Georgetown Loop Railroad

Back when pioneers like George Stephenson were laying the tracks of the first steam-powered railroad, they were making decisions that would have worldwide impact. Not the least of which was how far apart to lay the tracks. Ultimately, what he chose would become standard gauge. Those who had other visions of what the distance between the tracks should be would later be run out of business...in some cases, resurrected as tourist railroads.

Friends of the blog and attendees of my work Christmas party know that I've got a bit of an interest in rail. I rarely pass up the opportunity to ride a train — particularly when it's a narrow gauge model carving its way through the Rockies whilst Mrs. Claus hands out chocolate chip cookies. Needless to say, we made a special stop on my most recent trip to Colorado when exactly the above occasion occurred.

Georgetown Loop Railroad

After hauling silver ore from Silver Plume in the 1880s, the historic railroad showed up in 2011 to haul people around Georgetown (with maybe a few more things in between)

Mrs. Claus was aboard and handing out cookies

And on top of all that, I got this awesome old-timey ticket.

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Fun Fact Santa has a resistance to getting his picture taken with a bearded 24 year old

Fun Fact Several "new" Georgetown Loop Railroad cars were recently purchased from the Alaska Railroad

Herbal Tea of 25 Square Miles

Unexpected Brew

As it turns out, one of those awesomely-unexpected things I got from my travels to Little Rock was a phenomenal introduction to the variety of joys that come with the varieties of teas. I'm not a connoisseur, but I've now at least heard of Atlanta-based, publicly-traded Teavana.

Loose Tea by cherylsmith999, on Flickr

Assembly Lines

Maybe it's the Detroit-area youth, but there's something about How It's Made and factories in general I can't get enough of. Knowing these facts, co-worker and friend of the blog Jordan suggested that I visit Boulder's Celestial Seasonings factory tour on a recent weekend trip to Denver with Ginger.

The Tour

Photos are banned within the tour as the equipment is all custom-made, but even several weeks later, I've remembered some of the fun facts one would get by visiting. A surprising amount were of the traditional consulting "it depends" variety.

Free Tour of Celestial Seasonings by krossbow, on Flickr

The gems among the facts include

• Tea shipping containers for ingredients carry between 500 and 1300 lbs, depending on the density.
• Tea leaves must be stored in a separate room, so they don't absorb the scent and flavor of all the other ingredients in the warehouse.
• Mint must also be stored in a separate room, and if it weren't sealed an area four square miles around the factory would smell like mint. This stuff is shockingly powerful. Several people on the tour had watery eyes upon leaving.

Without a doubt, my favorite moment of the tour was a thoughtful answer to a question by a guest of the tour in the mint room.

Guide	Does anyone have any questions for me?
Asker	How long does all this mint last?
Guide	Well...it depends. If we're making a tea with a lot of mint, not very long. If we're making a tea without mint...a long time.

Stunning. It's certainly worth a visit.

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Fun Fact Boulder is affectionately known as "25 square miles surrounded by reality"

Weekending: The Plan

To work in IT consulting is to travel. Depending on both perspective and the structure of one's life, this can exist anywhere on the spectrum from deal-breaker to unbelievable benefit. Fortuitously enough, I'm loving the travel.

It's for this reason a plan came to me during the middle of a November night. I sprang up from my comfortable hotel bed and grabbed the nearest lightbulb — it illuminated immediately, letting me know the significance of said idea.

100-365 Bright Idea For Shot 100 by bcymet on Flickr

The idea was a simple one: embrace the layover. It met all of my criteria:

• Monday-Thursday in Los Angeles
• Friday in Chicago, the Miami of Canada
• Weekends in alternate locations

In early December the idea was implemented:

Time	Action
Thursday, 11:15pm PDT	Depart LAX
Friday, 6:00am CDT	Arrive ORD
Friday, 12:00am CDT	Arrive at Office
Friday, 8:00pm CDT	Depart ORD
Friday, evening	Arrive somewhere
Sunday, 8:00pm CDT	Depart somewhere
Sunday, evening	Arrive LAX

Needless to say, a very busy Friday was in the works...but where would it end?

