The past few days were quite tense here in India. Two cities have witnessed consecutive bomb blasts in less than 1 hour. Last Friday was the beginning of it all in the city where I'm currently living in, Bangalore. 8 small intensity bomb blasts happened in a time span of 1 hour or less. They all took place in the south part of the city which is far away from where I live or work. One woman died and 13 injured.
The second series of bombs, which happened on Saturday, had a stronger effect. It took place in the city of Ahmedabad, north west of India. There were 17 consecutive bomb blasts leading to 45 deaths and 160 injuries. An Islamic group claimed their responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts saying that it was a revenge of what happened in Gujarat, an apparent reference to 2002 riots in the western state which left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Ahmedabad was the scene of much of the 2002 violence. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_violence)
Everything now is calm, at least in Bangalore. Security measures are being taken and investigations are on going. It's not really sure though if the two events are linked in any way. No companies were targeted at all. Bangalore is considered the Silicon Valley of India and it contains many leading IT companies including Microsoft, IBM, HP, etc.
As for me I'm fine!! I actually enjoyed a great weekend in a great city called Hampi, which I will be writing about. I don't think there's no need to panic. All I need to be concentrating on is my internship. If anything ever happens, then its meant to be. Me being worried won't change any of it. But with some common sense and come prayers from freinds and family, I should be fine. I'm here to stay!! ;)
Mee3o over and out.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
First AIESEC LC Meeting
Since I've arrived here and I've been wanting to attend an AIESEC LC meeting. Back in my LC back home we used to call trainees to invite them to LC meetings. Here it works quite opposite. You are the one who has to go and ask to attend the meetings. That's exactly what happened. A Greek trainee wanted to attend an LC meeting as well, as he was already in aiesec before, so when he knew where and when it was he gave me a call and we went together with another trainee from Poland.
I was very very lucky today as there were a lot of other trainees in the LC meeting. Something that doesn't usually happen according to what they mentioned in the meeting. We were like more than 10 trainees!! So it was a great opportunity to meet them all today. Most of them just arrived a couple of days ago on a DT internship.
I must say that the LC meeting was a little bit too hyper for my taste :D They were all having fun big time, yet in my opinion it was a little bit too much at times. For those from AAST Cairo LC that are reading this,,, I taught them "2o2mor ya gameel!!" :D. I was asked to come and present myself and they wanted me to do a roll call. Of course I wasn't really prepared with anything so I taught our famous "Hey AIESEC!!" response :D It was soooo nice :D I'll make sure they say it every time I'm there :P
It doesn't stop there!! I met this trainee from Malta, her name is Viola. She turns out that she knows many aiesec people from Egypt. She remembered Sherif Elshayeb, Abdo, Samy, Shahira. She also knew some arabic. When I got to know what she knows in Arabic I wasn't surprised as she knows Shayeb :D
For those who know Geet a.k.a Githanjali, I met her sister today, Mana. She's an aiesec member in the DT team. Yes, they have a specific team for DTs. That's how it is in all India I guess. It was great meeting her finally. Also Geet will be coming back on the 15th of August. It would be great to have her in one city again :D
It was a great day!! Looking forward for going to more LC meetings and see if there's any means of interaction.
I used a couple abbreviations in this post so here is what they stand for:
Mee3o over and out
I was very very lucky today as there were a lot of other trainees in the LC meeting. Something that doesn't usually happen according to what they mentioned in the meeting. We were like more than 10 trainees!! So it was a great opportunity to meet them all today. Most of them just arrived a couple of days ago on a DT internship.
I must say that the LC meeting was a little bit too hyper for my taste :D They were all having fun big time, yet in my opinion it was a little bit too much at times. For those from AAST Cairo LC that are reading this,,, I taught them "2o2mor ya gameel!!" :D. I was asked to come and present myself and they wanted me to do a roll call. Of course I wasn't really prepared with anything so I taught our famous "Hey AIESEC!!" response :D It was soooo nice :D I'll make sure they say it every time I'm there :P
It doesn't stop there!! I met this trainee from Malta, her name is Viola. She turns out that she knows many aiesec people from Egypt. She remembered Sherif Elshayeb, Abdo, Samy, Shahira. She also knew some arabic. When I got to know what she knows in Arabic I wasn't surprised as she knows Shayeb :D
For those who know Geet a.k.a Githanjali, I met her sister today, Mana. She's an aiesec member in the DT team. Yes, they have a specific team for DTs. That's how it is in all India I guess. It was great meeting her finally. Also Geet will be coming back on the 15th of August. It would be great to have her in one city again :D
It was a great day!! Looking forward for going to more LC meetings and see if there's any means of interaction.
