Volcano boarding & Airtel sponsoring Man-U

time-out from travelouging!!! this had to come in...

Airtel's gonna be the first Indian sponsor for the Man-U team...to reiterate.. during recession for this to happen just proves beyond doubt the power and impact of sports and how corporates can use sports as a medium to engage customers and get them on board.. with the amount of clutter in the advertising world its these events which can make a difference... both to the sport and the corporate house...

now.. since airtel is into providing cellular service and given the madness of soccer, the soccer game downloads and replays they provide will be lapped up im sure.. once the sponsorship takes off, i'll follow it and see if i can find out how many new subscribers they managed to get...

then again.. even if they dont manage the requisite numbers, it does work towards brand building and brand propagating.. also makes airtel seem younger...

I think in India, such moves will actually work towards making soccer more popular... it's a cool sport and such kinda VAS features make it even cooler.... there's always time and theses activities provide for fun ways to utilize that time...

and now for volcano boarding... as the name suggests, it involves using a plank of wood, im guessing not unlike a snow board or a sand board, which you use to slide down the side of a volcano! now people have been doing this for 4 years apparently.. and these people have been volcano boarding down active volcanoes!!! I've trekked up a volcano and swum in the crater of a dormant one as well.. but to think of sliding down the side of an active volcano is scary.... the terrain is so rough... one fall is enough to literally bruise your skin off... !!! but then again thats what makes it so exciting.. I can't wait to try this sport!!!!

Day 5 - Travelogues - Train to Hanoi, Vietnam

After all the running around of the previous day the day spent in the train was the other extreme... like one of those lazy Sundays where you stay in bed all day reading or playing cards... I think I spent most of the day sleeping...
before I started this trip I was most worried about the state of transportation and whether we'd get sufficient stops at decent places... I have to say my fears were totally unfounded... the buses we travelled in were awesome, the hotels we stayed at were cheap and really good... the part I liked most was the free internet that hotels offer customers as part of their package.. of couse that's subjec tto availability of a free machine.. but since we went during an off-season... we had no complaints.. but more about that later...

we reached hanoi station at 4:30 am the next day and immediately decided to go to a Sinh cafe office to figure out where to go next!

Day 4 - Travelogues - Siem Reap to Thailand...errr not!

Since we found out the previous day that we couldn't travel to Laos coz of the visa issue (they don't give visa on arrival to 13 countries of which India is one ) we had two options.. 1. was to go back to Saigon and then go to Hanoi and then travel downwards back to Saigon (seemed boring when we had another option) 2. goto poipet (cambodia-thailand border), then go onto thailand... bangkok by bus and then fly to hanoi from bangkok... the air ticket was about $95 cheaper than the $100 we'd have paid from Laos to Hanoi!

so we chose option 2 and took a crappy bus to Bangkok from a crappy agency right as soon as you enter the market area...he fleeced us.. told us we'd be in an ac bus and that we'd get visa on arrival... so we reach poipet which is on the cambodian border and visa issues dint let us enter thailand!!!!!!! frustrated onward again!!!!! apparently 40 countries only are allowed visa on arrival via land routes in thailand... everybody can get visa on arrival if you fly into thailand! fortunately we hadnt booked flight tickets from bangkok to hanoi and hadn't been exited from cambodia!

so now we haggled with one of those cars that ferry goods across cambodia and vietnam and got a guy to take the 4 of us to saigon for $22 in an ac car stuffed with footwear.

while deciding this we got something to eat and were constantly surrounded by the car-ferry guys!finally we picked one and went on our way to saigon...

the journey was filled with astrological discussions and a couple of times we were stumped when we looked out of the window to see a family of three on a scooter.. father riding with one hand, the other hand holding up an IV (intra-venous) bottle, the tube went into a baby's hand cradled in the mother's lap!!! we were so shocked and i fumbled a lil too much with my camera to be able to take a picture of the family!!!!! crazyy!

we dropped off the footwear in vietnam, came back to saigon.... went straight to the station to catch a train to hanoi.. a 31 hour train journey awaited us...

we managed to get to the station on time but unlike in cambodia where dollars are accepted even by street vendors, the vietnamese need dongs... we were out of dongs and dint even have enough to buy tickets to hanoi! finally we exchanged some currency with the ticket agent obviously at a lower rate (these deman-supply markets and their irritating logic when you're at the receiving end......arghhhhhhhh)... anyway.. it was pretty comical coz ashish had gone out to exchange money and paid a local to take him around to money exchanges but all of them were shut.. it was 10 PM i think.. so I'm waiting impatiently outside the station for ashish to show up coz we had a train to catch... and the only reason we hadn't bought tickets was coz we were worried ashish wouldnt make it!!! finally 5 minutes before boarding time ashish came back.. as soon as i saw him outside the station i ran in and screamed out to rachna (talk about theatrics) to buy tickets!

phewwwww... all of that done.. we boarded our lovely train... cute lil compartments... altho not as cute for our 6 footer friend, rachna... in fact she had to step out to collect her wits coz Vietnamese things are usually compact and she's a bit claustrophobic! She recovered and we had to haggle with a couple of locals to exchange seats coz we had been split into two compartments.. finally we settled down to some serious laughing and went off to sleep!

