What I did for CNY

How do you spend Chinese New Year in a region where there’re absolutely NO Chinese around??? See below, what the heck, might as well make the best out of it…

Anyway, wish all my mates & family a belated Happy Doggy New Year!!! Kounghei Fatchoi! Or as the Mizos say it, Kumthar Chibai! (hehehe, can’t help myself, love the Mizo greeting!)


Chinese New Year Celebration in Aizawl ...Indian Style, at least there're 2 choi-sun in the background huh?

Mizoram State Roads Project Phase-II

That’s the abbreviated official name of our Project. Don’t mean to make this into a Project website, but… what else is there to write about? When I spend 7 days a week, about 15 friggin hours a day, doing something, …anything on this bloody Project. Can’t bloody let my blog die a slow death, right?

Haulawng Base Camp a.k.a The Camp above The Clouds

OK, here’s a brief, I’ll leave out all the technical terms, it’ll be real short I promise...
Total Cost of Project – about 150 million Ringgit
Completion Date – in about 3 month’s time (yeah, if only)
Percent Completed as on now – about ...err 18-20% I’d say
Revised Completion Date – Friggin end of friggin 2007! officially
Would we be able to complete it by Dec 2007 – Of Course!!! (that’s the Manager in me speaking), ....frankly, ....err maybe if there’s a miracle (I hope nobody involved with this Project reads this).
What we do – hill roads, hill roads and hill roads
Problems – none that cannot be solved (hey, gimme a break, I’m one of the ones calling the shots ok?)
Funded by – The World Bank (now if only we could drum it into the Mizos heads that WE are NOT The World Bank, WE are only a friggin Contractor working for The friggin World Bank, meaning WE do not have unlimited cash of The World in our hands...)

Important Points to note while working in Mizoram: –
The people here are a real friendly bunch, you can like …wake them up in the middle of the night if your car breaks down and ask for their help (after all, if their car breaks down, that’s what they’ll do). You can visit them at 6am in the morning (since they have a habit of waking up real early, and wait at your doorstep at a quarter to 6 for you to get ready to see them, never mind the breakfast part or the coffee part or whether you’ve shit and showered or not, …I wake up at 5 (never would have guessed huh?), but in Mizoram, you do that or you mess up your entire shitting schedule, and we start work at 6am (some achievement huh?).

Never ply the Mizos with alcohol (unless you know them well). Mizoram is a Total Liquor Prohibition zone. That means, if you’re not on good terms with them and you drink, you get slapped with a TLP offence. If you’re on good terms (and provided that you can hold your drinks, and not make a nuisance out of yourself), you can drink till kingdom come, since most Mizos drink anyway. Beats me where they get their supplies, as long as they have some available for ‘emergency cases’ (meaning for us), it’s not our problem huh?

Mizoram is a very environmental-conscious state, it has an abundance of bugs – mosquitoes of all sizes, swarms of flies, and bees, uncountable species of moths, spiders of all colours and creed, heck, it’s like what’s-that-planet in Starship Troopers? Why are there so many bugs? Because it’s a FRIGGIN jungle, ok? And besides, the insects have no predators, since the No 1 hobby of the kids of Mizoram is catapult target practice. Their target of choice – squirrels, birds, and any other smallish creatures that move. Come to think of it, haven’t seen much living things around actually, besides insects – no monkeys (I’ve heard that’s a delicacy), no elephants (that’s a delicacy as well), no deer (that also), one fleeting view of a …err fox maybe, running across the road, one iguana (and that also nearly went into the pot, if my driver was driving the car, have never seen someone so disappointed when I refused to run over an iguana crossing the road!).

The No 1 hobby of choice for the adult Mizos are – eating, hunting (with their rifles) and fishing (with dynamite). Mizos absolutely love their dogs. Dogs can help them hunt, they can act as pets, and when they’re too old to move, they can satisfy their master’s appetite (just kidding), they usually eat other people’s dogs. Trees are in abundance in Mizoram too, so there’ll be no problems if say, you cut down one perfectly good tree just to get that honey hanging from one of the branches. Besides, you can use the timber for furniture or firewood, right?

Anyway, there you have it in a nutshell, gonna stop for the time being, gotta rush – only one measly week of leave (and that, also to get my visa extended).


