We are safe and sound in Espoo, although there were some minor hazards on the way. We drove a car from Oulu to Kotka yesterday and the weather was as terrible as it can get in here: after two o’clock it was pitch-black outside, there were a lot of people going home after new year’s, and on top of everything else, a huge blizzard struck us after an hour or so. There was about a cubic meter of snow in the air between the windshield and the road on any given moment for 500 kilometers, expect when a truck came the other way (we lost sight of everything for a few seconds when that happened).

Despite the conditions we managed to get here in one piece, but our shining armor took a hit somewhere around Konginkangas. We were overtaking on a widened bit of the road, but we ran out of lane just a bit too early. The road got back to its original width, one of the cars on the other lane was driving close to the centre line, resulting in the side mirrors colliding and breaking into shreds. We had to drive a couple of kilometres before we could stop and examine the damage,which was luckily superficial – besides the mirror, of course. No scratches, no broken glass, and most importantly no personal damage. Just a missing side mirror.

Needless to say, we also changed drivers to give the unlucky one a break.  I took the wheel and we got there safe and sound, but boy was it a stressful one. I’ve been driving on snow for years, but that stil doesn’t make it a walk in the park. I hope I don’t have to drive in a weather like that very often.

All in all, we have 600 kilometers behind us and only about 15000 to go.

Tags: accidents, driving, traffic, travel, weather

Things happen too fast for me to comment on here. I’m being bombarded with various sensory stimuli all the time, and something has to be forgotten in order for new ones to be inserted. Here goes, then.

The air smells a bit acrid in the city, since there are so many engines running at all times. The noise is overwhelming, there is absolutely never a time that would be silent. If the horns of the cars, rickshaws and bikes are not hooting, the squirrels or birds are making some din.

Riding on the back of a motorbike in the traffic can be fearsome. Please keep all limbs close to the torso at all times. Beware of bumps and potholes in the road. Even if the traffic is supposed to be on the left, it’s not always so. Be prepared that you will be stared (what, two white people on an Enfield??) and made faces at. I was very happy to have a helmet with a reflecting visor today – I was alternately making faces and smiling to the flabbergasted people.

On Nandi Hills I was having a bit of vertigo. It’s not that high up, but the walls are steep in places. It was also beautiful, and in parts it seemed to be stolen from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Gum trees, ancient gnarly trees and acacias everywhere. Again we were a part of the sights to be seen for the locals – enough to have our pictures taken from buses and cars going past.

The transit back from the hills to the city is a big one for the senses. In the countryside the air is clean, there are orchards and vineyards in between villages which are less than well-kept or well-organised. Cows and water buffaloes are plentiful, hen and roosters in all colours imaginable and stray dogs, packs of them. Kilometre by kilometre the neon lights and billboards start to appear more and more, and less of the orchard/vineyard/field plots until none are there. One does feel more free on the countryside, that is very much true. Not so many staring faces, no more walls around the roads, and no kingfishers sitting on electric wires.

And yet again we were back home. It is really starting to feel like home, more and more. There is still the syndrome of putting stuff down and forgetting which floor I put the said object down on, but I’m getting better on the efficiency side.

The nights are warm and my love is here with me. I have a home away from home.

Tags: food, happiness, motorbikes, natural beauty, road trip, traffic

I just had a moment of clarity on why I semi-constantly feel tired and mildly nauseous as if I had a slight hangover all the time. It’s really very simple, I just didn’t think of it before.

You know the feeling when you go to a summer cabin, smell the fresh air and feel so… so alive? Well, Bangalore is exactly the opposite. I dug up a study (PDF, page 10) on the city’s pollution levels and found out how bad the situation really is. Those who are interested enough to read the study may want to skip the next two paragraphs, but I’m guessing there are many who would rather read it here:

In the study the general ranges for air quality index (AQI) levels are as follows: AQI 0-25 is clean air, 26-50 is light pollution, 51-75 moderate, 75+ is heavy and 100+ is severe pollution. The index is calculated from various components and should give a reasonably accurate description of how clean or polluted the air in the area is.

