..:: 668. Feeling Good ::..

the version by adam lambert just kept spinning while i work in the office. if only i could blast the music lol.

work is strangely fun and enjoyable. though i have been OT-ing. had 2 days of "freedom" cos my boss was on leave and on course. busy answering questions from some major.

lunch can be a powerful networking tool. just sit with the senior officers and listen to them talk, u can learn quite a lot. learn who to "look out" for, how to survive office politics, how i should handle difficult situation or what to do to get things done. very interesting.

sad. this year no mid-year payment. economy bad, govt decides not to give $. gotta wait out till year end, hopefully. managed to claim my india air ticket. now settling my transcript so i can get my emplacement faster and get more $.

finally got my perm staff pass and issued free uniforms and accessories. dunno why i get excited over such stuff. just that sense of belonging and ownership perk me up.

weekends playing xbox with the new 42" tv. just got my emporio armani specs!

..:: 667. U Know U Miss India When... ::..

k. decided to do away with the "friends" kind of label cos its so cliche.

work has been hectic. left office around 8pm everyday but somehow i find myself loving it. quite surprised i am looking forward to work and i dont whine when i have to work late. anticipating my next task which is to settle scholarship matters, documenting the applications, scheduling them for interviews. i think the real joy comes from being able to help people in their career and development. i am also excited about the courses i get to attend in a few weeks time.

tml morning have to brief CO about my number-crunching task. my ma'am sort of pre-empt me about making a bad first impression by providing unreliable figures. *hint* check through thoroughly the numbers and the names. somehow i need to commit them to memory cos i got "grilled" to know the details of the serviceman by my fingertips.

the missing-india feeling is still there and i know it especially when i

1. still convert stuff to rupees and lament about how expensive things are
2. never seem to find ginger milk tea to be able to match up taste of chai, not even talking about the price (5 rupees)
3. spent my weekend watching dvds i bought in india
4. glance at mens health and think of 100 rupess (3 dollars) version in india
5. find myself having the urge to talk to indian people and miss the ultra fast talking speed
6. want to say "joo-lay" but no one understands
7. long to watch cricket match
8. zoom into news about india - like in the straits times, mountain journey of faith. a hindu pilgrim beginning his journey from baltal base camp to srinagar's amarnath cave shrine in kashmir for the annual pilgrimage... its in the guidebook! lol

lastly
9. constantly check for tickets to go india. anywhere in india!

..:: 666. The One With Still India ::..

14. i miss throwing things aka littering. i bought some otahs on the way home and so tempted to just throw in the bushes. i think i am really singaporeanised. even in india, littering seems uncomfortable. we could eat something and contemplate throwing out from the train. even the locals encouraged us to throw.

'there is no bin you know' was what they said.

dunno is it taxi drivers going through courses or what, they become strangely friendly and talkative. so far, i have taken 3 cabs since i came back and all the drivers loved to chat and talk non-stop. i needed that power nap but they just kept talking. perhaps i should stop telling them i went india cos that would usually spark the conversation.

crazily went to meet yash and ky for dinner at LITTLE INDIA. just when i swore not to touch indian food, the crazy gang decided to eat indian food and drink chai. really cannot compare to real india-indian food. the fish tasted like it has swum from india, so tough.

over dinner we decided unofficially to go kerala during the coming chinese new year. as usual, we love to just-say. maybe i should really book and the envy might just kick in and people will start booking. :P

going for wopc (warrant officer promotion ceremony) soon. so excited, hopefully next year i can be the secretary, sure lots to learn. loving my department, my immediate boss just a cute female boss, and the CO such fatherly figure.

