Its been long time that I didn’t write anything here. Well, I’ve been busy. Very busy. I was at Santiago, Chile for last month working on one of the nicest things in current technology world. I was working on Android and I truly enjoyed each moment of it.
Coming to my experiences, I have seen too many nice, funny and great things this time. My travel to Santiago was itself a nice experience, its a long journey around 40 hours. I’ve seen arrogance of immigration guys at Delhi Airport. They made one guy stand in a corner for 10-20 minutes, as he crossed the ‘yellow’ immigration line before they called him. And carelessness/faltooness ;) of Delhi Airport guys – They broke my suitcase’s wheel as well as tampered my number lock. Quick tip here – If you are travelling through Delhi Airport, I suggest you to get your baggage plastic wrapped. Actually, better tip – Try to avoid Delhi airport if you are not a local.
Well, after the long journey via Delhi, Amsterdam, Lima – We reached Santiago some time in midnight of 23rd March. The accommodation provided by my employer was nice. Though, I did a mistake of searching for it’s address once in Google and ended up on an article where couple of guys were killed in the same building because of gas leaks few years before. Coming to my work – it was very nice and challenging. Client was fun to work with, probably one of the best clients I’ve worked with till now.
Coming to Chile, most of its population is based on Santiago (atleast they work at Santiago, the capital city) Santiago is a very nice city, with very good transport, nice roads, pleasant climate (atleast for Indians). Pollution is more compared to other western cities (its a valley surrounded by mountains, there is no air to take away the smoke). It rains very less (once in a year) there. They depend on recycling water (they recycle around >71%) People are very friendly (atleast in the area where I lived). There are few catches. Very few people speak/understand English. If you don’t know Spanish, you might have to depend on sign language. Overall, Santiago is a nice city. It doesn’t feel like a city of a ‘developing’ country.
Colleagues at my company were very friendly. They helped a lot, otherwise, survival there in a non-English speaking country would have been very tough for us. Thanks a lot guys. I went to for camping with them for the first time in my life, and it was fun. Hitchhiking, raising tents, sleeping next to a lake, roaming around during nights were few of the highlights for that camping trip. To be frank, I dint do too much for this trip compared to my earlier trips. The only culprit could be my fear of Spanish. Well, may be, I was just too lazy this time.
40 days passed by very fast, very very fast. And I had to return back. My return journey is even bigger adventure. I’m coming alone, and the journey is 64 hours, with 6 hours wait time in Lima, 21 hours wait time in Amsterdam and 7 hours wait time in Mumbai. I met one Chilean lady in flight to Lima and had a nice conversation. Believe me, she was the only Chilean lady I spoke with for more than 10 minutes/sentences through out my trip. I think I spoke with my HR for 10 minutes :p The other ladies were simply non-Chileans or conversations were just ‘Hi and Bye’. And I forgot to ask for her name ! Then, my wait time at Lima was just boring so as my flight from Lima to Amsterdam. Then, 21 hrs, I stayed at airport hotel in Amsterdam. Schiphol airport was the best airport I’ve seen till now (I’ve seen Heathrow and Frankfurt in Europe) It was a huge airport with a lot to explore. Though I hated it for few seconds when McDonalds there charged me 0.4 Euros for single sachet of ketchup. My flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai was interesting, I met one guy coming from West Indies, and my journey went fast and smooth with his stories from the islands. And yet another time, I forgot to ask for name ! (He even told me that he wants to do MBA in Mumbai, and even then I dint ask for name !!) Then, I met a Telugu couple in Mumbai who were travelling for the first time, and were in a complete panic mode as their flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad was cancelled. I met another Telugu student coming from London for his sister’s marriage there and helped that couple along with that guy to get their boarding passes for the same flight as him. This time, I asked for all the names. (Actually, I forgot to ask this time too … and uncle asked for our names and we got to know our names that time). A quick tip – Never travel without print out of your itinerary. I met another IT guy who got stuck at Mumbai airport as he doesn’t have a printout of his e-ticket/itinerary and the King Fisher counter was closed at the International airport, and the security guys dint let him take the transfer to domestic terminal. His story became happy ending with my brilliant idea (:P) of ditching the transfer and taking cab to domestic terminal, as KF counter will be open there and he can get boarding pass there using his ID proof. With all this community help activities my wait time at Mumbai went very fast. And yeah, all of a sudden I saw a familiar face there at Mumbai airport. She was looking at me as if she knew me, and both of us couldn’t recollect how we know each other. Then, she remembered that she was my colleague back in Santiago who happened to meet me only once on a road and my boss introduced me to her that time. As both of us work at client sides, we never met again after that first meet. It seems, she too started for India, but on a different airlines, and a day after I started. She reached Mumbai at the same time, I reached. Both of us told quick ‘Chao’ and left as she went to Bangalore and I came to Chennai.
This trip, I met a lot of Chileans, few Uruguayans, few Peruvians and of course few Indians. As a whole, this was a very nice trip for me with many lessons, nice experiences in a completely different world.
