Out of the Wilderness, but Not for Long

Hi folks, ...I’m out of the wilderness for a few days. Unfortunately, there’re tons of work waiting for me at my old Gurgaon office. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten 80% of what they’re about (told you I have really short term memory). Unfortunately, in life (or is it just this company?), nobody likes doing work left behind by another, unless they’re forced to (example, me, usually me..)

I’m scheduled to fly back into the wilderness in about two days. No worries, I’ve completed nearly err…25% of the darn things that I must do here (don’t ever ask me about time management, ok), but what the heck, life doesn’t only revolve around work, right? So, I’ve been checking on mails (yeah, thanks again for all your mails), and on some of my favourite blogs, e.g. from my lazy sis (who’s started to write again, surprisingly), my wandering brother, my crazy niece (this one’s a real cool one), my family-orientated cousin, my godly father (this one’s getting to look more like a blog for the Prai River Bridge, my previous project), etc. Reading’s much easier than writing, especially nowadays, when my brain turns up nothing but, …. ‘when is this friggin project ever gonna complete?’, ‘when am I ever gonna get out of this rut of a place?’, when can I hike across Nepal into Tibet, or Pakistan into China, Iran into Turkey, across the Stans, etc etc etc, when am I ever gonna get married …...huh?!?! Did I just say that? Hehehe (bet dad must be excited) but believe me, Haulawng does funny things to your head.

Now, come to think of it, Haulawng really ain’t that bad. Haulawng’s actually a great place to: -
- Do absolutely nothing
- Sulk
- Daydream, …and fantasize (coz that’s about all you’re gonna get, …unless you fancy hill-tribes)
- Sit on the toilet bowl for as long as you darn well like (one of my favourite pastimes, maybe read a novel or two in the process)
- Read
- Work (coz that’s about the only thing worth doing)
- Talk, …about work
- Slim down (there’s no shortage of hills and fresh air for you to train your stamina on. Ever since I came here, I’ve lost 2 inches off my waist, an achievement huh? 32 inch waist now hehe)
- Learn how to cut your own hair (you can practice on the dog, I did)
- Surf the net (if it works, …the last time it did was in July, …or was that June?)
- Catch up on the latest movies via HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, Star Chinese and a slue of other movie channels (now, if only I could get that darn satellite decoder to bloody work)
- Play computer games (no, that’s anti-social)
- Socialize, …socialize?? maybe I should go to church… hmmm, church services start real early, …and the services are all in mizo language, …would prayers be enough?
- Sleep
- Learn how to play a musical instrument
- Start drawing again
- Write
…now I’m coming up with ideas, …BUT I better get back to work, only another friggin 75% to go…


Haulawng, City of Wonders (ya, in my dreams, ...maybe in a century or two some Mahathir-type person would be born here)

The Premier Tourist Spot at Haulawng

Our Base Camp happens to be the premier tourist spot for the locals here at Haulawng. They come here for family outings, for dates, for their wedding photographs (made that up, hehehe). Maybe we should start selling tickets...

Office, Haulawng Base Camp


Our crusher at Haulawng Site

Nothing but hills

Here're some pictures of Mizoram. If you like hills, please do make a trip here. I guarantee you'll love it!

House, Ralvawng Village


View from Aizawl Base Camp


Waterfall on the road to Lengpui Airport

Only in India

Only in India, can you make an 'artwork' out of switchboxes and cables...
Compliments of the Indian School of Ingenious Designs


Lawyer's Office, Calcutta

Gambar Tradisi Perkahwinan Cina

Me and my sis at Starhill

Another one of my sis' bright ideas.

June & Patrick's House

June & Patrick's House, Damansara Perdana

Guess I'll post some pics from home, since I got nothing much to write about hehehe, ...thought I'll take the easy way out... At least there's a pic of Malaysia huh? Want this pic, June?

Things you can do with bamboo

I have no idea why bamboo inspires dances, but here you have it, another variant of a bamboo dance - this one ala Mizoram, taken at our Base Camp in Aizawl on Indian Independence Day (15/8/2005)


Mizo Bamboo Dance

Stuck in Mizoram

Aizawl, capital of Mizoram

Hi Mates! Cibai!