I used a couple abbreviations in this post so here is what they stand for:
- LC: Local Committee (A local division of AIESEC in a country)
- DT: Development Traineeship (Traineeships where you get to work on development and community based issues. Mainly working in NGOs)
Mee3o over and out
Monday, June 30, 2008
India So Far
Wow,,,, It's been more than a month since my last post. I'm have been extremely lazy and unfaithful towards my blog. Well here I go again.
I could not find anything more to write about except my experience so far in Incredible India!! It has been almost 4 months since I arrived here. I can't say I've seen a lot, but I've seen enough to make me reach some conclusions. I'll take you on a trip through some thoughts of mine.
Lets start off with the internship itself. So far it hasn't been as I expected. Yet it made me learn something. I came here expecting to work in Java. My interview was in Java and based upon that I got accepted. I found myself allocated in a project that requires me to work with Database. That was something that I last studied and dealt with in college. I had one of two options: (1) Either to protest and ask for reallocation which might result in moving to another city (2) Accept the situation and start remembering and learning Database. I went with the 2nd option. I thought of it,, "I'm still somehow fresh in the market. I'm not like an expert in Java to really stick to it. If I don't have what I expect, let me make the best out of what I have now". I chose to be felixable and patient and make the best out of my situation. So far I've been learning more than I knew about Databases, and will continue doing that. I'm not coming back till I prove myself in the field of Databases.
Now we come to AIESEC India. Well, from what I've seen and been told so far, AIESEC in India is more of Quantity than Quality. They concentrate on bringing the biggest number of trainees, which they do, yet not servicing them properly. My experience with AIESEC, in terms of housing was as follows. They gave me a number of an realestate agent that provides accommodation for the trainees. The only thing they had available was a PG accommodation. It is a building with rooms of 2 or 3 beds with common bathroom and kitchen. I thought,, "I can't stay like that for a year. If I'm here for 2 or 3 months I wouldn't mind". Of course AIESEC Bangalore wouldn't do anything about it cuz it's only the agent that takes care of the housing. So I decided to search for an apartment on my own.
I must say I'm very lucky in terms of accommodation. One of the main reasons of this luck is my colleague, Eduardo. I mentioned him in previous posts yet again he's from Brazil and he's going through the same conditions as me in terms of the internship itself. That guy has been very understanding from the begining. I was happy that we thought like eachother in terms of the need of proper accommodation for our long stay in India. We went through a lot of ups and downs but finally we found a place. We agreed everything to be splited in half and everything shared equally. I must say I never found a problem with him in that concept at all. With some help from back home, from both sides, we managed to get a very good apartment in a very good area in Bangalore. It was worth all the searching and inquiries. Thank you Eduardo for baring with me through all this, was worth it though ;)
I can never forget the help of the trainees in this as well. On the top of the list comes Alina and Ian, former trainees in TCS and currently employees. They graciously invited us to stay in their house till we found an apartment. They gave us survivol tips and showing us around the city. I'm endlessly in debt for them. Thank you guys for everything!!!
Last and definatly not last are my parents!! Without their support I wouldn't have found accommodation on my own. They are willing to do anything to make this internship work!!
Now comes India!! What can I say?! It is incredible!! Honestly, in both bad and good ways it is incredible. It is incredibly frustrating at times, incredibly beautiful at times, incredibly hot, incredibly divers, incredibly misunderstood, incredibly educational, etc. I can go on all night. No matter what anyone tells you about India, you'll have to come and see it for yourslef. You'll see it totally different. If someone hates it, you might just love it, and vice versa. It depends on where you are, what you are here for, what did you see. India is BIG, there's a lot to experience and see!! Even two people who have been through the exact same situations would have different views!!
