Why do Indians talk a lot?

 Note: This post of mine was published in a Japanese Magazine in India . I was asked to write an article that might help the Japanese understand Indians better.

In my previous post I had talked about Indians keeping up the appointments and the IST. This article I would like to share my analyzing comparison about the talking skills or rather the speech capacity of the few Japanese people and the Indians I have met in this many days.

And also be informed that Indians can talk the longest (Most probably). While I was writing this a thought came to my mind to Google if the Guinness record for the world’s longest talking hours was by any chance held by  an Indian luckily no. It was Cornish chap who publicly spoke for about 124 hours.

Indians, I think by birth we have the capacity of talking a lot. Ask our name would tell you everything including our horoscope.  That is because we trust others a lot. We believe in making bonds with our partner. Talk to them for 1 piece of information and they can shower you with 1000 potions of information.  But there are people who can offer you a fortune for free and dustbin for a crore.

While I am trying to solve or explain a few very clichéd complaints/ rants of my Japanese colleagues and friends whom I have met or talked to

Problem: I ask Indians about number 1. And they talk about number ten.

Explanation: We are trying to explain you that Number 10 is the grandmother of number 1. We are giving you the root cause of the matter. In short we Indians are affected ny the know-all syndrome

Problem:  They explain a lot that they end up giving a lot of information on what was not required

Explanation: You might think that is completely unrelated. But think it down, each and every piece of information the person giving to you is somewhere barely related

Problem: Even If I am ready to hear out all ranting, I do not understand your English

Solution:  Pull the  a’s and stress the d’s and drive the r’s. This is Indian English. Now try doing that simple isn’t it. There are a few wannabe’s who have accented their language probably because of their short stint in the US.

Problem: Even though I understand Indian English, Indians are very fast while they speak.

Solution: Stop them each time while they are in a hurry to catch a flight in their mouth and remind them that they still have 4 long hours for it

From an Indian stand point I can tell you that it is a very common trait of Indians to talk and lot and a common trait of Japanese to hear all that and talk very less.

To justify being talkative we are trying to express you each and every feeling of ours about the topic that has been brought not even leaving a drop.

And since my publishers have given me only one page to write about all these questions. I am put in a place where I am not allowed to write anything more than this.

Indian Standard Time

 Note: This post of mine was published in a Japanese Magazine in India . I was asked to write an article that might help the Japanese understand Indians better.

Japanese: I am coming down in 5 minutes please keep the car ready

Driver: Sir, ok. I will be ready

[Reaches Down]

Japanese: are you not ready yet?

Driver: 2 minutes sir

Driver (thinks to himself): I do not understand why this man says he will come in 5 minutes and comes down by 4 minutes 30 seconds

Japanese (thinks to himself): I do not well understand the context of 2 minutes what he usually gives me

Truly speaking many we Indians, ourselves do not know the context of 2 minutes that our fellow Indians give us. And I do not possibly think that our foreigner friends here in India would possibly understand the same. But I am sure I can give you an equivalent of what 2 minutes means to us. It could possibly mean that we are getting on it/ it means we are trying to do/ come ASAP. The 2 minute rule not only applies to foreigners but to Indians too.

Getting to talk about the 2 minutes context, it would be a shame if I forget to mention that Indians or at least most of the Indians never fail to follow the Indian Standard Time (IST) – pun intended.

A famous quote by an anonymous Indian goes like this “Indians are never late, they just run by Indian time” and so it is true.

And therefore we could classify Indians into

1. Type Un Indian

2. Type unsure

3. Type very Indian

[Classifications are purely fictional and based upon my imagination.]

Let me describe you each type which could be an eye opener  to all my Japanese colleagues out there

1. Type Un Indian

This is a very rare species that can be found in India and we cannot pick these people from a particular group. This class of people I would say are growing rather slowly but in a steady pace.　They can range from the working class to the white collar group. You say that you will meet them at 9:00am and these chaps will definitely turn up at the latest by 9:01Am. And they are quite Japanese in a way being sincere or polite enough to call you and send a word of apology in case they are going to be late.

Consider yourself lucky if your driver or working partner is one of that people.

