Musings of an Idiot

December in the park

2009-12-13T20:55:00.000+13:00

It's been an incredibly busy period since my last post. I had a very short notice surprise audition come up as the actor who was originally cast for that part couldn't do the part because of personal health reasons. I did get the part and did a 1 day shoot on the TV feature and that turned out to be a fantastic experience. The other audition that I did went well and that again was a fun experience.

Since the work on 'Moments' has slowed down in terms of production, I decided that a way to speed up the process in the overall scheme of things would be to start compiling the scenes that have already been shot and edited to find out where the holes are and what needs to be done to fill those up. One of the holes was covering up dialog cuts in the scene between Tarun and me, so I went and got some pickup shots at 'The Whitehouse' as we didn't get any cut aways the first time round when we shot the scene there. We'll be shooting one more scene next sunday, which is a meaty scene and that should give me some consolation about the pace of the project. It's been a hard year but after the past couple of weeks I am declaring my year closed on a high note. Anything good that might happen between now and end of 2009 is a bonus. 2010 here I come.

Friday evening was the staff Christmas party and there wasn't anything terribly exciting that happened at the party. Yesterday I had a long overdue catchup with David & Christina and it was nice way to spend Saturday morning and afternoon. In the evening, I went to 'Christmas in the Park' along with Benji and it was bizarre event. There was something terribly off with the whole vibe of the event - it was like one huge coca cola commercial. It's supposed to be a family event but then you look around and see people getting boozed and stoned while kids and teenagers are running around. Both Benji and me almost got food poisoning over there when the thai stall served half cooked chicken skewers and they gave replacement sticks that were half cooked as well. The jerky pork kebabs from the Jamaican food stall more than made up for the earlier culinary misadventure. But to be on the safe side Benji and me decided to get a tequila shot on our way back, to negate the one bite of half cooked chicken that we had earlier.

Christmas in the Park

Beautiful sunset

Auckland Hospital

Distant viewings

Walk back

Grafton Cemetery

Bunch of people enjoying the cool air

The tequila shot

Earlier this afternoon, had a picnic lunch at Grafton Road cemetery which Angelique organized. It was an odd choice of location but a good one. It is bang in the middle of the city but it has so many trees and is pretty quite. It was an opportunity to catch up Tessa after ages and also got to meet Angelique's boy friend besides meeting some very interesting people.

Picnic at Grafton Cemetery

Sunshine

Sun and Shade

Flowers over a grave

Angelique & Kelly

Anna & Xien

Me & Tessa

End of picnic

And now it's heads down, preparing for the business project presentation that I've got to give to the TVNZ top brass tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Later,

Amit

Movies and all that stuff

2009-12-02T06:40:00.000+13:00

My age and look and ethnicity means that auditions are far and few in between. I consider myself lucky even if I get 3-4 auditions a year, so it was pretty frutrating only having 2 audition till Oct and then suddenly having a couple of auditions come up while I was overseas. Typical huh!!! Well I had another audition recently and it went really well, even though I didn't get the part. As an actor - the best thing is to prepare well for the audition, give it your best shot and forget all about it as soon as you walk out of the audition room. If you get a follow up call then good for you otherwise you just carry on as if nothing has happened. I've got another audition this year, so I am pretty happy that this year will end with atleast 4 chances to showcase myself to casting directors.

'Rejected' is in the freezer as it has nowhere to go right now and the script is not in a position I want it to be and the script development process is extremely slow. The best option was to put it on freeze and concentrate on the existing project and other potential projects. Off the potential projects - 'Apsara' has got some legs and it is currently in active development. The script is by Angelique - a close friend and an ex-film school mate and it is being produced by Paula Jones. The script is funny, quirky and has a visual flair and it matches up with everything I want to explore and I guess I'm lucky that the script wasn't already picked up by someone else. More on that in coming months.

The production on 'Moments' is going slower than anticipated because of the holiday season combined with the usual scheduling conflicts associated with 'no budget' movies. Instead of stressing out about it, I'm just playing it by the ear and going with the flow. All this obviosuly means that we won't finish the movie in March'10 as originally planned and it might get pushed back by a few months.

