Arrived in Pune

landed in pune after the 30 minute domestic flight from mumbai this morning. the are 2 separate security lines for men and women, which is awesome because the women's line is so short. from the car ride, pune seems cleaner than mumbai. still lots of traffic with cars inches away from each other. even though it's short distances, it takes a long time to get anywhere b/c of congestion. my office is 7 miles away but they said it'll take 45 minutes to get there.

they let me rest today since i'm jet lagged, and go into work tomorrow morning. free wi-fi in my room is great so i can function normally. this pune marriott is even better than the mumbai one and cheaper since it's in a smaller city. the service is very good, they even took my picture so the staff knows me since i'm here for a month. one person already recognized me and said my name. it might be a little too polite though b/c everyone feels the need to talk to me and do things for me. the hotel's gated and they do security for everyone who comes in.

i get free breakfast and executive lounge access with continental/indian happy hour food. there's enough food that i could just eat free dinner there, but i won't every day so i can eat real indian food too. eating at the hotel's 3 restaurants and pretty cheap indian room service might be easier though b/c i'll have to take cars to go to specific restaurants in the city. maybe it will be easier if i do it right after work. the mini-bananas are delish, which is good because i can only eat the fruit that is peelable and that's difficult to remember when i see raw vegetables and fruit that i want to eat but can't. they even had a "vietnamese spring roll." i've been collecting water bottles for drinking, brushing my teeth, and washing my face. i have like 6 in my room.

i met a person at the lounge b/c we were the only 2 people eating there at 8pm. his name is alister from scotland but lives in san fran with his wife, who has 2 vietnamese adopted brothers. he owns an outsourcing company and one of his clients is yelp. he's here for 2 months and prob in his 40s. any younger single ones? i explored the hotel. the outdoor pool is also very nice and has great padded lounge chairs, so i will lay out there some times. i prob won't be in pune on weekends, so i'll go in the morning or after work. i'm planning to go back to the hotel pretty early after work so i'm not in the city by myself when it's late. the hotel's driving me to work, so i can prob arrange for them to pick me up everyday too. there's a nightclub which i heard funny indian dance music coming out of for a convention party. there's supposed to be a rooftop restaurant opening up, i hope while i'm here. the hotel's actually very new, opened in november 2010. this was prob more info than you wanted to know, but the blogs are a good memory saver for me too. good night.