went for the Lunch with Steve Mauceri's team, along with Chaitanya.
It was a nice place. This was the first time I saw and ate square shaped pizzas.
As with most of the food I had eaten so far in the trip, this was delicious too.
Immediately after lunch, I departed for OBP since I had a few meetings to attend in second half of the day.
Mr.M had more meetings at WFC, so I went ahead alone.
On my way to OBP, I walked past huge crowds who were taking pictures along a big hole, with water falling into it from all directions.
I later got to know that those pools were once the foundations of World Trade Center buildings.
And the depth of the pools were an indication of how deep the foundations went.
At Rector Street station, I hopped on to a train that goes to Times Square 42 Street, since that's where our office was.
I didn't have much trouble this time finding my way to the office.
I always had trouble figuring out which exit led to where though.
However, once I got on the streets above, I didn't have much trouble figuring out where to go.
I finally met Ananth in the evening and we went downtown for a friends' get together.
Sravan, Sriram, Pavan and Parul were already there. Pavan and Parul had also brought along their little son. He was very quiet throughout.
It was an Italian place, looked dingy first, but later realized it wasn't.
Our waiter seemed funny. We had some exotic food.
After dinner, we all walked to the hotel where I was staying, came to the room I was staying and looked at the Liberty Statue from the telescope.
I bade farewell to all, they had to go different ways.
I came back to the room, browsed TV for some time before dozing off.

Thursday, 26 May 2016

We had a meeting in WFC in the morning, which meant we had to go there. My plan was to spend more time at OBP since there were more people to meet there.
However, due to the meeting, Mr.M and I walked down to WFC, and had breakfast at Olive's.
I realized that was the only place that served any reasonable breakfast there.
Also, due to extremely limited options, I had the same item as the day before - egg omelette sandwich.
It's not as small as it sounds. It had a lot of stuffing apart from just egg and bread. It took me more than 15 minutes to eat!
Amir, whose desk is at OBP, came down for the demo/meeting. He's one of the nicest person I had interacted with during the trip.
After the meeting we went to OBP together. Instead of crossing the road, as I had done the previous day, he took me from an underground passage.
Apparently the place is still under construction, with some major brands setting up outlets there.
It would one day become a very popular place when it opens. This was all very close to where the WTC towers once were.
After reaching OBP, attending some meetings, I was helped by Surya and Ketan to find a place to get lunch around 1500.
Chipotle was a choice I wanted to try. I hadn't yet had anything from there.
They already had lunch but accompanied me to the closest outlet of Chipotle. I'm very thankful to them.
Since I had meetings rest of the afternoon, my lunch dragged on and I finally finished it around 1700.
Later in the evening, around 1800, Fred took the team out for dinner at Havana Central. It was about 15 minutes walking distance from the office.
People who came: Fred, Luis, Bahrom, Ketan, Mia, Cagil, Eoin, Amir and me.
We had a very good time, and dispersed at around 2100.
The place had gotten too noisy because of some band who came in and started singing and playing music.
We couldn't hear each other anymore and had to scream at the top of our voices.
The sound from the speakers was deafening. I wondered how other people were still hanging around.
We bade goodbyes, since I wouldn't meet some of them again until my next, or their, trip.
I came back to the room, freshened up and went for a quick walk around 2130 to buy some chocolates.
I felt bad because I hadn't got any time until my penultimate day.
After going back to the room, I arranged all the stuff and packed the bags by around 2300.
We had to check out the next morning since the hotel reservation was only until 1500 of Friday.
As it had become a routine, I managed to sleep by around midnight.

Friday, 27 May 2016

In the morning, Mr.M came to my room, took some pics of the view of Liberty statue, as it was his last chance before we checkout.



