Bachelor’s Trip in the Wild Vegas

Posing at Death Valley NP

I am back again with some late posts and with the same reason. I always finish off the previous trips before making a new trip, this is the same. I am planning something big and hence thought of writing this one before. My Bachelor’s trip or I would say my last bachelor trip was organized, where it should have been. It was none other than Wild Wild Vegas. The trip was not planned to be a bachelor’s trip; it was started as a reunion plan and then eventually turned into Bachelor’s trip. We started planning as 4 people and soon, one guy dropped. It was due to that one person, that it was planned in Vegas and he backed out. There are some people who just don’t know how to understand what’s important. Our initial plan was to have the reunion in Minnesota, the same place where we all met. Then it was shifted to Vegas. There were 3 people in the plan-Khan Sab, Bhati bhai and me. Then after few days, we got one more-Dani bhai. Until, last moment-we were 4 guys. We booked flights-Spirit (TIP: I booked it on airport, which saved me around 30$, instead of doing it online) and hotel (TIP; Bhati bhai had some account in Harrah’s, hence it saved us some money) and then car-it became bit costly, but we got hatchback-Awesome.

New Year Celebration

I got married in Feb 2018 and we had New Year’s long weekend, so it it was perfect time to plan the trip. At the last moment, we got to know that Khan Sab has backed out but another friend came into picture few days before trip, so only 3 people were remaining now. We started, after finishing our jobs on Friday the 29^th and reached the same day. Picked up our car and then headed straight to Hotel. We were bit tired on that day, so just arranged some supplies and said Good Night. Everyone knew that it was a bachelor trip for me, but we got to know that it was for Bhati bhai as well. His marriage was also fixed.

Hotels

We planned to go for a road trip on the first day of our trip. We visited Death Valley National Park.it was a nice place with scenic lookouts and beautiful drives. It’s the hottest, driest and lowest national park. It was given its forbidding name as a group was lost here, which was also rescued later, but any way they gave this name. We stopped by at many places to get the feel of the place such as Dantes View, Twenty mule Canyon, Zabriskie Point, Furnace Creek, Badwater Basin and Permanent Springs. Our car was going at 80 and I thought of opening the top which was really a bad idea as it was about to blow out. (Tip: Never do that in a moving car). The best location was badwater basin-it’s the lowest point in North America. Its 282 feet below sea level and often gets salts from surrounding basin making it undrinkable and hence the name. It was lot for the day. So we just slept after returning the car.

We didn’t plan to do much on the next day as we wanted to see the fireworks and celebrate New Year in evening. So we were just hanging around the hotels, casinos and on the streets. I am not good at gambling, so I stayed away from it. I like the hotels, their decoration, so we were going to each hotel to see and admire the New Year festivity. Night time, we saw fireworks, which were ok. They should be planned in a better way. We were standing in front of Ceaser’s Palace which had the best fireworks. The 1^st of 2018 was the last day of our Sin City so we wanted to keep it soft. We exchanged pictures and Bhati bhai departed for Flight as he had the earliest one. I and Dani wanted to check out the Freemont. The street was just waking up when we visited there-around 3-4 PM. We saw some Magicians and different type of people showing their creative abilities in order to earn some money. That was all for Vegas, then we returned airport and came back home. I reached bit late and luckily found a taxi waiting at the station.

Trip to Bhutan: Chennai to Patna

Me aur Meri Zulfe

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
― Dr. Seuss

In my previous blog-Kuzuzangbo La, I mentioned that Ill be visiting Paro, Bhutan for World Conferene of Gera, which is completed now. Ill describe the exquisite journey from Chennai to Paro in this blog. My journey was completed in 2 parts, first from Chennai to Patna and the from Patna to Paro, both were terrific.

A word of advise: If you beloong to sophisticated middle class family and you are travelling in a train which passes through U.P., Bihar, W.B. states of India, please travel in 3^rd AC Class least, else you may face some problems.

I started on a sunny morning (24^th June) from Chennai to Patna in a special train known as Patna Express, it was a typical bihari train. People travelling with lots of luggage, no idea about all the rules of IRCTC, with waiting tickets and with Children. Initially I had a RAC ticket and the person whom I was sharing my berth had no idea about RAC (fact that he has to share his berth) and on top of it, he was accompanied with a waiting ticket person. On the other hand of compartment, there was a family from WB with 2 kids.