An independent writer was in constant contact with me via email wanting to see if I wanted to direct her script in 2010 with a very miniscule budget. I said no to it because I wasn't getting answers to all the questions I was asking about the project and that's never a good sign. Topped up with unclear roles and responsibilities it was a disaster waiting to happen & all this without even seeing the script itself. After a lot of thought I wrote a very detailed mail as to why I can't accept the project and the response I got made me crack up laughing and I subsequently deleted all the emails related to the project. The final email from the writer/producer goes like this
"Subject: Re:Hey AMIT, in CONFIDENCE
Morning Amarbir, thanks again for the email - much appreciated, all the best for your future endeavours:-).
Kind regards"
Amarbir is another Indian film maker based in Auckland and he is also a good friend of mine. So she obviously asked Amarbir about directing the movie as well or her next person to ask is Amarbir or maybe she confused me for Amarbir all along. I don't know and I don't care. :-)

I scored a couple of free passes to NZ Premiere of 'Morris: A Life with Bells on' - a UK indie movie. The writer/main actor was there for Q&A, so I went along last night and it turned out to be a small but funny movie. Definitely worth a watch. It definitely puts a grin on your face.

That's me for now,
Amit

Weekend in photos

2009-11-29T18:52:00.004+13:00

The weekend has been long and fantastic so I'll try and let the photos do all the talking for the most part. And to get things started here are a few arty pics I took over the weekend time frame with the theme being 'RED'

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Lippizanears play Jazz Music @ Wine Cellar Backroom. Underground music scene with the musicians improvising the pieces in front of a live audience. Fantastic music and a very unique experience. Also got to catch up with Tahi {one of the actors from 'FIVE'} as well as Andrew {one of the composers on 'FIVE'}.

To the Wine Cellar

Improvised music gig

Symphony of sound captivating the audience

SATURDAY MORNING:
I had to cancel this weekend's shoot and the workshop because of continuity issues with the talent. It looks like the next window of opportunity to shoot that scene will be somewhere late in December and if not in February. Canceled shoot meant I could attend the Grey Lynn Festival. Awesome food stalls and I tried atleast 6 different kinds of cuisines. I wanted to try more but my tummy was full. Some awesome drum pieces from different bands and some unique stalls where you could pick up some cool stuff. It wasn't cheap though and I managed to pick up 2 very small items that I needed for my room for $2 each.

Kids gravitating towards the drums

An artist making a sculpture

Hungarian Candy

People just chilling

Food stalls

A drumming band captivate the audience

Knights and kids

Group drumming

People checking out the stalls

Walking

Hula Hoops

Craft stalls

The main stage and the people

SATURDAY EVENING:
Boxing class as usual which also turned out to be one of the toughest classes in a long time. After the boxing class - the core bunch of us who have been doing it for a while went out for some drinks on Sale St. Cool venue - expensive but a good vibe and the food was awesome. Ended up coming home around 12.00 at night.

Steven, Kit and Kelly

Dennis waiting for the food to come through

Kit obviously telling something exciting to Kelly

People on the dance floor

Kelly, Sara and their friend {I can't remember his name} enjoying the amped up music

Me sharing a laugh

Dark and mysterious

Walking towards the car

SUNDAY MORNING:
The first order of the day was a catch up meeting with Kathryn - who is one of the country's top script writers and was also my colleague when we were teaching at South Seas. We hadn't caught up properly in almost a year and a bit, so it was a breakfast at The Fridge in Kingsland. The Chicken n' mushroom pie at that place is amazing. Very divine and one of the best pies I've ever had. Also bumped into Richard - one of the producers on 'Nowhere to Love' - the project that I was doing that got shelved in 2006. It was brief since he was rushing off somewhere but we intend on catching up sometime soon.

Quite morning in Kingsland

The Fridge

Sunday afternoon went into grocery shopping and doing some cooking. And earlier this evening I went and had drinks at The Malt, as Dave de Lautour - one of my friends {who was in the same acting class for a while} had come visiting Auckland briefly and was returning to LA tomorrow. It was a good catch up as I got to catch up with other friends from the acting class as well as from the film school.

All in all a fantastic weekend.

Time to catch up my beauty sleep as a 6 day week beckons.
Later,
Amit

Transition

2009-11-20T21:48:00.002+13:00

Transition is permanent and I am caught up in it's tides.
Nothing seems permanent,
except for each moment that ticks by.
A speck of dust in this cosmos,
so insignificant and so adrift
moving away from everything
like the stars in the crying sky.

