Ping

Pinging the blogosphere...
I am back!

 

 

 

 

 

@ St.Mary's Island

Gilli Danda

 

Gilli Danda!

• In Galicia, a similar game is called bilharda.
• Philippines, a game known as syatong is similar to gilli-danda.
• In Italy a similar game known as "Lippa", "Lipe", "Tirolo", or "S-cianco" is shown in the movie Watch Out We Are Mad.^[3][4][5]
• In the United States, a similar game is called pee-wee.^[6]
• Dainty is a street ball game played in Schnitzelburg, Louisville, in the United States
• In England, a similar game was called Tip-cat
• In Poland a similar game is known, called Klipa
• In Malaysia a similar game is known as konda kondi

- Courtesy Wiki

Was there at GOD's own country

Finally the much awaited trip to Kerala, got realized!

Last week I was on holiday @ God's own country, nothing better I could have chosen. Was indeed a memorable tour! A detailed post about the whole tour, the places to visit, the budget etc..will be up soon.

 

Monemvasia - an exotic destination

I would like to dedicate my 200th post to Monemvasia...It's a place not known to many in this world...but a memorable one atleast for the three of us [Swad, Venky & Yours truly]. For more details about the place click on the wiki link

I had earlier written 4 posts on the Greece trip, giving an account of all adventurous events [ delightful & sorrowful ones],

Part - I
Part - II
Part - III
Part - IV
                                               Greece Country Map

The route map; Swadheen is the man, who drove all the way single handedly. I really wonder now how he managed to do that feat then. I couldnt appreciate it then as I never drove a car before. Now that I drive my own car, I feel it was one hell of a drive. It is definitely not so simple as it seems from the map.
Our itinerary was like this
1) Nafplio to Tripoli
2) Tripoli to Sparta
3) Sparta to Aeropolis (via Githeo) 
4) Aeropolis to Githeo
5) Githeo to Monemvasia
6) Monemvasia to Olympia [most difficult part as it went through one of the most dangerous ghat roads in the world but Swad pulled it off coolly]
7)Olympia to Nafplio
                                                     Route Map

                                                              Monemvasia from top

 

The trip to Greece - Part IV

Recap

Part I - It all started like this  , Nice to Greece, which covered the journey from Nice to Ancona and the encounter with the Police there

Part II - Then once we were in Greece, Ferry to Patras and Athens,we had many interesting experiences one of them being the friendship with a thief.

Part III - This had a chain of upsets, which made the trip seem like one of the unluckiest ones.Athens to Athens, I ended this post saying that the next part would tell on how I  was molested by police and the transporter like car chase. For all that excitement, you may go ahead clicking the read more

Trip to Villagio - Venice in Doha

Dear Reader,
Today I will take you to the Italian village in Doha..and I will be your guide for this trip ..I am sure I will not bore you :)


Girls will find the last pic interesting :)...

The trip to Greece - Part III

Recap: It all started with this Greece trip-Part I , then the twists and turns continued even in the next part Greece trip-PartII.

So reluctantly we went to his friend's place. It was a shop and I don't remember what they were selling. It was dark inside. He took us to a small dingy room on top, to which there was ladder inside the shop. He made us sit in that small room and went down to talk to his friend. We all had a big question mark on our faces, to what were we up to. After a while he returned with a sorry face and told us that his friend couldn't give his car. We were inf act happy for that and said it was ok with us as we had changed our plan to go by train...Then he started telling about his story...may be he was guilty about his current situation..so he told his whole saga of how he became a refugee in Greece after having traveled many countries.

We were surprised to know about how corrupt the Greece government officials were by cheating the UN on funds allocated for refugees and not giving the same to the refugees, instead harassing them.

Strangely he had some views against Islam and that's when we started talking and trying to argue over that. He is definitely a well read person. He said he was a part-time journalist when he was in Dhaka, and that was evident with the logical views he had. His dream was to go to France and start a fresh life. He proclaims himself to be a good drummer and can sing also. The situation was getting lighter with all that cool talk and just at the moment when we were about to leave. He stopped us and invited all three of us for dinner. Now somewhere at the back of my mind..it was like the crocodile trapping monkey story for me...He was requesting us repeatedly...but we declined the offer very gently saying we had to go Kalamata and we had our return ferry booked. And also we were getting late to catch the train from Athens. So he gave up on that and gave me a box of biscuits as a parting gift. We then rushed back to our hostel.

