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.

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

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 3: Bangkok here and Surat thani to Krabi there

Date: 26th Dec 2012

Day 3: Bangkok & Krabi

 Today I had to go to Krabi. I had a booked a night train.
Will talk about how to reach Krabi in the later part of the blog now I will talk about my visit to Queen Saovabha snake institute.

As usual I woke up late this morning and directly went for my breakfast as mentioned in my earlier blog food options for vegetarians were limited. Not so happy as I could not have a dig.

I had to pack my bag as I had to check out today. Packed my stuff, cleaned myself did a early checkout, dropped my bags at the concierge and off to sight seeing.

The Queen Saovabha snake institute is located in the pathumwan area. The closest access is MRT Sam Yan / BTS Sala Daeng.

I took the MRT and this was the first time I used a MRT in thailand. It is quite easy to use.

I have attached the link on How to use MRT in Bangkok . This proved quite useful to me.

The snake farm is about 10 minutes walk from MRT Sam Yan.

The institute is quite big and the snake farm is only a small part of it. You can easily locate the entrance to the snake farm if you keep walking on the left after you enter.

The entry ticket is THB 200 for the snake farm and the show. There are two shows in a day one at 11:00am and one at 2:30Pm.

The 11:00Am show is the snake milking show where the snake venom removal demonstration is done and the 2:00Pm show is the snake display show where different type of snakes are brought out of the cage and demonstrated.

I attended the 2:30Pm show and would say that it is highly recommended and knowledgeable. The snake are displayed so close to the audience only a small steel gate is in between the audience and the display area.

Few photos taken during the show

Naja Naja @ King Cobra

Siamese Cobra

Going at least 10 min prior to the show is recommended as all the good seats would be taken early. I arrived a few minutes prior to the show and I had to squeeze my butt in the first row. Thanks to the lady next to me who didn't complain.

At the end of the show you get to take a photo with this.....

There is also a snake museum on the first floor which has lots of information about the snake life cycle along with models and many other useful videos displayed.

It was past 3:30 and I was finding a place to eat and on the opposite side of the street I saw lot of street stalls crossed the road.. not on the zebra crossing , not that I am law breaker but I couldn't find one. But I found no luck in talking to people making them understand that I wanted vegetarian.

I kept walking and walking then I found a big temple quite interesting one.

It was called as Wat Hua Lumphong.
I entered the temple and saw lots of cats in there( at least 10~15). I went near them to touch  but they did not move away was quite surprised coz the cats I have seen so far in India ran away the moment they knew I was approaching them.

There were not many people in the temple and it  was not touristy at all. In the main hall there was a large Buddha image decorated in gold. Looked majestic. On the outer area of the main hall there well lots of bells hung and circumference of the temple.

Around the temple

Actual Buddha image inside the temple

Also I heard that this temple accepts coffins as a donation for the burial of poor who cannot afford a coffin. You can also pay a small donation which they accept happily.

Next I hopped back in the MRT on my way to the hotel to collect my bags and directly off to the station.

I took the MRT again to go to Hua Lumphong station(also known as the Bangkok station) for my onward train to Surat Thani. It is a short walk from MRT to the Bangkok station no fear of getting lost as there are lot of signages. Just to be sure I kept tracing the path of a white guy who was also headed to the station. I should admit he was walking quite fast.

MRT Sam Yan and MRT Hua lumphong are one after other, I made the mistake of returning all the way to my hotel just to pick my bags. Instead I should have first gone to MRT Hua lumphong walked to the Bangkok station and dropped my Baggies there at a reliable bag point run by the station authorities for a small fee.

Now that I entered the station I was worried how I would find my train and platform number. Luckily there was a information desk where two uniformed men were guiding lot of foreign tourists. You just show your ticket and they guide  you with all the details like platform number, coach number etc. Quite easy to locate and no fear of getting lost or taking the wrong train.

While I will make a separate post on how to book train tickets online.

Board on the train

And Yeah I forgot to tell you about my food quest, If you could read your way up this blog you would have noticed that I had skipped my lunch too. Ms. Tummy grumble couldn't find any vegetarian food in the station except for water, pop-corn and something called mee-korb that I managed to purchase with my broken Thai.

Mee Korb in my hand and pop corn on my lap

Will write further about my train journey in the next post

~Kei

Jet Set Go !!! Day 1: Bangkok : Part :1

Date: 24th December 2012

Day 1: Bangkok

Flight arrived at Don Muang International Airport 20 minutes prior to the scheduled time.

Yay!!!!

