The Dark Phase of my life is over

Finally, I am over and done with this craze. The normal days are back again. Let me explain.

I HATE shopping. The whole idea of spending hour after hour into a million malls buying countless clothes - choosing, selecting.. Wondering whether those pants makes one look thin or like a turkey plumped for Thanksgiving, then wondering which of the 2 shirts look good cause 'well, Oh, I do like them both you know..I just cant make up my mind' !!!!
Phew !!! I dunno how people do this.
You need a shirt, you go into a store, pick one, buy it and walk out - 15 mins tops - that's all it should take. Can't decide between 2 - well then buy them both and leave everyone be. That salesperson doesn’t give a rats arse which one makes you look good as long as you buy something and get on with it.
This is usually how I used to shop. I've always hated shopping..so the faster its over with, the better.

But then.. Things changed a bit when I went to Bangkok.. I'm not sure why or how but I think its was Mob mentality. Yes, yes, I am blaming this on other people. See, the girls who were with me were maniacs - at shopping that is.. They just picked everything in the store. Where a normal person would pick maybe 2 items of clothing in 10 mins, these women had picked 12.
It was like they were on a mission to take everything from Bangkok back home. So in this feeding frenzy, I got carried away a bit and bought quite a few things as well - things that I didn’t particularly need!!!
And its kinda continued from then onwards.. Buying things I may not want/need but for the fact that they look good or whatever.

But then Malaysia happened last week.
Yes, I did shop.. Bought a couple of things - all things I will be using. Mostly cause I was forced to go shopping. People I know from the Bangkok days apparently remembered my "like" for shopping and took me around to do the same in KL. I didn't know how to break it to them that I didn't want to, so I just went along with it…
But for the rest of the trip when I was by myself.. Didn’t buy anything (Something for the boyfriend, but this will be his first gift in a year I think, so it shouldn’t count)
Didn’t feel like buying - didn’t want to buy.. I just looked around.. Content with myself that THE DARK PHASE OF MY LIFE IF FINALLY OVER

Of Travel and Birthdays

Off to Malaysia and since i'm not going to be there.. Happy Birthday Mr. Dsouza. Have a good one.

Malacca - the weekend trip

Malacca or Melaka is quite commercial & touristic for a small town in Malaysia. If you're planning to go there :

• Carry a very detailed map. Specially if you're driving to Melaka. None of the locals know the names of their own roads or directions on how to get ANYWHERE. And I'm not just bitching here, we drove around for 2 hours trying to find our supposedly famous hotel. A Tourist told us how to get there in the end. (this wasn’t only in Melaka but the entire way from the Malaysian border to the town which is a 5 hr drive)


• If you're going there from Singapore like I did, then enjoy the cheaper alcohol, cigarettes and other things. Even fuel which we used a lot of - driving around trying to find our bloody way


• Leave early - so you can beat the hordes of cars lined up at the customs and immigration gate to get into Malaysia. It does give you the feeling that everyone wants to get outta the city.


• Also, the expressways are really nice and scenic and stuff, but do remember - just cause there's a good expressway doesn’t mean everyone can drive well. There was a 11 car pile up when we were returning. I know it was 11 cause we counted the smashed up cars as we drove by.


• Book in advance, there seemed like there was only one room left among all the hundred of hotels in the entire city and luckily we got that one. WHEW!! Seriously, even the Holiday Inn was completely booked. And the supposedly famous hotel I mentioned above is Aldy which looks good from the outside at least. Also has a live one man band playing in the evenings - you need to hear it to believe it.


• Plan your trip well - we were there for bout a day and a half and you just need one day to see all there is to see if you plan it well.. Like I said - it’s a town, not so big.

This place has been under Portuguese, British, Dutch & Japanese control. So there's many historical sites that are now museums and cultural places. There's also many old 17th - 18th century churches, Botanical gardens, a really lovely antique artefacts n furniture street, lotsa places to eat, drink and be merry, the usual shopping to do. Must see mainly is Fort A Famosa, Portuguese Square, all the churches, the antique stuff, and Stadhuys Building which was the Dutch Governor's residence

Maritime Museum..Obviously on a boat

Christ Church - one of the famous churches and another of the many red structures

This one was a quaint lil bar we found close to Christ Church

For a birds-eye view, you need to go to Fort Famousa

CAMBODIA..

Cambodia was a lotta fun.. Siem Reap with all its temples and other things to see..Its also one of the few places i've seen where the history of these people is very visible in their lives till now.. the way they talk about the killing fields, their past.. Amazing place

Don't remember the name of this place..was off the beaten path, no tourists here at all, which is why i loved it

Ta phrom - The place i loved the most..

Random sunrise... not everyday i get up at 5:30

The deeper you go, the more dusty the roads get..

Angkor wat.... the main one...

Bayon...The many faces of Avalokiteshvara

Preah Khan

and then we went to this place for dinner one night called Deadfish...well...


Also, if you are going to Siem Reap, a really good hotel is The River Garden - very peaceful place run by an Australian woman.. they arrange almost anything for you.. from the best massages i've ever had to the whole tour of the city...