*Upset 1*

This train to Kalamata was supposed to start from a station which was quite far off from the main station,Larissa, and has a different route. We decided to walk till that station. It could have easily been about 3-4 kms. After all that walking with heavy luggage, finally when we reached the place we discover that the station was abandoned long back and no trains run through that. Imagine how our situation was like, walked 4kms with almost 15kgs of luggage each. This was like a big blow to us. We kept aside our kanjoosgiri(stinginess) and then immediately took a taxi to the main station. There was only one train running on that night which was to Thessaloniki. Now as usual we wanted to skip the night stay at hotel by sleeping in the train which was free us. So we checked the chart..it halts at a place called Larisa(different one) around 3am. And there was a train from there back to Athens around 4am.So we thought this was the best way to spend our night.
In all this hurry we couldnt have our dinner, It was the same biscuits given by Shabeer we had for that night.. I take this blog as an opportunity to thank him. And I feel really bad to doubt his character. Shabeer, I wish you realize your dream of starting a fresh life, InshaAllah

*Sexual+Racial Discrimination*

We then boarded into the first class compartment in the train.. There were 2 ladies in our cabin who were very scared looking at us. Right from the time we got into the train they were very skeptical about us. One of them even complained to the railway police thinking we were some jerks....

The trip to Greece - Part II

All that drama didn't deterioate our enthusiasm levels. We were like kids entering disney world. After the 2 days of train journey, the cabin in ferry was like heaven. We went out to the deck area took snaps(this is very important for us). I am generally not acrophobic but if it is water underneath then I get really scared.

We gorged on our bread, salaamis and cheese stuff and crashed to sleep. I don't know about Venky and Swadheen but all the time while I was trying to sleep I was thinking on what would I do if something like titanic happens to the ferry. The next day morning we got up early in the morning to find some good view. It was a great feeling standing at the edge of the ship. When you look at the mountains around, you feel the ferry is hardly moving, but when you look down at the white foam formed in water as the ferry cruises in, you realise how fast the ferry is running. In the below you can see Swadheen, Me and Venky (L->R). Check out the path of the ferry in the other pic.

* Patras *

At around 10am we reached Patras.We didnt know where to get out of the port, so we were randomly walking..only to be picked by the police standing at some place. And then it starts all over again. One of them calls out "so you Pakistani or Bangladeshi??".. Then we say "No! we are Indians". Then the normal tradition of showing passport. They ask some basic questions, Why have you come etc. It's so boring like a recorded audio we say the same blah blah story everywhere.  We somehow managed to get into the middle of the Patras city. It's a cramped city with narrow roads, too many shops, open restaurants etc. There were so many restaurants that you get nice smell of kebaps etc all along. You will see the local Greeks enjoying the food in these restaurants and then you see some dark people(don't mean to offend anyone) everywhere probably illegal immigrants selling pirated DVDs, CDs. Before starting...

The trip to Greece - Part I

I got this wonderful opportunity to tour all over Europe during my exchange program with the college, CERAM (Now Skema) Business School, at Nice France. In a span of 3 months I had been to around 13 countries totally and of all the trips one thing which is most memorable is the trip to Greece. I believe even Swadheen and Venky would agree to this. 

It was a 7 day trip and during those 7 days we went through so many hard ships which makes the trip a lifelong memorable one.  The encounters with the notorious Italian police, the fake police in Thessaloniki, the hostile Greek police, acquaintance with the thief and the transporter  like car chase are some of the highlights of this trip. So here we go…

To many people Greece is some kind of an exotic place, owing to the great history it has. The first thing that used to come to my mind when someone says Greece was the Trojan war. And in the recent past it was Sparta from the movie 300. Lets not talk about the Euro crisis. So was hoping to see remnants of those wars, architecture etc. And I was also eager to see the Greek beauties (from the famous Helen of Trojan war). In fact I dint know any other female character apart from her. So with that little knowledge about Greece was a lot excited about going to Greece.

Now our base location was Nice, France. From there...

My dream is to fly over the rainbow, so high

I like this song . You may find the original one here. Yves La Rock

When I was a kid, like most of us, I used to look high up in the sky at aeroplanes and wonder when I would get to fly in a plane and when I would get to travel to other countries.

Used to dream of flying in plane, served unlimited chocolates by hot air-hostesses, flanked by clouds on both the sides of the plane, look down at houses and lilliputs through the window......

Little did I know that air travel is not all hassle free thing.

As of today I can say I am a frequent flier, but not of any particular airline.

