Trip to Kuching

Kuching, in east Malaysia is around 2 hr by flight from KL airport. We took a late evening Malaysian Airlines flight from KL. The flight was uneventful except that there was only one Asian vegetarian food even though I and friend had ordered for the same. The key part on landing is that you again have to get the passport stamped again. This i heard is true for even Malaysian citizen.So in case you are travelling carry the passport with a valid Malaysian Visa.

We stayed at four points by Sheraton which is a decent hotel though my expectation from Sheraton was quite higher than what we got in their premium rooms. This is cheaper than many hotels in the city center. As city center is not very far off it makes sense to stay here. They also provide airport drop at specified time.

I was there for a day and got only few hours after the meeting and spent time on trying out local food items. We tried 3 layer tea which was really good at a shop right opposite the hotel. Strangely the name of the store was "Bombay store".

We also relished on another food common to this area known as the layer cake. It come in many flavor including the Horlicks flavor. The original one seems to be some Indonesian flavor but we ended up trying some sweet-and-sour sort of flavor but named in their local language. Worth a try if you are there as there seems to be lot of cake stores around. This also was in the market in front of the hotel.

The Dhaka revisit

This time i want to exclusively spend time mentioning on the Hotel we stayed. As the only place we were there other than the Customer meeting was at Eastern Residence Hotel. If you are looking for a right decent hotel in Dhaka while on official travel, this may be an ideal choice. If you take rooms in a group say 2 or three then there is a drawing room sort of space which can be used used exclusively by your group. This drawing room has a couch, TV and a dining table. This gives you a feel of being at home than being at a hotel. Rooms are good and decent with a separate AC per room. It can get quite hot in Dhaka and is difficult to stay without an AC even for person like me who is from temperate region.

They have this unique fruit basket and a welcome drink which i have not seen in any other hotel. Their breakfast is included in their hotel package. The breakfast is decently spread with fruits, breads, roti/dals (If you are an Indian foodie please ask for red roti as common roti in Bangladesh is made of Maida), cereals etc. Better take coffee as somehow my tea taste does not find tea here attractive. They have room service and food quality is good, so we never bothered to go out of the hotel for food any other time as well. Another attraction if you are in company group is to have a group dinner among yourselves in the drawing room with no chatter of any typical public restaurant.

I am here after two years and it seems Dhaka has improved by leaps and bounds. They are getting ready to host the ICC T20 World cup in 2014 and expects to get a lot of infrastructure project completed by then. So till then you see some roadblock around and get a local taxi driver who can take you through inner gullies of Dhaka to the place of meeting else you may spend more time on road. The one thing you cannot miss in Dhaka is the sheer number of cycle rickshaw and it seems they can take you even beyond 5 Kms. We are seeing new public transport buses and a lot of beautification activity from airport to lakes and slowly it is feeling like any bustling developing city in India.

The revisit also was different as I used Biman Bangaldesh as most of the Indian aviation industry in out of Dhaka except for Jet Airways. There was a huge difference in the pricing and hence opted for Biman though i had not used it before based on feedback from my colleagues. The onward journey was uneventful and even i had made up my mind to use it henceforth. There was a delay of over an hour but thought it is ok for the difference in pricing. The return turned to be quite an eventful journey.

"Inshallah We will be in Kolkata in 40 mins"... I thought is like any other prayer but they literally meant it. We were on BG 091 flight from Dhaka to Kolkata on Friday June 16th 2012 which was delayed for take off from Dhaka. I had a connecting Indigo flight from Kolkata to Bangalore at 2PM a decent transit time. After announcing that the flight is about to land at Kolkata, there was a cryptic message telling that "Due to technical reason, we are going back to Dhaka". To Dhaka!!  As one passenger was questioning the decision as like me he also had a connecting flight, the airhostess summed up the seriousness of the scenario by saying "First let us land safely before deciding about future course of action". There were hectic activity in the cockpit with two biman personal who was also in the flight.