2. Type Unsure but happily sure

I would say this set of people could be highly dangerous ones to predict [feelings mutual from my side]. You can’t predict where do these people emerge from, but I would call as a common Indian trait. You fix up the appointment with him at 9:00Am one day and he shows up at your door anywhere between 9:15 to 10:30Am. You thought this time you learnt a lesson, no be careful and don’t let your appointment for the next time to be at 8:30Am hoping that he would show up at 9:00/9:15AM only to see him on your door steps at 8:15AM.

3.  Type Very Indian

This class of people are the ones whom you can find next door and easily point a random person he can be one among them. This culture of being very Indian and following Indian time has been imbibed in most of us. He might be the one who says he would call you back in 5 minutes and would never call you back for eternity until your names flashes on his mobile screen or you show up at his door. Make sure while you are trying to make an appointment with him give him a lead time of 30 ~45 minutes or says 5 minutes or I am on the way and shows up only after a good 45 minutes.

And this types can even go up to the extent of calling you as being affected with  Obsessive-compulsive disorder if you are being too hard on them be it right on your face or behind your back.

Tips to survive IST: Nothing, You will experience IST  at least a minimum of  two times before getting used to it and start complaining about it instead of screaming to the person who is late. You will get used to it once you start saying “Coming in Two minutes ….”

~Kei

The day that is...

*This post is part of The Chennai Bloggers Club's Manic Monday series initiated to keep the spirit of blogging alive and challenging.*

This day what is expected to be manic is not so manic to me.

When the CBC's group thalaivi(leader) gave this theme I thought there would be lot to blog about on this day.
Usually it is, but today nothing so.

Every start of the week there is something called the weekly powwow in my workplace where the Japanese staff and Indian staff have to report their last weeks activity along with their plans for this week.

Luckily today the big boss is out of country and we don't have to do it.

This is what exactly my office meeting room looks like on monday

And I was discussing exactly this to one of my friends few days back and he said that he is growing unwell these because of all the meetings and brainstorming happening at his office which he termed as "Mad & Manic Monday".

He even said that he had thought of calling his office to create a bomb hoax to avoid the meeting fuss.

I asked him what unwell meant or why was he so worked up about the whole monday meeting this, he said he had turned into an "insomaniac" just by preparing for all the meetings.
I started wondering What Insomaniac meant or if it was a typo for Insomniac.

I understand now that my friend has become a maniac because of all his manic Mondays.
Or is it just his way of seeing things?!

I absolutely love the rush monday gives me. I enjoy listening to my colleagues talk in EngRish calling convoy to be car line[ looking for the word eh?] and pronouncing current as kyurrent. 
Evary(every) monday in each Physical(fiscal) year is so exciting to me and while I am writing this I start thinking monday to me is afterall not so manic.

~ Kei

Day 8: The Grand palace that blew my mind off

Date: 31st Dec 2012

Day: 8

4 more days for my going back to hot and humid Chennai. This was the first thought that came to my mind when I woke up that morning. :'(

I enjoyed every moment in Thailand and truly I didn't want to go back.
The next thought, Shit!?! It's already 9:30 and the hotel will not serve breakfast after 10:00.
I ran downstairs to grab some breakfast and disappointment again. Second consecutive day of toast and jam.
Just because the breakfast was toast and jam again I could not give up my breakfast.

I would write a small review about this hotel Boon Siri place

I stayed 2 nights in this hotel. Not a hotel with taste but definitely good for its location, price and cleanliness. The hotel has some green policies like re-using the towel and setting of the A?C must be done below 24 degrees.
Within a walkable distance to the Grand palace and Khao san road. The hotel gives some recommendation for hotel and has a scam warning put up everywhere around the hotel to make sure its guests aren't duped by con men. They have about 4 computers near the reception desk. Breakfast is good but choice is limited to toast and jam for Vegetarians.

There were minor issues in the hot water and A/C, the reception desk sent the concerned person immediately to check it and have it repaired. 
Would definitely recommend for a short stay

Boonsiri Place, Thanon Bunsiri

Post my breakfast grabbing session, I planned to visit the most important must visit places of Bangkok today.

