Christmas in Cambodia -- Episode 5

Bookended in Saigon:

This was the second time to this buzzing city in the last two years and it remains crazy as ever. Mrs Long, who continues to top the hospitality ratings among travelers, was the obvious choice to stay in the old back-packers quarters. In that intervening period, she had expanded to a shiny five storey place with 15 rooms with wifi, more staff and a bigger setup from the humble beginnings of her tiny home-stay nearby. Despite the expansion, the hospitality remains warm as ever and to use a well-worn cliché, it remains a home away from home.

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh is brilliant. The street food is good and terribly cheap, you can bargain over hours on the shopping and the coffee superb.

As my flight to Siem Reap was via Vietnam both ways, I stayed for a night each at her place. On the onward trip, I went for a small stroll to the sprawling nearby park where you could watch myriad stuff from bunch of ladies doing tai chi, couples canoodling, pets running around followed by their harried owners or office goers catching their breath after a long day. I watched the traffic swing by, from the street-side, over a giant bowl of Pho and a plate of spring rolls.

On the return trip, I got to spend some more time in Saigon. Mr Long and I went for a great sea food meal in one of the winding alleys near the old quarter. To be sure, apart from prawns, I couldn’t recognize any of the other sea animals, but they were delicious.  More lovely coffee at a nearby bar followed, where we were the only ones having some non-alcoholic drinks. I was staying at the old guesthouse this time around, where the missus and I stayed the previous time and I had a lot of fond memories from that long trip.

Tried to locate, in vain, the guestbook, where I had penned a long rambling compliment to Mrs Long. After Mr Long dived into his romantic song collection on his headphones, I had a long lively chat with the only other dweller: Emily, an Australian who was teaching English in Saigon for a year. After exchanging coordinates and some interesting travel anecdotes – she had traveled extensively across India in the 1980s – we called it a night. After a lovely breakfast with Mr Long the following morning, I left for the airport. I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of sadness while parting who made me feel so much at home.

Christmas in Cambodia - Episode 4

Day 4: Indian Ocean in Angkoria

After a long relaxing breakfast and putting some precious miles on the Freakonomics book-o-meter, I set out late in the morning on Christmas Day to check out the city. Taking a bicycle, a not-so-good idea with the mercury hitting 30 degrees, I pedaled to the Psaar Chaa (Old market). Bought some souvenirs and took a few pics. Thought about checking some modern temple architecture by Cambodian standards and went to Wat Bo. While the temple itself was closed and deserted apart from some stragglers, it was not very impressive apart from the winding horizontal spires. Maybe I had got more demanding after Angkor.

It was getting too hot and I was aiming to get back to the temple in the late afternoon to catch the sunset. Lost my way again to the hotel, briefly, but nothing the trusty old map couldn’t fix. After some R and R, I headed back to the temples for one last time. With Indian Ocean playing on the my ipod and only the camera for company, I got some good shots, and more importantly, got to spend a few quality hours, perched on top of the temples, undisturbed by the milling Sunday tourist crowd.

Only later when I returned home and I was talking to a friend who asked me about the trip, I told him those few hours spent on Sunday afternoon was easily one of the high points of the trip. Unsurprised, he said,” sometimes, we need to dive into ourselves.”

Christmas in Cambodia - Episode 3

Day 3: Angkor WHAT

Compared to the previous day, left relatively later around 7 (damn, this is getting to be a habit) for Angkor Wat, this time. Mulled hiring a guide but decided against it. Was suitably rewarded after watching the belligerent male counterpart of a couple, Indian presumably, lecturing a guide on the finer points of one of the panels.

The sandstone temple is easily the better preserved among all the temples in the Angkor complex and many restoration teams are still working on it. Despite being built nearly a thousand years ago in the honour of Suryavarman 2 who ruled in the 12^th century, the details on the bas-relief and statues are intricate and beautiful. These depict scenes from Hindu mythologies and episodes from the King’s reign. Some of the work is so detailed that even I could make out the various Gods in the Hindu pantheon.  

