Perfume Factory

“Wat” means Temple. Bangkok has many beautiful wats that are must see for tourists. Since 95% of population of Thailand follow Buddhism, all wats of Thailand are buddhist temples.

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This was my first international trip. I was at Bangkok for whole 14 days.  The trip was planned to be more of relaxation vacation.

Bangkok is a place that has everything…  temples, shopping malls, wildlife, ocean, night life.. the list is endless.  The place is for everyone irrespective of age and gender.

First Impressions

Bangkok is clean, silent and has wide & smooth roads.  Talking about traffic, Bangkok also has traffic but very less compared to Bangalore. Drivers never switch lanes no matter how fast the other lane is moving.  One can hardly see using horn. This is something that we need in Bangalore.

Language, Culture & People:

Language spoken in Thailand is Thai. English is rarely used by the people although most of taxi drivers, shopkeepers communicate with you in English. They will not understand if you speak at a normal speed. You have to tell them word by word that too in their accent.  NOM. They cannot pronounce ‘R’ and they pronounce it as ‘L’. Most of times, ‘T’ will be pronounced as in “Thunder” and not as in “Tea”. If you want to say to the taxi driver that you want to go to “pan-tip plaza”, you need to say him as “pan-thip plaza” and “U turn” as “U thurn”.

Major population follow Buddhism.  You will see Buddhist Temples (these are called as “Wats” in Thai) everywhere.  People are very friendly and innocent. Put in another way, they don’t know how to cheat.  Even if you don’t know the place, tell the name of the place to the taxi driver and he will take you there in a shortest possible way without roaming around the city. They speak very softly and expect you to speak in the same way. Sometimes, increase in volume of my voice and extra actions/gestures would used to make them frightened.  You also need to drag each word while speaking.. that is how they speak.

If you are a vegetarian, well you will find it not so easy here. People here mainly eat pork, every kind of sea food and meat. You will get sea food stalls across the roads everywhere. If you are a person who loves to eat sea food, you will get an opportunity to eat the creatures that you even can’t imagine.

Shopping & Bargaining:

Probably one of activities that you can’t avoid in Bangkok is shopping.  Each of shopping malls here is almost 4-5 times bigger than Forum, Bangalore.  The main shopping malls are MBK, Siam Square, Platinum Fashion Mall, Central World & the IT shopping mall “Pan-Tip Plaza”.  At the MBK, you will get everything. It is like all-in-one hub. Platinum Fashion Mall is a girls’ paradise. Pan-tip  plaza was my favorite during my stay.  It has every IT stuff that you need or wish to buy. “If it is not there at the pan-tip  plaza, then it doesn’t exist”.  It is also infamous for selling most upto date pirated softwares. I had a glance on what kind of CD/DVDs they sell. They sell softwares, games, music, movies and even porn.  You will get the OS the day it is released.  Each CD usually costs 100 & DVD costs 150 bucks.

Apart from hi-end shopping malls, Bangkok also has retail road side and wholesale markets. Chatuchak weekend market and Pratunaam market ,which is opposite to the Platinum Fashion Mall, are most famous. No item should be purchased without bargaining. Bargaining is in wide practice and tourists are expected to bargain before buying anything.  If you have that skill, well you can purchase that item to almost half of the price what the shopkeeper had told initially. You should liberally use phrases like “make less”, “make discount”, “for me”, “please” with smile on your face.  This will often end in fair deal.

Transportation & Communication:

Skytrain, public buses, taxis, tuk-tuks (autos of Thailand), boats and bike taxis form the transportation.  Skytrain are most cheap and preferred. Even if you go by taxi, then also it will be cheaper compared to meter charges of taxis in India.  Chao Phraya river flows through Bangkok. Boats are cheaper if you want travel across/ along the river.  Tuk-Tuks are famous in Bangkok and every tourist takes a ride on it.  But beware, these tuk-tuk drivers are clever and you might end-up paying high. For alone travelers, there are bike taxis, you will get pillion ride.  Prices are relatively cheaper compared to taxis.

It is always better to get one local sim when you stay at Bangkok. Purchasing sim requires no id proof and is pre-activated.  Bangkok also has more than 15,000 free wi-fi  hotspots provided by “true” operator.  Almost all tourist places and all bus stops are wifi hotspots. Happy browsing but the speed is less.