Day 3 - Travelogues - Saigon to Siem Reap (Cambodia)

Cambodia is known as Kampuchia.... did you know that?

So Day 3 at 5 AM our Polish friend landed up at Xinh Hotel... she's quite the traveller and pretty cool... Cambodia was calling and we had a 7 AM bus to take us there from Sinh Cafe (by far the best tour operator I came across).

The ride to Cambodia was really comfortable.. even tho it was 12 hours... the buses are really comfy... I'm one of the worst 'traveller's coz when in transit I usually doze off... so obviously I kept dozing off during this trip but obviously I'm not Kumbhakaran's daughter (Kumbhakaran being a mythical half demon, half human brother of the evil Ravana of the Ramayana fame). The scenery enroute wasa gorgeous... lush green paddy fields... good roads... very cute, quaint eateries which also sold beer...

Altho since I'm a vegetarian I survived on plain rice, some boiled vegetables, loads of chilli sauce and soy sauce... my mates survived on chicken fried rice or baguetes and ommelette!

When we rolled into Kampuchia, I was hit by how similar to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India it looked... the architecture looked pretty Ahmedabadi... altho don't take my word for it... im no architecture expert... so i stepped out of the bus, at a stop of course... I'm not a whimsical, bus delaying freak, and went looking for cafes... found lots of them... but we reached at about 2 PM and that was their ahem TV watching time... so cafe's dint serve food... they brought out their siesta chairs, arranged them like theatre seats and watched tv - community style... when i went asking for food.. coz it was a cafe.. they gave me blank stares! it was really amusing.

anyway so we went on to Siem Reap and reached by nightfall... Wan be street i thin... the place was really really nice.. . the buses usually drop travellers to the backpackers area and this place did not disappoint. We found a decent hotel called Rhythrin Hotel on street 22 I think (i could be wrong since it's been a while) but really decent place.. $12 per night for 4 people.. so $ 3 a head..! with hot water etc.. quite a steal after the $5 we paid at Saigon...

But Cambodia was really hot...

I forgot to mention the visa regulations... they have visa on arrival... costin about $25 and the bus guys take your passport, the money and take yuo to the visa office... its pretty smooth... and then you walk on a strip of road, on the Cambodia side, which is the casino strip.. its so amusing to watch hordes of women on scooters crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia in the evnings and making the trip back the next morning... walking their scooters along the road! descending on that road from different sides, following a singular path to their 'office'!

And off we went again... after a while to catch a barge to take us across some kinda water body.

Coming back to Siem Reap, the next morning we set out to goto Angkor Wat, the largest temple complex in the world... measuring 10 Kms X 10 kms... the whole complex has loads of stone temples, monuments... the ones i visited are the main temple whcih took almost 600 years to build. Surpringly it was a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Holy Trinity. Then while Buddhism was gaining popularity, the temple was dedicated to Buddism.. and 700 years later, it is still an awesome site, duly nominated to be one of the 7 wonders of the world.

After the temple complex we went to Bayon which when it was found (I think in the early nineteenth century by a French explorer... but I could be wrong, don't remember where I picked up these snippets from), was covered in wilderness... Bayon basically is a formation of gigantic stone sentinels which were constructed by Jayvarman VII to frighten invaders. Can you imagine stumbling upon the outskirts of a fertile kingdom only to find huge-ass human faces made out of stone, smirking down at you... covered by wilderness... imagining the scene takes me to a film depicting South East Asia... typical setting consists of somebody gettnig lost in the wilderness and coming across gigantic tribal totems which fill him with awe!

After Bayon we set off for Ta Phrom which waas by far my favouritest spot. It too was a temple constructed in the forest centuries ago and today to restore the balance, the forest is reclaiming its original land.. so you have impressive, strong stone structures, getting pulverized by gigantic trees which almost look alien-esque... with silver barks and roots which look like thuosand tentacled feet crushing the stone temples under their feet....

while I was at Ta Phrom, I realized that give me a regular natural setting and a stupendous man-made creation and I would be blown away by nature's wild beauty!

We could've stayed in teh Angkor Wat complex for a while but decided to try and explore other parts of Siem Reap. Unfortunately nothing seemed interesting enough.... but John, our rickshaw driver, really nice guy, took us to a river from where you gotta catch a boat to go onto the lake for boating et al... when we reached there we found the $20 fee too high and decided to skip it.. but the almost hour long ride taking you through authentic Cambodian scenery was fantastic... and 4 carefree students had a blast on the road!

