First Impressions II

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels: , ,
,

My first international flight alone. My last one was twenty-two years ago and not alone. So, lets just say this was my first International flight as the last one has been wiped off the memory slate. "My bags are packed and I am ready to go", said my goodbyes and the VISA has luckily just come through. 


6th morning, my phone refuses to stop ringing, midst the confusion and the getting ready and last minute packing and running around and last minute shopping I missed most of my calls. I hug Mum and Dad and I am off. Inside I am welcomed with a beautiful long queue. I was wondering if it was just holiday season but it was just Airasia and on the flight I got to know that I was on board of an inaugural airasia Mum-KL flight. Although the queue was never ending, there were numerous counters for airasia and it was very well organised.

Mumbai Airport
Ooo lala! I walked into a high-end mall, oh wait its an airport, or is it? Every unaffordable brand was present, so you move ahead to the eateries, options range from US Pizza to a fancy looking Iifa lounge. I was tempted to look around but every queue was long enough to take that plan off the table. 
Moral of the story: if you are flying airasia, reach the airport four hours early.

Airasia
I am finally on board, the attendants, all look stunning and I spot a fantabulously hot flight attendant, eye candy...check. Interestingly they all had different hairstyles and very chic ones at that. They all are trying hard to hide their annoyance on their fellow customers, who are all behaving like they were at the market to buy fish. But if they had to be curt to get the job done, they were. People were off to KL in herds so I had a bunch of them hovering above my head. Yes, we all are going to KL by bus, now lets play antakshari. I chucked my book back in my bag and plug my earphones to block out the noise.

A lot of people had carried their own food, and by food I don't just mean lunch and dinner. A lady unpacked her bag on the two empty seats besides me and her bag only contained sna(ke)cks- chakli, farsaan, theplas, biscuits, chocolates, and some more. 

Their seating was comfortable with adequate leg space, the air-conditioning worked fine. Once the bees had cleared the air above my head I tried giving sleep a shot but the enthusiasm of 'flying abroad' made it too difficult. I decided to look around and amuse myself instead.

The sky was a sea of clouds, as beautiful as it could get from a flight window perhaps. A kid points at the clouds and shouts, "Green sky! Green sky!" I hope his mothers brushed up his colours with him. A young couple were all bundled up in scarves and thick jackets like one would for snow, they looked so adorably comfortable. A child that was running around decides to come sit leaving a seat between us. He weasels a pen out of his mother's purse and takes out the magazine to doodle on. I snatch it from him. He takes out a flyer and is about to tear it to pieces, I save it's fate. He takes out another flyer. He doesn't understand English or Hindi so in my broken Gujarati I say "Nooooo! WAIT!". From my purse I quickly give him a scrap of paper.

Reach KL airport
I wait for my friend who is to arrive from Kolkatta. I ask people who look like Indians whether I could deposit my luggage somewhere while I walk around the airport, they don't know English or Hindi, I resign to a corner and sink into my book again. 

Post her arrival we walk around the airport all night. People are sprawled all over on the floors, on chairs, sleeping on or around their luggage. There is an instant flashback of numerous scenes of the V.T. Station (Bombay) at night. Sleep escapes us so we decide to make use of the free Wi-Fi and sit on the airport floor after spreading out some newspapers. Eventually sleep wins and we move to chairs which were super uncomfortable. 
Next morning we treated our tired and pained bodies to Dunkin Donuts. Bliss!
 Smiley Donuts Stuffed with chocolate! :) Donut with a blueberry sauce filling.



Moral of the story: Travel light, do not deposit luggage at airport and carry a sleeping bag or  a sheet to spread out and just sleep on the damn floor.

4 comments

First ritual attended abroad: Budha bathing ceremony.

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels: , , ,
,


9th May was celebrated with great vigor in Taiwan. You would think it was an auspicious religious occasion. Turns out Mothers Day for the Taiwanese is almost as good as one. People go back home to spend their day to meet their mother dear with bouquets and personalized gifts. I am not sure how long this tradition runs and I am very keen to find out if fathers day is celebrated with as much pomp. 

