It feels like I’ve been in San Francisco for absolutely ages, even though it’s only been around 10 days. Probably because I had some really packed days with my tourist hat on and then a very intensive conference. I’m currently sitting at gate A9 of San Francisco International Airport waiting to board my flight to London. Unlike my journey here, I’ve been told that this is a full flight. In fact I was told they were overbooked by 3 when I checked in, though usually this isn’t a problem as a handful of people won’t show up for one reason or another. Thumbs up to BA again – they changed my seat again to an emergency exit one I think this is actually to do with the fact that I’m travelling on a fully flexible economy ticket, which tends to get higher priority for these requests over cheaper tickets. In fact a fully flexible ticket in economy works out only slightly cheaper than a fixed business class seat booked a good few weeks in advance.

Anyway, back to San Francisco. What a fabulous city! It’s exceeded all my expectations and I’ve had a wonderful time here. The weather has been very good overall (mostly sunny and warm) and it’s so picturesque as well – I reckon I’ve taken over 800 photos in all in fact. Some of them are on my Flickr gallery, and I’ll be adding some more when I get home. For someone who likes food (as I do) the city has so much to offer – last night I went to a place called Saha which serves Arabian-style cuisine. The chef is Yemenese and prepares some wonderful stuff – I had some falafel and couscous cakes to start and then a main course with squash, tofu, mushrooms, spinach and topped with some rather good Palestinian cous-cous. One thing I don’t understand is why the Americans refer to main courses as “entrées” – that’s bizarre! Shouldn’t an entrée be a starter?!

The public transport system is pretty efficient and so affordable – much more so than London. Also, almost all buses are of the zero-emission variety, running on power from overhead cables. The system is so simple to understand and use as well – as the city is fairly small compared to London, you can get the whole map in A5 format. It’s so easy to find things too, as the city is almost a perfect grid in terms of layout, streets are clearly labelled, and directions are typically given in terms of street intersections – e.g. Clay & Battery. I like the way distances are described in terms of “blocks” too – so it’s fairly easy to tell how far something is going to be. Though even if it’s 3 blocks away, in San Francisco it could very well be up a steep incline!

I found the people to be extremely friendly and welcoming everywhere – in fact I think this is one of the best things about San Francisco. Rather than things like “hello”, “hi” or “good morning”, the typical greeting tends to be “how are you doing?”. In pretty much all of the restaurants and shops I went to the service was extremely hospitable. I’m always amused by the subtle but important differences between British and American English – for example, I tend to say “cheers” quite a lot instead of “thanks” and they really don’t use that in the US at all. Most people respond with “cheers” back, as well as a grin Perhaps they’re used to British folk coming over…

Of course there are lots of other differences to be aware of as well – for example in the US you might stand in line to use the restroom, whereas in the UK you might queue for the toilet. Talking about standing in line for the restroom. this was something I had to get used to at JavaOne. Amusingly, there was always a queue outside the men’s restroom but never one outside the ladies’. Quite the opposite to how I’ve seen it elsewhere! But this is of course due to the fact that >95% of atendees (maybe even 98%) to JavaOne are male.

In terms of key messages from JavaOne, the real drive for 2006 is to make Java technology easier to develop with. One of the big things in Java SE and EE 5 is annotations and dependency injection, where resources are injected into a class, and all the developer has to do is write a Plain Old Java Object (POJO) and include the appropriate annotations. Annotations also provide a way to avoid having to write deployment descriptors for enterprise applications. In addition, mobile applications are predicted to take off in a really big way. I haven’t got the exact figures to hand right now, but Motorola commented that there are now many more Java capable mobile phones being produced and distributed to end users than PCs. Up until now, the possibilities for applications on mobile devices have been fairly limited, however with increasing memory and processor capabilities, it is now possible (at last!) to run multi-threaded Swing applications on a handset. One example is the SavaJe Jasper developer phone which sold like hotcakes during the show. At $199 I was very tempted to buy one, but I already own far too many gadgets What’s nifty about this particular phone is that you can now only run Java SE applications on it, but it comes with a development environment that allows you to debug the application on the phone itself, and even set breakpoints etc.