Meri Zulfe Maanti Nahi

This is how it was, within some time, TTE (ticket checker) was able to confirm my seat and gave me a complete lower berth. As soon as I got it, I exchanged it with my favourite berth: Upper one. Finally I though, its time to take some rest, but I was gifted with 2 naughty kids from W.B., they were shouting all the time and their voice was like killing my ears all the time. I dropped the idea of sleep and started playing with them, they were awesome. They were brother and a sister, brother was elder and known Hindi, so it was easy conversation, on the other hand sis didn't know Hindi and was a shy personality.

After midnight, I was able to get some sleep. In morning, I had conversation with their parents and soon it went to the US President: Obama. Their parent had an indirect connection to him, funny but true and who cares. All of us were so involved in conversation that I started learning their language and they forced me to have Jhal-Muri (famous snack of Orrisa) with them. Overall it was a nice experience. Our train was running late and I was fearing that I may miss my connecting train from Patna, but it was also running late. Night I reached Bihar ki Rajdhani Patna. There were 2-3 trains running late which passes from Patna and due to that reason, station was so crowded so much crowded that there was no space to sit, 2 persons were even sitting on water tap.

Next half part i.e. from Patna to Paro in next phase.

Riding and Dancing in Lanka

Topi riding Rickshaw

From Airport we hired a tuk tuk (in lanka, rickshaws are known by this name) for Negombo. We thought that will go for scuba diving but it was very costly-75$/person, so we changed our plans and headed for lunch, when we were moving towards restaurant, our driver stopped for paan (a stimulating 

Default Dish-Meduvada

and psychoactive preparation of betel leaf combined with areca nut and/or cured tobacco), and we were waiting inside tuk tuk, suddenly my friend asked permission for driving his rickshaw, he was so cool, that he said ok-go ahead. Funny thing Topi was not even able to start it in the beginning, but once driver started, he was driving it like its own car. 

EGB-Ginger Soda

Obviously I was little bit scared, after some time we stopped at restaurant and were provided with a default item in their menu (medu vada). Its default dish weather you order or not. While we were eating, I saw a mother giving some yellow colored liquid to her 2yr old kid from a bottle which looked like daru bottle (hard drink), but I thought it can’t be possible, so to know what it contains us also ordered a bottle of Egb. When I looked at its sticker, it read as real ginger. Then we knew that it was ginger soda. Since that mother was giving it to her child, so it was clear that it is a local health drink. Note that lanka is famous for natural herbs and hence the drink was.

Dance like nobody's Watching

After Egb, we moved onto our new adventure-Dance.

Yes dance was also an adventure, the way we did it. We were walking on road and I saw a joker dancing in front of a Bata showroom with blasting sound, I was so excited to see him that I joined him (It’s a natural talent whenever I see a person dancing, I also starts, it has happened before also when I was out with my school friends.) It became a road show. All the people were looking at us. But I didnt care about all such things,  I was there to enjoy not to think about what others think and we should be like that only, we should feel free to express ourselves, because if we keep thinking to please others, we won’t be able to live.

Pic with Bald Uncle

When we were back on track, one bald uncle was looking at us and smiling, he asked about us, where do we belong to, what we were doing there and then he showed us his vintage car, we took some pics of his car and then the conversation turned about our adventure that we are looking for scuba diving. So this bald guy called two of his friends and invited us in his car. He took us to his other friends who go for fishing and scuba. These people were not professionals for scuba but they were experienced locals, they asked about our experience of diving, we informed that we have no idea about it, so they said it is not possible without proper training. So bald uncle dropped us at the same point plus he hired a rickshaw also for us to place, where we can get training for scuba. Meanwhile we asked about his profession and knew that he works in Pharma Company but at that instant he was out there for some social work which was really good and image of uncle was again raised in our eyes. I would like to stress on the fact that Sri Lankans are ready to help anyone and everyone, without having any personal agenda behind that.

Entry in Sri Lanka

Day 1

Chennai International Airport

I was planning a trip to Andaman and Nicobar with a good friend Topi and while we were discussing the plan, he informed me that Shri Lanka round trip is cheaper than Andamans, this small chat resulted in a adventurous trip to the Pearl of the Indian Ocean-Shri Lanka. It is known so because of its natural beauty. Sri Lanka has also been called "the teardrop of India" because of its shape and location, and "the nation of smiling people". I invite you to have a virtual tour with me to the Pearl.

