inna sounds indian

White Water Rafting at Rishikesh

2007-06-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

start

A Civilised Weekend at Gurgaon

2007-06-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

The Politically Correct Journey - McLeod Ganj

2007-06-26T03:01:00.000-07:00

First of all, apologies for this super super late update. In fact, I’m three weekends behind and I can’t believe that I have less than a month to the end of my internship here. At the risk of sounding cliché, time really flies! :S Anyway, time to move on with my update!

Three weekends ago, Vamsi + Arvinder + me went to McLeod Ganj (in case you’re wondering why the name, it was named after the governor during British occupation of India) to visit the Dalai Lama. We left work early on Friday so that we could reach the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal) by 8 pm. Even though it was an arduous 12-hours journey ahead, I wasn’t worried because we had paid for the most expensive ride at Rs 760 – a super deluxe Volvo coach with air-conditioner. We did have a small scare when it seemed that the AC wasn’t going to work (note the photo below)… We waited around in extreme darkness and heat and this Chinese lady, a fellow passenger, approached us.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for the first time in a long long time (or maybe ever), someone had COMPLIMENTED me on my Chinese. She said I spoke really well, with a tinge of China accent (??) and she was just so intrigued by it. She was even more wowed when Arvinder spoke a teeny bit of Chinese. Her name was Claire and she was from China, but she’d migrated to Canada two years ago. Claire was heading to Dharamsala (a bigger city near McLeod Ganj) to pay a visit to her master, another branch of Buddhist religion. Too bad we didn’t take any picture with her. The super deluxe coach turned out to be, well, a normal coach. You know, the type that you use for school excursion. I was half-expecting for a super posh coach with an attached toilet but by now, I should learn how to manage my expectations in India better. ;)

So the journey began at 9 pm and I thought it was pretty comfortable - the AC was working and I could fall asleep in no time. Unfortunately, Arvinder is an extremely light sleeper; she had to resort to stuffing cotton wools in her ears and covering her head in a blanket to block out the noise and the light. At this point of time, I should add that within an hour of the journey, the driver had played a Bollywood movie which turned out to be the ugliest, silliest and most exasperating movie ever! Even my fellow travellers, who have watched many Bollywood movies, had shared the same views. The lead actor was not handsome, the lead actress was annoying with her stage frights and there were no nice songs, dances or costumers. It was actually a huge relief when the bus stopped at a Dhaba (highway restaurant) for toilet break and dinner at 1230 am.

After supper, we were aghast to discover that the driver had chosen to resume the stupid movie. But sleepiness took over and after much tossing and turning and interruptions, we reached McLeod Ganj on Saturday morning 8 am.

The very first thing to be done upon arrival was to get our tickets back. But to our horror, the super deluxe AC bus back to Delhi was sold out! We had to settle for a deluxe bus with no AC on our return journey to Delhi. The ever reliable Vamsi was shuttling from one travel agent to the other and lo behold, he could managed to purchase the last 2 sleeper seats for us! (What are sleepers? You will know at the end) Then we made our way to Hotel Him Queen to put down our bags before truly exploring McLeod Ganj.

McLeod Ganj is considered as a hill station in India; a place where everyone heads to during summer to escape the heat. I was happy to be there because the weather was way cooler and more comfortable than the sweltering Delhi. What struck me about the place was the fact that it didn’t feel Indian. There was even a temple smack in the ‘town square’. Most of the faces I saw were either Tibetans (monks included) or Caucasian hippies. Tibetans look somewhat Oriental but generally they have darker skins with very rosy cheeks. On the other hand, I was very amused by the hippies I saw. They were dressed very shabbily with yoga pants and what-nots with multiple piercings or tattoos plus they looked as if they hadn’t washed their hair in a while. Definitely not your average tourists. (Even though I wonder if they thought they looked cool doing so or because they were truly immersed in Buddhism spiritualism) The place has this cool, relaxed vibe which I can’t put down in words.

With the absence of breakfast, we decided to grab a brunch at Snow Lion Inn Restaurant (snow lion is the symbol used for Tibetan national flag), recommended by LP for its Tibetan dishes. We ordered both steamed and fried momos (Tibetan dumplings), chicken thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup) and another very odd dish which I can’t recall. The steamed momos we had was rather similar to the Chinese shui jiao but later on I discovered that some steamed momos are very much like baos. I’d expected the fried momos to be similar to guo tie but they turned out to be like curry puffs with slightly thinner skins. The thukpa was rice noodles drenched in thick sauce and the last dish was like horfun mixed with many many things (a lousy description I know). The taste was not very Chinese but hey, it was not Indian either! So we lapped them up greedily. Yum yum.

What we noticed during our meal was the respect that the Tibetans had for their leader, the Dalai Lama. There was a huge display as shown below that reminds me of an altar. Supposedly when the Dalai Lama rides past in a car, people will stop whatever they’re doing and bow to the passing care as a sign of respect. At the cashier, there was also a wall full of FREE TIBET slogans and ornaments that you can’t help but to feel their desire to have their own country back again.

After a very satisfying meal, we explored more of McLeod Ganj. Roads are extremely narrow and definitely insufficient to accommodate to the influx of visitors. According to LP, the Indian government is reluctant to spend on infrastructure at McLeod Ganj because majority of the people who will benefit from it are not Indians. :S

We decided to exercise after the heavy meal by walking to Bhagsu, another part of the town which is infested with Israelites (I’ve no idea why!) to see a waterfall. It turned out to be a pretty long walk of nearly 30 minutes and by the time we got there, we’re so darn amused by this sight below. A swimming pool?! Passed off as a waterfall?! WTH! Feeling overwhelmed by the excessive sight of scantily-clad men (har har), we decided to make our way back to the hotel. This time round with an auto rickshaw.