Hope I haven’t bored you too much with the geek speak Right, that’s all for now – time to get some sleep. I wrote the first bit of this whilst waiting to board the flight and came back to it a few hours later. So, right now there’s about 6 hours until I land in London, and when I get there it’ll be mid-afternoon, but early morning in terms of San Francisco time – argh!

Ah, it’s been so long since my last post! I had every good intention of posting something every day or two, but it’s been so hectic – lots of sightseeing around San Francisco and then the JavaOne conference. Today is day 3 of the conference – last day tomorrow. JavaOne is incredible – I think there are about 15,000 techies, and much of the day is spent running from one part of the convention centre to another to get to the sessions in time. It feels like being back at University again!

I’m quite intrigued by how much preparation must have gone into this event – ensuring that things happen at the right time and people get to the sessions that they want to attend. Plus there’s breakfast and lunch – imagine having to feed 15,000 hungry techies! An interesting logistical operation

I’ve heard a lot of great speakers including Rod Johnson (famous for the Spring Framework) and Erich Gamma (one of the “design patterns” Gang of Four). There’s so much to take in and the days are pretty long too (yesterday was 8am to 11:30pm) – so it does get a bit challenging! I’m particularly keen to learn about Java EE 5 and the new features that are in that.

There’s some break time things to do too, including networked gaming on Xbox 360s, and loads of “hacker stations” (internet-connected computers) which are Sun Ray ultra thin-client boxes running the Java Desktop. Access of course is by smart card There’s free WiFi too, but it’s a little flaky at times – probably due to the vast number of people with wireless devices trying to connect at the same time.

Right, I’m heading back to JavaOne now for the After Dark event. Bye for now!

I’m currently on a British Airways flight to San Francisco and am very impressed with the service from BA so far. It was so easy to check-in online, print my own boarding pass and then just go to the fast-bag drop point at Heathrow this morning. Whilst I’d already got a seat reserved in a fairly good location, I thought I’d ask if there were any emergency exit or bulk-head seats available, as these offer so much more legroom. They put in a special request on the system and told me to ask again at the boarding gate, which I did – was really chuffed to find a new boarding pass had already been printed and was waiting for me! About the best seat I could hope for actually – right next to the emergency exit! No, that isn’t so I can make a quick escape in the unlikely event of something going – it really is to be able to stretch ng

The cabin crew are really polite and efficient, and the lunch service was very good – certainly tasted a lot better than what I’ve come across on other long-haul flights. I’m in a very comfortable Boeing 747-400 – I enjoy flying 747 much more than the largest Airbus (A340 I think) as there’s a lot more space to walk around, and cross from one aisle to the other without causing other passengers lots of inconvenience.

So, just over 3 hours to landing. I was feeling extremely exhausted a few hours back, having only had about 4 hours sleep last night, but some quick power-naps seem to have done the trick I find it quite hard to get any kind of proper sleep in the air. Looking forward to exploring San Francisco – looking at the DK Eyewitness guide to the city I’ve bought, there’s plenty to see and do, and hopefully a chance to try lots of interesting cuisine too in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.

The weather is expected to be sunny all week – around 22-24C I have 4 and a bit days to wear my tourist hat, then I’ll be attending the 4 day Sun JavaOne conference, which is the main reason I’m here.

I’ve uploaded some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilmadhvani

More soon!

Despite the weather not being quite as good as we had hoped, we had a great time in Lille. It’s great that now the high-speed rail link (or Phase 1 at least) is in, Lille is only 1hr40m away from Waterloo – and using the Eurostar is so much less hassle than getting to an airport etc!