Guess who?

We were flying like a shooting star. As soon as we stepped down in Bandaranaike International Airport, we used free wifi on cell phone and net enabled computers at the entry. Yes they were providing free internet 24 7 for tourists. Now we were moving in and authorities were not allowing us to go inside as we have not mentioned local address in immigration form also on the other hand they are themselves telling us to put anything hotel like “Colombo hotel”. I have to say, they are helping people, normally Indians have myth that Sri Lanka is a dangerous place, but I cannot agree on this anymore. The best part, they gave us free local sim.

Topi

Finally we entered in and my dear friend Topi had to shit, so he went inside washroom, as soon as we entered in, it was smelling so good as if it was not a washroom but a aroma factory. You may not believe, but it was the first washroom which actually smelled awesome. Now we were moving out and many people approaching towards us with different travel plans, all looks very costly as they were offering us cars and being 2 people crew it was costly affair. 

Ram Setu

So we dropped all those and came out. when we were about to leave port, one more man approached us with a plan, but we asked him for money exchange, so he approached a business person (people who exchange labours between countries) who gave us exchange rate of 1.97. Meaning if we give him 1INR, he returns 1.97 Sri Lankan Rupee. Since we didn’t had any LNR with us so we agreed at this rate for a small amount 1000 INR, I knew that we can get rate up to 2 also and later we got to know that 2.10 is also available. We came out of Port and then it was time for many rickshawala to approach us but unlike India they do not start fighting themselves, if one person is approaching another would not.

I hope you liked our entry, stay tuned for complete trip.

From Chennai to Nepal

INDIA-NEPAL Border

Really we have to call it “The Journey”. Journey for all of us was different; one had to join us just after Rajasthan trip, one had to come from Pune, another from Indore and I from Chennai. Let us talk about my trip, aaaa leave the actual trip, because if I tell you the actual one, you will get confused or mad on me. What I can tell you is I started my journey from Chennai after completing my night shift. I pre-poned my shift from 10-7 to 7-4 so that I can catch the only train (Rajdhani) that starts from Chennai at 6 am. Let me tell you some facts about my train, it connect major cities of India to Rajdhani (Delhi). It is a superfast train having few halts between origin and destination. Obviously it is a costly train having minimum coach as 3^rd ac, best thing about it is it provides you enough food that you don’t have to bother about taking any food items with you, train staff provides some food stuff once in every two hours and even you can request for additional things like salad, if you wish. So don’t carry even a single food item, but eat well in Rajdhani. My ticket was in waiting list a day before, although waiting no. was 2 which had a high probability of getting clear, still I didn’t wanted to take any chances and booked a Tatkal ticket. Therefore I started from Chennai via Rajdhaani –one of the best trains of India, changed my train to meet the rest of the crew. Anna already came to Bhopal station a day before; we had to board the Kushinagar Express. Maag and Pahadi started the same morning from Indore. As soon as I board the train to Gorakhpur, Pahadi shouted Kuntalllll, she seemed to be very happy after founding me. I was also glad to join them. The moment, we joined became awesome, amazing, actually beyond words.  

Route Plan

Now let me introduce you to Kushinagar Express as well, it is a typical train of eastern India, in which sleeper is similar to general and 3^rd ac can be compared with sleeper. I am not criticizing the train, or the crowd, just a suggestion for travelers that they should book at least 3^rd ac ticket if they are thinking to travel in those side trains, especially when you don’t have habit of travelling in such trains. This train led us to Gorakhpur-a major station on the eastern side of India. Major because this is the last station on this side, up to which train is available, after this you have to board a bus or hire a shared cab to reach Indian border last village sanauli. From Sanauli you can either have a cycle rickshaw or walk for 5 minutes to cross the Zero Land- an area between two borders, also known as no man’s land. I advise walking provided you can carry your luggage for about a km. Here Indian border ends and Nepal starts. Tune in to next blog for Nepal, remember Journey is not complete yet.    