We really wanted to take the free ferry in the river to get a closer look at the statue, but there wasn't enough time.
We checked out of the hotel and left our luggage at the reception so that we could come back and collect it later in the evening.
I had to come back to the hotel in the evening because I had to collect some items that were shipped to Sriram's place.
Mr.M and I went uptown to OBP by catching a train from Rector Street to Times Square 42 Street.
As was the routine, I met more people at office. Then had lunch at 1300 with Ananth in the cafeteria on 2nd floor.
That was a different experience. Everything was by weight - whether you took all grass or chicken.
That is, I took a sample of most of the options, and irrespective of what I took, the cost was decided based on weight of what I had taken.
Ananth didn't take much, so he finished within a few minutes. I took almost half hour to eat all the stuff I had dumped into my bowl!
Meanwhile I was commenting on Ananth that he should reduce weight. Felt weird.
Since Monday was a holiday (Memorial day), most of the people were either out of office or working from home.
A lot of people were also leaving early to accommodate their long weekend plans.
That somewhat meant I didn't have much to do either, so I left office by 1600 to meet Sriram.
We had agreed to meet at the hotel lobby by 1630, but Sriram kept me waiting and came after 1700.

We walked to his apartment to collect the TV and couple of other gadgets shipped to his place.
Sriram then helped me get a yellow cab and we bid goodbyes.
Throughout the journey while in the cab, I wasn't sure whether the cab driver was taking the route to the airport or not.
Beuause when I had come to the hotel from airport, it seemed like an expressway with fast traffic and almost no signals.
However, this route was full of traffic and lots of traffic signals.
We finally reached the airport well ahead of time.
Also, the amount was just $80 including the tip, so I was definitely cheated on the way from airport to hotel.
The flight departure was at 2255, but I was in the airport before 1900.
I had to pay $6 for a trolley, which seemed very weird. I'd never had to pay for a trolley before.
So I was tugging at it, trying to pull it out. Someone yelled at me saying I need to pay to use a trolley.
I wouldn't have had any need for a trolley if it weren't for the large TV I was carrying.
Once in the airport to collect the boarding pass, I was told that the flight I was booked for would be delayed.
That could cause me trouble at London since my transit time would be reduced.
As suggested by the nice gentleman, I got rescheduled for a different flight that departs at 2040.
After quickly checking in and clearing the security checks, I had more than an hour for having dinner.
Apparently, the in-flight meals would be limited, so I was told to have meals in the lounge itself.
As usual, the lounge was pretty good, since I was traveling business class.
Although I had a decent meal, I was provided a light in-flight meal too.

Saturday, 28 May 2016

I slept and woke up to a different day on the flight.
I hadn't slept much this time, so I didn't miss the meals provided towards the end of the journey.
It was afternoon in London, and I had almost four hours to go for the next flight.
I was told that the meals on the next flight wasn't going to be full course, so I was suggested to have a sumptuous lunch in the lounge.
This time I went to the upper northern lounge in Terminal 5, which was much more crowded than the one I had been to earlier, in Terminal 3.
Although the lounge was relatively crowded, it was still great. I again stuffed myself, since this was going to be my last stop before going back home.
Surprisingly, my in-flight meal preference was set to Indian vegetarian meal.
I told them that I'd prefer not having it at all. The steward said that he would have to check with everyong else if they would swap.
The lady next to me asked for a swap immediately, since she wanted the vegetarian meal, but her booking wasn't done that way.
I suspect that during the flight reservations, Mr.M's preference being Indian vegetarian, mine was also set the same way.
Luckily Mr.M and I weren't traveling by the same airlines nor have same itineraries, so I could ask for and choose whatever I wished.
It wouldn't have been much different if Mr.M were around, but the awkwardness is reduced and logistics are less confusing.
I had watched a few movies in parts throughout the journey in flight while having meals or other times when the seat was in upright position.
Sometimes, first half of a movie in one leg and second half, that is the continuation, in another flight.
In all, I had managed to watch the following movies.
Eddie the Eagle, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Burn After Reading, Victor Frankenstein, Zoolander 2.
In the last stretch, I watched first half of 'The Big Short'.
During the journey, while taking a tray I broke an empty glass when it fell down.
That was the first time I broke cutlery on a plane.
Obviously I couldn't do much and apologized. I wondered how many glasses would have broken so far if they were maintaining such delicate cutlery.

