China reassures Taiwan consumers on milk safety (from AP)

The issue is sad, but this headline makes me laugh (and wonder):
China reassures Taiwan consumers on milk safety (from AP)

Especially when you see the following associated headlines:
China orders more milk testing, HK boy sick (from AP)
5,800 Chinese babies hospitalized on tainted milk (from AP)

Trust us! Why should I?!?

Vancouver - Day 1

Took the Amtrak train from Seattle to Vancouver this morning. I was planning to do a bit of reading and sleeping during the ride, but I basically had my nose glued to the window for most of the four hour trip. The scenery along the way was absolutely stunning. Saw thousands of birds, miles of beautiful shoreline, and interesting random sights along the way.

This was my only my second trip via Amtrak in my life (two train rides in three weeks). The first trip was three weeks ago - I took a "Northeast Regional" train from DC to NYC. Pretty comfy ride but nothing too interesting. The train on the Seattle-Vancouver ride was a very nice and roomy "Superliner" (double decker train w/ seating on the upper level). The seats on this train were similar to those used for business class airplane seating. I couldn't even touch the chair in front of me with my legs stretched out (guess I'm too short ;-). Another nice amenity was a dining car - I enjoyed a marionberry crumble and hot chocolate during the trip.

A very, very enjoyable experience. I highly recommend taking this train route sometime in your life.

Here are a few pics:

For lunch, I enjoyed a bowl of ramen and gyoza at Ramen Ezogiku. Very tasty!
Here are two pics:

For dinner, I was looking for something "light" and had a nice bosc pear and arugula salad and a bowl of corn tortilla soup at Mosaic (located inside the Hyatt Regency). No pics..

After dinner, I walked around downtown Vancouver. I love this city. It has a very diverse population, it's easy to navigate, compact, very clean, has a great public transport system...and there are people on the streets! I love seeing people on the streets - something you almost never see in Phoenix. A city just seems alive when there are people out and about.

After a nice two hour stroll, I was getting hungry and stopped by Tim Horton's (which is adjacent to the hotel) for a snack. I known Tim Horton's is HUGE is Canada but I've never tried it before. I got a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate. Both were good.

O Canada!

Off to our neighbors to the north! I'm taking the train this morning from Seattle to Vancouver. Planning to enjoy the scenery along the way.

My "first meal"

Before I arrived in Seattle, my sister sent me an email asking what I wanted to eat for my "first meal" back in the States. After two weeks of Indian and Thai food (made from chicken, lamb, mutton, or "VEG"), I requested either hamburgers or pizza.

Here what we had for dinner last night:

My brother-in-law grilled up some nice thick juicy burgers and my sister made baked sweet potato fries! So good...

In Seattle

After ~23 hours of flying and 3 hours waiting in the airport, I finally arrived in Seattle this afternoon. It's nice because my sister and her family live here so I can "recharge" a bit...

Not much improvement on the flight here - no smiles seen during the entire flight. Is it so difficult to smile? (those of you who know me know that I love to smile!)

A hot meal and beverages were served (which is better than most domestic carriers these days). Here's a pic:

Two more days here and I'm off to Vancouver...

Back in the States!

I just arrived in Newark via Continental flight 49 (a nice direct 16 hr flight from Mumbai to Newark). Have a bit of downtime until my flight to Seattle...

The flight from Mumbai was pretty uneventful. On my outbound flight to Delhi two weeks ago (also on Continental), the plane was equipped w/ AVOD (on-demand audio/video) systems w/ a massive amount of entertainment options. The system on this flight was an older system with a choice of six channels of video and 15 audio channels (continuous looping, not on-demand), so the choices were much more limited.

The food was absolutely terrible on this flight. For the first meal, I choose a "chicken" option. It may have been the worst airline meal ever (which says alot). Here's a pic:

We were also served a snack-pack during the flight...cole-slaw sandwiches...yum.

The second meal was a somewhat scary omelette w/ chicken sausages:

The worst part of the flight was the service orientation of the flight attendants. I did not observe a single smile during the entire flight! What a bunch of grumpies...the crew did not look like they were happy to be there. On one of my trips to the bathroom, a flight attendant bumped into me pretty hard - I immediately said "excuse me" and she didn't even acknowledge me!

Such a stark contrast to the service in India (and Asia in general), where everyone seems to "bend-over-backwards" to SERVE you.

On our intra-India flights (total of three), we flew via Jet Airways. I am now a HUGE fan of Jet. The service was excellent (on-time and efficient) and the food was probably the best airline food I've ever had. Two of our flights were less than an hour in length and we were served full meals! What a refreshing travel experience!

Here's a pic of a meal from one of the Jet flights:

It really makes me wonder why the U.S. carriers can't do things right. The service experience is like night-and-day. In general - terrible food, surly service, and frequent delays.

Oh well, that's all for now. I have another six hours of flying to look forward to!

Near the end of my adventures in India

Leaving India tomorrow evening...

The food has been wonderful and the sights have been incredible, but what I'm going to miss the most are my fantastic travel partners for the past week and a half. Safe travels to all of you!