Walked straight to the Visa on Arrival counter. I saw a lot of people queueing up, I joined them too. Out of curiosity I walked a bit further a checked, it was the queue for those who did not carry their photograph. Since I carried one with me I directly went to the submission point. The officer there was insisting on fast track service, but I requested for normal. It costed me about THB 1000 since I took photo of mine with me. If you don't carry one they can provide an application form with your photo in it for a additional  fee of THB 50 but you have to queue for it as mentioned earlier.

VOA Card with token number

                                               

   
Fast Track costs about THB1200.  Fast track and normal had no big difference in time. It was definitely not crowded in that hour. I came after visa being stamped and went through immigration and the whole bunch of formalities. Everything went smooth. I tried to contact the information desk at the airport for some maps but it was all closed and would open only by 5:00 am.

So Went to the exit to find a taxi and it was quite easy. You walk out and there is a manned yellow colour booth which you would never miss.
Walk there and mention the area you would like to go and you get a pink slip hold it with you. The driver will usher you to the taxi, show him the slip and just tell the area you would like to go and check if he turns on the meter. If he doesn't, give him a gentle reminder to turn on the meter. The meter starts from THB35 (min.THB35). There is a tollway where I was supposed to pay THB60, there is also another route without tolls but the one with toll is considered to be faster. Reached my hotel in about 45 minutes. The meter showed THB345. You should also pay an additional airport surcharge of THB 50 to the driver. So I checked-in at Hotel Grand President, Bangkok. 

Hotel Review
Booked this hotel through mystery deal from asiawebdirect.com. Since I had arrived a Little earlier at about 5:00AM I paid for a for a room upon arrival. They accommodated me in tower 3 which is across the road in a 7th floor room.
I saw a lot of hookers on soi 11 when i came by taxi and while I was checking-in saw a Indian guy taking 2 hookers along with him to his room. The people in the reception ignored it. I was shell shocked as I did not expect a 4 star hotel to ignore something like that.
I was escorted by a hotel staff to the room and he was trying to make little talk to me, I thought he was being friendly but at the end of conversation he was trying to sell me tour package telling that his friend owned the company and blah blah. I rejected his offer.

About the room: I was not happy. Furnishings are worn out. Paint coming off the wall. You cannot say that is a 4 star class room. Wi-fi did not work, so requested in the reception to send someone to help me. They told that since there were no staffs they would not be able to send anyone.
Breakfast was excellent lot of choices ad good food. Location bang on. 5 minutes walk to BTS Nana. Lots of street food and clubs around.

But given the service and the rooms I would definitely not recommend this hotel to anyone.

                                               View of tower 1 and tower2 of the hotel

Started the day with the phone ringing in my room. panic call from my home to know if i had reached safely. Woke up somehow and got ready for my first day exploration.

Looks Yummmmm....

Cost was about THB 90 which was not bad. Ate 2 dosas to fill myself as I am one of that kind who can tolerate hunger at the same time love eating. 

This post is getting longer and longer will post rest in the next...

~ Kei @ MAS

Day 0 to 1 Chennai to Bangkok

Date: 23rd December

Day 0

I had booked a AIRASIA from MAS to DMK(Don Muang International Airport). AIRASIA doesn't fly to Suvarnabhumi on both domestic and international sectors.

My flight was FD 2654 scheduled 10:30PM on 23rd December 2012.

Due to anxiety I reached airport 4 hours prior to the scheduled time and waited for the bag drop counter to open.
The counter opens ......
Dropped my bags as I had already done a web check-in, finished my immigration and was waiting to board my flight.

Tummy grumbled and yes there was one restaurant inside the passenger hold area called " The Golden Chariot".
-(Restaurant review) 
The restaurant was not very big it had about ten 4 seater tables. The menu was very limited and only 2 service staff. I ordered a vegetarian biryani priced @ INR 180. Taste was ok~ok, quantity was little. I would say this is on a bit pricey side.

There is also a shop by the side of the restaurant called
 "Cafe Lounge" which sells cup noodles, pizza, chips and other things which are very pricey as well. Say  for example you could buy a cup noodle for INR 120, wedge of pizza for INR 75.

I finished my food just in time to queue for the boarding. Boarded the flight and I had done a stupid thing which I realized only then.
I had opted for the last seat no leg room and no reclining facility *_*.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I was not able sleep or even sit properly throughout the journey. Luckily it was only 3hr and 20 min flight.

Forgot to tell you that I ordered an in-flight service. Korean cup noodle. It was priced at THB 80.

                          It was cooking.......

                       Yes it cooked.... and I ate it :)

Slurped it all and somehow I managed to sit for about 3 hours! and yes we landed 20 minutes before scheduled arrival time at DMK.

Rest in the next

~Kei