I tried to find statistics for my home town of Oulu, but I’m not sure if these (in Finnish) are on the exactly same scale. Looks like the verbal descriptions match loosely, so I’ll use them as reference: the average index on suburban area of Pyykösjärvi seems to average somewhere around 9, and even the peak in the central area of the town hardly reaches 40. This is generally accepted as a no pollution zone, and this is where I come from.

Bangalore, however, is a teeny weeny bit different.

The study collects samples from 16 different stations around the central area of Bangalore (around which I move 90% of my time right now), with a whopping average AQI of  202 and only one station reaching levels below 100.

No wonder I find it hard to drag myself to the gym or a swimming pool. I really hope my future home area is a bit better.

Tags: oh bugger, surprises, traffic, what is different

For the last few days I’ve been running around the town and arranging things (along with having three-hour lunch breaks). It took me several days to realize what a cultural shock it has been for me, but it’s easy to see now when it’s fading away.

The Residences has been okay, but there are still some things that make me want to leave. The toilet doesn’t flush properly, dustbin lids are broken, the kitchen sink is stained and so on. Today I visited Oakwood to see the place in person and, first and foremost, to get the lowest rate they could offer. The final decision is with the Corporation and its agent, but I am hopeful in getting a good apartment this time. Oakwood is brand new, its location just brilliant, amenities include saunas and a (long) swimming pool on the roof, plus there are some good restaurants in the same building. It should really be the place where every expat lives while looking for a more permanent apartment.

I don’t remember being so shocked the last time I came here, but I can also see why: besides some bad luck (especially with accommodation), I’m here without my second sanity (Eve) and there’s no way out. I’ll just have to bite the bullet for a couple of weeks (excluding the diving holiday, I hope) before I get to build my own sanctuary from all the bureaucracy and millions of Abus trying to separate me from my money and my sanity.

They say that the first and last month are the worst, with all the paper work, temporary accommodation, gathering and getting rid of stuff, registrations, phone arrangements, and the list goes on. Doesn’t sound even half as difficult as it is, but I still don’t recommend anyone to try without professional help from the locals.

I seem to have ran out of things to say a long time ago, so I’ll get back when there’s something really happening.

Tags: accommodation, cultural shock, hotels, oh bugger, traffic, ways of working, what is different

Back here again. Wappu was really really good and got even better when I got to do some lumberjacking in the weekend. I still prefer a chainsaw over dumbbells whenever I need slow-paced strength exercise.

My Indian contact has been arranging my accommodation for more than a week now, with less than outstanding results. The preliminary reservation was for a serviced apartment in Koramangala, further away from the office than Diamond District. Seasoned readers may remember DD being biblically remote from anything, but that’s not all: my contact person for the apartment would be from the same company that I had problems with before. Yes, they did something about it, but to me it looked more like a show and I don’t want to take the risk. So I asked him to find another one.

Well, no.

It doesn’t seem to strike anyone that I may want different things than some other expat, so I got told all over again how other families have had trouble with “other apartments” and “they do well in this one“. It may be that some people like it in the middle of nowhere, but I want to live close to the place I go to five times a week, especially when traffic conditions are as horrible as in Bangalore.

We’ll see if the message goes through this time and I get to live somewhere even remotely acceptable. I would like to see some results before I leave Oulu tomorrow evening.

Edit: some e-mails later I got what I asked for, so I’ll be having a studio apartment closer to the office.

Tags: accommodation, diamond district, practical stuff, traffic, wappu

The previsit is almost at its end as I am writing this in Paris, waiting for the connecting flight to Helsinki. It has been quite a week and I must admit it is a kind of a relief to return to Europe. The security checks may not be any more efficient than in India, but at least they have left out the hordes of people who just stand there watching your every move. There’s a sense of personal freedom in the air when everyone around you has something proper to do.

I thought the process of getting in a plane in Finland is overcomplicated, but it’s actually the opposite. In Oulu you check in with one person, go through the security check with at most two persons, and show your boarding pass to one person just before entering the plane.

India is… a bit different.

When you arrive at Bangalore airport, there’s a guard on the door verifying that you have tickets to a plane that leaves within some hours or so. Before the check-in queue there’s a person who hands you a departure card you’re supposed to fill before passport control. When you get to the front of the queue, another person tells you which desk you should go to, and only after that you can do the actual check-in.