Sunday, 29 May 2016

The flight was on time and we reached around 0515.
Since I was carrying a hefty TV, it was taken straight to customs. That was the biggest catch in our batch.
After a lot of bargaining, the customs official settled for a bribe of Rs.6000.
So I paid a total of Rs.15000. The remaining Rs.9000 was the official amount paid as customs duty.
He had originally asked for more than Rs.30000. Came down to Rs.27000, then to Rs.22000.
After haggling for more than half an hour and paying Rs.15000 in total, I was out of the airport by 0625.
I contacted the cab, got in and gave him Rs.100 since he helped with loading the TV and was also lamenting about waiting almost an hour.
I told him that he shouldn't have come so early. I had mentioned that the pickup time was 0600, but he had come by 0545 itself.
Anyways, it was nice from there onwards. I reached home by around 0700 and the trip had ended.

Epilogue

The TV

Since it was a really short trip, I knew I would be traveling alone and very light, without much luggage.
That implied I could buy and get whatever bulky items I'd wanted. A big TV was on the list.
After several discussions with Susheel and spending a lot of time on WhatsApp calls and messages, we finally bought Samsung 48JU6700.
Most of my time in the lounges during travel was spent in browsing and narrowing down options.
I had originally wanted to get an even larger one, but the airlines had strict criteria on dimensions of the luggage.
So we had to settle for the largest dimensions we could accommodate.
Apart from the TV, we also bought an iPad Air 2 and a 4TB portable hard drive.
Thanks to Susheel for helping throughout and getting things done! None of these would've been possible without him.
The TV costed us $694 on Amazon, after a heavy discount. The same model was no less than $1100 at any other online retailer.
However, add to it customs duty of Rs.15000. Also, the TV operates at 110V only, not 240V.
So I had to spend another Rs.5300 for a voltage converter and a stabilizer for safety.
The TV indirectly also costed me $6 for the trolley at JFK airport.
Adding everything up, it's $700 + Rs.15000 + Rs.5300.
Assuming a USD-to-INR conversion rate of around Rs.70 per dollar, it costed me a total of about Rs.70000.
The equivalent model in India is supposedly the model 48JU6670, which is priced at more than Rs.140000.
So, I think that was a great deal, after all!

Card

Before the trip I was told that we don't get any per diem. Apparently we had to use corporate card itself for all payments.
We needed to keep the receipts for claiming reimbursements later. I wasn't too sure how that would span out really.
Because I didn't expect everyone to accept a credit card, especially cabs! However, it was a pleasant surprise.
I never had any need for cash throughout the journey. I used my personal credit card a few times.
Such as, to buy chocolates, get the trolley at airport, etc. But otherwise I used the Corporate travel card throughout.
Never before did I travel without carrying much cash.
I did take a few dollars in the beginning, but realized after a couple of days that it was an utter waste.

Weather

It rained on Tuesday morning. All other days were bright and sunny.
I had taken an umbrella that I remember last using when I was in London, which was more than 5 years ago.
The umbrella was of superior quality, so I had kept it aside for such long trips.
Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning, when I opened the umbrella, it almost fell apart.
Except the canopy and handle, which is what we can see when it's folded, everything else was on the verge of falling apart.
The arm support rods, strecher, ribs, springs, shaft, etc. were all dropping down.
I wasn't sure what was wrong. I picked up some pieces that were falling down while we were walking.
Since it wasn't too far, and the rain was light, I managed to hold it up to protect from the drizzle until we got to the subway station.
Luckily it hadn't rained again during rest of the trip.
I had considered buying an umbrella, but dropped the idea after checking the weather for next few days.