Author: manuscrypts

  • NH8

    This review was first published in Bangalore Mirror, and you are permitted to read further only if you promise not to LOL, because this happens to be a veg restaurant! Gasp! Those of my meat eating friends whose ribs aren’t being tickled and who can empathise, don’t worry, I compensated by refusing to meet vegetarians and following a meat-only diet during the rest of the weekend. 😉

    NH8 is on 80ft Road Indiranagar and this map should tell you how to get there. The Bata showroom above which it is located is a good landmark. While on maps, for the geographically challenged, the map on the restaurant’s signboard outside informs you that the National Highway 8 connects the country’s capital New Delhi with its financial capital Mumbai, and on its way passes the State capitals Gandhinagar and Jaipur. Ok, geography lesson over, now you can take your eyes off the road and focus on the gastronomic journey.

    The idea is to present the cuisine of the different cities traversed by the NH8 highway. The menu is still in the introductory stage, and they plan to add more options soon. For now, what is available is a thali with unlimited refills. From the tiny waiting area outside to the entire decor inside, a good attempt has been made to do justice to the geographical theme of the restaurant. Perhaps the only thing that sticks out is the gigantic TV screen, but then, that seems to be a hygiene item in restaurants now. The seating is of two kinds – low floor and regular, and the cushions are bright and comfortable. The staff also follow the theme with their colourful pagdis.

    The welcoming ‘Padharo Sa’ section with Chaanch and Jaljeera is followed by the savouries (Farsaan) that included the dhokla, Batata vada and Masala Bati among others. The main course (Aarogo Saa, Jeemo Saa, Rice) consists of gravies – dal, gatta, kadi and to go with it Naan, Roti and rice. There’s also a Moong Dal Khichdi and a variety of chutneys. The road ends with desserts in the form of burfi and Lapsi. There are more items on the thali on weekends as compared to weekdays. You can see the menu at Zomato.

    We started with the Paneer Kalimirch Tikka, and the Haryaali Aloo, both of which turned out to be excellent. Despite its companions being fancier, the Batata Vada was also appreciated. But the Khaman Dhokla was spongy enough but very dry. The line bewteen starter and main course is blurred since the items land on your plate at rapid speeds.

    The Dal-Bati was mildly spicy and good enough for multiple helpings. The Gujarati Kadi was sour, sweet and spicy and was much in demand. But clearly, the winner was the Jaipuri Gatta with its rich, thick and spicy gravy. The Gobi Masala turned out to be too spicy and lacking any other flavour. The Marwari Kadi was also too bland, and lacked the sour, tangy flavours associated with it. The Aloo Tamatar Rasawaala didn’t leave any good impressions either. Meanwhile, the Marwari Chaanch keeps you good company throughout the meal. Among the desserts, the Coconut Burfi was the pick of the lot. The Marwadi Lapsi, made of broken wheat, was found to be lapsing, quite a disappointment.

    The high speed delivery mechanism of one dish after another could overwhelm you, but if you let that pass, the service would rate as one of the best you’d have encountered. With smiling faces, they insist on serving you more and more and when you’re finished, pleasantly ask if everything was to your satisfaction. The finishing touch is in the form of the handwash, which moves away from the regular fingerbowl to a person pouring the water for you to wash your hands.

    The thali is priced at Rs.199 on weekdays and Rs.249 on weekends. (Fri-Sun) If you happen to be a vegetarian, this place is obviously worth a visit. Even if you’re not, drop in for a unique experience delivered in a most hospitable manner. The way to a man’s heart is a highway, and that’s not the ghee talking.

    NH8, 710, 3rd Floor, Above Bata Showroom, 80ft Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore – 560008. Ph: 42076575

  • EastforEaster: Day 3 – Bangkok

    Click here for Part 1 and Part 2

    It was a rainy morning when we left the lovely Siem Reap airport, made even more wonderful with free Wi fi. For some reason we didn’t have to pay the $25 tourist charge either. I am clearly a fan of this airport. We thanked our stars that we weren’t affected by the morning rains when we saw the faces of dejected tourists who had just landed.  Bangkok Airways, “Asia’s Boutique Airline” was indeed stylish and served us a good breakfast. (This was in addition to the breakfast at the hotel, but I’d always wanted to experience a double breakfast) Some good dining tips for Krabi were picked up from the in-flight magazine. We landed at Suvarnabhumi around noon and cleared immigration in a few minutes. This was an elegant, efficient airport, not as pretty as Siem Reap, but definitely more scalable. We picked a free Bangkok map (and airport map) and reached the public taxi counter where an uninterested aunty forced herself to fill a form and send us on.