In Mizo language, hello is ‘cibai’. ‘Pu’ is Mr. For ladies, it's ‘Pi’. So over here, you can curse as much as you want, and people actually acknowledge with a smile, and curse you back. Kima is a pretty typical Mizo name. Imagine how you’d greet Mr Kima in Mizo.

The monsoon isn’t here yet but there’re heavy downpours once in a while. The weather is unpredictable, sunny one moment, strong winds and heavy downpour the next. The flights into Mizoram are even more unpredictable. Planes can’t land when weather is bad. Planes can’t land or take off when there’re technical problems (which happens pretty often), even when the weather is absolutely wonderful!

Monsoon or no monsoon, I don’t think I’d be getting out of this place anytime soon. First thing my boss did when I arrived here, was to conveniently announce to the entire known world in Mizoram, that I’d be the new Works Manager (huh?). Now, isn’t that so sweet of him? Apart from introducing a hundred and more new tasks and responsibilities into my peaceful life, he’s expecting me to head almost the entire team of people here (guess boss has finally got the idea that I’m enjoying life too much in Delhi).

I am currently stationed in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. Aizawl is beautiful, from afar. It’s built over a few hillocks and is visible for miles and miles around. The main areas of town are on the top of the ridges of these hills. Houses are built on stilts into the slopes of steep hills. Churches dot many prominent spots in town as Mizoram is 95% Christian. There’s no legal alcohol, nothing opens on Sundays, no cinemas as far as I know and the biggest shopping spot is equivalent to the local mini-market in Malaysia. The nearest decent cinema (not nearest maybe, but the easiest to access) would be in Calcutta, about 1.5 hours by flight or 3 bloody days by bus & train from this place. Guess Revenge of the Sith would have to wait, ….sigh.

Driving into Aizawl is a wonderful experience. The roads are narrow and some of them look like they’re 45 degrees steep. The road goes up, then takes a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction, going further up. Buses and trucks spew out tons of diesel fumes trying to hike up these steep and narrow roads. Rows of vehicles frequently have to reverse en masse to allow the opposite row to pass. All very exciting and ‘orderly’, and going everywhere takes at least 1 hour with about half of the time being stuck trying to reverse or to make way or something else.

Apart from Aizawl, Mizoram is totally pristine. Rows upon rows of hills, not a piece of flat land in sight for miles and miles, narrow winding roads that cut thru the sides of the hills, bamboo forests, hill villages, eating dinner & chit-chatting by candle-light and watch fireflies flit by (when the power goes off, which happened almost every day until we installed a generator at our house). Now we have to contend with a thousand and one different types of bugs, mostly moths of all sizes and colour attracted by our bright fluorescent light.

Entertainment is watching tv, playing with the house dog – watching it chase after giant crickets, jungle cockroaches and huge green insects (till they’re half dead – hehehe), killing giant mosquitoes, taking chloroquinone pills to keep us malaria-proof, experimenting with different ways of killing leeches and other types of bugs, reading any reading material that comes along and waiting for the bloody internet to connect or to load something, ...anything. Weather is usually pleasant here. Water here is from heaven (rain) or from the river (of course we boil it thoroughly). Cooking gas comes in cylinders, which we need to queue up for hours and hours to get any.

Food here is simply superb ..for a true-blooded meat-eater like me hehehe. There’s pork (yummy), beef (finally), mutton, chicken, fish and dog (a delicacy here). Our cooks are pretty good here. The restaurants outside aren’t really that many or good.

Mizoram is at the southern tip of North-East India, wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Mizos are of Tibeto-Burmese descent. They’re more akin to South East Asians, looking something like Myanmese (meaning I can pass off very comfortable pretending to be Mizo, if I don’t open my mouth). Their culture, though deeply influenced by Christianity, is also more akin to South East Asia, they’re crazy about football (unlike Indians who’re nuts over cricket), their music sounds like Thai or Pilipino music, unlike the tabla-laden music of India. Heck, if they didn’t tell me this was India, I wouldn’t have guessed!

Anyway, a few days ago, boss told me to prepare to move my butt again, this time to Haulawng (pronounced ‘how long’), about 180km deeper inside this forest of a place (or about 9 bloody hours by road, if road conditions are good). Ahhh, more pristine jungles, more primitive lifestyle, what more can I ask for huh?