Tourist Attractions:

Major tourist attractions in Bangkok are all Buddhist Temples, Grand Palace, floating market, wildlife, ocean & beaches, night bazaars, infamous bars, thai cultural shows including siam niramit show, Ayutthaya (old ruin city like our Hampi), dinner cruise on Chao Phraya River… etc

I visited Grand Palace & all major wats (takes one or more than one day), safari world (it is a wild life sanctuary where you can do jungle safari and also has various shows of dolphins, seals, elephants..etc. takes half-day to one day ), Siam ocean world ( where you can see weird & wonderful ocean creatures.. takes half day ), floating market ( it is 110 km far from Bangkok.. but must see..) , crocodile show ( where you can see persons inserting their head & hand into crocodile’s mouth ). I also did elephant riding around jungle for around 45 mins .  Saw the Siam Niramit show which is about thai history, culture, and festivals. It has world’s highest stage and gives world-class performance. It is bit expensive but you will not regret watching it.

I think the post has become too long.

Will post photos in next 2-3 blogs…  

This trip was unplanned and all suddenly emerged as weekend stress-buster trip. The 3 day trip started from friday evening. We left Bangalore at 7pm. Although, it was expected to reach by next 12 hours, bus took another two hours due to some unavoidable reasons.

Day 1: Our journey began with Golkonda Fort. It is located about 10 kms away on the west of Hyderabad. It is one of the magnificent forts that I have ever seen with splendid architecture. Fort is said to be 800 years old and built by Kakatiya King and later expanded by three Qutab Shahi Kings consecutively.  As you enter the main gate, you will notice the magical acoustic system. A hand clap sounded at the main gate will be heard at the highest point of Golkonda which is almost a kilometer away.  There are beautiful palaces, mosques and temples inside the fort. The whole fort has water supply system. When you visit, don’t forget to see the rock made small pipes attached to the walls of Golkonda fort. The fort is also designed to have well ventilation and flow of air. You can feel the breeze of air even at interior constructions.

After this, we moved to Charminar which is situated at the heart of the city.  It is completely surrounded by shops of Lad Bazaar. Lad Bazaar is famous for pearls, diamonds, jeweleries and bangles. A must visit for  girls. You can also see splendid view of Mecca Masjid from the western direction of top of charminar.

Birla Mandir is a  temple built entirely with white marble. As you go up, temple gives a fantastic panoramic view of Hyderabad and Secundarabad.

Our last point of day one was Lumbini park. It is one of the beautiful parks of Hyderabad located at the banks of Hussain-Sagar Lake. The main attraction of the park is Laser Show. This multimedia show is first ever of its kind in India and is worth to watch it.

Day 2: Our day 2 started with Ramoji Film City. It is world’s largest film studio located 25 kms away from Hyderabad.  It will take almost one day to see entire film city. If you have kids, don’t forget to take them there, they will surely enjoy it. By visiting, you can recap all those popular telugu films’ scenes and also some hindi movies. Buildings with each side having different architectures.. hospital, airport, railway station, library.. etc. You will see many such buildings.

After spending whole day at Ramoji Film City, we went to Hussain-Sagar Lake in the evening. This beautiful lake separates Hyderabad and Secunderabad. There is a magnificent Buddha statue in the middle of lake. We took speed boat race. Ride was fabulous. You can have the glimpse of night view of twin cities, buddha statue and calm lake.

Day 3: This was our last day at Hyderabad. we visited Shilparamam, an arts and crafts village. You will see many hand crafted materials here. There is also a  rock gallery which has natural rock shapes and a village which shows village lifestyle. After this we left to Salarjung Museum. This museum is a must visit. It has so many things that you will feel tired to see all those. art pieces I couldn’t believe that it is one-man’s collections!. There is also one musical clock where for every hour a guardsman ,in the upper deck of clock , comes and strike the bell.

Rest of the day was reserved for some real shopping and some window shopping at the Necklace Road.

In total, it was rejuvenating 3-day trip. We travelled to all places through autos. Autos take you through  shortcuts, inner roads of Hyderabad where you can see the lifestyle of urban Hyderabad.