PS: We found out in the evening thats there was indeed a waterfall which we’d missed. People were also allowed to enter the water and play inside. GAH!

Since Vamsi is significantly older than me, he gets tired easily. (Hehe to Vamsi) While he decided to take a nap, Arvinder and I decided to explore more of McLeod Ganj. We walked around, visited shops and made our way to the LP-recommended Nick’s Italian Kitchen for a relaxing tea time! All tables at the restaurant were offered amazing views of the mountains and valleys and we were perfectly contented to be there. We girls ordered near obscene amounts of soft drinks (because they were cold plus the place didn’t have ice) to quench our thirsts. When we read the menu, we were so excited when we saw Caesar salad (sidetrack – Indian cuisine have very little green leafy vegetables, despite being mostly vegetarian. The only non-curry vegetables we have are fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. We’re truly deprived of Chinese style vegetables or Western salads) that we immediately ordered the dish. But when it came, it was a pseudo-salad! The ‘Caesar salad’ was a mixture of chopped cucumber, tomatoes and carrots with balsamic vinegar. What a let-down! But we did have a great time talking and watching monks sit at the next table. I wish I’d taken a shot of them drinking Pepsi – it would be so cute.

After the tea session, we met up with Vamsi to finally make our way to visit the Dalai Lama at Tsuglagkhang Complex. Unfortunately, he was away in Australia. Not that it’s easy to meet him. Dalai Lama only makes appearances during special Buddhism classes or Tibetan events. There’s also a formal channel to request a meeting with him – one must have a very good reason and submit the request as early as possible (minimum of 6 months in advance). Inside the complex, there were small temples, classrooms, monastery, bookshop and museum. The museum came highly recommended by LP that documents the sufferings and hardship that Tibetans had to go through but it was closed for the weekend we were there. In front of the temples, there were several Tibetan believers doing special prayers – they did a sequence of bowing movements and lying flat on a long padded wooden board repeatedly. During our stay there for more than an hour, the same few people were still repeating the actions.

There were a lot of Tibetans in the complex. People praying the temple, attending classes, monks walking around and some were playing soccer with the children in the courtyard. I was at the courtyard by myself and I made friends with two really lovely Tibetan girls as shown below. Their names were Yishi and Bindi – both of them can speak Tibetan, Hindi and really good English. Yishi can also speak a bit of French as she’s a nurse who’s planning to go there. Both of them were born in India but their parents were among the pioneer batch of Tibetans who had followed Dalai Lama to settle down in McLeod Ganj.

Vamsi was hungry so we went to the café inside the complex and saw a cashier counter covered in foreign currencies (both SGD and Rupiah were there!) and even a photo of Richard Gere when he visited the exact same place. I was so amused when I saw my 1st Indonesian dish in India - Gado-gado cooked by a Tibetan chef in India. Talk about glo

Then Arvinder sneaked us up to her discovery of the day - the monks' SHOWER AREA (don’t you wonder why she went there?) because it was quiet and offered such great views. So we took more pictures and left as the gorgeous sun began to set.

Throughout the day, we were surrounded by many posters of a boy who was declared to be MISSING.

It turned out that he was touted to be Panchen Lama by the Tibetans (read HERE for a better understanding) . Supposedly, he was kidnapped from Tibet by the Chinese government in 1995 - at a mere age of 6 years old, he was the world’s youngest political prisoner. The twist is that the Chinese government has been parading a boy in China, whom they claim is the Panchen Lama. Heowever, the Tibetans in Tibet and McLeod and everywhere else insist that the China boy is not the real deal claiming that China has hidden the real boy. There were noticeboards (Inna kicks herself for not taking pics) and posters, asking people to keep asking about and looking for Panchen Lama. I suppose by writing this, I’m playing a part too.

Went to Nick’s Italian Kitchen (again!) for dinner and my handmade linguine al fungi was excellent. Okay it’s the my first Italian dish in India after a very very long time so I think my expectations have been adjusted accordingly (lower in case you don't know) but it was good! We had a nice and romantic candle-lit dinner and we were happy happy people.

On the way back to the hotel, we met some Americans who were on the same bus as us. They are Columbia law students on internship in Delhi as well! Together, we went to Jimmy’s Italian Kitchen (trying to compete with Nick’s?) for some live band music. It was hilarious. Hindi rock music which no one could understand and a middle-aged Caucasian lady singing along after that. There were no beers and we ended up having lemon teas, pepsi and warm chocolate milk shake. Ewwww. Wished I'd remembered to take pictures. After that we headed back to hotel for a good hot shower and an even better rest.

I was the first to wake up, for once, because I'd wanted to go to the local church for service. I woke up early to eat breakfast at Nick’s (visit number 3) for a hot pancake drizzled in thick honey sauce with hot chocolate and it was easily the best breakfast in India. I was there alone, with my good food and amazing view, enjoying the quiet time.

After the lovely breakfast, I met up with Arvinder and Vamsi at the bus terminal – they have decided to go to a nearby monastery so they took a bus while I decided to walk alone to the church. St. John In The Wilderness is a good 1-2 km away and when I walked, it felt like eternity. Rows and rows of trees with barely any cars (well, Vamsi and Arvinder rode past in a jeep and they waved) and motorcycles and only a small herd of cows to accompany me.