Our office building, Zemabawk, Aizawl


My office in Aizawl, Mizoram

Malaysia House, Mizoram

Our house (aka Malaysia House) in Aizawl, Mizoram


Driveway, Malaysia House


The house doggie, Bobby

Calcutta, Steam-cooker of India

The prettier part of Calcutta - Victoria Monument

Fancy being steam-cooked? Welcome to Calcutta (aka Kolkata), city of joy and unimaginable humidity. Sweating is the cultural identity in Calcutta, especially when you’re trying to fly to Mizoram and the flight gets cancelled (which happened to me, and a lot of other people who are very used to this, since it’s a pretty common occurrence). Alliance Air / Indian Airlines (the only airlines flying to Mizoram currently) seem to like cramming their passengers into their sun-baked aircraft for about an hour before the plane takes off, with minimal air-conditioning. All very refreshing and invigorating. Don’t need any steam-baths around here, everyone can sweat a few litres before take-off.


Victoria Monument, Calcutta

Scenes from New Delhi

Rajpath, the main thoroughfare of New Delhi leading to the Presidential Palace


India Gate, Delhi's Arc of Triumph


Fountains flanking Rajpath (aka the Public Baths of New Delhi) - fancy a dip?


A view from the Old Fort (Purana Qila), Delhi

The Sage of Haridwar

View of Haridwar, North India, from Mansa Devi temple

Don't ask me what that red shrine's for, I've no freakin idea! Neither does my Indian colleague.

The Yoga Capital of the World

Ram Jhula at Rishikesh, Uttaranchal, India

Rishikesh teems with foreigners, all here to practice yoga, and experience spirituality (most probably with the help of grass, hehehe). The place to be for musicians, first made famous by The Beatles, I think. Sting visits occassionally.

Himalayan Snow

Auli, Uttaranchal State, North India

The Road to Badrinath

Somewhere in the Garhwal Hills, between Karnaprayag and Joshimath


Outskirts of Joshimath


The Road to Badrinath (this was the nearest we managed to get to our desired destination - blasted landslide blocked the way!)

Nightime at Gurgaon

Gurgaon, view from the office

India Update: Deep into the Jungle

Hi mates, nothing much’s changed lately here in Delhi. The weather is kinda oven hot now, the mosquitoes are still around, my waistline is still hovering around the 33” mark, I still can’t fit nicely into my 34” jeans (I could fit in actually, but because of my smaller than desirable bum, 34” pants / jeans don’t really look nice on me). I can no longer wear my entire range of 32” pants / jeans (the buckle / button can’t seem to meet). They DON’T sell 33” pants / jeans here. I am not exercising as much as I’d want to. My back has a slight chronic ache (which I don’t think is serious, probably caused by my 3 day ‘epic’ driving excursion into the hills). The movies on tv still get interrupted by tons of advertisements and frequent blackouts (the apartment I stay in has standby generators to take care of this fortunately. Unfortunately, the cable provider may not have such reliable generators). My colleagues from KL have been visiting more frequently (that explains why I’ve not been that frequent at updating this blog).

And my boss just told me a few hours ago to pack up my stuff to head deep into the jungles of North-East India (in Mizoram state wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh) to help out with the workload, temporarily. Temporarily in my boss’s vocab may mean anything from a week to a few years. Of all times, now, when I’ve gotten kinda used to the absolute bliss and freedom of not having a boss around, far away from every other office. He said that I might have to stay till the monsoon season. That usually happens sometime around June, so hopefully I can think of an excuse to come back hehe. Flying off to Calcutta on Tue evening, then off to Mizoram on Wed morning (12 May).

I think the jungle does not have very good connections, internet-wise, heck even telephone-wise, so I guess the next post will have to wait for lil while. Till then, take care.

