TravelClick HOTEL CONVERSATIONS | The Hoxton from AboutFace Media on Vimeo.

PS : If you haven’t visited Costa Rica yet, put it on the list of places to visit in your lifetime

The falls with the train tracks

Second Waterfall

Train crossing the bridge

Drive into the park

• If you live in Chicago
• If you are looking for a place to have a small get together

{OR}

• Take your significant other on a special date
• Just trying to impress a girl/guy

{AND}

• It is summer

Check out the private sail charters offered on Lake Michigan. Unlike the giant cruise boats that you can get onto, at the Navy Pier, these trips offer a more intimate and unique experience. The gaint cruise boats are for the tourists .

I got to take a trip on one of the sail boats this weekend. The Red Witch, name of the boat we sailed on, is a topsail schooner. Unfortunately, we were not able to raise the sails, since the owners were waiting on an updated “certification” for a new engine they installed this year. But we still got spend a couple of hours on the lake. We brought our own food and drinks, so it was like a picnic on the lake. You can get information on booking tickets with them at http://www.redwitch.com/.

Here are some pictures from the trip

[The Boat]

[The Crew]

[The Moon]

[The City]

Rich’s Lechon (Roast pork, Romaine lettuce, grilled onions, sweet plantain, garlic sauce)

Janvi’s Cuban (Cuban ham, roast pork, swiss cheese, pickles, mustard) 

My Frita Cubana (Cuban hamburger, Romaine lettuce, tomato, shoestring potatoes)

And to top it all.. some Banana pudding

The first one on the list is the Swami Narayan Mandir (temple) in Bartlett, IL. Although, this temple is dedicated to Swami Narayan (one of the Gods in the Hindu religion), it is open to anyone that wants to visit. The temple is built completely out of marble and was completed in a record 16 months. As it stands now, it is the largest Hindu temple in North America (Thx to Deepti for correcting me.. Looks like the newly built Swami Narayan temple in Atlanta, GA is the largest temple in North America now.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAPS_Shri_Swaminarayan_Mandir_Atlanta). It was built in accordace to ancient architectural practises, which means that no steel or iron was used in building it. The temple is located at 

4N739 IL Route 59,
Bartlett , IL 60103 USA

An added bonus to visiting the temple, in addition to be able to view an amazing architectural wonder and (if you are inclined) a chance to sooth your spirit, you also get good vegetarian food . It is cooked right in the temple.

Photography is not allowed inside the temple.. Here are some pictures I was able to take from outsite the temple

The Haveli

Intricate wood carving on the Haveli’s enterance

The temple, in snow..

Front view of the temple

The entrance of the temple

This is good marketing and customer care. Not only did Southwest take the time to put in comfortable seating at their gates, but also took the extra step to provide power outlets and listen to this.. USB charging outlets. How many of you have had to run around airports looking for a power socket to charge your dying battery? .. I am going to fly SouthWest moving forward.. whenever I can.

Yes.. that is my laptop getting charged .

Agent : Ma’am, one of your baggage weighed 69.5 lbs and the other 70 lbs, the extra charge is $150. We charge $50 for baggage exceeding 50lbs and up to 70 lbs, and $100 for baggage exceeding 70 lbs and up to 100lbs.

Couple : !!!%^%&&^.. Ma’am, the second baggage is only 70 lbs, why are you chraging $100.

Agent (in a nasal tone) : Ma’am, the rule says 70 lbs and above.

Couple (intimidated) : Yeah, but is it only 0.5 lbs more than the first one and up to 70 lbs is only $50 right?

Agent (in I make the rules tone) : Ma’am, I am not going to argue over this.. It  is $100 for 70 lbs and more.. period.

Couple (nearly in tears) : OK, can we at least take out the 0.5 lbs of weight form the baggage so that we don’t have to pay $100 for it?

Agent (in you dare to speak back to me tone) : Ma’am.. the baggage is already checked in, you cannot take the weight out, you have to pay $100
…
…
..
Couple end up paying $100 because one of their bags was 0.5 lbs extra!!!

Does anyone find this sad? I understand the need to put limits and charge for excess baggage. But shouldn’t the agent have used common sense and made the call not to charge the couple $100 for 0.5 lbs!!! This is a good case of where employee stick to rules and are not given the freedom to make meaningful judgments.. Read Joel Spolsky‘s article about his recent experience at Starbucks and his reaction to understand what I mean . No wonder United is in a death spiral!!

Scenario 2 : My second leg of the international trip was on a Lufthansa flight. There was a strike by the ground crew in Frankfurt and Lufthansa couldn’t get the required food into the flight. And here is how the crew handled the issue

1. Made multiple announcements prior to the boarding that only 1 meal would be served in the journey and that special meal requests cannot be fulfilled.
2. Provided vouchers to customer to get food from the airport vendors if required.
3. Make multiple announcements in the flight (pilot, head air hostess and individual air hostesses) and apologized for the inconvenience.
4. Apologize while serving the first meal and again when we were getting off the flight..

I don’t remember a single passenger complaining about the lack of the “second” meal. And I will fly Lufthansa again, despite this issue. the lesson here is not to apologize multiple times, but how all the crew in the flight (ground crew, flying staff, serving staff) were informed of the issue and ensured that they provided the customers with an alternative and followed up on the issue..

Disclaimer : The united agent, might be an exception or might have been having a bad day..but somehow I sense the issue is bigger than that ..

Place we stayed at. Frost Castle. Would highly recommend staying at this place if you travel to this region. The owner, Al Frost, is friendly and has done a great job with building the whole log cabin by himself. BTW, I don’t know if I would call this monster a log cabin . It has 7 bedrooms and 4 baths.

How many engineers does it take to put up a volleyball net?

Winners of the Volleyball match..

Clear skies and water during a hiking trip

Getting ready for BBQ

Some Rafting..

Hare Krishna.. Hare Ram.. In front of the campfire..

Jet Skiing..

If you really have a lot of time on hand..here’s the link to all the pictures..

More pictures here.