If you ask me I'll tell you I like India!! I'm still didn't fall in love with it totally but I must say there are things to be loved. To make it clear, I don't mind staying longer in India as long as I'm in Bangalore. YESSSS, as long as I'm in Bangalore. I'm in love with this city. I'm used to it now!! Best climate in India currently. Everywhere else is hot, humid, and raining and here it's great. I don't need to have the fan on in the night while sleeping. The raining season in Bangalore is September and October. You just can't avoid the rain in India!! It's like "You can run but you can never hide" :D I have been to a couple of cities so far. They both tell me to appreciate Bangalore. I'll be doing some more traveling to prove my point :D
A word to all AIESEC EPs no matter where you are or where you will be. You make your internship what it is!!! No one shapes it for you. Not AIESEC no matter how good or bad it is and not even the company even if it's P&G!! You shape your own experience by the choices you make!! Depends on how you deal with situations as they come, how felixable you are, how much do you want this internship to work!! Don't blame anyone for the faliure of your internship if it does. My GOD!! I could be blaming all day long if I wanted!! From the rickshaw driver that wants to rip me off to the head of the Learning and Development in TCS. Yet it's not them. It's all about me and the choices I made!! Look at the bright side of things!! Make the internship work!! Patience is a virtue!! ;)
I'm here to stay as long as it is required. I'm aiming for employment in TCS!! I'll do everything it takes for that to happen. Again, as long as I'm in Bangalore!! :D
Mee3o over and out!!
I could not find anything more to write about except my experience so far in Incredible India!! It has been almost 4 months since I arrived here. I can't say I've seen a lot, but I've seen enough to make me reach some conclusions. I'll take you on a trip through some thoughts of mine.
Lets start off with the internship itself. So far it hasn't been as I expected. Yet it made me learn something. I came here expecting to work in Java. My interview was in Java and based upon that I got accepted. I found myself allocated in a project that requires me to work with Database. That was something that I last studied and dealt with in college. I had one of two options: (1) Either to protest and ask for reallocation which might result in moving to another city (2) Accept the situation and start remembering and learning Database. I went with the 2nd option. I thought of it,, "I'm still somehow fresh in the market. I'm not like an expert in Java to really stick to it. If I don't have what I expect, let me make the best out of what I have now". I chose to be felixable and patient and make the best out of my situation. So far I've been learning more than I knew about Databases, and will continue doing that. I'm not coming back till I prove myself in the field of Databases.
Now we come to AIESEC India. Well, from what I've seen and been told so far, AIESEC in India is more of Quantity than Quality. They concentrate on bringing the biggest number of trainees, which they do, yet not servicing them properly. My experience with AIESEC, in terms of housing was as follows. They gave me a number of an realestate agent that provides accommodation for the trainees. The only thing they had available was a PG accommodation. It is a building with rooms of 2 or 3 beds with common bathroom and kitchen. I thought,, "I can't stay like that for a year. If I'm here for 2 or 3 months I wouldn't mind". Of course AIESEC Bangalore wouldn't do anything about it cuz it's only the agent that takes care of the housing. So I decided to search for an apartment on my own.
I must say I'm very lucky in terms of accommodation. One of the main reasons of this luck is my colleague, Eduardo. I mentioned him in previous posts yet again he's from Brazil and he's going through the same conditions as me in terms of the internship itself. That guy has been very understanding from the begining. I was happy that we thought like eachother in terms of the need of proper accommodation for our long stay in India. We went through a lot of ups and downs but finally we found a place. We agreed everything to be splited in half and everything shared equally. I must say I never found a problem with him in that concept at all. With some help from back home, from both sides, we managed to get a very good apartment in a very good area in Bangalore. It was worth all the searching and inquiries. Thank you Eduardo for baring with me through all this, was worth it though ;)
I can never forget the help of the trainees in this as well. On the top of the list comes Alina and Ian, former trainees in TCS and currently employees. They graciously invited us to stay in their house till we found an apartment. They gave us survivol tips and showing us around the city. I'm endlessly in debt for them. Thank you guys for everything!!!
Last and definatly not last are my parents!! Without their support I wouldn't have found accommodation on my own. They are willing to do anything to make this internship work!!