The Birthplace of the Ganges

Harki-Pauri, Haridwar (Gateway of the Gods)

Recently (on the Easter weekend which so happened to coincide with a major festival in India called Holi), I tried to visit one of the sources of the holy Ganges River. The Ganges begins its journey in the state of Uttaranchal (aka The Abode of the Gods). The state border is about 5 hours drive from Delhi. It has 4 holy sources, all in the same state: – 1. Badrinath (source of the Alaknanda River); 2. Kedarnath (source of the Mandakini River); 3. Gangotri (source of the Bhagirathi River aka Ganges after it joins with the Alaknanda); and 4. Yamnotri (source of the Yamuna River). All these rivers are formed from glaciers in the Himalayas (high mountains, …and snow, what more can you ask for huh?) My mission was Badrinath and a national park next to it named …Valley of Flowers, thrilling ain’t it? I decided to close the office and force my one and only colleague to accompany me on the trip.

(Note: In Hinduism (or the version I understand of it), the Ganges was supposed to spring forth from a toe (ya, you read correctly) of Vishnu (one of the Hindu Gods). It came down to cleanse the dirty earth of the ashes of the dead (at that time ashes had accumulated to such an extent that nothing could grow, ….and I thought ashes make great fertilizer…). It first had to flow through the hair (ya, you read correctly again) of Shiva (another Hindu God), who stayed (stays, who knows) in Mt Kailash (in the Himalayas), so that the torrent of the mighty Ganges would be weakened and not wash everything into the ocean (was there already an ocean at that time, …..who knows? Hindu friends, pls illuminate me if I’m wrong.))

Trip summary - list of accomplishments: -
- Did not reach Badrinath (it only opens in May! …besides a landslide blocked the road).
- Did not reach Valley of Flowers (same road as above, and park opens late April).
- Got a chronic backache from driving for 3 days from daybreak to dusk on bumpy roads (with occasional stops) (still having the backache, but I think it’s recovering slowly now). Colleague doesn’t drive and doesn’t read maps.
- Had two punctures in 3 days.
- Got ‘Holied’ (Holi is a major festival esp in North & East India where people throw coloured powder / water on others – I had yellow powder plastered on my forehead, luckily it was powder, not coloured slush).
- Stuck in a traffic jam for more than 2 hours at the state border crossing (the result of Indian driving habits – 6 lanes of cars / trucks/ tractors / bullock carts / buses / bikes etc, each side, having a face-off on a two lane provincial road – it was a wonder we could get thru in 2 hours. We finally decided to just park at the side (forming the 7th lane) to watch the buffalo man quarrelling with a car owner, border official quarrelling with everyone else, etc. The patch we parked our car so happened to be overgrown with ganja plants, …don’t need to go to the golden triangle in Thailand for this stuff, it grows everywhere in India, especially the hill states, nope, didn’t pick any)
- Got stuck in a queue for about an hour and half waiting for a cable car up to a temple (that you can walk up slowly in about 30 mins – we’ve bought the tickets before we realized how bloody long the queue was. We decided to walk down although the ticket was for both ways – took us at about …15mins with a stop to snap some photos)
- Got lost in New Delhi at 1am while returning home (told you my colleague doesn’t read maps)
- Played with Himalayan snow (after driving for 45mins on the bumpiest roads I’ve ever driven on – that’s one way, it’s another 45mins down the same road).
- Managed to get a room to stay at 10.30pm in the hills (where every place was about closed) because of the major public holiday and hill people like sleeping early.
- Was lucky enough that we had enough fuel to last one whole day of driving in the hills, thanks to the public holiday when every pump station was closed or out of fuel (…wonder why they still bother to open??)
- Was lucky enough to be able to reverse all the way out of the muck of a road where the landslide occurred.
- Was lucky to find a shop to fix the punctured tyre after the first incident, the puncture happened again later that day.
- Was lucky that the spare held good till we got home.
- Bathed in the Ganges at the point where the Alaknanda joined the Bhagirathi to officially form the Ganges – and in the process got ALL my sins absolved (isn’t this just wonderful?), and got blessings of long life for me, and my family (that was after parting with 100 rupees and after repeating word for word whatever the priest / guardian mumbled – the only thing I understood was "100 rupees or 200 rupees" after I asked how much, …was thinking of blurting out 50 rupees, but thought the better of it and just paid the cheaper of the 2 options, wonder what sort of blessings I’d get if I paid 200 rupees, blessings of eternal life maybe?)