..:: 665. The One With Incredible India ::..

shall backtrack some of my entries. touched down this morning at 7am and had a mad rush to go to work. got briefing by my boss which took 6 hours and everyone was "congratulating" me on my new post being "challenging". ya i get the hint. in charge of careers of few thousand men and women is no joke. at least i can take pride in managing careers of others.

left office at around 7 plus and i was so freaking tired that i had to take a cab back. morning: airport to home to work cost me 54 dollars and back home it was 15 dollars. i seriously miss the 1 dollar auto rides in india...

at home out of a sudden, i dunno why, there was a surge of emotions. flashbacks of what i will be doing if i were still in india, the nice people that i have met just resurfaced. i cried. yes, i also cannot believe. i guess the girls probably cried or teared at some point during the trip, but mine though was a little late but still noteworthy. i didnt cry when i came back from my 6 mth trip to china but a month in india was enough to garner that much tears. i guess i was forced to move out of my comfort zone, explored and had really low expectation (initial reluctance to go india), but ended up being surprised by the culture and its people.

another testament that i heart india is that i rather spend some time blogging my best moments in india than to sleep though i am freaking tired.

things i would miss in india:

1. hagging over price for auto - ultimate fun to see them calling you back or laughing at us when we quote ridiculous price. usually i just laughed with them.

2. 55rs (S$1.50) all-you-can-eat thali. enuff said.

3. 20rs (less than S$1) for 1kg of mangoes. the satisfaction you get from peeling the mango and eating it without cutting is priceless.

4. hoping into clubs in goa for free. party all night, having dj knowing our fave pokerface song. staying just 50m away from the club and 200m away from the beach is just pure heaven.

5. bumping into real hardcore backpackers and hearing their stories. overland trips that lasted few years. those were the people that made me feel like travelling full-time. haiz. also made me realise my ideal partner must love travelling. there is just so much to learn from...

6. my nepalese german baker. shant reveal too much details but i wake up early every morning for this. i meant the pastries.

7. staying in the temple at amritsar. communal eating and just basking in the shining golden temple. watching people so religiously and faithfully praying... their devotion is just a sight to behold.

8. guessing whether the couple is from an arranged or love marriage. met 2 completely different couples. one where the wife loves travelling, even while her station has reached, she was still looking at the pics i took while the husband was nonchalant, completely not interested in travelling.

the other couple who completely took us by surprise when they offered to let us stay over at their place. we didnt look friendly to each other until that mango juice spilled. their hospitality really touched me. the couple with a 5.5 mth son was in delhi for 6 mths before we met them on the train back to bangalore. the couple cleaned the house, made two nice beds for us. the husband even went to buy lunch for us, later groceries to cook dinner and when they knew we have supper in singapore, they made another meal around 9pm. their son was so endearing that i didnt know i could make so much funny noises to entertain the child.

9. naturally be meeting nice people. they were probably the ones that made me cry too. i felt so at home and the bed, it was one of my best sleep. i think what moved me was also their love story which i thought you could only see it in their bollywood movies. girl being older and of lower caste system, parents wanted to arrange marriage for her and told the guy that she was dating. the guy confessed his love and proposed. married "illegally" for the first time before getting approval and understanding from their parents in the second formal wedding. now seeing them fight for their happiness and they truly are enjoying having each other and with their son, no amount of words can describe that feeling.

10. nice weather of manali and scenery from leh. waking up to see the himalayan range, what more can you ask. walking around the neighbourhood, greeting strangers "joo-lay", everyone seems so friendly, even yash could hitchhike without problems.

11. good looking people at srinagar though jammu and kashmir got NO freaking phone reception due to security. guys were more rowdy but they were rare species of good lookers compared to the places we have seen. even yash was drooling and checking guys out. :P staying in a houseboat was fun though the toilet was a bit creepy. having birds watch you bathe, shit and pee just made me feel that the birds make pretty bad audience chirping away while i shit.

12. the AC train rides. should have taken more of those but definitely less of their on-the-board meals. we laughed our heads off everytime they serve main courses - egg briyani, veg briyani, veg thali. always the same thing for lunch and dinner x 2 days. people in our cable understood why we laughed but the poor waiter might be thinking we were laughing at his accent.