When I reached my destination, I had barely entered the compound when I was 'attacked' by this Indian family. They couldn’t speak English and they signaled to me that they wanted to take a "SNAP" with me. Sure I said. Woo! 15 continuous minutes of taking pictures with every single permutation and combination of the family members. They used up 1.5 roll of the film I think.

Armed with the barrage of shots (with me inside!), they went off grinning and waving happily. Here’s them!

I was so relieved to discover that I hadn’t missed the service. In fact, I was 1 hour early! So I took my time and walked around the compound to take pictures. There a monument for the old governor (imagine it was 1800s and this guy had been to India, Jamaica and China!) and a cemetery. The place was like a scene out of a movie - very serene and peaceful.

Suddenly I JUST had to answer the nature’s call. I panicked because I was "in the wilderness" after all (ha ha). I asked the church caretaker and he kindly gave me this old antique key and told me to look for a wooden shack outside. So I did - I had no choice. There I was, doing my business, in the midst of wilderness. It was freaking surreal. No pictures because I was too preoccupied with getting out of the place as soon as possible.

Anyway back to the service - a very modest and intimate service with a mixture of nationalities. We sang Catholic hymns without any instrument. This old sweet American lady gave a testimony about how she lost her passport in a nearby town and how it got returned to her safely – someone had dropped it at the church gate! An African lady conducted the service – it was about David and his faith. Great feeling to be back because I'd not attended any church service while I’m in India. Every weekend it’s time to travel around and some places have no church! :S

At the end of the service, I got to know this Sweden girl called Lina...

and an American-born Japanese called Yushi.. He wishes to be acknowledged in this entry as the "really cool and SINGLE Japanese American guy". Well, he got his wish! We decided to have lunch together; Japanese food in fact! I was so excited and after the walk there, disappointed because the joint was closed on Sundays. No Japanese? No Nippon?! SOB. But I did buy some cakes from Chocolate Log because LP said they sold good cakes. Both Yushi and me ended up in Nick’s Kitchen (for the FOURTH time!) where we talked endlessly. We covered topics ranging from God, India, bahasa Indonesia, traveling experiences, family to everything else.

Once upon a time, Yushi was just another ABJ with the typical crew haircut until one day, after earning enough money (from all those summer stints and a job after college graduation), he decided to explore the world. By the time I met him, it was his 13th month away from home and his hair has developed into a pretty samurai-esque ponytail. ;) He'd covered China, Nepal, Tibet, Mongol, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and some others which I can't recall. For the past month, Yushi has been volunteering his time to teach English and share the Christianity values to the local Tibetan youths. I highly recommend his blog (http://www.xanga.com/yushim) to offer you a different Indian experience from mine.

God bless you Yushi! :)

Initially after the very long lunch, he’d wanted to bring me to meet his local Tibetan friends. I was so excited at the prospect! We walked all the way to their apartment to discover that they were gone… It was cute to find out that a Korean girl was living next door alone as she’s studying Buddhism at McLeod – a reminisce of my Korean neighbours back in Hangzhou.

In the end, two of us did the Tibetan pilgrimage walk that surrounds the Dalai Lama’s house in a clockwise direction. Was totally surprised because I didn’t expect it to be so gorgeous with the prayer stones and prayer flags! Somewhere near the end, we found a resting hut where I unpacked my slice of cake to be devoured while we had another round of long conversations. Lovely lovely lovely. :D We went shopping for a little while when we met a bunch of Taiwanese tourists who had no idea what Yushi was because he looked Japanese but is able to converse in perfect English and VERY DECENT chinese. Oh you put me to shame dude! ;) Plus we ended off with a session at the Internet cafe at McLeod - the fastest connection in India I've ever experience. Weird eh?

My last sunset at McLeod Ganj .....

And we ended off with the nightmare journey of my entire life. At first I felt so good about securing the last two sleepers in our ‘deluxe’ bus but nOoOoOoOo…. Both Arvinder and I had to share a space that was smaller than a single bed and it was the last one at the back of the bus! Every bump that the bus drove past was first experienced by my feet, then calves, then knees, then bum, then back, then neck and last head. It was a crazy bumpy ride and there were several times when we were launched off the ‘bed’! Yes, a few milliseconds of flying in the air! I had to lie down most of the time because I was *this* close to having motion sickness. The people with usual chairs under the sleepers didn’t fare much better – they were suffocating. By the time we reached Delhi on Monday morning, we were so damn tired but we braved the fatigue to go to work. Needless to say, I went home early and slept for 10 hours that night. Oh deluxe bus my arse!

Agra Adventure

2007-06-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

From: Inna CHANDIKA
Sent: Fri 6/8/2007 17:59
Subject: Agra Adventure!

Hello my dear avid readers (come on indulge me!),

I can’t believe that it’s already Friday! Apologies for the delay in this update, I was working - for once. Haha. Once again, the weekend is around the corner and I’m all geared up to go up to the mountains. Woot! The June weather in Delhi has been scorching; every day the temperature hits 40 over deg. Stepping out of the house feels like entering a giant microwave. Going to a mountainous area would be a very welcomed change in temperature. But let’s pause there and get down to the crux of this letter – Inna’s Agra Adventure!

