YIPPEE!!! Taj Mahal

I have finally made it...the Taj...yes it is as beautiful as you see in the pictures. I was just amazed by the whole view...it is an amazing building and I will take nothing away from Mr. Jahan...or should I say His Royal Highness Shah Jahan. On her death bed apparently his wife Mumtaz told him the following three things: 1. Take care of the Kids. 2. Don't remarry. 3. Build me a tomb that the world will envy. He failed on the first count. His son Aurangzeb murdered his three elder brothers, arrested his father and became king. Mr. Jahan never remarried...but that’s because he already had two wives still left...and the third...well the Tomb the world would envy...he did quite well...the only things was that he was overdoing it by building a second Taj opposite the River Yamuna...that’s when his kid Aurangzeb said, "That's it daddy you are now taking this too far and eating into my inheritance...enough is enough I say."

The Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays

If you EVER plan to visit the Taj Mahal...REMEMBER THAT IT IS CLOSED ON FRIDAYS. Man...I cannot believe my luck. I have traveled across the country to see the Taj and it is close...CLOSED...CLOSED...can you believe it...I am not a happy bunny.

Bus to Agra...Cannot wait for get there.

After 2 days in Rajasthan I got back to Delhi last night. I am now on my way Agra. Last week I met some people from Australia while I was in Cambodia. They have traveled India extensively and were talking about the Taj Mahal and I was feeling so embarrassed that I being an Indian have never seen our own Wonder of the World. Well...that is all about to change. I am with a friend of mine Abanith who studies at the Delhi School of Economics and we will be in Agra in a few hours. I cannot wait for 6pm.

BITS Pilani, Rajasthan - Oasis 2006

After a 200km drive through 3 states I am finally in BITS Pilani. I am here judging their JAM event at Oasis 2006. The kids are working on the preliminary round of the event. Tomorrow we have the on stage finals. Its so easy to set a question paper...and really tough to be the one who is writing it. :-) Glad thats not me in the room.

Tea Shop in Haryana

My travels now take me to the North of India. I am on my way to Rajasthan but for some reason I just cannot resist the temptation to have a quick cup of chai in Haryana...and that's Vinodji...my driver for the day.

Finally I make it to Angkor Wat

After coming to this country 3 times over 7 years, I finally made it down to the site that Cambodia is know for - Angkor Wat at Siem Reap. I have loads of photographs to share and will do so in a few days on my travel blog...and don't worry, you will not have to see my face in those pictures...so for a few days Swolpa Adjust Maadi.

Sunrise at the Angkor Wat

I have taken some really nice photographs of the Angkor Wat. Look out for them on my Travel Blog. I may take a few days to post them because I am making my passage to India now.

Back in Cambodia

I am finally back in Phnom Penh. My trip to Bangkok to meet Bharadwaj and Vinutha was awesome. We had the time of our lives. When I think back, I would not have done even 10% of the stuff had they not been there. BJ (Bharadwaj as his family knows him) worked in Bangkok for 2 years and for the better part of our trip was our guide. His knowledge of Thai enabled us to drink coffee without any trouble whatsoever. BJ introduced me to Thai Lemon Tea...Cheers mate.

The photograph you see right now was taken on the way back from the Airport to our house in Phnom Penh. The car is traveling at about 26km per hour. I am finding it quite difficult to adjust to life in the slow lane in Cambodia. I have hardly been here 20 minutes and I am already pressing the accelerator to try to get the car to move a little faster on the empty road...but...unfortunately I am not in the driver's seat. Bangkok has spoilt me. The roads there are awesome and most of the time when you are not stuck in a traffic jam you move at speeds over 100kmph. But I can't complain, how often is the car speed the same as the outside temperature - 26.

- Rohit Jayakaran

Cherry and Moi at Bangkok International Airport

There you go...I am finally leaving Bangkok after extending my trip there for a couple of days more. Cherry was kind enough to drop me to the airport. She is perhaps the most confident woman driver I have ever seen. Her average speed is about a 110kmph...pretty good for anyone I would say. She has one big problem though...she calls me her "Midget Cousin from India". The thing is that she never stops doing this. While I was in Bangkok, she even renamed my contact on her phone...so when I call it actually says "Midget". GRRRR. Cherry I am not amused.