Space

2009-11-13T22:16:00.004+13:00

A very small and quick update. I am fine. The journey was long but uneventful. I love Hong Kong airport. Watched 'The Brothers Bloom' and '500 Days of Summer' on the flight from HK to Auckland and slept for the rest of it. The girl sitting next to me was fun to talk to. It took a day for me to get over the jet lag and just getting used to the space and the order in NZ. First day at work was cool - just slipping back into the thick of things. First day at the gym was hard work and could only manage 30 minutes of cardio and I definitely need to work harder to even get back to the fitness levels before this trip.

That's me for now.
Amit

Farewell India

2009-11-10T12:51:00.000+13:00

'Khansama' was a no go since it was a very small restaurant and we ended up going to 'Terrace Bay' in Punjagutta and it was a fantastic experience as the food was by far the best I've had in Hyderabad - that's besides mum's home cooked food. The ambience was nice and the service was impeccable. The only negative point I can think of is that even though it is called the Terrace Bay - there aren't any views to boast of - if only it was a couple of floors higher. Recommended starters Goulauti Kebab and Patiala Tangdi.

The last 2 days have been pretty weird for me - on one hand I've been mentally preparing myself for the grind as soon as I get back and on the other hand there is this sense of sadness about leaving mum and dad. I guess it is a good decision on my part to visit them every year - that's the least I can do at this point. The last couple of days disappeared into packing up and also saying farewells to everone either in person or on the phone.

In those 2 days I also managed to sneak in one more telugu movie 'Pokiri' {after abandoning 2 movies after 30 minutes or so as they were boring and nothing happened in those 30 minutes} - it was a popcorn flick and was entertaining for what it was but the problem I have with movies like that is the unrealistic expression of violence. The hero can single handedly kill 100 odd goons without breaking a sweat or spoiling his perfect hair style after a massive 10 minute fight. The other thing that struck me was that most of the female roles in bollywood movies are pretty minimal. The heroine is required to dance in a couple of songs; be able to first hate the hero and then fall in love with him without any emotional reasoning; and then should fall into distress so that the hero can come and save her. There are variations to those simple combinations but most of the movies do tend to do that - atleast all the ones I saw followed that pattern, I am generalizing and there are movies which do actually give the females an emotional arc and a better tie into the story but in general it reflects on the gender equation within the Indian society. Maybe I should try my hand at making a 'masala movie' and see how much I can enhance that equation. :-)

Today dad came down with severe cold, so only mum came to drop me off at the airport. The drive to the airport is now much quicker because of a new expressway which cuts about 20 minutes off the journey time but it is still a pain driving 30KM odd from the city to get to the airport. It was a quick drop off and I had to ask mum not to cry as otherwise I'd have cried as well. Hyderabad Airport has free 45 minutes internet access for travelers but the only hiccup was that you needed a cellphone number for them to send you login details - if you are using it for the first time. Apparently it is for security purposes but in a way it is silly because what if the international traveler doesn't have a local cellphone on which to send the login details to?

On the domestic flight I got a pleasant surprise as sridevi akka's husband was there, going to Bombay a.k.a Mumbai as well. We caught up at Mumbai airport briefly before we parted ways and I caught the free transit bus from the domestic airport to the international airport.My onwards flight to Hong Kong is not till 4.00 AM, which means I am here writing this from the waiting lounge in Mumbai Airport {no free internet access, so will be posting this once I get to Hong Kong} after finishing all the security checks and immigration requirements. My initial impression of Mumbai airport when I first arrived in India was pretty bad because of the state of the arrival lounge and all the construction going on outside but the departure section of the airport is actually quite good. Pretty flash I must say and I wasn't expecting that. I don't think i'll be able to sleep till I get onto the flight, so I'll just be drinking lots of water and doing some work.

My India trip this time has been fantastic in a very different sort of way. This is the first time in ages that I've spent so much time with my family and it felt really good even though I remained at home most of the time {instead of travelling heaps}. There were times when I was exasperated at the things around me but it was still good being in the midst of all that was happening. I got to know more about my family and also learnt a few things about myself - like i've changed a lot in the past 6 years; i was a pampered child in many ways when I was studying {i guess because I am the only child} etc. Most of all it cleared up some things in my head about things I need to improve and change within myself to become a better person.

