Around the World in 8 (or 9) Days

A couple of months ago when Doug Erwin asked me about going to India to visit with one of our customers, I wasn’t sure he was serious. And here I am in Mumbai (via multiple places - more on that later) about to head back home (via more multiple places) after meeting with not just one, but several of our customers on their home turf.

In this day and age I think that more often than not we discount the power of face to face contact. Indeed, if this trip has done anything for me personally it’s strengthened the belief in the idea that personal contact matters in our business. While this trip has been a bit of a marathon, I’ve really enjoyed meeting and interacting with some of our customers, and I hope that they enjoyed it as well. On to the fun stuff.

My journey began last Saturday. I had to catch a connecting flight from Houston to Memphis to Amsterdam. While the thought of traveling to Amsterdam was personally appealing, I was unfortunately only there for a 4 hour layover on my way to Frankfurt, Germany. I arrived in Frankfurt around 3 pm on Sunday - so it took me about 21 hours to get there. There, I met up with a fellow road warrior from The Planet and we planned out our visit in Germany together before trying to shake off the jetlag.

Monday morning, we decided to walk around downtown Frankfurt prior to our afternoon meeting with our customer.

We were able to see some really great sites.

This picture is of a random building in Frankfurt (downtown near the main train station):

I’m told that the building on the left is the tallest building in Germany:

Tuesday, we jumped on a train and headed to Regensberg - a short 4 hour ride. The train ride was through some of the prettiest countryside you can imagine, and it made the journey seem shorter. Upon arriving, we were greeted by the customer and led to their offices.

Scenic, huh?

For lunch, we were taken down to the city square which was centered around the biggest church I’ve ever seen. I believe I was told that it dated back to the 1400’s - but I might have gotten that wrong.

Needless to say, because of it’s size I was unable to get it into a single shot.

After our meeting wrapped, we jumped on the train back to Frankfurt, and proceeded back to the hotel to prepare for our journey to Mumbai, India.

Wednesday morning, we catch a 7:25 am flight to Paris, and then after a short (3 hour) layover we jump another plane for Mumbai.

I managed to get a picture of the Eiffel tower from the plane - but that’s about as close as I got (If you look really close - it’s there. I promise).

We arrived in Mumbai on Thursday morning (about 1 am local time) and were picked up at the airport and ferried to our hotel. Mumbai is a very interesting city - quite unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Even at night I could tell that this was going to be fun.

Thursday we had a day off, so we decided to do some sightseeing.

I got things rolling with a shot from my hotel room (Juhu Beach).

We went to downtown Mumbai where we were shown the Ghandi museum, which was a treat.

This is the room Ghandi used to stay in.

We finished things up at the Gateway to India.

Friday morning, we met with our customers and had what I believe was a very productive meeting.

From here I travel to Seoul, Korea (at 3:30 am Saturday morning) where I get a day to rest, and then it’s back home to Houston - via Los Angeles - on Sunday afternoon.

So there you go. Forty some odd flight hours and eight or so train hours and I’ve managed to travel entirely around the globe.

Now, back to the title. Why is the number of days up for debate? Well, it appears that upon traveling between Seoul and Los Angeles I will cross the international date line and will actually travel back in time to Sunday. Even though it’s technically Monday according to my watch. Thus, I’ve made the trip around the world in 8 days.

Neat huh?

-Will

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 5:00 am and is filed under Tech Stuff, The Planet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.