• The Grand palace
• Wat Phra Kaew
• Wat pho

The Grand palace was majestic I was easily able to locate it within a  10~15 minute walk from my hotel. I could easily figure out the way as heaps of people were walking toward or walking from The grand palace.

The one difficulty I faced was to located the entrance. I joined a queue where a lot of people had queued but the police officials came from nowhere and asked all the foreigners to go to the other entrance and all of a sudden there was a huge commotion around me and I did not know what was happening. A whole crowd started moving toward one direction and I walked with them. The entrance was at the far end at a different corner.

Crowd at the entrance of Grand Palace

I entered the gates and What I saw was glory and grandeur of the Grand Palace. I so want to upload a photo of its grounds here.

Grounds-Grand Palace

And the ticket price and the crow for the entry kind of blew everything away.
The ticket cost was THB 400 and the crowd was like more than 2000 people at a place.
Audio guides were available for hire at a price for THB 200 per 2 hours and extra charges for if  not returned within 2 hours. I did not bother to hire one.

Went in the grand palace queueing along with the maddening crowd. And Inside the palace they do provide free guide service at scheduled times and one service is at 1400 hrs.
I didn't know where to move as it was crowded everywhere  I just walked around the palace with no aim and no understanding and took some random pictures.

Complete pleasure to the watchers eye! Majestic and beautiful.
Half way through the meaningless wandering I heard someone talking Japanese, to be precise describing Grand palace in Japanese.
I was lucky it was a Guide who was talking about the grand palace to a few Japanese tourists. I was now with the group of Japanese tourists hearing what the guide had to say about The Grand Palace everything Free of Charge ;) hehe

Then I went to wat phra kaew or the emerald Buddha. It was sooooooo very crowded. Imagine Ranganathan street[T.Nagar] during the festive season same to same.
The police were there to control the crowd and tourists were requested not to take the pictures of the Buddha. But there were a few insensible tourists who broke the rules and were continuously clicking pictures.
It was actually like doing a Tirupathi darshan in General queue.

Later that I also visited the textile museum and took random pictures here and there.

Entrance to Wat Phra kaew

It was almost 1500 hrs and I was still loitering around in the Grand palace.
Reminder: I have not yet had my lunch yet! :'(

Next spot was Wat pho/ The reclining Buddha.
It was a good 10 minute walk from The Grand Palace to Wat pho.
And the ticket queue was manageable and very less crowded when compared to THB 100.

Wat pho timings

There have always been warning about Con men in this area trying to take you to tailors or gem shops and cheat you to take your money. Luckily did not get conned by touts in my whole trip.

So Lets start touring the insides of Wat Pho.

The reclining Buddha

The Buddha was mighty and again you are checked for your proper attire before you enter.
Lot of people around and there is a particular ritual here.

108 bowls are placed just behind the Buddha and you pay a donation of THB 20 and get coins to deposit in the bowls which is believed to bring good luck.

But as a person I do not believe in luck but I tried this coz it was funnnnn.

Inside Wat Pho

Some random Buddha image inside Wat pho

Walked around completely and aimlessly.
finally I found the famous wat pho school of massage and waited there for a good 1 hour just to experience the divine massage.
The prices are definitely costly I paid THB 270 for a foot massage for half an hour.

But the massage was a bliss after lot of walking for the whole day.

And yes, I have not had my lunch

But Next destination was already there on my mind: Wat Arun.
This building is just across the river you can take a ferry across the river for THB 3 to reach wat arun.

A look into the ferry with me! 

Request you to please notice the small cup in my hand with a red spoon which was my lunch substitute.

anyways moving on to the Wat arun experience.
I basically went there when it was almost closing so got the entry for free :p
Otherwise you are expected to pay a entry charge of THB50

I would say my personal favourite was wat arun I somehow love the architecture, the lighting, the minute designs thhis building has to offer.

