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A ten-day trip to the beautiful countries in South East Asia refreshes a team of four intrepid travellers. The family party included Gopal and wife, Ambuja, and Rajan Athimber with wife Sarada, who sets out for Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Those wanting to go places could pick up tips and if you are a couch potato who just want to read about places but wont go - well, you’ll realize why it’s entirely your loss!
Language was occasionally a problem, but actions could more than make up for it, writes Ambuja in her travel diary. Excerpts from Ambuja's jottings:
Day 1: November 1, 2005 – Tuesday:
The tour organizers had asked us to be present at the Kesari office at 1.45 p.m. As usual, Appa (Gopa) hurried me to have lunch at 12.pm, so that we can rest for a while before leaving. We were carrying two big suitcases and two travel bags. Travel bags had been provided by Kesari. We reached the Kesari office and as usual, we were the first ones to report before time. There were about 42 people, and we were put in two groups in two buses. The trip to Mumbai airport started at 2.30 pm, and we reached Lonavala around 4 pm where we had coffee.
We reached Sahar at 6 pm, and waited with our luggage, since our tour leader had not arrived. He arrived at 6.40.pm. Mr Vinod Kshirsagar and Mr Jayesh Mhatere welcomed us and gave us our passports and tickets, and we were taken to a restaurant at the Airport called ‘Celebrations’ where we had sandwiches, wafers, gulab jamun and coffee. We were also given a packet of Diwali delicacies and instant coffee and tea packets for use during the tour. Caps were also distributed.
After completing the check-in and other formalities, our flight took off at 11-50 pm. On the Thai Airlines Flight TG 318 to Bangkok, dinner included bun, butter, corn and some salads and rice. One paneer (cottage cheese) dish was served, followed by coffee and orange juice.
Day 2
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| Elephant show at Nong Nooch village. |
We landed at Bangkok airport at 5 am local time and completed all the immigration formalities. Coming out, we were happy to see Sarada and Athimbar (Rajan) waving out to us. They had flown earlier to Bangkok from Bangalore. We then freshened up at the airport around 7.am.
The local bus took us to Pattaya through the streets of Thailand.
We took a break at the local McDonalds to have coffee and burgers. Our first halt was at Nong Nooch village, a Thai village where we were entertained by a Thai cultural show and an elephant show. We visited a pottery garden, where we clicked a few pictures – we walked around a lot and were soon hungry. Lunch was served at the Champ Hotel, which - thankfully - for vegetarians like us included roti, dal, bhendi bhaji, raita, semiya kheer. All of us relished the lunch.
We came back tired and checked in to Hotel Bayoke Pattaya. We had a shower and a nap and felt refreshed enough for the evening outing. Our group leader, a Thai man named Ko asked us to be ready at 5-30 pm sharp. Mr Ko briefed us about the place which we were going to visit. He told us about the Alcazar show - a dance show which were going to watch. He told us that there is a secret which will be revealed after the show.
The dance performance started around 6.30. All the girls were young and beautiful and danced to the lovely music - some in traditional Thai costumes and some in fancy dresses. The sets were marvellous. During the dance performance, all of us were given complimentary orange juice. When we returned to our buses on way to the hotel, Mr Ko asked us whether anyone could spot the secret. It turned out that all those performers were eunuchs! Unbelievable but true! Dinner was at Pattaya hotel, and then it was time to say good night.
Day 3
We had breakfast of bread, jam, noodles, omelet and orange juice. Appa was the only one who enjoyed omelet. Myself and Sarada were happy with toast and jam, while Rajan tasted all things possible. Then, the tour for the day began - the bus drove us to a certain point, from where a speed boat took us to the Coral Island. Here was the adventure part, with the entire group going parasailing. Sarada and I hesitated. Both the men encouraged us to go and we had a wonderful experience… - it was great. We came back by speed boat to the beach. Appa wanted to go underwater, but I was scared. However, we left him on the island for his underwater journey. We came to the shore and relaxed on the beach, though I was worried about my hero being underwater - but he made it back safe and sound.
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| Gopal scuba diving |
We proceeded to some window shopping, drank refreshing coconut water, watched coral formations from a glass boat and returned to Champ Hotel for lunch. The next halt was at the Gems Gallery. A mini tour by a subway train took us through the land of gems - it was worth seeing. We visited the gems factory and were shown the process of cutting, polishing and setting of gems. Rajan Athimbar and Sarada bought a topaz pendant on a silver chain for their daughter-in-law to be, Aparna, which cost 1,500 baht.