 

Just for the numbers sake, I took around 60 flights so far starting from the first one in 2003( Anil,Meghamsh,Anurag,Keerthi & Bhargav should remember this for pushing me into the plane as I was sick then). And I've seen about 6% of the globe and been to around 18 countries.

Now coming to the interesting part, some of the incidents I faced. I can bet I've experienced all types of issues with air travel except to the fatal ones (touchwood)!. Some are to be blamed on me also.

Flight delay and wait at airports.

Itinerary:- Hyderabad->Chennai->Muscat->Riyadh.

This was in the year 2006 when I was going to Saudi for my onsite project at Riyadh. A direct flight generally takes 4hrs(Emirates). But the great TCS booked me this long itinerary just to show off their loyalty towards Gulf Air(cheap flight). My luggage was a huge suitcase, 1 backpack and a laptop bag. This was my first time going out of the country and was going alone as the other person who was supposed to travel with me dropped out at the last moment. And that too it was to gulf land so there were butterflies in my stomach. Took a Kingfisher airline at Hyderabad Begumpet airport to Chennai and reached at around 8pm. My next flight was at 4am. I sat there in airport watching at people moving in and out, for me every minute was like an hour. That was one of the most boring moments in my life. I sat till around 10pm cursing TCS everynow and then, then comes the nature call.. I had to relieve myself urgently..had this whole luggage in front of me and cant leave it also...kept holding it for long time and when I realised I cannot any more I took the trolley kept my luggage on it and pushed it till the toilet, then I discover the toilet is so narrow cant take the trolley inside.. I looked around desperately..at one moment I thought I will leave it there..but somehow dint, I thought of asking someone to watch my luggage and was looking for reliable people around....then suddenly I spotted a cloak room far outside the airport..phew~..I went out showed the security the eticket.. dumped my luggage in the cloak room..kept my lappy with me..obviously...felt relieved....thanked GOD for saving me :)..the flight was delayed by 3hrs..it took off at 7am..was awake all the time..after reaching Muscat again there was delay with the next flight..around 6hrs. Finally when I reached Riyadh..I realised it took me 30hrs to reach that place.

Note:- Never ever board a Gulf Air flight. It's worse than a red bus(literally). All kind of mass and cheap people board the flight. By cheap I dont mean the people are poor. They behave insanely. Trying to touch the airhostess, throw the food stuff down, keep the used plates along the passage,fight with airhostess for an extra drink..etc..

Sleeping in airport

Itinerary:- Kolkata->Hyderabad

This was in the year 2008 when I was in my first year in IIM Calcutta, I was coming home to Hyderabad. I booked the Kingfisher flight which was at morning 6:50am. The airport is 50kms away from the campus, so we generally leave around 4am by taxi. Since I was traveling alone I dint want to take chance so I kept awake the whole night, at around 3 am called the taxiwalla, and reached the airport around 5am. Got my boarding pass and the security check was also done. The area near the gate was crowded with people waiting to board. I saw there was still 1hr time for boarding. I somehow managed to get a seat. Was looking at the clock..and in no time I was in dreams..I heard an announcement that the flight was delayed by 15mins. To this day also am not sure if it was in my dream or in real. So then I thought, ok I can sleep for some more time.....

After a long time...I woke up from my deep sleep and it was the pin drop silence which disturbed me..... There was no one around me...Then I remembered that I had a flight to take. I dint find the kingfisher flight in the charts also...ran to one kingfisher crew asked him about the flight. That man said the flight already left and I could see the frustration in his face, he yelled at me asking where I was all the time when the announcements were going on. I said "I was sleeping here(pointing at the seat)" and asked them how could they miss me. Then there was another crew member with a sorry face. I asked them, "now what? Can I get another flight immediately?"...At that moment..there was one girl(Kingfisher crew) standing at that gate.. shouting at me to run fast.. I ran fast towards the gate..then she told me get into the bus immediately..she ticked on my boarding pass..and I jumped into the bus..It dropped me next to the Kingfisher flight and left..... I was a like lilliput standing all alone next to this giant airbus plane.... Then after 5mins arrived the stairs, the captain opened the door for me. It was one embarrassing moment for me. I just avoided everyone staring at me.....could see some awkward faces...and murmurs..aaah wwoo...I just sat at my seat..slept till the breakfast arrived..and in no time we reached hyderabad..and even till then..I couldn't believe that I actually managed to take the flight.

Ok the story is not yet over...

