12 hours after rain

From this picture… you get the see the first sign of winter, an initial coat of snow over the top of the mountains. More importantly though, is the clarity at which you can see the mountains.

Just one day later, the view was not quite as clear. The effects of the smog are apparent in how clearly defined the mountains are, and the sky is a lighter shade of blue.

Note: These were both taken at about the same time, but not exactly. The top one was at 9am, and the bottom taken about 9:47am which also can account for some of the differences in light.

36 hours after rain

Related posts:

1. Chilean Beginning
2. el Apartamento

During the day I had the pleasurable experience of being “that guy” or since I am in Santiago of course, “that gringo”. All i was attempting to do was pay my rent. Seemingly a simple task, requiring only that I write an account number on a piece of paper, with the name of the woman who owns the apartment.  After filling out the form incorrectly twice even before stepping up to the counter, I then proceded to fill it out three more time before finally getting it right. Naturally what was a short line when i got there was pretty long afterwards. In fairness to myself, how was I to know the woman’s name that i was given wasn’t her full name.

Following work though turned out to be somewhat exciting in that I was able to finally get my pretty new Nexus One onto the 3G network down here. Granted I’m still generally forced to make a choice between going broke by having data on at all time or saving what money I have for more entertaining activities such as travelling to Argentina.

But in an effort to save said money, my first order of business today was to finally force my Chilean phone number to memory.  Since I’m still using my cell via pre-pay, and data cost a lot via pre-pay I figured I’d splurge and add ten lucas (or ten thousand pesos… roughly $20) onto my phone. The woman at the cashier puts the number into the computer, i verify it and all is right.. just have to wait to get the text message alerting me that the money has been added.

Fast-forward about 9 hours, and still no text message. What gives?

On the way to work I decide to stop at the same store and figure out what the problem is. The really nice woman working goes through the trouble of calling Entel (the phone company) and quickly realizes the mistake. I gave the woman the wrong number because in my contact list for myself, i had in fact entered it in incorrectly. So, in the end, some person who is lucky enough to have a number one off of mine was gifted about twenty dollars in phone credit.  Hope they appreciate it.

Related posts:

1. Thai Crepe
2. Chilean Beginning

my unit circled in yellow

So after about three weeks of shuffling from room to room, living out of a suitcase, I finally got to move into a place I can call home. Sure its in the same building I’ve been in from day one here. And sure it makes my apartment in new york look like a sprawling estate, but its home!

living room and bedroom

kitchen

bathroom

patio at night

Located in a rather nice neighborhood of Las Condes, it consist of three rooms… a living room / kitchen area, bedroom and bathroom. Off both the living room and bedroom is a great patio area where I probably spend the bulk of my time when in the apartment. That habit will certainly be tested with the temperatures dropping each day, but not one to give in lightly, I’ll hold on till I just can’t take it anymore.

The living room and kitchen area are somewhat connected, separated by a little table for two. The living room portion is admittedly a bit bare, and somewhat useless at the moment with the decievingly less then plush couch staring at an otherwise blank wall. Moving the non-functioning television into here might be in order once I get cable hooked up.

The bedroom is decent, and has plenty of storage, especially for someone that doesn’t own much of anything down here (remember…two bags!).

Finally there’s the bathroom which is alright, minus the exploding shower head which I need to replace. It currently has a cool unintended feature that it can almost spray my head while it also gets my legs at the same time… the problem is that it doesn’t get much of in between at the same time. The only complaint in the bathroom is that there’s no window in it, which I never realized I’d miss until I didn’t have one.

Then there’s the patio, by far my favorite aspect of the unit, with the great view of the nearby Andes. I’m really looking forward to possibly seeing some snow on the mountains which are visible outside of the patio window. The only potential problem with this grand vision is the issue of the intense smog which gets trapped in the city, and hides said mountains from visible sight.

In addition to the apartment, the building has a few really nice security guards who humor me as I practice my spanish on them, as well as a small gym, tv room, a business center (basically a room with desk) and a mini-mart which claims it will open tomorrow (monday)… we shall see.

Oh yea, not to be forgotten is the proximity to my office, about a five minute walk, which is always a great feature.

