Power The Hotel - Eat for Free

Article taken from BBC World website.

A Danish hotel is offering a free meal to any guest who is able to produce electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike attached to a generator.

36% of Copenhageners cycle to work each day

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen says the idea is to get people fit and reduce their carbon footprint.
Guests will have to produce at least 10 watt hours of electricity - roughly 15 minutes of cycling for someone of average fitness.
The hotel already produces renewable energy with solar panels on its facade.
Guests staying at Plaza Hotel will be given meal vouchers worth $36 (26 euros; £23) once they have produced 10 watt hours of electricity, hotel spokeswoman Frederikke Toemmergaard told the BBC News website.
"Many of our visitors are business people who enjoy going to the gym. There might be the odd person who will cycle just to get a free meal, but I don't think people will exploit the initiative overall," she added.
The bicycles will have iPhones attached to the handlebars measuring how much power is being generated for the hotel.
The plan, a world-first, will be launched on 19 April and run for a year, the hotel says. Only guests staying at the hotel will be able to take part.
Copenhagen has a long-standing cycling tradition and 36% of locals cycle to work each day, one of the highest percentages in the world, according to the website visitcopenhagen.dk
"Because Copenhagen is strongly associated with cycling, we felt the bicycle would work well as a symbol of the hotel's green profile," Ms Toemmergaard said.
US environmental website treehugger.com recently voted Copenhagen the world's best city for cyclists.
If successful, the electric bicycle meal programme will be extended to all Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK, the hotel said in statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8621038.stm

White Water Rafting - The WoW Experience

Was always thinking of going to Kolad, near Mumbai for Rafting in the dam released water but luckily had some project in Gurgaon for more than 2 weeks and as weekend was inbetween the work days, me and my colleague decided to go to Rishikesh for the real deal of White Water Rafting in the Holy Ganges.

Rishikesh a small sleepy town on the banks of Ganges which is around 224 KMS from Delhi ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus) is where all the major activities of White Water Rafting takes place. Now I shall describe on how we travelled to Rishikesh and what were the day schedule.

We decided to leave early in the afternoon, left around 12:30 Pm after having a good breakfast at Haldiram's in Gurgaon. After 60 Kms ride through New Delhi and Old Delhi we reached ISBT in one and half hour. Entered the massive ISBT and were asking people where will we get buses for Haridwar or Rishikesh also deep in our heart we were hoping we get a Air Conditioned bus but then we hear a sweet words "Haridwar Rishikesh Haridwar Rishikesh" from a torn down bus conductor. We ask him once and hop on.

Note: ISBT is one those massive bus terminals whe breuses ply from Delhi to almost every city 500+ kms from there. You can reach anytime and you can get a bus to anywhere 24 hours. And it is the starting point so you do get a place to sit also.

The bus had cushion seats and like an idiot I selected a window seat on top of back wheel. So could not get good leg room. Note: Always sit next on the first seat next to the door has ample leg room. The tickets cost Rs. 177 only and after 7 hours running through wrong side and off the road we reached Haridwar.

Our trip was taken care by The Great Himalayan Expedition and as we reached late we had to take a car for Rs. 600 to Marine Drive (one of the sandy beaches on Ganges). We got off after 25 Kms ride to the beach and a raft came to ferry us on the other side. Where we see lots of tents and people joking and singing and drinking.

We were assisted towards our tent which had a big cot and blankets. After having dinner which had veg and non veg fare was quite good. After relaxing a bit by the river we went off to sleep

Note: Things to carry, hand sanitisers, soaps, tissue papers, torch and medicines and top of the list should be alcohol (if you drink)

Got up around 7 am and we were told the next raft moves out at 10 am while we did our morning stuff and had a hearty meal. We were introduced to our Leader, Ram Singh who was going to guide us on the rough and beautiful Ganges.

We were first told all the things about the raft, the oar and what are the different terms.

There are around 9+ Rapids on the 25 Km Rafting trip, will try to name each of them
- Balance : one of the easier rapids where we were told to stand on the raft edge and it was pure fun to hold your balance
- 3 Blind Mice: 3 rapids one after another with difficulty increaing on each one.
- Back to Center: Another simple one with bit of bump inbetween.
- Roller Coaster: The big Daddy of all if you are right in center of it you can be hit by huge waves on your face and at times lose your balance.
- Golf Course : Similar to Roller Coaster but a bit smaller we missed out on the main surge.

There are 4 more which I currently cannot remember the name of. Icing on the cake would be the 25 feet clifff jump where we saw lots of guys reaching the edge and backing out.