Oh yeah, a short summary of last week to mention. Workdays were boring, more waiting etc etc and nothing worth mentioning here. Then Friday came and both Arvinder and I have a girls’ night out because Vamsi had a date. –wink wink nudge nudge Vamsi- The girls went down to Connaught Place to have our dinner at another Lonely Planet (henceforth it shall be referred to as “LP”) spot called United Coffee House. The place has an ‘old’ feeling – LP described it as “old-world charm” – warm yellow lighting, rather odd wall decoration and waiters in suits. Dinner was obviously MEAT and to be precise, Tandoori Mix Platter which consists of chicken, fish and mutton. Ooooohhhhh yeah! Not to be forgotten, the accompanying butter and garlic naan. Absence of any food photographs was caused by excessive hungriness on our part. Once the MEAT was presented before our very eyes, all thoughts of documenting the food flew out of the window. It was very very very good. Not to mention that the waiter was kind enough to give me a whole mountain of mouth fresheners when he saw me taking more than 1 to put inside my bag. Heh shameless I know.

Saturday arrived and I had to come for work which sucked. But Arvinder and I left work early to go shopping – I had to buy my Indian costume remember? ;) After that we met up with Bertrand for a good dose of caffeine at a local coffee joint (note that unlike China, Starbucks has yet to invade India) before zipping off to Khan market to meet the Tata Chem interns which includes Ben and Cipto! These two souls have been spending their time in Babrala, a rather remote part of the country where fertiliser is manufactured. They went raving mad at shopping because they’ve been deprived of it thus far. Plus another round of Khan Chacha Kebab (thanks to Aman again! It’s our 3rd time already and I’ve made friends with the owner… Haha) Saturday’s dinner was at another LP spot, Chona’s, where we went gaga over burgers and pastas. Hmmm.

Then it was Sunday, when the Agra Adventure began. I undertook substantial efforts in making myself look more local; copious amount of eyeliner around my eyes, chandelier earrings, rattan slippers and of course, my Indian outfit. All can be seen in their full glory in subsequent photos.

Initially we’d wanted to take an auto straight to the train station but there was none to be found! So we took a cycle rickshaw.....

to the metro station (the train took so BLOODY long to arrive!) and throughout our metro journey, we kept glancing at our watches nervously because we were running late.

Once we arrived at our station, three of us sprinted all the way to the exit (I hated the steps! UGH!) to hail an auto to bring us to the train station.

Unfortunately, autos are not very well-known for their speeds but at least we got to our destination. I should have taken shots of the packed train station but obviously there was no time for it because once again, we were dashing into the station (Many many steps..) and PHEW, we were panting by the time we met the Tata Chem people in the train.

For our train trip to Agra, we bought the cheap class of Taj Express. It was a mere Rs 80 (around SGD 3)! There was no air-con (only fans), an unidentifiable lingering smell in the air and a crawling bug. Rather reminiscent of the Mumbai metro. Hmm. After 2.5 hours of journey (I was sleeping most of the time because as some of you know, I can sleep through anything), we arrived in Agra. At the station, we hired a van for our 1st stop – Agra Fort.

When the Agra Fort came into view, some of us were exclaiming about how similar it looked to the Red Fort in Delhi. Nevertheless, we alighted and confidently bought our entrance tickets for locals (locals pay Rs 20 while foreigners pay Rs 300) and we successfully walked past the guards……NOT!

A security guard stopped the whole bunch of us (one way or another, we ended up walking as a group even though we were making a conscious effort to distance ourselves) and asked me “Are you local?” My heartbeat shot through the roof in an instant as I tried to remain nonchalant and answered yes. He went on to ask which part and without hesitation, I said Sikkim. Then he went on to ask where in Sikkim and I answered back Gangtok (I’d done my Wikipedia research! But at this point of time, I was wondering how come I was the only being interrogated…). The guard wouldn’t relent and asked in Hindi which road and which apartment. Since I don’t understand Hindi, I tried my best to act normal while Arvinder tried to explain to the guard that we were a bunch of MBA students from different parts of India on an internship in Delhi.

So at this point of time, I took out my NDPL temporary ID card, which is a mere piece of paper with the company’s logo and my photo on it, to show it to the guard. The guard took my paper and asked his supervisor (who had joined us because I think we’d caused quite a ruckus by then) about it – the latter claimed that it wasn’t a positive ID of my nationality because it wasn’t stated on the paper. At this point of time, Arvinder had taken out her paper as well, to further strengthen my case. When she passed the paper to the guard, it was folded into two. As he unfolded the paper, guess what was lodged inside……..?

A copy of Arvinder’s passport! Hahahahahaha. We were so BUSTED! At this point of time, the guys were using every ounce of self-control to stop themselves from bursting into laughter. Luckily, the guard just gave us menacing glares as he told us to buy the proper entrance ticket. So we (minus Vamsi since he walked past the guard successfully, by virtue of being a true blue Indian) walked back to the gate to discuss whether we still wanted to enter the Agra Fort. In the end, only Wiryono bought the ticket (as a newcomer, it was his 1st Indian tourist spot!) as the rest of us peddled our old tickets at the gate. During the process, we made friends with the local sellers who were at the gate as well. They were tremendously kind; they sincerely helped us in selling the tickets. After getting rid of the tickets (at full price nonetheless), Arvinder, Kang Wei, Chang Qi and me sat down at a nearby drink stall and ordered Coke. We played bridge and daidi (or however you spell it) to pass the time. Meanwhile, I’d passed my camera to Vamsi to take shots of the Agra Fort – the place where we nearly became criminals. Haha.

Hereby I present to you the pictures of Agra Fort... This was where the king who built Taj Mahal locked up by his son, presumably because the Taj Mahal had cost too much to built. The king could only saw the Taj Mahal from afar, in the comforts of his prison as shown below.