As I made my way into the inner complex which housed the three main temples, with the middle temple symbolizing Mount Meru, an important temple in both Hindu and Buddhist literature, the apsaras and the learned sages carved in the walls became even more eye-catching. Most of the statues lining the inner corridor have been removed, hopefully to some museum, or at worst, some private collection with only a few headless ones remaining. Met a Korean engineer and we got along to see the remainder of the temples. Turned out to be a good decision as there was a knowledgeable Korean tour walking ahead of us, for a large part of that, and we could feed off them. 

Preah Khan (in Angkor Thom) was the last stop on what was turning out to be a very beautiful day, weather-wise. A bit off the beaten track, and therefore not heavily populated, this turned out to be a good choice. I would say in terms of atmosphere, this is even better than Ta Phrom, even though the latter gets most of the visits. Wilder and quieter with the temple itself falling in ruin, save for a middle corridor that runs for nearly a kilometer, with chambers flying off in each direction. I spent a good couple of hours here before walking out of the West exit to a picturesque tiny balcony overlooking the Siem Reap river. Hours can be spent there, happily and dreamily.

For lunch, went to a place highly recommended in LP called Viroth’s which is a bit of a high end place by Siem Reap standards. Splurging a fair amount of money in a town where decent meals can be had for a dollar can have the effect of making you feel guilty.

The beauty of the place, though, is it’s located in the picturesque Wat Bo district across which the Stung Siem Reap flows. Beautiful wrought iron benches in some nicely landscaped gardens give it a European-esque feeling and before I nearly decided to take a nap on one of those benches, I met my Korean friend. We decided to go a nearly cultural center but avoided it after it gave vibes of being an expensive tourist trap. Plus, we had a long day and we were looking to catch up with some other folks in the evening.

As a concept, couch surfers is brilliant when I heard it first from Ankur and then Steven, and I became sold on that after meeting up with some assorted folks at Angkor What. A Mexican finishing his thesis in Barcelona, an American who has been on the road for the last ten months, a Kiwi girl backpacking, couple of banker movie folks. Very motley and very refreshing! The music got better as the night rolled on and the bar is the only action in town. The best Christmas I had and wound back home at 2 in the morning for some restful sleep. 

Christmas in Cambodia - Episode 2

Day 2: The Temple Diaries

I pride myself on being an early starter. So when my tuk tuk driver told me the previous evening that we have to get to the temple complex by 5 a.m. to get a vantage point to see the sun rise behind the West facing temples, I was fairly confident that I would be among the rare lunatics to wake up at that ungodly hour on a holiday. Suffice to say, I was horribly wrong.  

A army of tourists having had the same idea had descended upon the temples and managing to find a place in those teeming throngs reminded me of wrestling with rush hour traffic back home. But, it was worth it.

While distances between temple complexes are not huge, they are not close either and unless you are a bicycle enthusiast, hiring a tuk-tuk for the day is a good idea. 13-20 USD is what it would cost you.

The Angkor Thom complex which is a few minutes ride away from Angkor Wat is a sprawling mass of jungles with the ruins of temples sprinkled all across. The amazing Bayon was my first stop.

Resembling a pile of rubble from the distance, as you get closer, you start noticing the carvings and the FACES. About 216 faces of Jayavarman VII are carved on the 54 towers. It is only when you get to the third level of the temple, that you start experiencing the full impact of those sculptures, as everywhere you look, you find a face smiling at you in that eerie manner.

Baphuon, the Royal Enclosure and the Phimenakeas (Celestial Palace) are nearby. Many of these temples have monks worshipping inside the complexes. While guides could be hired for 3 to 4 USD for a day, the usual books like Lonely Planet do a decent job. Of course, if you want to dig deeper, there are always cheap books to be grabbed from hawkers.  

One point: Many of these temples have guards/urchins loitering around willing to double up as guides and if you plan to hire them, negotiate well in advance. After doing the usual touristy thing such as buying trinkets, I decided to postpone one of the highlights: Ta Phrom, after I saw a few busloads of Chinese and Korean tourists descend upon the temple.  

