North India Trip feb 2009--part 1

Sunday 22-2-2009
Manipal
Before we start the journey to North India.

The last day of the exam; the second day jiejie reaches India. I had no idea how she feels about India and I have no time to ask her or chat with her much after she reaches as I went for Pathology viva in the Saturday evening and busy preparing for microbiology practical at the night itself.

Hoped that I can confirm that I passed everything before leaving for vacation, but, still I missed the microbiology viva. I knew I didn’t do well in the paper especially the McQs so it’s a bit worry that whether it’s a clear pass or not. Somehow, it’s a relieved for me and I can go here and there with jiejie. We went to manipal canteen for lunch after the viva list is released. Haiz, don’t know what’s jiejie thinking? She wants me to bring her to Endpoint and Udupi, Yet, she was blaming me for not getting another viva. She thought I purposely did badly in the paper, maybe~ :p

I was unable to bring her to Udupi as I was too tired already! Headache, swollen eyes, slow motion, whatever you name it! I don’t want to fall sick at the beginning of the journey but still I need to pick up my energy to pack my things! About to faint to pack all the things with winter clothing into my 45 L small back pack. After we almost finish packing, we went to endpoint so that jiejie knows what is the so-called endpoint (she saw the road sign when she has just reached). Then, we went to the temple and meet wc and yy. Isn’t it better to pray before we go traveling? After that, we went to chef inn to have dinner with Kent and yy. Jiejie keeps complaining that the portion of the dish is too big since she went to snackshack and dollops on Saturday. After dinner, we said goodbye with yy and kent and get ready to go to cc and se’s house to assemble!



Monday 23-3-2009
Goa
Land of Portuguese once a upon of time

This is the second time I go to the Goa, the same site and the same beach as last time as we have one day plus after my Sunday’s exam which just fit to the schedule we planned. The purposes I go there again is just because jiejie, wc, cc and se had not been to and jiejie is very eager to have the lobster there as its very cheap as compared to Malaysia!
There Is a little change in transportation this time--I go by train. It was a midnight train which took us 4 hours to reach. The 3 of them (wc,cc and se) had a very bad experiences last time to Kuchi as the train stopped for 2 minutes and you have to go in the correct cabinet, correct track with all your luggage. I was a bit worry as jiejie and I have not in the train before, especially me, not even in to the train in Malaysia. I have no idea how to count the station; no experiences on sitting in a train; no idea how difficult to get into the train. Moreover, it was Midnight!! After 4 days battled with practical exams and viva, continued with the rush packing of my backpack, I was very tired and sleepy. We gathered at se and cc’s house first, then depart around 12 as we heard that there will be a roadblock due to strike. But, obviously, it was a wrong info! We ended up taking photos on the bench for most of the time. Jiejie seems very tired and unhappy, hopefully it was just because the time difference between India and Malaysia! I am big-sized, looked strong. But im seriously having problem to carry my backpack! I hate putting the weight on my shoulder, it makes my shoulder line goes down and whatever clothes I wear will not look that nice anymore!! Sadly, I have to carry the backpack and walk to the other end of the railway station because we took the AC coach and its at the back! Stupid! So heavy(but my bag is the second light in the group after cc)! I can fall down and sleep at anytime! And bladder problem, we need to go to the toilet! The toilet in the train station seems dirty--its in the middle of bushes! And someone is sleeping outside the toilet! How can we be so mean to add on the urinate smell to their dreams?

My sleepiness go nowhere when I heard the ‘dudu’ sound from the train. Everyone becomes alert and try to get in to the train once the train stops. Huuuu…..finally! We are in the train! It doesn’t seem very difficult for me to get to the train, maybe is because all the bags are with us, tying around our body and we do not need to carry them one by one!

Though my roommate had explained the condition of the train to me, I never thought that it will be like that--a small space that fit 6 passengers with another 2 more at the site. All are filled, so where is our seats? Well, the tempeh simply took the seats and leave all their luggage in our place, which means that we need to wait for the conductor to check our ticket and ask them to clear the place for us. Gehk qi…im exhausted!!! I have no idea why the officer in the railway station didn’t want to put us together but leave one seat at the side! So, my sis and I ‘should be’ together; se wants to ‘look after’ wc and hence, cc has to take the side seat. Immediately after we settle down, I took the upper most bed and sleep without putting the bed sheet. I didn’t know that without the bed sheet, I will feet itchy here and there :S and its so easy to knock my head to the ceiling. Usually, I couldn’t sleep in noise and with empty stomach. But, who cares about it after you see a proper place for you to sleep? (except se I think, he didn‘t sleep for many days already yet he can stand till today and went for examinations too!)

