Hello, there. Adam, here. I’m taking the rare opportunity to write a post about my trip to India. It’s probably better this way. Sarah would only tell you about the fun food I ate and the fun places I went. It was, in fact, a business trip not a party trip. She would leave out the fact that I work 12-16 hour days while I’m there. This is important to consider because now you will understand why my eyes are droopy in all these pictures. Living on 5 hours of sleep will do that to ya! But I digress…
The trip started out simple enough. Just a short flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas, then from Dallas to Doha, Qatar. I had to leave a family gathering early on Sunday to make the flight so I could be in Bangalore for meetings on Tuesday. I was well on my way to a nice fairy tale flight of 24 hours on planes and in airports. The sun was setting when I got to Doha, so it made for some cool desert twilight pics.
The city of Doha in the distance.
A view from the airport. The creative side of me thought this would be a cool perspective shot. Believe it or not, I do have a creative side to me! It makes appearances on rare occasions like blue moons or sunsets in Doha.
Unfortunately, this is where the fairy tale took a turn for the worst and became a bit of a nightmare. I missed my flight from Doha to Bangalore (yes, I’m an idiot standing at the wrong gate) and had to scramble a bit. I asked Qatar Airways if there were any other options. Even though there were flights to India, they made me go to the customer service desk. Take a hike to the service desk… After waiting in line at the customer service desk, they told me they couldn’t help me and I needed to go to the sales desk. They said it was upstairs and to take the first elevator I could find. Take a hike to the elevator… At the top of the elevator, I see nothing but security lanes. I ask around and they say I’m in the wrong area. They give me vague directions to walk some more to another elevator somewhere. Take a hike to find more elevators. After trying unsuccessfully a few times to find the right elevator, I was directed to another customer service desk. They give me the same answer and vague directions. I give up and try re-booking online. I find a few options, but can’t seem to book them for some reason. Back to looking for the sales desk… I finally find the sales desk (outside the security gate) and no one is there. Ugh. This is going to be a long night…
Finally someone comes to help me and gives me the news I fear. There are no more flights to India that night and I will have to wait for the next day. This means I would miss all my meetings on Tuesday and really screw up a possible first impression with my boss that I hadn’t met. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I went back online and back through the security gate. This time I found an Emirates flight through Dubai that would get me in around 10am in Bangalore. If I was lucky, I could make it to the office by lunch time when I was supposed to present my material! So I booked it. It took 3 times trying with 3 different credit cards, but I finally got it to go through!
Now my problem is I need to print out my new boarding pass. I hike back to the customer service desk to ask them about this as well as converting my missed flight funds to a lounge pass. No go on the pass, but they say there is an office where I can get the boarding pass printed. It’s a non-descript, unlabeled office in another terminal. Time for another hike! I have to ask several people, most of which don’t really care about giving me accurate directions, before finding the right office. Luckily, these folks are able to help me print the boarding pass. They also indicate that my luggage will have to be re-routed to my new flight. The gentleman also let me know that I had unwittingly booked business class. Ha! Maybe this story does have a happy ending! With that I hiked back over to the lounge area and with my business class ticket, gained entrance. I enjoyed a nice meal and hot shower which were both very much appreciated if undeserved. On to Bangalore!
I ended up coming in late to the meetings after living off a couple naps during a 36 hour period. I gave my presentation just before I hit the jet lag wall! The next day I spent catching up with the team and spending time with my new boss who I met for the first time. The next day, the management team boarded a plane for Kerala! 10 of us were literally all on the same plane! It’s a good thing it didn’t crash! After landing in Trivandrum, we boarded a bus to our resort in Kovalam. We stayed at the Leela resort, which was very nice! They greeted us with fresh coconut water and a shell necklace.
A selfie with a couple of my favorite guys. Prabu was supposed to be in it and Bhanu is photobombing!
Me standing with the handsome managers of the GDC! It was super hot and humid! I was sweating the whole time!
The resort was beautifully situated on the coast and I got some fun pics of the ocean and beach.
Unfortunately, we arrived prior to when other guests had checked out, so only some of us were able to go to our rooms immediately. As luck would have it, I was one of the lucky ones who had to wait for 2 hours in the sweltering humidity! I decided not to let the circumstance get the best of me. I changed into my swimming trunks in the washroom and jumped in the pool! It was heavenly and refreshing! By lunchtime, I still was without a room, so I had to change back in the same washroom and go to lunch. Then we had some more meetings in the afternoon. A few of us jumped back in the pool again prior to dinner. It was an enjoyable evening.
More of the crew overlooking the beach at sunset. You call this work? 🙂
The next day we had several team building activities that were unusual and extraordinary. We played several games and sang and danced. We solved a mystery as CSI’s and then put together a bicycle as a team. The coolest part of this activity was we invited a few of the local orphan kids to come and gave the bikes to them. They were so humble and grateful! It was such a great ending to the day.
After another dip in the pool, we played a game that is fairly popular in India. One team sings a song then the next team has to sing the next song where the beginning sound is a continuation of the last song. Fortunately, they let me sing songs in English and Korean. 🙂
After a good dinner, I got some rest so I could get up early to catch a flight. Next stop…Jaipur!