Farewell India, for now.
Amit

Food and more movies

2009-11-08T08:10:00.001+13:00

Hyderabad is famous for various things but in terms of eating the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is Hyderabadi Biryani. Biryani from Paradise Restaurant is supposed to be really good but I tried it last year and I was pretty disappointed as it was nothing special and this time I decided to try some from Four Seasons Restaurant {they have a branch in Kondapur} and the biryani was amazing. I'd rate it 9/10 in terms of taste, texture and value for money and definitely a must try if you are in Hyderabad. The other restaurants I've tried are Blue Fox, Blue, Ginger Court & Angeethi - and of those I'd recommend Angeethi as the food tasted nice and the ambience was nice as well. Planning on trying out Khansama later this evening and will update this post to reflect on that experience. All in all the food the Hyderabadi food is amazing but the city needs to open up it's palate a bit more to give international cuisine like japanese, thai, vietnamese, indonesian etc a chance to titilate the taste buds.

Dad arranged for a driver to drive me around yesterday, as I am now completely useless at driving anything in India because of the chaotic traffic and lack of regard for any kind of road rules. The idea was to take a few snaps at Charminar and Hussain Sagar Lake before finishing off the rest of my shopping. I finally managed to take a few snaps that gives some inkling about life in Hyderabad. It was a saturday morning, so it's not crowded much which explains the empty space in the photos. Incidentally - this is the only city where I can use all the 3 languages I know while conversing with anyone and I do like that.

Sleeping under the tree

Fruit vendors setting up shop

A foreign documentary crew interviewing some cops

Street Vendors

Charminar

Lazy Saturday morning

Horses and Bikes

Traditional rural dress - Dhoti-Kurta

Fishing in the polluted stream

Afternoon nap

Traversing the streets

It's metal alright!!

Taking a break

Push cart in the midst of heavy traffic

Hussain Sagar Lake

Connecting the world

Waiting for nothing

Since mum and dad's old DVD player wouldn't play a bunch of DVDs i decided to shop around for a new one and at the electronics store I was switching between all the 3 languages without realizing it since the salesman was doing the same. After purchasing the DVD, I went ahead and purchased a bunch of DVDs so that the DVD player wasn't sitting there in the house just as a show piece. Once I got home I ripped into a bunch of movies. The best of the lot was a telugu movie called 'Gammyam'.

'Gammyam' flowed naturally and it was well acted {without overacting for most part}, well edited and well directed. It was a pleasant surprise as compared to 'Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani' that I watched a couple of days back at IMAX. The other movies I finished watching were 'Sarkar' and 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' - I had started watching those movies when they were screening on TV but had given up on them because of the 15 minute commercial breaks. 'Sarkar' was well shot and well acted but the editing was off because the pace was dead slow because of excessive use of looks and glances. The movie was short as it is at 2 hour run length but if it was paced right it would've been 1.5 hours only. 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' was again well shot but it was an action flick and the shoot out does get pretty mind numbing after a while. Another movie I watched was 'Welcome' - it was a comedy and half the movie was funny and good while the other half just dragged on and on and on. It's almost like the script writers spent most of the time writing the first half of the movie and just mashed together the ending to complete the script.

A thing which throws me off in all Bollywood movies is the dubbed audio. The film makers don't use synch sound while making a movie for obvious reasons - India is too noisy and there is no way that they can get clean sound without a massive production budget. The only movie I know in most recent times that used synch sound is 'Lagaan' and they had budget over runs because of that decision. I am dreading doing ADR for just one of the scenes in 'The Moments In Between' because it is so tedious and hard to capture the same essence and inflictions and meaning to the words recorded in ADR, even though the words are the same as those on location. So I do admire the fact that all the movies here are dubbed over from start to end and for most part the performers and the directors and the sound editors pull off this impossible task with remarkable results. It does get distracting when the words don't match the lip movement and that's something that can't be avoided when dubbing over dialogue and that's the price that bollywood movies pay for having crisp audio.

Anyway, that's me for now.
Later,
Amit

Movie this and movie that

2009-11-07T07:41:00.000+13:00

The past few days have been pretty chilled out. No shopping or outing or anything of that sort - just family time, which also means no photographs. Sridevi akka and me did go to a meeting with a producer from one of the top Telugu movie production houses and it was an interesting meeting.The crux of the meeting was that Telugu cinema is not ready for new stories and only big movies with big name stars sell - even if the story is the same old; and that there is no space for new directors. Hindi cinema has opened up a little and they are more open to new film directors and new stories as they can recoup the costs from screening at multiplexes. Either way forming contacts here would take ages - 6 months and upwards and if you add on the time for getting a movie off the ground it can be anywhere upwards of 2 years before you can even roll the cameras on set. So not an encouraging sign and will have to start thinking on how to raise money from the market here.

