TripIt

USed an interesting site launched 10 months ago that organises your travel itinerary wherever you book it. Typically for a holiday one might book air tickets from one site, hotels from another, transfers and sightseeing from a 3rd and get myriad confirmation eMails. One simply needs to forward these mails to TripIt and they create one single itinerary with all the details in addition to providing info on maps, weather, city guides etc.

Also different trips are sometimes booked on different sites and TripIt then becomes useful to aggregate all the trip information for posterity. A traveler doing a multi-day and multi city trip will find it most useful.

TripIt can process eMails from all leading OTAs (including MakeMyTrip), reservation systems, car rental sites, hotel websites, restaurant reservation services like Open Table etc and present it in a very user friendly itinerary that can be accessed online or even the mobile. Calendar Sync is possible too. They have elements of social networking built in too where you can track trips of friends or even share your trip itinerary. The user interface is highly intuitive and tasks like accessing one’s address book to view other TripIt users or invite people is enabled very simply.


It also has some basic meta functionalities that one can use for bookings too, but I would rather use a specialist site like Kayak or mobissimo for this. Also it cannot process mails from each and every supplier for eg Air Asia or Disney Hotels.

Hancock & Wanted

Saw Hancock with Will Smith, week before last. The story of a drunk, misunderstood super hero sure has potential and would have made for a great dark comedy. But the movie fails to hold with a very weak storyline. The surprise is Charlize Theron who I failed to notice in any of the pre-launch promos, but she too failed to enthrall like she usually does. Avoidable.

Also saw Wanted! Actually saw them both back – to – back with little do do on a Sunday in Bangkok (which does sound a little hard to believe!). It’s an over stylised action film again with a rather weak plot. Angelina Jolie seems a bit wasted. James McAvoy is rather decent, especially since one is seeing him in a role very different to the one in Atonement. The action sequences are over the top but interesting and so is the final attack. Morgan Freeman seems to be doing very similar / typecast roles it seems with Lucky Number Sleven (a much better movie) and now as head of a bunch of assassins, who pass of as weavers. Give me a break. But worth a watch.......

Saw both these movies at the SF Cinema in Central World, bangkok. SF makes most PVRs look like village theatre halls. And the ticket prices is less than what PVR charges!

New Unilever Ads

watched TV after a bit of hiatus and noticed a lot of Unilever ads....each weirder than the other! there was one with Saif and Priyanka running around an airport, another one for Lux with Aishwaria which was even stranger. is this a new direction the brand is moving in? very strange or maybe I don't get them.

Batman - The Dark Knight

Spectacular movie, better than the previous one....which was awesome too. each actor / character has a clear place in the movie and a definitive role. Heath Ledger is great, though I doubt he woudl have got a nominaiton was it not was his untimely and sad demise. The movie is much larger than the enigmatic Batman, with a very profiled Joker and Harvey Dent (should not have killed the guy in the movie, unless they intend to miraculously get him back in the next one). Harvey Dent / Two-faced is among the most interesting villans ever created by DC. Also soem fo the best one liners out of Hollywood for a bit. A must watch move and look out for the BatPod!

Hao Shi Nian Nian - Restaurant

The worst Chinese food ever from the most over rated restaurant. 2nd terrible experience. went their a few month s ago and had very average, though expensive food. Heard a lot of raves so decided to visit on friday night with soem friends. The foods gotten worse and the prices more. The sweet and sour crispy lamb would have made it to a dessert list with it's sweetness! staff is courteous though and they currently have an awesome Philipino band...the guitarist is a magician. my vote for the worst chinese restaurant in NCR goes to Hao Shi Nian Nian. Also what's with the name??