    The taxi driver proved to us that all over the world, there are versions of the auto guys in Bangalore who give first time visitors a well metered city darshan. This was despite the city map and a Google Maps print with point to point directions (in Thai too). He pretended he had lost his way, called a friend to get directions and even tried to take us past our hotel before we opened the door and forced him to stop.

    The Tango Vibrant service apartments seemed a slightly grander version of the Ginger Hotels here. Despite being a self-help kind of set up, they provided excellent service and were an extremely helpful bunch of people.

    We had arranged our tour with  Absolute Bangkok Tours. Our guide was supposed to meet us at 1.30 and she landed right on time. In the hired car, she introduced herself and after being faced by blank stares and rapid blinking, told us we could call her Nikki. 🙂 Our first stop was the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha.

    The thing to remember here is that all that glitters ain’t what it’s supposed to be. That doesn’t make it look any less opulent though. Despite being a Mallu and being bombarded by gold ads all my adult life, this was something! Meanwhile, Bangkok continued our walk-in-progress theme and the Palace was just the start.

    The name of the king who built this is also borrowed from Indian royalty/ science fiction – Rama 1. The mural on the left is one from a long stretch that shows the Ramayana. Ravana continues his 4+4+2 head arrangement here too and this is the Rama-Ravana face off scene. (click to enlarge) There were some very interesting characters –  this one is half lion and half man, though an evil soul commented on Facebook that it was JLo. 😀

    There was Garuda doing one of his regular snake stunts. The gold rush continued with some porcelain and jade for relief. We also saw a model of Angkor Wat. And we walked on. While getting out, we saw a tourist being sent back for wearing shorts. 😀 You can hire clothes from across the street though.

    Despite the two breakfasts, we were hungry and went off to grab some street food near the Palace as we waited for the taxi. Pork, fish and mango for dessert. All absolutely awesome and only costing 20 baht each. The next stop was Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) which required a ferry crossing. We saw a monk who refused to endorse earthly signs even if they seemingly pointed in the right direction.

    Wat Arun is another beanstalk to be climbed and a pretty steep one at that. But as always, a good view awaits you. We also saw a few monks who reminded me of a soft drink commercial from years back. The colour of their robes and the drink in their hand is the indicator. 🙂 We crossed the river and proceeded to Wat Pho. Yes yes, I did ask D what for she was making me walk like this.

    Wat Pho is another walkathon. We saw the reclining Buddha and I wondered if he had taken a tour too. I vaguely remembered a story I’d read in Tinkle/ACK about a mouse (?) which had set out to find the tallest Buddha. I thought this Buddha featured in it. I tried to remember the story as D dropped 108 coins in 108 vessels kept by the Buddha’s side.

    There were also statues of Marco Polo – in what seemed like an extreme Chinese makeover, and another that seemed like Prabhudeva caught in one of his dance moves. The former is accurate and the latter was me seeing things because of excessive walking. But again, another place worth a visit for some beautiful Buddhas.

    If I had any hope that the walking had ended, D dashed it when she subtly indicated that there was a good view from the Golden Mount. The view was definitely neat, but it also meant that I began seeing stars early in the evening. That cafe there must be doing great business!

    Our penultimate stop for the day was the flower market. D was like a little kid who was seeing flowers for the first time. But I couldn’t really blame her – all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes and a bouquet’s worth of roses selling for 20 baht. Despite all the temptation, D didn’t ask me to buy her flowers. Mah wife is cool that way 🙂 Nikki seemed to be on a shopping spree though.