Home alone in Doha

I am back to my solitude..and ya that's when I remember my alter-ego, the unknown (aparichithudu).
Its been 3 days here in the gulf land. I am in Doha, capital city of Qatar.
For a change there were no hassles this time during the whole journey.
It's my first weekend here and I am so bored. It is almost half the boiling point outside so cant dare to get out.
I am all alone in this 2BHK flat as my other roommate has gone to India to get his visa renewed. The unsecured wifi which we shamelessly steal also connects intermittently. And naturally even though you have some pending work at office it doesnt appeal much to work on weekends.


Thanks to the pirates, got to watch 'Tere Bin Laden' and 'Kattha Meetha' online. Both were not that funny as I expected to be. But TBL was better. In Kattha Meetha I felt, the stupidity part of Akshay was dragged to much. Trisha's character was crappy. It was like any another supporting actor and not a lead role. It wasn't that impactful.


Owing to my joblessness I say(but some say narcissism) I kept myself busy with self photography.
Here are my faces with different moods.
Weak-hearted ones should strictly avoid.
Children are supposed to browse under parental guidance.

Scary faces


It is not my homesickness but this time I want to go back to India soon. I've some plans for future , If all goes well InshaAllah I will be back in 2months.

The party at Darjeeling

All of us were high :)..yea at 6900ft above sea level

The Trip to North East - Part II

After the long 1st part now comes the 2nd part, I've no idea how long this one would be.

So after the adventurous trip from darjeeling we finally reached Gangtok. We checked into this hotel called Shonali international. A 3 bedroom suite costed us around 450 bucks..Now the 3 bedroom is not a room with 3 beds..But a bed which is large enough to accommodate 3 normal sized people...so our soham was obvious left over. He got a special bed. The worst part was there was water problem all over Gangtok. It was the 3rd day they were facing that problem. The hotel service people were kind enough to get water in buckets for us whenever we asked for. Another strange thing about Gangtok is that the city sleeps early. By 8:30pm all shops and hotels close down. We went out at 9pm and there were hardly any hotels. There was one hotel called Bayul which was open at that time with no customers in it. We were happy to find it open and went in and sat there. The lone server gave us a menu and asked what we would like to order. Whatever we asked for he said it wasn’t available..finally we asked him to get whatever he has.. for that he said he just had 2plate chicken and no rotis... we got pissed and left that hotel...and then went further..finally we found a hotel called Tashi Delek restaurant. This one is big and has an open air restro also. We got something there but it was not upto our satisfaction levels. By the way Tashi Delek is "Namaste" in Sikkimese.

While coming back to our hotel we took a taxi, thats when we met this person Dhava(Dhaba). He is a very active person. He told he would arrange for our Nathula and Lachung trip, initially we were a little sceptical about the guy so we didn’t pay him any money but later we realised that this guy is a gentle soul. Infact most of the Sikkimese people are very cordial. They respect the tourists because tourism is their daily bread and butter. So you can trust any Sikkimese person. The next day we left to Lachung which is around 150kms from Gangtok. The trip costed us 800 per head. This is because it's off peak season else it could go up till 2000.

The way to Lachung is one of the worst ghat roads I've ever seen. There were even quite a few of breathtaking moments while going. You see warnings about shooting stones and landslides. The road is narrow and it is a 2 way road. The driver of our cab was Mr. Dhrubha. He is one arrogant rash driver. He doesnt like following any vehicle..He will do anything to overtake that vehicle. So just imagine with all this it was one hell of a ride to Lachung.

The first stop was at “Seven sister falls”. Its called so cos the waterfall before touching the ground hits seven rocks and changes its course. We stayed for sometime and took some pics.


The waterfalls in background



Then we moved on to a place called Rang Rang, where we had our lunch in a hotel. We got nice dal and fish curry there. This food was also included in the package.



The next stop was some waterfalls I don’t remember the name, If some one knows the name of this waterfalls please to update me. We took some pics there, I almost broke my bones. I slipped on a rock but was lucky to get away with just some scratches. Then we moved on.



We were getting closer to the mountains covered with ice. It was getting colder and dark. We stopped at another water falls. This one is the scariest waterfall I've ever seen in whole of life time. It falls from a great height. The height of which is not mentioned anywhere. This waterfall is called Amitabh falls for the obvious reasons. The water there was so cold that I was shivering inspite of wearing 2 shirts and a jacket over that.


You can see me in the pic..


A full size photo of Amitabh falls

At around 6pm we finally reached Lachung where we checked into a small hotel. By then it was pitch dark over there and there were no street lights but still we decided to check out the village. We walked for quite a long distance, The following pic shows the wooden houses in the village.