Watching the menacing roots of the silk cotton trees break through stone and cutting through the temples is quite something. Even though much of that temple has been reduced to rubble, you could see the doorways and sculptures. Of course, Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider) has also done her bit to promote the popularity of this temple. Met a pair of Indian archaeologists carrying on restoration work inside the temple, we chatted about the difference in attitudes of people in different countries towards their history. An early dinner at Pub Street, (fish Amoy what else), and a few good hours of reading to wind up what had been a very beautiful day.

Christmas in Cambodia - Episode 1

Trip Itinerary: Hong Kong – Saigon – Siem Reap – Saigon – Hong Kong
Travel Dates: 21^st – 27^th December 2011

Day 1:
 After a short one hour flight from Saigon to Siem Reap, I was all excited on my Cambodia trip. I have always wanted to see the historic Angkor Wat temples for a long time ever since I started reading about it a few years back. Of course, the first time I ever heard about it was in my childhood days when we used to studiously hoard a set of ugly yellow-covered books called the Children Knowledge’s Bank series.

 As I wound my way via immigration, the official asked me for a tip for processing my e-visa: e-visa which took a few million stamps and endless finger prints to validate. While the naïve me succumbed to this tiny money-making operation, my Korean friend didn't. (But more about him later) After a short tuk-tuk ride, about 20 minutes from the airport, I was at the Motherhome Inn  Located about 15 mins away from the main markets, this place has clean rooms,  friendly staff and prompt service.  Highly recommended

After a delicious fish amok (fish cooked in coconut curry in Khmer style served in a leaf bowl with steam rice) I made my way to the Angkor Wat temples to collect my pass. Tip: siem reap specializes in river fish being close to the Stung Siem Reap it is delicious. Angkor temple complex passes for the next day to a week are handed out from 4:45 p.m. and I managed to get mine, just in time to catch the last embers of daylight flickering over the temple complex. While the price is a chunky $40 for a three day and $20 for a single-day pass, I don’t object considering the ludicrous amounts you have to cough up to pay up to visit some of the British churches and castles. What I do feel is the tiny slice the temple restoration authorities receive of this pie. LP has a small section on this

The road to the temples winds through some dense jungles and on my trip back to town I  began thinking about the early French explorers who stumbled across the ruins in the 19th century after lying virtually hidden for centuries. I headed out to the buzzing pub street for some dinner which is pretty much the town has to offer by way of night life. All establishments accept the USD and it is more widely acceptable than the local kriel. 4000 Cambodian Kriel = 1 USD. I thought Vietnam was a heavily dollarized economy, but I think Cambodia beats its neigbour handily here. Having a drink at a place catchily called Angkor What, I realize I have stumbled into the most happening joint  in Siem Reap where the action picks up after 10 pm. After a quick dinner and a leisurely stroll where I managed to miss my hotel, I was ready to turn in. An early start beckons tomorrow.   

A gweilo's take inside ChungKing Mansions

Chungking Mansions on the Kowloon side (exit D1 from Tsim Tsa Tsui station) is one of those places that evoke in you only the strongest feelings.  Either you love it or you hate it at the first sight. For the longest time in my nearly two year stay here so far, that place gave me the creepy crawlies.

(One caveat: I am a guy with normally a very high tolerance threshold and I have stayed in my fair share of shady places.)

If you are a foreigner (or a gweilo as you would be otherwise known in a slightly more disdainful way) who have been exposed to the LKF- Central- shiny mall-Peak culture of Hong Kong, CK is one of those places that shakes you up. 

Gritty, grimy and what in art director lingo would be called  as having "a certain character”. With shifty eyed South Asian merchants hawking everything from calling cards to the latest gizmos (ripped off/stolen/rarely original) to touts for various services sizing you up with shifty eyes from the very moment you step inside its cavernous interiors lined to garishly lit currency changing shops and to shops selling pirated copies of the latest Hindi film release, the experience has only begun.

From the Indian family who craves for that particular variety of vegetables/masalas to the African middleman looking to strike a deal for mobiles, electronics, etc to asylum seekers to the extreme budget minded tourists and a businessman seeking a toehold in the gateway to China, this place has something to offer for everybody. For a really lovely video montage of CK mansions as it is known, check out Wong Kar Wai’s 1994 classic Chungking Express. 