Devaprayag, where the Bhagirathi River becomes the Ganges after meeting the Alaknanda River

Incredible India!

This is India!

A picnic in the park ....ing lot dumpsite, Haridwar
(See how at peace the cows, pigs and chicken are with each other...)

India, this is too, ....incredible huh?

Pipalkoti, Garhwal, North India

What happened to Shwedagon Paya

Shwedagon Paya, Yangon (Rangoon)

OK, here’s a pic of the famed Shwedagon in all it’s glory, ….bound by bamboo-scaffolding and getting cleaned and regilded. Not many people have the privilege of seeing it in this state since this happens only once every 4 years, so I should consider myself lucky right? If you wanna see it as it's shown in the tourist brochures etc, all gilded up in gold, you’d best wait for another 5 months or so.

...maybe by that time, my postcard would also have arrived.


A temple bell in Shwedagon Paya

If I'm not mistaken, this is supposed to be the 3rd largest uncracked bell in the world. Myanmar must have a thing with uncracked bells, they also have the largest and the 2nd largest. I have pics of all 3, but I figured that'll be a bell too many huh?

The God of Saturdays

A shrine in Shwedagon Paya, Yangon

Here’s a pic of devotees bathing their daily deity (I think this one’s for Saturday, since that statuette there looks like a Naga). Myanmese have a deity for each day of the week except Wednesdays. They have 2 for Wednesdays, one for the morning and one for the evening. Each deity is symbolized by a creature, mine’s a Garuda since I was born on a Sunday. What you have to do is to bathe your deity as many times as the years you were in existence (I didn’t do it coz I’d have to do it 35 times! And besides, I’m Christian hehehe), then you kneel and bow a few times and end it with some strikes to the temple bell. I guess it’s to improve your fortune, but don’t quote me.

Shadow-Walking

On the roof of Pahtothamya, Bagan

This picture was taken by a small boy on the roof of a temple in Bagan. Roaming around the roofs of temples in the afternoon in Bagan is quite fun. First, there’s hardly a soul around, second you learn the trick of shadow-walking i.e. walking on whatever shadows you find so that you don’t burn the bejesus outta the soles of your feet (notice how restless my feet are). The sun-baked roof had no effect on the boy’s feet so he was kinda taking his own sweet time to snap this pic, that little rascal!

More Temples of Bagan

More temples of Bagan, from the roof of Pahtothamya


Even more temples, Nyein Gon Paya, Bagan

The Biggest Pile of Brick Rubble on Earth

Ok here’re some more pics to let everyone know that I’ve not actually forgotten about this blog. It’s just that I’ve been somewhat busy (and terribly lazy). And as a picture speaks a thousand words, guess these pics will have to suffice for the time being, until I get my inspiration rolling again. Conducting interviews really ain’t very inspiring. Repeating the same bloody thing to each and every interviewee is not really that fun (especially when they’re all guys hehehe).


Mingun Paya, near Mandalay

Mingun is a small village about an hour’s ride on the boat along the Ayeyarwaddy River (Irrawaddy in British times) from Mandalay. Mingun Paya was supposed to be the base of the world’s largest stupa (if the king who wanted it built hadn’t died before it was completed). And it’s cracked on all sides due to earthquakes (Myanmar’s right smack in earthquake zone). So what you’ll get is a towering cube-shaped monolith with large menacing cracks on the walls and huge doorways like some doomed crumbling temple.

The above pic was my best effort at capturing it on film. Don’t think I did such a bad job huh? At least it still looks like a great big heap of bricks. The photo in Lonely Planet looks fabulous, a towering monstrosity of a crumbling temple with red-robed monks in the foreground framed by a deep blue sky. Another photo I saw had a red robed monk posing at the side of a monstrous crack on the wall. Now, if only I had red-robed monks (instead of 2 enthusiastic Czech traveling buddies) in my photo, if only the sky was of a deeper blue, if only the sun had shone where it was supposed to shine, if only I had Fuji film instead of Kodak, if only my camera was a better one, etc… I’m sure I could get a photo as good as the ones I saw...

The Royal Court at Mandalay

Palace Grounds, Mandalay

Oh, this is not the original palace, it's completely rebuilt using convicts. The original one burnt down more than a century ago (if I'm not mistaken).