Now comes India!! What can I say?! It is incredible!! Honestly, in both bad and good ways it is incredible. It is incredibly frustrating at times, incredibly beautiful at times, incredibly hot, incredibly divers, incredibly misunderstood, incredibly educational, etc. I can go on all night. No matter what anyone tells you about India, you'll have to come and see it for yourslef. You'll see it totally different. If someone hates it, you might just love it, and vice versa. It depends on where you are, what you are here for, what did you see. India is BIG, there's a lot to experience and see!! Even two people who have been through the exact same situations would have different views!!
If you ask me I'll tell you I like India!! I'm still didn't fall in love with it totally but I must say there are things to be loved. To make it clear, I don't mind staying longer in India as long as I'm in Bangalore. YESSSS, as long as I'm in Bangalore. I'm in love with this city. I'm used to it now!! Best climate in India currently. Everywhere else is hot, humid, and raining and here it's great. I don't need to have the fan on in the night while sleeping. The raining season in Bangalore is September and October. You just can't avoid the rain in India!! It's like "You can run but you can never hide" :D I have been to a couple of cities so far. They both tell me to appreciate Bangalore. I'll be doing some more traveling to prove my point :D
A word to all AIESEC EPs no matter where you are or where you will be. You make your internship what it is!!! No one shapes it for you. Not AIESEC no matter how good or bad it is and not even the company even if it's P&G!! You shape your own experience by the choices you make!! Depends on how you deal with situations as they come, how felixable you are, how much do you want this internship to work!! Don't blame anyone for the faliure of your internship if it does. My GOD!! I could be blaming all day long if I wanted!! From the rickshaw driver that wants to rip me off to the head of the Learning and Development in TCS. Yet it's not them. It's all about me and the choices I made!! Look at the bright side of things!! Make the internship work!! Patience is a virtue!! ;)
I'm here to stay as long as it is required. I'm aiming for employment in TCS!! I'll do everything it takes for that to happen. Again, as long as I'm in Bangalore!! :D
Mee3o over and out!!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Games at work
Let me introduce you first to the HR responsible in my project, Alina Buzgar. She's from Romania. She came to India 2 years ago just like me now as an intern. Now she's officially employed in the company. She's an amazing person, very helpful, and a great guide for Bangalore and India in general.
So Alina asked me and Eduardo to volunteer in a giving a session she is giving for one of the teams in TCS. It was a session talking about cultures and cultural differences and it was more in form of a game. Alina was the one conducting the session of course, Eduardo took the role of the judge, and I was the score keeper.
When I entered the office everyone was very quite and concentrating in their work. I took the impression that this game would be taken very seriously by the employees. The session started with a few movies on cultural differences and then the games began. Those quite employees turned into 10 year old children filled with enthusiasm and energy to win!! The amount of energy in that office was amazing that I even feared we might loose control upon them!! Yet it went very well and everyone was great!!
It was a great session that everyone enjoyed!! I personally got to learn from it that the differences in cultures is overwhelming. Even the similarities are. You can even find differences in team cultures within the same company. It is great learning how to cope with all this and blend in each culture whenever necessary.
Mee3o over and out ;)
So Alina asked me and Eduardo to volunteer in a giving a session she is giving for one of the teams in TCS. It was a session talking about cultures and cultural differences and it was more in form of a game. Alina was the one conducting the session of course, Eduardo took the role of the judge, and I was the score keeper.
When I entered the office everyone was very quite and concentrating in their work. I took the impression that this game would be taken very seriously by the employees. The session started with a few movies on cultural differences and then the games began. Those quite employees turned into 10 year old children filled with enthusiasm and energy to win!! The amount of energy in that office was amazing that I even feared we might loose control upon them!! Yet it went very well and everyone was great!!
It was a great session that everyone enjoyed!! I personally got to learn from it that the differences in cultures is overwhelming. Even the similarities are. You can even find differences in team cultures within the same company. It is great learning how to cope with all this and blend in each culture whenever necessary.
Mee3o over and out ;)
Ringtones
I know it's been a week now since my last post. But here I am back again with a couple of interesting posts.