Note I still haven't migrated to the compact fluorescent idea bulb, because it takes too long to illuminate.
Fun Fact The blue used in the table above is Lake Michigan Blue.

Back to the City Detour: Mysore Palace

On the way to Kabini for our safari we stopped off at Mysore for breakfast. As referenced in part 3 of the Into the Jungle series, this was the first time I'd seen monkeys in the wild.

The journey back home saw us stopping at Mysore again, twice. Our first visit was to the Royal Orchid hotel for lunch. There is also a Royal Orchid next to Diamond District, where we spent our first week of TWU for sessions. These are both incredibly posh places with delicious food. The Diamond District version also includes Geoffrey's, who proudly claim to be Bangalore's most happenin' English pub.

IMG_1711 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The group split after lunch. Sumeet, Derek, and I went to the tourist-friendly Mysore Palace for a barefoot exploration (with audio tour). Kyle and Richard had already been, so they and Sumeet's wife headed toward the shopping district.

DSCF3577 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The palace had burned down nearly a century ago. Since then it has been rebuilt in somewhat of a unique fashion -- this structure blends the Hindu, Muslim, Rajput, and Gothic architectures. The result is something impressive and befuddling. It's one of the few palaces that feels like a patchwork of varying influences without much coherence.

DSCF3581 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

Photography was not allowed inside the palace, which is unfortunate because I can't locate an example of the stunning 3d-like paintings. We picked up all kinds of fun facts along the way, like the virtual fire-proofing of the new palace after the old one went up in flames. The most memorable result of these instructions to me were the giant pillars that looked like carved wood in an octagonal room; they were actually cast iron.

IMG_1715 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

Fun Fact #1 Entrance to the palace is Rs. 20 for residents of India and Rs. 200 for foreigners

Fun Fact #2 After shopping proved to be more expensive than anyone had hoped, we all met up outside the palace for a group photo

Into the Jungle: Part 4 [Jeep Safari]

In part 3 we saw the monkeys taking over the climbing nets.

Soon it would be time for the reason we came: a Jeep Safari. An all-too-familiar overcast sky was encroaching as we neared in on the scheduled time for the expedition. As the Jeeps began to pull up into the parking lot, droplets of water were making us all nervous. We pressed the crew to leave a bit early. They refused and we left a typical 15 minutes late.

DSCF3533 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The ride out of the resort to the park was longer than I expected. Our crew stopped at the midway point to let someone off and read the park rules. While there, we smartly pulled down the plastic window on the front of the Jeep to avoid getting any more wet.

We saw over a ton of animals, which wasn't all that difficult considering the weight of an Indian elephant.

• Deer
• Wild Boar
• Monkeys
• Woodpeckers
• Kingfisher
• Serpent Eagle
• Elephants
• Leopard
• Tiger*

Three deer were near the entrance of the forest. Our excitement couldn't be contained, evident by the dozens of pictures we all have. After two hours passed, the deer were much less impressive -- we saw at least a few hundred during the day.

DSCF3515 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The boar proved very fast and difficult to capture. The monkeys seemed exceptionally agile, even for monkeys, and were hanging out near this man-made salt pit.

Elephants were plentiful in Kabini. We saw both the wild and domesticated varieties.

IMG_1614 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

IMG_1603 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

There is a chart when entering the resort that keeps track of the animals spotted. On virtually every day there was a leopard. This day didn't break the chain. (video)

DSCF3456 copy by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

Our tour guide was extremely excited to have spotted a leopard in the wild. He shook all of our hands just after the above video was shot. This ended our two hour safari for the day. The most exciting bit of the next day's safari was easily spotting India's national animal: the tiger. (video)

DSCF3531 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

A special thanks must go out to Sumeet for capturing so many stunning photos and our tour guide, whose excitement and enthusiasm made the experience better for us all.



DSCF3466 by sumeet.moghe, on Flickr

Note With great luck, and the weather patterns typical of this region, the rain stopped by the time we began the actual safari.

Note strictly speaking, it was everyone but me who saw the Tiger due to a legendary bout with asthma.

