From Airport to some hotel in SF
The flight was uneventful. As we approached San Francisco the view from the flight was awesome. I took a couple of pictures from the flight which will go down on my blog. :)
After entering the Airport and finishing off the formalities and collecting my baggages, I was left with only one task- to find a place to go. I was moving ahead with what I would call the traveller's instinct towards a billboard where they were advertising the hotels nearby the airport. I chose one that looked less pretentious in a dollar saving mode. It was called The Westin El Rancho Inn in a city called Milbrae which is about 2 miles from the airport. The fare was $89 post taxes with complementary breakfast and a king size bed. It was good enough for me, but even then I had the strange lurking inside which said, "Dude, someone is ticking you off your money. You could have found a similar room at a much lower rate and closer to San Bruno. This is a shit deal".
Anyways I took it up and told them that I would pay by cash and they would send the hotel shuttle to pick me up from the airport. The driver told me to come to some place I couldn't understand properly. All I could make out was that I had to go to the Departure level and after that there were
incoherent words like "island....red kerb". So with the traveller's instinct in full throttle I made my way to the Departure level which is at level 3 in SFO. I reached the lot and there were areas marked there for all the airlines. So I took a seat under "Cathey Pacific".
Well to cut a long and uneventful story short, I waited there for quite sometime and later discovered that I had to cross the road to something called the "Middle Island" which is a strip of footpath-ish (kerb-ish) construction with the kerbs painted in stripes, red etc. The red striped kerb part was for hotel courtesy shuttle. Ok! So I made it. The shuttle came, and the driver Fernando (a mexican with a really cool physique and sun-glasses; looked cool and I am NOT being gayish, but yea I appreciate what is deserving) helped me with the baggages. He took me to the El Rancho where I lugged my 21.3Kg suitcase, 9.12Kg backpack and 5kg Laptop bag.
I was suppose to give a dollar to Fernando for handling my baggage but I did not have any change on me. So when he took off my suitcase I told him honestly that I did not have change and I am very sorry. He was very nice and said "No worries man...your intentions are good" and laughed out a wonderful laugh. I thanked him again and shook his hand and he "God bless you"-ed me with another big laugh and I showed him a thumbs-up and entered the El Rancho reception.
I was greeted by a guy called Marco at the counter who checked up my reservation. He enquired for my credit card and fed in the data to find out that my ICICI credit card does not work. So I would not get any reservation. Wonderful!!!! I enquired if I could make a phone call and Marco told me that there is a dollar store across the street where there could be a pay phone. Wonderful!!!
So I lugged 35Kgs of baggage across the street and finally made it to the Dollar Store which apparently was...CLOSED! oh yea you got that....C-L-O-S-E-D. I enquired at the neighboring shoe store (Red Wing Shoes) and Carter (the store manager) told me that they had closed down sometime near last thanksgiving. I asked him if there is a pay-phone somewhere nearby and then he did something really amazing!
He asked me to wait around and he will get back to me after dealing with his current customer (who gave me a shouting "Good luck" as he left. Comforting as hell I tell you). So Carter asked me what's wrong and I told him my credit card did not work and I am stuck and I have to make a phone call. Carter asked me if it is a local call and he offered his cell phone to me. I called up Suneel (my reporting manager) who asked me to come over to Super 8 in San Bruno where I can get the reservation made without my credit card. I thanked Carter like I had never thanked anyone in my life!!! And to top it all he even called me up a taxi. He had a friend called Brian in the VIP Taxi thing who came down to pick me up. It would be some time before Brian would come over, so I looked around the place trying to find something to buy from Carter as a way of showing my gratitude. It occured to me that I dont have slippers. So Carter suggested me some slippers which he had from Christmas. He over ordered the stuff. They looked really wonderful and I bought a pair of slip-ons for 29 $ pre-tax (which was 49 $ previously, Carter threw in a 20 $ discount as off-season sale). They felt like a heaven and became my first purchase in the USA.
Brian came after some time and Carter told him about my story. Brian was just as helpful as any other person I had met in the USA so far. He lugged my baggages to his car and drove me to Super 8 which was like 5 mins drive from Carter's shop. We talked about the weather and everything and it was nice. He helped me with the luggage once again when we reached the Super 8. He gave me his card and we shook hands and parted.
A pretty young lady came to the reception and my bet is that she is a Gujrati. She did my reservation and I went to my room. As I was leaving for my room I overheard her saying over the phone her name was "Nilam".
So yes, she is Indian. This Super 8 motel is managed by some person by the name P.Patel. And is licensed under "Nilam pvt ltd" or something (which I saw on a display in the reception). Anyways, I made my way to my room. It was room # 212 at the Super 8.
Room # 212, Super 8 Motel
The room is awesome! A nice, big, soft and springy double bed (apparently this room is for a single person). There is a big TV (which shows only 2 channels though), a microwave, a coffee-maker, an A/C, an iron and an iron-board. It is very comfortable. I freshened up and changed into some shorts and t-shirts and t`hought would grab a nap. It was around 5:30 pm in SF. I thought I would wake up by 8 and go for dinner. I slept and when I woke up it was 12:30 at night!!!! WHAT!!! 12:30! How could I have slept 7 hours??!!! It felt like a couple of hours only...!!! And now its 2 am and I am wide awake and all charged up.
...I just wonder...if this could be the jet-lag. Maybe not...I was tired after all... I hadn't slept much in the last 24 hours (even though the concept of time has been murdered very convincingly- I reached SF at 1:30 pm on 17th June, when I had boarded the flight to SF from Hong Kong at 4:30 pm on 17th June. I reached before I took off. There you go!).
Whatever it is, I say it has been an awesome start in the United States of America!!! A bloody good start. I am sure the remaining part of the stay would be better.
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