Once again I land in peaceful India,
and think to myself..."I'm		".
Thank goodness
I have a better camera this time around.

No travel through India
would be complete without
snapping a few photos of
armed soliders manning
machine gun nests at the
local airports.  This was
Bangalore, a happening
place for the young IT crowd.
I'm outside the domestic
ticket counters, ready to
make the final hop to Pune.
I've been sitting in a chair at
this place for 6 hours, b/c
AMEX recommended I
stay at the airport instead of
a hotel.  Fair enough, but
by this point I'm ready to
go and in my ecstasy take
one photo for the memories.
About 10 minutes after this
photo, I learn AMEX has
accidently voided my plane
ticket.  Whoops!  In a mad
dash of international phone
calls, and various credit card
and ATM attempts, the ticket counter ladies manage to get a hold of my US bank and secure the funds to purchase a new ticket.  I make the flight with
just minutes to spare.  Hats of to AMEX for snapping me out of a +20 hour no-sleep daze better than any cup of coffee ever could.

And when I land in Pune, I see that it is really quite nice.  Much better then Mumbai.  Cleaner and green.  No massive throngs (a definite plus).  In fact, Pune almost looked like a small third-world vacation spot (reminiscent of Dr. No).  But my brain was pretty zoned out (its 3am back home, why is there still sunlight here?).

I get to the hotel, check-in, and shower, and take a cab to work.  A fairly nice office tower, except for the tremendous number of flies that had managed to sneak into the doorways of the building.  At that 3rd set of doors, there's one of those elecric bug zappers I used to love as a kid.  I remembering begging Mom and Dad to buy a bigger one, or or at least more of them.  I thought if we stragically placed them around the house perimeter, we'd really do some damage to the local bug poplution on our 5 acre woodland property.  Well, clearly the machine at the Pune office was losing its little war against the flies.  Smoking visibly rising from it, choked full of zapped flies, this rather nauseating smell hits you as you walk past it.

Shelley arrives 2 days latter, and is all jet-lagged but happy to see me.  We trade horror stories of the Bangalore airport and laugh, its good to have company now, someone who speaks fluent English.

On the way to work one morning, a new gas station was opening up and had all of these festivaties.  Some kids with a massive string of firecrackers were outside my window.  I'm egging them on to light it before our driver pulls away.  I saw the kid with match in hand, but the traffic jam clears and we slip through before the show starts.

The office campus.

The campus at night.

Beware of the mosquitoes.

Waterfalls on the way to Mumbai.

Mumbai.

Mumbai wet.

In the bathroom of a "Live Orchestra" bar in Mumbai.  Now don't get me wrong, I approve of their decision to use strong cleaning agents, but nevertheless I wasn't about to sit on the john at this place.

Back in Pune.  Shelley has left, and Rick Shaffer has arrived.  We got some spare time to check out an old fort.

We also check out this temple, with a scary black dude inside.

I  think the citzens of Boulder would be proud at the length Indians go to protect and perserve their environments.  But I doubt daily commuters have much love for this tree taking up half the lane.

A camel.

Water buffalo

From the top of Le Meridian, a neigherboring business park.

Last day.  The testing team was a great crew.

After I left, they sent me a follow up picture.