Next, we proceeded to Prakash (recommended by LP – I love LP!) and had a really pleasant lunch. Because Vamsi has been such an angel for arranging this trip for us, we bought him lunch! Continue to be an angel Vamsi. ;) Apologies for lack of pictures once again, we were so hungry that no one bothered with camera. Biryani, tandoori, roast chicken, paneer, lassi and buttermilk. Yum yum yum.

Upon finishing our lunch, the driver brought us to these local shops where we were “not obligated to purchase anything – our pleasure to show you what Agra has”. The shops range from jewellery to marble art. (Honlyn – it’s like what happened in Turkey and Bangkok!) Since I’m not a big fan of such activities, I stayed in the car after the first stop.

Luckily, the driver brought us to what we came for – the one and only Taj Mahal. I chose to live up to the saying of ‘once bitten, twice shy’ and paid Rs 750 to enter the site as a foreigner. Sob to lost money. Only Arvinder managed to pass off as a local, all thanks to her Indian forefathers. Haha. We also hired a local guide, just because we thought he was so brave for wearing a hot pink shirt. Haha.

I thought it was utterly cool how one couldn’t see the Taj Mahal immediately upon entry. First of all, there’s the Gateway. The 22 white domes on top represents the 22 years it took to complete Taj Mahal.

Only after I walked into the gateway, suddenly from a distance – I caught a glimpse of Taj Mahal framed in the doorway.

I continued walking to the end of the doorway and the grandeur of the place hit me in the face. It was simply breathtaking – even from 200 metres away. We went berserk with the photo-taking. Non-stop snapping for a good 15 minutes. If the worth of our trip was measured by the number of photos we take, I think we’d struck gold with this session alone. A visual feast ahead.

Then we proceeded to the interior of Taj Mahal where shoes and cameras weren’t allowed.

Our guide hired another guide to explain about the intricacies of the place. The flower patterns on the wall are not painted; they are inlaid precious stones from different parts of the world, depending on its colour. Then the guide-guide shone torchlight on the wall and the most amazing thing happened – the pattern lit up!

At that point of time, I wished that I was visiting Taj Mahal during full moon… The opportunity is only available for 4 days in a month (usually reserved for VIPs of India government). There was also the replica of the tomb as the real deal is 30 feet below the ground. Once upon a time, one of the world’s biggest diamonds had adorned the tomb…. until the British came along and brought it back to their museum in London up till today. No offence to the Brits in this mailing list! ;)

Union Jack forever!

Long live the Queen!

Done with the interior, we explored Taj Mahal’s exterior. The four pillars of Taj Mahal are not perpendicular to the ground! They lean outwards such that in case of an earthquake (highly unlikely as Agra was chosen at the very beginning because it never has an earthquake), they would fall away from the main building itself!

Guess how many flat surfaces does this pillar have? 8? Nah!

It has only four! What a crazy optical illusion to be incorporated in the building.

Similarly, the Arabic carvings were made in such a way that the upper part is bigger than the lower part but when you look at them in entirety, the carvings would be of the same size! Amazing.

We chilled out at the open area as we waited for the sun to set. We even got a shot of us playing bridge (waiting to get it..)! A game of bridge at Taj Mahal! How awesome is that? We also took shots of Chang Qi running across the area, waving my shawl around. It was a feeble attempt at shooting a Bollywood scene. Many onlookers were laughing as well. Haha.

When the sun began to set, Taj Mahal slowly turned golden yellow and once again, we launched into another snapping frenzy. Alas, the clouds were blocking the sun and we didn’t manage to see Taj Mahal turn red. But we were more than satisfied. We took many great shots and the weather was not too hot.

At this point of time I would like to highlight to all of you that Taj Mahal might no longer be one of the 7 Wonders of The World in the near future. There’s currently a global voting race for the new 7 Wonders (http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php) whereby only the Egyptian pyramid is confirmed and the remaining 6 slots are being contested by 20 landmarks across the world. Unfortunately, Taj Mahal is lagging behind despite India’s population of 1 billion (the government is trying to get people to vote!). In the new list, the Americans and French people are trying to pass off the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower as the new 7 Wonders. No offence, but they definitely do not deserve to be in the list when they are competing against Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China etc. So when you have the time, go ahead and pick your own 7 Wonders of the World (just as long as Liberty and Eiffel are not included!). You have 28 days left to vote!

Arvinder's attempt at creating thought bubbles for me.

Anyway, back to our Agra Adventure, we bid Taj Mahal farewell and took the long way round to reach our car. We walked past narrow alleys and aside from the usual cows, there were CAMELS as well. It all happened so fast that no one managed to take a shot of the camels. :(

When we were looking for our car to head back to the train station, we were surprised to discover that it had morphed from a van into a sedan! I felt so cheated. Gah! Imagine 7 adults squeezing into a Tata Indica where Chang Qi had a very intimate drive with the gear stick. I shan’t disclose further information because he threatened to kill me if I do. Haha. Once we reached the station, we made time for the Comesum Food Plaza (it’s like a mini foodcourt) to grab some bites. We had a mini scare there when there was a sudden blackout. Kang Wei immediately shouted out for me to grab all the bags around us in case anyone tried to steal them in the midst of the darkness. Luckily no one did! ;)

The train came late for 30 mins but when we saw the train Shatabdi Express, we were wowed. It had cost us Rs 400 each but it was well worth it after such a tiring day! Firstly, there was air-con! Secondly, the seats were comfortable, exactly like those in airplanes with folded tables. Thirdly, we were given free bottles of mineral water. Fourthly, dinner served was GOOD (there was MEAT!);

we had huge rotis that were bigger than our faces.