Can you see a kid posing for the photo

The next day morning we left to the place called Yumthang, where you get to do skiing but to our disappointment the way to Yumthang was blocked because of an avalanche. So we stopped 7kms before Yumthang and played with ice over there. We were disappointed with the trip because we couldnt do the skiing which was the main reason for coming to the place.


Snowman

We left to Gangtok that afternoon around 2pm. In the mid way there was some landslide and all the vehicles were stuck up on either side of the road. It took around 4hrs for the whole thing to clear up. The BRO came and cleared it using bull dozers and dynamites. We explored the hilly village in mean time.


The Landslide

Finally we reached Gangtok at around 9pm. By then our hero Dhava was ready with all processing for Nathula. Dear readers for Nathula you need to get permits done a day before and it’s better you get it from some travel agent. We checked into another hotel called Viewpoint hotel. This hotel costed us 550 per day and even in this theres one large bed and an extra bed. I chose the extra bed :). We then planned to go to casino but the hotel wala was very strict he told that he would close the gate of the hotel at 10:30 and after that even if some one bangs the gate no one would open, he even told us to check out if we want to go out. So we gave up the idea of Casino. That night me and Soham tried weed :) I dint get high with it may be cos of the quality of the weed. This is the first time I tried and probably the last time also.

The next day we got up around 8, and got ready for the Nathula trip.
The driver of this cab was Sunil. Along with us there were 2 families. A couple sat in the front seat. The second family was a Rajasthani family consisting of mom, dad and 2 sons. They were so excited that we were from IIM Calcutta :). They asked us to guide their son, Most of the time I was silent but my friends Soham and Swadheen were active in giving free fundaes :). Somehow the discussion went on about girls. Thats when the lady told that girls in Darjeeling are so beautiful for which 3 of us concurred but our ultra pseud Kalyan refuted saying girls in Europe are beautiful. There was a pin drop silence after that then I again broke the silence saying I am a desi and I like only desi stuff ;)

We reached Nathula at around 11pm. It is at 14000 feet above sea level and cold and windy. My hands shivered even after wearing gloves. I couldnt click the camera properly, It was that bad. We went close to the gate,which was electrified, and took pics. The Chinese rang a siren and warned us. Our Accountant was shouted by Chinese military people personally when he stepped on the barbed wire.


That's where we were warned by Chinese


Look at the Chinese army man looking at my friend's feet.

After this we left to another point called Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir. It was constructed in memory of a person named Harbhajan singh who was in army and died during his service. It seems after his death he appeared in dreams of people in army and warned them of all impending dangers like avalanches, attacks etc. The army people are staunch believers of him and whoever passes by that route stop in front of it and leave only after offering prayers.


Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir

We bought some souvenirs there. Then we left to Tsomgo lake a video of which I already uploaded. In simple words it's heaven on earth. For a beautiful description do check the video. We took a yak ride there. The Yak on which I sat was called Jack.


Tsomgo Lake

Then we went to Sherbathang market where we bought some more souvenirs and had our lunch( wai wai and chowmin).


Hot Hot Wai Wai


We then left to Gangtok and reached there around 8pm. We requested the hotel wala to keep the gate open atleast for that one time for us. He was very strict over that but after repeated request he told he will keep it open till 11:30pm and will close the very next minute. We thought something was better than nothing and left to the Casino. It was a nice experience there. We initially lost our money in roulette but later with some strategy made up for all the loss, We then left the place and while coming out we met 2 of our friends who were coming to the Casino, we again went back to Casino accompanying them. This time we made losses again but were not confident enough so left. Finally it was not worth it :(

We went back to hotel at around 10:30pm itself. We talked to Dhava about our plan for the last day. We wanted to cover the Rumtek monastery, Lingdum monastery and Teestha water rafting.

The next day we checked out the hotel at around 9am and got into the taxi. The driver of the taxi was Subash who was again very cooperative; He drove really fast for us so that we could cover all those places. We were running out of time cos we had the Calcutta train to catch on that day evening at Siliguri. We first went to this place called Banjhakhri falls, this is the worst place and I dont suggest anyone to visit this place. I think may be kids in KG may enjoy that place else it’s not worth it.

After that we went to Lingdum monastery. It was big and very peaceful.


You are supposed to roll that and chant this mantra "Om Mani Padme Hung"

Then we left for Rumtek monastery. This monastery is one of the most visited monsateries in Asia. A lot of Bhutanese visit this place. Theres a small book shop cum canteen to the right side in the monastery owned by one cute lady. She told she is from Kharaghpur. We bought the Buddhist incense sticks over there. Then we visited a Tibet curio, you get all antique stuff there, outside the monastery. The owner of the shop is Ms. Siring an old lady. We bought a lot of goodies there.