Tatkaal and Beyond

 I was trying for tatkaal from multiple accounts, even from one of my colleagues’ account. She said that she’s lucky, so I told OK, and then we should try from your account also. Believe me she proved to be lucky for me. From her account only I saw that there were 14 tickets available, so I clicked on confirm, made payment and finally when the ticket came, it was in waiting list 27. I am not sure how this site works, but I was shocked how this is possible.

With God’s grace, my ticket got confirmed and I started travelling, but I didn’t told anyone, I thought Its ok to reach one day before, What’s so big deal in that, also I had some other plans goin on Shhh.

I tried to leave office early; still I got late as usual. I came home, had a bath, because I didn’t had bath from last 2 days….Dont think that I am Aalsi. Paani nahi thaa room par. After shower, had my dinner and ran for train. I boarded train just 5min before, it left station. I arranged my luggage safely, sat for some time and headed for sleep. It’s necessary for me to have proper sleep after my shift due to the nature of my job. Believe me staring at screen for 9 hours is not a joke, may be a routine. In morning, I tried to sleep for more and more time, since in train I don’t have lots of work to do.

In morning time, mid* people came and started asking for money. The person who was there next to my berth said “Only ENGLISH, Only English”. I didn’t understood, how can a person living in India knows only English, neither Hindi nor any other language, I thought leave it, why should I care. I again slept. After some time, I woke lowered my berth (as I was sleeping in middle berth).

That “only English” person offered me biscuits, I said “no Thanks”. Let me tell you about few interesting characters of my coach now, one person were “Only English-security guard”, a Tamil guy-army driver, a Christian guy-music businessman and of course me-a computer Engineer.  

I will unveil the mystery of “Only English” guy and rest story in next post.

*I hope you understood, whom I am calling mid people.

Bangalore...Xplored

Welcome on board,

You must be thinking that there is no update from long time, in the blog. It is because of lack of time. And there is one more thing cooking in my mind, which is responsible for this delay, will tell you about it later. May be many of you might have got the idea, what’s going on. I had two explorations in last month; one was Bangalore and other Indore. Well a Q may pop in your mind, that Bangalore is new for me, so its ok to xpolre, but wats new for me in Indore??? Actually, it was not the Indore, that I xplored, it’s the nature of my loved ones. I will tell you how…

First let us talk about Bangalore, what I call as North in south. I was planning to visit Blr from long time, and the plan became successful this time. I thought to visit there in general only, but I tried for current reservation, hi hi hi no luck… I boarded train and tried to sit in a seat, but I got a very bad blow from a T guy. He pushed me very hard, I was just trying to sit and there was space, still that person did like that. In next moment, I got my favorite seat, the upper berth, in some time, one more person came and asked me, is there space available, without looking at his color I said "come yaar" (normally this does not happen with me, I am living in a place, where I face color discrimination daily), , then one more man came. After two hours, one of them got down. Now there were only two on our berth. I told him, that we can easily sleep in cross manner, but I think, he was travelling in general the first time. He did not sleep and also did not allow me to sleep. Finally, as I had clear directions and correct address, I directly reached my cousins home. There I slept for some time; they were also IT personnel, so they also went for sleep.

Then my cousin made dishes for me, the best dishes starting with poha in breakfast and puri, aloo ki sabzi and khir in lunch. Post lunch my jiyag and D were planning for some outing, but my friends called and invited me, so I gave them a flyin visit. There I called one more indori friend, he was workin that day, but as soon as his shift ended, he came to meet me. This is what I called Friendship. We do not need to think, no need to care for any other work, just a single call, not even a call, just a message is enough and he came running to meet me as soon as he can. He is one of my best buddy from school.   

Now coming back to experiencing north in south in Bangalore. In Bangalore, most of the people either know hindi or at least know English. That is why I called it as North in South. Although we cannot judge a city just in two days, still I can say one thing, it’s an awesome place, weather, people, connectivity, all fine. Just one problem is the high cost of living, except that, it’s a nice place to work/live.

Next day again my cousin made dishes for me Pav bhaji and Fruit salad both my favorite. Jiyag bought lots of ice-cream and fruits. In evening we visited a lake. Overall, I felt, like I am in home. There was no sign of the fact that I am in south far away from my home. One more important point I wanna add is, I was being treated as a guest there, by the people who were not even there via phone. The Indian tradition of great mehmaan nawazi was easily seen there. It was being well treated by parents in law of my cousin. They were instructing my cousin and jiyag to take good care of me. They even told Jiyag to bring sweets for me. Hats off to our culture and jiyagi’s parents.