13. funny encounters. things you can carry with your heads. so you think you can squeeze (in a vehicle). funny pronounciation.

where is the payphone?
oh ma'am. tart floor.

tart? or so we thought.

third floor.

..:: 664. The One With O Leh ::..

22hr jeep ride to leh was no joke. left manali at 2am and reached leh at 1230am. the ride was sick, literally. didnt realise we travelled on one of the highest pass in the world. couldnt acclimatise, suffered from mild acute mountain sickness (AMS).

but it was all worth it when we were here. everywhere u could see the himalayan range. we were on a shared jeep, each person 1500rs cos the mini bus no vacancy and state buses not in operation yet. was in the jeep with a french lady, a belgium and a czech guy and 4 other indian nationals.

reached leh at 1230am, autos were nowhere to be found. had to approach a tout who brought us to a nearby hotel at old fort road. managed to bargain for 250rs for a double room.

stayed in hotel mayflower for the first night cos not enough rooms at hotel t-suru. finally met our first singaporean couple who happened to be jaron's salsa partners at jitterbugs.

together we booked a jeep (1550rs each) to nubra valley which was awesome. went through the highest motorable pass in the world and started snowing. i think the diskit monastery was the best out of the diskit-hunder-sumor-panamik trail. hunder was like a desert but much cooler. sumor cant remember lol. panamik is a miserable hot spring. hotel snow palace at hunder was a killer, except for the hot pink room, the dinner (all-you-can-eat) was 200rs which of cos i cant eat much cos its spicy and boring. breakfast - toast and egg was 100rs. insane.

seems like yash had a great time alone in leh lol. oriental guesthouse is the place to be. great view, incredible breakfast (omelet, cheese rosti), lcd plasma tv, 22 inch samsung lcd for internet and a library with lots of books...

sadly the rafting pass not opened yet :(

took a state bus to srinagar. so much better. and it only cost 500rs.

..:: 663. The One With Manali ::..

ha. forget about waking up at 4am to watch sunrise. left the temple at around 1pm and donated about 150rs. thinking we could catch the bus to dharamsala at 3pm (which was what the ticketing officer told us last night), the bus to dharamsala was actually 12pm. as usual, we were not surprised by the "anything is possible" in india which could well be their tourism tagline.

we could either transit at pathankot then take another bus there to dharamsala. alternatively, we could take a 12-hr ride to manali which was on the way up to leh. since dalai lama would be at dharamsala on sun and it was monday, i thought we could go up manali first then come down later.

230pm bus. i had to climb on top of the bus to secure our huge backpacks and a whole lot of butt abrasion, bumpy ride, ANOTHER puking woman, we finally reached manali at about 6am.

i was totally not prepared for the weather, freaking cold and i was in my singlet and berms lol. my face turned blue immediately, and lucky there was the pipping hot chai to keep my sanity. took an auto (which was rare in sight) to old manali.

found tourist nest guesthouse which had nice room and balcony for 400rs per night. wondered around and found a german bakery with a hot dude. after random conversations by yash, found that he was actually training to be a singapore gurkha but had insufficient money to pay to go to singapore. that explained his buff bod which i thought he got it from carrying sacks of flour since gymming isnt the kind of thing they do there. there were lots of people from nepal working here in summer and during winter, they would all flood to goa.

weather is so cooling, its like aircon 24/7. good thing there was tv in the room so we could catch some bbc news. visited the marketplace which was flooded with the locals. shopping spree as usual, bought shawls as gifts and another empty bag to store all the gifts.

going to book a mini bus to leh which cost 1500rs each. ouch. but considering the 300rs and the savings we got from the interstate-my-ass-in-a-bad-state bus ride to manali, it was alright i guess.

embrace myself for colder weather (thinks of barbarella chantel thomas) and rafting!!!

i miss my pastry...