And the end of the day after paddling forward and backward and swimming in the river made us a tired bunch.

The total cost for us was Rs. 1600 for Staying and rafting, traveling was around 1000 from Gurgaon to Gurgaon and all the experience was priceless.

Tel Aviv - City of

First of all thanks to the company where I work for giving us an opportunity to go to Tel Aviv in Israel for training purpose.
When we first broke the news about that we will be going to Tel Aviv initial response or knee jerk questions from colleagues and friends were:
- Make sure you get yourself a bullet-proof jacket.
- Get some bullets from there.
- Take care don't go out much you might never know where a rocket would come from.
and few more which I don't remember.

So we take an El Al Airlines an Israeli National Airlines (it is not run by the government) where we have to reach the airport 4 hours before our flight which was at 11:35 PM. As we all know about the famous Israeli defense system and their security checks, we reach there by 7 PM.
Four of us together from same company were told to go in together and were separately asked questions by the El Al Airline Security Team.
Question set were as follows:
- So tell me what do you do?
- Why are you going to Tel Aviv?
- How many days you are going to work there?
- What is your role in the company?
Now things start to get weirder
- What is the role of the person standing right of you (pointing at my colleague)
- Which development tool he will work on ? (what do you know about development tools)
- How long do you know each other?
- Who are you in contact with in Tel Aviv?
Now some eyebrow raising stuff
- Can you show me the mail of your training itenery?
- Can you open the doc from this mail?
- What is a QA Process? (wow he looked at a word in a document and ask me that?)

Note: A lady next to me going back to Israel had gone to a trip to Goa (yes everyone goes there) and she had bought a pack of sausages and wrapped them very well the security made them open all the wrapped stuff....at times they can be ruthless and also they checked out her photos from the camera.


So let us get back to my trip, after the questioning the security people go over to each other and cross check if the things match and I did a small screw up saying that the laptop was mine which was not and then after few more questions they were satisfied they let me in for the boarding pass.
Then the regular stuff till we enter the plane, immigration, late Dinner at the airport, a bit of shopping from the duty free shopping.
And we enter the aircraft at 11 PM and got the back row seats, we settled down and after half an hour delay the flight takes off. We were served drinks which included alcohol/juices/wine etc and then the dinner which boiled chickpeas, chicken gravy, steam rice, bread and sweet to know more check out my other blog.

Landed half an hour late and we got off the airport pretty smooth, except for one small mishap where I thought I kept my camera in the Red Channel of the customs and it was in the bag so all in all a stupid first mistake there. Company where we were going for training had got us a car which dropped us at our apartment.

The backstory of the apartment: In Tel Aviv lot of places you can rent an apartment for a week or 2 by giving certain amount per day which depends on where you stay and how big is the apartment. You can get a studio apartment from $90 a night to $300. a night with swimming pool and other things included. The apartment we stayed in was a 3BHK near the center of the city and it was in the basement. Place was clean, self sufficient with basic things such as fridge, microwave, stove, washing machine, water heater etc etc. 

Back to the story, we were taken in a Mercedes at around 5 am in the morning, first things noted big roads, no potholes, beautiful view and empty yep it was 5 am. We reached our apartment by around 6 and as not everyone could sleep properly 2 went off to sleep while the other 2 were updating the Indian Team that we have reached safely.
Note: Everyone will convert your dollars to shekels I mean everyone from a Taxi driver to a small store just know how much is the current conversion rate and take it around that.

So 2 of us decided to get some breakfast and hoped to find some stores open and we did one which we bought milk packs, kellogs, cheese, breads for our breakfast and as went further down we noted that the beach is just a 5 minute walk. As we did not wanted to be late for our first day we rushed back had our breakfast and had a cold shower with temperature outside hovering around 16 degrees as we did not know where the switch was, later discovered it was near the door.

Went out called out the taxi which was VW Passat and took our first trip to the Oberon Media office in Raoul Wallenberg or Raul Vallenberg (there are places with same pronunciation but different spellings) we reached there in 20 mins through a sea of big moving traffic and as it is written in lots of website about the erratic driving, I must say they are really cool lane crossing was not that much just a few and drive was smooth.

Reached the office and did the initial greetings and it was all meetings and presentations.We were taken to an American Eating place which was just in the parallel street, place had a well stocked bar, sandwiches, pastas, salads, burgers were on the menu and each of us tried a different thing (well few got the same stuff).
Few interesting things you will notice in a restaurant in Israel:
- They will give you something to eat before you order anything like Garlic breads, pita breads, salads just to keep you going
- In the business time they give you special deals like Business lunch, mini lunch etc etc
- Food portions are huge
- Waitresses are hot (they may be college going kids but hot)
- Very efficient if the food is ready anyone will come and serve you
- There is different Menu Card for English and Israeli speaking people.

