Malaysia – Truly Asia

A trip abroad is something that always holds untold excitement; no matter how many times somebody has crossed the shores of the country. So it was, with me when I had an opportunity to visit Malaysia on work last week. That this was only my second visit abroad only added to the exhilaration.

The journey began on a not so interesting note with the flight getting delayed by about half an hour. This allowed us an opportunity to check out the duty free shop at the Bangalore airport. I was to later on realize the importance of that short visit, because it provided me with a perspective of how far we need to go, to catch up with international standards of the sort signified by the KL International Airport.

The journey to Malaysia, all of four and a half hours was pleasant, but ended up tiring us on arrival since Malaysia is about 2.5 hours ahead of us. We landed at 4.30 A.M. IST, but it was already 7.00 A.M. there, leaving us with virtually no sleep that entire night. We were welcomed with bountiful rain on our arrival to Malaysia and a huge strike of lightning just before landing, woke us up from what ever little sleep we had managed.

The Kuala Lampur International Airport is a mega airport with separate arrival and departure terminals. The duty free shops at the arrival lounge stock virtually every big brand possible and the team decided to stock up on their bit of cigs and alcohol, while I decided to check out the place a bit more. There was a raffle going on with the big prize being a Mercedes and I decided to try my hand at that.

Post this shopping spree, it was time to move on to the immigration counter. One needs to take the in-house mono rail to reach the immigration counter from the arrival lounge. A short 5 minute journey landed us at a huge immigration counter.
What hit me instantly was that fact that every one of these counters was manned by ladies with their heads covered in scarves. Malaysia is largely an Islamic country with a mix of ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians, forming the core of the population. With Islam being the major religion, I was under the impression that it might be a conservative society, but they seemed to be ahead of some of their more established brethren in terms of women’s rights and liberation.

The immigration counters, the toll booths around the country, the entry counters across museums, every one of them was manned (or womanned!!) by women, a pleasant surprise to all of us.

The immigration over and our baggage having arrived in a jiffy, it was time to hit the roads on our way to the famous Genting Highlands, about 70 kilometres from KL. A large six lane highway takes one to the Highlands. The immediate equivalent I could think of was that it was like driving to Ooty or Kodaikanal in India. While the drive to Ootyis not as comfortable, it is definitely more enjoyable, given that a large part of the natural landscape has been left untouched. In comparison, while the journey to the Highlands is wonderfully comfortable, the drive is definitely not even close to as enjoyable given that the entire stretch feels largely man made with very specific landscape work all along the drive. It takes out the natural ‘feel’ and seems very monotonous.

Spread across a large expanse 6000 feet above sea level, The Genting Higlands houses accommodation for different budget visitors, right from 5 star hotels to 3 star hotels. The Theme Park Hotel that we were staying in housed a theme park attached to it.
It is a wonder how these rides manage to bring out the kid in you. The various rides bought back memories of childhood when the annual exhibition in RBANMS grounds would be something that we would look forward to eagerly every year. I spent close to three hours enjoying every possible ride and leaving the really daring ones behind for another day.

The place also houses what is arguable one of the largest casinos this side of the planet and the walk through, at 3 in the morning, was quite nice and enjoyable, a far cry from the dumb casino off Goa’s coast.

It was quite amusing to see people active and kicking at 4 in the morning in the casino as was the sight of quite a few ‘die-hard’ gamers spending their nights sleeping right in front of their gaming screens!!!

This was followed by a stopover at one of the 24 hr discos around the place, a quick peek through some nice 24 hr shopping arcades and a dash to the hotel room to catch some sleep before hitting the road at 6 in the morning.

Two days in the highlands savoring the beautiful weather and then the cable car ride down to the plains as the icing on the cake. This was THE best part of the tour. The cable car journey in Genting takes you through thick dense Mediterranean type forests and is the longest in South East Asia. It takes a full 30 minutes to reach the plains and is as exhilarating as exhilarating can be!

Alongside providing a breathtaking view of the mountains, it also cuts the distance from the top to the bottom of the hills by a cool couple of hours. And the fact that we traveled when it was drizzling made the spectacle seem even more magical.

And then it was on to KL. The drive to KL takes one past the famous Batu caves, that houses a revered Hindu temple, that of Lord Murugan. The Thaipusam is celebrated with grandeur here and it is an event that a lot of the local Indians as well as visitors keenly look forward to.

The roads leading upto the city house what look like a row of low class apartments and an immediate thought that came to mind was that of the Chawls in Mumbai. These are apparently where most of the working class resides and they bear an uncanny resemblance to some of the low end localities that you would find in any of the bustling cities in our country.

