Oh yes, the honeymoon trip. Komandoo was a beautiful, beautiful place with the best diving sites I’ve seen so far, good food and friendly people. In other words, it was almost the total opposite of India – or was it?

As the whole island is built around tourism, it felt… artificial. Like a facade. Not only the 100% imported food and sterile environment (the staff cleans fallen leaves from the pathways in the morning), but also the staff itself. Although everyone kept up a friendly face and asked if there was something they could do for us, I could still sense a big difference between them and, say, their Filipino counterparts on Malapascua. If you ask me, it’s all about what motivates people.

You see, when I’m dealing with Filipinos, I get the feeling that they genuinely want to help me out when something is wrong, whereas Indians are only willing to do something if they get money out of it. Sad to say, but for me the Maldivians were closer to Indians than I expected. The atmosphere wasn’t exactly hostile, but there were constant signals from the staff that they are only in it for the money. I guess I’m even more sensitive to that kind of thing after being exposed to its extreme forms here in India.

Or maybe Filipinos have better acting skills, who knows.

Anyway, the trip itself. I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, so here we go:

The villas were built over water and there was a constant selection of fishes swimming around them. The house reef of the island stretched all the way around the construction and you could spot dozens of species just by sitting on the porch.

On a lucky day you could spot a small (around half a metre wide) stingrays near the beach. This one was no more than three meters from the shoreline, digging for food in the sand.

As Maldives is very close to the equator, sunsets were spectacularly quick. From the position above it took less than ten minutes until the whole star was behind horizon. The main thing for us was of course diving, and boy did we see everything imaginable:

I’ve never seen corals like this before, but that’s not all. How about this:

Or this:

And how would you feel about having one of these on your plate?

What’s more, we found some turtles on our explorations:

This was only a small sample of what we saw, the rest can be found behind the small thumbnails and this link.

Tags: diving, holiday, it's good to be me, luxuries, maldives, money, natural beauty, photos, service, travel, ways of working, what is different

Komandoo was beautiful, clean and quiet. White sands, blue skies and clear seas all around. The only things that had wheels on them were the wheelbarrows used to lug scuba gear and luggage around. No need to use shoes. We had two spa sessions included in our package, which helped Heikki’s neck-back-shoulder problems and calmed us down.

Of course the island was completely built to cater western tourists, and it showed especially in the prices. But we did get the things we went there to find – peace, quiet and diving. You can find the photo evidence here.

The week flew past in a blink of an eye, and before we knew it we were headed back to India. At the airport the rain was pouring down with a dash of thunder, and we boarded the plane 30 minutes late. Then we proceeded to sit in the said plane for another two and some change hours. The crew did not see it necessary to tell the passengers why we were delayed until we actually got airborne. I managed to watch all the even remotely understandable programmes (=in English) before taking off.

We hit Bangalore some three hours late, and it was pretty much like being slapped in the face with a drenched towel – I had almost forgotten what the noise and pollution feel like.  Now, two nights later I wake up again to the 5 am prayer call and the yelling of the street vendors starting at 7 am. Earplugs are more handy than ever.

There’s still some three weeks to go before heading back to the homeland, and there is so much to do it feels overwhelming. But it still has to be done, so I’ll get on with it.

Tags: diving, holiday, luxuries, travel

So, we landed last night and now we’re back here, married and celebrated and everything. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is the stuff now for some 7 odd months.

The transit went as flights generally do, nothing special. We got scanned for fever at the airport, the people are nuts about the swine flu and trying to stop it. Apparently, it’s not just another influenza here. Otherwise everything was smooth, we got our luggage and Mr. S was there to pick us up as agreed.

Today it was all about shopping for the necessaries (a helmet for me for motorcycling and heaps of food) and having  a terrific lunch at Shiro (sushi buffet, all you can eat, delivered to the table fresh, yummmy!), otherwise just trying to unwind.

It’s surprisingly cool now, the air is very humid and full of noises. The local squirrels hooted me awake a couple of times last night. I’m guessing that when I get used to them, I’ll need a seriously bad-noised alarm clock. I’m constantly reminded of Darwin in Australia, the humidity and the warmth are like nothing else I’ve experienced. It’ll take me a while to acclimatise, but I’ll get there eventually.

Just a word from Heikki, the glasses he last got from the optician didn’t have the correct lense in the right frame, so he hasn’t been able to write for a while. What’s more, we’ve been running around organising stuff back in Finland and offline anyway for a few weeks, so that’s another good reason for not to post more. But that’s about to change, the glasses problem has yet again been faced and now that I’m here, I might actually have something to say about expatting too.

Tomorrow’s agenda has a meeting with the corporate liaison who will organise paperwork and stuff for me, but we’ll take it from there and see what happens. Will keep this blog posted though.

