First complete weekend in San Jose

This happens to be the entry of my first complete weekend in San Jose. The dates: 2/8/2008 and 3/28/2008.

2/8/2008 Saturday

I had planned on going to San Jose downtown . After doing some research on how to go and what to see, I got confused as google map told 2 routes. And I decided to take a route told to me by one of my colleague which happened to be the wrong one and lost much of time due to it. Nevertheless, the actual route is taking a VTA station going towards Santa Teresa from Karina and get down at San Antonio or Santa Clara and everything in downtown is within walkable distance from these places. So, we started off from the room at around 9.30 to reach there by around 11. After enquiring about the whereabouts and roaming around for some time into what seemed to be a very happening and busy place very much unlike the part of San Jose I stay in. This place was full of business activities like hotels,saloons,parlours,theatres etc.etc. Finally we reached the art mueseum . The building looked good and old made of stone unlike the buildings back there in area near our hotel. So after getting a 8 dollar ticket we went into to see what was inside. There was nice help available to guide us who told us that photography is prohibited inside. It was more of a scientific art mueseum rather than a pure art mueseum. The first floor had photographs of some eminent photographers(I didn't know even one of them) who had done some strange photographs like a girl with dress in the form of tent in snow. So it was a mix of art and science. Some light show and other stuff in this floor. Second floor was dedicated to robot. Robots play a great part in the life of a American. Right from childhood , a child is made to think and imagine about what all a robot can do and its various designs and functionalities. Also, american scientists have been doing research on robot since a long time. This floor has all such research material . It had places where children could design their own robot. It had some working samples of robot. Overall we found this place was not worth of the 8 $ spent on it. And we left this place around 12.30.

Then I was left alone to explore the rest of downtown. Opposite to the art meuseum ,acroos the road is the tech meuseum in the junction of the roads is a small park with very very tall trees and some fountains where kids where playing and getting drenched on a very warm day. I spent some time in this park and then moved on to have my lunch before I go into the tech meuseum. After much struggle I managed to find something vegetarian to eat in subway . After finishing my veg delite, I went to the tech meuseum. Again a ticket of 8$ and it had a movie in i-max also. Tech meuseum is a great place to learn. It had all amenities to teach in a practical way. It covered all major technologoies like genetics,medicine,latest trends in medicine,internet,geography,electronics,chip design,ultrasound and judging once health condition with his/her body temperature etc etc. You name it , it probably is there in there. Some very interestin things which stood out for me were, a hood which makes u see the world as if u r drunk and walking on a straight line after that, arm wrestling with another guy across the globe sitting on any of the tech meuseums, a manequin with which you can see how a open heart surgery is performed. After roaming in for about an hour and a half, I went to see the movie in i-max. It was a national geographic movie about explorers and how they discovered the western part of US somewhere in early 1800s. Nothing great about the movie but imax was truly amazing. i max is supposed to be the best movie experience in the world. It claims to give u 13000 watts of pure digital sound that too from six different directions. The images are crystal clear and the dome shaped theatre gives an amazing effect to the whole thing. I have to agree with whatever they claim about, that it is indeed the best cinematic experience on planet earth. All this is achieved by the minute things like the frame used for filming here is 10 times the size of the normal frame . They use very hi-tech instruments and technologies to give an experience of a life time. By the way, before I forget, the movie I watched was "Lewis and Clarke" . Hope to see some commercial movie in these conditions and that cud be the experiece of a life time. Once done with imax movie I set out to further explore San Jose downtown and went to San Jose university. A really cool campus. Lush green with superb architecture. After strolling around for some time, I finished my outing to return to the room.