Lille’s full of great parks, buildings, churches and places to eat – vegetarian food was a little hard to come by, but not too bad overall, even if it was just a cheese sandwich at times! On Monday we took the train to Tournai (only about 20 mins) which is a small city in Belgium. Tournai has some wonderful architecture as well and the Cathedral de Notre Dame is definitely worth a visit – it’s one of the oldest places of religious worship in Belgium.

We couldn’t leave Belgium without grabbing a proper Belgian waffle – and boy was it good! I worked in Belgium for about 6 months and one of the things I really miss (other than the fruit beers) are the waffles, especially of the Liege variety – they’re just incredibly tasty!

The thing that annoys me about France is the fact that most places are closed on Sundays and public holidays. As a result we spent a lot of time walking around and looking at things from the outside, without being able to go in Even the big Euralille shopping mall near the train station was closed, so we couldn’t do much in the way of shopping – d’oh!

I feel sick. It’s now 2:30 in the morning and I’m finally sitting on board our Jet Airways flight back to London. The sad thing is we arrived at the airport just before midnight, and it took over 2 hours to get into the airport, through the security check, check-in, immigration and hand baggage check. There was total chaos outside the airport with what looked like over a thousand people waiting outside, unable to enter the building due to the incredible slow security checks. So the first hour was spent just trying to get into the airport building, let alone get to the Jet Airways check-in counter!

Everything that followed was also extremely snail-paced – up until now I’ve had nothing but praise for Jet Airways, but their check-in staff at Delhi are far too slow, and they also need some assistants on the conveyor belts to help the luggage along, since it’s ludicrous for the check-in counter staff to have to get up and push the luggage along if it gets stuck somewhere.

So much stress, just to board a flight! Delhi really needs to sort out its International Airport fast – clearly the airport is far too small to serve the passengers that pass through it with any degree of efficiency. During our stay we saw lots of signs up saying “Chalo Dilli (Come to Delhi) – from Walled City to World City…” – I don’t see how Delhi can be classed as a world city when the basic infrastructure is so poor. I really hope things improve before the Commonwealth Games that are being held here in 2010. I’ve passed through a lot of other airports in Asia in the last few years, and never come across anything as hopeless as this.

I was just talking to one of the cabin crew and I asked her if there is this much chaos every day. She told me that it’s a regular problem, and even they have trouble getting into the airport. I think the worst problem is that there isn’t an orderly queue to get into the airport – there are people pushing trolleys from all angles. I really feel sorry for some disabled passengers we saw who were experiencing extreme difficulties in getting wheelchairs – they were told that they couldn’t get assistance until they got into the terminal building. That really sucks

Whilst I’m on a rant, I got so annoyed with various rickshaw drivers and nosey locals earlier today who just keep on pestering tourists and trying to take them to places they don’t want to go. What frustrates me most is when they ask “Where are you going?” – in the past I’ve ignored them, but today I couldn’t help yelling MYOB to several of them These folk really are a total nuisance and are spoiling the city’s aspiration to be a tourist-friendly destination.

Well, the flight’s about to take off so I’d better end here for now. We expect to land at around 7am UK time – then it’s back to work! I’ve got a few more photos to share from today – will post those a bit later

Well, it had to be done – a visit to the famous Taj Mahal (one of the seven wonders of the world) is kind of a must-do thing for anyone visiting this part of India. From Delhi it can be done as a day trip – the distance of 200km takes around 4 to 5 hours by road. The Taj Mahal is in the city of Agra, located in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

As we were driving towards the East Gate, we were stopped and the taxi driver was told that he wasn’t permitted to take us any further – we discovered that this is due to the fact that the Taj Mahal was being damaged by pollution and therefore there is now a ban on polluting vehicles within a 2km perimeter of the site. So we switched to a cycle rickshaw for the rest of the journey – I felt a bit sorry for the rickshaw guy who had to pedal extremely hard to carry the 3 of us there!