The road has all kind of restaurants Fish, Beef special, Thai, Italian, Turkish, McDonald and most of them are full during the lunch hour which is from 1 PM to 2 PM.  Well the cost and quantity go hand in hand huge quantity of food for around 60 shekels is a good deal make sure you tip the waiter as well 10% of the bill.

We asked about why the big quantity of food served in the hotel and our training head answered "In Israel we are generous with food to our guest so in a restaurant if you get a small portion of food that place would be called as cheap and no one would go there. So that is why the quantity of food is so much"

On our way back we took a bus run by the government and it is so similar to the AC busses which BEST have launched here super suspension, button doors but one thing is missing the conductor here pay the driver and they will give you the change back. The journey is so awesome where you see different kind of people going back home and we see the other part of the city which is like our suburbs but much cleaner. The cost of traveling by bus is also not that much way cheaper than the Taxi does take lot of time but makes you see new roads.

Important roads in Tel Aviv:
After I went there, I came to know English ruled Israel for around 30 years from 1918 to 1948 and that was the reason we found lot of English Road names such as King George, Allenby road, Gordon road, Tempeldor Street etc.
We stayed in Hevron/Hebron street which is connecting the famous Tempeldor street where there is graveyard of famous personalities of Israel.
Dizengoff Street: This is a shopping street where you will find super cool stores and good eating places. Also there is a big bridge kind of thing where people can relax and just gaze around. There is a flea market every Thursday and Friday
Allenby Street: This is called the Party Street, lots of clubs and disco added with strip bars and lots of pizza place.

Beach: It is a stretch of around 4.5 KMS approximately where you can just walk down or take a cycle and go till Jaffa aka Yafo. There are big footpaths where you can cycle your way and see the amazing views. On Fridays and Saturdays the beach is almost full and you can just chill where no one will come and tell you buy something.
Port: It was a real port once upon a time and then they shifted to a new place leaving this place barren but some wise people used the empty warehouse for restaurants, shops and clubs. The view is super awesome always windy and never empty. 


Note: There is a shop called AM PM which is open 24x7 and they have practically everything. You can buy a beer and can give them back the bottles where you can get 1.20 Shekels per empty bottle which is super cool.

People: As it is said People make the city and I found some of the coolest people around, you be from anywhere, wear anything, do anything (it does not mean running naked and hitting people) people do not care. They just go about their business and enjoy their life. The people like to eat and drink and also exercise so you will rarely find a fat man. Met a taxi driver who is 80 year old and still goes for morning walk without fail (which actually put all us young guys in shame).

For more photos check out:
Link 1
Link 2

Will update on Jerusalem and Jaffa aka Yafo

M.A.D. Interview

Yes, finally after lots of thought and after-thoughts finally tried to take a plunge into doing some social work well wanted to start with something simple and what can be more simpler than teaching English to the kids from the range of 3 years old to 15 years.

M.A.D aka Make A Difference a NGO (Non Profit Organisation) which was started in 2007 in Kochi to teach kids in Child Centers English and develop self confidence which is so very much important in this world.

It was 14th February, 2010 when I go and give my first interview to be a part of MAD and my GOD!! what a brilliant day it was, they are true to their organisation name MAD, where at one point Personal Interviews goes on and at another point people are playing some group games, if this process is done anywhere else in big companies on Sundays I would say the students would definitely want to join your company.

Well there were few interesting games which were a part of the process and I might definitely going to integrate it in my trekking trip.

After almost four hours of fun and games in which personal interview was also included, day ended and hell I did not know how the time flew by.

Final Result: Me not getting selected and the very Best of Luck to M.A.D

US Conducting Business these Days

It's a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.....

On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night..

As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything.

However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism..