3/8/2008

Next day, Sunday we had planned a SFO trip. We got into VTA train at early hours of 7.30 AM that Sunday morn to reach mountain view station from where we were supposed to board the CAL train to SFO. All trains as usual came dot on time and we reached SFO by CAL train at about 9.45 am. The weather was damn cold and cloudy there. and the sea breeze was making things still colder. Walked all the way to market street and saw the real city of US. With tall buildings and busy people all around, it was a true depiction of the US city life. Our destination was Pier 39. And we reached there at around 12, buy taking a tram. We equired about the cruise and city tour bus. The first person told us it will cost 44 $ . While still strolling around, one more person gave us at 40$. Thats when we came to know that there is no fixed price and everyone gives discount according to his/her wish. We decided to take the cruise first. The crusie was supposed to take an hour. It started from the coast into the Bay of America which joins with Pacific ocean. The sea breeze made the weather really cold and the overcast conditions didn't help us either. But the cruise was a great experience. The golden gate bridge as it gradually came out of the mist cover was a marvel. The way it is constucted makes us beleive in the technical wizardy the US has. The way it is constructed in ocean floor is amazing. Also, the cruise showed us the alcatraz prison( was a prison). After the one hour crusie, we went and got on one of the open roof hop on hop off buses to see the SFO city in the tour. We went on to see Bay Bridge,State building without getting down. Then we hopped off in union square. My God what a place, a very busy and happening place with a sit out place in the center with tall buildings all around. We managed to get hold of a Chinese hotel for lunch and post lunch we again hopped on the bus to go to China Town. China town is the best place for shopping as things are comparitively cheap here. And also, a photographer's delight as the buildings show the Chinese architecture in its true form. Again we hopped on the bus to see Italian town and a nice cathedral before the bus stopped at the place where it began , Pier 39. From there on , we hopped on to the next bus to get down at market street from where we took the BART train to head back to San Jose. BART train is the undergroud train system of SFO. SFO has amazing public transport facilites , beleive me. BART train runs in 2 different directions from here, one goes to Milbrea and the other one to Fermont. We got down at Milbrea to take CAL from there to Mountain view. And our own dear old VTA from mountain view to Karina. Finally the trip was over after shelling out some 80 $ from my pocket, and some 200 plus snaps in my camera and heart full of a wonderful experience.

First Week at San Jose

26/07/2008

This was the day I landed in SFO and reached the hotel at around 2 pm. The hotel looked nice from outside so looked the city. The room was a comfy one. The rest of the day was spent in "cooking" noodles and munching it. And then going for a deep sleep for about 4 hours before waking up at night 9 pm to cook and eat dinner.

27/07/2008

It was decided that this Sunday would be spent shopping, my friend actually shopping and me window shopping. So I got up got ready,had breakfast and then set ourselves to go for the great mall. We took VTA Train. Our stop called Karina station to Great Mall Stop. Did some great shopping there. It is an awesome mall with great stores all around, mainly for apparels and shoes. Once nice Chinese toy shop and the GAP outlet was particularly cheap and affordable. Next we went to Wallmart. Wallmart is a kind of super market and it really is a super market. Where else can you get from candy to Car Tyres . I mean it, you can get virtually anything over here. And thigs are pretty cheap here. Once we finished shopping here, we were headed to Bareeza, the Indian store. Here you find all Indian food items,movie DVDs etc. After buying some curd and vegatable we headed towards room again. The climate and the excitemement didn't let me feel tired after this shopping trip. And the fact that Sun sets only at 9 pm makes a psychological impact saying hey..we can still roam around.

28/07/2008

First day to work. Got breakfast from the hotel, cooked lunch, lemon rice using lemon rice mix packed it into lunch box and then headed for office. Office is just 5 mins walk from the hotel. Lisa my manager took me around to show and introduce everyone around and got me a laptop and I was set to go. Cubicles are big. Office building is awesome. With free pepsi,coke and other drinks and apples,oranges and corn flakes to eat, it is indeed a wonderful place to work. The work culture and the casual atmosphere adds on to it. Wireless internet in the office really helps by avoiding the usage of wires and stuff. Finally the first working day was spent in verifying the bugs and preparing for the next day morning's demo.

29/07/2008

Had an early morn(8.30 AM) meeting , so had to rush thru things. The meeting went all right. Again the day was spent in verifying the bugs.

30/07/2008

Another working day and same old life. Nothing special.

31/07/2008

Arul's last working day in San Jose. At the end of the day went around the campus and took photos.

01/08/2008

Day was spent working for the first half and blogging these stuff the second half.

From airport to Hotel

This blog covers all the major/minor events of the first week of my stay in San Jose.