Rumtek Monastery

We skipped our lunch to do the rafting as we running out of time. The place where we do rafting is Millie. The rafting thing costed us 1400 Rs and a 100 more for photography. It was a nice experience rafting. We did for almost 8kms. The wind was very strong and it was difficult rowing there. We even got into the river and swimming for sometime. Then after rowing for 8kms we finally reached our destination. We were shameless to change our dress on the main road though there was changing room just to save 15 bucks ;)


After we were done with the rowing

We then left to New Jalpai Guri by our taxi. Thats it.. This is how our trip to North East ended. It was an awesome experience and I would like to suggest all my readers to try visiting North East atleast once in your lifetime :)

Things to keep in mind
1) Keep winter clothing when you are visiting North-East
2) Vaseline, Boroplus are must
3) Sikkimese people are very courteous
4) Kolkata mobiles are not roaming in Sikkim

Tsomgo Lake

Tsomgo Lake also called Changu Lake is at an altitude of 12,310 ft on the Gangtok - Nathula highway. It's a beautiful lake and see yourself to believe it.

Credits:-
Background music : Swadheen's Sony Ericcson mobile
Narration : Soham
Camera : My Nokia 5700 Xpress Music

Sikkimese warriors

The Kid with black jacket is Deepak and the one with yellow shirt told his name thrice but I couldnt get it :(

The view from Tigerhills

The trip to North-East - Part I

I am back home after a week long trip to north east :)
I should say this one week I went through an experience worth a lifetime.
I've seen a lot of places and met people from different backgrounds.

Before I write in detail about them I would like to inform one thing to my readers that the real beauty is in north east, both the people and the places. A special mention to the women in darjeeling. They are simply mind blowing, just 2 eyes weren't sufficient :) to watch them. We met a rajasthani family while we were going to Nathula, and the lady herself told us that gals in darjeeling are very beautiful. She said that each one of them looked like kareena kapoor(her definition of beauty) and they dont need any makeup.

Male readers:- if you are single or looking for a change try your luck in darjeeling :)
I wish I get placed in darjeeling ;) after my MBA.

Title :- The trip to North-East

Starring :

Swadheen ( The Accountant - The whole trip was accounted by him, GOD knows the facts but according to him the trip costed altogether 21000/- ; by the way our man is interning with PWC)

Kalyan ( The Cameraman - The whole trip was captured by his Lumix, 18x optical,10Mpxl camera)

Soham ( The Late lateef - Right from the start of the trip he was the main reason for every delay, but whatever it may be without him the trip wouldnt have been so exciting. He was more like our guide)

finally
Yours faithfully ( Nothing :(..I was just a participant)

Disclaimer: All the persons in the story are real and any resemblance is well intended and is not coincidence.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th Mar 7:30pm - We were still in campus at that time, With great difficulty we got 2 taxis and rushed to the Sealdah railway station. The train left the station at 10:00pm. We played cards for sometime and then crashed. It was very cold in the middle of the night and none of us got blankets with us, we tried to cover ourselves with whatever possible, tees,jackets etc.

7th Mar 8:00am - Reached New Jalpaiguri(NJP) station.It's 14kms from Siliguri. We had our breakfast there and took a sharing cab to Darjeeling. On the way we went through places like Kurseong,Sonada,Ghoom and finally reached Darjeeling. It got colder as we climbed higher. Thanks to Soham we got a wonderful hotel(Bird'eye view hotel) to stay.


Bird's eye view hotel


The hotel is adjacent to Cedar Inn(Where Shahrukh stayed for Main Hoon Na). The owner of the hotel is Mr. Uttam, a very friendly person. I'll give his phone number to people only on mail request. The best part was the bonfire, which is very unique to this hotel, on one side you can see the whole of Darjeeling and the other side the bonfire and booze.

Bonfire and Booze Party
(Uttam,Kalyan,Soham,Unknown; L->R)

8thMar 4:00am - We got up early to leave to the Tiger hills. It was so cold that we were shivering even after wearing sweaters and jackets. The spot at Tiger Hills has 3 floors and for each floor there is a different charge (I dont remem how much, may be our accountant will be able to tell this). From Tiger Hills you get a wonderful view of the Kangchen Dzonga (Kanchenjunga) , the third highest peak in the world, and the sunrise.

