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During the Boston trip last month Tim and I were contemplating where to head for a dinner. We missed Five Guys Burger that day so opted to get something filling. A small and cheap place came up during our searches: Apsara Palace in Providence.

From the outside the restaurant looked just like we expected it to look. The neighborhood wasn't too bad either.






The food was good as was the Thai ice tea. Unfortunately the General Tso's chicken was far away from HongKong Harbour (my favorite spot in Atlanta, GA) standards. Knowing that General Tso's appears to be an American invention with multiple possible origins I guess this is what you have to expect: different interpretations of the same dish.

A few weeks ago we went for an early BBQ and a friend brought a gas powered coffeepot, Baileys and milk. Last week during the post-breakfast drinks service on the PrivatAir flight I noticed the bottle of Baileys on the cart. It was breakfast time, but heck, I'll be stuck in aluminum tubes for another ten or so hours. I told the flight attendant that I wanted a coffee and some Baileys. She looked at me and knew what was going to happen. Do you want your Baileys in your coffee? I sure want that. I usually add some milk as well. Would you like some milk? As you can see in the picture below I took some milk along with some more Baileys on the Rocks. Thanks to the Baileys and the champagne I could sleep quite well ;-)



Note the cluttered table. Other airlines remove the tray first and then do the coffee/drinks run. Being quite late and allowing people to sleep faster I can see how they wanted to rush the service, though.

My trip to India took me to the beautiful city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Thanks to 40+ degrees Celsius weather I was about the only tourist.

After a long day with sightseeing I was looking forward to a good meal and a relaxing evening on the couch. Add some TV, air conditioning and a cold Tumbs Up and I'm a happy man.
I snapped a few pictures before sunset and was wondering what that haze on the horizon was.
For dinner I took another auto-rickshaw to an upscale restaurant named Kalinga. It's supposed to be good and since it was busy with locals it must be good. Unfortunately I was treated differently and had to wait long times. Food was good but not spectacular.
About 30 minutes after I arrived back home and made myself comfortable the power went out and pretty much at the same time gusting winds started hitting the windows of my rooftop suite. Lesson learned: always have the battery of the notebook plugged in in India.
The power was gone for about 20 minutes and I was typing away in the darkness on the laptop while downloading the days share of pictures ... adding to the pile that I have still to wade through.
Inside my room I could smell the sand and everything seemed to collect dust. Dogs and cows(!) were barking every once in a while and when I looked out I could see flashlights. It's definitely an interesting experience and since I was prepared for this I have enough water, laptop power, a flashlight and a full tummy. I slept soonish after covering my electronics with t-shirts and hoped that everything would be back to normal the next morning.
The A/C was dis-functional and somehow opening the windows to let the breeze in wasn't an option. Power came back some time during the night and I turned on the ceiling fan. The next morning I could not make out any damage or surplus sand in the streets - in the end it was only a minor storm.

During my short time in India I visited the Qutb Minar near Delhi. Each and every monument/memorial/building complex is protected by guards. Metal detector gates are in place and somewhat used. When I went in I was in among a group of italian tourists and the detectors were beeping constantly. Still nobody dared to check us. On the way out I managed to snap a short video - unfortunately during a low traffic time.

Today was the big day ... I took the classic Shatabdi Express train to Agra. It's been a long day with visits to sites like the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and even Fatehpur Sikri.
I'm tired and have to catch a flight tomorrow morning so I limited myself to downloading the images from the camera(s).

Among other sites I've visited today I've been to Humayun's Tomb. It is supposed to be a role model for the Taj Mahal in Agra. The tomb and surrounding gardens were pretty impressive already. I wonder what awaits me tomorrow in Agra.

