Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Trip - Day 1 (4th April 08)

Nirva and I decided go on a 3 day trip to Ho Chi Minh city, aka Saigon in Vietnam. The whole thing came about because Nirva had a business trip planned to Saigon and we thought that it would be best to extend the stay and make it into a holiday as well. So Nirva flew on business to HCM city on 1st April and I joined her on the evening of the 4th. My plane landed at the Tan Son Nhut airport at about 5pm and by the time I cleared immigration and collected my baggage, it was around 5:30pm. I got a prepaid taxi from the airport to drop me at our hotel (New World Hotel) which costed me 12 USD.

During this taxi ride, I got my first taste of Saigon. I was absolutely amazed at the traffic - it was chaotic and crowded. And the number of 2 wheelers just blew away my mind. All I could see on the road were people on scooters or motorcycles at every inch (even on the pavement). And I was surprised by the number of women riders - I was positive that I saw more women riding the 2 wheelers than men. And the traffic was a crawl at certain places - on one of the long stretch of roads towards the hotel, my taxi would barely move for 15 second before coming to a halt for 4 minutes. This pattern repeated for at least 10-15 times on that road and I was wondering if I would reach my hotel by that night. Finally, at about 7pm I arrived at the New World Hotel, with Nirva waiting for me at the entrance with a worried look.

The hotel looked good and so did the room. We chatted for a while before we decided to head out for dinner. Nirva had found this nice restaurant about 5 minutes from the hotel that served amazing vegetarian dishes at crazily cheap prices. After a quick freshening up, we walked to the restaurant while trying to cross roads amongst heavy and chaotic traffic. The vehicles would just come at us from any direction. I was kind of transported back into India where I was used to such traffic patterns. But despite the chaotic and undirectional traffic, the people seemed nice - no one seemed to unnecessarily raise tempers at the pedestrians or fellow riders for cutting lanes and crossing roads. So after an adventurous 5 minute walk, we were at the restaurant - Bi & Bee Saigon.

And boy did it live up to Nirva's word. The food was really excellent - and it was really cheap. We ordered vegetable tempura for starters, crispy fried noodle with vegetables and a mixed vegetable braised claypot for main course. And we ordered a couple of cocunuts to have the coconut water. The portions were huge! And it was such a gastronomic affair - the braised claypot dish was especially tasty with its own spices. The chilli sauce that they had was yummy as well - we immediately decided that we will buy a bottle of that chilli sauce from the local supermarket to take back home. And all of this came to only 8 USD. I couldn't believe that we hogged such tasty food for just 8 USD. Needless to say we left as very satisfied customers and decided to come back for more meals while we were in HCM city.

After dinner, we decided to go to the famous night market - about 15 minutes walk on the other side of the hotel. The market had an interesting array of roadside shops selling all kinds of paraphernalia imaginable - there were pirated Prada, Gucci and other branded bags, clothes, soft toys, wooden show pieces, purses, decorative items, shoes and what not. We went to several differnet shops and Nirva bought a nice handbag for 10 USD. We made a mental note to buy in the following days many of the things we saw as gifts for our friends and relatives. We wanted to check out the day market as well before making our purchases because it was supposed to offer a better array of choices. Having spent about an hour at the market, we walked back to the hotel. I was tired of the flight and walking, so we decided to call it a night and start the real tour of Saigon from the next day onwards.

A weekend of calls and conversations

This has been a rather mixed bag of a weekend for me. First, Nirva left for India for her sister's wedding on Saturday evening which made me sad because I won't be seeing her until the 24th. And one of my other housemates Neha left as well (coincidentally for her brother's wedding), leaving just 2 people in the house - effectively just me because my other housemate is rarely around. And I am still not used to living alone in this house, although last night I did sleep with my room lights off (you will be proud to know my dear). And today (Sunday) I had to spend hours trying to understand the requirements of the new project for which I have been made the defacto Project Manager. For some reason, I am finding it very difficult to understand the domain as well as accept this whole business of PM work. I so wish I didn't have to do this, but it seems that everyone around me except for me thinks this is a good career move for me. I have to submit pricing, proposal and project plan by Wednesday and I have not had a start at any of the 3 areas yet - the whole day was spent in reading the old documents and trying to understand what is the project about since the users expect me to know all the details beforehand. I don't know how I will fare in this but I don't have a good feeling about this.