One day I was on a public bus coming back from work and going to a place called Shivaji Nagar. So I was sitting in the bus minding my own business and suddenly I hear a phone ringing. It wasn't a normal ring tone. It was a ringtone of Mohamed Hamaky - 2a7la 7aga feeky. I was very surprised to hear that in a local bus.
So I said that could be like one in a million chance I could hear such a thing again. But how wrong I was!! I think it was last Thursday that I was sitting in the company library which is of course a very quite place. There was a guy sitting next to me and his phone started ringing. To my absolute surprise the guy's ringtone was Nancy 3agram - Ya tabtab wa 2adall3!! I was like, "What the hell!! In the TCS library!!" I was about to talk to the guy to ask him where he got his ringtone, yet he left to answer the phone and didn't come back. I'll make sure next time I see him I would ask him so!!
Lets see which ringtone I would hear next!! :D
One day I was on a public bus coming back from work and going to a place called Shivaji Nagar. So I was sitting in the bus minding my own business and suddenly I hear a phone ringing. It wasn't a normal ring tone. It was a ringtone of Mohamed Hamaky - 2a7la 7aga feeky. I was very surprised to hear that in a local bus.
So I said that could be like one in a million chance I could hear such a thing again. But how wrong I was!! I think it was last Thursday that I was sitting in the company library which is of course a very quite place. There was a guy sitting next to me and his phone started ringing. To my absolute surprise the guy's ringtone was Nancy 3agram - Ya tabtab wa 2adall3!! I was like, "What the hell!! In the TCS library!!" I was about to talk to the guy to ask him where he got his ringtone, yet he left to answer the phone and didn't come back. I'll make sure next time I see him I would ask him so!!
Lets see which ringtone I would hear next!! :D
Friday, May 9, 2008
Coorg -> Mysore -> Bangalore
This may turn out to be a long post yet I'll try to make it as short as it can be and mention the main points!! Hope you enjoy anyway :D
1st of May was off for everyone. As it was a Thursday, I took Friday off as well and had one long weekend!! But it was for a very good reason.
Me, Eduardo, and two girls from Mumbai (Slavka & Marika) all planned a trip to 3 places. Coorg, Mysore and Bangalore sight seeing. The plan was to travel to Coorg on Thursday and stay there for 2 nights. Then on Saturday we would go to Mysore for sight seeing and go back to Bangalore on the same day. Sunday was dedicated for Bangalore sight seeing.
There was this whole story of trying to find a way to go on this tour. There were two options. Either we go by transportation or rent a car for 3 days. Of course we went with a rented car. We ended up renting a Tata Indica with a driver. If I told you to guess the drivers name, what would you say? Most probably you are right. The driver's name was Ahmed ;)
We started our journey at around 9 am heading to Coorg through Mysore. I must mention that the roads between the cities were quite nice!! It was a smooth road and with an amazing amount of greenery on the both sides of it. We stopped for lunch in Mysore.
Then we agreed on visiting some Tibetan settlement on the way to Coorg. This settlement contains the biggest population of Tibetans outside the Tibet. The main attraction there is the Golden Temple. It is located in a monastery where young Tibetans go for education mainly. From inside it has 3 golden statues of Buddha idols. It's an amazing temple from inside and the amount of detail and color is overwhelming.
After finishing with that we decided we should head to our hotel in Coorg. It's actually called a "Home Stay" not hotel. It's name was Honey Valley. It's a personal recommendation for anyone who visits Coorg. Great people, great food, good rooms, and amaaaazing scenery. Maybe the only hotel that you can find in the latest edition of Lonely Planet talking about Coorg.
Anywho, the driver took the directions from the hotel guy and we were off. That's where our road got a little longer than it should be!! The driver was stopping every 5 to 10 mins asking for directions. He was going on the right way, yet I guess he was making sure. They said it's only 75 Kms to the hotel. It felt like 200 Kms to me. At some point of time in the road the driver asked for the directions from a stoned guy who was smoking some s**t. That's when I started to feel a little bit worried!