Into the Jungle: Part 3 [Monkeys]

We last left off as the crew headed out to explore the other areas of the Jungle Lodges & Resort. It was at this time that the monkeys came out to play.

DSCF3268 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

If the monkeys weren't enjoying a Coke^® by the water, they were hanging out on the net.

DSCF3278 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

Sumeet's place was the center of most monkey business, as a group engaged in some rough-housing. [Update: added video]

Maybe what is most amazing about all of this is how regular it seems to everyone. Certainly this day was my first time seeing monkeys in any setting but a zoo. It was already my second time seeing monkeys out of captivity, however. We stopped for breakfast at Mysore and found some rather hungry and bold monkeys -- one even stole a sugar cane!

DSCF3200 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The last bit I have to share comes in the form of advice derived from stories we've heard since being here: don't feed the monkeys. It's well-known that monkeys are smart. Once they get food, they start to expect food. It's not long before they become ornery with visitors who aren't feeding. With all of this in mind, I've never seen a better-placed sign.

Into the Jungle: Part 2

After getting acquainted with our new setting and breathing the kind of fresh air that makes one glad national parks exist, we headed to lunch.

Before coming here I thought the popularity of the buffet was dwindling. If this experience has taught me anything about buffet-style eating, it's that it's alive and well in Southern India. The vast majority of meals are served buffet-style, and I still forget the fork four out of five times.

Net Riders

From the lunch area you could spot two potential things to have fun with:

1. Nets
2. Tree Houses

Lucky for us, we spotted one area with both.

Some of us stayed grounded for photos at first, but couldn't resist the temptation to climb for long. Derek and Rahul sprinted to the top, looking like rope-climbing pros.

Rahul was the only one bold enough to go above the net and swing down.

IMG_1564 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

Soon our curiosity about the other areas of the place began to grow. We left the net behind just in time, as monkeys waited to take over.

Into the Jungle: Part 1

We simply had to make the last weekend we'd spend in India a memorable one. Our last weekend trip was organized by fellow Chicagoan Derek. The other members of our crew included Sumeet, Sumeet's wife Amrita, Pankhuri, Richard, Kyle, and me.

It's about a five hour drive to the Kabini Jungle Lodges & Resort from Bangalore. The lodge is rated 5-stars and is one of the best in the world for Safaris. I haven't had the chance to share an Indian key yet, so I'll take that opportunity now. This is how you get into your lodge.

The cabins were gorgeous and amazingly comfortable. The bed provided the best night of sleep I've had since leaving my memory foam at home. We were just feet from the lake. Mother nature cooperated beautifully with our last weekend's adventure.

After dropping off our luggage at the lodge, we spent plenty of time taking photos of the surrounding area. Several adventures were set to begin.

Bangalore's #1 Socialite

Wednesday at lunch last week, our TWU colleague Vatsal was on the phone. One thing led to another and soon I was on the phone. It was a short, but good chat with one of his best friends.

A few days passed and the weekend arrived. Four other TWU-ers, plus me and three friends arrived. One of those friends was none other than the girl I had a phone conversation with -- Paulami. She also happened to be Bangalore's #1 socialite, knowing the manager of every bar in town.

Our place of choice was a club in UB City. The place featured top 40 music, which effectively meant my requests were met with blank stares. This was my first time in a club, though I think I blended in pretty well.

Why the laptop? I was heavily inspired by Atreyee's Pecha Kucha last week, which focused on test-driving new experiences.

One of the perks of showing up to a social venue with a well-connected person is the immediate access to the DJ. I tried for quite a while to get something I knew to rock the place, but time after time my requests fell on deaf ears. Frustrated, I shifted gears.

Me "Okay then...how about a dedication?"
DJ "To?"
Me "sghill.blogspot.com"
DJ "Blogspot? No. No URLs."

Eventually, we reached a compromise.

Fun Fact 1 Command issued at time of picture: rake test:units

Fun Fact 2 A waiter brought us some fries midway through the night. We thought someone in our group must've ordered them and began to indulge. Shortly thereafter, the waiter hurried back, took them off our table, and proceeded to place them on the table next to us...where the party began to eat the fries.

