Pho anyone?

It is final - I is going to Vietnam in July! My dirt cheap tour starts on the 19th and is for 9 night and 10 days post which we are going to figure out when I can get to Angkor Vat in Cambodia as well - in for a penny, in for a pound!!

So my very exciting tour looks like this:

Day 1: Hanoi

Day 2: Halong Bay

Day 3: Hanoi

Day 4: Hue

Day 5: Hoi An

Day 6: Whale Island

Day 7: Whale Island

Day 8: Nha Trang - Saigon

Day 9: Ho Chi Minh city

Day 10: Saigon


If you look very closely at the map, you can see I pretty much cross the entire country!
But I just checked ticket prices and it is going to ki-ill me!! Apparently the cheapest ticket without including airport taxes etc etc is Rs.40,000!! My god - I can't even imagine what I would have to fork out if I was paying full price for the tour. What I need to do is find a buddy ticket type situation so that would practically work out to be a free holiday - is anybody volunteering?? please...pretty please...with pink icing and a cherry on top? I am also thinking I might do a LCC from Bangkok to Hanoi - since I know I can get a cheap flight to Bangkok from here so that's a thought. If anyone can recommend anything and please remember, budget travel is the key thought here!

I'm really excited though...after ages, I'm going to be doing a never been there before kinda holiday - it's always fun evenn though I know just before I'm due to leave, I will be behaving like a chicken and saying 'do I need to go? Really Really? ' . I hate leaving the safety of the house you see for faraway lands unknown and yippee - they speak french in some parts so me and R should be able to make do!

A friend of a friend had visited Vietnam late last year so I'm going to ask her about her experiences - if anybody knows anything that they would like to share with me - please go ahead!

Random musings - Part V

After the show on blogging on 'We the People', there has been lots of debate on the issues - the privacy, the opinions, the 'morality' etc - I have different issues - how much of myself can I put out there? My mother thinks I'm crazy to have a blog - how can you discuss your life with random people - now I know pretty much everybody who reads this and they know most things in any case so it's ok - I just like to write it but still.....anyhoo, my mother thinks I discuss too much with my friends as well so that's a different story!
I have issues with my identity, individuality being lifted - there are some things I like to think of as mine - the way I dress [tho heavily influenced by cousin since she provides 1/2 wardrobe but still...], the things I chose to do and I hate, reiterate hate it when people do the same things!

Dressing the same way is definitely annoyance # 1. What's sad is that many people don't even realise that they are lifting off from the way I do it - moving from ready made salwar kameez's to the mix and match version that I use [or buying the same gaberdine's - insert musical note here!]. I should have grown out of it - I know I know but somehow this still irks me to the nth degree - luckily this has not happened at work so I have managed to have a peaceful working life.Other stuff also that I consider particularly my own within a set - I hate it when other people adopt. I have always shopped at OMO when everyone else ran for the Westside and the Shopper's stop - even when I could barely afford it - I would shop at 'Either Or' in Pune [ did I mention the time when Sameera Reddy bought everything I picked up - literally I would look and put away dependent on price, size etc and she bought it all - I nearly decided to join Bollywood after that!]

So basically, bringing it back to the blog, my fear is that I if put it out there, it's easier for someone to lift your life - it's all there in black and white! Not that I don't do the same thing, I understood what a blog was after 'the charade' started one and then out of sheer boredom, I started one on spaces and after she moved and worked out blogger, I moved as well but she is a nicer person and it does not bother her [or if it does, she does not let it show!].

Moving on to pleasanter thoughts of vacations, Vietnam might not happen again... tho this morning I was reading about the noodles Pho [pronounced 'Faw'] and R and I were discussing how if we don't do Vietnam sometime in the coming future, it might not retain it's current charm and it's not a place you can do with kids. Tho I do have alternae options if Viet does not happen, one of my french friends is getting married in July and since 'the escapist' is already there, it would be a nice holiday and always to see the Samara in the Hong Kong is a constant need so we will go somewhere this year just where and with whom remains to be seen!!

P.S. The boy wants to go to the New York.....