We stopped at a small village called Kakabe to call the hotel again to "make sure" of the road, duuuuuhh!! We didn't have any mobile network coverage so we had to use a payed phone. I'm mentioning this for one simple reason. I had some hard time calling the hotel. There were a lot of people from the village standing there and one of them approached me and asked me where I'm from. When I told him I was from Egypt the guy had a big smile on his face!! It turns out that he traveled to some gulf countries for work before and he actually speaks Arabic, yet with a more Gulf ascent. So he helped me out with calling the home stay and everything was settled.
So we finally reached at the meeting point at around 9:30 pm where the home stay people agreed on. They were waiting for us in a Jeep. That was because the home stay is actually up hill and the way to it is very rocky. Only a Jeep can make it up there. It was about 3.5 Km up hill. Having such a ride in a night time added a loooot to the excitement of it :D We arrived, went to our rooms to place our bags and had ourselves a nice veg dinner. Almost directly we went to bed aiming for an interesting day ahead.
We woke up in the morning on the sound of some Indian children, mainly girls. We discovered later on that there was a summer camp!! Anyway, we walk up to an amazing surrounding of the home stay. It was all mountains covered with green forests.
Being in such a place the main thing you can do is tracking!! So we asked the hotel for where to go and they gave us this booklet with all the routs we can take to see the surroundings. The main point was to go to this junction which from there you start taking the path you want. All was mentioned on the map in the booklet. There were 3 types of paths. (1) Short, which take around 30 - 45 mins round trip (2) Medium, which takes 4 - 5 hours (3) Long, which basically takes all day long. We decided to take a Medium one, come back for lunch, then go for a short one.
Here's where the action starts :D We chose a path that leads to the top of one of the waterfalls there. We were trying to follow the instructions stated in the booklet as much as we can. I think at some point of time we took the wrong turn ;) That wasn't the twist though. We just decided to go on. Then we reached this forest a somewhat moist ground. There the girls started noticing that there are some "worms" climbing on their shoes. They were a little bit freaked out. Then one of those "worms" managed to sneak up Slavka's leg and she started to feel that something is itching. It turned to be that those "worms" bite and actually suck your blood. This the point where they got really freaked out and all started searching our shoes and socks for those creatures. I found like 5 or 6 of them. They decided not to go on with this path and just head back to the home stay.
We went for lunch and decided to go for the short path after that. The short path was to bottom of the waterfall! So as we were walking by, one of the girls saw one of those "worms". They directly decided to head back. I personally didn't want such a creature to spoil my vacation. So me and Eduardo decided to go on. We reached to the bottom of the waterfalls. Ok, it wasn't that impressive but we actually reached somewhere :D
On our way back I noticed there were a couple of "worms" on my shoe so I removed them and went along. I felt something itching in my leg but I didn't bother. By chance I was looking up my pants and found one of those on my leg and sucking on my blood. I removed it and went on. The bleeding didn't really stop so I cleaned the wound and put a bandage on it.
When we went back to the home stay I asked the owner what are those creatures. He said they were called Leeches. When they bite they pose no threat in terms of transmitting any diseases or anything but they have an anti-clotting enzyme which leads to continuous bleeding which stops after a while.
Freaky, huh?! :D It was a great experience tracking though. I'll defiantly go back to that place one day but with proper tracking gear!!
I guess this post is too long already so let me make the rest as short as possible!!
When we went to Mysore we saw:
- St. Philomena's Church: we actually witnessed a wedding there
- Mysore Palace: a greeeeat palace with a lot of amazing things inside yet it wasn't allowed to take pictures :(
We arrived Saturday night at around 9 pm. Next day we took a Bangalore city tour and we saw:
- Vidhana Soudha: a great building that houses the State Legislature and of course wasn't allowed to go in.
- ISKON Temple: it's a Hindus temple for the devotees of the Hindus god Krishna. We attended some sort of mass they were doing in the temple. It's newly designed so there's no real historical significance for the temple. One thing I found rather strange. They were collecting donations for feeding and educating homeless children. I personally will donate to something like that no matter where I am. To my surprise there was a minimum to the donation! It was about $30 which is more than 1000 Rs. How can anyone put a minimum for donations?! Of course I didn't have that kind of money on me and even if I did I wasn't prepared to pay that much.
- Bull Temple
- Lal Bagh Park: a very nice garden to walk in, very spacious and couples and families can enjoy their time very peacefully.