The Highly Anticipated Indian Paintball Exposé

I've never played paintball before, and I certainly didn't think it'd be one of the experiences I would have in Bangalore. When the announcement was made in the middle of the day Thursday, I decided to try it out.

We left the office around 1:30 and drove for an hour to the paintball fields. We were instructed to wear long sleeves and pants. We showed up in varying outfits. Not wanting to ruin one of my precious few shirts, I went in a far too revealing t-shirt. We had someone play in sandals. Rahul, the organizer, came in slightly more formal attire. See if you can spot him.

The guy running the paintball business struck was more than a bit hilarious. He casually demonstrated how to shoot by picking out an extremely small target near an employee and fired away.

Me Did you just fire at that guy?
Him *smirking* I'm a very, very good shot.

Some time later, a question was asked by one of our teammates.

Aarti Do the paint balls hurt?
Him *smirking* It hurts...slightly more than a mosquito bite...and slightly less than a sledgehammer.

The Games

The total cost including transportation was Rs. 600 ($12.93). For that we had two games.

The first was bluntly named "DeathMatch". Two teams started at opposite ends of the field and ran behind barriers of varying heights whilst firing paint at one another. There is a scoring system for this, and our team won by one point.

The next game was more of a strategy game. Each team had a captain and there was a flag in the center of the field. The objective was to get the flag and put it on the other team's base without getting hit. As a twist, only the captain could touch the flag.

I was on defense for the second time, which definitely had its pros and cons. I was out of harms way for the most part, but I was also just standing. Go figure, I was hit in both rounds from far away...in exactly the same spot.

Note Yuyutsa is the name of the place.

Fun Fact I asked if paintball was big here. When I found out it wasn't, naturally I inquired if this was the largest and only paintball company. It's not, but most close up shop after 3-6 months. Yuyutsa has been around for five years now.

Mascal Camping: SG Hill Meets Nature (part 4)

Note this is fourth and final post in the camping series

• Part 1: Arriving
• Part 2: Team Race
• Part 3: Rappelling

I gingerly made my way back down the rocks after deciding against rappelling. The conversation on top of the rocks was a fear-incuding unforgettable moment. Let's recreate it here:

me "What's the weight limit for the harness?"
him "Down...you go down"
me "No, I know. What is the limit? kilograms?"
him "Down down down."

Keeping in mind I had now nearly capsized a kayak and absolutely shredded a pair of pants on the way up the hill, this sequence was enough to send me skipping back down the rocks where the next activity awaited.

Raft-Making

For making our rafts, we had the following supplies:

• 5 inner tubes
• 4 bamboo poles
• a bunch of rope

The beginnings of our raft-smithing were thwarted by a 5' snake in the water. We were told it was a water-only snake...and then it slithered on land.

Once the coast was clear we put our heads together and came up with possible designs:

1. A snake-like design, with parallel poles for the frame
2. A triangle

I was, and continue to be, a proponent of the triangle. Who doesn't love the symbol of equilateral goodness and strength?

The raft was soon completed and Team Green set to paddle back to the campsite, which was at least 1 kilometer away. During the paddling of that 1 kilometer, the sun turned to rain. Heavy rain. Here we see the view from a dry tent of the team coming in.

This trip was eventful and memorable for many reasons. In any sort of company getaway you'll have the inevitable result of coworkers getting to know each other better. If you're going on a getaway with me, however, you're in even more luck -- because you get to know what I look like with any sun exposure.

Note The raft photos were taken just 1 hour and 3 minutes apart. We have a saying in Michigan -- if you don't like the weather...wait 10 minutes.

It's much more true here.

Mascal Camping: SG Hill Meets Nature (part 3)

No outdoor adventure is complete without a trek. After we finished our team games and lunch, we walked another few kilometers for the next activity. Goats and cows covered the fields.

The fields quickly turned to water-side trails as our canine companion happily (and frighteningly) walked by our sides. All four teams gathered on the giant rocks and looked out into the reservoir as we waited to be kayaked one-by-one to the other side.