..:: 662. The One With Amritsar ::..

kena cheated by the guidebook... lol. no straight train from chandigarh to amritsar. unlike what the book wrote, 1 hour by train. it is a lot faster to take the bus. in the end, we had to take an interstate bus first to jalandhar (about 2-3 hours, cost 85rs) then we took a transit bus which was surprisingly A/C (aircon) which took about 1.5-2 hours and reached around 1pm.

the bus ride was as usual exciting. when travelling in india, never sit near

1. the exit or window
2. any female/mother, especially those who look thin

cos they puke! the bus ride was so bumpy. jaron and i were sitting at the rear of the bus. when the lady approached the rear of the bus with "i-want-to-puke" face, i knew i was going to experience some drama. i tried to open the door but to no avail, then the bus conductor kept yelling in hindi (like hell i know what he meant) and left me frantically to look for other door switch. my friend just woke up in daze and another guy translated "open the window".

i looked at the gap, how can the lady reach the window without her puke landing on us? she was not in a state to move to the back seat with retractable window cos we had our luggage with us. she puked near the door in the end and the bus had to stop somewhere so that her husband could rinse away her "remains" using the water available at the street well.

then the bus conductor came up and blabbered hindi at me again. must be cursing this time, though i felt like hurling hokkien vulgarities at him since no one knew but i forgave him for his lack of common sense.

when we reached the sikh golden temple, it was "wow". we first checked into the supposedly free lodging for travellers that was within the temple. after the stay, we were supposed to give some donation in any amount. it was like a dormitory layout and the place was packed with backpackers who really travel full-time.

there was this russian guy who hitch rides all the way and has been travelling for three years and counting. yash was there to flaunt her malay with the russian who knew basic conversational malay. there was this chilean guy who is on his buddhism route and out for a few years as well. another swiss with his wife travelled overland using their bikes for 3 years too. such amazing people, impressive. as usual, awkward questions had to be endured (insiders would know :P).

the hunt for chicken king (a restaurant) failed miserably as expected. wanted to resort to hand gestures and body language to "charade" chicken king but thought they would not get it anyway. still not feeling well to eat our first meat since 1 week. loaded on oral rehydration salts and felt much better.

finally useful and friendly policeman came to our rescue as we were trying to bargain to get an auto to bring us to attari-wagah border (also know as the india-pakistan border) to see closing of the border. we were smart to get the auto at 250rs return without waiting charges.

basically we went there to sweat. the place had high security so no bags were allowed. the stadium was divided into male and female sectors. the female sector had room for movement while the male as usual was under packing order. if u are ever claustrophobic, india is not for you. guys love to put their hand on your shoulder, back as they move along. if u are seated down, most are clumsy enough to hit you with their knees, legs, whatever. quite a number of people trying to sell the ceremony dvd and not getting the hint that if we want to buy, we would have gotten it long ago. damn those houseflies.

ooo. the parade and ceremony were interesting. the footdrill that the indian soldiers do, not for the girls. such high kick, i thought they were doing gymnastic or ballet kicks. when the soldiers "face off", they looked like they were doing tap dance. damn funny. you can see them "act macho" march towards each other (india and pakistan soldiers), then suddenly raised their legs and did a little tap dance and shake hands. there was this compere who kept shouting

Bharat Mata Ki Jai! (Hail Mother India!),
Hindustan Zindabad! (Long Live India!), and
Vande Matram! (Hail to the Motherland!)

all the crowd got rowdy and started to shout and roar. before the ceremony, songs were played and you could see girls (including aunties) coming up to the area to dance. girls would carry the indian flag and run up and down like they were in olympics. jaron and i just stood there and sweat. oh no, and get pushed around.