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

Road Trip - Konkan Beaches Day 2

The first day of the trip, read this

Day 1, we still continue driving towards Sawantwadi around 3.30 pm from Karde and we know we cannot make it to Sawantwadi that night decide to stop at a small town called Lanja (लांजा). Had a good dinner and luckily found a very cheap place for Rs. 280/- only in a lodge and luckily they are dog friendly. Kasper was enjoying the whole new experience of new place and was relieving himself at every possible stone and tyre. We get up early next day and start our trip towards Sawantwadi after good breakfast.
Distance between Dapoli to Sawantwadi -  378.0 km
The roads were again full of cars and ghats and trucks and Mr. Gautam was in full mood to reach Sawantwadi in 4 hours which should take generally 6 hours. Going up and down the ghat was super fun the view were awesome. As we were in hurry to meet up our friend at Sawantwadi we did not stop inbetween.
We meet our friend at Sawantwadi and head towards Tarkarli which is our main destination. Take a turn from Kudal towards Tarkarli which is around 30 Kms and the roads are awesome, we pass through a river and it looks like backwaters of Kerala totally serene.
Note: ST Buses from Sawantwadi, Kolhapur, Sindhudurgh run regularly to Tarkarli and Devbaug. Also Rickshaw from Kudal station to Tarkarli takes Rs. 300+
Tarkarli is just a small 2 way road nothing fancy and nothing big. You will see a big parking lot next to MTDC, we parked our car and went to the beach and we were in awe all clean and neat. After running around and swimming on the beach we were all hungry and wanted something to eat. Whats better to eat then the Malwan Cuisine in Malwan. We go to a small hotel and sit down where the food was cooked after we decide on what to eat. Food does take a lot of time to come but it was nice real home food.
Note: One can do Snorkeling for Rs. 250 per person for 30 minutes and dolphin watching for Rs. 1000 for 10 people max.
After lunch we went to see Devbagh on the way we had a tyre puncture luckily for electrical jack the car tyre were changed in quick time.
We move towards Devbagh, the roads got narrower and narrower, if two cars came from opposite direction both have to get off road. But the end was awesome we reached after sunset but it was a beauty. Tarkarli river and sea joining each other is a sight to see. After lazying around for few hours we head back to find a place to stay in already overcrowded Tarkarli.
After running around and lots of calling we get a place to stay in Hotel Visawa because someone had canceled their visit (lucky us!). Rooms for Rs. 1000 was not bad considering there was TV, hot water and big room for 3 human and one dog. Also the best part was private beach where one can go for a walk.
Note: Tarkarli is a safe beach so you can indulge yourself in a good midnight walk.
After all the traveling we go to sleep!
For photos click here

Twitter for Dummies - Not All you want to know...

I use twitter in office like millions others do and some of them who don't understand what is it ask me lots of questions....and by this I am inspired to write my FAQ and few details about twitter and its features which millions of blogger's must have written about. Anyways I have to increase the number of post so here it comes....mind you it is not complete just a few of those which I can explain :)

Twitter: Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. (first line in Wikipedia)

Tweets: Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. In simple sentence, write down anything in 140 words and person who follows you will see it on his timeline.

Handle: Handle is a username which you create similar to GTalk, Yahoo IM, etc etc. Some put in real name and some do come with awesome alter ego handle.

Tweeple: People on twitter are called Tweeple

Followers: It is similar to being friend with someone on facebook. Well similar not same, here if you follow someone they can see your tweets. But the other person cannot see your tweet because he is not following you.







Timeline: This is again similar to Facebook wall where you will see tweets of Tweeples whom you are following.

RT (ReTweet): This is done when you like someones tweet on your timeline and want to show it to your  friend. It is bit simple, "@XYZ says twitter is awesome" and you agree with it and want to share with your group followers you just RT it and it will show as "RT: @XYZ says Twitter is awesome"and this can continue over and over again.





DM (Direct Message): This is an interesting feature of Twitter, you cannot DM who is not following you and vice versa. So to have a private chat you have to follow each other.

List: It is bit confusing for the new user but if you want to see your favorite tweeples in one page just add them to your List which you can name anything and click on it you will see what they have tweeted about. It is like a mini-follow list.

Hashtag (#tag): This works as a subject line and things which can be put together. The best use of it was when it rained heavily in Mumbai and people wanted to know the exact situation about Mumbai Rains, tweeples at the start or end of the tweet would just type #mumbairains which others can search and know about it instead of typing Mumbai or Rains which can give lots of info.

Reply: You can reply to another tweeple tweet by just using @username, this will be seen by the tweeple and he can reply you back. But make sure when you use @username other tweeple who follow you and other tweeple can see the tweet. So there is no privacy.

And you will always say, twitter is so difficult to understand and don't know what is going on. You say these things because you are on twitter web which is the last thing you should do. There are gazzillions of apps for desktop, MAC, mobile and iPhone that you would not want to go on twitter website to tweet. You just download one of those apps and you are on twitter.

Desktop App:
Destroy Twitter
TweetDeck
Seesmic Desktop
PeopleBrowsr

MAC Apps:
MAC Lounge
Nambu
Tweetie
TwitterPod

Mobile/iPhone Apps:
Snaptu
Gravity
Dabr