Outside of the apartment, the neighborhood is pretty nice. Its located near the mountains, which apparently is generally the nicer, safer areas to be in, and thus one of the higher rent areas as well (boo!). With this additional cost though also comes the added benefit of being right along the main line (#1 line) of the Metro de Santiago. In addition, there are a few malls within easy walking distance as well as a blockbuster across the street (odd), several other cafés and restaurants, as well as shops and a couple of foreign embassies.

morning view from apartment

Related posts:

1. Chilean Beginning
2. La Piojera
3. Veinticuatro Horas

There have been plenty of earthquakes around the city to last someone a lifetime. While they may not have been as bad as reported internationally, where it sounds as if the news has often confused the city of Concepcion with Santiago, it’s been enough to at least a few nerves and cause some to suffer from insomnia as they await another big one to occur.

That being said, it came as almost comical when last sunday night, when about 8pm, the lights went out. While on the internet chatting, I happened to remark that the lights just went out, which was soon followed by my connection getting cut as well. Curious, I picked up the cell phone to check if it was just my immediate area or not, the call went through, only to be dropped shortly thereafter when it seems the towers happen to lose power as well.

Something was definitely up.

In a city where the lights shield most of the evening stars, many more became visible. People gathered outsides under some of the few functioning lights in the lobby of buildings and near ATMs. Others jumped in their cars to head… who knows where.  Yet others lined up at the bus station and crammed into what seemed to be the only source of light.. that of the headlights and interior of the buses which continued to run.

It turns out that this blackout wasn’t merely in the area of las condes or even in the city of Santiago, it actually affected about 70% of the entire country.  No small blackout was this. It sort of reminded of of the big blackout which covered much of the northeastern portion of the United States and Canada of a couple years back.

What was interesting, besides the rush to the bus stations was the general ease which much of this was taken. Unlike earthquakes which are pretty common, blackouts like this are not. There happen to be a party taking place on the second floor of my building… which not to be deterred, was moved outside and set to candle light as if it had been planned all along. Following this I had made the mental note to purchase some candles (and something easy to light them with*).

Another interesting component of this blackout was just how unaffected the building that sits across from my building happen to be. Shortly after the earthquake, when much of the area had lost power as well, this building was not to be disrupted. After the blackout which darked 70% of the country, this building was still, not to be disrupted. Even the candle like lights near the windows continued to shine brightly.

Related posts:

1. Chilean Beginning
2. el Apartamento
3. Veinticuatro Horas

view from hotel in los condes

Alright, so I arrive here in Santiago, Chile a week ago and yet this is the first post i’m making… now its time to catch up, but the problem is where to begin? Like any good story, I could begin with something a little like…

In a land far far away, where the sun always shines, the water is always warm (and blue), and the mountains as green as you can imagine… I began my journey that would take about a 36 hours to complete, and leave be on the opposite side of the planet… deep into trenches of South America.

The week officially began last thursday when I arrived into Aeropuerto de Santiago at about 6am. The first day entailed a bit of running around the area of Las Condes where I would be calling at least the first two weeks home. My first impressions were definitely a bit different from what I had imagined prior to coming here. I had read about how bad the smog was…so much so that kids and parents are kept home from school or work rather then go outside into the unsafe conditions. So when I first arrived, I was surprised to see a city that at first glance appeared to have many more trees then I ever imagined, and some beautiful views of the nearby Andes. For those familiar with NYC, the city has an almost Brooklyn feel, just with more trees. This isn’t to say that the air quality is any better then had been reported. What is surprising, and almost sad, is just how close the mountains are, yet on some days are no clearer then a shadow in the backdrop.

This brings us to Friday, an all around great day. It started off pretty early as we (two co-workers, a new co-worker and myself) took a 1.5 hr drive down to Valparíso and Renaca Beach down near Viña del Mar. (I’ll post on these separately).

Saturday… There’s no real way to describe the events of Saturday quite honestly. The news has reported on it, and family and friends have inquired about it, but it has almost been surreal what took place. At about 3:30am, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit down south, which happen to impact the entire region, including Santiago. Several buildings in Santiago where damaged or destroyed, but for the most part, escaped the worst of the situation.  The areas down south didn’t fair so well. This wasn’t any normal earthquake, while most apparently last about 30-45 seconds, this one lasted officially about a minute and a half. For those in taller buildings, this then translated into a hurricane that seemed to last about a full two minutes as the buildings continued to sway to avoid collapse as they are designed, before coming to rest.