Boohoo!!!!
Took pictures walked around and took the ferry back to the other side of the river I could see quite a few dinner cruises in the river on the way back looked flashy

Anyways reached the other side of the shore and walked my way back to the hotel.
But I actually couldn't figure out the way back coz what once was a empty land with a canal passing in between was now full shops .
I think it was some kind of night market I toured the whole stretch quite interesting one you could purchase anything from dildos to I-phone.
Went back to my room to refresh and started back to khao san road for the new year bash.
I would say this was the best new year party of my life. I so wished I had a few friends to be with.

A party scene

And my dinner was at Burger king that night. Would say the worst food I ever had after arriving in Bangkok.
I spent some more time in the Khao san after the countdown and I walked back to my room by 1.
 AM.

There was a family that was enjoying the new year on the road with Thai songs and dance they happily took me in for a drink and I was glad not to be roaming alone. after a brief conversation of trying to make a conversation with them session I walked my way to the hotel. Slept the rest of the day in 2013.

And that is me which you all

Happy New Year 2013 guys

And I am late by 76 days

Will talk talk about tomorrow by next weekend.

~Kei

And the Liebster Blog award goes to......

Firstly Let me thank Rio De La Sciocco for honouring me with the award.

Okay The the rules of this game are as follows.
[Clearly I have copy pasted it]........

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves. ( Honesty is the best Policy)
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you 
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!

11  things about me:

1. I hate when people misspell my name as Kamatchi instead of Kamakshi
2. I love beaches and mountains but scared to walk on grass
3. I cannot stand male ego
4. I am fidgeting my mobile always
5. I believe in Buddhist philosophy and am trying to level best to apply them in my life
6. I am a vegetarian but I can eat invisible form of egg as in cakes etc
7. I love snakes
8. I eat a lot of gobi manchurian. There was a time when my friend told me that I would marry someone name gobi hehe;)
9. I love swimming but I wish I was brave enough to jump into an ocean.
10. I love my mother and I can do anything to make her happy or give away anything not to lose her.
11. I read books or listen to music when I am very sad. and I think a lot about my life.

Time to answer 11 questions from Rio De La Sciocco

1. Favourite Dish

Ans: Gobi Manchurian

2. Best Friend

Ans: My mother

3. Best enemy

Ans: Kathambari [ Dude sorry if you are reading this......]

4. Best Blog

Ans. Edcel Suyo's Blog

5. Worst Blog

Ans: Mine?!

6. Best Politician

Ans: Narendra Modi

7. Worst Politician

Ans: Almost everyone except Modi

8. Best Hotel

Ans: Sheraton Miyako, Tokyo

9. Worst Hotel

Ans: Grand President, Bangkok

10. Best Book

Ans: Two states by Chetan Bhagat

11. Worst Book

Ans: I have not read so many books to call one as worst

My 11 nominees are:

1. Venkat Ramakrishnan

2. Clement Williams

3. Susan Deborah

4. Bragadeesh Prasanna

5. Prashanth Ashok

6. Kalyan

7. Gopalakrishnan Krishnasamy

8. Gayathree

9. Sriram Acharya

10. Kaushik

11. Aarti Krishnakumar

My 11 questions for the nominated bloggers:

1. What is love according to you?

2. What is the one thing you want to change in you life?

3. How often do you use swear words?

4. What do you think about my blog? How can I improve? Link

5. Who is the one person that you wish to apologise and why?

6. What do you think about maggi noodles?

7. What does travelling mean to you? [ as in new places]

8. What you think about women?

9. Which country do you want to settle down?

10. Which according to you is the toughest language to learn?

11. Name 3 of of your favourite restaurants in Chennai.

Day 7: The Chatuchak day and a bit of khao san road

Day 7: 30th Dec 2012

Day: 7

 I am wondering what a lazy bones I should be not being able to write a blog in a continuous manner. I promised myself to update on a twice in a day basis which gradually has become once in a week.
Grumblings apart.

I will write a review about Mystic place rooms hotel, Bangkok in this post and share my experiences about my day in Chatuchak.