Besides mothers day yesterday was also God Buddha’s birthday. A Taiwan based organization Jing Si organized a Buddha bathing ceremony to celebrate the deity’s birthday. I got the opportunity to attend it and it was marvelous.



 It was held in an open green space, in Taichung. It was a very well organized event, with volunteers keeping people in rows and columns strictly and attending to the ones passing out due to the enormous crowd. Rows of people wearing the nurses uniform, or a traditional Chinese dress- signifying they were part of the “commissionary”, University students in light blue collared t-shirts with white pants, others in either grey or dark blue collared t-shirts with white pants were all assembled in a pattern with the like colours together. The ones with regular clothes were assembled behind. I wonder how awesome the scene would have been from a terrace. In the middle stood the master singing songs and prayers that were interpreted to me by a kind volunteer. She was intrigued that a foreignor was attending the ceremony and that too from Buddha’s birth land! According to her and the literature I read later Jing Si ‘s philosophy stresses on compassion, being humble, living for “the now” and cleansing your heart first in order to purify the world.  

(Courtesy: tw.tzuchi.org)
Next to the master there were tables arranged on either side where ice Buddha statues enclosed in oval ice frames were placed on a slight pedestal with a vessels of water below and flowers places in front. At the end of the ceremony people were moving forward to take a token of a flower and touching some of the holy water and sprinkling some on themselves. Everything was so new for me and although I couldn’t understand what was being sung I felt peace wash over me. It was a surreal experience. 

What fascinated me was that the ceremony was organised in different locations at the same time taking the different time zones into consideration. It was taking place in three places in Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia among other countries. Through me the organisation is now hoping to make some inroads into India. The volunteer insisted on a TV cum print interview with some pictures. For all you know I could be on some Tai channel or magazine right now. 

1 comments

First impressions

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels: , ,
,

Taipei Airport
Very fancy, modeled like a 5-star hotel. Pre-paid mobile phone cards available and so are foreign exchange transactions performed. Maps, museum brochures, tourist information and important numbers also available. Pay-phones all over are money-sucking machines. Express bus, U-bus, High Speed Railway bus all available at the air-port. Also a special counter for tourists. 
My reaction: I am so going to love Taiwan!


Enter Taichung 
Mango and me finally meet the AIESEC-ers! We get a warm welcome from them and part ways.


Food
Their eating habits are way different from mine. They start with dessert, then eat their main course and then soup! So, its just the opposite fashion of what I am used too. I was only too happy to eat dessert first! Also they eat their meals much earlier then us, I am guessing that is because the sun rises at almost 5a.m. here.
So they eat their lunch at 12.30p.m. and dinner around 6.30 p.m. The food on the whole is extremely healthy and very tasty. They hardly use any "masalas" but everything has a distinctive flavour and aroma. I have been eating whatever vegetable and sea food put on my plate. Bamboo, tofu, rice, soup, fish/sea-food, meat is the staple meal for the well to do. And almost every second person seems to be well-to-do. That explains their high crime rate.


They love their tea. Herb tea or bubble tea they are sipping on it all the time. Thats also a post dinner ritual for them, considering they eat so early! I finally tasted hēi zhēnzhū nǎichá  thanks to Vicky- translated as black pearl milk tea, it is so yummy and soo addictive and apparently very fattening. More on "bubble tea" here.


Lots of posts coming up. Stay tuned.

6 comments

How much is a ringgit?

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels: ,
,

I had no fancy expectations but I had been given all sorts of advice by my agent, the boyfriend, friends, relatives. “Go early, you have to fill up forms and stuff” “Don’t do any exchange at the airport” “Be careful with your luggage, most thefts take place on the airport”… All points noted and mind on full alert. And here I am sitting at the Kuala Lumpur airport floor (under newspapers) already made my first traveling mistake. Mango, my travel-buddy and me decide to go out to spend the night. We deposit our baggage at a secured counter for 50 MYR and then we realise we are too far from everything, so we come back. Having already spent the money for the baggage I pinch Mango as many times as I feel like, as it was her bright idea.