We went to see a bollywood movie yesterday evening and the first thing that came to mind was that IMAX was ripping us off in NZ. It costs about NZ$6 to buy an IMAX ticket here while it costs about 3 times that amount in Auckland. And the thing it is no different than the one in Auckland, right down to the seating. Unbelievable isn't it? The movie that we saw was a new release and it was pretty average - all style, not much substance - a masala 'fillum' to the core. I'm definitely not used to the song and dance sequences in movies anymore as they annoy me most of the time they come on as it breaks the flow of the story. If only they moved the story forward or kept the pace going it wouldn't be so big of an issue for me. After watching a couple of hindi movies my impression is that technically they are well made but it is the story and the pacing that they flounder on. In terms of cinematography - most of the movies tend to be shot simply with composed/locked off frames rather than moving image for the most part. It definitely speeds up the shooting rate and probably keeps the costs down. The only place where they go nuts with the camera movement is in the song and dance sequences - to add a dynamic to it obviously.

A noticeable difference in the way movies are now being marketed and sold in India is that the local market is now borrowing heavily from Hollywood style of opening a movie wide and recouping most of the costs within the first 2 weeks. And this is largely due to the fact that Hollywood studios are putting money into Bollywood since the market is huge and they are trying to get a toe hold in the world's largest film producing country. Even 10 years back you would see movie posters boasting that that the movie had completed 100 days or 150 days or 200 days at the cinemas - but not anymore. Now a movie that completes 100 days is a legend. Most of the movies come and go within 3-4 weeks and if it runs beyond that it means that it is super hit. Strange how foreign money has influenced and changed the way indian film industry markets and sells their movies - even though there is not much difference in the product itself.

Reading local newspapers is always interesting. In New Zealand I'd be annoyed that world news wouldn't get as much coverage in print or television and the focus would just be on NZ news but on this trip I realized that it holds true for all countries - the focus is always their own news with foreign news being touched on as an afterthought almost. The only true global TV Channels that I've seen are BBC and CNN as their range of news is worldwide. Reading some of the recent news articles here is worrying to say the least. There are articles like people committing suicide because they are unable to cope with the massive pressure exerted by the system for them to perform according to the system's expectation of them; or that of some farmers using Pepsi mixed with fertilizer to grow a bumper crop at a lower cost as the cost of pesticides is high; or the percieved threat India faces from China in several areas of trade as well as national security; or the increasing internal security threats in the form of naxalites and maoists. It's like the society is reaching a crucial point in time where a major change is bound to happen.

Your best laid plans disappear without a trace in India. I had planned on learning how to cook atleast 4-5 dishes and I had also planned on going to the gym to keep my fitness levels up and also to keep a regulated diet so as not to put on weight. Well the net result of those plans is zilch, nada, nothing. Maybe next time I'll bend the mystical forces at play in India to my will.

It's the last couple of days on this trip with my parents and I'm feeling sad as I feel helpless and useless in doing anything to help solve their worries and their pains. The only thing I can do is take that pain with me to keep reminding myself not to waste the sacrifices they've made ,despite my faults and shortcomings, to get me to the point where I am today.

Till later,
Amit

Hyderabad Again

2009-11-01T11:58:00.000+13:00

Yellow

Team Work

A rose

Last couple of days in Vijayawada were uneventful and basically spent lazing around. There was some last minute shopping on Saturday evening for vegetables, snacks and a set of clothes. The highlight of saturday was the trip to the vegetable market. It was an experience - it was dusty, it was crowdy, it was noisy and it was stinky - a complete sensory overload. Probably not the best place to buy vegetables but they are very cheap there and I guess that's the reason everyone goes there. It has been one of my better Vijayawada trips as I didn't fall sick this time around and i'll miss the hospitality and the family time more than anything else.

A guy selling green chillies

Local Vegetable market

No one buying his vegies

Crowds doing their vegetable shopping

The train journey back was not enjoyable again even though the condition of the train was heaps better than the last one. This was because they didn't switch on the AC even though it was an AC compartment. It's very annoying and wish there was some kind of customer complaint service to address that problem. But knowing India - even if there was such a system the complaint book would either be ignored or lost or be tampered with and the problem would still remain.

I much prefer the weather in Hyderabad to Vijayawada as it isn't humid and it is actually easier to breath. Since this morning I've had a trip to a local eating joint to get some breakfast and a trip to the barbers to get my hair shortened. Breakfast is cheap - NZ$0.80 for a dosa {as compared to NZ$8 and upwards for a dosa in Auckland} and it just makes me wonder if I should get into food business back in NZ since there seems to be huge profit margins.