In some respects, what is even more amazing to me then the severity of the earthquake is what has followed since have been an non-stop barrage of 6.0+ aftershocks which in any other place in the world may be met with panic, but down here, unless the quake registers over a 7, its not even considered an earthquake, but rather merely a tremor.

The week since that has followed has been extremely busy, but sort of pales in comparison to an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. It’s basically been comprised of instructing, learning, practicing (butchering) the spanish language and getting a feel for the pace of life in this large South American city. The people have been amazing… beautiful, friendly and a lot of fun. So much more to do.. so much more to see. First up for this weekend, besides finding where the fun is, is getting a place to stay once my welcome at this hotel has passed, a new cell phone (damn you AT&T and Apple) as well as sadly… some more work.

los condes panoramic

Related posts:

1. The Blackout
2. el Apartamento
3. Veinticuatro Horas

walk on the right here

During my travels, one of the things I’ve found interesting is not only the differences of what side of the road cars drive on, but also what side of the sidewalk people walk. Driving is easy, everyone better do it or else it’s going to get messy. The lines generally make things pretty clear, and you would generally assume that for good reason, while rules such as speeding, and even stopping fully at stop signs or red lights may get ignored or taken lightly, the concept of staying on the proper side of the road would always be followed. Sure even with this there are exceptions, like the times when driving down the highway in the Rajasthan region of India, amongst three lanes of traffic heading in the proper direction, there was a lone car which decided driving against traffic was the best bet. One could only assume that the alternative of driving around and looping back was too much of a big deal to deal with.

One thing that has always left me somewhat perplexed is what side of the sidewalk to walk on. Its sort of the same thing as driving in many respects. Walk down the street and come face to face with someone walking in the opposite direction, and there’s a good chance that they’ll dart over to their right to avoid you. New York is easy in this respect, escalators and sidewalks almost all follow the rule of walk on the right.

Bangkok and Tokyo where vehicle traffic flows on the left side, this rule seem to be a bit quite relaxed. Take the escalators for instance, on countless occasions, which side the up or down escalators were on would switch, even within a single series.  So while you might be on the left heading down one escalator, when it came to the next one you might need to cross over to the right side to continue down.

Stairs and corridors into and around the subways were even more unpredictable. Some would be marked to walk on the left, and others would be marked walk on the right. If there is no common rule underground in a somewhat controlled environment, could there be one above ground where there’s a lot more space to wander. So when walking down the sidewalk, which side is appropriate? Is there a rule?  If not, and you are walking head on into someone, what direction should you dart over to? Do you both just come to a complete stop till one person waves the other one on?

Related posts:

1. Smokin’ Streets
2. Traffic in Bangkok
3. Traffic in Rajasthan

river cutting through near asakusa station

Tokyo was a great experience and one that I’m glad that I did, even if it was for too short a period of time. It started off on a whim, as I had just been planning to spend about a week and a half in Bangkok. About six days into my stay there I was more or less ready to move on, and thought that since I was going to have to fly through Tokyo anyhow on my way back to Honolulu, that I might as well try and make a stop and check it out.

bacon noodle dish?

Making the arrangements wasn’t as easy as I had originally thought they’d be. While I had tickets which would bring me through Tokyo it turns out that making changes to the flights can be more complicated then just paying for the change fee. For starters, since my tickets were booked through United airlines, and the leg between Bangkok and Tokyo was scheduled on a Thai airways flight, Thai airways has a policy that there can be no refunds or changes to the ticket what so ever. That alone seemed a bit too restrictive personally, but was willing to deal with that. I figured that I’d simply book a ticket from Bangkok to Tokyo separately, one-way, and that I’d pick up the United flight that I was scheduled to be on the following Tuesday. This too proved to be somewhat more complicated then one would expect. At first the United representative was trying to sell me that in order to change the ticket as such would not only entail a change fee, but would also cost me and additional $1200 because it would be ticketed as a one-way ticket, essentially trying to sell me the very same ticket I already had purchased. Needless to say I deemed this unacceptable and persisted until a manager got on the phone and informed me that they could in fact just reissue me a ticket, forfeiting the Thai airways ticket from BKK to TYO and thereby allow me to check in and board at Tokyo. This too cost, but was just the standard United change fee of about $325.