Sun rise view from Tiger Hills



Kangchen Dzonga view from Tiger Hills
(!#%#,Kalyan; L->R)

After that we visited the Ghoom monastery. It's a small monastery but well maintained.


Ghoom Monastery

Then we went to the Batasia loop. Here the train track is looped to handle the sudden decrease in gradient. I dont remember the name of the person. Our guide, Mr. late lateef, told some story about the
civil engineer and his wife how they resolved this. Here wore the traditional Nepali and had a photo shoot.


(Late Lateef aka Fatso aka Haggar, Cameraman aka Mamma mia, yours truly unknown, The Accountant; L->R)

We reached our hotel at around 10:00 am, thats when our care taker(Mr.Uttam) told us that the following day there is a strike in Darjeeling and no vehicles or shops will run. We thought over for some time and decided that it's better for us to leave the same day to Sikkim so that we can save one day. One of us,none other than the fatso cried over this plan. He wanted to visit the joey's pub and get drunk. We all said no for this as it was sheer waste of time and one full day was not worth for joey's pub. He had no other choice but to comply to our plan.

The next important thing for us was to find out the taxi timings for Sikkim. We wanted to take the last possible taxi to sikkim so that we could cover as much as possible of Darjeeling. First we visited the St.Pauls School, where the shooting of Main Hoon na took place, but to our disappointment we were not allowed inside. We then went to the city center to find out taxis for Sikkim. After a lot of researching finally got one, where we booked seats in a share taxi which would leave at 3:00pm(the last cab to Sikkim). It costed us 500/-(for 4 people).

Now we had 4 hours so we decided to visit the zoo. It was quite a distance away from our place so took a taxi for 100/-. There were a few shops outside the zoo with nice paintings and handicrafts. We bought some paintings and other stuff. After all that we were left with 1.5hrs, We thought it will not be possible for us to make it if we go to the nice chinese restaurant(Lakit) near our guest house, so we decided to eat at a chinese restaurant near the zoo itself.


Red Panda

We ordered for 3 chowmin and 1 fried rice(that was for me). The food was not so great. They served drinking water in bottles. I thought we bought drinking water so picked the bottle, later when we walked quite a distance from the hotel all my friends laughed at me for stealing the bottle. We took a taxi back to the city center. Once we reached there we then thought it would be better if we let Mr.Uttam know that we are leaving in an hour so that he can be ready with all the bills. His number was only with Soham but to everyone's shock he had no mobile with him. He cried saying he lost the mobile. We had just 45mins left with us. Our Accountant told he would go to the chinese restaurant to find the mobile and will wait at the Sikkim cab stop. We three of us left to our guest house.

Our man, Mr. Soham, stuffed himself so much that he had to rush to loo urgently. We took a taxi back to hotel. While climbing up in one of the steep uphills the car coming on the other side got stuck and we all had to get down to push the car out for sometime. It was one of the most desperate situations, at one side we were running out of time and at the other side Mr.Soham was holding his butt :). Finally the taxi could make it and we reached the hotel. We had just 10 mins left with us. We quickly packed our stuff and got into the taxi. Then Swadheen called up and told that he found the mobile but I didnt tell Soham about this. We were a little confident that our Swadheen would hold the Sikkim taxi sometime for us. We reached the place in about 10 mins and were happy that the Sikkim taxi has not arrived yet. We all sat on the steps of the shop next to this stop and were talking about the whole incident. Thats when the taxi driver popped up. He had the camera with him, He told he came to return that. This one was a shocker for everyone. We were happy that we got back all the stuff we lost. :)

There was one beautiful Sikkimese lady standing next to us and was arguing with a guy from the time we reached that place. We thought some fight between the couple.

We were pissed with the taxi guy. It was because of this guy that we had to rush from the time we booked our tickets as he told that the cab would leave at sharp
3 and will not wait for anyone. After almost 1.5hrs a taxi came and the person told that this taxi would take us to Sikkim but we will have to pay some extra amount to which said straight no. We argued for a long time with this taxiwala. All other passengers got into the taxi and the Sikkimese lady was sitting in the front seat,we four of us were in the middle seat.
The argument went on for 15mins, finally even the lady shouted at us saying everyone in the taxi has paid the extra amount and asked us to pay up so that the taxi would move. We finally agreed to pay the extra 300bucks. The taxi left Darjeeling at almost around 5pm.

