Byung Kyu Park's Personal Website

I finally made the visit to FRO/FRRO (I’m not sure what FRRO would stand for) to register. I’ve done something similar in Russia so at least I’m familiar with the concept—for certain types of visas, they want to make sure that I entered the country in the manner I said I would, for the purpose that I said it was for. Despite numerous warnings about how painful this experience would be, it turned out to be a relatively smooth process, if lengthy, and I am happy about that. One thing that stood out is a sign that was hanging in the Foreigners’ Registration Office (I didn’t take a picture out of respect (and fear that I might get kicked out; at least in U.S. government offices are so … paranoid about cameras in the office), but I have the sign’s wording in verbatim):

ATTENTION

ALL THE VISITORS WHO ARE VISITING
FOREIGNERS REGISTRATION OFFICE, BANGALORE
CITY, FOR THEIR OFFICIAL WORK ARE HERE BY
INFORMED THAT IN CASE OF ANY DEMAND FOR
MONEY FOR OFFICIAL WORK OR UNNECESSARY
DELAY BY THE OFFICIALS MAY PLEASE CONTACT
ASST.COMMISSIONER OF POLICE (FOREIGNERS
SECTION) OR DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE
(F.R.O) BANGALORE CITY.

I guess they are trying to crack down on corruptions of the kind prevalent in developing countries, such as Mexico and South Korea (I have no direct experience with either, only anecdotes involving police officers and busy government offices).

I can’t say I’ve seen any … overt acts of corruption in my visit to FRO or elsewhere in India. There was some guy who was ushered in front of me at FRO with the, shall we say, bouncer recognizing him as “74″ (I had number 72 and there was another guy behind me who did really have 74), but aside from that, everything seemed relatively well-run, although busy and somewhat lacking in directions (it didn’t help that around the time my number came up, it was lunch time so many people were away at lunch).

So far, my short experience in India points to this place as being a region in transition: lanes are mostly ignored, but there are signs that admonish drivers to “Maintain lane discipline”. Roads are dusty in many places, but then, there are these trendy cafes that do serve expensive (compared to local food prices, for example) drinks. Perhaps in good time, India will come to be a place not too different from U.S. or Europe—I just wonder how the world economy would change with 1 billion more people in a well-developed market economy (for comparison, U.S. has only 300 million people).

The Poland trip this summer, I think, turned out to be relatively fruitful. Of course, how fruitful it was will be … apparent in a month or so, when the products of last two trips to Krakow will be finished. Here’s the abbreviated itinerary and impressions of various places visited during this trip. A fuller version with illustrations might be coming over the weekend (depending on how much free time I get).

The main thing about this trip is that it was scheduled in a series of round trips. Round trip from SFO to FRA. Round trip from FRA to KRK, and finally, round trip from KRK to LED. It was done to get the cheapest tickets available, and although now I think scheduling them in a somewhat different way might have been cheaper and gotten me home earlier (i.e. round trip from FRA to KRK, returning early enough for another round trip from FRA to LED for the UCN conference which was ostensibly the main purpose of this summer’s eastern European trip, I am satisfied with the result, given that it gave me an extra half-day in Krakow, my favorite city in Europe.

The trip to Krakow was mostly uneventful. I didn’t like the layover in Frankfurt as the airport appeared to have been designed specifically to eliminate power outlets that people might use for their laptops, but it was only a few hours. And my week and a half in Krakow was also mostly uneventful. It was productive, and no sight seeing was done at all at least this time around. Then, June 7th came along, and it was time for the UCN conference in St. Petersburg.

I have to say that I am rather surprised by my St. Petersburg experience. I liked the place, and compared to the reputation of, say, Moscow being one of the most expensive and dangerous place to live, St. Petersburg appeared safe—with cheap and good food (if in meager servings, at least compared to what I get in Krakow). There were some quirks, of course (the water smells funny, which I am told is due to the chlorine in the tap water, and the pollution … makes walking around unpleasant, at least in the eastern part of the city where we were staying), but overall, it didn’t look like a communist hell hole. The newspaper I read on the plane (St. Petersburg Times, English version) even had inklings of real free press.

The workshop, which went relatively well, ended in the dawn of June 14th, so I had a full day to explore the city on the Sunday, as I had assumed that we would have a full day of schedule on the 14th and scheduled to leave for Krakow on the 15th. I tried out the colonnade on the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and then walked around the city following the rivers and channels. I have to say the river Neva (and her many channels) is my favorite thing in the city.

On returning to Krakow on the 15th, I stayed at a place called “Mama’s Hostel”. Again, this was done mostly for reducing travel expense (as hotels are, I think, at least 5 times more expensive), but I also wanted to do it for, well, the experience—if it turns out to be unpleasant or unsafe, at least it’s better done while I’m still young.

But the place turned out wonderful. It was one of the old buildings in the city square which I liked very much, the bed was clean and the room I was staying in was only half-occupied, and the common area was lovely. Oh, and when I checked in, a very cute girl was staffing the front desk, so that was nice.

I didn’t have much time to do anything on the day I arrived, but on the next day (I had to leave for airport at around 12), I took a walk along the river near Wawel Castle and managed to accomplish my personal objective for these trips since the first time I was in Krakow: to obtain the plastic “expanding ball” toy. And I finally did it this time.

And then I flew to Frankfurt for my final return trip. While this segment of the trip was mostly uneventful, this day (and the morning next) was the most … unpleasant part of the trip and will be detailed in an illustrated entry which I’ve tentatively titled “Frankfurt, the toilet of the Europe”.

And then was my 15-hour journey back to U.S. I was very tired by the end and the little kid crying in the seat behind me was extremely annoying, but at least I was glad to be in the U.S.A. again (oh, and to have bought the T-shirt that says “I love my country; it’s the government I am afraid of” during my 1-hr layover in Washington D.C.).

Anyways. Pictures with fuller story of each segment of the trip will be coming, hopefully over this weekend.

So, even though the trip to India couldn’t be made as planned, Dima encouraged me to make the remainder of the trip to Poland and Russia. I didn’t have as much time for planning as I would’ve liked, but thanks to the swine flu, I could still get tickets at a relatively reasonable price—provided that I made the trip in a series of round trips, like this:

• Round trip from San Francisco (SFO) to Frankfurt (FRA)
  • Leave SFO at 8:46 am, May 24, and arrive FRA at 9:55 am, May 25
  • Leave FRA at 12:20 pm, June 17, and arrive SFO at 7:10 pm, June 17
• Round trip from Frankfurt (FRA) to Krakow (KRK)
  • Leave FRA at 6:20 pm, May 25, and arrive KRK at 8:00 pm, May 25
  • Leave KRK at 3:50 pm, June 16, and arrive FRA at 5:30 pm, June 16
• Round trip from Krakow (KRK) to St. Petersburg (LED)
  • Leave KRK at 6:00 am, June 7, and arrive LED at 2:45 pm, June 7
  • Leave LED at 3:45 am, June 15, and arrive KRK at 9:50 pm, June 15

Surprisingly, the most expensive segment is the last segment to and from LED, but overall, the trip cost even less than last time. I’m a bit worried about the series of round trips that are booked separately (for one, if one flight changes the rest may have to be changed as well), but hopefully it will all work out.

Update: Apparently there was one other way to schedule my trips that might have been cheaper (at least by $150 or so): use Frankfurt as my “hub”. i.e. roundtrip to FRA from SFO, then roundtrip from FRA to KRK, coming back early enough for a roundtrip from FRA to LED.

Oh well. The tickets have been booked already, and this potential saving probably isn’t worth the hassle—not to mention it would be wiped out by the time all the ticket change fees have been paid for.