Yesterday I flew from Hamburg to Frankfurt on what I believe will be my last Lufthansa Airbus A300 flight. I deliberately selected that flight upon booking although it meant a two and a half hour layover in Frankfurt. I wanted to use the time to check out the new tower lounge near gate A65. Officially that lounge is off-limits for me because it is in the US-flight area in Frankfurt. I queued up for passport control and when it was my turn the officer did not check my ticket ... sweet.
The tower lounge is only a Business lounge shared with all other Star Alliance Gold customers. It does get crowded but the lounge is huge. It is also better stocked than most pure Business lounges. Fresh fruit, reheated sandwiches and the usual buffet selection make the usual United Red Carpet Club look really bad.
It was quite a hike to my gate in the B area of the terminal and I decided to move to the Senator lounge in the B pier. A few minutes after I arrived a fire alarm was triggered and we were evacuated. The lounge staff recommended heading further down the pier to a temporary lounge as the other lounge in the pier was being remodeled. I guess I've seen most lounges in FRA that day ;)
Eventually I boarded the PrivatAir Airbus A319-100LR to Pune. With only 20-25 people on board and an all Business Class configuration this would be a calm flight. And it was. While the seats were not as good as the mainline Business seats the food was the same. The overall attention and small details were obviously better with one flight attendant per four customers. Oh, and the purser is called flight director.
Upon arrived in Pune I had to clear a H1N1/swine flu health check in addition to immigration and customs. With the aforementioned low load we all were through security in no time. I picked up my bag, changed cloths and re-checked it for my connecting flight on Kingfisher to Delhi. The Kingfisher flight was very good although I've slept most of the time.

For some reason the driver that was supposed to pick me up did not wait at the airport. I got myself a prepaid fixed-rate taxi. With less than 3 Euro for the trip to my hotel it was sure cheap. What I then saw was less then exiting. That was supposed to be the infamous Delhi traffic? It actually wasn't too bad.

I checked into the hotel (at 9AM ;)) and shortly after started walking around bound towards the next metro station. Sure, the streets were busy and filled with small merchant shops that are best described as a mix of a narrow Kowloon street mixed with Dubai heat. Crossing streets wasn't too bad either. Or maybe I just expected worse.

The subway is still being build in some parts of the town and you can easily make out older stations. At 11 rupees for a long trip including a transfer it is a cheap and fast method of transportation. On the downside the trains fill up fast and people were staring at both me and my backpack.

Once at my destionation - the Red Fort - I was immediately approached by auto- and traditional rickshaw drivers but I insisted on walking to the fort. It was a good decision as the walk was short and I had time to check out a chicken-only McDonalds on the way.

From the Red Fort I walked to the huge mosque nearby. The walk took me along another street market with all the people and smells you'd expect in India.

For the way back to the hotel I opted for an auto-rickshaw. I approached one driver who wanted more than double of what I ended up paying after consulting with a second driver. In the end I figured that the 30+ minute trip for 90 rupees was damn cheap and I rounded up to 100 rupees. During the trip we came close to numerous other vehicles but incredibly there wasn't a single collision.

Later today I walked around the hotel area a bit, had something to eat and after dusk walked around again. The area feels pretty safe but I won't recommend the street life after dusk for first timers on the first day in India. The area remembered me of my first night in Hong Kong/Kowloon where I couldn't figure out what all the people were doing in the streets at night. The next day I saw them working/living and from then on it felt safe.

The only annoyance were all the people begging for money and trying to scam you.

Oh, and btw: it was 42 degrees today. At 9PM we had 37.3 degrees Celsius.

Two tags are permanent - red Lufthansa Senator tag and the Delta Gold Medallion tag. The others are temp tags from the Boston trip. For whatever reason I got the orange SHOCON (aka short connection) sticker on a 90 minute connection in Amsterdam. That's twice the minimum connection time. Luckily the sticker can be removed easily and does not leave any marks on the case. The small white luggage sticker does leave some glue on the case :( My duffle bag started collecting sand/dust/dirt on the glue spots years ago.

Unfortunately the Skyteam Priority tag does not work in Hamburg - in contrast to the Star Alliance tag.

