United Airlines vs. Jet Airways

Just got back from a trip to India. A month long welcome for Hridyan. Exciting and tiring as usual. It had been three years since I visited India last – and since I am talking about travel, I was impressed by the changes at the Mumbai domestic and international terminals amongst many other things.

We flew via London. SF to London (11 hours) and London to Mumbai (10 hours) . The first leg was United and the second was Jet airways. I am not sure where to start or stop the comparison, but some main differences:

> Leg Space - Jet planes had at least 2″-3″ more space in the economy segment.

> Food – Two hot meals in United. Delicious and wholesome. United provided one passable meal. After about 6 hours of the first meal, they provided a snack pack – a chocolate bar, a cold turkey bun and a packet of chips. For six hours the only thing that was offered was water. This was by far the worst food experience in an international flight for me.

> Entertainment system – United had a 4″x3″ screen for each passenger with 8-9 movie selections. Archaic! Did not try the audio. Watching a movie on my iPhone might have been better. Jet airways had a digital entertainment system with 20+ movies. The screens were 8″x6″ and it was pure pleasure to watch on that screen.

> Travelling with baby - United assigned us the first row on our journey to India. Although that meant more leg space, the armrests were fixed and could not be raised. They did not provide a bassinet (unlike Jet) and it was a nightmare to put Hridyan to sleep in that arrangement. Jet on the other hand provided the same seats and we were given a bassinet right at take-off.

> Customer Service – The United crew for some reason (perhaps thinking that the baby was being playful) decided to ignore our service request bells. We had to – multiple times – go to the food area and get hot water for Hridyan ourselves.

I could go on some more – but I guess you get the point. United on long haul flights are terrible. I happened to compare them with Jet – which have always wowed me – but most other airlines treat you less like cattle-class! What is more surprising is that international flights are supposedly money makers for the airlines – and this is how they treat their most profitable customer segment…..

Thanksgiving in Mendocino

For this Thanksgiving, Hrishi and I decided to do a trip, popular amongst couples in the Bay Area – going to the beach town getaway of Mendocino. Its a small, quaint town on US-1 , about 4 hours drive from San Francisco.

It was a very relaxing trip -low energy, sleeping-in, no fuss, no planning, good food – and just generally being.

Some things we loved about it:

– Food: its a big gourmet food place. We tried 4 different casual to gourmet options and loved 3 of them.

• Check out the rice-n-curry and the mushroom appetizer at Highpockety OX. This is in the Anderson Valley on Route 128. This was a big pleasant surprise. And we thought we were stopping by for a mere lunch..

• 955 Ukiah - this is mid-range gourmet restaurant in Mendocino city. Strange name, but great place to dine in. We tried the vegetarian couscous dish and the roast chicken entree – and recommend both highly. The ingredients tasted so fresh and rich. Top it with a cocoa intensive, tiramisu. Would go back again, the next time we are in Mendocino!
• Sunday brunch at the MacCallum House - mimosa with a spicy burrito. I’d recommend substituting the sausage with the marinated tofu. This is not the typical chewy tofu – it almost tasted like paneer, very silky. On a sunny Sunday, you could sit outside on the porch for hours.
• Wine with every meal, all the time

– Biking – we rented a couple of bikes one day from the “Canoe and Bikes” rental at the Stanford Inn. That was a great activity – the terrain is not challenging, and you could easily ride from one state park to the other. We did the Fern Canyon waterfall trail in the Russian Gulch State park. You ride in a couple of miles, then park your bike and hike another 0.7 miles to get to the waterfall. I was surprised at how green the trail was. It kept reminding me of Singapore type lushness, quite atypical of California. Then we rode along the Big River for a couple of miles. We also rode along the beautiful California coast.

– Window shopping – lots of art galleries – glass sculptures, random geeky stuff, jewelery – yeah I said window shopping . Also it was always easy to find parking in the town.

Some things that were not so thrilling:

• Everything dies at 9:00 in the evening or sometimes earlier. One of the shopkeepers explained that it was because there were no street light. There’s probably some history to this reason, but I found it hilarious.
• Our hotel, Mendocino Hotels and Suites was passable. Our room was small, the brass bed looked too old fashioned, and I really don’t like wall-papers. I know some people find it charming, but it wasn’t for us. Internet was free but there was no television in the room. And this room was almost $200 a night. Their bistro did not make things any better either.