My hair seemed to grow faster this time around and I've had to go for a hair cut within a month as opposed to every 6-7 weeks when in NZ. The barber was again cheap with the trip costing me $2.50 for a hair cut and shave while a hair cut alone costs NZ$15 and upwards in NZ. The experience was interesting though- I've got a massive scar at the back of my head from an operation when I was a kid and my regular barber in Auckland usually takes care to cut the hair in such a way that most of the scar is covered up but here the barber just went all out and trimmed the whole lot so now my massive scar is on wholesome display. :-) And the shave - holy crap - it felt like he shaved my whole face. I am afraid I'll now turn into a werewolf or something when the hair regrows.

Most of my shopping is done and only very small things remain, so the rest of this week is going into socialzing and doing important house work.It's hard to believe that the holidays are coming to an end so soon. I'll try and take more photos in Hyderabad, where my photo tally stands at a grand total of 15.

That's me for now.
Amit

Temple!!!

2009-10-29T11:25:00.001+13:00

Ever since I've been here, mum has been trying to convince me to visit a temple and I've been resisting it. For some reason I just don't feel like visiting temples this time around and I was trying to stay true to my stand where I refused an opportunity to go to a temple as recent as yesterday . But she has been very persistent in her requests so I finally gave in and the plan was to visit a local temple this morning. It was an interesting experience again as the temple we went to was small and not as big {and thus not as commercial} as Kankadurga Temple - the main temple in Vijayawada. Climbing the stairs to the temple was a journey through various kinds of smells ranging from the pungent to the aromatic and everything in between. The best part of the trip was the top down view of Vijayawada and I got some cool shots. If you compare the cityscape of Hong Kong and Vijayawada you can see that Vijayawada's cityscape reflects the chaos within the order while it is the exact opposite for HK.

Tractor load of people

Chaos within order

Street vendor selling Custard apple fruit

Walking away

A local sweets and delicacies workshop & kitchen

Crumbling houses and rising apartments

Household chores on the roof

A maze of wires

Sleeping on the roof

Vijayawada cityscape

2 kids flying a kite

Dwellings

A cow trying to eat some furniture

Vijayawada into the horizon

Empty streets in the morning

Guy selling flowers - they were cheap - 30 nz cents for 2

Walking on the flyover

I might be wrong but there seems to be an increased obsession with religion in India now. It was there to some extent even when I was here till 2003 but it seems to have accelerated so much more in the last couple of years. I don't know the reasons for it but it is pretty weird seeing how deep the influence of religion has become across all social classes. Another random observation is that people in Andhra {it might apply to India as a whole but I can't generalize as most of this trip has been in Andhra Pradesh} don't listen properly. You'll say something, they'll nod their head in agreement and they'll go ahead and do something completely different. When you tell them that's not what was asked for or said, they'll finally come around to doing what you originally wanted after you repeat your instructions a couple more times. And I am saying this not from one incident but from multiple incidents - big and small. It's like people choose to do what they think you want them to do without even listening to what you just said. No wonder getting any kind of work done here is a major hassle.

Trying to watch a Hindi movie on tele is like running a marathon. I was flicking across the channels and found a movie that I had heard good things about and decided to watch it but it was an exhausting experience. As it is Bollywood movies run between 2.5-3 hours and when you have 15 minute commercial breaks after every 20 minutes of the movie, you soon loose track of the story and subsequently the interest in watching the movie dies. I left the movie when it still had another hour or so to go as I was tired from the effort. DVD's or watching it in a cinema theater is the way to go for any Indian movies. The broadcasters here need to learn that the advertisers won't be getting value for their money if the target audience is lost because of too much advertising in a broadcasters eternal quest to maximize their advertising revenues.

The 4.45 AM wake up call because of the temple visit combined with the last couple of nights where I couldn't sleep properly as the mosquitoes were enamored with me, is killing me and I think I'll go and have my late morning nap now.

Till later,
Amit

TV in Rural India

2009-10-27T11:35:00.001+13:00

A couple of days back I went and visited the village that I've visited since childhood because grandma's sister {'amma'} and her husband ['tatha'] have their house their, and it was a very different experience. What was noticeable was the distinct lack of children playing around on the streets and the stillness of the place. From childhood memories as well as from the 2005 trip, I know that in the evenings there is a lot of hustle/bustle on the main village road with kids playing and people doing household chores and socializing. This time around it was quiet - there were only 2 or 3 kids playing and they were curious enough to come looking for me as I was carrying my digital camera around trying to see if I could take any snaps.

