The last 24 hours have been something I wish no one would have to endure. It all started as neck, shoulder and head ache, which I accounted to bad ergonomy in the office (still haven’t got a display or a keyboard) and  standing out in the heat (I had to register myself at an office with no aircon). During the evening it got worse, and by the time I was supposed to have dinner it came clear to me that something was wrong besides the usual office worker’s aches: I was dizzy, nauseous, sweaty and, in retrospective, horribly disoriented.

The reason came up – along with my lunch – just before I went to bed. I checked out the symptoms of malaria just in case, but it seems like it was just a regular case of food poisoning.  These things happen quite a lot in here, but this was my first one here. I thought it was all over and went to bed, hoping to wake up safe and sound.

As you probably have guessed already, it didn’t go that well.

I fell asleep relatively quickly, but woke up somewhere in the wee hours of the night with a biblically sore hip bone. It felt like the outermost parts of the bone (the ones on the sides) had been in a screw clamp, pressed inwards by some kilotons of force. The reason turned out to be the rock hard matress in the new bed, combined with my tendency to sleep on my side 90% of the time. I usually sleep on a soft matress that gives way for the protruding bones and distributes my weight more evenly, but these futons and straw thingies just don’t do the trick for me.

So I spent the rest of the night rolling around, sleeping on the couch, lying awake, wandering around the house, trying to sleep, looking for anything soft to sleep on, and missing my loved ones in the dark, hopeless hours of Indian night. What would I have given for being with my wife at that moment!

Eventually morning came, I gave a call to our agent, and he promised to arrange me a softer matress before end of the day. It came in around two o’clock (on a rikshaw), but looks suspiciously similar to the previous one. The coming night will tell if it’s any better.

I had already forgotten how things can suck sometimes.

Tags: accommodation, food, friends and family, oh bugger, sleep, surprises, transportation

Only a little more than an hour and I must check out from the hotel. Yesterday I felt feverish and had a small cough, so New Year’s celebrations consisted of resting in bed and sleeping a lot. Due to nonexistent sound insulation I was forced to listen to the bands playing out of tune on the hotel yard, but still managed to sleep a good ten hours with a little help from my small, white friends.

Coming to Goa was definitely worth it, but I’m not sure if I want to do it again. I’m less than fond of the atmosphere of cheap entertainment, tourist herds and people trying to live directly on my expense. If I was coming back, it would be with someone special an during low season, probably still somewhere outside these tourist centers. I now remember why I don’t like them.

So back to Bangalore for two weeks, after which I am heading towards Oulu to see my loved ones. It is great to be out around the world, but being here alone becomes less and less appealing as weeks go by. I hope to have someone with me the next time I travel somewhere for a longer time.

— (about two hours later)

I just arrived at the airport in a hurry, only to find that the flight is delayed by one and a half hours. So instead of running to the plane I will have plenty of time before they even start boarding. The security checks seem to be there just for the show, at least by the standards of European ones. The amount of metal I have in my bag is something equivalent to a mid-sized aircraft carrier, but no one was even remotely interested to see what’s really inside there. Or maybe they have better X-ray machines than us.

Finding the gate with some much time was easy, but I could have run into trouble if I was in a real hurry. The announcement told me that the right gate is in the first floor, but it took me a while before remembering that the Indian definition of “1st floor” is actually “the first floor above ground level”. To me this is already the second floor, but I guess I am the one who has to adjust here.

Goa airport is about as small as the one in Oulu, with less than ten gates and no apparent terminal borders. Still the amount of announcements exceeds the frequency I have gotten familiar to in places like Frankfurt and Arlanda, both at least ten times the size of this one. Unfortunately all the echoing around the building makes them difficult to understand, so mostly I just try to spot familiar names and codes from the noise.

I could easily say I have already written more than enough, but one more thing is bouncing around in my mind. As I write, I can’t help of thinking about the variety of clothing the locals present. Colorful sarees, jeans, semi-formal wear, monk robes (a monk on a Bullet looks wicked crazy), kurtas, brand clothes, everything is there. I am currently watching a guy walking around in formal suit trousers, skin-tone shirt with a couple of buttons open, a turban on his head and bright white skating shoes, all in one. Maybe not the most stylish combination, but definitely a bold one – and why not, if you want to?

Tags: holiday, medication, oh bugger, people in india, sleep, time, travel, ways of working

Last night was the first one here with interruptions. The long-anticipated diarrhea finally kicked in, but gave up after two Imodium pills. If this is what everyone warned me about, it’s all just a big fuzz about nothing. On the other hand, I got it only after a week, so it might be that I’m already better adjusted against the new types of bacteria. At least now it seems like it’s already over, but the huge chick hasn’t performed her aria just yet.

Today I’m heading to a tailor with the Expat and then we will have brunch at the local “7-star” hotel. I wonder if they do reasonably priced dress suits?

Tags: food, medication, prices, sleep

The start of the journey was not exactly a huge success. The first unpleasant surprise was that I would have to check in myself and the bags again at Helsinki. This was because my second flight was operated by a different airline company and they do not co-operate check-ins. In addition, the gates would be on different sides of the airport, making my fifty-five minute transfer time even shorter.