An event two weeks back proved to be a game changer for me. Accompanying a couple of colleagues on a story researching mission, we had the fortune of meeting some very interesting people at the place. Folks whom you otherwise would just pass by without scarcely giving a second look. Suffice to say, the sheer culture that goes beneath the surprise took my breath away. It was the real life equivalent of turning over a rock and discovering a country underneath. From South Asians who fled a wretched existence back home to eke out a living here to potential business deals being struck over plates of tandoori chicken and parathas in a crummy restaurant tucked away in a corner. 

In our nearly two hours of rambling aroud the place helped by Gordon Mathews, the author of the Ghetto at the Center of the world who terms this place as an example of “low end globalization”  a place where sex workers to phone dealers to families co exist together to scrape together a few monies for a better life back home.

As a long time inhabitant of this place told us,” this place was home to me when nothing else in the world was.”  For authorities who want to tear down this place from complaints on fire hazards to a so-called blot on the Hong Kong landscape , they would take away a 50-year old Hong Kong institution and replace it with “ a faceless mall” as Mathews puts it. For a related article, read this.

A pity as one reviewer of the book on the website calls it a “a labyrinth of exotica, adventure , and otherness.”

Winning the 2011 Cricket World Cup

Unlike the majority of my 1.2 billion fellow Indian brethren who was glued to their television sets for an amazing batting performance scripted by Dhoni & Inc in the 2011 cricket world cup finals, I spent most of that time, pacing up and down the streets of Wanchai, Hong Kong’s colorful bar district.


SRT in a lap around Wankhede on teamates

Before being accused of sedition or a heinous dislike for the game, the reason for not watching the game had more humbler rootS – superstition.

As most of my fellow overseas Indians would agree with me, watching the beautiful game outside of the country involves more than a cursory knowledge of shady streaming websites/coughing up fat channel fees/ or for people who are as technologically challenged as me, finding pubs which screen the game.

A  TV grab on the celebrations

The last reason and the fact that no important Indian cricket game can be watched without the accompaniment of drums, whistles, spicy samosas, shouts and spot analyses/criticisms with other fellow desis brought a motley bunch to Maya Bar in Wanchai from the knockout games. Read Alvin Sallay’s piece in the SCMP: http://bit.ly/eeXMLb.
 
After defeating Australia (laying down the ghosts of the disastrous defeat in the 2003 WC finals at last) and Pakistan (in one of the most hyped up sporting encounters even by the usual lofty standards of the arch-rivals AND keeping our record intact of never losing to them in a WC), the stage was set for the final clash between India and Sri Lanka at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium.  
 
In the two day run-up to the final, social networking websites and some of the Indian media went bonkers with the hype, comparing it to the mythological Hindu epic Ramayana. Some reminded us gently that the 1983 (the last time we won the WC) and 2011 calendars were identical – suggesting a win was preordained.

Unlike some of my friends, colleagues and elders, my memories of our last WC win is hazy and just contains a few grainy sepia images in my memory of my parents exulting and my father patiently explaining the importance of the WC win to me. For a nice piece on that, read Madhu Soman’s http://reut.rs/gEWK47

Scenes of celebration in Mumbai

But the loss of two quick wickets to Maggi noodle-headed Lasith Malinga in the chase stirred visions of a weeping Vinod Kambi in the 1996 semi final loss in Eden Gardens and silenced the the lusty cheering Indian contingent in the bar. Taking matters into my own hands, I headed out for a quick walk.

As I walked around the block, I could see young parents with tiny tots elbowing their way inside packed hotels and bars showing the match, a couple of young labourers stopping briefly to catch the score and a few foreigners whose only connection to the game was that it shared it with an insect, stopping and enquiring about the proceedings.



More street celebration

Nothing unites us together on the subcontinent more than this game. As an India- born but British raised businessman pointed out to me, the sheer love for the game has brought together desis in far flung lands and caused strangers to walk up and ask quietly,” What’s the score?”