Most importantly….I think Mendocino is a hippy town at its heart. It has retained its look and the look of many of its natives from the 60s. It was easier to find organic shops than finding fast food restaurants. More people had long hair than I had seen in a while. The shops had incense, tie and dye, old music band records, and owners who seemed to only care about a nice conversation than selling their stuff. Everyone looked relaxed. Oddly, the older folks or the teenagers dressed up like hippies. I am guessing its grand-parents and their grand-children getting inspired by the colorful decades of the past. We loved it all

Sykes – it’s hot!

Few weekends back, Hrishi and I went for a backpacking trip to Sykes Hot Springs in Big Sur. It was the perfect way to celebrate my last free weekend before classes started. Most long hikes give a psychological high of achievement but this one also packs an immense physiological reward – sitting in a pool of hot sulphur springs at ~95 degF after the long hike. I could feel each muscle slowly relaxing into its natural state. It was totally awesome!!

The pools are small and plenty (~5-6). Each group had one to themselves. Some of them were warmer than the others. It felt like a personal spa for which people would pay big bucks in some resorts. It was not as crowded as some review make it out to be, but they are right about the nudies.

Sykes is a great weekend backpacking option from the Bay Area. Its challenging enough that one feels good to have completed it, but not so hard that you spend weeks preparing for it. If you feel “reasonably fit” then you are probably set to go.

We found the following articles quite helpful:

http://www.verber.com/mark/outdoors/destinations/sykes/

http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/sykes-nytimes.html

A few tips from our experience:

- We took 6.5 hours each way, with a total of 1 hr of food/other breaks. We are about average hikers.

- The whole hike is up and down and up and down.

- Take ample bug spray with you. If you are the sweet blooded kind then be prepared for a bug attack in the summers.

- One of these links mention that there’s no place to camp near the hot-springs. That’s actually not true. Continue in the direction of the spring, and just across the river from springs, there are a couple of campsites.

- Pay for parking at the trail head. Check if a pass/permit is needed at the ranger station near the trail head. We did not need one since cooking was officially not permitted inside because of a danger of wild-fire this late in summer. Typically, a permit is needed.

- Most importantly what we learned was that if you are hiking 10 miles into the wilderness, then stay there for a couple of nights. Go over a long weekend or take a day off. Hiking in on Saturday, and leaving Sunday feel like a low return on investment. Plus the place is pretty and quiet! You just feel like dipping in the pools and just relaxing for hours. There should be no need to hurry. Most campers with us were staying for 2 nights at least, some for more.

I totally recommend this hike if you are visiting the bay area and are an outdoor enthusiast. It was hot!!

London …pure patelgiri

patelgiri – a trip highly focussed on making sure all “tourist spots” have been visited with a grinning snapshot with each monument.

and that’s exactly what my agenda was for my first trip to London. I gathered if I continue with a reasonable career, I’ll be visiting this city many more times. (and if I do not visit it again, then there are bigger things to worry about than visiting obscure London locations).

So this time I wanted to visit everything in the brochure and be done with it. I also wanted to visit the pigeons courtyard and that general area from DDLJ. And with that agenda in mind, I followed the central london tourist destinations to the tee. My only remorse, I could not visit the Tate Museum (though I have heard its hard for non-artsies to comprehend the art there…)

I had assumed that the high point of the trip would be meeting old friends from college, Anshu and Ralli (with respective spouses) or having the Indian food in London. But the award really went to the 5000 year old Egyptian man I met at the British Museum whose skin and hair have been preserved. And mind you he was not mummified. That was totally unnerving…(check it out among the pics)

It was great meeting Anshu+Bharat and Aarti+Ralli after numerous years. A long search for disposable wine glasses, walk in the woods with concrete mushrooms and dragons, Ralli’s nose picking of the god of forest mixed with red wine made our day trip to Kent really enjoyable.

Overall a very enjoyable trip. Loved the Indian food (really….its just everywhere), tube station art, the very Bombay feeling, crown jewels at the Tower of London and visting all those places which I bought in Monopoly year ago…
check out the pics with my smiling face with the monuments. password – whitney