Tags: accommodation, luxuries, motorbikes, practical stuff

I’ve always tried hard to make everyday living work smoothly and in a timely manner. My number one option so far has been staying in Finland where the infrastructure is good and things are well out-of-the-box. Everything is bloody expensive, but for that money you get a reliable road network, tolerable bureaucracy and very low corruption rates. Things just… work.

I’m sure you already know what India is like in this regard. I may be rich here, but it doesn’t make everyday life as easy as in the civilised world. I could spend my whole salary on domestic help, bribes and everything, and still be a long way from the quality of living Finland provides. So this is not the place I want to settle down in.

The problem with both Finland and India is that I’m heavily dependent on the infrastructure and other people. A lot of stuff I do requires electricity, special skills, buying something or travelling somewhere. Things are really complicated, and on top of that I have to sacrifice more than half of my daily time in a job that doesn’t give me much more than money. While it’s nice to have a good salary and a “good” job, I don’t find satisfaction in the lifestyle anymore.

The following two paragraphs may seem irrelevant to the ones above, but bear with me for a while. I’ll try to explain in a moment.

The nature of the problem is the same as in video game industry today. In the 1980s anyone could buy a C64, learn how to write code and put up a semi-decent gaming experience in a couple of weeks. Twenty years later, it takes a team of n+1 professionals, expensive development tools and at least a year (or something?) to put together even the tiniest Xbox Live Arcade game, not even mentioning “real” games. One man creations are really few and far between, and in a bigger project you can easily find yourself doing something completely meaningless just because you were told to do so.

And this is the exact problem I have with the Corporation. I worked on a project for two years, saw a prototype of the end product once (not in action), and the whole project was shot down shortly after that. Two years well spent, thank you and here’s the next one. Motivation, anyone?

The common denominator of these topics is the lack of personality and individuality. Being just a faceless part of a huge group – be it a company or a nation – just doesn’t cut it for me. I know I’m an individual person with my friends and relatives, but being a greedy bastard, I want to be one in other contexts too. This includes the ability to create something meaningful by myself and keeping my work in touch with the real world, not just fiddling with bits & pieces that are useless without hundreds of other people.

And that’s why I intend to change careers after this assignment, even if it means that my income will be cut by 90 per cent or so. I know there are endless possibilities out there, and life is too short to be spent on something I don’t like doing. IT might have been fun once, but it’s time to move on already.

Tags: friends and family, luxuries, money, planning, prices, ways of working, why I wanted a change, work

It’s funny how the role of money is different in here. Rupees feel like Monopoly money and it almost never feels like I’m spending a lot of money on anything. On top of that, I have almost zero capital expenditure, leaving me with too much to spare on living.

And still I feel like I might run out of cash any minute now.

This controversial effect comes from the combination of low-value currency (1000 rupees is 15 euros) and generally low prices (lunch buffets less than 300 rupees). While I can easily afford stuff here, there’s always the feeling that I wouldn’t have enough money for this and that back at home. I can spend 45000 on home decoration without realising that it’s actually more than 700 euros, and still feel hopelessly broke when my account balance drops below 300000 or so. Five years ago I got through a whole year with a similar amount of money – in Finland! I never had such amounts of money roaming free when I lived in Finland, but here – with cheaper prices and all – the world is not enough. Somehow no amount of rupees associates with Real Money, no matter how hard I try.

Maybe it will get a bit easier next month when I have the chance to convert part of the balance to euros.

Or not.

Tags: bank, luxuries, money, prices, what is different

Today I took a day off from the office, went almost out of town (55 minutes by car) to pay some custom fees and did a million small things to make this place more me. My furniture from Finland arrived today and I’ve been busy arranging things and setting up the equipment. I’m already writing this on my desktop PC, but there’s still work to do with my home cinema and Xbox setup. More on those tomorrow.

As I didn’t send my office chair here from Finland, I had to get a new one:

One of the buttons has come off already, but I don’t think I want to go through the trouble of hauling the chair back to the shop for that. See, I’m getting more Indian every day?

For the guests I got something in the upstairs:

And of course there has to be a bar with such setup:

The glasses are still missing, but that only gives me one more chance to post a pic of this awesome piece of handicraft. I just think it kicks ass.

And finally it feels like I live here!

Tags: accommodation, it's good to be me, luxuries, moving, my pimped-up interior design, photos, shopping

Regardless of my previous post, being here is more than just dysfunctional interior, awful traffic and too much people. It’s just easy to see the bad sides first, especially when the contrast between home and India is so… so… big. It’s hard to explain, and I’ve tried so many times I don’t bother anymore. Instead, I’ll get to the latest news:

I spent the whole Sunday at the house, reading Richard Dawkins (which may have affected to my opinion on shrines in the house),  observing wildlife on the street and bathing my toes in the sun. I also found the three floors useful as I can do some aerobic exercise just by running up and down the stairs. And it’s surprisingly much more fun to cook when someone else is going to do the dishes

Today I went to my agent to get an estimate on how much money I can blow on furniture without going over my maximum rent. We have a deal with a rental company so that they buy what I want and rent it out to the Corporation as long as I stay here. After that they get to keep the stuff and make ridiculous amounts of profit by selling near mint stuff that have paid themselves back in the rent. Brilliant business!