Whole cities have slowed to a halt, governance briefly interrupted, age old animosities swept aside temporarily as the six week tournament in the subcontinent would through various ups and downs. Only cricket can do that. For a story on what happened in the dressing room after the game, http://bit.ly/i2rmz5

As Dhoni belted the winning runs, the party had only begun for a nation which had waited for 28 long years for an encore. For a nice piece on the preparations to the cup, http://es.pn/gnh2lv

While frenzied fans in that tiny bar sang national anthems well into the wee hours of Sunday morning, downed tequila shots, blew whistles and drums and hugged each other like long lost brothers, I wondered what must have been the scenes in Marine Drive and across the streets of Mumbai that beautiful night of April 2, 2011. For a story on newspaper headlines the next day, http://bit.ly/euOJjE 

Photo pics courtesy my friends in Mumbai: Ankur and Sonalika.

Musings on Travel - 1

A bridge across the Ganges in Rishikesh



Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar

For the longest time in my late teens, I quite abhorred the idea of travel. My idea of travelling then, of what little I was forced into, was to go to a place, check into a hotel and flip furiously through what movies were there in the hotel collection and spend hours patiently  running through them. A quick dash for food around the corner and a stroll around a couple of blocks surrounding the office/hotel/ neighbourhood and I was a satisfied soul. My first brush with the idea of travel was reading some glossy magazine articles of some lucky sod scampering around some godsmackingingly beautiful landscapes, gulping down some delicious food and coolly mixing with the locals, all at the same time, with not a hair out of place. Even after completing a management degree, I hadn't done much travelling, apart from the mandatory-coming-of-age-Goa trip. Amazing time, that though! But, by then I had just met my intrepid traveler wife who was traipsing up and down the country thanks to the nomadic  

Temples of Khajuraho in the night

nature of her work. Because of her, I began finding myself in situations which I did not know existed before -- hustling with ticket checkers for a berth on an overnight train, finding out for the difference between a RAC, a WC, 3 Tier, etc etc. The upshot. -- Bharuch, Bangalore, Yercaud, Ahmedabad, Udaipur. I slowly began appreciating the small things in travel rather than focussing on getting from Point x to y. A beautiful sunset, a great meal on a highway, a cheap but memorable souvenir, a lovely photograph, a place which the travel guides have missed and, of course, meeting different kinds of people. Travel made me grow up like nothing else did. Despite my growing taste for travel, I never got and still haven't gotten into the various aspects of planning in terms of hotels, trains and cheap flights and leave it to the other half who has a knack for these things.

Sunset in Shillong

Well, that's one thing, I absorbed from an MBA degree - areas of specialisation. Because of this, I also developed a taste for travel books and history and I began avidly reading up on places where we visited and started maintaining a blog. We stopped doing quick short visits to a place and began spending more time in each place we visited to absorb the flavour. We started getting off the touristy paths and started staying in homestays. 



A rock temple in Badami



We did trips with friends who loved to travel like us. And in a brief period of a little over two years we saw a sizeable chunk of this beautiful country. Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Kolkata, Meghalaya, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Allahabad, Karnataka and Delhi. And then........

Gong Xi Fa Cai in Guilin - Feb 2011

Guilin - A mini Europe in China

We arrived in Shenzen at the crack of dawn, on the first day of the Spring Festival. Our worries that we would be swamped by hordes of holidaying Chinese, thankfully, was unfounded as the lines at the immigration and at the airport were thin. After taking a short one hour flight from smoggy Shenzen, we arrived in Guilin where the air was clean, plenty of greenery and sparsely populated roads. A picturesque town, in the Guanxi province of China, the town has some very beautiful country parks and caves with some extraordinary limestone rock formations. We stayed at the Eva Inn hotel http://www.evainnguilin.com/ which is highly recommended and faces the beautiful Li River. Insist on a river facing room and you will not be disappointed. Facilities are decent and the breakfast quite filling. Behind the hotel is a cobble stoned road teeming with Chinese holidayers and lined with gaily decorated cafes teeming with red lanterns.   

Guilin is a favourite holidaying destination for the Chinese with the mandatory sprinkling of backpacking foreigners. Being a favourite destination also means the place has become a touristy and expensive evident from the steep entry fees at the country parks and traveling

costs. Still, the food is to die for.