Anyway, apart from the dreary things above, the good and surprising thing that happened this weekend were phone calls - this truly was a weekend of calls. On Saturday evening, first I spoke to Kartik (my cousin) and Krithika (my bhabhi) in Mumbai for an hour and fifteen minutes. After that I called home and spoke with my parents for about 25 minutes. This was followed by a 40 minute conversation with Shankar mama (my uncle). And before the night was over, I spoke with Ramesh in the U.S. (Kartik's younger brother) for a good 25 minutes. To top it all, this morning, my mother called me and I got to speak with two of my cousin sisters Shubha and Janani. So all in all, this has been a weekend of calls and conversations - of catching up with family, something which I had meant to do for a long time. Of late many of my relatives were getting a bit angry with me for not calling them, since I used to be very punctual and diligent at that earlier. I hope I have addressed everyone's qualms adequately this time-:)

Back after a long time, will be gone for long again

So I am back to blogging after a long while. And it looks like I will be gone for long again given the new challenges that are going to manifest soon at my work. A lot has happened since the last time I posted here. I made a trip with Nirva to Ho Chi Minh city (I will make posts devoted solely to that trip later). I accepted a new role at my job and it is already feeling way too challenging. But in this post, I am just going to talk about something I had intended to do about 2-3 weeks back - having finished watching seasons 1 to 3 of House.

Yes, I have finally finished watching the 3 seasons of House. And I must say I was really really hooked. I think House is a very interesting character - different from what the TV shows throw up normally. I do admire him in some ways, although I do find him obnoxious in many other ways as well. Thanks to the series though that I learned so many new medically-related terms - I learned of diseases I had never heard before like Auto-immune disorder, African sleeping sickness, tuberous sclerosis, lupus, Cushing's disease; I learned of medical procedures that were completely unknown to me like entebation; I learned of new viruses and amoebas like Epstein-Barr virus and Naeglaria Fowleri (skin eating amoeba) and I heard of new medicines like IVIG, broad spectrum antibiotics and interferon. I think overall the series balances real medicine with drama quite brilliantly. One of my favorite episodes is the 2-part story of the laughing cop (titled "Euphoria") where Foreman also gets infected with the same disease and somehow the team finds at the neck of time that it was Naeglaria Fowleri. The tension was really cutting-edge throughout the 2 episodes, and you get to see one of the very few times that House does care. I thoroughly enjoyed almost all the episodes of Season 1 and 2, although the quality of the series did go down a bit during Season 3.

A severely compromised Immune System?

That is, my immune system. My friends and family have known this for a while now - the frequency with which I seem to fall ill - all the common illnesses strike me quite commonly, so to speak - be it cold or fever or influenza. In fact, currently I am in the middle of recovering from a debilitating influenza attack. I got hit by the virus some time last Tuesday when I visited a cardiologist in the Gleneagles hospital here (that's another story altogether, but so far nothing seems to be wrong with my heart, so no worries there). Since then, I have been on medical leave for 7 continuous days and I still have not recovered. Days 3 to 5 were especially bad when I was sneezing uncontrollably and feeling weak and dizzy all the time. Today was the first time in a week that I went to work. The phlegm is still there in my system and my nose is still blocked. At the end of the day, I started sneezing once again just as I was leaving work. And in between all this, I have been unable to sleep well in the night for some odd reason (despite the supposedly "knock-out" medicines).

So what's wrong with me? I know it has to be my immune system. I maybe termed obese in the strictest numerical sense, but I do not think that that is the cause of all this - I do not experience the symptoms of obesity and I quite love to (and without any difficulty as well) run and indulge in physical activities. So what happened to my immune system? And when? I do not recall being susceptible to these common illnesses during my 4 years in the US. And before that I do not recall falling sick at all when I did my Junior College in Singapore. It's only after coming back in 2004 that my immune system has tanked. I do agree that unhappiness at work is a contributing factor. But that much? I am not that unhappy at work (at least not yet) that it would impact my immune system so severely (although I attribute my hypertension problem solely to the torturous and agonizing first few months at work). So what happened? Do you have a clue? And more importantly, do you know someone (a doctor or wise old men/women or a body of knowledge) who can suggest ways on how to rebuild my immunity (preferably without ingesting big pharma tablets into my body)? I would be really grateful if someone could point me to such a source. Because I think the time has come for me to really address this issue...I will be 30 in a couple of years and I want to be in good health before I hit that number.

Yes, I am a bit scared, somewhat in despair and quite lost as to what to do.