We were on the way back to Dhaka. I could see the face of a Airplane personal and it showed the confusion in his mind and i hope all were think "Inshallah we will land in Dhaka". After landing in Dhaka, we were told about the technical issue. The issue was landing gear did not open at Kolkata and hence they returned the flight back to Dhaka. Not sure how it opened in Dhaka and not in Kolkata. Happy to have landed uneventfully. I had a chat with air personal and he told me they had similar issue with this flight in 3 days back. 3 days back and still they are flying it!! I do not know if they have anything like aircraft regulator like DGCA, FAA etc. May be their fear of DGCA might have made them fly back or the cost involved in repair in India as one passenger put it. But the statement also made me slightly happy as this is not the first time Biman air team was handling a similar situation.

Then back in Dhaka by the time i made the call the Indigo flight could not be cancelled and i have lost 9K and then any alternate direct flight was 22K. Am I going to pay more than what i saved? Luckily there was a connecting flight by Jet airways through vizag from Kolkata to Bangalore which was 12.5K. So atleast it is still cheaper than the Jet option had i booked it. Having no surety on Biman will land in Kolkata and even was afraid if they do not fly the same flight which had issue again. Finally they announced that by 1.30PM there will be a new flight from Dhaka to Kolkata and it did fly exactly on time for a change and with the same crew. This new flight took us to Kolkata without any issue. We heard some sound from the engine side but the crew said it is a small issue and the sound will go away after it flies. We had to trust the crew. Kudos to the team which is keeping the airline flying even with such bad machines.

Earlier at biman counter to get my boarding pass even though i had no check-in luggage took me 30-45 mins as there complete mess on who handles what. failure of computer reservation. A queue where i have waited for 15mins just closed itself saying there is some software glitch. We had to go to other queue which were already very big, Some words in Bengali and angry passengers made them to start a new counter. Then i was in a immigration queue where i found that i was in a bangladesh passport queue though it was written foreign passport. They took me to the right queue but then i find that the immigration person telling me that my flight is missing in his system. Missing .. when the flight is just 40mins from now.. Finally he found it and my passport was stamped.

But to all the passenger thinking of flying in Biman bangaldesh and its saftey record, think 100 times before flying it as it may never land!!

Trip to Chattarpur Temple, New Delhi

We had a sales conference at Tivoli Gardens, New Delhi. The property which is very near Chattarpur Temple made few of us making plan to visit the temple which had some beautiful architecture and some of the most imposing structures in that area.

Trivoli Gardens Hotel

The Trivoli property itself was a good one with some rooms being set up inside a train. Seems to be a favorite location for Marriage as we saw a lot of them written down in the entrance.  

 The Chattarpur temple was built by  Baba Sant Nagpal ji which i read after i came back from the visit. In case you need a detailed information on this temple pl read this blog. We went there on a taxi on the way back to Delhi Airport. But it seems there is a Chattarpur metro station near by and from there you would need to take an autorickshaw. Built over a huge swath of land with different temples dedicated to different god including the colossal statue of Hanuman shown below. 

I also find for the first time in a North temple a painting showing Shiva with three son- Ganesha, Murugan and Ayyappa.

The Hanuman statue is on the other side of the road and you feel the size of the statue only when you are near by. I got a Hanuman chalsya and some prasad from a pundit near the statue. 

My First Trip

This was my first tour from school. Sadly there was no blogger at that time neither i had a comp. Except for this photo, i do not remember anything :)

Concrete jungle vying for mindshare with greenery

This was my first visit to Malaysia though i had transited it before. So the airport was not new though the country was :) . The only thing i knew was of the Petronas twin tower and a large Tamil community which stays there and had not done any google search to see what all to visit as i had only few days and may be just an evening to roam around. Hence thought i will do a "Off-the-beaten" Track visit based on the feedback of the people i meet out there in Malaysia.