Myanmar: The Golden Land Pt 2

Ananda Pahto, Bagan

OK, here’s more on Myanmar, if you’re still not sick of it yet hehehe.

People
Myanmar is multi-ethnic. Apart from Burmese, it has Chinese, Indians, Mons, Shans, Kachins, and a horde of other races. Apart from Buddhists, there’re Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. Basically, it is just like Malaysia. Maybe if Malaysia were to follow ‘The Burmese Road to Socialism’, Malaysia’d end up just like Myanmar. Yeah it’s backward, but it’s not all that bad. Where else (in the non-western world) would you find people of all race and religion using the same language? And sporting the same attire (meaning sarongs)?
Myanmar is foreigner friendly. Foreigners get waved through at the airports (meaning they won’t stop you from carrying your mobile phones in, although officially they have to retain it and give it back to you when you leave the country. Too much hassle for the officers, I suppose). Locals have to go through all sorts of checks, in various types of counters. Nope, I didn’t stand around to watch (less they decided to retain my phone).

Entrance Fees
Foreigners have to pay entrance fees for some of the tourist sites. Locals don’t need to pay a single kyat. Occasionally, they’ll let foreigners in for free, especially when the foreigner looks something like me, hehe. But then you can’t pull out your maps, or your Lonely Planets, or start clicking away with your cameras at every other thing, so I figured it’d be easier to pay (and get all the privileges of being a tourist) instead of pretending you’re Myanmese. The entrance fees are reasonable, USD10 for as long as you well like in all the sites in Mandalay. Same price for all the sites in Bagan, again for as long as you wanna stay. Try visiting some of the sites in India, and you’ll know that this is very reasonable indeed.

Transportation
Burmese drive on the right side of the road, although their cars have the steering wheel on the right side, which is not right for us, but alright for them. This sentence makes little sense. Visit the country and you’ll know what I mean.
Unlike Indians, Myanmese no longer honk at everything (moving or not) in the vicinity of their path.
Foreigners cannot drive in Myanmar. This includes motorbikes. Foreigners can cycle, or walk. Or take one of the many modes of public transportation. Many of us hire trishaws, cars or horse-carts. Hiring one with a non-English-speaking driver has its advantages. First, they cannot communicate with you. This may sound like a big disadvantage, but then, you’d save the trouble of trying to explain why you can’t pay more, or why you’re not interested in this souvenir shop or that restaurant, etc. As long as they know the words – go, stop, there (with your finger pointed at that direction), yes, no, eat (with your hands gesturing towards your mouth), hotel, and the names of the places you want to visit (Lonely Planet has all the place names printed in Burmese, luckily), I reckoned you’d be ok. Anyway, these drivers I figured, are less exposed to tourists, so should be less experienced at haggling you out of the meager amount of kyat that you still have in your hands (told you I’m a cheapskate hehehe). Besides, you’ll learn to pick up some Myanmese words, right?
My Myanmese vocabulary consists of 5 words – ‘mingalaba’ (hello), ‘be lauk leh’ (how much), ‘zeji-thiyeh’ (expensive – you have to stress it), ‘shaw bau’ (discount) and ‘cezu babeh’ (thank you). Oh, and it helps to know the numbers too.

Communication
Communications within the country is reasonably good. There’re quite a lot of phone service shops around that’ll allow you to make local calls, national calls and international calls. International calls are expensive. If you don’t feel like making an international call, you can try emailing. Come to think of it, I’ve not seen any cyber-cafes while roaming around. Besides (and according to LP), yahoo, hotmail and a host of other common mail providers don’t work in Myanmar, so it’ll keep you free from worrying about whether your boss is shouting obscenities at you for being out of reach, or whether the stock market in KL has bloody crashed, and such. If you really feel like contacting someone outside the country and want to keep your expenses down, try sending a postcard. These are at only 30 kyat per postcard (about 15 sen) – I am still waiting for mine to arrive, I only sent it on 20 Feb, so it’s now only about 3 weeks. Let’s wait for another month or two.
Mobile phones? Yeah, mobile phones are useful too. They can wake you up in the morning, or remind you to call the airlines to re-confirm your tickets, and to check up on some forgotten phone numbers. Besides that, you should remember, you aren’t even supposed to bring it in, in the first place, ok?