"Monumental"

This post should be about the Agra - Taj Finale which is actually a lot to write about - not just coz the Taj is breathtakingly beautiful but a lot of issues that we faced there. One of the biggest deals is that the entry for foreign nationals is Rs.750 whereas Indian passport holders get in for a mere Rs.20. This majorly upset my other 2 Indian companions but not me so much. I pay that much to get into the Louvre or any museum for that matter. There are student discounts I agree but on the whole that is the price. The fact that my government chooses to subsidise me should not affect the foreign nationals like that [not that the foreign national was uspet but still...]. In India, the disparity between the rich and the poor is ridiculous and in this country, there is no concept of state welfare which exists in the more developed countries, those people possibly have the money to enter the Louvre - There are some Indian families I am sure that are surviving on Rs.750 a month. The debate can go on forever but the way I look at it, I pay french money/English pounds in the Tower of London to go see stuff that has been stolen from this country - some of it from the Taj as well I'm sure - at least this monument belongs to us - no questions about it! Considering what else the Indian government steals from the people, the middle class espescially, I think using it to subsidise the Taj while attempting to maintain it is ok enough for me.

The Agra hotel was easily one of the nicest - The Taj plaza inspiring me to write a review on it at tripadvisor.com - just 10 mins walk from the hotel. The procedure to get in is kinda vague where ur bags are checked and chargers etc need to be put away in lockers provided but once you get in it seems worth it. The issue for us is that we had to get there at 8 in the morning where the fog had not yet lifted and so it seemed grey throughout. However I went through a friend's photos who had been a couple of days prior and it looks like it's later in the day with bright yellow sunshine, blue skies and a white white Taj!! In comparison, mine looks like a English day! It really is beautiful though, I think the Mughals/Rajputs cracked it in terms of symmetry. It amazes me that without so many of the gadgets we take for granted, with just drawing boards and elementary machinery, they managed to create such wonderful architechture. The pyramids in Egypt as well are a wonder.

That pretty much sums up the holiday. It lasted 5 days and costed me approx Rs. 15000 [including the return airfare]. Luckily I had gone with non shopping enthusiasts so that spending was cut down as well - thank God for small mercies! So the holiday along with the tax saving initiatives that needed to be done this month have left with practically zero in the bank account.

This is now upsetting me since I have been working since June 2005 and apart from the tax saving tht one needs to do per year which I did not even do completely for the first 2 years, I have no saving - no savings at all!! and I don't think I have an extremely extravagant lifestyle - I may be shopping every week but I is not buying brands - I go out 4 times a week but not necessarily to a lifestyle association place and still I'm broke! When I changed jobs early last year I increased my in hand per month by 30% and still I have no money. Really the more money you have, the more you spend. I swear I was as happy in P, and there I used to live on Rs.10,000 a month!

So how do I rectify this situation? By paying Rs.3000 a month to a 'Artistic yoga' class!! Hee hee! strange I know but it does help - It keeps me busy 4 times a week - money that is automatically saved from drinking which could come to Rs.1000 easily. Also, it reminds me that since I am paying for it. I should not over eat [I ordered puri bhaji for lunch today - indulging is ok but over is not!], all other vices are also reduced. The pain in my body from stretching makes me want to sit at home more and since I need to go home to bathe post my class, I end up eating at home as well which is always healthier. So...I am looking at it as an investment which improves my lifestyle. The weight which I have gained though is staggering - it seems that in 2 months I have become double my size which is exactly what happened to me in Mirchi where with the stress, I became half!

In other news, R has discovered a super cheap 10 day tour to Vietnam so crossing our fingers to get that - if that is the case, then France is pretty much out of the window since was planning it at the same time in July but C'est la Vie!

Vacation - Delhi

So once we took the Shatabdi from Jaipur to Delhi where we were plied with food non-stop [included in the price of the ticket]. There was (a) snack (b) drink (c) complimentary water (d) dinner (e) dessert. We landed at New Delhi station at 11 in the night where immediately we were surrounded by touts exacerbated by the 'Gora' with us. We finally got a cabbie who agreed to take us - the others having refused having realised we already had hotel reservations. This guy however kept plugging another hotel saying it's like a 5 star and dissing Hotel Grand Godwin - where I had made the bookings. As it its, with the hotel reservations off the net, I was a bit apprehensive of where we were going to land up so I was considering taking up the cabbie on his offer when the others said to at least check it out. The access route the cab took us through was suspect to say the least with hotels advertising rooms at Rs.250 for A/C Deluxe and worse when I realized they meant by the hour!
However, the hotel was excessively decent with nice clean bathrooms and a fridge as well. We were upgraded the first night to the suites and decided to keep them for the 2nd night as well. The rate was inclusive of breakfast which was a really good spread of eggs, sausages, French toast/pancakes, cereals, coffee/tea, indian options and toast and all of it unlimited. There was even laptops with free internet access in the lobby which was wi-fi enabled. The only drawback was the location is not that great in Paharganj but it's really central being not more than 10 minutes away from Connaught place or any other monument except for the Qutub Minar.