    We left for the last item on our agenda – the Chao Phraya dinner cruise. The sky seemed set for rain and we had about an hour to kill at the River City mall, where the pier was. As we sat inside the mall, too tired to walk, and munched away at the Foi Tong we’d bought earlier (vermicelli like dessert made from egg yolk), it started raining and continued as we got into the boat. We feared the worst. Dinner distracted us as soon as we boarded and we used regular buffet diversion techniques to manage the mobs at the counter. The crowd was a mix – from India, Middle East, Kenya, Bhutan and more, and in an attempt to please Indians, the lady massacred Bolo Ta Ra Ra and Munni!! Thankfully the skies cleared and we could enjoy the cruise despite not having ‘side-seats’. Our tuk tuk driver, on the way back to the hotel, an old man, turned out to be quite a speed demon. But it was a fun ride and looked forward to the shopping mania planned the next day.

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  • EastforEaster: Day 2 – Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei

    Click here for Part 1

    The highlight of the second day was supposed to be the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We set out at about 5.30 to catch the sun coming out. Apparently no one had informed the sun, so after a few teasers, it went back to snuggle among the clouds. Cheapo. An on-demand sun has a huge market in this side of the world, I tell ya. Breakfast happened right opposite the temple complex and was nothing worth writing about.

    We got back to walking mode as this was another huge temple complex that needed to be negotiated. We saw, for the first time, the version of Ravana in this part of the world – with a 4+4+2 head arrangement. (second pic – click to enlarge, you will see it towards the top right end)

    As per standard procedure, a climb was next on the agenda as we set about exploring the Angkor Wat temple. The view was quite rewarding and we got back down on the other side. Compared to the front, this was a very peaceful area and one could walk languidly taking in the crumbling remains of ancient buildings. The next destination was Banteay Srei and because of time constraints, we chose to travel the 37 km distance by car, rather than walk. 😉

    Banteay Srei has an infrastructure built for tourists and we landed there in time to witness a Japanese invasion! The crowds were really bad, I remembered the Bong crowd in Sikkim, this was a 10x international version. Arrgh! But the place is worth a visit because it’s markedly different from the Angkor style.

    On our way back, we dropped in at a couple of places – Pre-Rup and East Mebon. These two are quite similar and both involve climbs. From East Mebon, you can barely make out an Angkor Wat tower with your guide’s help. My suspicions were confirmed when the guide acknowledged that the king had bearers to carry him up and down these temples! Most of the royal names I heard sounded Indian, more specifically like the Travancore royalty – Jayavarman, Suryavarman…. Long before the gulf… you think?

    Exhausted, all I wanted to do was drop anchor somewhere. We asked to be taken to Pub Street for lunch and hogged at Easy Listening – Rice Loc Lak and a Khmer fried fish, the latter proving to be quite an interesting dish. We then went window shopping at the Old Market, where D once again practiced her bargaining skills. They would start at some outrageous price and then do a countdown as we started walking away. We also scouted for dinner options, and then another tuk tuk ride took us to the hotel.

    Our sunset plan from the previous day had been pushed by a day but we had time for a quick nap before the driver came to pick us up. We found a good place and settled down with the gin and sun. Sitting on the grass overlooking the reservoir, we waited for the sun to set as our tour guide spoke to us about his experiences during the Cambodian civil war, stories of the Killing Fields, and how his country was coping now. It fell in with my observations of the streets and life around. A country just beginning to find its feet after years of turmoil. I wondered whether this was how we were in the 50s and 60s, the big difference being technology. In the guide’s words “this is the age of scientists”. He had said this soon after he had met us and spoken about his desire to travel, and the opportunities these days but I figured this was what he had meant.

    We bid goodbye to our tour guide and asked the driver to drop us off at the New Market. Finally D decided to buy a few things in response to the ‘Want sumseeng’ (want something?) chants. The new market is quite peaceful and definitely less crowded, though the prices were lower than at the Old market. After we got out, I saw Batman and Spiderman tuk tuks but they were too fast for my camera. 🙁 I specially wanted one of the former to send to Batmania. As we walked around, we saw a couple of Indian restaurants and one which was definitely Mallu (though it offered North Indian cuisine too) with Kathakali and Ravi Varma paintings. After much deliberation, we chose Bopha Angkor over the Dead Fish Tower. An anniversary treat. 🙂 Bopha Angkor is quite stylish and we tried many things -the Amok Fish in coconut shell, a Khmer chicken curry and coconut crepes.