Once on the other side, it was time to head up the hill. Hiking is tough work. It's almost impossible to capture the difficulty of climbing up rocks in photos. I hung back from rappelling for some awesome pictures, such as Hardik's First Step

If you can believe it, Hardik was the most vocal about trying to get me to join in the rappelling. No worries, Mom, I stayed on solid ground.

The day didn't end here, either. There was one more event headed our way, including the exciting wrap-up of what I took back from Mascal.

Mascal Camping: SG Hill Meets Nature (part 2)

In the last post we took a look at getting to the remote and gorgeous part of India known as Mascal.

Team Race

What would a ThoughtWorks University outing be without some sort of team-based race? The 36 of us split into four teams: Black, Green, Orange, and White. We then partook in four different events for five minutes each.

1. Mine Sweeper

Our first event was the most challenging. A course was laid out with oars. Plastic pieces were in spread throughout the course. The object was to get through the course without touching anything. One other thing: we had to be blindfolded and spun around before beginning. One person would go at a time, with the rest of the team guiding. We had two attempts and zero successes.

2. The Spider Web

Our next game was also played at the only other camp I've attended: 6th grade camp. There are two poles with strings tied in criss-crossing patterns, leaving several holes open. Each member of the team must get from one side to the other without touching the strings, or going through the same opening twice. Our strategy was to have two heavyweights go through the bottom holes and send the lighter people through the top holes. One of our trainers, Felix, used his Kung-Fu skills. Demonstrated here after the completion of the games.

3. Austrailian Australian Car

I can't be sure why this is the called the Australian car, because our Australian driver let us know they've got real cars down under too. Five people from our team had to stand on the planks, hold the strings, and move together. The object was to walk as far as possible. It wasn't easy, but Team Green did quite well in my very biased opinion.

4. Inner Tube Walking

I couldn't manage to get a photo of this event -- oh how I wish these getaways had a photographer to capture all the moments. Our team had to huddle up and get as close as possible for a circumference measurement. The reason why wasn't clear, but we ended up the smallest with three lightweights on the shoulders of the three heavyweights. We then stretched an inner tube to accommodate all of us and started to walk up the hillside. The winner of this event was the team that walked the farthest.

We proudly took fourth place overall and headed to lunch. We were advised to eat a lot; there were big things in store for us.

Mascal Camping: SG Hill Meets Nature (part 1)

TWU XVIII escaped for a camping adventure over the weekend to a place called Mascal.

In what seems to be the start of a tradition, we ThoughtWorkers mention three things in our posts about Mascal:

1. Mascal is virtually impossible to find.
2. It lies 40-45 km away from Bangalore's Diamond District.
3. Search engines returning nothing -- nothing but ThoughtWorker blogs.
• J'adore Bangalore (July 2010)
• Marjorie Pries: Don't believe everything you think (August 2009)
• wend: to journey (June 2009)

Background

Thanks to my awesome GPS-enabled phone, I've been able to put this place on the map. The journey was 2 hours and 47 minutes in a bus. Just when I think I can't possibly be surprised any more, I get into a bus that makes a habit of passing cars and driving 3 inches from the edge of a dirt road carved out of a hillside.

Our 49.4km route:

View Larger Map

The trip was arranged with Outback India, who employ some of the nicest people around.

Both of our paid guides were going to school and doing this on weekends. We also had an amazingly nice volunteer who does this just to meet different people. An avid How I Met Your Mother watcher, we discussed the US-Candian relationship as told by the show. He's headed off to London for Audio Engineering next month.

Arriving

The last leg of the bus ride is a trip through an extremely small village. We step off the bus and are greeted with super skinny cows.

It was clear from the beginning this was going to be far different from another day at the office, though you wouldn't know it to look at me. Who else could pull off bringing a camera, collared shirt, and water bottle camping?

The trek from the bus to the campsite was about 1km through fields and over rocks.

Once there, we basked at the marvel that I call mini-stonehenge. It wasn't long until some of us had made our way out to the lake and conquered the microwonder.

We didn't spend this day alone, either. A very friendly street dog had decided to spend the day with us.

Luckily she was a very low-key and non-threatening dog, as she stayed well into the night.

Activities

Of course it didn't just end with getting to the campsite. We had a day full of activities...