2 kids and a chicken

Looks like the outreach of satellite TV into rural India has had a huge impact on the village lifestyle. The set-top box and subscription to 100+ channels in rural villages costs about Rs.70 odd a month {from the information I overheard} - that's NZ$2 per month. I guess the reason they can provide it so cheap is that they earn money through advertising revenue generated from reaching a bigger percentage of the population. When we were kids, if there was a major TV event like a cricket match or something, almost the entire village would gather at tatha's house in order to watch it as that was the only television in the village. Now every hut has it's own TV - so no more sense of an event or sense of community. I guess the good thing is that means there is development in rural India and the bad thing is that they are now watching crappy daily soap operas and forming an unrealistic view of what a city life is.

Mother and son

At the mango farm

Local farm hand bringing a vegetable

Local farm hand and his wife

Dragonflies

One of the best things about visiting 'thota' [literal translation: farm] is the awesome food the amma cooks up. Her chicken fry dish has been the best chicken dish I've had since coming to India this time. It was unbelievably awesome. A distant second is 'Ulavacharu Chicken Biryani' from DV Manor in Vijayawada. It is always a strange feeling seeing the faces of people you've known since childhood, every passing year. For some reason I always imagine people with the same faces as I remembered them when I was younger and the toll that age takes on the face and the body seems unreal. You don't want to believe your eyes but the reality is that everyone ages and that is a fact of life.

Tatha

Amma cooking a traditional sweet delicacy {crunchy on the outside and sweet on the inside}

Time spares no body but the mind and spirit still rules - Great Grandma

Amma whipping up the delicacies

The matrimonial thing isn't going too well for me. Gyanender uncle is of the view that I should find my own life partner because in terms of arranged marriage to someone from India, the relationship most probably won't work out because of the unusual profession I am in and I can totally see his point. Besides that the arranged marriage thing on surface sounds so simple as a concept but it is so incredibly complicated and twister. In that aspect there are several things that work against me: a) hair {or lack of}; b) country {people only want US or UK}; c) profession {only a docotor or an engineer or a IT professional would do}; d) age {under 30 only thank you very much}. So all in all pretty much everything about me is not acceptable to the Indian society at large and I find it highly amusing on one hand and very angry on the other. Who knows what's gonna happen on that front? I don't. Looks like I'll be doing my own finding once I get back to NZ. :-)

I love the home cooked food that Lakshmi aunty is serving up and the pearls of wisdom and company of Gyanender uncle that the stay in Vijayawada has been extended till end of this week. There are no more relatives to meet and no more marriage bureaus to go to, so I'll be spending some quality time with them {even though I skipped going to a temple visit this morning}. I might buy a pair of shorts and t-shirt later this evening and I might even get some much needed exercise over the next few days.

That's me for now.
Later,
Amit

Hot!!!!

2009-10-25T04:20:00.004+13:00

1.5 KG in 20 days - that's my achievement so far. I'm loving home cooked food and I guess I'll just have to hit the gym extra hard as soon as I get back to Auckland. :-)

Vijayawada is hot. It is 35 degrees right now and that's been the consistent temperature ever since I've been here and it is end of October when it is getting cooler. It's hard going out during the day and the best time to check out the city is in the evenings but then it is just traffic and chaos as usual. Traffic is not as bad as Hyderabad because Vijayawada is a smaller city but the driving across the country still remains the same. Being a smaller city also means that things are more affordable - like a pair of jandals costs about NZ$2 instead of NZ$12 and upwards like in Auckland.

Getting on with life

Driver and driver's assistant in an auto-rickshaw

Selling wares

Rusting

Walking the main bridge

Yesterday all of us went to visit the small factory unit that my aunt is setting up and it was a fascinating trip - not just because of the factory unit. There was so much about rural India that I started noticing just now, it is true that when you are within a system you don't notice anything or see anything different since you are living it. But once you are away from something for a while - things start standing out. Like one of the things I noticed was the slabs in front of houses in rural areas - it is an odd design for a house but it serves a very functional purpose - people sit in front of their houses to see the world go by and it becomes their social interaction point. We live privileged lives in cities while the 'real country' lives in villages and that balance has been changing rapidly everywhere - not necessarily for the good. The imbalance is going to hit us all sooner rather than later.