Things To Buy
Sarongs, velvet-lined sandals, ethnic ware, tapestries, painted replicas of religious murals found in temples, lacquer ware, religious paraphernalia, gemstones, jade, rubies, ecstasy pills, opium and heroin (just kidding, the last few are illegal, and I guess can’t be found easily, …unless you know someone from the Golden Triangle).

OK, I’ve about had it on writing about Myanmar, guess I’ll just post pictures for you guys to see next.

Temples of Bagan

Bagan, land of a thousand stupas (or more like 2217 according to Lonely Planet, and that's not including brick mounds which if included would give a total of nearly 4000 sites).

Bagan is an area filled with temples and stupas for as far as the eyes can see. Spires rise up from the ground like mysterious ancient alien citadels especially early in the morning when there's still some residue of fog hanging around. Cycling is a great way to explore Bagan (I felt like some cheapskate Indiana Jones going on a treasure hunt amongst the eerie looking temples). Besides giving me the much needed exercise (I'm proud to say I'm leaner and fitter (and darker) now), it is cheap at only about 2 ringgit per day, for as long as you well please (but mine doesn't have lights, and the bell doesn't work, so I thought it wiser not to cycle at night, besides what's there to see huh?). Bagan's also sparsely populated, and there're not that many tourists (unlike many parts of India) so you won't get much problems with cars and buses and what else d'yu have honking the hell out of you. Sometimes, especially in the less popular temples, and in the afternoons (when the sun is at its glorious peak), you'd find that you're the only one in the temple. Some of the less used tracks are quite sandy and hard to cycle thru though. A puncture cost me 400 bloody kyat, which is not too expensive actually, but my bike only cost me 500 per day!

If you don't fancy cycling, you can get a horse cart. But I was feeling a little adventurous at that time hehe.

Myanmar: The Golden Land Pt 1

Some ritual at Shwezigon Paya, Bagan
If only those tourists were not frantically clicking away... I guess the ones at the back of me would say the same thing about me, but I'm different! I look Myanmese hehehe.

OK here's my take on Myanmar: The Golden Land.

Myanmar is an incredibly friendly and wonderful place to visit.
It is not too expensive, ...even for Malaysians.
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to convert 200 US Dollars to Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC) anymore. You will need a tourist visa, flight tickets and liquid USDs.
1 USD = 900 kyat (change it only when you are at the city, not at the airport. Why? Go find out yourself, hehe).
Kyat is pronounced 'cat' as in Malay for paint, not cat as in the type that catches mice.
(Note for Dad: the 'c' in Malay is unaspirated, like the 'ch' in Chee Eng, not the 'ch' in cheese. The unaspirated 'ch' is spelt 'ky' in Burmese, so Chee Eng would be spelt Kyi Eng. Aung San Su Kyi is pronounced Aung San Suci (as in Malay for 'holy'). The 'j' sound is spelt 'gy' in Burmese so brother's name would be Gyason Ong in Burmese I suppose. This rule applies to all Burmese place names).

The Golden Land
Burmese like to gild their temples and Buddha images in gold. They are experts at making 'gold leaves' for to stick onto whatever religious things they can afford to.

Attire
Very few Burmese wear jeans (at least not while I was there). They don't like to wear them coz they're hard to wash (...I made that up hehe, but try washing them with your hands!) 90% of Burmese wear sarongs, for home, work and even formal occassions regardless of their religion or race. I don't know whether they wear anything underneath, I didn't ask, I'm not a pervert! Unlike Indians, I have not seen a Burmese peeing by the streets (except 1 who was drunk), although I figured it'd be easier if you wear sarongs, right? Indians are the true experts of street-peeing, Indians can street-pee while wearing slacks, squatting, and surrounded by hordes of people, with the utmost discretion (meaning you won't be able to see the 'parts' you're not supposed to see, unless you try very hard, which means ...that there must be something mighty wrong with you!)
Burmese prefer sandals to shoes, because every other place is a temple or monastery compound, and you're NOT supposed to wear your shoes, NOR your socks in them. Same goes to a lot of offices (and of course, houses). Most Burmese sport velvet-lined 'Japanese' sandals (flip-flops). If you visit, bring a light pair and plastic bags so that you can store them in your bag without coating everything in your bag with street-dust.