Sights and sounds of Singapore & Spain.. My Weird pics

I have a thing for taking weird pics.. funny things that I see around me

I've added a pic slide show to the blog.. these are mainly pics that I've taken around Singapore this year and some taken in Spain in mid 2007.. the not very normal ones, that is.
It made more sense that the previous "Weird pic for the week" post.. another milestone in the constant struggle to get lazier...
Will add more pics as the days go by...

Holiday in Cambodia

Expensive month this.. Spent bout a 1000 dollars yesterday.. and then will spend another on Monday..
Cambodia next weekend.. and yes its on holiday.. Everyone i have told that I'm going to Cambodia, has been giving me looks of concern.. i dunno why.. whats wrong with going to Cambodia on holiday?
My Mom was the best -
"Are they forcing you to go there? Why do you want to go to Cambodia? People are killing each other there.."

'Who told you that?'

"They show it on the movies and all; people killing each other in Cambodia"

i dunno what movies my mother is watching..

Air India? By bus or plane?

Another Air India Story this.. but then again, with an awesome carrier like this one you know there will always be there stories...
Return flight from Mumbai to Singapore... Obviously being Air India, we don't just board the plane, but have to take a bus to it.. Yes, even for international flights...
The idea of taking a bus to take a plane always fascinates me... well not really, not the actual doing, its just the concept of it that is so amusing
So all of us already weary passengers wait and wait and wait some more for any announcement of when boarding will begin.. it is 12:20 already and nothing so far for our flight that is supposed to take off at 12:45
Then they begin shoving us into the buses to get to the plane.. All in, the bus takes off for a 7 min ride around the airport.. Bus stops, people get off and walk towards the plane... Steward standing at the base of the steps looks at the first passenger's ticket, then looks around.. looks some more, confused... and says:
"But you're going to Singapore and this flight is for Mangalore !!"
Sigh
And so on we go the bus again.. for a 15 minute bus ride this time..round and round the airport, till they FINALLY find our plane to Singapore.. by the time we're getting into the aircraft it is already 12:45, but then again.. it wouldn't be Air India if it actually took off on time !!

Air India !!!

This one was a blog story in the making right from the time we booked our flights to Mumbai on Air India.
My second flight on Air India ever and I was completely nervous expecting horrendous 5 and a half hours of nightmares.. but it was a pretty good flight.. The Air Hostesses had the "ask me for help and I’m throwing you off the plane" look, but were surprisingly nice for the expressions on their face (well, some people have faces like that, they just can’t help it).
The food was good, an amazingly smooth flight, we didn’t even realise when we took off or landed (partly to do with the fact that we took off so damn late, but then this was Air India, some things you just assume will happen)

Anyway, so we hear this old lady ahead of us ask the air hostesses for a "shawl" (or blanket, however you wanna call it)
Air hostess passes by a while later and gives her something.
20 minutes after that is this conversation with another air hostess -

Air Hostess: " Aunty, sab theek hai na. You need anything"
Old Lady: " Nahi, theek hai"
Air Hostess: "Achcha. Lekin aapko Salt kyo chahiye tha?"
Old Lady: "Nahi Ji, Maine Salt nahi Shawl maanga tha"

Oh well..

Top 20 cities in the world..places to go to

This was a list aired on Discovery Travel and Living's program Top 20 cities of the world (for the year 2005, i think). It was nice enough that I wrote the cities down. Been trying to search the net for more details to write down here on this list, but still can’t find it). Below is the order they had given it in, tho’ I’m not particularly choosy, I just wanna go to all.

1. Barcelona, Spain - (Done. June 2007)
2. New York, USA
3. Paris, France,
4. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
5. Rome, Italy,
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Dublin, Ireland
8. Cape town, SA
9. Istanbul turkey,
10. Stockholm, Sweden
11. Amsterdam, Netherlands (Done. October 2005)
12. Berlin, Germany
13. Lisbon, Portugal
14. New Orleans, USA
15. Mexico city, Mexico
16. Reykjavik, Iceland,
17. Santiago, Chile,
18. Copenhagen, Denmark (Done. Small trips from 2005 to 2007)
19. New Delhi, India
20. Tokyo, Japan

Traffic is a Killer - The Great Wildebeest Crossing

If you’ve ever travelled by road in Mumbai you would have experienced this for sure. You are in your car/cab/handcart and someone just darts by across the roads forcing brakes to be slammed upon and half your body hitting the windshield (Seatbelts seatbelts). I've always thought they did this because they knew that as a motorist you’d be in shit loads of more trouble for knocking them down that they ever could be. I doubt anyone’s ever been caught/fined for crossing a road in this country, and no matter who’s at fault, its usually always the motorist who gets beaten up (community activity)
If you’ve ever been at the lucky restaurant junction at Bandra, you know exactly what I mean. I swear people here wait for the traffic signals to turn green and cars start moving to realise that they have a sudden urge to be on the other side of the road. And by people I mean a minimum of 50 people. So one brave soldier starts inching ahead, unsure of whether he should be the leader, and then ten more join in and push him and themselves ahead, and lo and behold, its like the wildebeest crossing at the Serengeti plains. Needless to say all traffic has come to a halt (while the signal is still green) and beware any car that tries to move ahead.
I swear I get this manic desire to drive thru and intentionally hurt some people just to teach them a lesson, but higher intelligence warns me that the only one to learn any lesson at all will be me..