I landed on SFO airport on 26th July 2008 , Saturday and around 1230 local time. First step was to clear customs. There were lot of counters but there were long queues in each but the officer were dispersing the crowd quickly until a server crash brought a halt to the whole process for 5 mins. Once resumed, my turn came soon. All my apprehensions about customs and immigration got over soon and I got I94 for 12 weeks as I had asked for. Next step was the get baggages and to go out. It took a bit of time for the baggage to come. Once I got the baggage, went out to be greeted by SFO city. One Indian guy kept pestering about taking us in less charge and I finally fell to his pestering and told him that I wanted to go to Extended Stay in San Jose. He took 50 $ each and agreed to drop us.

Some observations made on this trip:

• 45 mile trip was covered in less than 30 mins.
• There was not a single traffic signal where we had to wait. It was difficult to beleive that we are going out of a major airport of the USA.
• The roads super and the vehicles zoomed on their track.
  
• Climate was pretty good , must have been around 20 degree celsius.
• All through this 45 mile trip, I could spot only one bike.

And we reached the hotel.

The Transit:Singapore Airport

The best part of the journey, the transit at the Singapore airport lasted for 3 hours approx. For the initial some time, I was perplexed as to what should I be doing. I just got off the flight and kept moving in one particular direction where everyone was moving and that in turn turned out to be the correct direction. As I approached a lady at the Singapore airlines counter, she told me that my next flight SQ16 is from terminal A14 and that I had to take sky train to go there. So these 3 hour time was spent usefully in Singapore airport taking pictures and looking around places. And to tell you what, Singapore airport is by far the best airport I have seen. Not even SFO was close enough. The kind of duty free shops you have in the airport, the transit time is sure to be enjoyed the best. This is where I saw the travellator for the first time . And to tell about sky train, it is simply awesome. A train service for going from one terminal to the other. The airport is so big that one needs sky trains to move around. The staff at the airport , extremely friendly and corteous. The airport extremely clean and well maintained. With boards message hoardings all around, one can easily find his way out without asking for any help. The way the Singapore airport has been developed , it looks more like a shopping mall or some palace than a airport. And according to me if you want to completely visit Singapore Changy airport you need a transit of at least 8 hours.

The journey

The journey began on Friday,the 25th date of the July month of the year 2008 at 2330 hours IST from Chennai airport by Singapore airlines. We were supposed to reach San Fransisco, our ultimate destination by Saturday the 26th of July by 1230 local time. This being my first trip on an international airlines I was apprehensive. Apprehensive about the luggages and the stuff I am carrying, apprehensive about the documents I need to show if asked in the immigration ,apprehensive about the duration of I94 I will get. But destiny had a smooth plan and I has a smooth sailing all through. Getting back to the journey, the Singapore airlines flight SQ529 was good. But definitely not the best. But I am not a person who can judge the standards of airlines as I haven't travelled on many. But when you hear Singapore airlines is the best in the world, obviously the expectations are sky high and I must say I was disappointed. The seat for the economy class was not very comfortable considering the length of the journey. Nevertheless, I had no choice. And as luck would have it , I was given the aisle seat and not the window seat but a nice gentleman from China/Japan/Korea, God only knows was kind enough to exchange his window seat with me. And hence, began my journey to Singapore first. A journey of 3 hours and 40 minutes . I took the window seat in vain as it was night all through, and my expectation of seeing the Kaula Lampur twin tower on the way went in vain. Finally we landed in Singapore at 0600 AM local time. But sun won't come out of Singapore till 7 am. And our next flight was SQ16 scheduled to depart at 0915 local hours. This piece of journey I had the worst seat possible a middle seat and the person at the window was not kind enough(read rude) to exchange the seat and as luck would have it, the majority of the journey was during day hours except for few hours. Anyways I was trapped in a middle seat for all those enduring hours spending my time seeing movies,sleeping and eating. Finally we reached SFO airport at around 1230 hours local time and I was physically drained but definitely not mentally as this was just the begining.

Now to some comments on the Singapore airlines which covered my entire trip

• The flight was shaky and turbulent at times. Truly not the internationally best standard according to me.
• Air hostesses were all Chinese/Japanese/Korean.
  
• The collection available in the TV was pretty limited.
  
• Service was pretty bad according to me. According to me ear plugs must be offered to everyone before they take off to prevent ears from blocking. They give ear plugs only when asked for.
• A little more leg space should help.Agreed we are on economy class but still a little better service and facilities can help.

Overall Singapore airlines was good but if this is internationally the best then I wonder how the others would be.