Skip forward a couple of minutes to the passport queue. If it so happens that you didn’t get the departure card before, there’s someone to give you a new one. After filling in the details you wait in the line and finally get to a desk where one person checks your passport, visa and departure card. If all goes well, you get a new stamp in your passport and proceed to the next guard – about five meters after the desks – and he verifies that your passport and boarding pass have correct stamps in them.

Before you get to the security check, there’s an officer who gives you a tag for each piece of cabin luggage you are carrying (includes handbags and such). The tag must be filled in with passenger name, nationality, destination and other such details before it is attached to the bag. The security check itself is quite similar to the Finnish one, but every single passenger is scanned with a handheld metal detector, even if the walk-through one doesn’t detect anything. After scanning you and your luggage the guard stamps your boarding pass and all the tags in your bags. Before you get to the secured area, a separate guard – again about five meters later – checks the stamps in your boarding pass and luggage. If for some reason the stamps are not there, you have to go back and get them.

We’re finally through to the gate, but the fun is far from over.

The boarding process starts with a person checking your passport and boarding pass, followed by a check that all your luggage tags have security stamps in them. Half-way down the tube there is a table for random security checks as well as a person who separates the boarding pass from the ticket. Shortly after him there is a guard who checks your boarding pass for security stamps, and you finally get to step on board. Of course the flight attendants want to see your pass once more in order to guide you to the correct aisle. The you just sit down and enjoy the flight as usual.

Overpopulation, anyone?

Tags: flying, people in india, practical stuff, previsit, traffic, ways of working, what is different, work

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

Sometimes it is beneficial to stand out of the crowd. I was walking towards the office in the morning when a seemingly random Bajaj Avenger pulled to the side of the road. I didn’t recognize the driver, but it was enough to see the neck strap of the Corporation over his shirt to understand what was going on. No doubt he recognized me (I wonder how?) and offered a ride to the office, which I gladly accepted. I was already prepared to take a rikshaw, but this helpful dude saved me the trouble. Thanks again, even though I don’t remember your name

I found out yesterday that January 14th is a public holiday in India, so all of a sudden I have only two early mornings left in Bangalore. Time flies at unbelievable pace when you’re far away from home.

Just a quick side note: the Finnish police has done one of its biggest mistakes yet by collecting a secret list of child porn sites. Apart from completely useless filtering system for implementing the list, its content has been proved to include a lot of legal sites.

And now the list has been published in Wikileaks, helping people find stuff that the police wants banned. Great work, guys!

Tags: colleagues from India, internet censorship, motorbikes, time, traffic, transportation, why I wanted a change, work

My advanced course is now also behind and I like diving more and more every time I surface. The fun is much more there now that I don’t have to train skills or go right behind the instructors all the time. I’m already looking forward to my next dive, no matter if it happens in Thailand, Bali or Vuohijärvi.

Otherwise today was not that great, especially with the locals. I am struggling to put my thougts out nicely since I want to avoid generalizations, stereotypes and the term “complete jackasses”. Take a simple example of a small car crash with no injuries and minor damage to the cars involved. You would think the first course of action would be to drive the cars to the roadside and see what happened and why, but unfortunately that was not the case. Instead there was a crowd of severals dozens of people in the middle of the road, blocking the traffic both ways and pissing everyone off. How hard can it be to move to the side?

Apparent road rage idiots aside, the second irritation relates to the way of living around here. Every second person I come by wants my money and nothing else (the other 50% are tourists), and they will surely try every trick in the book. Although I knew it beforehand, I still couldn’t prepare to being treated as a stupid object with excess money in his pockets (which I may be, but still). I am sick and tired of the millions of junk sellers all around the place, but avoiding them is a bit difficult in here.

Seems like I’m too misanthropic to write right now, so I’ll be off to one of the nice places I have found, a restaurant called Casandré close to Calangute beach. I need a cold beer or two as well as something to eat.

Oh, just BTW: the third dive was indeed wreck diving, followed by navigation and underwater photography exercises today.

Tags: diving, drink, food, holiday, oh bugger, people in india, tourism, traffic