1 comments

Happy Maharashtra Day: A drive to Marine Drive & Back

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels: ,
,




ps: Mum at Marine Drive


My parents and me left for a drive around 11p.m. to Marine Drive. Its a ritual, every time I come down to Bombay, we as a family have to drive up to the sea face, or else my trip back home feels somehow incomplete. Today for some reason, Marine Drive was more lighted than usual. Blobs of light that run across the stretch of water known as the Queens necklace seemed to be using so much voltage it was almost blinding. Everything was lighted up and pretty. There were fireworks even. It felt like Diwali.



That's Jazz By the Bay



Happy Maharashtra day to Mumbai.


Somehow it reminded me of the sleepless nights and unbearable afternoons in Hyderabad, when we had to bear the wrath of the heat with power cuts. I kept wondering that if Bombay was celebrating Maharashtra day tonight, how many cities were paying for it.

In spite of all these thoughts I couldn't help but feel awe at the arrangement of the light beamers or whatever they are called that were strategically placed at every 20 meters or so, facing the sky and sending out beams that met each other and lighted up a portion of the sky. It was just so beautiful. I couldn't stop myself from pointing out each beam to my Mum like a small child marveling at the beauty of an airplane in the sky. I couldn't get a very clear picture, but thats the best I could manage. (above text)

Laser designs with designs of Maharashtra and different images were being torched on a building and everything was so bright yet so beautiful. In all this glory my Mum pointed out the moon to me, I felt bad, all this fake illumination had overshadowed the beauty of the moon, it was a full moon covered by a film of mist. I immediately yearned to by the banks of the river in Rishikesh where the moon would be the only source of light. Sigh. For some strange reason my mind went back to the lessons Johnson provides in the Vanity of Human Wishes-which pointed out how we mistake something to give us happiness, which is only momentarily and miss out on the real joys of life by running after the material.









3 comments

Haji Ali Mosque

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels:
,


(image 2 courtesy: photos.ibibo.com/photo/2577574/haji-ali)
I finally made the much delayed trip to the Haji Ali mosque today with Narangee. Somehow I felt it came at the right time. This semester I had taken a course titled Islam offered by Prof Syed Sayeed from the culture department.

I carried a stole as my father insisted that I carry a duppata, and for some reason I chose to wear a kurta and a churidar. Not like it mattered.

As soon as I stepped out of my building, there was a light drizzle which barely lasted five minutes. The weather for the short trip was perfect, cloudy skies shinning down on us, a sweet breeze accompanying us and the sea was as beautiful as always as we walked down the path to the mosque which is situated off Worli.

Narangee spoke about how she didn't like the stalls that lead up to mosques and temples and how they spoil the whole experience for people. I told her about my paper on the veil, why modern women adopt it as they think it saves them from being objectified as sexual objects. Just conversation, we saved catching up on each others lives for breakfast.We were greeted with strange smells, goats, stalls, people and lots of green.
 We started off at 7.45a.m. and it was a pleasant visit, no crowds, no shoving, no haggling. We had to tread very carefully as they were cleaning the marble floors of the mosque. (check picture ) We deposited our shoes and entered in the ladies only

section which was 1/4th the space of the men's section. We said quick prayers, and ducked our heads to be blessed by the mullah.




We walked around the mosque, there were rooms for the clergies in one section of the mosque, toilets, people cooking, clothes drying. The view of the sea was marvelous, we went to different sections to take in the view.


Post that we decided to head to MacDonald's for breakfast at Sobo Central, which felt too posh to be a MacDee. Their breakfast variety was as good as non existant, their hot chocolate sucks but their egg and cheese muffins passes. Theobroma would have been just ideal, next time perhaps.