Malaysia visa was obtained without much fuss as all they needed was a completed aplication form with bare minimum details and few photographs along with an invitation letter. As our company had an office, we applied for a one year visa and i got it within a week. It was a multiple entry visa with 30 days maximum per visit.

I took the Malaysian Airlines as the popular Air Asia was fully booked for the day i had to travel. Malaysia Air with a airline code MH, which they proudly mentioned as "Malaysian Hospitality", the airline flight was uneventful. I slept for the entire trip as the flight starts at 12.45. There was though a slight delay in boarding due to late arrival of flight. I remember airhostess coming with the food and drinks but i just slept through and they were not rude to wake me up.

I arrived in KL in the morning and had a huge bag of gift to carry for the office. I had to pay tax as it seems only gift goods are allowed for diplomats and i was a normal visa holder. They do not take card and hence had to exchange all the $ into Malaysian Ringget at airport even though i knew it will be low rate. Even the Airport taxi needs credit card with a built in chip else it had to be paid in cash. All my currency was exchanged in airport itself at MYR 2.89 per $1. The rate at a midvalley exchange was MYR 3.03 for $1. It costed me MYR 74 to reach the city. There is a cheaper option to use KLIA train to KL Sentral which is a shorter trip and costs only MYR 35 (though you may need to take a cab from there to your hotel).

View from Cititel Hotel

Cititel Midvalley where i was put up was a decent hotel though rooms were small (By Asian standard not european studio one though). As i was alone it was not such an issue. It was MYR 580 for two days. This hotel has two malls along the sides and you could enter the mall through the hotel. This is a clear attraction for the hotel as you could walk out of the hotel to the mall in AC comfort and try different food. 

The first food i had in the mall was at Secret Recipe a huge chain in malaysia which seems give uniform tasting food across all its chain location. I tired some vegetarian dish wit'h some soya nuggets and peanut sauce along with a rice which i think had maggi noddles taste maker :). Food was good and a nice option for Vegetarians in Malaysia.

Louis Vuitton way of selling a bag!!!

Had few meeting that day and then came and slept after having some pineapple rice + omlette and walking inside the midvalley mall. If you enjoy shopping a nice mall to roam around and buy. I checked a samsung google note which was MYR 2000 which is same as the price in India. Prices were more or less same as in India.

Petronas lit at night

Without lights before sunset

On the second day evening after the days meeting, went to see the Twin tower the must see place if you are in KL. It takes a different looks with and without the lights. So spend the evening there when the building does a chameleon.  I took the LRT to KLCC from where when you exist you see the colossal tower. They have a visit to the top but by the time i reached tickets were all over. I was told they provide 960 tickets per day and it starts selling from 8.30 AM. If you want to get ticket you have to be in the queue by 7 AM. I walked around the small patch of greenery surrounded by the concrete jungle but it is worth seeing esp when the twin tower puts on the light.

I reached back KL sentral and i was told there is a metro to midvalley and wrongly i took it as a monorail. I walked down to monorail through some narrow alley as the linking of KL sentral to monorail is still ongoing. The metro system in KL is messed up as there is no linking of the various modes of metro inside the city. There is a KLIA ekspres, Transit, Kompart (semi-government run and is the cheapest with tickets still being collected in print), RapidKL etc. The search for monorail ended me in an Indian street and i went in to a North Indian Hotel , Gem. The food was ok and the "Sambaram" was no where near the one we have in India. The hotel was neat and service courteous. Finally found out that Kompart is the only train from KL Sentral to Midvalley. Met a person while waiting for the train when he mention that Indians are doing good in  Malaysia with Petronas, Esso and Maxis being owned by Indian descender and that plantation are run jointly by Indian and Malaysian driven mostly by saving in taxes. 

The return day as like in most of my trips earlier met a Keralite from Ottapalam. He had not gone there after his father passed away and was a malaysian citizen driving me to work. He had all of his son working in business and has not many people in contact in India. He was saying that 3 generations since they moved from India they have just jelled with the country marrying into the locals.

