Time to fly to Dallas, Texas from Manchester (via London)

I am on my way again, just arrived to Manchester airport. I was surprised of the double booking procedures at the airport. The clients are forced to use the automated systems by showing the passpoer, putting in the information, changing seats, and once this is done, it will spit out boarding cards. I am ok with this, but what puzzels me is that you have to do the same thing with the agent once more. When I asked about this, I got this very annoyed look from British Airways agent and she was not something I call for "client friendly" environment. Oh well, I guess this is the first step to eliminate the agents that do not want to work anymore and teach the clients to use the systems.

Manchester airport is very nice, lots of shops and pleasant environment. I am flying from here to Heathrow London and then with a direct flight to Dallas.

Feelings from Manchester UK in pre-Christmas season

This is the first time that I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in downtown Manchester in the nice Hilton Manchester Deansgate hotel which is the tallest building in town.

Manchester had just opened its Christmas marketplace and the center of downtown Manchester was completely packed with people and it was very hard to get by from one place to the other. I can not remember another place that would have been so packed as downtown Manchester. Nowhere could one see a recession or anything like it.

I highly recommend the Hilton as hotel as you can get to any part of the downtown area as one wants.

Flybe.com flight from Paris to Manchester UK

I am flying with www.flybe.com from Paris to Manchester, UK and this flight is flown by British codeshare flight as well. I have never flown with this company so we will see how it goes.

Howto in Paris from CDG to Paris downtown

I hate to admit that during my years of business, I have completely ignored the public transportation in Paris. From here going forward, this is how I am going to do:
1) Buy a "get to know Paris" ticket at CDG (Charles de Gaulle) to the days that you are going to stay. I bought a 5 day ticket for 48 Euros that covered all zones. This ticket is valid for buses, trains and metro
2) Be aware that public transportation do not communicate to the public in any other language than French, so it is up to you to understand or ask what is going on.

Enjoy Paris, the metro network is awesome and you will save lots of money and headache if you can avoid the Parisian traffic.

Paris as a place to work with clients

I arrived to Paris on Tuesday morning and worked with clients and had other meetings during the week. My hotel was 3 metro stops from Gare du Nord, which is a major hub for both RER trains and metro lines. I have to say that the public transportation in Paris is the only way to go, there is no question about it. The weather was typical for this time of the year, some clouds, some sun and very cold with high winds yesterday. I also had a chance to do what I love which is to walk around the city during the evenings. Paris is impressive, even during the fall. Now I am on my way to Manchester UK until Tuesday morning when I fly back to Dallas, Texas to be able to be part of thanksgiving.

Flight from Dallas to France

I was upgraded to business class on my Boeing 767 flight and I have to say that the unhappiness within American Airlines crew is getting worse every day. As a customer, I should not have to deal with people that do not want to work and this will eventually turn very negative towards AA. I had an executive from Dallas sitting beside me and he was flabbergasted how he was treated during the flight. He said he wanted to test AA this time but based on what he saw, he will not return to AA. I have almost 3 million miles on American and I hate to see them going in down spiral in both service and convinience.

On my way to Paris, France

This time I am flying to Paris, France for a few days and continuing my trip to Manchester UK on Saturday. I am scheduled to return back to Dallas on February 25th so I will be able to spend time with my family for thanksgiving. I really like to see how the weather is going to be in Paris this time of the year and I hope that I do not run into rain as I has been doing in Finland according to my friends over there.

Wingate by Wyndham was good

Our stay at Wingate by Wyndham was nice and it is well located at a closeby mall. The address to this hotel is:

Wingate by Wyndham
9050 Mills Road
FM 1960 & Mills Road
Houston, TX 77070

From Dallas to Houston for an icehockey games with Dallas Stars Select

We left yesterday Dallas in the morning for an icehockey games. I-45 down from Dallas to Houston is boring I have to say but we finally made it wit a couple of stops. The first game was in the Memorial City Mall (Ice Skate USA) and the second game today will be at Willowbrook Aerodrome. The evening was beautiful and we had lots of fun with the team as well as a nice couple of Houston.

Time to return back to Dallas

Three days of intensive IAMCP Board meetings in Chicago is over and it is time to return home. The weather was very unseasonal for Chicago at this point in time, very warm and beautiful. I heard that there might be some snow flurries later this week which is kind of unreal when you think how warm it has been. I was upgraded toi first class... Th,k you American! It is nice to get back home!

I found a nice Thai restaurant in downtown Chicago

I had a meeting at N. Wacker and decided to walk to Magnificent Mile to have lunch before my next meeting. I found a nice place at Ohio Street and the name of this place is DAO Thai Restaurant and Noodle Place. The address is

230 E. Ohio Street
Chicago, IL 60611

Check it out!