The downtown emerges imposingly in the background with the Petronas Twin Towers taking pride of place. It is difficult to miss the twin towers from anywhere in the city.

We checked into Hotel Corus at around 4 in the afternoon and immediately were out of our rooms to catch a glimpse of the city. Given the fact that our Hotel was situated diagonally opposite the twin towers, our first destination was the beautiful Suriya KLCC Mall at the base of the twin towers. This mall has all of four floors and houses virtually every possible big name brand from around the world. The shopping centre leads out onto a large park, approximately the size of Cubbon Park and also has a public swimming pool to boot. Unfortunately the couple of hours spent in the mall left us with no time to check the park out and given the incessant rains, we decided to head back to the Hotel for an early dinner.

After dinner, three of us decided to get a bit adventurous and decided to do a recce of the night life in KL. We were already told by our very well informed driver – Hari Krishnan – that KL’s nightlife is something worth checking out, but were not prepared for the assault that we faced outside one of the well known clubs in the city, the Beach Club.

While were out just for a walk, with no intentions, whatsoever, of getting inside any of the tens of clubs that lined that particular road, we were in for a big surprise, something we did not particular enjoy. Outside every club, we were hounded by touts who spoke to us in chaste Hindi and offered us ‘services’ of every kind possible! It was time to take to our heels and off we went, back to our rooms. We were to learn later on that this is normal occurrence and that the touts are hand-in-glove with prostitutes, who have migrated from mainland China.

The next day called for an early breakfast and we left the hotel at 9 in the morning to catch the 10 A.M. opening of the shopping malls in the city.

Malaysia is celebrating 2007 as the year of tourism and it is hard to miss the fact anywhere in the city. A glimpse of the fun and frolic that promises to accompany this celebration is visible trough out the city, with the metro, the monorail coaches, the buses, the concrete columns around the city, etc. being painted in bright colors communicating the festival to the tourists.

A set of 6 or 7 malls in a place called Butik Pintang is supposedly the best place to shop for everything in KL. We were not let down and ended up buying some stuff from a complex called Sungei Wang. We rushed back to the hotel at 12 in the morning since we had to check out. Once this was done, I decided to take a trip up the Petronas Towers before heading to the airport in the evening.

One needs to pick up a ticket (which is free, incidentally) to reach the Sky Bridge, which is situated on the 42nd floor of the Tower The bridge connects the twin towers and has a wonderful view of the city. This is about as far as one can go if he is a visitor. Given that only a limited number of tickets are given out everyday, I was not too hopeful of picking up one and grudged the fact that I might return from KL without seeing the Petronas towers. Luckily, my colleagues who had gone their earlier had bought tickets from me as well.

The façade of the twin towers is made up completely of steel and glass and is quite imposing for a first time visitor. The sky bridge that connects the 2 towers was built as an emergency exit in case of any mishap in either of the 2 buildings. The two towers have 84 floors each in all. Two high speed lifts take the passengers to the 42nd floor in less than 27 seconds.

The sky bridge provides a bird’s eye view of the entire city and one is allowed to take pictures and stroll around the bridge for about 10 minutes at the max, after which you are escorted back to the basement of the building.

The Petronas Twin Towers lost the tag of being the tallest towers very recently, but still retain the tag of being the tallest ‘twin’ towers in the world.

It is understandable why the Malays are so passionate about the grand building. Incidentally, the twin towers have an interesting Indian connection. The land on which it is built was owned by a Keralite and he sold off the land to the Government-owned Petronas Gas when he was requested to do so. Petronas, the Malaysian equivalent of our ONGC, has its main offices situated in these towers and is bustling with life at any given hour.

After the visit to the Petronas which lasted close to an hour, we decided that we better head off to the airport early to catch our flight later in the night, especially given that the city looked like it was getting ready to receive another pounding of rain shortly. Our experience with driving in Bangalore during rain had us worried, but we were to be proved wrong. The drive to the airport, about 72 kms away, took us less than an hour approximately (in heavy rain).

Once in and the immigration procedures through, it was time to board our long flight back to India. The Malaysian trip had ended, but not before I got a parting gift from the country in the form of a bad cold!!!

PS: If somebody has had the patience to have gone through this loooong page, thanks a ton. For those of you, who haven’t had the patience, and understandably so, I promise to get back to smaller posts in future. This post was done to help me relive my moments at a later date.