A few rounds of the local beer, some mouthwatering dumplings and lovely beef noodles drained our exhaustion away. Being the Lunar New Year, the streets were lined with stalls selling all kinds of trinkets and some delicious food stalls. We had an Indian dosa lookalike which was quite tasty. Come evening, fireworks lit the sky with crackers bursting till the wee hours of the morning accompanied with the acrid smell of sulphur and gunpowder. Made us feel right at home during Diwali! The city is quite walking and bicycle friendly and you could spend the entire day tramping up and down some of the numerous limestone cliffs that dot the city. The country parks are quite well maintained with numerous lakes, pagodas, statues, museums, trails. The roads very wide and well kept and we were amazed at the quality of infrastructure in these places which could give some of the larger cities in India a run for its money Food to be tried: the Li River beer fish which is highly recommended and is extremely tasty. Tips: Carry enough cash as credit cards are very sparsely used, though that is changing slowly.

The voyage down Li River.

The boat ride from Guilin to Yangzhou along the Li River is one of the highlights of the trip. A road journey of around an hour takes about four hours on this meandering river stretch and is a favourite tourist attraction.  We took the morning ferry which started at 9:30 in the morning (hotel pickups start around 8am) and reached Yangzhou at around 1:30. Apart from the minor glitches such as hustling

for a window seat at the ferry, the ride down the river is memorable. Guilin was just recovering from a cold wave when we visited and the weather was cold in the mornings but the afternoons are gorgeous. Lunch is served on the boat with the

option of ordering some river fish, crabs and snail (expensive though!). There are two kinds of boats that ply on this river. One is the bamboo rafts (literally!) with some deck chairs lashed on to a bamboo raft and an outboard motor. This can be quite freezing and uncomfortable too. The other are the large

boats with enclosed cabins and these are recommended. Insist on the English version (which in plain speak would translate as the slightly more luxurious one). There is a viewing deck from the top and you could see the river bed for miles around. Tariffs are open to bargaining and we were able to knock back ours by 15-20 percent. to about 360 yuan per person. The cliffs bordering the river are big tourist attractions and all are imaginatively labeled such as nine horse hill and the man on a donkey hill. As a local saying goes “ 30 percent of what you see is through your eyes, 65 percent is through your heart and the rest 5 percent is what your travel guide tells you.” Having said that, the cruise offers some of the most gorgeous scenery. One of them has even made it to the back of the 20 yuan note!

Bombay Meri Jaan

I walked out of a movie hall in Hong Kong recently after watching Dhobi Ghat with mixed feelings. While the movie was passable, it had some breathtaking shots of the city which I call my home – Bombay. Despite being a Bengali, I have always considered myself a true blue Bombayyite or Mumbaikar if you so wish! I have grown up, gotten my education, met my beautiful wife, made some amazing friends and got my first, second and third job -- all here. Despite the numerous cribs and rants from outsiders of how difficult the city it, Bombay has a way of luring you and never letting you go! How can one forget the numerous walks down Marine drive on a rainy afternoon, Worli Seaface and Bandra bandstand! Masjid Bunder, the numerous khau gallis near the college and offices!  Colaba Causeway and Britannia!

The boundless energy and the local trains! Iranis and Mani’s! On a recent trip back home after more than a year, I felt like I had been away for ages and yet it felt just like yesterday when I stepped into my new job here. I couldn’t get enough of the city in the short two weeks I was there and the movie made me painfully realize how much I missed it!

  But my many years in Bombay have also made me painfully realize the short comings of this city which comes in the way of making it a truly world class city. At a photo exhibition in Hong Kong recently which depicted the historical transformation of the city I was struck by the similarities between the two cities. In the 1980’s, Hong Kong could easily pass for a Deewar version of Bombay with its tacky buildings.

 What struck me is how far Hong Kong has come since then and the yawning difference between the two cities. Ajay Shah recently posted an article on why Bombay has always managed to receive short shrift from its rulers.  http://ajayshahblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-does-bombay-have-abysmal-governance.html That article is just one point of view among many, but the bigger point is the city has the potential to become a truly world class city. That is what made me so excited and yet so sad about seeing the slow decay of this beautiful city of Bombay in the movie.