- The Only Place: I'm sure you know about that by now :D
That was my last weekend ladies and gentlemen. I know I said too much. I'm very thankful if you reached this far in the post :D
Me3o over and out!!
1st of May was off for everyone. As it was a Thursday, I took Friday off as well and had one long weekend!! But it was for a very good reason.
Me, Eduardo, and two girls from Mumbai (Slavka & Marika) all planned a trip to 3 places. Coorg, Mysore and Bangalore sight seeing. The plan was to travel to Coorg on Thursday and stay there for 2 nights. Then on Saturday we would go to Mysore for sight seeing and go back to Bangalore on the same day. Sunday was dedicated for Bangalore sight seeing.
There was this whole story of trying to find a way to go on this tour. There were two options. Either we go by transportation or rent a car for 3 days. Of course we went with a rented car. We ended up renting a Tata Indica with a driver. If I told you to guess the drivers name, what would you say? Most probably you are right. The driver's name was Ahmed ;)
We started our journey at around 9 am heading to Coorg through Mysore. I must mention that the roads between the cities were quite nice!! It was a smooth road and with an amazing amount of greenery on the both sides of it. We stopped for lunch in Mysore.
Then we agreed on visiting some Tibetan settlement on the way to Coorg. This settlement contains the biggest population of Tibetans outside the Tibet. The main attraction there is the Golden Temple. It is located in a monastery where young Tibetans go for education mainly. From inside it has 3 golden statues of Buddha idols. It's an amazing temple from inside and the amount of detail and color is overwhelming.
After finishing with that we decided we should head to our hotel in Coorg. It's actually called a "Home Stay" not hotel. It's name was Honey Valley. It's a personal recommendation for anyone who visits Coorg. Great people, great food, good rooms, and amaaaazing scenery. Maybe the only hotel that you can find in the latest edition of Lonely Planet talking about Coorg.
Anywho, the driver took the directions from the hotel guy and we were off. That's where our road got a little longer than it should be!! The driver was stopping every 5 to 10 mins asking for directions. He was going on the right way, yet I guess he was making sure. They said it's only 75 Kms to the hotel. It felt like 200 Kms to me. At some point of time in the road the driver asked for the directions from a stoned guy who was smoking some s**t. That's when I started to feel a little bit worried!
We stopped at a small village called Kakabe to call the hotel again to "make sure" of the road, duuuuuhh!! We didn't have any mobile network coverage so we had to use a payed phone. I'm mentioning this for one simple reason. I had some hard time calling the hotel. There were a lot of people from the village standing there and one of them approached me and asked me where I'm from. When I told him I was from Egypt the guy had a big smile on his face!! It turns out that he traveled to some gulf countries for work before and he actually speaks Arabic, yet with a more Gulf ascent. So he helped me out with calling the home stay and everything was settled.
So we finally reached at the meeting point at around 9:30 pm where the home stay people agreed on. They were waiting for us in a Jeep. That was because the home stay is actually up hill and the way to it is very rocky. Only a Jeep can make it up there. It was about 3.5 Km up hill. Having such a ride in a night time added a loooot to the excitement of it :D We arrived, went to our rooms to place our bags and had ourselves a nice veg dinner. Almost directly we went to bed aiming for an interesting day ahead.
We woke up in the morning on the sound of some Indian children, mainly girls. We discovered later on that there was a summer camp!! Anyway, we walk up to an amazing surrounding of the home stay. It was all mountains covered with green forests.
Being in such a place the main thing you can do is tracking!! So we asked the hotel for where to go and they gave us this booklet with all the routs we can take to see the surroundings. The main point was to go to this junction which from there you start taking the path you want. All was mentioned on the map in the booklet. There were 3 types of paths. (1) Short, which take around 30 - 45 mins round trip (2) Medium, which takes 4 - 5 hours (3) Long, which basically takes all day long. We decided to take a Medium one, come back for lunch, then go for a short one.