So we arrived at New Delhi Station at 11 pm. The Tata Chem guys happily hopped into their pre-arranged cab while the NDPL fellows queued for an auto to bring us home. Our initial plan was to catch the metro home but since the train was late, we had missed the last train home. We thought it was going to be easy – it turned out to be a very painful hour ahead.

To maintain ‘order’ and prevent auto drivers from cheating passengers, there was a pre-paid transport booth where one paid in advance and received a proof of payment. After that, one must hunt down for a traffic constable who would assign an auto and sign the payment proof to be passed to the auto driver.

What happened to us:

There was a long queue at the booth and there were people yelling at the front because they couldn’t get an auto despite paying (the whole point of pre-paid is that you’re guaranteed a vehicle) We only got our ticket after 20 minutes or so.
We played the Indian version of “Where’s Wally (or Waldo if you’re an American)?” – except that everything was dark (instead of colourful) and the constable whom we were hunting for was wearing dark brown (instead of the familiar red-white stripes) – for another 10 minutes.
By this time, there were very little autos left and there were more than 10 people tailing the constable around, hoping for an auto. We were tailing him around as well. When the constable came across an empty auto, he would puncture the tyres as a form of punishment (it was forbidden to park an auto there and not pick up passengers). Vamsi had to fight for the constable’s attention. Only after 30 minutes, we found an auto driver who was forced to fetch us home. He had done so very unwillingly. Oh the frustration of Indian transport system!

By the time we reached home, it was already Monday 1230 am! We rushed to our respective rooms to take shower and sleep. That’s all right? NO…… While Arvinder and Vamsi were inside the bathrooms, there was a BLACKOUT. Major blackout. It was another 15 mins before we solved the problem by waking the caretaker up in the middle of the night.

And that was…. the end of my Agra Adventure. Tiring eh?

Will be heading McLeod Ganj tonight – a 12 hour bus ride. Hope I’ll be able to meet up and chill with Dalai Lama. ;)

Am really looking forward to the cool weather! Take care loves!

in His love and mine,
Inna

PS: drop me an email to tell me how you are! :S

.

update number two!

2007-05-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

From: Inna CHANDIKA
Sent: Thu 5/31/2007 16:38

Hello all,

It’s been officially a week of me in the office now and BAM!, the reality sinks in. I have deadlines to meet to make sure that I can finish my project on time. Unfortunately (or not), my project requires interviewing a lot of the employers about their work etc. Maybe it’s the combination of my intern status (intern usually means just-ignore-me-I-will-be gone-soon-anyway) and language barrier and them being genuinely busy – but the responses I’ve been receiving so far is less than stellar. One more day and I’ll be following the previous intern’s advice on sitting across the person whom I want to interview until he responds. Let’s see how this goes tomorrow. For now, I’ve been resorting to doing online research for the 2^nd stage of my project. Nearly all the interns seem to be of the opinion that it’s a massive waiting game. Patience wins.

Last week, I also discovered how easy it was to make me happy in India. Give me MEAT! I don’t think I can be a vegetarian after all. The guesthouse where I stayed only cooks vegetarian and the closest thing I came to eating non-vegetarian was a dish of Egg Masala. I was craving for MEAT! Haha so last Wednesday, we decided to go out to a nearby restaurant for MEAT. All we had there was rice and two MEAT dishes (of course we refused to order vegetarian dishes!). I think I went to sleep smiling that night. Haha.

Also, there’s an Indian sweet shop nearby my place. We aim to try every single piece of sweet available in that shop (as shown below) before we fly home. Yum yum yum. It’s painfully obvious that I’m not going to lose any weight while I’m here unless I get food-poisoning aka Delhi Belly and TOUCH WOOD, I’m not going to get any. Haha.

Moving on – I had a blast over the weekends! To the extent that since Monday, I’ve been looking forward to the weekends. On Friday night, the NDPL interns, which includes me, went down to Old Delhi (yes, the opposite of New Delhi silly!) for a dinner at Chow Bizarre, as recommended by Lonely Planet (easily the most revered book during the journey so far – the eating spots never disappoint even though they put a strain on our very humble budgets).

We dressed up a bit to meet up with the Tata Chemical interns who were also based in Delhi. It was surreal to be nicely dressed, sitting in an auto-rickshaw (open window and no air-con), navigating through the miniscule alleys of Old Delhi with a sea of people walking at the sides, humongous trucks coming from the opposite direction, cows strolling so close you could smack their butts and the ‘melodious’ horns to complete the atmosphere.

The restaurant was located in an old-school Hotel Broadway and it was sooooooooooo gorgeous and sooooooooooo eclectic.

Chor Bizarre means “Thief Market” and everything they got in the restaurant did not match because well, they were bought from the thieves. Haha.

Our table was easily the coolest in the joint – a converted four-post bed, complete with the canopy of curtains hanging down.

Everything was so old-school, so warped back in time. At the corner, there was a REAL vintage car that had been converted into a table for the buffet spread.

The Sharabi Kababi Tikka Masala we had was crazily delicious and the 5 of us had such a good time eating (there was MEAT!!!), drinking (India’s own Kingfisher beer which is very nice, even for a non-beer fan like me) and talking. A great way to end the working week.

Then Saturday came and obviously we went out! This time it was the heart of New Delhi or Connaught Place. We had a grand plan of grabbing lunch at another joint mentioned in Lonely Planet but at the same time, we had a Bollywood show to watch. The latter won and we ended up eating KFC (yes to more meat!). Poor Bert nearly couldn’t join me for lunch because his driver was lost. Haha. My 2^nd Bollywood movie is called Shootout At Lokhandwala – an action movie based on “true rumours” (???!! look at the poster below) of a Mumbai shootout in early 90s between the local police and some underworld dudes.

I enjoyed this movie more than my 1^st one, despite its rather violent content. The bad guys would break out into a song and dance, complete with hip gyrates and “orgasmic expressions” as I quote a fellow intern called CHANG QI. I can’t wait for my next Bollywood flick even though I have to resort to guessing the plot due to the absence of any English subtitles. ;) During the show’s intermission, we got to know some Singaporeans who sat just in the row after us (they heard our Singlish conversations). They had been in India for a month, trekking all over the place – they were super tanned and toned, which is something I’ll never be. :P How small is this world!

After the show, we visited Wenger’s, a legendary bakery as Lonely Planet claimed, where we bought dessert for our dinner party at the dwelling of Tata Chem’s interns.

Then the Bharti interns had to scoot off to their palace in Gurgaon...

Next we proceeded to Khan Market, Delhi’s own Holland Village. The atmosphere and the vibe was uncannily similar and it made me miss the tea sets (oh scones, glorious scones with cream, butter and jam) at Foster’s Café. Found out that Bush, Clinton and some other big shots dropped by Khan Market when they came to Delhi. Bought my very first Indian clothing at fabindia – think Island Shop but much cheaper! J

For dinner, we bought Khan Chacha Kabab (thank you Aman for introducing us to this!!!) where all the kababs filled with mutton sheesh or tikka, chicken tikka are superb. Slurp. To complete the meal, we proceeded to buy some beer (but of course!). The liquor shop was scary – people (okay, men - the only girls there were Arvinder and I and we kept receiving stares) were streaming in and out non-stop as bottles were flying off the shelves. A guard was seated right in front of the entrance; every person who walked out would be examined (a.k.a groped) to ensure that he hadn’t stolen anything.

Armed with kababs and beers, we were ready to party! To cut a long story short, we ate, we drank and we talked until it was time to leave before we missed the metro. But at the garden of the apartment, there was a big party in full swing! I was sorely tempted to sing out a birthday song from the balcony so that we would be invited to the buffet also. ;)

Alas, we had to rush for the metro because the last train is at 10 pm. We did catch a commotion outside the gate though. A group of the security guards was surrounding this fellow in suit who was carrying a briefcase – they were bombarding him with questions about what he was doing there etc as one of the guards held on to his wrist. The fellow looked like he stepped out of the 70s – big wavy hair, thick moustache and aviator sunnies. Haha once again, I was tempted to stay to watch how the scene would unfold but we couldn’t afford to miss the train (Delhi's new metro which is so much like MRT in Singapore as shown below). Sob. The Tata Chem interns decided to stay over at our place in North Delhi because they had wanted to experience the cycle rickshaws and cows (they got their wish!) and we played cards until the wee of the night.

Sunday came and we had rented a cab to bring us around Delhi for the entire day. We visited the Red Fort

Akshardham Temple (no cameras allowed inside this one so I cheated by googling this)

Lotus Temple

At first I thought that this was a Hindu temple - but it turned out to be a Baha'i temple. I've never heard of this religion before, which is supposedly very global and recognized by the UN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1'%C3%AD_Faith. I met this Malaysian Chindian girl who was there to volunteer at the temple. Hmm.

Qutb Minar

There was an iron ore pillar which did not rust over centuries - it's up to today, no one can figure out what was the alloy composite used. Kang Wei stupidly called it stainless steel... -rolls eyes- I've yet to get pictures. ;)

and Sarojini Market.

Sorry no pictures because we were too busy shopping. We found really gorgeous stuff like a BRAND NEW WITH TAG ripcurl top for a magnificent Rs 25 (SGD 0.90!!!), a victoria's secrets dress for SGD 9 and other things. That visit is only the first of many to come I tell you.

The most exciting part of the trip was trying to passing ourselves as local Indians. Hahahaha yes – I passed even though I’m so fair! I purposely wore an Indian top and tied my hair in a low ponytail that day. At these places, locals only have to pay Rs 10 per entrance while foreigners, between Rs 100-250. Being the cheapskates we are, we refuse to do so! Our modus operandi is always the same – Vamsi or Arvinder would buy the tickets, all the Chinese fellows to wear our sunnies, walk past the guards like we’re locals who obviously knew what we were doing. Changqi was stopped once and the guard asked “which part of India are you from?” and without skipping a beat, Changqi calmly answered “Sikkim” which was readily accepted. (To check where on earth is this place – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim)

Prior to coming here, I had no idea that India has such an ethnic diversity. Every day, I would see Chinese or Cambodian or Thai or European or Middle-Eastern-looking people who turned out to be local Indians. Amazing indeed. It’s not uncommon for Indians from different parts of the country to not being able to communicate with each other – which makes it rather easy for us to pass off as Sikkim people who can’t speak Hindi. x) The greatest challenge of all would be the trip to Agra this coming weekend where Taj Mahal is. Locals pay Rs 20 while foreigners have to pay Rs 750! The guards there are much stricter. Between now and then – I’m going to try to Indianize myself by tanning and wearing more eyeliner. Haha. Plus to make more convincing – we will be tourists from Nagaland this time round (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaland). Note that the official state language there is actually English and Christianity is the majority religion. Sounds good eh? :)

This is Miss Nagaland in case you're wondering how the Indians in Nagaland look like.

And that’s all for now. I didn’t send any photos through email because I would have maxed out your inbox capacity. I posted up all the shots taken at http://innainindia.blogspot.com/ Please tag or comment so that I know who actually reads my crap haha and enjoy the Bollywood video alright? J

In His love and mine,

Inna

PS: SORRY for those individual emails I’ve yet to reply! Soon soon!

PPS: We're ordering NON-VEG pizza from domino pizza tonight! WHOOPEE!

1st mass e-mail update

2007-05-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

From: Inna CHANDIKA
Sent: Sat 5/19/2007 6:02 PM
Subject: inna in india!

hello hello,
just a short mass-update for everyone.

i'm finally in delhi now and i'm melting because the temperature is over 40 deg.

job wise -
i'm working for North Delhi Power Ltd - a joint venture between tata power and delhi govt.
my place is in the suburbs, near delhi university so the crowd is actually pretty mild cos they are mostly students. today was my 1st day of work and it was nothing exciting (oh it has aircons haha). i'm supposed to do a project connected with management of treasury but the exact technical details will only be known later on monday.

everything else-
i'm staying at the company's guesthouse which is decent. it comes with aircon, attached bathroom and chef. haha but it's nothing to shout abt. the people who got the best deal this time round are the tata motors people - they are being put up in hotels and really nice guesthses in center of mumbai. but it's hard to say all these when i can't show photos, maybe next time. (i'm in a nearby internet cafe which is rather run-down and somewhat dubious haha).

i have 2 intern mates with me so it's great. arvinder - an smu girl and vamsi - a mba student from nus (btw he is active in the master students' circuit of international case competitions). both speak hindi so i've had a breezy time. i've picked up hindi phrases every now and then and i'm turning out to be pretty darn good in it that maybe i should have been born an indian. he he he he.

arvinder/inna/vamsi

food so far has been good - no food poisoning (thank you for the concern) despite eating street snacks. not bored of indian food yet. there've been cases of lost money and camera. the weird thing is that for both cases, the unfortunate girls were with me. :S

pav bhaji in mumbai. hmmm. a lonely planet spot.

with vivek at pune. my first street food! indian burger. :D

delhi is my third indian city after mumbai and pune - i haven't seen much so i can't say much except that it's HOT. i'd loved mumbai tho. spent quite a lot of time exploring spots mentioned in lonely planet. i've even watched a bollywood movie in a theatre in mumbai. hahaha all the shows here begin with a singing session of the national anthem as the flag is shown on the screen. and a 15-min intermission in the middle of the show. it's cute la. haha. i've taken train in mumbai (not during peak hours) and managed to get some seats in the main carriage instead of the ladies one. and oh contrary to popular belief, i haven't actually encountered major air pollution problems. i sure hope it hasn't been the case of my nose being desensitized. hahahaha.

the amazing taj hotel in mumbai.

a mosque at crawford market, mumbai.

my 1st hindi movie in india! :]

lots more time in india ahead! i hope i' be able to send out photos from the office or sth. do reply me with your news. :] for those of you who know, i'm meeting aman tmr in delhi and well, i'll be having a lot of time left to spend with bert. hahaha. email me if you want anything from india as well.

till then - here is my phone no in india +91 9871 564 462.

in His love and mine,
inna :)

ps: i heart marine drive!

TMTC at Pune!

2007-05-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

the massive SMU jump at Tata Management Training Centre, Pune, India.

here comes INDIA!

2007-05-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

am in pune now but to ensure that everything is in a nice and orderly manner - here's a short recap of what has been going on!

day 0: group check-in at the counter with the rest. was rather worried that i might have been too enthusiastic in packing. haha but in the end, nearly everyone else had brought huge ass luggages. lucky i had the small black luggage - my big one was 32 kg (!!!) cheers to group check-in once again. lunch at ajisen with mom before flying off to bangkok for a transit. had some thai bahts with me and i ended up buying something at the airport. ;) peiling borrowed money to get herself a lipbalm (which ended up to be a balm stick - which i ended up using for myself for my aching shoulder). was stopped at the check-in point where the security personnel confiscated my penknife. i completely forgot that it was there! and to think that singapore immigration had missed it. hmm. played bridge even on the plane to mumbai. thai airways was rather disappointing! no personal TVs but thank goodnesss - i had my dearest lappie and i managed to watch 2 episodes of ugly betty. whee tv addict.

day 1: arrived in mumbai - local time was 930 pm. as we walked to the immigration counter, a cockroach dashed across our path. it was like a big welcome sign to india. haha. nothing eventful in the immigration queue - just that peiling and i were completely helpless when it came to our own luggages. arrived at the carpark with our crazy luggages and ah! my gigantic luggage was lifted ON TOP OF THE CAR. as seen here. haha.

oh and while they worked hard at lifting our luggages - peiling and i took it upon ourselves to take a picture. :] cheers to over 30kg luggage club!

then i had my 1st taste of indian traffic. definitely more reckless than jakarta - less finesse and grace. hahaha. crazy horn sounds (i heard horns are the most popular car accessories in india), an alarming number of people sleeping along the streets with empty cabs parked in concentrations everywhere. reached YMCA and the place was rather.... old. haha but it was liveable. washed up and packed for the following day's 5am bus ride to pune.