    Siem Reap is relatively a small place and four wheelers are few in number, but I could already see the beginning of tourism’s influence here, including the HRC tee our last tuk tuk driver wore. Past the river and the promenade and shops that were slowly closing down for the day, the tuk tuk took us back to our hotel, to spend our last night in the land of the Khmer.

    Notes and budgets

    Currency: All transactions are in $. Local currency is useful only for very low value transactions.

    Travel: Flights one way, would cost anywhere between 10-25 for 2 people, basis various factors – duration, time of year, when you’re booking etc. From May, the rains begin and go on till October. You could enter via Thailand too, wiki (link below) gives you an idea.

    Food: Plenty of interesting options, especially if you like seafood. Breakfast can be done within $5 and lunch/dinner for around $15.

    Tour: We used AboutAsia who gave us options of hotels to suit various budgets, tour plans etc along with a detailed pdf about the places to visit. Our cost for the tour services came to $310 (inclusive of hotel, driver, guide, entry fees) and we were quite happy with the service. However, it would obviously be cheaper if you booked a hotel, reached there, hired a tuk tuk and saw places basis a plan you made.

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    Resources: Wiki Travel, Travelfish, TripAdvisor

  • EastforEaster: Day 0, 1- Airports, Siem Reap

    Compared to the adventurous vacation beginnings we have dealt with, this one was calm and moved like clockwork. The visas had been done much in advance (Thai at VFS, Malaysian through a travel agent and Cambodia on the web) and $ reserves were increased too. On Good Friday, the Meru cab arrived on time, we didn’t forget to pack anything, check ins (real and Foursquare) happened without incident with our bags weighing slightly lesser than the pre-booked 20kg, emigration being a breeze (barring D’s belching officer) and the Air Asia flight departing on time. We were traveling to Siem Reap, Cambodia via Kuala Lumpur as part of an elaborate one week flight plan that also included Bangkok and Krabi, and was primarily driven by a focused ‘cheapest tickets possible’ approach. 😀

    It was almost like a Chennai flight and the crowd did make a strong case for renaming the destination Tamilaysia. Air Asia proved to be bright red and cheerful and was helped by a light-haired air hostess who matched it with light-headed giggles which refused to die down during the safety demos. When it came to the seat armrests, it proved to be a cousin of Deccan and on food, a replica of the alpaahaar on Kingfisher, where the focus is on alp – no, not Swiss!

    The in-flight magazine’s event list also showed its standards by considering Bieber and F1  in the same class of entertainment. But hey, the flight arrived on time in KL – around midnight, so no complaints. At the KL airport, I pretended nonchalance despite wanting to be wide-eyed at seeing a Starbucks outlet. We had about 6 hours to wait until our flight to Siem Reap. Thank God for that because Immigration went beyond annoying as our line just refused to move and we saw those who’d arrived much later moving on. The waiting area was quite a mess, and again a mini Tamil Nadu. Towards the end of our rather boring wait, there was some excitement when a foreigner claimed that something was missing  and blamed a Tamil family sleeping nearby, but nothing came of it and I was too tired to provoke either parties into further action. 😐

    Getting out of KL proved to be a much faster affair. Air Asia continued their punctual nature on the Siem Reap flight too, and we landed in Cambodia just before 8. An amazing little airport that looked more like a resort, and where the visa process was comparable to F1 pit stop times. We had $s stocked so no currencyy exchange was required. The tour operators met us at the gate and were ready to go temple trotting right then, but we really wanted a shower. I raised both my arms and the case was settled. Green and humid like Kerala, but a right-driving country, that was my first impression of Cambodia.

    We reached our hotel – The Golden Mango, and were told that there had been no power for the last 12 hours. Though check-in time was noon, we were given a temp room for freshening up. Thanks to the dark, I managed to  dismantle the shower faucet and create a mini flood. The adventure had begun. We asked our guide to take us somewhere nearby for a quick meal and thus arrived at Lily’s. I had a beef breakfast to compensate for the trauma earlier. The coffee with milk turned out to be a strange animal though as the latter had only a cameo.