The first day we decided to go to the Red Fort by cycle rickshaw - where we wandered around for a bit admiring the architecture...
then we decided to go for lunch to Punjabi by Nature which everyone recommends for the food and the Vodka golgappa's so we did both. We spend an inordinate amount of time there but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves feeling the holiday mode finally sink in on us. The next morning before we departed for Agra, we did a tour of the Rashtrapati bhavan, India Gate and Connaught place where we went to Wenger's the bakery and I might have bought out the shop but their fruit tart is to die for! [P.S for Chocolate stuff, there is nothing to beat Cookie Jar in Kolkata].

All in all, I think Delhi is the place where we chilled out the most and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Vacay - I

So we had gone for some R&R with R&R to the famed Golden triangle - being the brave souls we are, we arranged our own kinda tour where I booked hotels off the net and kept the inter city travel fluid. Praying to God that the hotels were not shadiness personified and not doing any research on the sites we wanted to visit,we had a very adhoc holiday which was just what the doctor ordered.

I really wanted to keep a travelogue sort of thing but it does not seem to be coming together so I will just review with pictures in brief:

Jan 2nd, Wednesday:

Depart Mumbai - on time, Air Deccan Zindabad! ok - maybe 20 mins late but that is practically on time in my world!

Reach Jaipur - check into Arya Niwas - heave sigh of relief that the many bags fit into one Tata Indigo - and before u people start saying how I can never travel light, R & R had mega bags since they the ones that had to go straight home post. The hotel was nice - tried and tested since the mother had stayed there in September

The difficult part was the finding of the food for lunch - since flight was at inconvenient time and AD is an LCC [Low Cost Carrier for those who did not know - no food served on the damn flights!!]. At the same time, trying to figure out an agendafor the evening since it was already 4 and every thing shuts in Jaipur by 5.30! Anyway, so we try our luck at this rooftop italian restaurant since it's the only one that's open and order the thali and pizza and let me tell you....this has to be the best Pizza in INDIA. It is wood smoked, with bacon, thin and crispy...I could go on and on...pizza being my favourite food!

We then decided to go Chokhi Dhaani which is an artisan village to spend the evening and soak in the Rajasthani culture. The highlight of that evening was the ghoda ghadi and camel ride...not because we took them..because they kept trying to kill R who was always in their way! There was always a Tyrannosaurus Rex who kept braying the whole night. The food was not that good tho I gorged on the roti, makhand and gur!

Back to the hotel , picked up alcohol and sat and chatted around. We had decided to hire car next day, do the sights and take the train to Delhi [original plan being J for 2 nghts and Delhi for one]

Jan 3rd, Thursday:

Woke up bright and early [read 8.30 am].Made arrangements with hotel in Delhi, so on and so forth and finally set off at 11 am for the wonderful sights of Jaipur

Started with the Hawa Mahal, the palace of wind..basically the house for the concubines which had a connecting door with the main city palace. The palace has some ridiculous number of apertures/windows thus the name. This was one of the first places to have a swimming pool/jacuzzi structure. I can just imagine the Maharaja with his 5000 concubines in the 'ickle' pool.

From there, we moved onto the City palace with the 4 season's courtyard and the 'Big' Maharaj who was 7 foot tall and 4 foot wide! He ated 5 kg jalebi and 5 litres of milk for breakfast per day...he died at age 40. Who would have thought? ;-)


At the Amber fort, where we cheated and took the car up instead of walking, we opted out of the guide and semi wandered around doing our own thing. Taking lots of funny pictures - finally ended up for lunch at a picturesque resto-cafe in the middle of the fort. The location was nice, the food left much to be desired but nice experience. Post which we came back to hotel to pack up and catch train for Dilli so that completes first installment of holiday. will do Dilli 'n Agra later.


P.S. me and the boy are holiday compatible - yay!

A Happy New Year to all!!

It's a new beginning & I hope the past year has been fun for everyone. I'm going to generally recap the year in terms of it's highs and lows and what it has brought to my life.

the year started with a shock

• in my old job when within the first week I moved teams with no warning
• this made me rearrange my entire holiday plans cutting it short by a week
• resulting in the fact that I spent one week in HongKong
• Straightened my hair to gorgeously flat!
• spent only 6 days in Auckland for the wedding [R will never forgive me for that]
• R got married
• I saw Samara
• Came back, changed jobs, Bye bye Mirchi!
• Went to Sri Lanka for the company conference b4 joining the company
• S came back from lands far away
• Finally broke with non-relationship
• Discovered Margarita's at Soul Fry
• Set up friends
• My wonderful mother turned 60 [previous post on that]
• Found a boyfriend [previously known as Semi Semi Thing Thing]
• Bought new old furniture for my room - glass cupboard and old school filing cabinet
• Achieved 110% of my target with a month left to go
• R & R came down
• 2nd Christmas dance of lifetime [please note: R conned me into last one also]

• Since lack of stress, put on so much weight, no longer fit any of my clothes!
• 6 more friends got married this year
• and to end the year on a good note, am completely flat broke.......but happy!!