Some pics from the trip…. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8410933@N04/

A gastronomic weekend

The Saturday night loomed large and invitingly ahead of us. We were five of us, all friends from college and just out of a hectic week, desperate to make the most of the 30 or so hours of ‘freedom’ called the weekend, that has become so much of a luxury these days.
So it was that at 8.30 in the night, we decided to toss between hanging out at a local coffee house or take a trip to another former regular weekend haunt, not frequented for sometime, by us.
It turned out to be an easy choice, given than hunger pangs had set in and we had no intentions of filling up our stomachs with caffeine of any kind.

So off we went to V.V. Puram and to the Food Street. The Food Street, as the name suggests, is a narrow street that serves up some of the best short eats in the city and has quite a character attached to it.
The narrow street is full of life with cars and bikes occupying every possible inch of whatever little parking space that is available. It is not an uncommon sight to see families drive up, park, the head of the family rushing out, jostling with people to pick up his order in one of the many small shops on this street and rush back to his vehicle where the family is waiting eagerly to devour the heavenly content brought by him.

Our timing was just right and we reached there by 9.30 in the night, the best time to hit the Food Street. This is when the street ‘revs up’, if you may.

The journey began when the wafting scent of hot bread and just-out-of-the-oven cakes hit us as soon as we set foot on the street. The heavenly scents emanated from the renowned VB Bakery, which is the first shop on the street. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is perhaps, a tactic initiated by design, by the bakery to lure customers.

We began with their well known cream biscuits / cookies and honey cakes. While the cookies are better at some other places I know (notable Variar Bakery in Rajajinagar), the honey cakes are definitely something to die for. They just melt in your mouth. Period!
We then moved ahead to the litany of small eateries that line this street for the main course. One needs to be ready to fight with fellow foodies to catch the shop owner’s attention in these eateries and this task calls for some astuteness, found only in regular, experienced visitors to this street.
This course began with some amazing stuffed deep fried Capsicums and raw bananas (called Baalekaayi Bhajjis in Kannada– I couldn’t come up with a better English equivalent for the same!). The stuffing consisted of cut onions, tomato pieces, salt, pepper, coriander leaves and red hot chilli powder, of course, customized to ones requirement. It is a wonder how he manages to cut the banana into such thin slices, though!!

This was then followed by the most crispy Masala Dosas and piping hot, fluffy Idlis. The coconut chutney that went along with it was wonderful while the red tomato chutney lacked the zing normally associated with it, in that particular shop.
Watching the man inside the shop churn out his dosas is in itself a sight to behold, forget wading into his end product. There is a large platform that is heated up from underneath; a really large tawa, if you want a simplified description. I saw him turn around upto 12 dosas in one go, all done in a jiffy. The other sight, which is either interesting or depressing, (basis your liking or disliking of fatty foods) is the one where he pours out oil on these dosas directly and straight out of a large hole in the oil pouch, placed deftly by his side. It is his most important weapon in command, because the final taste of his dosa, it seems, depends heavily on this one particular act. The more oily it is, the more crispy the dosa turns out to be.

Done with the main course, it was now time to hit the dessert eateries, my personal favorite.

I have no doubt that the food street can compete quite well with some of its more establish brethren as far as desserts are concerned.
We simply had to have the Jamoons that were bobbing up and down invitingly in the sugar syrup, placed in as large a wok as I have ever seen anywhere else. Next on the list was some wonderful Pista ice cream and fruit salad, served to us in a plantain leaf with paper as an added protection underneath the leaf. Talk of protecting the planet!!

The Pièce de résistance was the Masala Pepsi / Mirinda / Limca (given that we were five of us, we could buy and share every one these three drinks). According to old timers who were around the place, this drink can be traced back to one particular shop in Seshadripuram and has gradually made its way to Food Street. ( I do not know if this story is true, will have to check the facts) The ingenuity in this drink is in the fact that the colas taste many notches better than in their original avatars. Chat Masala and salt, it seems is added to the cola to give it that extra fire power. The effect of ‘soda’ in colas, which can be irritating for many, gets totally negated once the masala is added. Even for someone like me who doesn’t drink colas, this is hard to resist every time I am there and I ended up having two glasses this time to top an eventful and gastronomic evening.
It was 11.30 by the time we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the Food Street.
One more weekend with something to do. Don’t know when my lucky star is going to go into hiding and I am going to go back to “boring weekends”!! :)

Dumb Dubya

"The American people are proud to welcome Your Majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well. After all, you've dined with ten U.S. presidents. You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- in 1976. She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child."

"Oops. I did it again!" I wouldn't want to be his PR agent. Will be working double time for sure!

This latest gaffe was vintage stuff. Firstly, he almost suggests that Queen Elizabeth is nearly hundereds of years old and rather than trying to cover his folly, he goes on to quip that she is indeed old.