Vanva River, the source of our drinking water


A farm area adjacent to our road, near Ramlaitui Village


Tuipui River, the source of our sand and the only source of good rocks for road construction

The Less Traveled Road to Aizawl

Here’re some pics of one of the roads between Aizawl and Haulawng. It’s only about 135km on this road (if I can call it a road), and takes only about 8.5 bloody hours non-stop. If you love overland adventure driving, you’ll love Mizoram.


Hmuifang, the village lies on top and behind the ridge


Hmuifang Wind-Power Generator (it hasn't worked in ages)


Thenzawl - Farm Veng

Lianchhiari Heartbreak Cliff

This is the rock where a local Mizo Princess, Lianchhiari of yesteryears came to cry her heart off, after her father, the King, banished her commoner lover from her village. Nope, she didn’t jump off the cliff, she was a little smarter than that, she escaped from the village later on, and lived happily ever after in another place (I think). Smart woman, why die for love huh?



Lianchhiari Lunglen Tlang
Nope, this is NOT Lianchhiari, this is our Mizo friend, colleague and guide, Irene. She’s scared stiff of the cliff, so scared that she botched up the picture of yours truly sitting on that rock, so I had to post pics of her instead.


The Track up to Lianchhiari Lunglen Tlang (there's actually a road up, but being adventurous beings like us, we prefer to walk, ...if only we knew that the road is accessible all the way up there!)


Road to Lianchhiari Lunglen Tlang - the road goes through this natural cave

More of Aizawl

Figured I’ll post more pictures of Aizawl, capital of Mizoram (since I have tons of pics of it, there’re views from the north, the south, the east, the west, the centre, at night, in the morning, at dusk, in the summer, in the middle of the friggin monsoon season, etc etc etc…) What to do, when you’re holed up in a place like Mizoram?


Aizawl from the road to Reiek


Aizawl at dusk


Aizawl up close

The Waterfall of The Leech

Vantawng Waterfall

This is Vantawng Waterfall. What we say here among the staff is that, if you’ve not visited Vantawng, you’ve not visited Mizoram. If you’ve not been bitten by a leech, you’ve not been in Mizoram (during monsoon). The best time to visit Vantawng, is immediately after the monsoon, when the water is in full cascade. Incidentally, this is also the time when the leeches are out in full force. So you’ll have a hell of a fun time running / walking as fast as possible to avoid leeches getting a cling-hold of you, stopping once in a while to pull / pick out leeches from the folds of your toes, your ankles, your knees, your shoes, your socks, your neck, your belly-button (hopefully you’ll get them in time before they reach your underpants). Amazingly, the leeches all disappear to who knows where in winter and the dry season (but so does the water of Vantawng Waterfall). To avoid leeches, follow this Mizo guideline – ‘Walk First, Walk Fast!’

Legacy of Mahathir

Putrajaya

For those Malaysians who’re holed up in their own wells and locales, lo and behold, now we have our own fairy-tale capital, our very equivalent of UK’s ‘Big Ben’ or Russia’s ‘Kremlin’, our Putrajaya complete with fairy-tale palaces, ‘floating’ mosques and fancy-looking gardens, lakes and bridges and the largest array of lamp-post designs in a single area. Thank you Tun Dr Mahathir for giving us, Contractors the opportunity to contribute to our country and to keep us employed. Ribuan Terima Kasih!


A building in Putrajaya


Putrajaya Mosque

Ayuthaya

Ayuthaya is the ancient capital of the Thais. It’s in ruins now, compliments of the Burmese invaders who sacked the city …centuries ago. Me, my dad and my uncle are an enthusiastic lot when it comes to exploration of old cities and ruins. Our philosophy is, the wetter, the better. Best time to explore is when the site is half-flooded, when it’s raining dogs and cats, so that you’ll be soaked through, socks, shoes, underwear, etc. wonderful!


Ayuthaya


Frolicking in the rain at Ayuthaya (my dad and my uncle, an enthusiastic lot huh?)

Bukit Tambun

Bukit Tambun with a view of a stadium in the background

Bukit Tambun is one of those famous seafood place somewhere near Butterworth that dad / mom usually brings us, ‘visitors’ to. The food’s not bad (if you know how to order) and the ambience’s pretty rustic (where else can you get squat toilets that open directly onto the sea / stream / river / estuary – whatever you call that body of water beneath – I figure this arrangement really takes care of our sewerage huh? besides giving us an abundance of sea creatures)


Partial view of a restaurant in Bukit Tambun


Small Chinese Temple at Bukit Tambun