since they loved to squeeze, i found myself some "drying agents". wiped my sweat whenever another guy tried to squeeze in front of me, since most of them surprisingly still wore long sleeves (more cloth to dry my sweat)

at night, we went back to take pictures of the golden temple. the sight is amazing... we could see people bathing in the holy pool, bodies of all shapes - gave the temple a different dimension. but the fun and interesting part was actually when we went to their dining hall for communal eating. the place was open 24hrs, serving dhal curry and chapati. it was nice seating with the rest eating. saw a cute little boy serving us water. after the meal, the temple volunteers signalled us to have some chai. inside the temple, we had to cover our heads and being guys, we were not used to covering our heads with cloth. the cloth kept coming off and we looked insane. yash was there giggling at us but found herself being giggled at by a weird man. HAHA. the guy sat beside her and had 3 big bowls of chai and still mesmerized by someone. maybe its me. lol. but i am sure i didnt look like a transgendered hijra (known as third gender, neither male nor female but mostly dressed as female). i goggled hijras and saw a picture of hijra holding a banana, lol. wth. you often see them doing their "rituals" on the train, known within us as the "claps claps", they expect you to tip them and rejecting them is bad luck. i chose to ignore them but the train is how big to "siam" them?

..:: 661. The One With Bikaner and Chandigarh ::..

took a 5hr bus from jaisalmer to bikaner (150rs), the horn was amazing. lol. recorded it as an alarm tone for my phone, another irritant for yash. hee hee.

realised the buses love to customise their horn sound.

had 2-3 hours to spare at bikaner while waiting for our train at 5pm. went to this rat temple which was like 30km, took an auto which cost 300rs. we forgot to ask about "waiting charges". lol but luckily he didnt charge more in the end.

the rat temple. gross. can see lots of rats sleeping and running around the temple. though if they run over your feet, you will have good luck but i praying hard i dont have one running across me. they dont look as cute as your tom and jerry kind. they were feeding on what looked like masala dosa or potato-like stuff, drinking milk. just the whole bunch lying at a corner made me queasy.

during the train ride, we experienced sand storm. the locals were looking at us weirdly as we were trying to take pictures and videos while they were hoping we could wind down the windows asap. lol.

chandigarh is so much like singapore! with road dividers! and traffic lights that people follow. potted plants and lampposts along the streets. less honking. so sad we have to leave quite fast.

oops. time up. gtg.

..:: 660. The One With Jaisalmer ::..

arghz. entry didnt manage to be published so now have to rewrite. hate rewriting entries, lost all the 'steam'

the very smart trio booked a 3D2N desert safari once we checked into the himalayan guesthouse. nothing cooling about the guesthouse, in fact all we could feel was hot air. quite amazed by their touting skills, a guy got to us even before we alighted from the bus. got us to his jeep and drove us straight to the guesthouse.

for 650rs per day, yash managed to negotiate 2 free nights for the price we pay. perks of being a girl. (in yash's defence, its the nego skills)

we were told that there are 3 other English girls and 2 Americans going with us. hur hur. and also 2 Swedish girls. in the end, they were non-existent, except for a very nice asian american guy, nic.

desert safari. freaking hot. camels apparently cannot walk during 12pm to 4pm. hence we had to sit under trees that did not provide much shelter. you cant sleep nor read so pretty much, we either listen to the guide's rags to riches story (how an american couple saved his life, gave money to him to buy 3 camels so he can become his own boss).

heat can do some serious brain damage. after catching a bad-rhyme hindi movie,

i wish you a good life.
i want you to be my wife.

we were entertained by some of the guide's rhyme.

camel college, full of knowledge.
no curry no hurry.
something lassi then varanasi.

we also had our own fun after visiting so many villages and most of them just had people running after us begging for money or items.

our little version:
no free chai (tea), no free lunch
i have a hunch
the next village, i would punch

but i suffered a mild heatstroke. needed oral rehydration tablets and stuff. lost appetite and felt feverish. sucky feeling. had nice rooftop chat with other tourists from france, holland, japan, hongkong. amazed how they can just quit their jobs and travel.

i am missing home already :(