Category: Asia

  • 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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  • Lankan Reams – Day 6 – Colombo

    The terrace restaurant at Mt.Lavinia hotel can’t be praised enough for the view. So we went click crazy for a while, after finishing breakfast in a hurry.

    Since neither the ones above or the others that we took do full justice to the view, let’s try a video too.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sczy0RaBD5c

    We then moved on to Colombo, and quickly managed to get the latest news updates (left). Colombo is apparently divided into 15 zones, and we managed to pass through half a dozen of them while we were there. The colonial impact is very evident thanks to architecture and road names. But thanks to global brands, it almost feels like any major Indian city. The westerner who hasn’t been to India will find the tuk-tuk (our auto) quite an experience. We tried to soak in the uniqueness of the city from among the familiar faces. As with every other nook of Lanka, Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa smiles at you at every corner, the  knowing, confident and sometimes arrogant smile of a man who has seemingly eliminated Lanka’s biggest threat since Ravana.

    We did some minor shopping at ‘Lakmedura’. Judging by the name and the time D spent there, I thought it was a beauty salon. Actually, they sold handicrafts. D got a few cheaper Batik items, though there seemed to be some minor difference in quality.The next stop was ODEL, which, though essentially a kind of Shoppers Stop, has oodles of Lankan character. Attractive fridge magnets, which had me gaping for a long time. I wish I’d bought more! I also ended up buying a tee! And luckily un-hypnotised myself from the LEGO section! Wonder if there’s a LEGO Buddha set. My sinus was acting up, and distracted me. I actually said no to a cool sounding ‘Madrasi Burger’ (not Bugger, so no racism here) in the food court, and missed out on ogling at what seemed to be Lankan P3 types! Damn!

    And it was time to go back. On the way to the airport, D finally got her King Coconut (no, she doesn’t refer to me that way! hmmph!) which was actually the same as their Mallu cousins. So much for the king tag. The guide left us at the airport and hurriedly left. And that’s when Sri Lanka decided to extend their hospitality by another day!!! The damn flight was almost 12 hours late! My head now had another reason to explode! They took us to a hotel nearby called Goodwood Plaza, which looked like those Bollywood thriller type ones, where people are killed off one by one!

    By dinner time, I had almost gotten rid of that silly sinus. The ‘buffet’ (loosely used) had a chicken curry which managed to unclog the remaining blocks. D seemed to love it though, she had tears in her eyes.

    2.30 AM! I woke up and hunted for my pen. But this wasn’t GIM and there was no test happening in 5 minutes. At least there was beer in Goa! Sigh! So there we were, bundled into a flight at 5.40 AM on 9/11. I was tempted to tell the hostess that SriLankan Airlines should drop the traditional Lankan greeting Ayubowan, and start using Ayyobuwan!!

    And thus we were back. We would miss the buffets, but hey, the rent is cheaper here.

    Costs : The customised package cost from Sri Holidays was $392 per head for 6N/7D. It could get cheaper depending on the hotels you choose. Replacing Mt.Lavinia, for instance will itself save you about $32/head. You can have a great lunch for two at $20. On the higher side, $200-250 would be quite enough for shopping.We were reasonably happy with their services. They were prompt and except for a few snafus (read below) were quite reliable.

    Tips: Use wiki, but don’t believe everything you read. Remember that damn mango juice?! Trip Advisor is almost fully reliable for hotels and restaurants. Ensure that the tour operator and guide knows every place you intend to visit. We missed Dambulla and some Ramayana sites because they didn’t do enough research. We lost out on Diya Sisila because of a seeming lack of interest. Do your own research, down to the finest details in terms of distances, time taken, costs etc, so that you don’t get fooled. The other thing you need to check on are the rains, each coast has separate rainy seasons, so ensure you time it right.

    Lanka has quite a few things that you’d enjoy – beaches, heritage sites, mountains, trekking opportunities, wildlife parks. So you have places to go and things to do as per your interest. For instance, we’d like to do one more better-researched Ramayana sites trip as well as beachbum our way from Trincomalee to Colombo along the coast, maybe even detour to Adam’s Peak and Nuwara Eliya. The people are nice, and the big hotels make you feel at home, especially when they turn on the familiar big hotel snobbery 😉 While most people prefer the Malaysia/Singapore/Thailand to baby step their way into international tourism, I think this is a good option too, and it helps that our currency is twice as valuable.

    until next time, armchair traveling, and if you’d twist Dilmah’s words a bit

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  • Lankan Reams – Day 5 – Mt.Lavinia

    The previous night, we had asked the guide if he could get us a reservation at Diya Sisila, which was known to be a good restaurant. With only half a dozen tables, and customised food, this was something we were looking forward to. Unfortunately, neither the guide,  who was more interested in managing a trip to his home (Negombo is close enough) nor the Bentota Beach Hotel receptionist who apparently stayed near the place, got the job done.

    We sulked out of the hotel and went to our second preference – Golden Grill. Chilled EGB with the chef’s special rice – with saffron rice and pork, squid, beef, chicken on the side (and prawn too, if you like). D didn’t like it much, but she was floored by the EGB. All ginger, zilch beer, and sweet. You really must try it. The late breakfast meant that I couldn’t do full justice to it.

    The drive to Colombo was pretty uneventful and was done in just over an hour and a half. Along the roadside, we could see the railway tracks, and beyond that the coast. The room at Mount Lavinia (we’d specifically asked for this hotel, and a room in the Sea & Garden wing) was a few square feet less than our house, but made up for this with a bath tub and a spectacular view. We caught a road-rail-sea picture and a few others.

    We wandered out to the beach in the evening, and stepped into some swayamwar set, I think. At least half a dozen separate couples were having their respective photoshoots in their spectacular wedding finery. A little walk and the beach was less crowded, but the sea remained rough.

    The Mt.Lavinia Hotel is another colonial piece, and the Governor’s room had a dress code for dinner – no shorts and sandals allowed. So we were forced to wear 3/4ths and slip-ons. The food was decent, but was relatively ignored in favour of the spectacular view. Watalappan showed up again, and this time reminded me of the Kerala style Halwa!

    And thus we settled down to our last night in Lanka… or so we thought.

    Day 6 tomorrow. And click here for the story so far -Days 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4.