(Hotel Review)

I stayed in this hotel just one night as I had plans to visit Chatuchak. Hotel has different themed rooms. The room I stayed in was trash chic. The decor of the room was built out of waste. It was an excellent idea. 
Location wise I would say it is not bang-on. I would say Mo-chit is on one far end of the city.
I tried locating the hotel all by myself from the BTS station it was quite difficult. Not If you take a taxi I am sure you would definitely find it easily.
The hotel offers Tuk-tuk service to BTS and Chatuchak on an hourly basis.
The service is efficient. They have a cafe called as mystic cafe prices are very reasonable but the portion is less.
The hotel served breakfast too. But on the downside vegetarian choice was limited to toast.
For Non-Vegetarians I would say nothing is an issue.
No noise and my room had a small balcony facing the road good enough for a laid back morning tea.
I will surely recommend this hotel for a short stay.

View of the room

I also want to add how creatively they have turned trash into treasure.
This photo would be a good example.

Stand made of crushed cans

Now, that I have written enough (I think! ^_^) about the hotel. Let me write how the day at chatuchak went for me.

This blue blue tuk-tuk took me to the Chatuchak market for free!!

Tuk-Tuk @ Mystic place rooms 

k t As everybody says, I will also say Chatuchak is huuuuuuge. It is definitiely bigger than the biggest of markets you would have seen.
My God what is not there. You will be spoilt for choice for anything and everything.
And definitely do not even try to venture without traking in a map which you can get at the entrances or the BTS station.

And don't worry even if you forget to pick one you have maps attached like the below here and there

Chatuchak Market Map

I made the mistake of not picking up the map and I would have rounded the same area for about 3 to 4 times. hehe. Happens.!

There is nothing you can't find in this market, name it you will find it.
I went around a lot and I kept a few things in my mind so that I could compare with a few shops around the market and then find the best one to purchase at a good rate.
What did you think? I did not or was not able to find the shop again.

All  lanes looked the same, I didn't have a clue where I was. As I had read many blogs that Chatuchak clock tower can be a point that nobody can miss.
Went round and round and round could no find where it was..

Poor me :( !

I kept walking and decided not to do the comparison stunt that I pulled up on myself.
And purchased all the junk stuff I could take with home with me. Just to add up the baggage fees I would be paying the Air Asia guys. Phew phew

Some photos in Chatuchak, to get you all an idea of the whole chatuchak scene

Plaster of paris models of dogs

As crowded as our T. Nagar

Me standing in one of the chatuchak lanes

I also spent a good 45 minutes just waiting to get my potrait done from one of the stands in there.
And the result was

My mother was pretty unhappy about this and commented that it didn't look like me at all.
What do you have to say??

The artists I would say actually did a good job and the price was THB 100 per per person.
You even have the option of getting it framed.

After doing all this stuff I again walked around and this time I shopped whatever I liked the very moment I liked, did not want to compare things.
I purchased everything that my mother would call as waste of money.

And to top it all I was not able to carry all the junk back to my hotel. I easily would have had 20 ~ 30 carry covers with me along with my water bottle and camera.
Now for the last junk item I purchased was a big bag to carry all the junk I purchased which I bought for THB 70 after bargaining hard.
The irony of the bag was that, it tore even before I could reach the hotel.
Way to go!

And I forgot to talk about the famous coconut ice cream of chatuchak

Coconut Icecream @ Chatuchak

No you guessed it wrong.
I did not try it. It cost THB 30 which was fair enough for the quantity.
I would strongly recommend against trying this coz it is highly unhygienic you can see the largest of flies buzzing all over the ice cream stall.

All the shops here start closing by around 5:00PM. And this is the time when you can see people giving heavily discounted prices.
If you still have energy to go around the market for a quick look or any last minute grabs I would definitely say you should not miss the discounted prices.

I had the energy and I went around to dig a deeper hole in my pocket.
I would have spent around THB 4000 that day. :( :( :(

I walked back to one of the entrance to find a taxi and none were ready to take me back to my hotel.
I walked my way to the BTS station with the heavy torn bag I had purchased.
Reached my hotel and now I had to check-out and they helped me find a taxi to my next destination near Khao San road.

Surprisingly the taxi driver went by meter, I have heard from a lot of people that taxi drivers would never agree to go to Khao san road by meter.
Anyways It took around 45 minutes to reach my hotel after coping up with Bangkok's traffic and the check-in was smooth.