I developed a small doubt when I realised the plane was already some minutes late when taking off. My electronic ticket claimed that I would have to check in to the next flight forty minutes before departure, leaving me mere fifteen minutes to find my luggage and run to the other side of the airport. The doubt escalated in to a concern when the first landing attempt resulted in pulling back up and taking another approach. This maneuver took another ten minutes or so.

When we finally got to the ground, I was informed that because of some diplomatic mission we could not exit the plane through the gate, but would have to take a bus instead. I was a bit nervous at that point, but luckily my bag was one of the first ones on the conveyor belt and I got going quickly. A few hundred hasty steps later I was on the check-in desk, exactly fifteen minutes later than I should have been. Surprisingly it didn’t pose a problem in any way, so I cleared myself through another security check and got to the plane in time.

I am writing this in the second to last row of the plane, enjoying a ridiculously large serving of red wine and the morning sun shining at my cheek from the window. I even have a free seat next to me, so there is a little more space than normally on a German airplane. Not bad, not bad at all.

— (some five hours later)

The plane reached Frankfurt just fifteen minutes late and with a legion of fire trucks greeting our taxi to the terminal. I learned later that a departing plane had stopped in the middle of the runway, emitting smoke and blocking the way. It was not a big problem since I would still have plenty of time to catch the connecting flight.

Actually a little too much, to be frank.

I grabbed a (terribly over-priced) snack at the airport after walking half a mile through the airport with the E, who was on the same flight to Frankfurt. We went to the gate a good fifteen minutes before departure time, astonished by the number of guards around the airport. All of them seemed to carry at least a pistol, which seemed a bit alarming to me – not that I wouldn’t have seen guards with heavier weaponry in Germany.

After some hard-to-hear announcements, sitting around, standing in the queue and such we finally got airborne, almost exactly one hour late. The person sitting behind me yelled at the cabin crew for having too little room for his 6′6″ figure, demanding them to arrange a better seat for him. The plane was full, so he still sits behind me, but luckily he’s asleep and thus unable to rant at the moment.

The TV system of the plane died some twenty minutes ago, but that’s ok as long as we get to Bangalore safe & sound. There are no connecting flights to catch, so I am not in a hurry anymore. I have just eaten the best onboard meal so far (salmon and mashed potatoes), downed it with two German beers and finalized the whole thing with a serving of whiskey. I mean, what’s the rush?

— (one more hour has passed)

There’s a magnificient-looking thunderstorm right below the plane. Lightning bolts strike between the clouds and light up the whole northern sky for brief moments. If I could capture it on the camera, I definitely would, but I’m afraid my pocket Ixus (not to mention my photography skills) will not match the challenge. I will concentrate on finishing my latest bottle of beer and admiring the show I have been offered to by mother nature.

I wish my darling honeybunny was here to see this with me!

— (An hour before landing)

I was just informed to contact the check-in desk before going through the customs and stuff. They didn’t know exactly what was the case, but their guess was that it has something to do with my luggage. Frankly, I am not that excited to hear the news.

What next?

— (the next morning)

I reached the apartment and got to sleep somewhere around five o’clock in the night. This adds up to full five hours of sleep, but I have time to catch up. Lufthansa did lose my bag somewhere between Helsinki and Bangalore, so I am here without any toiletries and with only one spare set of clothes. I will have to visit the supermarket after breakfast.

There are a few things I might want to say about Diamond District, but I’ll get back to that later.

Tags: accommodation, diamond district, oh bugger, sleep, time, travel

I can tell you, it is really quiet in the office at this time of the day. No Corporation worker with any sanity left shows up at work at six in the morning.

I finally received confirmation of the apartment, with the usual surprises. Seems like they exceed my expectations regularly, but everything must be done twice in order to get things right.

The apartment is a perfect example of this: turned out that it’s a 2 BHK one, which means it has two bedrooms, a separate living room, dining room, kitchen and a balcony.  I didn’t expect the other bedroom since the Finnish notation for this configuration would be 3 (or 4) rooms and a kitchen. Judging by the floorplan, I would estimate the total area of the apartment to be a little over 100 sq m, which is more than enough. This is the good part.

The not-so-good part is that the reservation itself was not exactly what it was supposed to be. The proposed check-in time was almost twelve hours after my plane lands, while the check-out date was one day too early. The standard misspelling of foreign names was also there, turning John Doe to Mr. Jon. I hope they get this stuff fixed in time.

Otherwise I am ready to go. I have done half of the packing, I have the tickets and visas and my internal clock wakes me up ridiculously early. Two more nights and I’m off.

Tags: accommodation, diamond district, luxuries, practical stuff, sleep, time, travel, ways of working

Now this is something I’m not used to. I have been sleeping for ten to twelve hours a day since last Tuesday, which obviously made my internal clock go crazy and I woke up at 4:40 am. It also seems to have cured the flu quite well, so I should be in shape to travel.

Not that I’m complaining: it’s already half past eight in India, meaning that next Monday I will have to wake up at this time anyway.

I just hope the Corporation hasn’t set a travel ban due to the incidents in Mumbai.

Tags: flu, sleep, time, travel