Travelogues - Day 2, Saigon, Vietnam

So day 2 was reserved for 'Floating Market' of Can Tho. Like I mentioned earlier, we were waiting in Saigon for Anna to catch up with us. Alot of travel blogs had mentioned Can Tho, some said you must visit it and others bashed it. We had time on our hands!

Now, for those of you who read this and are planning to goto Vietnam (and since that's never gonna happen i'll add a third condition, those of you who have three legs), I personally would recommend going to Can Tho but get there the previous night and stay in that town for the night. Get up by 5 AM the next day and take a boat / tour out to see the real floating market in action... not just remnants which we saw at 11 AM. But inspite of that the boat ride through the villages was pretty quaint. I had a great time and was thrilled coz Can Tho had loads of 'Love Apple' trees... my favourite fruit... i plucked a couple of huge ass ones and munched the juicy fruit on the way back.. it was awesome.. coz it was reallllllllllllllly hot... we went in March.... and i had these huge juicy love apples to munch on! heavenly!

It's usually advisable to go to this place with a tour operator... your best bet is Sinh Cafe... the cheapest rates and the most widely networked tour operator... they have a lil restaurant where they take you for a crappy song and dance performance (too shrill and slow for my liking) and free lunch (well no such thing as a free lunch.. but still... free lunch). Also at this place there is a crocodile pond in which you can pay 15000 dong (i think) to feed the crocs... personally i think its really cruel coz invariably people tease the crocs... and i think its wrong to tease anybody with food... also there is one croc who's super lazy... just lay there with its mouth open for the longest time.. i was there for about 20 minutes.. thru;out the 20 minutes, the croc had its mouth open!!!

Don't buy stuff from the stores there.. .unless you're doing it to boost local trade... if you want a good bargain... goto Hanoi!

So that's it for Mekong Delta floating market... by the way.. my friend Ashish din't like it at all!

Travelogues - Day 0

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the 4 of us were travelling to Vietnam and Cambodia (originally Laos too, altho' I've boycotted Laos now) after completing our Term 3 at the Asian Institute of Management. After our trip we were all headed back home (India) for our internships... so obviously we had a lotta luggage to take back.. now this is the crappiest thing for budget travellers... so we had to pay a lil extra for more allowance on Tiger Airways and it wasn't so bad... but instead of going straight to Ho Chi Minh City, we had to goto Singapore to drop off our luggage at our friend's cousin's place! Phew!

One crazy trip!

Travelogues-Saigon, Vietnam - Day 1

Get ready for a volley of posts since I've been MIA once again... but this time I've been upto interesting stuff...

Three of my classmates and me backpacked thru Vietnam and Cambodia and I really recommend both those places to people... at least Vietnam if not Cambodia!

We started our trip in HoChiMinh City where we immediately set off to go to the Cu Chi tunnels... this is the network of guerilla tunnels built by the Vietnamese to kick the U.S.'s ass big time... they're so freakishly tiny and go on for kilometers together in a labrynthine manner... my god.. its crazy the kind of things adversity forces you to come up with and face day in and day out... those tunnels are so bloody tiny that to enter one of them, the Vietnamese soldier has to jump in with his/her hands straight above their heads and wriggle in and then crawl along in a rodent and roach infested area!!!! And just think if one soldier suddenly panicked... everybody'd be stuck....i went into one of the ahem 'enlarged for Caucasians' tunnels and still was a bit freaked out!

But more than what I saw I was over-awed by the feeling of what transpired along those very same steps I had taken in Saigon 40-50 years ago... the number of wars that have ravaged our planet are just so many and I don't think they'll ever stop! Sometimes wars are faught coz people don't have their basic roti-kapda-makan (food, clothing,shelter) but there have also been times when its a sport! And that's when I wonder if all the people in the world have their basic needs met, will inhuman atrocities stop? Sadly the answer is naught! I guess its just human nature... we need something to kick us in the ass, or frighten us to make us feel alive... to make us feel!

Anyway coming back to Saigon... the place is so well organized for travellers... as soon as you get off at the airport you can either catch a cab or get onto a bus which takes you to De Tham which is the backpackers area... and that area is sooooooooo alive... to compare it to another alive pulsating place... I'd say it was like Malate in the Philippines... Malate which is home to my favourite bar in the world.. Penguin...

So at De Tham or one of the streets off it, there are tons of hotels to stay at... I loved this placed called Xinh that we stayed at for about 5$ a night, with AC, hot water and free internet and the hotel guy, Wen, was really sweet as well... he told us about how he visited Cambodia every year at a particular time to meet his best friend and that its a really nice place...

Anyway.. shopping wise Saigons pretty nice but Hanoi is better... there's not much to do in Saigon except chill, go see the Cu Chi tunnels on motorbike (is most fun) and go stay the night on the Mekong Delta to go out at 5 AM to catch the floating market!

I've realized (at least for myself) that more than the places publicized by tour guides and agencies, its the experience of getting there and the journey which is sometimes much better than the place itself!

Cambodia in my next post