1 comments

Not so touristy spots

Posted by tumblingwords , Labels:
,


On the itinerary:
Nehru Zoological Park, Sudha Car Museum and Snow World. (Hyderabad)

The crew- two roommates, a boy they have never met before, a driver who has the gall to flick the Nikon D 60.

Our first stop was The Zoo cum sanctuary situated next to Mir Alam Tank.It was a long ride from Tarnaka which we fruitfully used to get ourselves acquainted with one another.

We were excited by the fact that they had White Tigers. The only good thing Arvind Adiga did by writing the book was to divert attention to save the white tiger campaign and probably also some funds. And he got the Man Booker prize. *sigh*

Walking around in the summer sun was not so bad after some ice-cream and good conversation. The entry is Rs 10 for adults and they have a train ride that takes you to a part of the zoo, which is another ten bucks. We ooh-ed and ah-ed at deers, leopards, elephants and pointed with squeaks at the giraffe. Aren't they just adorable? Finally our eyes rest of the White Tiger, it was magnificent, striped, looking at us fiercely and thats when we went-
Woohoo!



We took the Lion Safari and saw a Lion lying in the shade too lazy to bother looking at us. It was old and too damn comfortable sprawled in the shade of a large tree. We were lucky to spot a lioness but no tigers on our safari but I had already seen the white tiger on a cliff like structure surrounded by a water body that had fishes and turtles lounging in it. On the way out a little kid in the van points at an antelope and screams - "Look, camel!"

Post the safari we were back with our driver who looked grumpy as he had realised that the hidden camera was back with its rightful owner. He took us to our next stop - the car museum in Bahadapur. We were impressed by what we had read about it online. Only hand made car museum in the world. Guinness award for world's largest tricycle. There were cars in weird avatars. Burger, bed, cup, football...a tweety car! I don't think any of us wanted to be seen
riding any of those cars. But the tricycle was worth a glance.

After walking around in the heat for the entire day we were more than looking forward to the next stop. Snow World.

Snow for some reason is usually employed in Literature to portray gloom. For me it means sparkling, white and pure joy. I was tempted to slip some into my mouth. There are a number of reasons why I love snow. The cool breath on my skin, hands numbed due to the snowballs flying at each other after running a few steps. And you never sweat!

Snow World is located next to Tank Band (a place you must try driving by if you get the chance) at Hyderabad. Its 250 bucks for an hour which is pretty decent considering the amount I would have to spend if I had to take a trip to say the Himalayas. But Himachal is on the 'must visit places before I die list'.

Snow World has been well maintained and they have add-ons packages and eateries outside while you have to wait for your alloted time. For entertainment you could coax one of your friends to take the rodeo ride, while you relish liqueur chocolates bought from one of the little shops outside.

Before stepping in you have to deposit your mobile phones. Although you take a bag with you. They give you gloves, a jacket, gumboots and socks to put on. Be a smarty pants and take your own pair of socks, like the way I did. I kind of liked the whole look. Once the grand doors opened we all scampered in. Soon after began the snow flinging session.

For some reason instead of a snow man they had a man gorilla with man boobs. We covered him up with snow where we felt necessary.There was a snow ride which we went for next. There was a snow hotel serving coffee and tea in ice-cups for an extra charge of course. We settled for regular coffee and sneakily spiked it with some vodka we had in our resourceful bags. There were snowflakes in the air all of a sudden with the sound of a chimney. It was fun and we were freezing but the coffee vodka was helping. If you ever think of trying it, coffee-vodka actually tasted pretty darn good. The snow storm dissipated and suddenly there were disco lights and music blaring in the polar bear corner. We preferred dancing while we tried playing snow-football away from the herd.

On the whole we were glad we saw all three places. It was a day well spent, by the end of which three of us parted like we were childhood buddies.



4 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)