Due respects to Jules Verne & Jackie Chan, forget 88 days, 21 days were no less Challenging. Especially when key highlights on flight journey were comparison between the turbulence on atlantic and the pacific. Well, add to that jet lag in san francisco and a severe tan in Langkawi & Singapore, it would make one hell of a journey around the world.
Well, its good to wind up with the complaints, before I go on and on and on about these most exciting past 3 weeks of my life.
May be it was destined. I travelled little else around the world until 3 weeks ago,except the one off ethiopia trip last year. But something happened 3 weeks ago. Yay! I got married. Now I know it was destiny's way of ensuring, no evil foriegn lady's eye was set on this cute indian boy, until he is bethrothed to his designated Indian bride . Okie, the cute bit is debatable, lets leave it for another discussion :).
Another important debate, how is a honeymoon meant to be spent?. just lazing around gazing at the sea, trees and each other? or should it be like ... scan the map, rent a bike, select & choose the most quirkiest of destinations and VROOM you go exploring the unknown .. columbus here I come. No prizes for guessing, which one I would have chosen.
Stop - 1 Langkawi : blue sea and white sand are not works of art using adobe photoshop, as I had thought earlier. I swear on the tribal gods of the andaman sea, they are really blue (turqouise or aquamarine I am not sure) and white respectively.
Stop 1.1 : must check out place - Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai beach and islands, we even went kayaking around the little rocky islands jetting out of the sea. worth a dekko :). much of the island is on a lagoon, so the depth of water even 1 km off coast will be little less than 3 feet.
"So fear not the DROWNING, go do the KAYAKING"
Stop 1.2: DON movie climax on a hanging bridge. ofcourse, its the new one with shahrukh and priyanka chopra. The cable car and sky bridge are one of their kind.
Lunch break : Malay language is 60% sanskrit, 20% tamil and i guess another 20% chinese(madarin). Lang-KAWI meaning - Lang - eagle in chinese and KAWI is brown in sanskrit. so communication is never an issue, except when you want to make it clear that you want PURE vegetarian food. Nasi Lemak which is rice mixed with coconut and steamed in a plaintain leaf, is the author's recommendation. but please dont try any of the side dishes, even vegetables are usually cooked in fish oil, too much of chinese influence i suppose.
Stop 2: Singapuraaaaaaaa! Hitech Maaan! The Ticket vending machines take the first prize, escalators get the second and Sim Lim Square mall third prize - for selling china made electronic gadgets for prices cheaper than an average lunch or dinner.The city is soo tourist friendly, you can't help but put in good word about ordinary places. Sentosa is the expensive cousin of disney land. Have money. Splurge!. Jurong bird park was simply mind blowing, for once somebody got the idea that birds can be far more interesting than animals, especially when there are zoos everywhere, even in afghanisthan.
Stop 3: Hong kong - biggest airport I have seen till date. 80 departure/ arrival gates and an entire island dedicated to the airport ??? huh. Now I know, where all the 600 odd aircrafts in china operate out of. (compared to 200 odd aircrafts in india). Every 5 minutes a flight takes off to beijing and every 3 minutes China Airlines operates a flight to somewhere. In the meanwhile, the billion odd chinese with similar looking faces and the same pale white complexion are seen humming the ichypichy mandarin as they swarm in and out like worker ants to and from the departure gates. But to their credit, these chinese are all so well dressed compared to the indians, even the poor ones don't look so poor. A wise man once said, Give them a billion Mao suits, they will all look alike and neat :). Well Gandhiji should have thought of a similar high volume bottom of the pyramid strategy for his khadi suits. I guess all his plans faded away with his rhetoric. I still feel a cringe in my stomach, believe me its got nothing to do with china's success story vis a vis India, it is just the hours spent on layover in hong kong. It is just the hunger that I felt, when I didnt find anything vegetarian at all. not even sandwiches & burgers at even starbucks, burger king or ne other ones.
Stop 4: San francisco. The land of many promises. the gold in the 19th century for the europeans, cheap labour for chinese in the early 20th century and IT jobs in silicon valley for Indians more recently. Right from immigration to the hotel desk, the coldness and mean streak that most americans wear with such pride, was the biggest let down for me. Hospitality! where art thou ???. California and New york are more expensive than the average american city, so lets not get into the usual discussion of taxes, insurance and rupee converted savings here. What is nice then ?. it is how even small tit bits of their short history, say 200 years, these americans preserve with such effort.
Suddenly, the old & rusted tram ride up and down the hill is the most important on the TODO list even charging a huge premium. You make a world famous bridge, out of your regular hanging bridge by painting it red instead of the pale grey. Golden gate bridge. Take a Bow.
But still, there is no taking away credit for the tallest trees in the world at Muir Woods, they would not have grown anywhere else in the world. A ride on the downtown public transportation is good learning experience about the american way of life - african americans, chinese, whites, indians & pakis, each with their own cultural metaphors so evident in their 5 minute journey period. But all together they say in unison, we are AMEARICAANS with that twang, which I can never imitate well. Ohh yeh, the beggars, many more than you would find in a typical market place in India. Each with their own unique begging call varying from an eminem like rap song to a street musician playing mostly jazz with sax and guitar, not the regular pop & rock mind you.
Another 20 hours later, I am back to Home, Sweet, Home in aamchi mumbai, only the second place I call home, ofcourse after Bangalore. It has not be long since I am back in Mumbai. spent a couple of hours reliving the last 3 weeks and another 1 hour penning them down.
Cheers.
If I say not an inch is left uncarved, It would not be an exaggeration. Where would you find, entire chandeliers carved out of marble and hanging down the roof!. Just the 30 mins I spent at the 5 temples, were total paisa vasool for all the pains taken to travel to Mt. Abu. When in Rajasthan, eat rajasthani food. So it was Daal baati for brunch, followed by churma for evening snacks and bajre ki roti with subzi for dinner. The company of Scouts and guides from the local school, a travelling group of friends from Slovenia and old retired couple on perhaps one of their last honeymoons, were among the many different people, I got to know on the one day spent at Mt. Abu.
Why has it succeeded, when so many others failed you might wonder ?. The reason is simple, most heritage properties in the town are managed by private business of the local 
When in Udaipur, shopping for souvenirs is the best end-of-day activity. Miniature paintings in the Mewar styles for the drawing room wall, Bandini saree (for Mom, I clarify) and beautiful hand crafted puppets. And yes, Don't forget to get your own photo clicked in the traditional Rajasthani attire. His Royal Highness Maharajah Shreyan Singh Mewar, atleast for 5 minutes if not more.
Kashid was our beach of choice, clear blue water & fine sand, add to this privacy offered by one of the least crowded stretches of sea, without any stink of fisher men's catch. From jogging to sunbathing, from surfing the waves to building sand castles, From beach football to Frisbee, it was gala time for the bunch of 7 guys and a welcome break from the hectic worklife.
The fort is really cool, with some amazing views of the surrounding area.