It rained mildly, but overall, weather remained pleasant. We returned to Bayoke Pattaya, and had free time to shop. All of us went for a walk and back at the hotel, we went for dinner and then winded up for the day.
Day 4
We had a wake-up call at 5 am. As usual, Appa was up at 4.30 AMbefore everyone else, and all of us were ready by 5.30. We went for breakfast at 6, boarded the bus at 7 and, started off to Bangkok. En route, we visited a Safari Park with giraffes, lions, tigers and, hippos. I even held a tiger cub on my lap! There was a sea lion show and a stunt show, following which we took a break for lunch at the Park restaurant.
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| Safari park trip |
budd shows resumed – there was a dolphin show, spy show and a bird show and it became a little boring by the end. We were all treated with chocobar icecream by Mr Jai and then, the bus drove us to Hotel Bangkok Palace. We reached by 6.pm, and at 8.30, we were taken out for dinner. Hotel Bawarchi was an Indian restaurant with good ambience and good food.
Day 5
We were taken on a tour of Bangkok city. Mr Ko had warned us to be up early and finish breakfast. Our first halt was at the Golden Buddha temple – it was a beautiful temple with a spacious campus. There was a shiva linga in one of the temples besides many faces of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. We were told that many childless couples come to the Linga to offer coconuts and bananas - coconut for a female child and bananas for a male child. Amusing, isn’t it? The next temple is that of a Sleeping Buddha or reclining Buddha as it is called. This is a huge statue of Buddha in gold in a sleeping pose, which reminded me of Padmanabha Swamy of Trivandrum. Again, the ambience is well-maintained at the temple. Most of the Buddhist ceremonies are conducted here. The next temple was that of the Principle Buddha. We were told that the ceremonies of those who want to become monks was held at this temple.
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| Beside Sleeping Buddha |
It was time for lunch and we visited a restaurant called Curry Pot. The lunch was delicious. Thailand has an abundance of fruits like pineapple, guava, oranges and what we call pablis narangay. Jackfruit and chambakkai were plenty and we also saw lots of tamarind trees on the roadside.
Post-lunch, we went shopping at the Indra market. There was the usual tourist fare laid out – colourful shirts, chappals, pyjamas etc and we had a gala time shopping. We bought a few typical Thai T-shirts. Sarada and I bought chappals. Language was a problem - the shopkeepers could not understand a word of English - but actions proved better than words!
We returned to the hotel by 6 pm. Mr Ko had told us that we had to leave for dinner at 7.30 pm sharp. The moment we got in to our rooms, it started raining and so we had to cancel the planned evening stroll. So we got ready for dinner at 7.30 and boarded the bus. The roads were flooded and it looked just like a flooded street in Mumbai or Pune – there was heavy traffic, but unlike in India, it was well-organized and not at all chaotic.
Day 6
We got up early and had a light breakfast of toast and coffee, since breakfast would be served on the plane - we had to catch the flight to Kuala Lumpur. At the Bangkok airport, we finished all the formalities and went for immigration clearance and what a chaos there was! For once, we felt India was better organized and stood there for almost 45 minutes to come through immigration clearance.
We boarded the plane at 8.15 AM and landed in Kuala Lumpur at 12.20 PM local time, which is one hour ahead of Thailand. We collected our baggage and were waiting to get out, when Jayesh sent an SMS to one of the group members that all of us may have to wait at the airport for some time, since seven of our group members had not got their Malaysian visa that they were promised, since their offices were closed due to Ramadan! It was a punishment for the rest of the members to wait at the airport and for the first time, members cursed the Kesari tour organizers. All the Diwali snacks which the organizers had given us came in handy here.
Finally after 3 hours, Jayesh announced that we could proceed to the hotel. We had lunch at the Gems Hotel and afterwards, proceeded to the ropeway car station by bus. Mr Sam was our guide. When we got there, it was getting dark, so we quickly got into the ropeway cars - six per car. It was scary because we were 6,000 feet above sea level with a dense jungle below. I think I saw a tiger but I am not sure.
We were heading towards Genting highlands, which are acres of land on a hill developed by a Chinese. We can't but help admire his vision of developing an empty land to an amazing tourist spot. There were parks, casino and amusement rides. At the theme park, we enjoyed a roller coaster, cup and saucer ride etc and there were many other rides like space mountain, mini train ride, go-karting etc. We visited the Jurassic Park where there was a long queue for all the rides. We had dinner at Kenpong Restaurant, which was very good. Then we retired for the night.