Food
Burmese like their food thickly coated with oil. The oil is supposed to protect the food underneath from germs. Don't ask me how you're supposed to eat the food without eating the oil, I still haven't figured it out yet.
Unlike Indians, Burmese eat their cows and pigs. I did not see a stray cow or a pig around the streets, only dogs, and cats, and oh yeah, horses (Horse carts are the No 1 mode of public transportation in Bagan, costs 6000 kyat per day. Nope I didn't try it, bicycles only costs 500 kyat per day (about RM 2), hehehe, cheapskate).
Most popular Burmese soup is 'hin-jo'. Tastes something like salted vegetable soup (ham-choi thong / kiam-chai theng) or 'chai-boei'.
Most popular condiment is 'ngapi'. Tastes like 'sambal belacan'.
Most popular drink is chinese tea. Every table has a thermal flask which waiters constantly top up with boiling water.
If you don't like Burmese food, there're lots of Chinese and Indian restaurants around.

...To be continued. I think I better post this first, it's getting mighty long-winded as usual.

Two Years in Delhi

Hello! I'm back. Today is Sunday, my favourite day of the week (coz I don't need to work, usually, and I can sleep late, usually). This month marks my 2nd annivesary of my stay in Gurgaon, India. The climates have changed from cold to pleasant, becoming hotter everyday. The mosquitoes are on their way back from hibernation, or wherever they go during the winter. My job still sucks (actually it ain't that bad, the groove is slowly returning each and everyday hehe). I am still sorting through the more than 1200 CVs of job applicants, and have not decided who to employ. Unfortunately NONE of the applicants are girls, believe it or not!!!

Besides that, slight changes have taken place since I first set foot in Gurgaon. Oh don't worry about the animals, the cows, the pigs, the donkeys, horses, buffaloes and camels are still having a helluva time around. The scenery in front of my apartment is no longer an expanse of green field (yellow in summer) dotted by huts and shelters of construction workers. It is now blocked by a rapidly rising shopping complex due to complete by end 2006. The drivers surprisingly, don't honk as often as they do (they still drive on the wrong side of the road when circumstances demand, which happen pretty often). The trucks still like to use their headlights high beams to shine the shit out of you at night (maybe those trucks don't come with low beams, who knows?) The people are less in awe of the escalators, they no longer cause traffic jams at the head of escalators. They no longer call the lift down by pressing the 'down' button when they want to go up. My cook is getting better by the day (or I'm getting more used to the cooking by the day). Pretty girls are still hard to come by, except on tv, magazines, or if you linger around posh restaurants in 5 star hotels. I am still single and unattached. My Hindi still sucks. My English is slowly getting Indianized. In India, people expire instead of die, pass-away, pass-on, etc. Transvestites are called eunuchs, even if they still have their balls attached. Water heaters are called geysers. Air-cons are always referred to as ACs, never as air-cons. Goggles do not only refer to the ones that have elastic straps for swimming, etc; they also mean sunglasses or shades. Grass (as in the one you smoke) still grows wild in the dividers and road sides of Delhi (although they've tried to clean it up last year). And i still have the luxury of a 3000 sq ft office with stacks of work on my 'keep-in-view' tables all to myself (coz my one and only colleague is still on leave due to the 'expiry' of his father).

And I better get started on Myanmar before I run out of steam.

Entry No 1: Test Run

OK, this is a test run, I’m personally lousy at computing (except for use of software such as Excel and Word, which I think I am pretty proficient judging from the others I meet at work), but after some prompting of my dear sis, and seeing that both my sis and bro are into the blogging trend, I think I’ll try my hand at keeping a blog as well. I’m basically a pretty lazy writer, so let’s see where this gets me to (hopefully, it’ll not end up like the other diaries I’ve tried to keep in the past – think I’ve tried about 3 times in my life, always after some major life-changing incidents, such as break-ups, ….and err… my soul-searching days?? The most successful of them diaries of past ended after, I think, …3 entries?!? Nope, I don’t have them anymore, I’ve given them all back to mother earth.)