I feel a sense of "The brown-man's saidistic pleasure syndrome" (wah! that was a good one) everytime I watch him and his buddy, Tony Blair make fools of themselves.

Come to think of it, one wouldn't mind being his PR agent...will definitely get paid well!

Two magic words

After every trip away from home, on return, the most irritating bit is to have touts and autorickshaw drivers try to virtually snatch your bags and pull you towards their vehicle on arrival. This is prevalent in both the airport as well as the railway station and it can really get on your nerve if you have just had a tiring journey.
I have devised a very simple way of getting these touts of my back and it works wonderfully well for me.
I use the two magic words “Beda Guru” and it has a stunning effect on these drivers who completely stop chasing you from then on. The point is, most of these drivers think that since you have just arrived, you are in all probability, a non-Bangalorean, and hence can be taken for a ride. The moment you call them ‘Guru’, a colloquial equivalent of ‘Mister’, and a local slang, typically used by the more hard-nosed Kannadiga, they understand that you obviously know how to hold your ground against them in Kannada and move on to look for new prey..:)
Try it the next time you land in Namma Bengalooru…it works!!!

Goa in a Resort

My last visit to Goa was when I was in my final year of under-graduation in college and that trip holds some very fond memories for me.
My second visit to Goa this time around, was therefore, something that I was eagerly looked forward to.
Though it was on official work, it became very clear as soon as we landed on a sultry Wednesday afternoon in Goa that very little work would actually get done during our stay there.
Goa is like a party thrown open 24 / 7/ 365 days a year. And this hits you as soon as you land. There is Goan, Konkani, English and not surprisingly, Kannada music to be heard virtually everywhere in the city.
The sight of tourists walking around purposefully with a glint of excitement in their eyes is in complete contrast to the lazy gait and unhurried attitude of the localites, who like to live their days on their own terms. In fact, the state virtually shuts down between 1 and 4 in the afternoon when all shops and many offices are shut down to allow the locals, their afternoon siesta.

The driver who picked us up from the airport – Daniel – turned out to be a very nice fellow and played us some excellent Goan music during our drive to the hotel.

And then there we were – Cidade de Goa

‘Goa in a resort’ is the tag line of Cidade de Goa, one of Goa’s oldest resorts and it cannot be more apt. The resort, built to resemble a Portugese township, is all that the brochure promises and more. The lobby has the best possible view of the Arabian Sea with a bar and portico overlooking the sea.
With a live piano and music performance everyday, the open bar is a hot favourite amongst the guests in the resort, many of whom seemed to like spending quiet evenings at the bar, watching the Goan sunset, with a drink by their side.
The lobby also has an interesting set of three statues of Vasco da Gama, one each representing his standing as a traveler, a philosopher and a thinker.
Lush greens and an inviting swimming pool vied for our attention and it was difficult not to be tempted by both of them.
The first evening was restricted to sitting in the bar and watching colleagues get themselves drunk.
I walked the private beach well past midnight, after everybody had gone to sleep, and it was something I wished I could hold on to for as long as possible.
With sand in the feet and misty sea breeze hitting me in the face, it was just magical. It was one of those ‘contemplative’ moments when you begin thinking about everything around you very philosophically.
The next two days were spent in the conference or ‘work’ as the company wishes to call it, with occasional dips in the swimming pool as and when time was available.

The third night is when we ventured out to visit the famous Casino Goa, on board ‘The Cavalera’ anchored off the coast of Goa. We had heard quite a lot about it and it was suggested that even if one did not gamble, it was a place worth visiting.
So with high expectations, off we went into the night seeking to see a casino. It was a big letdown!
More like a small ferry than a vessel, ‘The Cavalera’ is nothing to write home about. The main deck is divided into two parts, one half containing the casino and the other half containing the dining room. The upper deck has a dance floor where guests are entertained during the day with ethnic Goan dances by troupes, but by the time we reached the place, even that small bit of entertainment had wound up.
So we ended up watching some idiots blow up obnoxiously huge amounts of money with no sign of remorse of sadness in their face, had dinner and left the place.

The best part about this small trip was the drive from the hotel to Panjim, from where we had to ride a small boat to reach ‘The Cavalera’. Goa surely has some of the best roads in the country.
We decided to walk back to the hotel on return to dry land, well past midnight and this was probably the best decision we took on this entire trip. Walking past beautiful Portugese villas and apartments on beautiful cobbled walkways late at night with nobody to disturb you, is a pleasure hard to replicate
The next day, it was time to pack up but not before having an early morning dip in the calm and clean ocean. That little walk along the beach did a lot to perk up our spirits for the day.

It was time to say goodbye to ‘Goa in a resort’ and head back home to Bangalore.