This time I stayed in a hotel called Boon Siri Place.
All the way to Khao san was beautifully decorated. Once in my hotel I dropped my bags and ventured outside in the aim of walking to the infamous khao san road.

If you had noticed I have not spoken anything about food today. It's just that I forgot.
Lunch adventure happened at Chatuchak I ate in one of the small restaurants in there who served me some Malaysian fried rice(Vegetarian one of course)!
Sorry though I forgot the name of the restaurant. The quantity of food was Indian and all that for Just       THB 60.
Yaaaaahooooooo.
I thought this was the chance and ate two full plates of fried rice which would have been enough for me even for my dinner.

Coming back to the Khao san road hunt, My hotel was situated at a 7 minutes walking distance to Khao san but it took a little  longer for me to find the road and what seemed to be like a clean area all of a sudden turned into our T. Nagar Ranganathan street.
Lot of people, so many petty shops hawkers yelling at the top of their voice and few uncles approaching you with a bit of paper written Pussy show on it.
And at least 5 people would pass your ears saying " Ping-Pong show" / the sex show.
Warning: Don't get lured into it until you do not want to waste all your money on nothing but cheap sex tricks and you would be contributing to a sad part of the sex industry in Thailand.

Anyways I am walking further to see why khao san is famous, I know why now

• The sex shows
• Accommodation as cheap as THB 150 per night
• and for the best pad Thai in Thailand

You could also find creepy fried insects that these people sell and charge THB 10 if you want to take a photo.

I keep walking to the end of the road and something caught my eye

Coutesy: talkbangkok.com

And that was an Indian restaurant.. Drool drool drool drool
I do not know If I was secretly longing for Indian food, I went in the restaurant the moment I saw it.

And to my pleasure I saw a singh cook working in the kitchen. Authentic Indian food yayyyyyyyyyy....

I ordered everything from soup, masala papad, garlic naan, 2 side side and jeera rice. And I happily ate everything and I loved it.
The time to dig my pockets now, I expected a bill around THB 350 ~ 400. And guess what I decided not eat for next two days after seeing the bill. It was THB 870
Very good, what now?! I put a sad face and walked back to my hotel.

And I saw something that I would never forget on my way back to hotel and that was a chor ( Thief)
I saw him cut a foreigners bag at a distance and run away, I was surprised how it was.
And with 2 shocks for the day I came back to my room to sleep.

Now I am going sleep, so I will tell you the rest of the story in my next post

~ Kei

Day 6: shift back to Bangkok

Date: 29th Dec 2012.

Day: 6

I have already started realising that my trip is coming to an end. I had only 6 more days to go.

I had to leave ao nang today, Coz I thought 2 nights was just enough to spend @ ao nang. But I was wrong.

I completely miscalculated, the place was so laid back and soothing that I did not want to leave.
What do you think I did?


No, I did not drop the plan of going back to Bangkok.... Coz I had a booked a whopping THB 3500 one way ticket to Bangkok on TG :(

I regretted that, and the ticket was non-refundable so no other go, I had to go back to Bangkok!

From Ao Nang to get to the Krabi airport is not hectic. There are quite a few ways, I am mentioning them below

1) Take a taxi to airport( Costliest Option)
2) I have heard that a shared mini van can take you as well ( Cheaper option compared to 1)
3) Taking the airport bus

I took the third option and it was quite good. There are fixed timings where the airport bus is scheduled and It can take you just for a small fee of THB 150. Not crowded. Keeps time and frequency is good.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post Hotel owner Charlie from ao nang dropped me at the bus stop.
The airport bus stops just in front of the Mc. Donalds

And One more information of course about food, Mc. Donalds does not sell any vegetarian stuff. And krabi airport does not have a proper restaurant set up. It has only a very few snack counters available and that too on the pricey side

This monster took me back to Bangkok!

during the flight they served us some tea and cake. Not tasty~!!! :D

And as you might know we landed at Suvanaphoom ( Suvarnabhoomi). Don't even ask the airport was toooooooooooooo crowded..
I felt too irritated to look around as it was too crowded and walked straight to the baggage point.