    We then drove to the Angkor Thom complex. The guide got us the tickets for the next 2 days and we began with the south gate, where we saw the Cambodian version of the samudra manthan in Hindu mythology, the devas on the left and the asuras on the right. After passing through a version of the Bat Cave, we realised the expanse of the place but still underestimated the walkathon to follow!

    Bayon was our first stop, and there, slowly but surely, you begin to realise that all around you people are making faces. Ok, seriously, when you see it for the first time, they are quite amazing to look at, but after a while, you might find them repetitive, unless you’re the kind who can spot minute differences in architectural styles. The language is not really a communication barrier, but I didn’t see many guides adept at story telling, and that really would have made a difference.

    Thankfully, there are apsaras – past and present, and bas reliefs to keep you distracted. It’s also fun to watch people posing at various points. 😀 I tried my hand and the results were disastrous.

    We then w—a—l—k—e—d past minor structures and trees and tiny ponds to Baphuon and the Phimeanakas, and then the Victory Gate with its Elephant and Leper King terraces from where the king watched his armies assembled before they rode for battle.

    Since we were tired of plain walking, we decided to take a break and do some climbing. Presenting the Ta Keo temple, which gives you rewards for negotiating those :O climbs. Don’t me misled by the can/bottle, they’re for storing the oil, water etc for worship, I was only talking about the view. The search for escalator signs yielded no results.

    Up (the operative word usually) next was Ta Prohm, where the restoration work is a collaboration between the Cambodian and Indian governments. Amidst cicada sounds and an eerie ambiance, Ta Prohm proved to be different from the rest because the jungle seemed to be winning the fight against man’s construction. It also helped that among these ruins, Anju mol (Angelina Jolie to you) had become Lara Croft.

    We then set off for lunch to a place suggested by the tour guide, despite our massive eateries-to-check-out preparations, mostly because it was quite past lunchtime. Lunch was decent, washed down with Angkor beer. After the lunch craving was satisfied, we moved to the last tour spot  of the day – Prasat Kravan, made of reddish bricks for a change. We got back to the hotel by about 3.30. Power was still not back but was expected by 5. We warned the tour guide that if it wasn’t back by then, we wanted a change of residence. I needed to charge my camera batteries okay? And than at about 4, an unexpected visitor arrived. Rain! Which was only supposed to arrive in the first week of May!! I remembered Sikkim and thought our luck had run out! But thankfully, by 5, the rain had disappeared and the power was back.But it did mean that our plans to see the sunset were washed out. So we asked the driver to drop us off at Pub Street.

    Before we decided on dinner, we decided to take a walk inside the Night Market nearby. Walking for shopping is complaint-free. 😀 This walk was quite some fun as we window shopped and D bargained for items she had no plans of buying.

    Lured by this sign, I suggested we try out Temple Balcony though it wasn’t featured in our list. Though the apsaras were overdressed (as per Hindu mythology detailing) and slightly different from what I had envisioned, the food was really awesome. The dish shown here is the Amok Fish in Banana leaf, we also had yellow noodles and a Khmer chicken soup. This dinner, watching Pub Street go by, was probably one of the best events of the trip. Yes, there was free Wi fi too.

    And now it was time to sample the Cambodia version of the autorickshaw – the tuk tuk. A tuk tuk ride at night is something you really must do when you’re there. Depending on where you stay and your negotiating skills, it will cost you about $2-3. An early start awaited us the next day.

    until next time, how many roads must a man walk down….

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  • This too shall pass…

    Not a simple subject, but he’d been reading up, and even writing about it. Though he hadn’t completely internalised it, he felt he was beginning to understand. But the actuality of ‘transience’ hit him when his computer crashed. Photos, notes, accumulated over 7 years. Gone! Data recovery attempts failed. He too was yet to recover.

    until next time, 8 years of blogging

    P.S. A good time to realise that at some point, this too shall pause 🙂