I also got my residential permit for one year, meaning that I don’t have to worry about the legality of my stay before next April. My agent Vivek is one of the best Indians I’ve ever known, as he’s very helpful and sees things through. I must figure out a way to thank him properly when all the initial hussle is over. Good agents, drivers and maids are worth gold here.

Speaking of maids, I have a good one at the house: does her job well, speaks rather good English and cooks good veg curry (among other dishes, I suppose).  When needed, she can also do some shopping and boss the guards around to do something – especially handy since the boys aren’t that fluent in languages other than their native ones.

Oh, the allowance for furniture? More than the Engineer makes in six months.

(I’ll post some photos when I get the stuff, most likely next month)

Tags: accommodation, colleagues from India, luxuries, my pimped-up interior design, practical stuff, prices, shopping

As I told earlier, I am currently living in my future home while the present occupants are on holiday. Let’s cut straight to the case, the photos (more here):

Here’s the house from the roadside. It has three floors, four bedrooms (each with separate bathroom & shower), three balconies, two guards (one of them right there) and a roof terrace. I would estimate it has somewhere around 300-350 square meters, but I don’t have any hard data on my hands. In any case it should be enough for two plus two.

The amount of trees still amazes me, as well as the East German (lookalike) cars people still drive around here.

Okay, back to the house… this is the main hall from the front door direction. There’s another entrance on the left because the logical one faces the wrong direction for some god(desse)s to be favorable on the house. And that’s not the most wasteful effort put into this house in the name of some imaginary being…

…but before that, here’s something I didn’t expect to see: it’s an alcove for washing your hands. It’s conveniently placed right next to the dining space (and with a mirror I noticed too late).

Undoubtedly this is the most decorated and well-made part of the house, but sadly it isn’t anything of significance for me: there’s a small room about the size (and feel) of a two-person outhouse behind them, purpose-built for worshipping hindu gods.  I could respect the culture and blahblahblah, but not in my home, thank you. So from my point of view it’s complete waste of time and effort.

The living room in the second floor (first floor is on ground level) will easily accommodate my desk, couch and movie screen when they arrive. Quite frankly, I’m not a huge fan of the current interior, especially when there’s no room to land your laptop anywhere without first lifting that beer can out of the way.

The library is right next to the living area, complete with exotic laminate floors and a writing desk with an antique feeling to it. Sadly I’ll never have enough books to fill up the shelves before I move on.

The second floor balcony is decorated for hanging around with friends, although again with no tables to rest your drinks on. Of course I will see that there’s plenty of tables here when I’m in command, but not just yet.

The bigger third floor balcony accommodates a couple of grills, along with a slight sense of privacy since the closest neighbours are lower down (the tall building on the right is a hotel, windows not facing this way). I am yet to find something good to grill, but one of these days…

This photo was taken from the top point of the house, even above the roof terrace. If only I could have a swimming pool here!

I realise I’m being quite negative on certain aspects of the place, but most of it is only temporary: in a month or so I’ll be able to customise the whole place as I please,  because it will be ALL MINE! No, wait…

Tags: accommodation, luxuries, oh bugger, photos, religion, what is different

Riding in a rikshaw is pretty much like taking a ride in a joyride – keep all your limbs in the carriage, try not to fall out and enjoy. The beeping and tooting of various horns and the smells of the city (both in good and in bad) are a feature, not a bug.

The food is great, no doubt about it.
So far Le Méridien has been more than I expected, the pool is surprisingly long and the service is impeccable.

There are a huge number of hawks circling in the sky during daytime, plus some swallows and common pigeons. The hotel has its own geese, the function of which I haven’t yet grasped. Dinner…? Conveniently close, I’d have to admit.

Everyone’s been telling me how India smells bad and/or strange, but nothing too particular so far. Ok, there are open sewers in places and the waste disposal could be more efficient, but nothing impossible. And you get the whiffs of incence and fragrances of flowers and fruit every once in a while – something that’s very much missing from home.

And no, we haven’t been cold. Not in the very least. During the day it’s around +30 and above, but since it’s not humid, it’s very very tolerable, even enjoyable. Yeah, a sweat is easy to break by simply being there in the sun, but living is easy…

So, all in all very pretty indeed, but the contrasts between poverty and richness are very striking as well. Makes me consider myself very lucky when I think the drinkable (free) water in our taps. Water is something of a sought-after resource down here, and it’s not a commodity that everyone takes for granted.

Tags: food, hotels, luxuries, money, people in india, previsit, service, swimming, traffic, weather