Day 7
After breakfast, we boarded the bus to look around Malaysia. Our tour guide Maria briefed us about the places we were to see – the first halt was at the chocolate shop. All of us rushed to the shop and there were a huge variety of chocolates to be had - milk chocolates, Durian chocolates, coffee choices, diabetic chocolates, viagra chocolates and what not. We had to pay in ringgits, the Malaysian currency. After shopping, we set out for Petonas twin towers, an amazing structure made of steel.
We went to another tower, KL Tower and we could go up to the top of the tower by lift. We were given headphones and all the prominent buildings were described through them. It was a good audio presentation.
We went down to the King's Palace, but we were not let inside. Then we drove towards our hotel, Quality Hotel. On the way, Maria showed us the High Court, Merdeka square, a cricket field etc. She also showed us the market place, where we could come on our own - Prarthana and Sogo - after settling down in the hotel.
Day 8
Our days in Malaysia were over, we now had to leave for Singapore by road. We boarded the bus and reached the Malaysian border. We were told by our guides that there will be strict security checking at the border for sealed alchohol bottles, cigarettes and chewing gum. If anyone was found carrying these, they would be in trouble. There was a stretch of land, which was ‘No man's land’ and we walked through that stretch to our buses, which were brought to the other side.
We had a warm welcome waiting at Singapore. Maria and Jayesh were relieved. We drove towards Singapore's New Park Hotel. It was really amazing how we covered 800-plus kilometers in a mere five hours. We reached the hotel around 1.30 in the afternoon. We were all hungry and were taken to ‘Tandoori’ a Punjabi hotel. The food was good. That evening, we went shopping at ‘Mustafa’, the reputed shopping mall of Singapore which was just behind our hotel. All of us were happy to shop to our heart's content. Back at the hotel, we had dinner at the New Park Hotel itself. The food wasn’t good at all, except gulab jamuns, which were delicious.
Day 9
It was a day for sightseeing. Our tour guide Mr John took us to the Raffles square. There was a statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, an Englishman who discovered this small island. Earlier, Singapore and Malaysia were one country. It is believed that when Sir Raffles came sailing, he found this island where the Malays were just fishermen. It is said that he saw an animal in the bushes and he was not sure as to which animal it was. So, he asked one of the fishermen there and he said ‘simha’ meaning lion and today, the name Singapore is derived from Simhapura, which means the land of lions.
Though there are no lions here, we could see the statue of Merlion. This statue has the face of a lion and the body of a fish, which depicts the fishermen there. We took a boat ride on the Singapore river and watched the beautiful buildings around.
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| Merlion |
We were taken to the botanical garden on our way back, where We visited the orchid garden. Sarada who was a a Botany graduate explained what an orchid was. Orchids grow on trees and blossom there. In fact, orchids are parasites of a particular type of tree. We saw orchid flowers of a variety of colours – purple, yellow, pink and almost all other colours. It was really a treat for the eyes.
The evening included a visit to the Sentosa island. First, we had to go to Mt Faber and then take a cable car ride from Mt Faber to Sentosa island. Some of the group members were to join the cruise there. In Sentosa island, we saw a wax museum, followed by a dolphin show and musical fountains with a fire show. Everyone settled for the musical fountain and then it started raining! In Singapore, it just pours without any warning sign, and we had no umbrella!
It was completely dark with no lights at all, and we were totally wet. This experience was the climax of the tour – memorable rather than an unforgettable experience. And coming at the end of the tour, I prayed that no one should fall sick. We returned to the hotel and had dinner. By this time, we were longing for our home food - rasam, upperi and molagoottal pachadi.
Day 10
Our last day of the tour. We had early breakfast and visited our friendVaithy’s home. He took us to a temple near his home called Dandayuthapani kovil and then we visited the Balaji temple. Since we wanted to travel by the subway train, Vaithy took us by bus and the subway train, showing us how to swap the card for traveling in the train and bus.
We reached our hotel and went to Mustafa once again. We shopped, had lunch, packed our bags and waited at the hotel. We left the hotel around 2-30 pm and came to the Singapore airport. It’s a beautiful airport, where we did some duty-free shopping. The flight to Bangkok was delayed due to bad weather, but reached just in time to board the flight to Mumbai.
When we landed in Mumbai, a Kesari representative was at the airport. A private bus was waiting for all the people who lived in Pune. We left Mumbai airport by 12.30 at night and reached Sayali at 5.15 am. It felt heavenly being in our own land and in the comfort of our own nest.
EDITED BY MANALI ROHINESH |