A quiet dinner made interesting

After work on a day of heavy torrential downpour, I decided to head to the nearby Siglap area to have a quiet (and brooding) dinner by myself. My first choice was to eat cheap - at Rajah's prata shop. To my disappointment, it was closed and I decided to move on to my second option - Pizza Hut - only if they had the summer vegetable soup. I knew tonight was not going to be my night when they told me that they no longer have that soup on their menu. So, I decided to exercise the safest option available - eat at Chutney Mary (a small restaurant serving Indian snacks and main courses). Having ordered a biryani and a rogan josh, I sipped my masala tea, looking forward to the dinner in solace.

Before the food I ordered arrived, an old couple (maybe in their 60s) sat on the table next to mine. And then started a somewhat interesting, somewhat irritating but devoid of solitude dinner. They were a stereotypical old Indian couple - the lady a nagging complaining wife, the man listening to his wife's nagging but not caring much about it husband. The lady spent many minutes trying to get the waiter to explain what was meant by "Shami Kebab" in every minute detail. Dissatisfied after the poor waiter's best attempts at explaining, she then spent a few minutes lamenting how the waiters neither know how to serve nor know what they are serving, with the husband joining in with a nod of his head. After a few more detailed queries on some other items, the couple finally got down to the business of ordering. There was another mini disapproval session when the waiter actually understood and repeated one of their somewhat complicated order correctly, but the lady decide to ignore that and re-emphasize the whole thing again, making sure the waiter felt that he had got it wrong after all.

Now that the waiter had gone (and I bet none of them wanted to hover around their table, and by a sad spacial extension mine as well), the lady started making comments about the dishes being brought to a party of 3 at another table (my food had not arrived by then, ergo I was spared). Somehow the mini-basket in which they serve the bread caught her attention so much that she called the waiter to ask "what is that thing on that table" in a voice loud enough for the diners at that table to hear. After a few minutes of explanation from the poor waiter with the "oh-kill-me" face, she finally understood that that is how the restaurant serves bread. She loudly remarked that she wanted the basket too, although I suspect that they hadn't ordered bread in the first place. By this time my food arrived, and I think she remarked something about the dish in which my biryani was served, although I did not catch the exact remark. This was followed by some more lamentations about how Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta & co were just shaking their hips and not actually dancing in the song "Maahi Ve" that was being shown on the television screen in the restaurant. Throughout all this, I was so tempted to do a House and say something very House-like to them but I guess real life is not a televised drama and one should refrain from bringing House-like characters out in such situations.

So that was my dinner...which I had hoped would be peaceful but it never was. At the end of it, I was thinking "I hope Nirva and I do not end up like that when we grow old" (Don't worry jaan, I know you can never been that nagging lady-:)). That was definitely not what I wanted my old age to be. And that led me thinking to the frequent discussions I have had with my friend and colleague Edwin about whether we will repeat the same mistakes as our parents as we grow old and as we bring up our kids. Both of us have seen that our dads have not been the dads they should have been through our childhood and teenage years. Having gone through that experience and being cognizant of those flaws should enable us to consciously avoid repeating those same mistakes when we grow old and raise our children. But Edwin will always say that that might not be the case - there is a good chance that we will also end up repeating those things, despite knowing the contrary. I don't believe so, but sometimes I do wonder, will we? Will I be a good husband and a good dad as I grow old? Will I learn from watching my dad when I was growing up and not repeat those mistakes?

I guess only time will tell.

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

No, I am not writing a tribute to Bill Withers or bringing up a reference to Notting Hill here. This is exactly how I feel and how it is since Nirva left for India last night for her sister's engagement. It has been raining since last night. It's been gloomy and dark all day today. So this is for you my dear:

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long anytime she goes away.

It is true...she's really always gone too long anytime she goes away. Eagerly awaiting her return Friday of next week.

CNY 2008 - Pulau Ubin Trip

The Chinese New Year holidays this year offered a rare long holiday as it fell on Thursday and Friday (7th, 8th Feb). And it so happened that both Nirva and I had no plans to go anywhere, and most of our friends were out of town on holiday. So the two of us decided to go to this small island near the mainland of Singapore known as Pulau Ubin (shown circled in the map). Both of us had been wanting to go there for a while and this was occasion parfait.

So we set out at 9 am on the morning of 7th Feb, taking with us bottles of water and food in our backpacks since we planned to come back only around 4 pm. Pulau Ubin is a cycling/walking haven and we planned to cycle around the islands, so we had to be well stocked up with water. The weather outlook for the day was sunny with lots of wind. Our first destination was the Changi Point Ferry Terminal from where we can take a $2.00 per person 10-minute bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin. Luckily Bus No. 2 went all the way from the bus station near our house to the ferry terminal thereby simplifying matters.

