Going Home

Leaving Mysore, I was a little sad, even though I was anxious to get home to Candis and Sofia, my shower and bed. We spent the first part of the day site seeing in Bangalore, but I was site seeing out and just wanted to relax at the hotel. For lunch we went to the most disgusting restaurant of our visit. During our time in Mysore AR did a great job making sure we went places that were clean and had the appropriate amenities, such as clean bathrooms. This place had good food but since it was filthy and bath rooms I could not even get into with our having to puke. Need less to say, AR would not have been impressed.

In the evening some of us went into Bangalore, where we experienced western civilization of McDonald and KFC. Food never tasted so good. Our cab driver ran a luxury cab service and was very interested in our visit. He drove us around the City in his Mercedes E series car, which he paid $95,000 US. He also showed us town homes beside GE medical and SAP campuses that started at $250K - $500k US. What a contrast of income and wealth.

On Thursday, I chilled at the Ginger hotel until 3 when we went to Praxair. Praxair showed us a part of India that no none else admitted to, supply chain and logistics issues. As a provider of gasses to various large businesses, getting product to their customers on time and as efficient as possible is a challenge. Their MD for India also mentioned that there is a support group for x-pats families that help them get acclimated to a new country. If I ever move to India, this information will be helpful.

The evening was spent at the Oberio Hotel where we had a fantastic dinner with wine and cigars after the meal. It was a great night sitting on the patio and just handing out. Little did we know that this was the calm before the storm.

I will not go through the hell we experienced to get home but I want to reflect on team work and the code of conduct that I tried to live by, which is “no man left behind”. 14 hours in an Indian airport that is under construction, two nights in a hotel that was not anticipated, O’Hare airport on a Saturday night when there is no flights out, and ticketing agents with attitudes can cause the strongest person to loose it and act irrationally.

Overall, I feel that the group managed the last 72 hours in a professional manor. The peasants could have revolted but for the most part we kept our cool and managed to avoid another international incident. OOPS, international incident # 5 was Theresa Waldof standing up for her self when a European called her stupid because she did not see them in line. He picked the wrong person to mess with.