Finally ... a visit to Five Guys Burger, dubbed the In'n'Out of the East Coast.



The menu is not as minimalistic as In'n'Out but still pretty straight forward. You select the type of burger you want and the opt for as many of the free toppings you want. The regular burger comes with two patties.



A minute later one person built my burger while another one flipped the never frozen meat patties.





I had to wait a couple of minutes by the wait was well worth it. Flat out the burger was delicious. It is different from In'n'Out but I cannot make out a clear winner.

The Boston Hardrock Cafe was relocated two years ago. Needless to say I wanted to at least walk by and snap a picture. My fellow traveler got hooked as well which comes in handy when you need some time to take pictures ;)





Now that is one embarrassing HRC. Located unterneath a parking garage in an otherwise nice area.

I have a long history of buying strange and sometimes discomforting looking canned and bottled drinks. Whenever I read energy drink I have to think of Red Bull and how much I don't like those dead gummi bears.
But a coffee based drink? Different story. There were several flavors to choose from and if they had the Cinnamon Dulce version I would have gotten that for sure. Instead I ended up hauling the Mocha version back to the hotel room.



The drink is less milky and definitely not as sweet as the Frappuccino version and somehow hit the spot. I could make out subtle guarana/energy flavors but not so much that I won't finish the drink.

Website: Starbucks Coffe on the Go (not sponsored, just for the sake of completeness)

You have to forfeit some comfort if you decide to travel on the cheapest tickets. I tried to remedy part of it by upgrading to Business Class but to no avail. I am a Delta Gold Medallion and tried to upgrade a ticket on Northwest stock operated on a KLM codeshare.

I ended up on a NW 757 in Economy with no personal entertainment options. I knew that this would happen so I prepared myself by uploading a few movies to my iPhone. I opted for A Scanner Darkly and two parts of the An Evening with Kevin Smith series.

To prevent a sore neck I had to construct a simple iPhone holder using a barf bag as pictured below.



During a drink run one flight attendant saw it and called two more as they apparently have never seen it. And I thought the barf bag would be the standard mount for media players on those flights.

Btw: IFE = Inflight Entertainment; PTV = Personal TV

... that I put our stamp next to theirs.

When I filled in my I94W visa waiver form and the customs form on the flight to Boston I noticed that the I94W changed in the last few months. Besides the changed look and typeface the fields 'Passport Issue Date' and 'Passport Expiration Date' seemed new. A few questions later I stumbled upon 'City Where Visa Was Issued' next to 'Date Issued'. What the heck is that doing on a visa waiver form? I simply did not put anything in those two fields and did not even get a weird look by any of the immigration officers.

At the immigration booth I had a nice chat with the officer. My response to his questions where good enough to put him in a good mood and instead of sending me to secondary immigration due to the pages with United Arab Emirates stamps he simply send me my way with the above mentioned comment.

My friend on the trip got through immigration even quicker when he acknowledged the question that he is traveling with me ;-) Now I only have to stash some of the new I94W forms as I already trashed my old stash at home.

Update: While scanning documents/visas for other stuff I scanned the passport pages real quick.




Previously another CBP agent also put this stamp next to the UAE stamps and as you can see below it happend once more. On another side the UAE stamps with co-existing US stamps got me into secondary immigration in Charlotte last year when I came back from Guatemala.

I scored a weekend trip to Boston for cheap a few weeks ago. My upgraded Delta Airlines status might come in handy but unfortunately I do not have Skyteam Elite Plus privileges for the flights.
The most important part is the city itself. Boston is an amazing city and we'll head down to Providence, RI which I missed in previous trips.
I'll be back just in time for work on Tuesday next week.

For my upcoming India trip I had to obtain a visa through the Indian Embassy in Hamburg. In contrast to what the website states they won't snail mail your passport back when you lodge your application in at the Hamburg office.
But now here it is taking up the entire page 21 in my passport: