Phuket with the boys

There's really nothing much I can say about this trip. It was 4 days of nearly the same routine, beginning with an adventure I don't need to write about coz I will never forget it, and because I may not really want ppl reading about the things that happened..

The rest of the 3 days were about starting the day with booze, siting by the beach and eating till the sun went down, house party till late night, and then clubs till the morning!

On the 3rd night, when Noel was leaving, we even stayed up till the sun came up! That was insane! So after that, we only avoided the club portion on the 4th night as it was just overkill by then. 

So barring this routine, it was a beautiful place we stayed in (Andaman Beach Suites Hotel) coz it was 2 rooms next to each other connected internally. Both with big balconies giving us a view if the beach. 

I definitely felt it was pricey given the cheaper options we had, but it indeed was a neat place to be in. 

For food we tried all of the usual crab, lobster, shrimp, and even squid for Bala and chicken for Noel, in red sauce, green sauce, butter garlic (not recommended at all in SEA) a new find of tamarind sauce which went brilliantly with shrimp that we had at The Beach restaurant that was recommended to us by a cabbie I asked on the street, and finally the chilly paste that I always wanted to have with crab in SEA, which we finally got at a classy restaurant we stepped into for a while and had the spiciest and tastiest chilly crab ever!

Among drinks, Alabama Slammer and Slam Dunk that Noel and I got at HRC on the first day we landed, which was made using a base drink called Southern Comfort, was seriously amazing!

Apart from these, we spoke and spoke so much that at some points I was almost getting a headache with the jabbering, but I guess that's the trip you make with these boys. 

One of the conversations we had were the qualities we like and dislike among the rest, and I had to capture this one down:

Noel

+ charming, chill, fun

- Dumb, full of himself, never serious

Duma

+ introspection, people organisation

- Too tensed, esp money. Don't know myself, just do for others 

Muni 

+ clarity, passionate

- Boring, doesn't relate to others 

Bala

+ well read, thought process

- Callous disregard for himself, bad to hang out with when drunk

We randomly rated Noel although he wasn't around during this discussion given it happened on the last day, that's why he has 3 parameters while rest of us have only 2. 

Then at one point on the way back when Bala found bottled Jack and Coke, we came up with some of the dandiest things HR and Senior Management come up with: 

* Cross Functional Learning - we hired too many people in the wrong roles, and now need to move them around to balance the demand supply imbalance 

* Meaty Roles - we want you to do the job of 2 ppl as we can't afford to pay that much 

* Building Capability - we have no clue what we are doing right now 

* Job Empowerment - pls feel free to take your decisions, since as senior leadership, we cannot be bothered by it

* Stakeholder Engagement - we have been operating in mute till now, and realised there are ppl that we need to speak to now 

Some of the legendary dialogues spoken were:

* Duma: Muni, I know there is something really smart you are going to say to make me feel stupid, but I just don't want to hear it right now so pls shut up

Muni: Dude, you're phone is getting wet in the rain

* Bala: Noel orders girls and food the same way. You, you, you, on the table!

Some of the things we figured about each other:

Bala: Really worried about hurting ppl nowadays, and very upset about having screed up with Shilpa

Muni: Has made some amazing travels - Maglev, Aurora Borealis, Terracotta Warriors, and South America shortly, but remains a boring story teller to it

Noel: Continues to play with fire, while freezing at the most crucial times

Me: Have the lowest heart rate that we checked on Bala's phone, and being the only one in the group whose life seems to have gotten worse from the last time we all met. 

 

So that was about it on the trip. I kept myself entertained with the movies during the to and fro journey on Thai Air, watching Pompeii, Divergent, Chef and Bad Neighbours, and enough entertainment with the boys when we were there. 

So we have done Kodai in 2004 and Pondy in 2008, and now Phuket in 2014. Wonder whether we will get to do another one at all, given even this went back and forth so many times and nearly never happened, and given what lives will have in store for us as we go ahead. But for now, absolutely great trip comes to a close. And really really special meeting with the best boys I like hanging together with. 

SEA - Part2

SEA

Cambodia (Siem Reap) highlights (for those who can't go through my verbose travel prose):

• Don't bother converting currency in Siem Reap - the entire city works on USD. Even ATMs dispense in USD! I converted Thai Baht to Cambodian Riel and wasted a lot on conversion - totally unnecessary. USD is the most accepted and cheapest way to pay at Siem Reap
• Never stay at any other place apart from "Pub Street" in Siem Reap - no matter how fancy the hotels describe themselves, unless they are in Pub Street, simply avoid it. Coz this is the most, and pretty much the only, touristy (read: light on the pocket) place in Siem Reap
• There are 2 local beers apart from the typical SEA types of Tiger, Singha and Changs, called Cambodia Lager and Angkor (ya, they are actually named after country and temple!), but avoid Cambodia Lager altogether as it really sucks. Stick with Angkor and the others.
• While we are on the topic of alcohol, avoid any other local drinks. I tried a whiskey called Label5 and it reminded me of Bagpiper. Got me just as high as well. So stick to Angkor beer as the only local drink to have
• if doing Siem Reap by road from Bangkok then be very careful of the Tuk Tuks that take you from Aranyaprathet (border town of Thailand) to the immigration office. Most will take you to an official looking travel agency that will charge you for cab/bus/bellboy, all of which is totally unnecessary. Tell the Tuk Tuk to take you straight to immigration office only from Aranyaprathat
• The sunrise and sunset at Siem Reap is fairly overrated as it depends on the weather and stuff, so don’t stress too much about getting it done
• Definitely definitely try the local Khmer cuisine. It’s supposed to be the oldest cuisine in the world, and some of the dishes prepared in Khmer sauce are brilliantly flavourful - Amok fish, Beef loc lac, Prom fish, Frog legs in Khmer, Cambodian rice and noodles are some of the top dishes
• the people of Cambodia love Indians. Some like Geet get enough attention across SEA for having looks that these guys seem to really appreciate (so much that she's even had to prove to be above 18 to enter a club!), but in Cambodia, even the guys get a lot of attention. I had a bunch of Cambodian aunties taking a photo with me in Siem Reap - so just be prepared for this kind of an assault!
• Songkran is a good time to visit Cambodia. It is their New Years and you get to be a part of their holi-like celebrations with dancing Apsara's, but it is also the time that many of them are on leave, leaving long waiting times for cabs and things. But that apart it’s a good time to embrace their culture

Vietnam (Hanoi highlights):

• Just like Pub Street in Siem Reap, the place to stay here is Old Quarters
• Do a cruise, preferably for 3 days even - it's totally worth it. Paloma cruise is highly recommended
• Vietnam is to Australia as Thailand is to India. So you would meet a lot of Aussies here
• Across SEA you tend to notice 3 things - friendly people, cheap shopping, and good food. All of these are amplified in Vietnam. People here are the friendliest we have met, shopping is cheaper than Bangkok, and the food is top notch - I would rate Vietnam as the next best country after Italy for food now.

April 12
the trip started with a flight to Bangkok at 7 in the morning, so we had to wake up at after just 3 hours of sleep. This was pretty much the norm last few days as there was so much work both of us were trying to complete so as to go on the trip without our laptops and actually get a real break. There hasn't been a weekend since this new role that I haven't spent working, and we were both desperately craving a break.
Anyway, we got to the new Bombay airport well in time to admire the awesome construction that was this Bombay international terminal, and headed into our jet flight which was just like a regular domestic flight. No in flight entertainment, no booze. It was a sad flight for an international one. Anyway, I hoped to get some sleep at least, but it just didn't work out. So it was the most boring flight for me. Geet at least managed to sleep through most of it.
Once we reached Bangkok, we had a bit of a jolt at the visa processing counter, where the 2 ladies sitting there completed my visa and then decided to go on a break. So Geet and I were at opposite sides of immigration waiting for them to return, and once they come back, they call the person after Geet and don’t agree to process hers. It was so silly of them. Geet had to explain that she has been waiting here for them and cannot take a fresh token to start at the back of the big line that was built. Thankfully they agreed after some time and we went through. Bit of a scare that was, but soon we were on our BTS to phaya thai, and met a friendly pilot on the train, who helped us plan the next part of the journey to the hotel, by writing down our hotel address on a paper and asking us to just show it to a cab as the hotel wasn't too far from phaya Thai.
We did just that, but I was starting at the meter to see how much the damage was, and it just cost 83 baht. I gave him a 100 which was effectively 200 rupees, which was probably cheaper than Bombay even given the distance covered. With this discovery of Bangkok cabs being reasonable, the next few short trips for the day was in cabs itself.
Once we reached the hotel, we were quickly taken into our studio apartment room which was an upgraded version of what Naan had booked for us since the regular room was not available. So we got twice lucky with the hotel. Once with Naan booking it for us as he was getting a good deal, and next for the upgrade.
So this was far ahead of expectations, given this was the Hangover hotel. We planned to visit the sky bar in the night where the movie was shot, and for the time being, caught up on some much needed sleep.
We stepped out at 7, me headed to Hua lamphong to figure out a way to travel to siem reap the next day, and Geet to MBK to shop. En route we saw people celebrating Songkran, Thai New Year falling on April13-14, where people spray water over each other through water guns. Unlike holi though, they don't use colours. Locals and tourists were having so much fun spraying water over all passerby’s. We were just thankful we were inside a cab. After going our individual ways, we caught up an hour later with her college friend Swati at a bar called Zanzi in Sukhamvit.
This was my breaking of lent moment, and we ordered a full non veg platter for me to go berserk on. And I was enjoying everything on offer, including the chicken satay that I'm normally not a very big fan of. Downed the food with Red Label, and then came to our room after being joined by another of Swati's friends, to quickly change and hit the sky bar. But our hotel room luck finally ran out as it began to rain and we only got to see the bar from a distance. Anyway, decided to make the most of the night by buying some beer from a nearby 7/11 and having it in our beautiful big room.

April 13
once again woke up with hardly any sleep. It was lot tougher this time, as I was drunk the previous night, that too with alcohol in the system after nearly 40 days. So I struggled to pack up and leave to Hua Lamphong station on time. It sucked that we weren’t able to enjoy Hotel Lebua to its fullest by even skipping their breakfast in the morning, after having skipped their sky bar the previous night because of the rain, but we had to leave early to make it to siem reap on time.
Our train journey from Hua Lamphong began at 6am, and we thankfully entered the train by 530 it as we managed to get seats. The train was completely crowded the rest of the journey and with wooden seats, no AC, and absolute rustic scenery throughout the journey, Geet kept saying this is like a trip to Mugaltor!
The train journey sure was anything by comfortable, but it got us to Aranayprathet, the border town of Thailand by 12 noon (half hour delayed) for only 48 Baht each. Definitely a cheaper option that the bus, and more importantly a surer way of reaching the border, as the hotel staff had mentioned that getting buses to siem reap would be tough given we were booking last minute and it was Songkran here.
Anyway, we reached Aranyaprathet and took a tuk tuk to the visa office. He brought us to an official looking place, and I assumed this is where our immigration would be done. the guy who spoke to us gave us departure cards and the ambiance looked very official with some other firangs also filling departure cards there, but it was only later when we got to the actual immigration department did we realize this was a sham. anyway, the guy there gave us some good tips about Siem Reap and sent a guide with us who turned out quite resourceful in taking us through the Thai immigration where we quickly stamped out our passports, and then led us to the Cambodian section where he bribed one of the cops to process our visas faster for a VIP fee of 300 baht. We didn't mind it as the line was really long inside a sweltering hot room. So we waited outside drinking Cambodian minute maid while our visas came though. It was here we noticed that the vehicles passing through an Angkor arch that signified the border between the 2 countries move from left to right as Cambodia followed the American system unlike Thailand. Over the rest of the trip we realized the American influence spanned more than just the traffic in Cambodia - the currency in all of Siem Reap was just American Dollars! Even the ATMs dispensed cash in USD.
Anyway, once we got our visas, we headed to a shuttle bus that took us to a bus stop kind of place where we were waiting for a cab for which we booked 1000 baht to the travel agent on the Thai side of the border. We agreed to pay for a cab as he said buses would depart much later, but cabs were anyway not available sonic drivers were on Songkran leave. So we asked the guide with us to refund the money so that we can just take a bus, but he was acting funny by saying he wasn't carrying any cash. Geet found a policeman there and complained to him, and then this guy borrowed from someone and paid us. So after that small adventure we entered the bus at 1pm, a good 1 hour after reaching Aranyaprathet, and then waited inside for 2 full hours before the bus made sure the last seat was filled before starting off. This really delayed our journey and we finally reached Siem Reap only at 8pm. The entry into the city was only more Mugoltor like, and we were worried how we would fine our way to the hotel. Thankfully the bus conductor helped is with a Tuk Tuk who took us straight to the address I wrote and gave the conductor a whole back, and finally we felt relieved after a whole day of travel as
the hotel - Saem Siem Reap looked really nice and comfortable. Lots of trees, wooden floors, swimming pool in the middle, and really friendly staff made us feel completely relaxed.
Soon we checked in, freshened up, and came down to the hotel restaurant for our first Khmer dinner, where we had Cambodian fried noodles with Angkor beer, a beer I had began enjoying over the next few days here.

April 14
Our first day of the trip was going to actually start today, a good 2 full days after leaving Bombay. Though many people recommended we catch the sunrise at Angkor wat, we just wanted to catch some rest before starting our day. So we peacefully woke up and stepped out only by noon. Our hotel had its own tuk tuk service and we got a really friendly guy taking us around the temples for the day.
We started with the main Angkor temple after buying a day pass for 20usd each, and spent the most time at this place taking tons of photographs. There were a lot of people visiting the temple given the new years they were celebrating, so it was quite a challenge to avoid them while snapping away. We were quite surprised to find that in spite of 95% Cambodians being Buddhists, and this being their biggest temple, there was just no place for worship inside, it was just like visiting an ancient ruin. But the name Siem Reap, which means Siem destroyed, made sense, given the shambles the place was in.
Next we headed to Prasat Kravan, a tiny 5 pillar temple compared to Angkor dedicated to Vishnu. Here we first observed the way idols are carved into the stone walls itself. Something we observed in many other temples following this. Next we went to bantaey kedai, the most dilapidated of the lot. Apparently shivaites destroyed the Buddhists statutes when they were built over the original Hindu temples, and to this day excavations are in progress to unearth the buried Buddhist statutes. Here we even saw a Shivling. Really nice to see both religions weaving into each other in these temples.
Next we visited 2 temples that were on opposite sides of the road, Chao Say Thevada, and Thomanon. Finally here there was an old bald lady monk who did a puja for us and tied a thread on our wrist and demanded money. It was funny that she wasn’t accepting Riels and kept asking for Dollars. Unbelievable how nobody here uses their own countries currency.
After this we went to Ta Phrom, the next biggest temple here after Angkor and bayon, and this one was a tree temple where trees are fully woven into the architecture of the temple itself. Here a bunch of aunties suddenly caught hold of us and took a photo of us with their group. It was like they were fascinated seeing Indians. We next went to Pre Roup for the sunset. The only other spot apart from Bayon temple to see a good sunset here, and our driver avoided Bayon as the traffic was thick. This turned out a good choice coz we went to Bayon after the sunset and the temple was really beautifully lit up. There was also an exhibition set up where we got to see a neat Apsara dance (Apsara’s are supposed to wives of Gandharvas in Indra’s court, and part of both the Hindu and Buddhist mythology) along with some other performances.
After a dose of Cambodian culture that concluded a day of visiting all of their temples, we went to Neary Khmer restaurant for dinner, where we sat under a perfect moonlight and enjoyed prom fish (minced fish and pork in omelets), and fried fish in Khmer sauce and Cambodian fried rice. All the dishes were amazing, and Khmer sauce is really flavorful. We were really thankful to our driver for the awesome day and choice of hotel, that I tipped him 10k Riel over the 60k we were to pay him.
Sure was a wonderful start to our SEA trip.

April 15

We originally planned to visit the temples again today, but after spending 20 USD per person the previous day to visit them, and having gone through pretty much all of them, we didn’t want to spend that much again. So we decided to chill and go for a Khmer Massage, at a Japanese Massage Centre that our Tuk Tuk driver from the previous day suggested. Unfortunately, the same Tuk Tuk driver was busy with other passengers, but he directed the Tuk Tuk guy who was taking us on the place to go. It was a small, close to shady looking place, where you had to go into a room inside a building that looked like a house for the massage. There were 4 beds laid down in the room, with 4 pairs of clothing placed on them that we had to change into for the massage. It was quite unlike the open air experience of Krabi, and so was the massage that followed for an hour after that. So it was dry, just like the Thai massage, and felt more rigorous, as every muscle seemed to get attention, but somehow wasn’t as invigorating as the Thai one. Strangely didn’t feel as relaxed after the massage as we felt in Krabi last year. It might have to do with the setting too, but anyway, was worth an experience at least.

We asked our Tuk Tuk guy to take us to a nice restaurant for lunch, and he went to Neary Khmer again. Although we liked our dinner the previous day, we wanted to try out another place. So he then took us to a restaurant called Borey Savann, which had an entrance that was almost hidden from the main road – looked like a place that you would never visit on your own. We were thinking to ourselves that this might be an authentic Khmer place, and it turned out to be the restaurant where I had my first ever frog legs! It was frog legs in Khmer sauce, and tasted scrumptious. I was not chewing off the bones coz it did feel weird eating it, but I pretty much did wipe the plate clean.

After lunch, we headed to a lake in Siem Reap called Tonle Sap, which was supposed to have something called the Floating Village there. It was a decent half hour ride on an empty rickety road on the even more rickety Tuk Tuk, and throughout the journey, we could see houses on stilts, which are pretty much what the Floating Village was all about, and some of them had hammocks where firangs sat and drank their Angkor Beer. It seemed quite a sad thing to do, and we just hoped Tonle Sap would turn out better. Sadly it didn’t. There were boats taking visitors on rides, but they were charging a phenomenal amount, so we just sad by the pier and watched the sun go down from there. Took some more videos that were to be part of our musical video on the trip, and then turned back to Siem Reap town, and hit Pub Street this time.

Now this place was the Khao San of Siem Reap, and we were wondering why we didn’t stay here from the start. Unfortunately nobody told me of a place called Pub Street, and Trip Advisor also didn’t seem to have too many mentions. But this was street was a complete live wire – concerts, Apsara dancers, even commercial promotions by auto manufacturers – they were all there on the street. Staying here would have been an altogether different experience.

Anyway, we hit a pub called Angkor What? Something I read about online and really wanted to visit. They charged fairly steep prices for beers, but it was a nice looking place nevertheless. Then had dinner at one of the streets restaurants, where I got to try out another Khmer dish that I was wanting to – Amok Fish, and as always, tasted simply brilliant – it was a sort of fish gravy, served inside a leaf, to be had with rice.

April 16

It was our last day in Siem Reap, and we once again woke up late. We initially planned to go on a Balloon Ride, however, the people at the resort advised us against it. So with that out, getting some more rest seemed to be the logical thing to do. So after getting ready by noon, we checked out, and headed to the city to get passport photographs for Geet as that was required for the Vietnam visa we were to get at Hanoi later on in the day. We also paid another visit to Pub Street, which was quiet dead after the party last night. But there were some massage parlours open, and I got myself some fish therapy, while Geet got a foot massage.

We then reached the tiny Siem Reap airport, where our flight was delayed by nearly 2 hours, and we spent all that time sitting idle in the airport, where one Cambodian guy seemed very interested in the fact that we were Indians, and began showing us pictures of Sandalwood trees and things from India. Cambodians altogether seem to really love Indians.

On that note, we bid adieu to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and made our way to Hanoi, Vietnam. We landed at the Hanoi airport by 9pm and were glad that we had booked a cab from the Hotel to take us there, as it was quite late in a strange city. The journey took more than an hour, and we reached a place called Old Quarter, the Khao San of Hanoi this time, and checked in to a Hotel called Oriental Central, rated No. 1 on Trip Advisor in Hanoi. It really was a fascinating Hotel. The staff was incredibly friendly and the room was really cozy. They even had rose petals on the bed which was a nice touch. The restaurants in Hanoi were all closed by this time though, and so we just ate some crackers that were kept in the room, and called it a night.

April 17

We had to wake up early this time to have breakfast in time and head to Halong Bay in a tempo that was to pick us up from the Hotel and take us on a 4 hour journey to the coastline. We just about managed to catch breakfast – which was basic sausage, bacon, omelets and fruits – but somehow all of them tasted really amazing. The fruits in fact, were the freshest I have ever had. So after gorging on breakfast, we began our long, but reasonably comfortable journey. There was a family with a little kid, a young Israeli couple, and 3 Australian guys in the tempo who were going to give us company on the cruise as well, and it seemed like the perfect bunch of people you would travel with – one group that is a sedate family, one group that is a young couple with a loud mouth lady, and one group that is a bunch of young funny guys.

We reached the coast by 12:30 and took a ferry to our cruise ship – the Paloma Cruise. At the ship, we were taken straight for lunch, where a guy called Lui introduced us to the cruise. They had taken peoples food requests before hand, and was really incredible the way they served lunch for everyone. Geet for example said she would only have chicken in non-veg, and they ensured that she was served only vegetarian or chicken dishes. The Israeli couple had an even more stringent request like no nuts and stuff, and given they weren’t complaining, guess even they were served the right food. So that was how lunch was served for us – a 5 course menu, coming to all of us one by one, with everyone’s requests being met. After eating to our stomach’s content, we were then shown to our rooms – a beautiful little room with a window to an ever changing view, as the ship keeps moving. The sight outside was ocean, with floating mountains, and it was an incredible sight.

After a short nap, we went kayaking, which was surprisingly easy given Geet and I were doing it for the first time, and kayaked to an oyster farm where we were shown how pearls are naturally created. People were basically tricking oysters to create pearls by inserting a calcium tablet into the oyster shell - it was an incredible process to witness. 
Once we got back, we changed and headed to the deck for a party organized by the cruise where free Sangria was being served. We socialized with people on the deck, which included more Australians, and then headed down for a cooking class, where we were taught to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls. This was something that completely fascinated me. I Googled later and learnt that although Spring Rolls come from China, where it was made during their New Years which fell on Spring, and hence the name, it is currently most popular in Vietnam, given the way it is prepared there. They have pre-made thin rice papers, on which you put your ingredients, and then roll it and either steam to make “Fresh Spring Rolls” or fry to make “Fried Spring Rolls”. We made Fried Spring Rolls during this cooking class, and even here, Geet and one other guy who wanted only Chicken were allowed to prepare Chicken Spring Rolls, while the rest of us prepared the typical Vietnamese Spring Rolls, which were made out of Pork.

All of us were asked to make our Spring Rolls based on the instructions by the chef, and we were judged on how well we had rolled the roll. There were 3 winners, which even included a kid, and they got free drinks as gifts. The rest of us submitted our rolls for frying, and when it came through, I took a bite of Geets Chicken Spring Roll, and thought it tasted better than the Pork ones. But all in all, I am now a complete Vietnamese Spring Roll fan.

We later sat on our usual dining tables, with the same bunch of Australian guys who were on the tempo and also with us over lunch, giving us company for dinner this time, and we were having a nice chat about Cricket, Australia, India, food, and lots of other things. All of this while we were once again served a delicious 5 course meal. One of them was called Prawn on Rocks, and this was prepared in front of us. The way it was done was; there were pre-heated rocks kept on a table. Fresh prawns were doused with vinegar and lit up, and these were poured over the rocks and sealed. The incredibly high temperature in the sealed vessel cooked the prawns in a matter of seconds. The prawns were then removed and served directly on our plates, and it was just incredibly tasty. I was slowly becoming a big fan of the Vietnamese cuisine – so many different dishes, all of them so tasty, it was really a feast for the foodie in me.

After dinner, we headed to the deck to do some Squid fishing, and saw 2 guys catch squid which get attracted to the blue light that is directed towards the water surface. When we realized we weren’t gonna find much luck with the squid, we hit the bed.

April 18

Woke up early once again to go to the deck and take some photographs and enjoy the view from there. It was completely worth the effort, as there was nobody on the deck apart from one guy cleaning the mess created by some of the late night party animals.

We then had a nice heavy breakfast – this time I tried something called Crab Soup with Fish Cakes. Had them along with the usual bacon, eggs and fruit. After breakfast, we were taken to an island where we went cave exploring. There was a huge crowd at the entrance, and we came across so many people that we met during our flight here, and it seemed that all of them had pretty much the same itinerary – coming to Halong Bay for the cruise, and all cruises having the same itinerary of brining everyone to this island for the cave trek.

The cave trek was anyway quite interesting, and after a long walk inside with lots of photos and interesting tit bits about the cave, we came back out and waited for our ferry to take us back to the cruise ship. We were taken in 2 batches, first the people who were staying another night left, as they were to head to a beach for a barbeque lunch, and then we left to the cruise to have lunch there and then check out. It was quite early for lunch after the extremely heavy breakfast we had, but we gorged on it anyways, and eventually paid our drinks bill (everything else was pre-paid) and checked out and headed back to Hanoi in the same tempo that got us there. We just slept our way through during this journey, and the 4 hours passed fast.

On reaching Hanoi, we checked in to another Hotel, called City Palace, since Oriental was not available on this day, and the difference between the Hotels was clearly visible. However, it was a comfortable stay nevertheless, and the good part was that it was located right on a road called Hong Bac Road, which was the shopping centre of the Old Quarter.

We stepped out in the evening to do some shopping and watch a Water Puppet show that is quite popular in Hanoi. After the show, we went to a restaurant called Elegance, which was rated No. 1 Restaurant on Trip Advisor, and supposed to have an awesome view of the city and the lake from there. Not only was the view awesome, the waiters were so friendly and the food so awesome, that we completely loved the dinner.

We ate something called Cha Ca, which was a dish that comes with small pieces of fried fish, paper rolls, salad dressing, nuts and fried onions. The waitress showed us how to prepare the dish, which was basically like making your own Paan, out of paper rolls though, and the ensemble tasted really great together. The waiters were so nice to us, that they even gave us a corner table as there was a cancellation, so that we could enjoy the view from there. I was seriously impressed with the people of Vietnam. I always believed that South East Asians were friendly, but Vietnam takes it to a whole new level.

Anyway, after the lovely dinner, we walked back to our hotel room and called it a night. It was Hanoi sight-seeing the next day.

April 19

We began the day with a walk to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. It was a good half hour walk, and through the way, we noticed a lot of coffee shops. Coffee drinking is a big culture in Vietnam, and the previous day we actually had some coffee on the pit stop we took in the tempo ride from Halong Bay to Hanoi. The coffee was very different from what we have in India, but extremely tasty nevertheless. Even Europe had so much of a coffee culture, but it just never tasted this good.

There were a lot of people at the mausoleum – once again we ran into the crown from the airline, and inside the mausoleum was actually an embalmed Ho Chi Minh in a tomb surrounded by 4 serious looking guards. I didn’t actually expect to see this, but apparently many people in Vietnam visit this place to pay respects to this man.

After the mausoleum, we headed back to the lake where we did some more last minute shopping, and then headed back to the Hotel to check out and move to the airport, for our flight back to Bangkok.

The plan was to spend one more night at Bangkok and leave the next day afternoon. However, I was wondering why I hadn’t planned in a way that we left directly from the Bangkok airport to Bombay, coz just the one extra night in Bangkok was costing us visa charges of 2k each, hotel fees, shopping.. We spent so much just for this Bangkok last leg, but almost seemed worth it, coz we stayed at the Bangkok Marriott.

It was one of the best rooms I have stayed in after the Hilton Cavelieri in Rome. Room on the 30^th floor, overlooking Bangkok, with a bath tub in the bathroom that had the same view of the city as well. Seriously awesome. And just like Lebua, here also there was a pub on the top floor, which we visited after the super fast shopping that Geet completed at MBK. It almost felt like the next most frequented mall for us after Oberoi mall, given how easily we were navigating through it. The final drinks and dinner at the 50^th floor pub at Marriott was truly spell binding, and a great way to end this fabulous trip.

Krabi: Birthday 31

“400 Baht”

“No.. That’s too much. Please reduce it?”

“Cannot. Cannot”

“Pleeeeease? Make it 150?”

“Cannot. Cannot”

“Ok, 200?”

“Ok”

This had happened so often during the trip when Geet would get a bargain for nearly half the price that was being quoted, and all the time it was the same response - somehow the Thai would oblige and reduce the charges for her.

The Thai are some amazing people though – here are some fast facts:

1)  They are easily some of the most hospitable people in the world – probably one of the underlying reasons (apart from the more common one that makes guys go there in droves) why tourism thrives there.

2)  The tourism industry is run by women. The men only seem to do the background work, while it is the women always at the front end.

3)  The Thai women just love Geet. There were so many of them who complimented her over her looks. “Pretty lady. Pretty face”.

4)  They love Indian tourists on a whole, coz we are the fastest growing country of visitors in Thailand and we spend $160 a day there, and an average 7.1 days whenever we visit.

With that, let’s get on with the travelogue for this trip.

Prologue

The trip was originally planned with the school gang, but since the obvious happened one more time, we too decided to call it off, but were just holding on to the tickets in case something turns around and we still end up going. This impetuous for the trip came about exactly a week before we departed, when the trip to Kerala to meet Steve and the Chennai gang got cancelled. With that getting cancelled, a desperate need for a break, and with all other flights to Indian destinations getting shit expensive given the Independence Day long weekend, we just decided to make the trip to Krabi.

Aug 14

I spent the whole of this day planning for the trip, and the plans were going quite well. I delegated all the work for the next few days, collected Thai Baht, matrix SIM card and insurance, and was all set by around 4pm, when calamity struck at work – leaving a grim situation pretty much until we took off. At the last moment, I had to fire fight 3 issues that cropped up all at once. I had to be on the phone even at 1030, an hour before the flight, trying to handle it, and was still left with one issue that couldn't be closed and required me to get on a concall on Friday, during the trip, to close. And in all that confusion, I forgot the matrix SIM cards at home, and got so delayed leaving home, that we were actually the last 2 people boarding the flight. There were people actually calling us on our phones asking us to hurry up - something that's never happened in the past.

But once we took off, things were at peace, at least for the moment. Coz there was good whiskey, and lots of movies to keep me company. I had one drink that made the really sad Thai green curry served on board palatable, and dozed off somewhere in between noticing Ewan McGregor actually had a role in Jack the giant slayer, and before any of the slaying began to take place. I didn't have a very peaceful sleep though, and Geet didn't sleep at all. Quite an irony the "smooth as silk" A380 Thai Air flight turned out to be.

Aug 15

Once we landed at Bangkok, we checked at the concierge and was asked to head over to immigration. I thought this was fine, coz I had read that we could get our visas at Krabi. This was a mistake. You can get it there, but only if you are flying to Krabi directly. If it’s a stop over from Bangkok, you require visa in advance, or to be issued at Bangkok itself. Now this put us in a bit of a mess, coz we had booked a flight that only gave us 2.5 hours stop over at Bangkok, and the visa on arrival line at the airport was inundated with Indians seeking visas given the Independence Day holiday that all of them decided to cash out with a long weekend vacation.

It was a great deal of luck that we actually managed to get the visa at Bangkok itself. One, I skipped the line and went ahead without anyone noticing. Two, we already had passport photos and sufficient Thai Baht which avoided 2 more long queues for us.

Once we got our visas and entered the bus to board the flight, I noticed that there were just 2 non-Indians in the entire bus! I was quite bummed that we Indians didn't even spare Krabi! And one thing common to the typical Indian traveller is that we avoid each other like the plague. Which totally makes sense of course..

Once we reached Krabi, Geet even ran into an old school friend. What odds! They just exchanged pleasantries and soon we were on our way to Ao Nang beach. The mini van we took from the airport stopped just in front of Krabi Heritage Hotel where we were staying. We later realized this is quite the norm in Krabi, because everything is so close, that people will always drop you right in front of where you need to be dropped – no bus stops and stuff in this town. We checked ourselves in and I had a funny incident with the bell boy here. He brought our luggage in and then just stood staring at me in the room. I asked him if there's anything else, and he just blabbered something and continued to stand. I realised he was waiting for a tip, but I only had Baht's in 100's. So I tried explaining that I will tip him later. But he still wouldn't move. It took quite a while before he understood that I will pay him later and he left the place. After that, he kept waving at me and calling out to me every time I stepped out for something. Finally I got some change after picking some things from the nearby 711 and tipped him 20 bucks to finally get the monkey (literally) off my back. What a character!

Geet and I chilled out with some Changs and Singha beer I picked at the 711, and had it with fried shrimps and Thai green curry we ordered through room service. The food was really good and even Geet, who is so finicky about the stuff she eats, was enjoying it. Her favourite cuisine after Indian is Thai, so the holiday here was likely to be much better than her just having croissants when we were in Europe.

We then slept for a while, and towards the evening, headed out to the beach that was barely 5 mins by walk. On the way we stopped at a travel agents office where we met Li, the friendly neighbourhood travel agent, who helped organize all our trips over the next few days here. We booked a speed boat for the next day to Phi Phi islands from her and headed towards the beach where we

noticed that the famous Ao Nang mountain that covers one side of the beach, was actually the view we were getting from our room.

We walked towards the mountain range, the beach waters kissing our feet, and finally plonked at the end of the strip, sitting and observing the incredible view. There were small single rock formation islands all across the beach. It was quite an amazing view, and the inspiration for the floating mountains in the movie Avatar as well. After soaking in the view, we went behind and sat on some chairs and ordered more beers. The waitress asked if we wanted a leg massage while we enjoyed the beer and the sunset, and Geet just couldn't refuse. She was completely enjoying the massage, while I was having my own share of fun watching a beautiful view of the sun disappearing behind the floating mountains of the sea.

While leaving the place, we asked the waitress which is a really good place for Thai food. She suggested a restaurant called Wang Sai. We went looking for it, and didn't find it anywhere, and instead stopped at another restaurant calling Anning, rated just 34 in Tripadvisor, but totally worth the money. Well, Tripadvisor had 3 Indian restaurants named in its top 10 restaurants of Krabi, so I didn't really want to rely on it too much. We ordered glass noodles, prawns and oysters. And except for the oysters, the rest of the food which we had with Chang draught and wine was really good. The oysters came with a really neat presentation; they were with shells and on a plate of ice. It was my first time with it, and definitely going to be my last as well.

After dinner, we walked along the strip back to the hotel, doing a bit of shopping on the way, and crashed for the night.

Aug 16

We woke up by 7am to be on time for the boat trip that was to begin at 830. And since it was just 530 in IST, it was quite a pain to wake up.

There was a minivan that came to the hotel to pick us up, and this was the order of things here. Everything is pick and drop from the hotel, and extremely well organised. Krabi completely had tourism covered.

We entered the speed boat and headed straight to the sun deck where we were accompanied by 1 German, 1 Spanish and 1 American family, and 2 other guys who were there just so that they could smoke peacefully. But not only did they not smoke as there were just families around, but were also providing the rest of us with a lot of entertainment along the way.

We first reached Bamboo island, and this was probably the best beach we saw over the entire trip. Clear blue waters, clean white sand, speed boats parked, and people snorkelling at a section ear marked for them. I tried out snorkelling here, and did enjoy it, although I thought Andaman was better. Then I tried giving Geet some tips on swimming, but it was always going to be difficult in beach waters.

In 40 minutes, we headed back to the boat, coz the lady organiser warned that they would leave us behind if we didn't turn up on time. She was another one providing entertainment on the way.

Our next stop was Pileh Bay where we didn't get off, but just took photos of what was a really picturesque lagoon, and then moved on to Maya Bay, which our lady organiser said was really sad right now. I was just glad I got to do "The Beach" scene there and take a panoramic shot from my i5. With that, we moved on to Phi Phi Don, where we halted for lunch. After stuffing ourselves with fairly bland food, given our hunger post the swimming and travelling we had done, we took a walk down the streets of Phi Phi and were welcomed with sights of divers, diving stores and diving gear all over the place. We just strolled around and stopped at a shop that displayed an array of delicious looking fruit, and since we couldn't decide on which fruit juice to order, took a mixed fruit juice and checked our social networks on the free wifi as we sipped the drink.

Soon after, we headed back to our boat, as we had to meet our deadline again, and then sailed to a spot in the middle of the sea, where the lady said we could snorkel. People just began jumping into the water with their snorkelling gear, but I was a little terrified of doing that in the middle of the ocean. So I strapped on a life jacket and jumped in, and this time, the sights under water was the best I had seen. It was like being in an aquarium, and I was spotting pretty much all the characters of Finding Nemo. At one time, I noticed a really long sword fish, and began following it, until I realized I was quite far from the boat when I came up for some fresh air. That's when I was really thankful I had the life jacket on. After spending some more time there, we got back on the boat and headed to Monkey Bay, where we didn't get off, but just saw a bunch of monkeys on the beach, and the firangs super excitedly feeding them. We moved on and reached a place called Hin Klang, our final stop and final chance to snorkel. One of the 2 guys who were on the sun deck with us, threw his snorkel kit first into the water and then jumped in. But his gear drowned before he could reach for it and this was 10ft deep water so the lady organiser was shouting at him coz she couldn't dive 10ft waters. It was funny to see them both argue. Finally there was a guy on the boat who seemed experienced enough, and he jumped in and found the snorkel.

Well, we got back to shore after this, headed towards our Hotel, making bookings for a long tail boat trip to Hong island for the next day on our way, and then headed to the beach to catch the sunset. This time I couldn't refuse a massage myself, and after downing our beers while the sun downed itself, we headed to one of the massage parlours on the boulevard and got a Thai massage there. This is an oil free massage done with your clothes on, by fairly older women who do all sorts acrobatics around you, stretching your body to its limits. There was a live band singing popular English songs in Thai style next door, and it made the whole experience relaxing and worthwhile. The best part was, the entire massage for a whole hour cost just 300 Baht each.

Post this, we went back to Anning coz Geet really liked the food there, and this time the dinner we ordered was by far some of the best Thai food we've had. It was crab is red curry paste and spicy Thai chicken noodle. Both of them tasted so good, that with the 50 Baht per glass Chang draught, and wine that Geet was having, it was the best value for money meal we may have ever had – all of it costing under 700 Baht.

Satiated with dinner, we ambled back to our rooms and called it night number 2.

Aug 17

Woke up early again to catch the long tail boat and were picked up as usual by a minivan at the hotel. We reached the shore where we met Ifraq, the guide for the day, who was really sweet with his limited English and the tour he gave us for the day.

This boat had 18 people, a small number compared to at least a 100 that the speed boat had the previous day, and took us to Daeng island, which was just a big red coloured rock, one that you could only snorkel around and not really step on to. So that's what we did, but I found the underwater fauna mediocre compared to what we experienced the previous day at Phi Phi. So I used the opportunity to take off the life jacket this time and try some deep sea diving. Geet also entered the water this time, after a Malaysian guy on the boat egged her to enter coz he didn't know swimming either, but was still trying his hand out at snorkelling. She didn't let go of the ladder that people were using to climb in and out of the boat, but it was quite a big step for her to even try and get off the boat the way she did.

After Daeng island, we headed to Laeding island where we stopped for lunch. The view here was really amazing and I took a bunch of photos here. This place was almost an hours boat journey from Daeng, and I was sitting on the sun deck without my shirt during this time. This was the first mistake I had done during the day. The second one was the lunch we had at Laeding. Both of them completely screwed me up for the next few days, coz I got badly burnt under the sun with my shoulders literally going red, and ended up with food poisoning from the lunch.

Anyway, for the moment, we had made friends with one Spanish couple, and 3 Malaysians and were having a good time chatting with them and taking pictures of each other at this island.

We then headed to Hong island, the main attraction of this trip, a place very similar to Maya Bay, but a little less crowded. There was a Hindi movie being filmed here, and they barely shot a 10 second dance clip during the entire hour we were there. I tried spotting the actors, but really couldn't figure out who they were.

There was one killer moment on this beach when people started running towards shore from the beach and when we tried seeing what was going on; what looked like a big snake was making its way from the water towards shore. I rushed to get my camera, and captured some photos of an iguana that peacefully scared the shit out of everyone there and made its way into the forest. That was some sight!

We then headed on to Hong lagoon, a spot between 2 floating mountains that looked incredible. It was like one of those virgin lagoons with mountains on all sides except for the entrance and a little stretches of white sand in between the water. Some more photos later, we headed back to shore.

As soon as we reached home, the sickness hit me, and I threw up everything I had for lunch. We slept for some time and then went to a pharmacy to pick up some anti-bacterial tablets, along with electoral, and headed to the beach for more sunset, beer and massage minus the beer given my state, and an Aloe Vera massage this time to cool the burns on my body. Geet too got the same massage done and we both felt really cooled down and relaxed after this. We headed back to the room and skipped dinner this day coz I couldn't really even be around food given my state. Just had some juice on the way and Geet ate some chips and cream buns. After popping my pills, it was night night 3.

Aug 18

My stomach was still ill, and I forced a croissant down just to have the tablets, and then started towards Phuket at 10am. It was a long journey and we were hoping I don’t feel ill over the journey. Thankfully it was uneventful, and we reached Hotel Pier42 at Chalong, Phuket by 3pm.

This was a boutique resort and spa, and really looked amazing. I had actually booked it for us to avail the spa facilities, but given that the rates here were nearly thrice as much as what we were paying at Krabi, we decided to skip this part, and instead use the limited time to explore Phuket.

So we rented a bike from a store just outside the Hotel, where they took my passport in exchange for the bike, and rode to a place called Patong. The lady giving us the bike told us that the route to Patong is long and dangerous, and another lady we asked on the way also warned us to be careful on the curves. These people have clearly not seen Indian roads and Indian traffic, coz for a guy who was riding a bike (this a scooter to top it) after at least 3 years, found the journey one of the easiest ever. The roads were super smooth, super wide, and the traffic was just super polite. The 20km stretch from Chalong to Patong hardly felt that long, and we soon parked the bike and walked along Patong beach.

This place was really lively. There was a group of guys BBoying outside a mall, a bunch of people wearing Thai costumes and promoting a show they were performing, lady boys and strippers wearing super skimpy clothes, bars with rock bands performing inside them, bars with stripper poles that were empty for the moment as were still too early, a Walking Street that could rival Pattaya.. the list was endless, and entertainment at its best.

We were tired from the journey, and my stomach had still not healed from the food poisoning, so we just strolled around the place, had dinner at a restaurant called Tropica that had killer ambience but really sad food, and then rode back to our Hotel.

Aug 19

We had our minivan picking us up from nearby the Phuket Hotel and dropping us all the way right outside Maladee Bay Resort where we were staying in Krabi, which was 4 hours away, but point to point transfers once again. And had to check out from Hotel Pier42 early to catch the ride. We entered the cafe for breakfast around 730 and had some of the best English breakfast ever. They served freshly baked bread, with homemade butter and jam, which we had with omelettes and all of it tasted heavenly. The staff at Hotel Pier were supremely friendly. They even packed some watermelon for us which we didn’t have time to eat at the cafe itself.

On the minivan, we started chatting with an American from San Antonio called Josh. He spoke so much, enlightening us about the American economy, his job in Riyadh, the culture of the people in Saudi.. so many topics, that it was really entertaining chatting, or rather listening to him. He bought us all a juice once we reached Krabi and wished us well as we headed off to Maladee Bay.

This was pretty much the last Hotel on the Ao Nang strip, but had bikes being rented within the Hotel itself, which saved us a lot of trouble.

We took a bike, bought some Burger King Burgers, and had that for lunch, before crashing out for a while. After waking up, we entered the swimming pool, which had a Jacuzzi section at one end, sufficiently making up for the Jacuzzi that we missed at Hotel Pier as we had to leave early on this day, and taught Geet some more swimming, before we headed out to the beach for one last look at the Sunset.

Some more beer, another awesome massage later, we found a guy selling candle balloons on the beach. He said it was too windy and we may not be able to send one out, but suggested that we pay only if it actually takes off and doesn’t just crash into the trees nearby. We decided to take one, given it was the last night here, and also the eve of my birthday. We lit it, made a wish and let it off into the sky and in spite of a windy weather, it seemed to take off in the direction of the Full Moon that was there on this night. The next 20 seconds of watching the candle balloon drift higher as it was literally on its path to the moon, in a clear night sky of Krabi, with the beach on one side, and Geet taking photos on the other, it was just the perfect birthday eve setting ever.

After this, we went to a restaurant called Lae Ley Grill, which Li recommended as one of the best in Krabi, which was located on top of a hill from where we could see a good night view of the city. We ordered grilled fish here and had it with a drink. I ordered a Thai whiskey called Mekhong, and totally loved it. We were trying to decide between ordering main course here or paying one last visit to Anning, and decided on the latter.

It was a good choice once again, as the pineapple rice (rice with crab meat serviced inside a pineapple chunk) didn’t disappoint. The Chivas I had here did though, which as usual did nothing for me, and I was really missing the Mekhong from Lae Ley.

After a nice peaceful dinner, we headed back to our room and called it final night of the trip.

Aug 20

It was Birthday 31, and the day hardly felt like a birthday, coz we were just rushing the entire day. We had to leave early once again to catch the flight, so gobbled a quick breakfast at the Hotel. The car that came to pick us was a super comfortable Civic and dropped us with enough time to even have a beer at the airport before taking off to Bangkok. Once at Bangkok, we rushed straight to MBK and had exactly 3 hours here to shop. We bought everything we wanted in record time, and scooted back to the airport just in time to buy stuff from the DFS there and board our flight.

All we ate during the day was one burger we grabbed from the Burger King at MBK, and the next meal was dinner at Thai Air, which once again sucked. This time they didn’t even have non-veg to serve me, and had to make do with just veg. Thankfully there was enough whiskey to not make me regret this too much, and 2 movies later (Mud and The Big Wedding), we reached Bombay.

Got home just in time to cut a cake mom baked, and celebrate the last one hour of the birthday in the peace and quiet of our home with Geet, staring out at our own mountain view.. 

Nepal Trip: A peak into the year 2070

Day 1 – April 19, Friday

The trip was the coming together of a lot of ends; G going to Nepal on official work, Jeethu planning a visit there to meet her friend Sandeep since a very long time, and me just wanting to go see the Himalayas, and hopefully the famed Sagarmatha (Mt Everest). Somehow the trip fell in place over an extended weekend so we didn’t have to take too many holidays, G’s official trip just getting over, and at a time when it nicely coincided with Jeethu and Sachin’s 2nd wedding anniversary. So that’s how Jeethu, Sachin, Prabha, G and I landed up at Kathmandu, Nepal.

I came along with Jeethu and Sachin from Delhi where I landed the previous day from Bombay. G and Prabha came by a cab from Hitaoda where they were on official work in Nepal. We bought a lot of good booze from the DFS in Delhi before taking off, and Jeethu and I were wondering why we didn’t carry more cash, because nearly half the money we were carrying got spent at the DFS itself. We picked a lot of good booze though – Absolut for G and Prabha, Malibu for Jeethu, Gentlemen Jack for me and Sachin, and one JW Red Label for Sandeep. Of course, Jeethu also picked a lot of chocolates from the DFS that she couldn’t obviously travel without.

We landed at the Kathmandu airport at 1p.m, Kathmandu being 15mins ahead of IST, and were stunned to see the state of the airport! It was like the Andheri train station with a conveyer belt. It was a cramped place with paint peeling off the walls and empty telephone booths, and there were so many people that we just couldn’t figure which way to go. We found a line that said “without visa” and stood there, but realized there were only Koreans around us, while not one India who travelled in the Indigo with us. Then Sachin spotted some of the Indians going through a different line, and we noticed that line said “Special passports”. So this was the line for all the SAARC country passport holders, who could basically enter Nepal with just the passport and no visa, and so we just walked through till we reached the conveyer belt number 2, which was supposed to be where our luggage would come as per an announcement on the flight. Once again we found ourselves in a place with no Indians around, till one Nepali comes up to us and points towards a far end of the terminus saying “Indigo”. Once again we spotted some Indians standing at the conveyer belt there, which was conveyer belt number 1, and walked that way.

By now we realized that following boards that said “without visa” or hearing announcements regarding the luggage arrival belt was all a sham – all we really needed to do was follow the Indians!

So that’s what we did the rest of our time at the airport, till we got out and found Sandeep waiving at us. We were really glad he was right there, coz none of our phones were working, which was really silly of us to have not checked before we left India.

Anyway, Sandeep saved us then, and continued to do that on the rest of the trip, as he was the best organizer we could have ever asked for in a country that had so much to offer while struggling to keep itself together.

Sandeep was waiting with his girlfriend who we got introduced to, but just couldn’t catch her name, and it was only much later that I figured it was just as simple as Juni. They packed us off in a taxi and followed us on their bike, as we drove towards Sandeep’s aunts house. Sandeep himself didn’t stay in Kathmandu, but came down to be with us, and arranged one of his relatives house which was free for the weekend for us to stay in during the trip.

During the journey, I kept staring at the buildings and billboard advertisements, and chatting with the taxi driver in Hindi, which was quite impressive as I didn’t expect people to speak such fluent Hindi here. Soon I got to hear very fluent English too by some people, but will get to that. He was telling me how it was hot only on this day as it had been quite cold before this. We were wondering why people kept saying it would be cold here, as all of us were actually sweating. I was even glad I forgot my jacket back in Delhi, although that happiness was only ephemeral, as the weather changed quite rapidly in Kathmandu and even screwed up with many of our plans.

However, for now, it was dusty Kathmandu roads, en route to our temporary house. Once we got there, we were super impressed with the house. It had a beautiful garden at the entrance, wooden walls and carpeted floors on the inside, and we heaved a sigh of relief, as this was completely the opposite of all the dilapidated buildings and dust storm that we just passed through.

We sat down to discuss the plans, and Sachin brought out the collection of booze we had with us. We presented the JW to Sandeep and opened the rest of the bottles for us and I made everyone their drinks before we got down to serious discussion. G and Prabha joined us shortly, and they got KFC chicken for all of us, which we had with our drinks. The plan that finally fructified was a van being booked for the next day, to take us to a place called The Last Resort. Sachin kept wondering why we are making plans that is the last resort, and kept asking if there isn’t a better plan, till he figured the name of the place was called The Last Resort. Then G began asking why we should go there, and I told her it’s because it’s the Last Resort, and there isn’t one after that! That gave Sachin an idea to open one called the First Resort in Kanyakumari. Of course, it would never sound as cool as this one, and in fact, definitely not turn out to be anything like what Last Resort turned out to be.

Once we made those plans, we spent some time taking photos in the garden, jumping over a solitary plant in the middle of that garden and making funny poses all around. After all that romping, we took a van, a sort of tempo traveler, only it was a Toyota and hence way cooler than the tempo travelers of India, and drove to Thammel, a tourist hot spot of Kathmandu, and a place we were going to visit 4 times more in our short stay here.

The moment we hit Thammel, we were blown away with the place. So many little shops to shop from, so many cool places to hang out, it really was the most happening part of Kathmandu. While we walked around, we came across a corner shop that sold wraps. The place didn’t have any name, but it was bang opposite a famous bakery of Thammel called Pumpernickel – so that’s the landmark to finding this place, and it had some of the best shawarmas I’ve had. We just ordered one as we didn’t know how good the place would be, and continued walking, and that one wrap lasted less than 2 minutes, with all of us taking quick bites out of it. We soon reached the office of The Last Resort, and asked them for bookings for the bungee jump, and were really surprised to find that it was completely booked out. However, they had something called the Swing which they said could even booked at the venue and we decided to reach the place and try our luck with that.

We continued ahead and came across a banner on the road saying “Wish you a happy new year 2070”. Sandeep explained to us that according to the Nepal calendar, it had just turned 2070. We laughed so hard at that saying we just took a flight and ended up 57 years into the future!

We then reached a place called 18:47 The Factory, which was famous for live bands, and walked in to find a super crowded place with a small podium at one end where a band seemed to be packing off. We were late, but decided to have a drink there nevertheless as the place looked really nice. This turned out to be an awesome decision. We got lucky and managed to get a table right next to the podium which was now being setup with a DJ console, and ordered Carlsberg buckets that all of us began downing real quick as if it were a continuation from the afternoon’s drinking. We ordered some interesting starters too, and soon, began dancing on the podium, which was not what any of us thought we may do, but were sufficiently drunk to care less. In fact, it had been a long time since I danced as wild as that. I can remember times at NM, or early years of HUL when I danced as carefree as that. Juni and Sachin were providing all the entertainment; Juni dancing to songs replicating the exact video steps and Sachin singing as if he knew all the lyrics.

After a while, we decided to leave the place, but as we walked out to get a cab, it seemed the night life was really kicking in. Ladies looking as hot as they could were entering The Factory, and walking around the streets of Thammel as we walked out towards a cab. We were wondering why we are leaving when the party just about seems getting started, but Sandeep reminded us that we were to have an early morning, which remained the trend the next few days in fact, so we headed grudgingly back to the house and crashed for the night – an awesome start to the Nepal trip, as always, beginning with clubbing at one of the best places in the city 





Day 2 – April 20, Saturday

Sandeep knocked on our door at 6:30 in the morning and told us sheepishly that we are getting late. I told him not to worry and woke up immediately to get ready and then wake the rest up. By the time we got ready to leave, post gobbling up some bread and marmalade with tea, it was nearly 8:30a.m, which was almost an hour late as per Sandeep, and indeed ended up shifting all the plans for the day by that much time.

We boarded the tempo traveler like van, and began our journey towards the China border, to the famous Last Resort. We stopped on the way to buy some snacks, which was basically Wai Wai, a replacement to the Maggi of India, but which serves a far wider purpose, coz people even snack on it straight out of the pack. I was really enjoying this and downed an entire pack on my own. We made a pit stop at one place on the way, and had more Wai Wai there, this time cooked in a dry fashion. There was also a wet fashion that we could have opted for. So there were three different ways to having Wai Wai against just the one of Maggi’s.

It was almost noon when we reached the Last Resort, and had to climb a metal bridge hanging across a 160mt gorge. Halfway between this was where the Bungee jump and Swings were being arranged, and we had to cross over to the other side and book our slot before making the jump. So we went ahead and paid 5700 Nepali Rupees for each jump.

I noticed a sign board saying “free wifi” and decided to ask the guy about it so that I could check my mail. The following conversation ensued:

Me: Do you have wifi here?

Guy: yes, no service

Me: oh u don't have wifi here?

Guy: we have. It's no service

Me: !!!

Sachin: (checking his phone) oh, their wifi name itself is noservice

Me: ahh! Ok, what's the password

Guy: free wifi

Me: that's good. But what's the password

Guy: free wifi

Sachin: (checking phone again) ya, the password is actually freewifi



What a place! Wifi name is Noservice and password Freewifi!! :)



Anyway, we began toying with our phones till it was time to head along for the jump. G was the only one who was not coming along, and we handed over all the stuff from our pockets lest it goes flying into the river beneath, and made our way towards the leaping point.

The weather began to get colder, and Prabha was the first to take the leap. She did it quite easily. Jeethu went next, and I was fairly impressed with her even agreeing to do it. Her rationale was that if Sachin can do it then so can she. Her jump was far more eventful than Prabha’s, coz she kept talking to the instructor and asking questions to delay the jump. The guy finally got bugged and almost pushed her out. The moment she reached the other end of the swing, she actually began waiving out to us. She really seemed to be enjoying this. Juni went next, and she too took off very peacefully like Prabha. Sachin followed, and he managed to twist himself halfway through his jump which made him look the wrong way while swinging. Sandeep went next and he too completed peacefully. I went last, and by this time the skies had opened up and it began to drizzle. The last time I did the bungee in Bangalore also it had rained just like this. I kept telling myself that I should enjoy this fall more than I had at the last bungee because at that time I really shat bricks the few seconds after taking off and really didn’t want to do that this time, but instead, actually enjoy the drop, just like the recurring dreams I had as a kid of jumping off a building and free falling towards the earth, enjoying the breeze across my face as I fell.

But this time too, it just didn’t happen. The moment I got on the ledge, I began saying “oh shit”, and I said it all the way till I felt the rope tug when I reached the bottom of the jump. I was so famished with those 3 seconds of adrenalin rush, that once I began swinging like a pendulum at the base, I just wanted to relax and watch the surroundings and make up for not enjoying the first few seconds of the fall.

There was a guy at the bottom who lassoed a rope my way for me to pull myself back to shore, and as I came back, I kept thinking how I ended up becoming more of a pansy as I grew up. There was a time I used to ride a bike recklessly, get wasted easily, and look forward to doing adventure sports. Today I dread sitting on a bike and drive my car fairly slow, don’t get drunk the way I used to, and actually get more scared doing these adventure sports. Guess I should complete the other stuff that I want to do, like deep sea diving, and sky diving before I completely chicken out.

Anyway, we had to trek our way back to base from the river at the bottom, and this turned out to be the trekking that we thought we weren’t going to be doing in Nepal. And once we got back, we were ravenously hungry. The cold weather, coupled with the trek, and most importantly the 3 sec adrenalin rush got me completely starved. I couldn’t even talk to people and tell them what I experienced till I had sufficient food in the system. Thankfully we made it to the buffet on time, as lunch was only being served till 3p.m and it was already 3:30. This was when we first realized that starting an hour early would have really helped.

Once we were done eating, we went and watched our videos. I was just too embarrassed to watch my fall which G made worse by saying that everyone could hear me say “oh shit” and kept laughing when I jumped. So the last thing I wanted to do was pay money to collect the jump video which Jeethu and Sachin promptly did.

Once we were done, we walked back to the car. G once again had a tough time crossing the bridge because of her vertigo. So for her, this itself was an adventure. She walked slowly, clutching my hand and holding the rope and looking straight ahead taking baby steps as we moved along.

We then began our drive to Nagarkot, which was the closest hill station and tourist spot from Kathmandu, and finally reached there by 9:30p.m, once again a little too late, as the driver had to negotiate the hilly turns in pitch dark. This was the second time we felt that starting early would have helped.

By the time we checked in at the Hotel Hill View, and completed the half empty bottle of Gentleman Jack, and gorged on the momos and chowmein we bought along the way, it was nearly 11p.m and time to hit the bed as we had to wake up at 5a.m to catch the sunrise, which was the main purpose of traveling to Nagarkot.



Day 1 – April 21, Sunday

I woke up at 5a.m and was surprised to find that it was already day break. So I quickly got ready and woke the girls up. There was no water at this place and hence had to fill bottles and finish our jobs. We then climbed to the terrace and noticed that we stayed at the hotel that offered the best view in Nagarkot, as it was higher than the other hotels giving us a full 360 degree view of what was to be our first glimpse of the Himalayas. I had read that you can spot the Everest too from here, but that was misquoted as the caretaker clearly told us that it’s not possible.

We then had breakfast and left the place by 7a.m to make it to the Kathmandu airport for our flight to Pokhara at 9:20a.m. We felt bad about leaving Nagarkot so soon, but Sandeep insisted that Pokhara was far more beautiful. So we got to the airport, checked in, and drove in the bus till the plane, when we got to know that the weather is too bad to take off, and the bus turned back to the airport. We then waited at the airport drinking expensive coffee and it was taking for ever for the flights to resume. They soon began operating some of the other flights, but Pokhara was being delayed as the weather at Pokhara was too bad. It was nearly noon now, and we knew that it was no point going to Pokhara now, considering we had a flight out of the place at 11a.m the next day.

So we called Sandeep back to the aiport and he helped us cancel our tickets for a full refund. Then we took a cab and went back to his place in Kathmandu and got to know there was no water there as well. So we once again had to skip shower, and we were all so famished with the travel, that I was just lying on the sofa when Sachin and Sandeep said they would go and pick some food for us, that I just crashed. I woke up when I heard Sandeep’s voice and was wondering whether they had not left as yet. I came up to find them sitting with all the food they purchased, and noticed that the rest of the girls had also crashed just like me. I woke them all up to have the food, which was more momos and chowmein, but this time with Gorkha beer from Nepal, and we had our fill and went right back to sleep.

Once we woke up, we decided to head out to Thammel again. This time everybody did some shopping. G helped me pick a Pashmeena that I wanted my travels, and she herself picked a lot of items to gift people. We went back to our wraps corner shop and just settled there, ordering wraps and Nepal Ice Beer from the friendly waiter, who even excitedly took a lot of photos for us when we asked him to.

After spending a nice time chatting, eating and drinking right on the street, we headed back home and crashed. The next day was to be another early morning start, to visit the famous Pashupatinath temple of Kathmandu, followed by some other local attractions.



Day 4 – April 22, Monday

We started the day at 10a.m, after I made Wai Wai for everyone in the same manner the dry Wai Wai was made at the place we pit stopped en route to the Last Resort. We took a cab that was booked by Sandeep and the driver was a real nut case. He was dressed like a Speed Racer and tried to speak fashionable English, but was really irritating us by changing plans as per his convenience. G and Jeethu took turns giving it to him every time he behaved funny, and somehow lasted the day with him with Jeethu not completely lashing out at him.

We visited the Pashupatinath temple just when the Abhishek was going on, after which the temple immediately closed, so we were just in time, and after this visit, the weather had completely changed and it was sunny the rest of our stay in Kathmandu.

We then visited the Patan Darbar Square, which was declared a world heritage site and used international funding to keep the place from completely falling apart after it was fairly badly damaged in the 1934 earth quakes with little support from the Nepal government on its restoration, when they clearly had better places to spend their money.

We took a lot of photos here, and then visited a restaurant called Patan De Café which Sandeep suggested is the best place here, and it turned out to be the best place we ate on this trip, as it served authentic Newari food, which is the local cuisine of Nepal. Most Nepali cuisine was very Indian, or at best momos and chowmein, and this was the first place we were ordering things that sounded different and tasted incredibly eclectic.

We started with something called Chatamari. This was an akki roti type of Dosa with chicken filling. G wanted to stick to a regular Chicken Shaslik and that came along next. Jeethu was wanting to eat Cheese Pakoras for a long time, and finally found it in this place and ordered that. Sachin and I ordered something Sandeep recommended called Choyala, which was basically Beef chilly, but it was actually the most amazing beef fry I had ever tasted. It was made up of some spices that really lent a nice tangy taste to the meat that I just completely enjoyed. We were quite filled with all this food, and to conclude our meal, we decided to order something called the Wo, which was the only thing left on the menu that sounded authentic and which we hadn’t tried. Now just like the Chatamari and the Choyala, there were different types of Wo, which were basically the meat fillings in the dish.

Sachin calls the waiter to order and the following conversation ensues:

Sachin: do u have wo?

Waiter: kyan wo?

Sachin: haan wo

Waiter: no no. Kyan wo (pointing at menu)

Sachin: oh, kyan wo means veg wo

Waiter: laa wo?

Sachin: haan, laao

Waiter: no no. Laa wo (pointing at menu again)

Sachin: oh, laa wo means chicken wo

Waiter: kyan wo? Laa wo?

Sachin: kyan wo laao

Waiter: kyan wo? Or laa wo?

Sachin: kyan wo kyan wo

2 mins later, waiter arrives

Waiter: kyan wo. Khao



We resumed our journey and headed to the Swaymbunath temple. This was another famous temple in Kathmandu, and just like Pashupatinath was to Shiva, this was to Buddha. It was really nice to see the same city offer wonderful temples to both religions this way. Swaymbunath offered a nice view of Kathmandu city from where it stood, so more photos began clicking away, and next we had an option of visiting Basantpur, which was another old city of Kathmandu like the Patan Darbar Square, or simply head to Thammel and then back home. Since we didn’t have much time on us with the driver making a fuss that his time with us was only till 7pm, and also because we were quite tired with the days travel, we decided to just head to Thammel.

This was our third straight visit to the place, and we thought people over there would start recognizing us by now. G was talking about a restaurant called New Orleans, and I thought we should visit that place on our last evening in Kathmandu. So I went there and placed orders for everyone and sipped on an Everest beer, while Jeethu and Sachin went to the Last Resort office to collect their CD’s and G and Prabha did some last minute shopping.

As soon as the food came, we left the place, which was a bit of a disappointment, as New Orleans was actually a very neat place to hangout. However, with the driver continuing to call us, and with Sandeep having booked an early morning mountain flight and ensuring we once again wake up early, fourth day in a row, we decided to head back soon.

When we got home, we found Sandeep’s aunt and uncle whose house this actually was had returned from their trip. So we spoke to them for some time, and I presented the bottle of JW to uncle, which was initially for Sandeep, but as suggested by Sandeep ended up being a gift for uncle. And we soon got down to eating the food that we had ordered. Aunty prepared some fried fish for us well which we ate, and soon hit the bed.



Day 5 – April 23, Tuesday

We woke up at 4:30 to get ready for our early morning Mountain Flight which was to take us to see the Himalayas, and really hoped that the weather would stay sunny the way it did post our Pashupatinath temple the previous day. We got late leaving, and reached the airport only by 6a.m for our 6:15a.m flight. We walked straight through the airport till we reached the bus, and this time, successfully made the trip inside the plane. What was even better was that the weather continued to remain amiable, and we got a very clear view of the Himalayas, which on many occasions turns a dampener as the clouds get in the way of the mountain view. We saw all the different peaks, with the pilots as well as the air hostess explaining to us what the different peaks were, and finally when the Mount Everest came along, everybody was out of their seats and staring out of the windows to capture photos of the worlds highest mountain. I was super thrilled seeing the one thing I’ve always wanted to. The pyramids and the aurora borealis are the next in line of a long wait.

Once we got back, we decided to spend time outside itself as we had already packed our entire luggage, and as always, decided to go back to Thammel. We went to New Orleans again as we hadn’t spent much time there the previous evening, and ordered a nice breakfast for everyone there.

I ordered a Nepali omlette which tasted very similar to the Indian masala omlette, while the others ordered bacon filled croissants which actually tasted really good. Once we were done with the food, I dropped Jeethu and Sachin home and came back to pick G and Prabha and head to the airport.

At the Kathmandu airport, the Jet checkin lady was really sweet to me and smiled nicely saying she would be giving me the first row. Prabha was ragging me saying she was hitting on me, and I ended up thinking it was true when she turned up at the boarding counter as well, and this time, upgraded me to Business Class. Once we were inside, G also got upgraded, and we ended up spending our first flight together in Business Class. The air hostess was really surprised that the 2 of us were randomly upgraded, when even our regular seats in the flight were not together. G’s was with Prabha while I was in the first row.

But anyway, we made the most use of it watching movies, while I bottomed 3 large Black Labels making me reasonably drunk. G was not at all happy with how high I ended up getting on the flight, but I just couldn’t help it. Not sure if it was the fatigue from the trip, the fact that I hadn’t showered in days, or just the thought of having to get back to office and deal with all those mails that I kept reading every now and then I got access to the internet.

But I was nice and high and crashed on our bed around 6:30p.m itself, only to wake the next day morning directly. It was the longest I’d slept in ages, and was a much needed break after a well travelled trip.

So that’s how the Nepal trip panned out. Some quick pointers:

1) Indian currency works everywhere, however, some people make a fuss about 500 and 1000 rupee notes – so better to keep 100 rupee notes

2) Weather is super unpredictable, so keep sufficient days during the visit here, and remain flexible, as plans are likely to change

3) Kathmandu is a city struggling to keep itself together, so it’s better to avoid the dusty roads and head out to the numerous scenic places to visit, all which are connected by local flights like Buddha Air, Yeti Air and Simtrik Airlines

4) Indulge in adventure sports like bungee jumping, rafting or just trekking. They are the best things on offer in Nepal. Of course, there is an option to gamble as well, which is open only to outsiders and not for local Nepalese

5) Definitely try out the Newari cuisine. They are like Dosas and Uttapams with meat and spices we may have never tasted in India.

6) Club late into the nights on the streets of Thammel. The world comes to party there and the atmosphere is electric, especially after mid-night

The highlights for me personally:

1) Newari Choyala

2) The 3 second rush doing the Swing. Wonder if I would ever do a bungee or a swing again, so this may as well be the last time.

3) Trying out 3 types of beer – Nepal Ice, Everest and Gorkha, and I think Nepal Ice takes the gold. It was real smooth beer with 7% alcohol

4) Getting to see the Mt. Everest from the skies, because the next time I see it, it would be from the Everest Base Camp