Shopping at Jatujak Weekend Market

The Jatukak weekend market is the World's Largest Weekend Market. You can even check out their website on www.jatujakguide.com . Funky...a weekend market with a website. This is a great place to buy stuff if you are a tourist...but the locals shop a lot here too. If you buy something really big and would like to sent it to another part of the world, that is possible as well becuase you will find DHL, TNT and other international shippers in the market as well. I picked myself some nice oriental looking pants. I hope to be sporting them soon in Bangalore. You can also buy a lot of art at the market. But be warned when you are buying clothes and shoes...the thing is that as a tourist you will not be able to read the boards saying "Second Hand Clothes"...so if the stuff looks dirty and is really really cheap...it is probably second hand and imported from South Korea...be warned. You can also pick up nice dried flowers here...and the food is quite good. And as always, the prices are low, so you bargain only for fun. The shopkeepers are however known to inflate prices for tourists. The irony however was that as Indians my firends and I got better price quotes than our Thai friends. Go Figure!!!

Thai Ice Tea

At the Jatujak Weekend Market, I had the opportunity to try out Thai Ice Tea. If you wanna know how to make it, check out http://www.blueray.com/thaitea/recipes.html . The tea and a lot of drinks in Thailand are quite interesting. I have found that in Thailand those who sell liquids have a pet obsession - ICE. I never knew Ice can be added to so many things. When you get a bottle of Coke, you could share it among 5 people becuase each glass has so much crushed Ice. If you have a cold, then you need to tell them that you do not want Ice. However they think you are kind of crazy that you do not want it COLD. So you need to tell them that as well. "NO ICE - NO COLD". Which will get them all confused and you will get something else completly. Which is even more fun...so basically you have no choice but to drink the Cold Coke with No Ice...which makes your cold worse...Ok...the next time I come to Thailand I am gonna take a one month conversation course in Bangalore. Either that...or I will just suffer Thai Ice Cold Kindness.

His name's Jedi & the Force is strong in this One

Yes his name is actually Jedi...like Starwars. He is the 11 month old son of friends of mine in Thailand - Nuong and Cook. They were in London with me and are back in Bangkok and have the cutest kid you can find in the land. Jedi does not cry or make a fuss and is happy to hangout with anyone. This picture was taken when we were at the Ancient City and were driving around. As any young man, Jedi loves the wheel. He does have a little problem reaching the brakes and gas. Perhaps it maybe a good idea to wait...17 years and 1 month more to go dude...

Jedi is going through that phase in life that we all pass through...its called "Pick and Throw". If you are a parent you know what I am talking about. If you are not a parent but are around kids who are going through this phase, make sure you hangon to everything you think has any value. What is kind of surprising is how Jedi knows how to change channels on the FM dial in the car. As I said, "The Force is strong in this one."

"May the Force be with you".

GPS guiding us to the Ancient City

The Ancient City is about 22 kms away from Bangkok. It is an awesome place to visit. It is actually a Mini Thailand with that has some 116 monuments. I will have more photographs of the place on the travel blog. Watch out for that. http://www.ancientcity.com/muangboran/index.htm

Here is something I was a little surprised to learn today. Unless talking to foreigners who don't know any different, Thais will never call their capital city Bangkok - indeed, some Thais in the more remote provinces may never have even heard of it being called that. Instead in Thai it is known as Krung Thep, which roughly translates to 'City of Angels'.

Krung Thep is actually an abbreviated version of the ceremonial full name, which is "Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit".

Can you imagine a name of a city like that on a map. Ha ha..

Dinner at Siam Paragon

Wanna buy a Ferrari..how about a shopping centre?

This is perhaps the coolest thing I have seen in a while. In the shopping mall called Siam Paragon, there is a Ferrari showroom. There is also a showroom for Hummer. How cool is that. Can you imagine going to the Forum Mall in Bangalore and being able to buy a Ferrari. That would be one cool mall. The name of the Mall however is kind of funny to me as an Indian. "Siam" means "Thailand" and "Paragon" as we all know is a very popular "Bathroom Slipper Brand"...so in combination, you could buy a Ferrari at the "Thai Bathroom Slipper Mall"...ha ha

After the monk who sold Ferrari....