The next day, I left Bangalore and came back to Chennai…back to work…

This is the way I xplored Bangalore, now for Indore, read next blog.

Xploring Alcohol in Pondicherry

This journey started from my office. My TL asked me, would I will join them in Pondicherry party. I said yes anddd this became the first colleague party.. Next day, our journey started from our office in a bolero. We were 9, so it was slightly congested, but ok. After some 6-7 kms, a question popped up-“weather we would like to start drinking right now or after reaching Pondi”. I said, “I will not have”, he asked “why”, I said “I don’t drink”, he said “too bad”. I thought “is it too bad”.  Then we stopped at a wine shop and took some beer for a good start. After that we stopped at one more place to smoke. NOTE: I didn’t smoke nor I drink, still I was enjoying. We reached Pondy and on priority basis-booked cottage for stay. Then we visited Beach side and got some booze on the way. Actually Pondy is famous for 2 Bs- Beach and Booze. Beach side was cooool, it had many couples, foreigners, employees like us roaming here and there. We covered whole beach side and then moved to our cottages buying cold drinks en route. As soon as we reached there, we ordered dinner and started drinking session, since I don’t drink hard, I just had Cold drinks.

After some time, I got a call; I went out for some time. And when I came back, I had a sip of coke; suddenly I found out that, its taste was bad. I got the idea, it was mixed. Since I had little, nothing happened. The session continued for some time with dinner. We were very late, due to which, hotel guyz were able to arrange only my order (veg) and chicken biryani, but chicken was not available. Due to this, one guy was not able to satisfy his hunger. I am sure; he was saying bad words in his mind. One more colleague was doing the same, because one of the cottage guy was standing beside him and talking to out TL, for a very long time. My colleague got irritated. Our TL was getting friendly with them so that, they don’t cause any problem to us after getting drunk. They were also high. One more group was there in neighboring cottage; they were not only having hard drinks but other drugs too. They were real high. After finishing all the drinks, our TL started playing songs and dancing, we all joined him. After all this fun, we went in for sleep. I was not able to sleep for 1 hour, donno why, and then I too slept.

In morning, our TL woke all of us and then we headed towards beach. The Sun was rising and we were going down. High waves were hitting our body as if they were massaging our body. Environment was filled with morning sunshine, cool breeze, on one side sand and on the other never ending water. Bay of Bengal was welcoming us. We played in water for some time and then came out. After enjoying there we moved towards another beautiful beach Paradise Beach. This beach has another instance; we had to wait for long time in a queue to get a ticket for boat. This boat took us to Paradise Beach. There I had Breezer, which has very little amount of alcohol, I felt as if I was having cold drink, it’s the only reason, I took it in. We stayed on that beach for some time and then moved back to our car.

When we were coming back, a girl sat beside me, she was from east side. She was smart good looking and had a life jacket in her hand. She was staring at that for few minutes, I felt it odd, I mean, why she was staring at that, it is meant to wear and if you don’t want, just put it down. After watching her for a while, I told her, “Wear it”. Then she wear it, I helped her in that, as she was not able. Then we were sitting silently for some time, I was feeling bore, then I talked to my colleagues for some time. They were sitting quite far from me, so I was not able to hear their voice; therefore, we stopped talking.  We still had some time to our destination. SO I started talking to that girl. We also talked for a while and then stopped. HI HI HI.

Return Journey

Had another twist, my friends had their consignments of booze, we took them and now Bolero was full of drinks. As you know, “shit happens” and it always happens with, so it happened this time too. En the route to Chennai, police stopped us and searched our car, and took nearly half the bottles we had.  Since Legally, It’s not allowed to carry drinks across city. But he left us and didn’t charge us anything. We were saved. God helped us. He is always there to help me, as he knows that I will go into a new trouble daily. This was my 3rd encounter in last 6 months. 

Well, this trip helped me to xplore many types of drugs…

Breezer, Bear, Whisky, Shampane, Vodka, Grass, Fireshot, Weed, Ganjaa, Marijuana and many more are there. At least you should have the knowledge of all these, weather u take these or not.