Evening spent some time in brookstreet Little India and had a good dosa at saravanna bhavan near to KL Sentral.

Reached airport by checking in at KL sentral itself after taking a KLIA Ekspres Ticket. This allows you to even check-in your luggage right at KL Sentral before boarding the train. This is there only for few flights and not for AIr Asia. Took the late friday flight MH 192 to be back in Bangalore by 11.30 PM. 

Travel by Delhi taxi and the Hope in Bihar

This is a travelogue with a difference. Though my travel is through Delhi but the view in the travelogue is of a village 1000 of miles away in Bihar through the voice of my driver while he takes me meticulously through the airport gurgaon road in Delhi. I am sure the person driving me will never wite this travelogue as he has much hard work pending to keep his house and family running.

I started the journey from T1 after getting down at Delhi after a uneventful spicejet flight from Bangalore. Had the food at "Foodies" right in front of T1 Arrival and then proceeded to the pre-paid taxi counter. There as usual he allocated me to a vehicle, which i did not have a choice waiting for me in Platform 7. I proceeded to board it and found it to be an Old Maruti 800 which i was thinking may be valuable for just its vintage. As soon as i boarded i asked the drivers name as i do usually and asked him where he was from. I heard he is from Bihar and then after the mandatory noting down of registration number by police we proceeded towards Gurgaon, Udyog Vihar. This is a short journey unless i end up in some traffic jam.

Bihar as usual has mixed feeling in my mind. I had never visited it but had read in report after report and through my good bihari friends as a world lost due to want of leadership. Recently i have read bihar in positive light after Nitish Kumar took over. As i am very circumspect of our media especially with the coverage on aam aadmi i really wanted to travel to the drivers village thorough him unadulterated with any bias.

He told me that he stayed in a village 50 kms away from Patna. He mentioned to me that it means 2.5 hrs journey from Patna due to pot-holed roads and rickety vehicle. Now he says the roads are as good as the road i was riding on and it takes just an hour. He was showing me that though his vehicle was of 1999 make it was still good because roads in Delhi are good. So it is not about rickety vehicles but the heavy toll due to maintenance which makes the vehicle bad. I also remember 20 years back there was just one rickety vehicle named "Simha" to my hometown from Palakkad and i also used to take an hour for a 10 Km ride.

Then i asked do they have job at his village. He told that a new power plant is coming up. May be my curiosity with the name made me ask what the name of the power plant and who are the owners. This questions were triggered by his mentioning that many people working there are from south. So i asked if it was GVK or GMR but he told me that they are in airport and that it was some company from Delhi. I asked if it was J P Power. Seeing in my curiosity he told he will find out by calling his cousin who work there. He took his mobile and tried calling him. May be cousin is busy he did not pick up and he was really sad at not being able to find the name. I told i will search it in net. I have googled it and may be it is being built "Muzaffarpur Thermal Power Station" by NTPC.

He was telling me he can see it from his house and may be he can get job there as new industry come in that area after the company is completed. He was telling me philosophically that it is too early before the company completes in another year and to predict what will happen after that. He was telling me that price of land there has gone up due to speculation and many people from outside has bought land in the area.

He was telling that he has a farm there and water is not a problem. If he digs 12ft he gets water. Issue was law and order which is now very good as all the top culprits are behind bar and the chottu are on the run or have found some jobs which are legal as peet and family pressure has made these people to change.

So what about laloo and Nitish. Who will win next time? Laloo he says is history and Nitish if he continues good work will get elected next time. So legacy will not win him and he need to continuously perform for staying in power. A word of advice from a voter. As i heard today in a TV program, May be Indian voters are smartest lot in the world democracies. He was happy for Akilesh winning the UP election and he hopes now the roads which are bad in UP will also get good and he can ride to Bihar without any potholes.

Sadly my journey ended and hence this travelogue. Hope to write a travelogue through my own eyes on Patna in near future.

Final