The bus ride itself was a revelation to us because we went through parts of Singapore that both of us had never been to. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the Changi Point bus terminal. We decided to have breakfast at the hawker centre there before catching the bumboat. Since it was CNY, very few stalls were open and we had to queue up at a roti-prata stall for 15 minutes to get food. Having washed down 2 egg pratas with a glass of Teh-Ci, we proceeded to the Ferry Terminal nearby to line up for the bumboat.

Again, owing to CNY, there were many people going to the islands nearby. But we got lucky once again...the bumboat can accommodate a maximum of 12 people and it so happened that the bumboat that was leaving was short of 2 passengers. When the boat captain asked for 2 more people to join, we put our hands up quickly since rest of the people were in their own large groups and wanted to travel together.The bumboat ride was quite something, for me at least. The waves were high since it was around 11:00am and the boat really rocked. The 10 minute ride seemed like 1/2 an hour to me. But it was very scenic as well.I secretly wished that on the way back it would be low tide and a relatively smoother ride-:)

And so we set foot on the island of Pulau Ubin. After a quick photo-op, we proceeded to the rather small visitor center to grab a map of the island. The island looked quite conquerable to us and we decide to head towards the bicycle rental shops ahead of us to grab our bicycles for the day. We were stopped in our tracks by the owner of the first bicycle rental itself...he advertised his bike prices as the lowest we could find on that island (not that we had 100s of choices), and gave me some mercedes-honda analogy when I asked for specific bikes. We tried out a couple of "hondas" which were going at $12 for the whole day. Nirva was not too happy initially, more so with the haggling of the rental owner than with the bike itself. But soon we found bikes to our liking and paid the 24 dollars.I am not sure if this really was the cheapest available, but we did not want to delay our bike hike any more. We were all excited and revved up to discover the island.

The owner had suggested to us the route to take and the recommended spots. We had read online that Chek Jawa wetlands (eastern tip of the island) were a must-see and so we decided to head towards that direction. The entire bike trail was composed of roads as well as dirt paths, and was hilly. With the sun hunkering down on us and the humidity in the air, it soon became quite hard to cycle up and down the hilly roads. We finally reached the point where we had to drop off our bikes and continue on foot to the Chek Jawa wetlands.

After anchoring our bikes to the bicycle stands, we started on our walk and within 2 minutes arrived at the Chek Jawa visitor centre. A sign on the board there informed us that the day's lowest tide would be at 6:28pm. Chek Jawa wetlands are the best to see when the tide is low because it is then when one can see all the marine flora and fauna in its full glory. We decided that since we had already reached the area, we would go ahead with touring the wetlands, but we made a mental note to come back to the area around 4pm or so to get a better view when the tide is falling. Looking for a WC before embarking on our walk, we saw a house-like structure overlooking the ocean. The scenes from there and from the jetty behind it were breathtaking. We really had a fun time there admiring the beauty of the place, although the sun was really baking us by then since it was noon already.

There were two different boardwalks around the Chek Jawa wetlands - Coastal and Mangrove. We decided to walk both since they were just over a kilometer. Once again, the scenery was absolutely fantastic. The mangrove trees all around the wetlands were beautiful to look at and admire. The coastal boardwalk led into the mangrove one and we saw some cool natural growth - we saw a tree which was 40% submerged in water and it looked something out of the ordinary. And we also spotted this flowing sheet of green algae near the beach at one point - it looked as if a green plastic sheet was spread across the area. We also encountered some marine life unique to Chek Jawa wetlands. All in all we had a great time going around the wetlands and decided to have lunch at the visitor centre there, before heading back to grab our bikes.

Mind you, the sun was at its strongest throughout our biking and walking and we had grown increasingly tired. After lunch, we had to spend some time fixing Nirva's bike since the chain had come off the axle. My hands were covered completely with black grease and I had to spend 15 minutes trying to get rid of all that muck. We finally set off again and to our dismay discovered that the path back was really very ragged and rough, making cycling almost impossible. To make matters worse, it was mostly uphill, so we ended up pushing our bikes up the dirt path. It took us a good 20 minutes to cover the dirt road before we could start biking again. We decided to go to a beach nearby but it turned out it was nothing much and we turned back again. We had decided to visit the western part of the island but the heat had made us really exhausted and we decided to call it a day. We biked back to the rental shop to drop of our bikes and then we headed towards the jetty to take the ferry back to mainland Singapore. We may have spent only 4 hours at Pulau Ubin, but we had fun. We knew we were going back with fond memories of the beautiful scenery on the island and vowed to return some day to view the wetlands during low tide.