Once in Tokyo I had an amazing time, as I’ve attempted to highlight in the previous set of posts . It was only about four days, and so I had an extremely limited timeframe to take things in, but the taste I got of the people, the variety of activities and of course the food was enough to make me come back and experience more.

Considering how unprepared I was for the trip, it is of great testament to the city that it was as easy to navigate and enjoy as it was. One exception to this ease though, which I had been warned about but I still underestimated, was just how important cash was around the city. Tip, take out plenty of cash when at the airport.

citibank in tokyo are a great find

There is a Citibank ATM machine at the airport which proves to be very important if you are coming from the United States at least, and are among the many people who have accounts in one of the banks whose card will not work in the many ATMs available at local banks and 7-11s. Basically, it appears that unless your ATM card is also a VISA (versus Mastercard or something else) or works on the Plus network (little logo on back of card), your card will NOT work at most ATMs. If this is the case, then your options will dwindle down to the few Citibank branches available around the city. Combine this with the fact that most credit cards will not work, and most locations do not accept credit cards, and you are essentially limited to cash on hand, so carry plenty.

Besides that, the only other issue that I ran into was time. Tokyo is a big city and to really grasp it without rushing through it takes time. At the same time there is so much more to Japan which is so easily accessible that much more time should be spent exploring.  That being said, in my return trip I plan to; check out more of the temples and shrines, visit more of the popular bars as well as hidden hole in the walls places, try more exotic food and get to mingle with more of the locals and hopefully make a few last

ing friends. In addition to that, I want to browse around Tokyo station and board a high speed train out of the city to check out the more rural country as visit some of the more traditional cities such as Osaka.

Check out the post from this trip:

Related posts:

1. Tokyo at last
2. Khaosan Tokyo Ninja
3. Tokyo Skyline

Spent a little time looking up how to get over jetlag and the only thing that it seems I could try is Melatonin, but where do you get it?  I’ve tried all the pharmacies and food stores nearby and can’t seem to locate any. Note to self: carry it along next time…just in case.

So far, my early feeling about being back are mixed. Found a great little bed & breakfast in a great part of town. Hoping to check out Avatar in 3D if its playing here, which I think it is.  I’m excited that I found a roti stand not too far from where I’m staying, along with the staples such as som tam and tom yam goong to name a few. I also have some other things I’d like to accomplish while here if they happen to play nice and cooperate, including working on some photography shots.

Related posts:

1. Serene Bangkok Bed & Breakfast

The new year began with high hopes and high expectations. I was going to maintain the rate of a post per day indefinitely. I had even started my rendition of the ever popular post proclaiming my coming year objectives, that being one of them

So where are they? They are coming.

What happened? Life and work.

The added reality though is that I booked a last minute adventure to Bangkok and was a bit busier then i planned getting certain things in order and didn’t get to spend nearly enough time exploring, photographing and documenting…as is my goal.

None of that matters much and addition posts will be coming shortly, once I get to BKK and have an opportunity to do so.

PS. this post also gives me the opportunity to test out the iPhone wordpress app.

Related posts:

1. Tokyo Recap and Look Ahead

new york city skyline

New York City is more then just an amazing skyline. But what makes it so great? What makes it a city that most tourist would love to visit, even if they don’t think they could live there…and for those who claim to have no interest to visit, they either watch too much television or are afraid to face reality. Ask any new yorker what they love about the city, and you’ll likely to get a number of things… the subway, the diversity or the simple fact that its not New Jersey. But after living in and around the city for years, here are some of my favorites aspects of New York City.

In the coming days I’ll be posting new articles highlighting some of my favorite places or things about NYC. As usual, I’ll try to mix in a bit of history along with my own personal experiences wherever appropriate. I’ll likewise keep this page updated with a list of those sights.

• Times Sq.
• Happy holidays in the big city
• …more to come…

By the way, I think the actual skyline of the city itself deserves mention as a favorite component, but of course that would be way too easy.   The picture above though is actually taken from the inside of a building on the far west side around 37th street looking east.

Related posts:

1. Times Square
2. Tokyo Skyline