Here's where the action starts :D We chose a path that leads to the top of one of the waterfalls there. We were trying to follow the instructions stated in the booklet as much as we can. I think at some point of time we took the wrong turn ;) That wasn't the twist though. We just decided to go on. Then we reached this forest a somewhat moist ground. There the girls started noticing that there are some "worms" climbing on their shoes. They were a little bit freaked out. Then one of those "worms" managed to sneak up Slavka's leg and she started to feel that something is itching. It turned to be that those "worms" bite and actually suck your blood. This the point where they got really freaked out and all started searching our shoes and socks for those creatures. I found like 5 or 6 of them. They decided not to go on with this path and just head back to the home stay.
We went for lunch and decided to go for the short path after that. The short path was to bottom of the waterfall! So as we were walking by, one of the girls saw one of those "worms". They directly decided to head back. I personally didn't want such a creature to spoil my vacation. So me and Eduardo decided to go on. We reached to the bottom of the waterfalls. Ok, it wasn't that impressive but we actually reached somewhere :D
On our way back I noticed there were a couple of "worms" on my shoe so I removed them and went along. I felt something itching in my leg but I didn't bother. By chance I was looking up my pants and found one of those on my leg and sucking on my blood. I removed it and went on. The bleeding didn't really stop so I cleaned the wound and put a bandage on it.
When we went back to the home stay I asked the owner what are those creatures. He said they were called Leeches. When they bite they pose no threat in terms of transmitting any diseases or anything but they have an anti-clotting enzyme which leads to continuous bleeding which stops after a while.
Freaky, huh?! :D It was a great experience tracking though. I'll defiantly go back to that place one day but with proper tracking gear!!
I guess this post is too long already so let me make the rest as short as possible!!
When we went to Mysore we saw:
- St. Philomena's Church: we actually witnessed a wedding there
- Mysore Palace: a greeeeat palace with a lot of amazing things inside yet it wasn't allowed to take pictures :(
We arrived Saturday night at around 9 pm. Next day we took a Bangalore city tour and we saw:
- Vidhana Soudha: a great building that houses the State Legislature and of course wasn't allowed to go in.
- ISKON Temple: it's a Hindus temple for the devotees of the Hindus god Krishna. We attended some sort of mass they were doing in the temple. It's newly designed so there's no real historical significance for the temple. One thing I found rather strange. They were collecting donations for feeding and educating homeless children. I personally will donate to something like that no matter where I am. To my surprise there was a minimum to the donation! It was about $30 which is more than 1000 Rs. How can anyone put a minimum for donations?! Of course I didn't have that kind of money on me and even if I did I wasn't prepared to pay that much.
- Bull Temple
- Lal Bagh Park: a very nice garden to walk in, very spacious and couples and families can enjoy their time very peacefully.
- The Only Place: I'm sure you know about that by now :D
That was my last weekend ladies and gentlemen. I know I said too much. I'm very thankful if you reached this far in the post :D
Me3o over and out!!
Horn O.K. Please!!
If you ever wonder what are the things that exist only in India and nowhere else, I'll give you one of them!! At least I think it exists only in India.
"Horn O.K. Please" The first time I saw this sign when I was in Mumbai I really didn't get it. When I looked around more I found it on on the back of every auto rickshaw and truck in Mumbai. This simply means that it's very ok to honk the horn and they actually put a please in it. It's like they are asking you "politely" to honk your horn. I thought Mumbai was noisy. Not until I came to Bangalore.
There are two main differences in this case. Bangalore's traffic jam is worse than Mumbai and the sign is different. In Bangalore the sign is "Sound O.K Horn" which I have no idea how did they come out with that.
I thought for a while that Cairo is a noisy city because of all the horns. But here they placed a new standard for sound pollution. The bus drivers are crazy. They can honk the horn for like 10-30 seconds non stop just to pass somewhere. The rickshaw drivers have this amazingly annoying horn.
In my opinion, even if you drive in Egypt, you still need some guts to drive here. Regardless of the fact that the steering wheel is on the right and all the U turns are on the right as well, you need to have a lot of either guts or stupidity to drive here.
Honking the horn is infectious I would assume. So if I start driving here, when I go back home I'll be cursed all day long in Cairo streets!!
But what the hek!! This is what makes Bangalore the city it is. I'm not gonna hate the whole city just for that :D There's a lot to see and enjoy. There's a lot to India to see an enjoy. I'll be seeing as much as I can of it all.
Mee3o over and out!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