If you have been reading my Mobile Blog, you would have noticed the posting about the Ferrari Showroom at the "Bathroom Slipper Mall". Now keeping in line with the same, here is "The Monk who sold his Ferrari and bought an LCD"...ha ha. This shopping mall is called Pantip Plaza. It is a great place to buy electronics. You can check out the website - www.pantip.com/ . Another cool thing is that if you are a tourist and buy stuff that is worth more than 5000 bhat, you can get your VAT refunded. That works out to about 7%. So this is kind of like duty free shopping. If you are looking for stuff concerning your mobile phone, I would recommend another mall called MBK with is next to Siam Paragon (The Bathroom Slipper Mall). Go to the 4th floor of MBK and you will find everthing from mobile phone software to replacement keyboards. (This is the MBK website - http://www.mbk-center.com/en/tourist/bangkok.asp)

Rush Hour in Bangkok and Jet Lag at the Shopping Mall

Traffic...don't we all just love the long waits, the endless queues and the road rage. Yes Bangkok perhaps has the worst of at least the first two things on that list. Thankfully there is a lot of lane discipline. BJ was however telling me that 2 years ago the lane sense was far better, however the increase in the number of cars has often led to people jumping lanes. If you wanna bypass a lot of the traffic you can use the Sky Train or the MRT (the Bangkok Metro). Both get you from one place to another much faster than the roads and taxis. The network of public rail transport is however still being extended so you may find the service rather limited.

There is something really interesting that I learnt about Thailand today. I was checking the end of the warranty period of something I was gonna buy at a shopping mall and I noticed that the end of warranty was 2549. I was about to comment saying that the any product with a Warrant of over 500 years must be quite good. The only thing is that what I should have read the year as was - 2549 B.E (Buddhist Era) which when converted is really 2007 A.D (Gregorian Calendar).

The thing is that the Thai Calendar is 543 years ahead of the rest of the world. Now how cool is that for Jet Lag...ha ha. However you should remember that there are a few exceptions and everything is not that straight forward. Check this out - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_solar_calendar

Tuk Tuk in Bangkok

If you ever read about Bangkok you will read about Tuk Tuks. Actually for Indians this is not a very amusing thing at first glance. We are used to seeing Autos all across the country. With the exception of a few cities in India Autos pretty much charge anything they want with no regard for the meter. If you know what I am talking about...you know what a Tuk Tuk is.

Basically it is an Indian Auto with a lot more power, bright mating colours and no sign of a meter whatsoever. Perhaps this is the reason why this kind of transport only appeals to tourists. In fact you will find that if you speak Thai very well, Tuk Tuks may even refuse to take you to your destination because you would know the real price and would end up bargaining. Although the prices are not really cheap, the Tuk Tuk is worth it if you are a party of 2 or 3 and in that case it does work out as a rather inexpensive way to get from one place to the other.

Tuk Tuks are very tourist friendly (Read - Love to make money off you) and will even pose for photographs at no extra cost. For whatever it is worth, to me Tuk Tuks remind me of autos in Chennai where every journey is an opportunity to bargain...hey its fun.

Chian Chom our tour guide at the Grand Palace

This is the Grand Palace Complex in Bangkok. I have loads of photographs to share which I took here. I will put them up on my travel blog as soon as I can sort them and caption them to make the process interesting. Chian Chom was our tour guide. If you ever go to the place...ask for her. She is a lot of fun and very interesting. She even got us an extra umberella...now ain't that sweet. She also knows a lot about the cultural connections between Thailand and India and the famous 1956 film "The King and I" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049408/)

My first cup of coffee in Bangkok with BJ & Vinu

One funny thing that happens in Thailand is when you are in a restaurant and are ordering something, the waiter will keep saying yes and nodding their heads and still get your order wrong. They usually get it right after a clarification or two. Also it amuses me that when you order Coffee, you still get chinese tea to start you order at the café.

My lift from the airport..Pitchayaporn

I am finally in Bangkok...An old friend of mine from London Cherry picked us up and took us on a nice long drive in the city. Her actual name is Pitchayaporn...personally I have not even attempted to pronounce her name...I think it means woman of wisdom...but calling her Cherry is much easier. Once she dropped us to the hotel, she and I caught up with BJ and his wife Vinu who are in Bkk on a trip from Chennai. I met BJ as well in London although both of us were from Chennai...

Phnom Penh International Airport

Heading to Bangkok and stuck in the waiting lounge. The last time I got here I faced a Coup D'etat...and before that the plane engine blew up...fingers crossed...will I make it?? Nice painting for an airport don't you think.