This was each one's position in side the the cab.
Sikkimese Lady - Darjeeling Guy - Driver
Soham-Kalyan-Me-Swadheen
Chatterboxlady-lady-guy-guy

The Chatterbox lady behind us was talking on top of her voice from the time the taxi moved. We got used to that after sometime and all of us dozed off and slipped into dreams. It was getting dark as moved on. After almost some 3-4hrs when it was almost dark outside the cab stopped and both the lady and the guy in front were arguing. Me and Swadheen thought the guy is getting off there. The driver told Swadheen to come and sit in the front seat. I wished him luck to sit next to the lady, So our man immediately jumped off. But to our surprise the guy didn't get down instead the lady came and sat next to me. I was surprised on what was happening, I even asked out loud on wat happened but everyone was silent.

Now the positions in the cab are
Swadheen - Darjeeling Guy - Driver
Soham-Kalyan-Me-Sikkimese Lady
Chatterboxlady-lady-guy-guy

Later when the cab stopped at one stop for toilets, the guy went out; thats when the lady told us that this guy acted lechy and was falling on her. Then I thought from then I should be careful in all turnings. The road from Darjeeling to Gangtok is fully ghat road and has some infinite turnings.

As we were getting closer to Gangtok this guy started acting crazy. He put his hand behind the driver's seat and was pretending to sleep. He was trying to reach her. I was totally shocked on his behaviour, twice I pushed his hand the otherside. Once I put my hand to block his but still he put his hand over mine and was acting the same. I tapped him and told him to behave properly. Then he got very furious. He started yelling at me, and threatened to hit me. I just kept quite as I didnt want to take the fight any further. Our peacemaker Swadheen got into the scene immediately and tried to talk softly with him and just control the situation. I thought we were four and we could easily thrash him down but then our whole holiday will get disturbed, we may even have to go to police station, which was all sheer waste of time and for us time was the most imp thing at that moment.

We reached Gangtok and this crook got down before everyone. The lady asked us to accompany her till her place. We did so and our hotel was also on the same way. Thats when she told her name is Polin(Pauline) and she works in the high court. When she got down, she thanked her special friend Swadheen. Our man asked her for her mobile to which she said 9&^%,... " I dont remem my number" :-D

Thats how our journey from Darjeeling to Gangtok ended. I've realised how unsafe it is for girls moving alone in this route.
...to be continued

Chalo Sikkim!!

I've just one more exam to go and that is Strategic Management. This is one course I really liked and I believe I've learnt to some extent. God knows will I ever get chance to implement all those I learnt.

Tomorrow evening we are leaving to Sikkim, an adventure trip :). Actually the plan was to go even to Bhutan but some one said it's difficult to cover Bhutan within 6 days so temporarily dropped the plan, We'll see if we can make that also :)




I didnt tell about this trip to my parents cos they would spoil my trip by calling me every now and then asking my whereabouts. I just told them that I've some work so will come once that's done.
I hope we have a safe trip and come back home in one piece, incase I dont update my blog by 14th of this month you may safely assume that I'm lost in Sikkim and yeah this reminds me of the the series "I shouldn't be alive" in Discovery channel.

HYD-BOM-RUH

Last year on the same day I reached Riyadh. I never thought at that time that I would be here one year from then. I still remember I was 75kgs then and the most important goal was to cut down my weight :). That was my second innings in Saudi. I was much more relaxed than my first innings. Unlike the first visit I was not that keen to stay there so was bindaas and enjoyed every moment.

Riyadh Airport, taken on 30-Nov-2007

Siddiqs and Habibis Ma-as-salamah

My trip back to India was really tiring...
Left Riyadh at 11:40 am..reached Bahrain at 1:00pm... and then had to wait for 9 hrs...
..reached mumbai at 4:00 am..
I was lil scared about customs as i had gold and some electronic stuff with me,none of them packed..but nothing happened...actually I thought it would take atleast 1-2 hrs to come outside.. but it all happened in just 15-20 mins..
then took 8 'o' clck flight to Hyderabad..Jet airways...one surprising thing was almost everyone had a laptop with them...

finally reached home at 10:00 am... so almost 20 hrs... but the time difference is just 2.5 hrs...a direct flight wld take just 4 hrs... but this month being vacation time at saudi..almost all flights are over booked..

tomorrow evening again leavin to mumbai...have to work from there...
I hate mumbai...I hate the place i work ...both place and the work.. :(

have a look at the link i posted at the title...

Two things am most worried about is
1) Markets -(going up everyday,am praying for a big crash)
2) Preparation for CAT - (haven't started my prep yet)