Without a doubt, the Taj Mahal is absolutely spectacular – despite the fact that foreigners get fleeced at the entrance gate (around £10 per person, compared to 26p for locals!) and Agra itself isn’t a particularly pleasant city I still think it’s well worth a visit. It took 22 years to construct and is an architectural masterpiece with a stunning symmetrical design. The carvings in the marble are very intricate, especially the inscriptions from the Quran.

On the way back we stopped by Mathura where Lord Krishna is believed to have been born, and the town of Vrindavan where he spent much of his childhood. These sites are unfortunately not very well maintained though and full of unscrupulous and annoying individuals wanting to rip-off as many visitors as they can.

The trip is unfortunately almost at an end – tomorrow is our last day in India and we’re heading to the satellite city of Gurgaon, south of Delhi to visit some friends. It feels like we’ve been here over a month, though it’s only been just over 2 weeks!

More photos at my Flickr gallery.

Wow, what a packed day of sightseeing we had today in Delhi. We started by exploring the main shopping areas around Janpath, including the enormous Central Cottage Emporium which showcases handicrafts from around India. The prices are extremely reasonable too. We spent some time around Connaught Place, which I think is really architecturally spectacular – it’s a shame that the area looks a bit of a mess right now due to further Metro construction work, but once it’s all done it should hopefully look really impressive.

In the afternoon we went to Old Delhi and explored the bustling shopping street there (Chandni Chowk) and then the Lal Qila (Red Fort) which has some beautiful gardens. It was then on to Rajghat (Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation site) followed by the incredible Lotus Temple, which is one of seven in the world built by followers of the Bahá’í faith. They have a museum there too and I learnt a lot about this multi-religious faith that was established nearly 200 years ago. It’s so peaceful inside the temple, and I like the way that the faith discourages against the worship of idols, rituals and any form of superstition. There’s a lot of focus on providing free universal education for all and religious harmony as a way towards achieving world peace.

We had dinner at a lovely South Indian restaurant called Naivedyam, which is located in Hauz Khas Village. This place serves a ‘thali’ in the evening, which includes vegetable dishes, lentils, rice, breads, yoghurt and a sweet dish all for around 90 rupees – that’s under £1.20. A lot of it’s really spicy, but the fact it’s incredibly tasty makes up for that I certainly haven’t ended up with Delhi Belly here!

On a different note, anti-malarial tablets taste so bad! I’ve been taking Palurine tablets every day for the past 3 weeks, and Avlocor (which really tastes fowl even if on the tongue for a second) once a week. It’s a 7 week course – so got another 4 weeks to go after coming back to the UK… actually I’ve not been bitten by any insects at all – just as I’ve found with my previous trips to Asia, mosquitoes don’t seem to like my blood! I’m not complaining

Tomorrow we’re off to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, which is in Uttar Pradesh and apparently around 4-5 hours drive from here. Hopefully I’ll have some interesting photos from there to share soon!

Today’s photos are at the usual place – my Flickr gallery.

We’re staying in the heart of the city, New Delhi, just a few minutes walk from Connaught Place. The Connaught area has a very intereting design – it’s made up of Connaught Place at the centre, then an inner ring (Rajiv Chowk), a middle ring and then an outer ring (Connaught Circus or Indira Chowk). The area is an architecturally uniform series of colonnaded buildings mainly devoted to shops, banks, restaurants, state tourist offices, airline offices and travel agencies.

One of the main differences between Delhi and Mumbai/Bangalore is that here it doesn’t feel so safe to walk around at night in a lot of areas. We’ve spoken to a number of locals and they have advised us against venturing out after 10pm. There are tourist police vans dotted around the city now, but one still needs to be aware of personal safety – probably no worse than London though!

We were really fortunate to be able to visit the Mughal Gardens within Rashtrapati Bhavan (the President’s Estate). These beautiful gardens are only open for one month every year and contain hundreds of different flowers and herb plants. Unfortunately, as with a lot of things in Delhi, photography was strictly forbidden and we had to leave our bags, mobile phones etc at the entrance. In fact, I’m really shocked at how much security there is here. There are armed guards at all of the main metro stations, and all passengers have to go through a security screen which typically involves a bag check too. They are really worried about terrorism here.