To add insult to the injury mine was the last bag to to come on the belt. I waited almost 45 minutes for my bag. I was literally fuming smoke!

Now it was a Saturday and I wanted to go to the Chatuchak Market tomorrow. So I booked a hotel near Mo-chit and that is  Mystic Place rooms.
While I plan to write a review of the hotel in my next post. I just want to share how I commuted from Suvarnabhoomi to my hotel in Mo-chit.

The Airport Link is a boon to the travellers.
The route I took:

ARL from Airport ==> Phaya thai => Change to BTS Phaya Thai
BTS Phaya Thai ==> Mo-chit

No Hassles no difficulties.

About  How to purchase a ticket to ARL, that quite easy same as how you purchase a ticket in MRT.

Here is a snap of the ARL

ARL City Line

It seems that there are two Lines one notably the City Line & the other is Express Line.
I will not talk about the Express line, Coz I do not know anything about it. Hehe! ;)

And yes City Line, It stops in almost all the stops. between the airport and suvarnabhoomi. That's it~!

Got down at BTS Mochit. You know what I realised then?
I forgot to take the address of the hotel. Bum Bum BUM. With my poor Thai skills I asked people the directions to my hotel.
And it so happened nobody knew the name of the hotel or at least did not understand the way I pronounced. I am sure it was either of them.

A foreigner crossed by and I stopped her and asked if she knew my hotel, Unfortunately she didn't know too. But she gave me a tip to check out Soi Pradhiapat as there might be so many hotels.

I walked, walked and walked and yet not over kept walking each person I enquired asked me to walk further.
Sun was going down and my panic level increased.
Alas.... I found Soi Pradhiaphat it was a main road and very busy adding to which side walks were small with small shop filled with fish/ chicken stink.

It was 30 minutes since I started walking I still could not figure out where I was. And the further I walked the number of people who understood English decreased.
I saw a big hotel and walked in thinking just that the receptionists in such a big hotel would be able to talk English.
Smarty me, Idea worked out and the lady in the reception was able to help me out to figure where my hotel was.

Then to my relief after a few meter of further walk I spotted this board

The hotel's name board

And I was checked-in duly and the people at the reception were too helpful and the courtesy extended to the level where they themselves understood I was damn tired and thirsty and gave me some water to drink.

It was almost 1 hours before I could find the hotel now and it was dark by then. I went to my room, washed myself and went out for a stroll.
I would say there was nothing much around that area expect for a lot of street food stalls which I thought was especially stinky in this area and few stores here and there.
And forgot to mention the purpose of the stroll, without doubts it was Dinner Hunting trip.
I discovered 3 Indian restaurants near my hotel but I definitely didn't want to eat Indian and mind it Indian food is costly.

Headed back to hotel and my hotel had a cozy cafe called as Mystic cafe where I decided to finish my dinner.
I chose to do so coz there were a lot of people walking in and out. And I did not regret the decision.
They cooked me superbo vegetarian food. I am sorry but I was so hungry I did not take a pic of the food.
But I could definitely give a thumbs up. The portion was very less though.
Anyways I hit the bed for that as I had a long day tomorrow or at least I had thought so.
The day at the Chatuchak Market.

Rest in the next

~Kei

Day 5: Day trip to phi phi islands

Date: 28th December 2012

Day: 5

Had a early start today but of course woke up very late and rushed to the restaurant next door to grab some breakfast.

While I still do not remember the name of the restaurant next door or have a photo of it. I still remember that I have not written a review about this hotel. So here is the review for Baan Taveesri

Hotel Review

This hotel is located about 1.5Kms from the ao nang beach. Owner charlie who is a danish is so kind and helpful. He can guide you thoroughly on how to go and where to go.
I stayed there only for 2 nights but it was over all a good experience.
Charlie even booked us a phi-phi islands day tour the rates they offered were genuine. Soft bed, decent air conditioner, TV and DVD facilities in room, hot shower. What more can you ask for?
There is a restaurant next door to the hotel which can serve breakfast. I was so happy when the owner charlie offered himself to drop me at the bus stand while I was checking-out. I would say this can be the best budget choice you could make.
I can highly recommend this hotel for budget travellers.