All photos are stored at this link http://www.zooomr.com/photos/harsha/sets/33799/

I always wonder about the power of the words that we speak. words control us and our emotions. Words make us happy, sad, angry.. words hurt us.. words heal us.

That is the power of words. Sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly, we hurt our loved ones. Why we hurt our loved ones? Is that another form of love? Or we taken them for granted or we just not able to understand them properly. Yes, we do fail to understand our loved ones no matter how deep our relationship is..

Loving is not about finding similarities but accepting differences. Relationship starts with the process of finding similarities. It is the initial stage that make us to feel, that we are identical Gradually, we realize that, we are not identical, we too have differences just like any other person  in this world. The survival of relationship depends on this entire fact,  “Differences that make relationship and not similarities”.

In order to build a long lasting relationship, there are some responsibilities from our side irrespective of whether the person from other side does it or not.

• Never stop loving. Never stop caring. Hope for best but don’t expect anything. Love will become divine when you don’t expect anything in return. It is the form of love that a mother gives to her child. Love that hurts will turn to love that heals when it becomes divine.
• It is more important to trust your relationship than anything else. Trust gives strength.. a strength that bears the pain of wound caused by the other person in a relationship.
• Be honest. It is not necessary to share everything. But whatever you share, make sure that it is true. Being honest is very important for the survival of relationship. You spoke harsh words. You hurt the person. You spoke a lie. You cheat the person. Love can heal the wound made by hurting, but it cannot heal the wound that caused due to cheating.
• Understand the situation. Everyone has their own duties. All are busy in their own lives. Still, they try to get the time for their loved ones infact they try their best.  Most important is understanding the person in a relationship. We do everything for that person but we actually fail to understand him/her. Thorough understanding adds another 100 years to the life span of your relationship. “I can’t cry.. that doesn’t mean I am heartless”
• Forgive and apologize.  We need to learn to forgive when others make mistake and we need to learn to apologize when we make mistake.

Love heals everything. Hmmm… That’s a secret for long lasting relationship.

Yet another year ended (YAYE)! 2007 has made me feel the world a better place than previous year. It has given me a better life. During 2007, I have learnt a lot of new things both personally and professionally.2007 has introduced me lot of new friends throughout its duration. I am thankful to it as some of them have become very close to me, closer than i thought. Someone has rightly said, relationship will not fade away, if it is true, no matter how far they are. 2007 has given me very genuine friends who stay far from me and who I never met. I am very grateful to Internet for making this happen.

Professionally, I have become more better compared to last year. I have made many new friends here. 2007 introduced me to blogging and InfyBlogs for I am very grateful to it. I got interest back in blogging during 2007. InfyBlogs has played a major role in that.

Personally, I have seen some ups and downs this year. I have gained many real friends. I found some false ones too. I used to give more importance to some than what they are worth and for some very less but they had definitely deserved more. 2007 has taught me a very good lesson in the matter of relationships. Sometimes I have been seriously hurt and other times I have hurt many. 2007 has made me emotionally more weak and also more practical( in other words more cruel ).

One thing I learnt clearly in 2007, “You can’t maintain all relationships. Every relationship is not worth to continue. Don’t give equal importance to everyone ( I was wrong earlier. Eventually one lady taught me this ). Always see who deserves more. Some need to be treated very specially for the trust they have in us and some need to be thrown out of your way for the worth they deserved. I feel happy I am slowly applying it and it has given good results.

I am glad to say that 2007 has made a better person in this world and I hope 2008 will make me even more better.

As usual, for coming year, I have set some resolutions.

So here goes my list

• Learn something new everyday
• Exercise for fitness at least thrice in a week
• Read two books every month ( condition is that those two books should be purchased by myself not borrowed from someone )
• Not to use pirated software.
• Help others as much as I can.
• Involve more in blogging and wiki. Try to answer queries in tech forums.
• Encourage people to use more open source softwares. Spread FOSS.
• Learn guitar and violin.
• And last but not the least, to improve my vocabulary.

BTW, “w00t”, an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was declared as the word of the year 2008.With all smiles and roses, let us welcome a new year in a grand way!

Welcome w00t !!!

Wish you a very Happy New Year !!!