Chicago again after a whilean this time it is IAMCP business

I have not been in Chicago for a while, so it will be nice to visit the windy city again. This time I have meetings the whole weekend and will return on Monday evening. It is time for IAMCP global business and I am looking forward to meet my IAMCP collagues from all over the world.

Back to Dallas from beautiful Atlanta

We had three days of good meetings in Atlanta and the weather was beautiful. I wish I would not have been hit by a flu, which I did. Atlanta is truly a very nice city and very cosmopolitan as well. My next trip will be to Chicago within a week.

Travel season begins: Atlanta here I come

I have a very late flight to Atlanta tonight, the touchdown is 00.35 AM so it will take me at least to 02.00 AM when I am in bed. I will be workin in TELLUS Atlanta office until Wednesday this week.

Interstate 30 from Little Rock to Dallas, Texas

Needless to say, but the it was a boring ride today. We got up 6.00 AM in the morning in Little Rock, Arkansas and arrived to Dallas 02.00 PM. The ride was 365 miles and we drove 100 miles at a time to avoid tireness.

However, the overall motorcycle trip was more than 1000 miles and included multiple unbelievable sites that we visited. I have to say that Arkansas is very beautiful state, very clean forest and mountains and I hihly recommend anybody to visit this state. The night life in the state capital Little Rock was also nice, lots of live bands in bars and everybody was very friendly.

A visit to President Clinton Library

We had a chance to visit President Clintons Library that resides by the beautiful Arkansas River. The design is very European, very nice interior and I also learned that there no books there. It is a monument displaying President Clinton's life and work. I was very impressed. They also happened to have a show with famous choppers in the second and third floor. Unbelievable bikes.

From Eureka Springs to Little Rock, Arkansas

We got up early in the morning, even if we had a blast on the main street in Eureka Springs. We fell in love with an old hotel Basin Park Hotel (founded 1905). They have a wonderful terass on the second level and the service is awesome. Nothing was impossible... Not even an ice cream creation that did not exist. We also visited the official ghost hotel Cresent hotel on the hill... Awesome.

This morning we decided to drive to Little Rock using mountain roads. We found nirvana again. I do not wonder anymore why this state is called th "natural state". The beauty is unbelievable.

We stopped in multiple places during the road and overall we got 230 miles on our Honda Goldwings.

This evening we are going to enjoy the nightlife of Little Rock Arkansas.

Beautiful Eureka Springs

We got up around 6.45 AM this morning and the temperature was 54 Fahrenheit... Pretty chilly.... We headed towards Fort Smith which meant that we crossed the Arkansas border from Oklahoma. I have to say that we reached nirvana today. 68 Fahrenheit today, clean blue sky and beautiful Arkansas mountains. There is nothing that replaces the feeling of freedom. We are staying at Quality Inn in Eureka Springs and unbelievably run into a Honda Goldwing rally with 81 participants. That was a lot of Goldwings. Now we are headed towards the mainstreet in a limo to see how the Eureka Springs rock!

Fall motorcycle trip to Arkansas mountains

We started out trip this afternoon. It is our traditional trip to see the beautiful colors of Arkansas mountains. Our first afternoon took us via 121 to 75 across Texas-Oklahoma border and then I-40 East almost to the Arkansas border. We are staying in Sallisaw, Oklahoma little town. We found a nice little inn called "Blue Ribbon Inn". We got almost 280 miles on our motorcycles today.

Back in Dallas after a 30 hour plus travel schedule

I am back in Dallas safe and sound. The trip from Delhi to Chicago was the longest ever to me. It took 15 hours and the flight route was also new to me. The Boeing 777 took off in Delhi, and flew west of Himalayas north, through Russia and east of Finnish border, crossed Greenland at the most northern point I have never experienced. The flight was slightly delayed due to late incoming aircraft in Delhi, so I missed my flight in Chicago. This was unfortunate as I had been upgraded to business class. Oh well, I the flight was only 2 hours long, so considering the fact that I had already been traveling for more than 30 hours, did not make a big difference...

The overall travel time was like this: I started my journed from Mumbai, India on sunday 02.00 PM local Mumbai time. My flight left Delhi around 01.00 AM local Delhi time and then with the 15 hour flight, plus 4 hours until I came home, it is easy to calculate that my trip was more than 30 hours (32 hours).

Overall, the trip was awesome, I now have lots of new friends from different parts of India and I learnt alot from experienced Indians how the market in India is specifically in IT.