View from my room

View from my room

 Continuing with my tale, I literally dumped the pancakes in my mouth as the pickup van for the day tour had already arrived. I forgot to mention about the company with which the hotel owner Charlie had booked my trip with. The company name is "Jane & June".

As per what he said this was a small tour company but could handle the tour efficiently and so did the company handle our tour efficiently.

The pickup van guy was kind enough to wait for me for about 10 minutes and I was the first passenger to be picked up. On the way we picked up a few people from nearby resorts and left for the gathering point near Noppharat Thara beach.

We were shortly met by our guide who called himself Moo. We were separated into groups and taken to our speed boat. There were around 15 people along with me. And the boat was not crowded.

Also there was this incident where a Chinese pregnant woman was in our group, our guide Moo strongly advised her against going on the trip.

So A word of caution for all pregnant women not to go on speed boat trips as it might get all bumpy at some point.

Now coming back to our phi phi islands trip, Here is the agenda for the day

1) Bamboo Islands

2) Viking Cave

3) Maya Bay

4) Ko Phi phi Don

5) Hong Islands

We started the tour off at 9:00AM and were back 4:00PM.

We followed the exact order that I have mentioned.

On the way to Bamboo Islands

The first look of Bamboo Islands from my speed boat

Bamboo Islands

Only then I got to know Bamboo Islands was also called as

Bamboo Island aka Koh Mai Pai

We were allowed 30 minutes here and we had to get back to the speed boat.

Next stop the viking caves, where the swallow birds make their nest and it is believed that the soup made out of swallow bird's nest is healthy.

Though we weren't allowed to get of the boat we we moved very slowly to get a good look at the caves and the techniques how men take the  swallow birds nest out of there

Viking Cave

Moved out of there to the  next destination Maya Bay

En route to Ma ya Bay

One more 

And there we are

The stunning Ma Ya bay.

Maya Bay 

And lazing around in here for 30 minutes. Everybody got back to the boat and about to leave to our next stop which was Koh Phi Phi don and suddenly we realise we are missing one member from our group.
We thought that guy must have drowned somewhere after 30 minutes of searching we found him walking back towards our boat and he said that he had been out exploring Maya Bay. We were like WHAT?!

Off to our Lunch adda

Ko Phi phi Don

We were there for about 1 hours and I definitely got vegetarian food to eat.
But I was so hungry that I forgot to take a photo of my food ;). Happens

An inside view at Ko Phi Phi Don

As I was exploring KO Phi phi I forgot that I should be back by 2:00 at the speed boat, and I didn't have a watch to check the time. I rushed back to the place where we had git down and then I remembered that I forgot to note my speed boat's name or design.

Panic struck. I was imagining all weird things what if I was left alone, I didn't carry a single diem with me to get back to ao nang.
I walked half the stretch of the beach to see if I could identify the speed boat that I came in and no trace of it.
I heart was racing, thinking What now.
Then I felt a pat on my shoulder it was our  speed boat's captain who called himself Captain Jack Sparrow

Captain Jack Sparrow

And Just to be careful the next time, I took a picture of our speed boat.
I am being responsible now, remember my parents sent me alone to be careful not to get lost. hehe :)

Our Speed boat

Lats and final stop for the day was hong islands
This was basically the snorkeling stop and I did snorkel a bit but I was too afraid.

Random pic of people snorkeling

Our guide advised us about sea urchins and speed boat propellers which might be dangerous to us while snorkeling.
We snorkeled for about 45 minutes next we head back to Ao nang.

And thus the day day tour to phi phi comes to an end.
I came back to the hotel for a hot shower and this was the last day I would be in ao nang.
I had a flight back to Bangkok the next day. But I still repent for not having stayed in Ao nang a little while longer.

I ended the day with a vegetarian buffet dinner at Bernie's place it was good and worth for THB 150.

And this is the memory I carried back home.

Dec-2012

Rest in the Next

~Kei