I've had a very successful year, I think, I've learnt a lot of things, about myself, about life and about happiness. This is the second time I've absorbed this lesson in sales, you kill yourself in one direction and the money will come from another! If you want something, it can happen to you. and it's true, Love and Happiness does make you put on weight!

The Resolutions for this year are:

• Lose the weight!
• do one major holiday - The Vietnam, Cambodia Laos tour or France
• Save money [ for the holiday and in general]
• Start writing regularly
• Figure out a course to do in 2009 [preferably in an European country]

At 26, tho life is not sorted the way I imagined it at 16, it's doing a damn good job of making me happy!

So we were drunk and....

I don't know how it is but all good stories that have u rolling in the aisles hysterically with laughter always but always start with 'So I was pissed and....','So I was drunk and....', 'So we were drinking and...'; It kinda makes me wonder if we ever had lives before alcohol. I know I started drinking at around age 20 - I mean like drinking drinking [drinking 1 glass of wine between 3 girls bcoz u paid cover does not count!!]. I'm sure I must have had fun before that but you sure cannot tell now!

Last night was a prime example of this: 3 girls met up generally to catch up before one leaves for lands far away - across the kaala paani and the talk turned to [for once, not boys] but all the funny drunk stories one has encountered either through personal experience or someone u know. These are the only stories that I know of that are also never 'a friend of a friend' - u know the bad luck stories, the horror situations - those always happen to a friend of a friend where u've heard of it but u don't actually know the person.....to get back to the point, for drunk stories - either u're it or u're supporting it!!

So last night was Bring on the alcohol - demolished 2 bottles of Sula Blush Zinfandel and swapped these crazy stories, most of which we have heard before but never fail to bring a tear to the eye - for laughing like crazy. Most recent example - me sitting and whingeing to everyone - u're making funnome - and then getting vicious and telling everybody else what they do when they are drunk - bathroom stalls with married women and someone else is crying. I'm surprised I did not say '5 minish' which is a staple line of some people if they don't want to leave. One of the other girls ate chocolate, drank wine and then started hopping practice, followed by lots of moaning and pleading - go figure! One of the funniest in recent times is deciding to interuppt one couple we know and then saying in a very serious tone to be absolutely fair 'If her top is off, ur pants should be down' - and not seeing anything remotely suggestive in this statement at all. Another girl in an inebriated state decided if her boyfriend did not want to kiss her she would go find her non-lesbian friend who could definitely 'handle' her. The same one also liked to bite cheeks of said friend when high and then compare it to boti kebab since favourite food! Another girl I know decided that she could not have triplets because she had only 2 nipples so how would she feed the third child? and now she wants to have 4.......I tell u! and this is not even starting on the boy's stories which will have to have an appropriate PG-13 page to itself!

The list is endless - I want to start a blog dedicated to these stories which anyone can contribute to...and the title of that blog will be the title of this post. I know practically every single one of my acquaintance will have a story to tell!

I just saw this facebook and it's incredibly relevant also - please put up ur hand if u have done even one!!

When Girls Drink Too Much...

1. We have absolutely no idea where our purse is
2. We believe that dancing with our arms overhead and wiggling our butt while yelling "woohoo" is truly the sexiest dance move around
3. We've suddenly decided that we want to kick someone's ass and honestly believe we could do it too
4. In our last bathroom visit, we realize that we now look more like a homeless hooker than the goddess we were just four hours ago
5. We start crying and telling everyone we see that we love them sooooo much
6. We get extremely excited and jump up and down every time a new song plays because "oh my god! I love this song"
7. We've found a deeper/spiritual side to the geek sitting next to us
8. We've suddenly taken up smoking and become really good at it
9. We yell at the bartender, who we believe cheated us by giving us just lemonade but that's just because we can no longer taste the gin
10. We think we are in bed, but the pillow feels strangely like the kitchen floor (or the mop?)
11. We fail to notice that the toilet lid's down when we sit on it
12. We take our shoes off because we believe it's their fault that we're having problems walking straight.