It wasn’t a long journey. By 4am, we need to wake up and get ready to leave. That was the first time I saw the toilet in the train. Se explained to me while waiting for my turns--there will be an Indian style and western style toilet and a basin outside. Indian style= squat; western style= sit. Indian style one is quite wet and western style is still clean. The meaning of ’clean’ is that no one shit outside the bowel and you will not see feces in the toilet; but whether the water on the floor is from the tap or bladder, only God and the person knows that! It wasn’t very bad to brush my teeth, wash my face and urinate in the train, its just that I couldn’t stand properly and its quite unstable and 手忙脚乱!!:p

Stepping out from the train station, will be the time to face all kinds of auto man! Haha…but we are not stupid enough to take their vehicles when a prepaid auto stand is nearby! It took us around one hour plus to reach the baga beach area. I forgot what was the hotel I stayed last time, so se looked for another one--Angelina guest house. Just because there will be many Angelina Jolin’s photos? Maybe? Hehe…

For that is my second visit of the same place, I wasn’t very excited on anything. I just feel sleeping. But what to do? My job in our group is to look for places to eat and everyone is starving and jiejie is so excited to go around, I need to accompany her, need not I? So, after a short rest, we walked out to rent bikes. CC is so cool! I said I paid for 200 for one day bike rental last time and he seriously got it after rejecting many 300 rental bikes! 皇天不负有心人？ yup..its very suitable to use here! We headed to the beach for dolphin as soon as we get the key and oil (we have to fill the tank ourselves.) It has been a long time I fetch jiejie! So nice that I can feel her breath behind me again. Haha…but I think cc is a bit worry about my unstable riding at the beginning…:p I never thought that cc can ride. I mean the way he rides seems so easy and familiar like he is doing it everyday in India.

Aiya..I forgot how much I paid for dolphin boat ride?!
Haiz….do not know how to bargain but I definitely not going to pay for 1000 something for that…we paid around 500 for that? I don’t remember now. But I remember that the person didn’t have enough safety jacket for wc and he didn’t fill up the fuel tank before we left. There were many boats on sea and was very noisy!! I was waiting for him to bring us to another side of the sea where we can see more dolphin. Disappointedly, he didn’t. He showed few dolphin ( dolphin will not come out if the surrounding is too noisy!) only! And the worst thing is that the boat is out of fuel. Engine cannot be started, the whole boat is floating in the middle of the sea. At that moment, many boats had left. The surrounding was really very quiet and the situation is worrying but, NO DOLPHIN!
Finally, he has to borrow the fuel from other boat and send us back immediately.

No one wants to play water sport. So, of course it’s the time for breakfast! We went to Infantaria as the smell of its bakery and pastries is still remembered in my mind that I should go for it, even just to take away! It wasn’t disappointing but we ordered too much. Maybe that was our first time we have breakfast together--we do not know how much each other can eat. After that, we went to withdraw money. It was at the side of traffic jam road--hot, hot, and very hot! The weather is hot, the bike is hot and perhaps the White lady is hot too. The European seems like the weather and enjoy wearing less clothing. There are many who doesn’t wear bra and just wear a thin-clothing skirt. No idea what’s the guys feel but that shouldn’t happen to me in my entire life! We heard that wc and se crush with somebody else on road, but nothing has happened, so just ignore it.

After the heavy breakfast, wc and I are no longer interested to get up from the bed. Se and cc went out to look for car to Old Goa. It took us around one hour to reach the Basilica of Bom Jesus and churches. They are all very old building and honored as world heritage site as the incorrupt body of St Francis Xavier is there! It wasn’t very fun to see the same thing again for me. But I have to admit that the craving, structure and designs of the buildings are so fantastic that I feel worth going to see it again with jiejie. A hot evening to walk around but the interior of the church is so much windy, comfortable and peaceful! Do the architects nowadays can create such a building again? I doubt. They seriously makes me feel that people in early century is cleverer!

Tired…hot….
Why don’t we have a good nap?
But I think none of us will foresee that we will be sleeping till 6pm? What to do? We can’t go to see another fort and sunset already! The only thing we can do is eat as we skipped the lunch already! Lobo is my choice as it’s at the beach and we could go to Calangute beach besides Baga beach. If you want to come to Goa, don’t ever plan to save the money for food and expect you yourself will have self control not to order the seafood, especially you had been in Manipal for sometimes and you have just finished your exam! Specially for jiejie, we ordered a salad, oyster, lobster, tiger prawn, king fish, pork, sausage and 2 more deserts by wc though we are already very full. What to do? The title’ deserts’ is too tempting but they are quite normal for me only.

We returned the bike by 9 and walked along the road for some shopping. I never expect that the taxi driver dares to ask for 80 just to reach the junction between Calangute and Baga? Its just a straight road to reach!!! Fine, we gave up to go there but walk around the hotel area. We ended the shopping by stopping at a bar. The atmosphere and decoration looked nice but its disappointing. The boss has not come yet so the AC cannot be on; the pool table is inside but the area is not ventilated; no playing cards AT ALL?! Oh no, we could just sit there, ordered beer or cocktail and chitchatting only. Other than that? Donate our blood to mosquitoes.~~
Oh ya, the gentlemen in our group do no take alcohol but the ladies do! Weird? No idea~ hopefully this is not a bad impression!

Jiejie is very tired. She slept immediately she reached the hotel; we played the cards for some times and do all the payments to cc. Rs 2100 per person. it’s a lot!! Think we need to save money and starts a budget trip by tomorrow. We left in the early morning to Madgoan railway station after buying toasts and puff in Infanteria. And those would be our breakfast, lunch and dinner in train as the next train takes us 18 hours to reach Ahmedabad!

ps: wc= waicheng; jiejie= my sis; se =swee en; cc= chen chuan, yy- yeeyong (but hse is not in our group~)