The recently-opened Delhi Metro system is really incredible – there are currently only three lines, but new construction is taking place all the time and the entire system should be ready by 2010. It’s very similar to the subway systems in Hong Kong and Singapore – very spacious stations and air conditioned trains. It’s a joy to take the metro and avoid the traffic!

I am pleasantly surprised by the pollution levels here – compared to Mumbai and Bangalore the air is really clean here, mainly due to the fact that the city is now using compressed natural gas (CNG) for autorickshaws and a lot of buses. I think this has made an enormous difference compared to the horrible emissions from old petrol/diesel engines.

It’s time to grab some breakfast now – more later!

I’m currently sitting in Bangalore airport waiting to board a Jet Airways flight to New Delhi – it’s about 1000 miles from here and should take around two and a half hours. Most Indian airports now have free Wi-Fi service provided by Tata Indicom – all you have to do is visit their kiosk and pick up a 30 minute voucher. Magic

We had a fairly leisurely day yesterday in Bangalore – we spent some time in the morning at the High Court and watched bits of trials taking place. Everything is carried out in English. I was surprised how accessible the courts are to the public – we were encouraged to go in and take a look at the proceedings! I guess India is the world’s largest democracy

Today’s photo is of food I’m afraid – sorry if you’re reading this and feeling hungry Copper Chimney in Bangalore is an amazing place to eat with fine decor and exemplary service – we had 3 courses and the bill didn’t even come to £5 per head! I think I need to stop eating so much…

Mysore is another city in the state of Karnataka, located about 160km from Bangalore and connected by a fairly modern highway for most of the way. Mysore is famous for its silk sarees and sandalwood products, including incense sticks, fragrant soap and pungent oils. On the way to Mysore, we stopped at Srirangapatnam – here stand the ruins of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan’s capital, from where they ruled much of southern India during the 18th century. The onion-domed Gumbaz is Tipu’s mausoleum and is also the burial site for much of his family. We also went to the Daria Daulat Bagh, which was Tipu’s Summer Palace and now houses a museum containing family memorabilia and paintings depicting his campaigns against the British.

Mysore itself has some wonderful sights – the key attraction is without a doubt the fabulous Mysore Palace which is breathtaking in size and beauty. Inside there is a kaleidoscope of stained glass, mirrors and enormous ceiling paintings. We also went to Chamundi Hill which contains the Sri Chamundeswari Temple and offers excellent views of Mysore. It definitely feels a lot warmer in Mysore than Bangalore – I suspect it was around 36C – a bit too hot to walk around in for long periods of time – even though I must have guzzled 4 or 5 litres of water yesterday!

In the evening we went to Brindavan Gardens, about 20 minutes drive from the city. Enormous crowds flock here each night to see the illuminated fountains to the accompaniment of film tunes. The display itself wasn’t as impressive as others I’ve seen (Sentosa Island in Singapore has an incredible sound & light show) but it was great fun being amongst so many people who had probably only seen this kind of attraction for the first time – there were so many “wows” and “oooooooohs” from the crowd

I’ve added some photos from Mysore at my Flickr photo gallery.

On a slightly different note, a few days a ago I bought myself a “teach yourself Hindi” book – on this trip I’ve realised that having at least a reasonable grasp of the language would be very useful. Although I can understand around 60% right now due to the similarities with Gujarati, I find it very hard to speak the language as I’m always worried about making huge grammar mistakes. Luckily the alphabet and character set between the two languages isn’t that different, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to improve my Hindi before my next trip to India.

Today is our last in Bangalore – planning to check out a few remaining sights and perhaps do a bit of shopping – Bangalore is a great place to buy books, which are sold at a fraction of our prices.