Rural Andhra

A farmer transporting some hay

A bicycle :-)

Spokes

Of buffaloes and sitting on the roof

A guy fixing a machine

Sunset over the factory unit

A boat sailing across Krishna river

Nothing much going on right now except the marriage thing as usual and it is a fascinating experience just going through it. Lots of fodder for analysis of the Indian society and social systems but that'll be some other time. Oh and I managed to bruise my right thumb pretty bad when I slipped and fell while rushing across a few stairs. It should come right soon.

That's me for now. Time to enjoy some more awesome food.
Amit

Hello Vijayawada

2009-10-22T22:26:00.001+13:00

It is a strange feeling going to social events and noticing people judging you based on how you look. And in my specific case - people looking at you weird because I don't have much hair on my head. You see, in India, everyone is very particular about their hair - it doesn't matter if you are fat,unhealthy, arrogant, stupid or anything like that, as long as you have a full head of hair you are part of the crowd. And if you don't fit in the crowd then you are marked to be judged whenever you step into the public. 7 years back I would've been embarrassed by such social situations but now I can't really give a shit about Indians preoccupation with appearances and superficiality.

A trip to India is incomplete without a journey on Indian railways and that wish was fulfilled earlier this morning when mum and me took an overnight train from Hyderabad to Vijayawada. I must say that it has been an exhausting train ride and I've never felt this tired throughout this current trip - even if you include the 12.5 hour flight from Auckland to Hong Kong. We got berths in 3rd AC car so we could sleep on the overnight journey but the AC in our compartment was switched off for most of the journey in order to save money or something. What that meant was that the compartment was stuffy as hell and hot - which in turn meant that I only got 4 hours sleep in total - which is why I felt so tired after the journey. I've slept for the better part of the day and I am now feeling refreshed.

Vijayawada brings back memories and I have a love-hate relationship with the place. I love everything about it except the weather as I tend to fall sick when I am here and this goes back to when I was a kid - it might have to do something with the combination of the heat and the humidity. My first impressions about Vijayawada at 4.30AM were that the roads were heaps better than Hyderabad but that it was quite hot even for that time of the morning.

Kids playing on the road

Stroll through the local market

At Vijayawada club

The best part about coming to Vijayawada is visiting the family. I love spending time with my uncle and aunt over here and they've always been supporting me ever since I can remember. They took me under their wings for an entire year when I was in 6th Class and got admission into a school in Vijayawada. It was my detoriating health due to the weather in Vijayawada that pushed my parents to take me back to Delhi and go through the tricky process of getting me admitted into a school mid-way through the year in Delhi {because of the different school systems in different parts of the country}. Besides that my uncle is the one who supported my independent film making efforts and I wouldn't be working on my third project without his initial support.

Veni and me*

My guardian angel

So far it has been a quiet day in Vijayawada - I caught up with my grand dad during the day ; went to a marriage bureau on insistence from one of our relatives after being woken up from an afternoon nap where I had a dream in which I found someone of my own {maybe this marriage thing is playing on my mind - more than I would give it credit for}; visited Vijayawada club to have a look around - courtesy of my uncle; and enjoyed some awesome home cooked food - some of the dishes that I haven't had in ages.

Grand dad, Grand mom and me

Grand dad now

Nothing major planned for rest of the time and will see how the rest of the trip pans out.
Later,
Amit

* Mom's youngest brother, Raja uncle, got this photo of Veni and me taken when we were in Guntur {a city 1 hour drive from Vijayawada} - just before I was put into the boarding school over there -{I am guessing this must be around 1985 or something}. Apparently he got scolded for it because he took us to the studio on an impromptu plan and we never got dressed in 'proper' clothes. :-) I used to love Raja uncle's impromptu outings as it kept things interesting and a real surprise. When I was later in Vijayawada -he was the one who used to take us to heaps of movies and one of the earliest movies I remember seeing with him are Jackie Chan movies like Police Story, Project-A and also movies like Herbie goes to Monte Carlo and heaps more.

The state of things

2009-10-20T19:16:00.000+13:00

Yesterday I spent the day with one of my cousins and her family and it was an awesome day. Her and her family have recently shifted from USA to India and it was insightful getting their views on settling back into the Indian society. My cousin has given me a couple of low budget telugu movies that I intend to watch sometime this week to catch up on the local film industry scene. I loved spending time socializing with her and her family and it made me wonder if I should actually spend more time socializing when I am back in New Zealand. Over the past few years I've cut down on my socializing heaps so that I have more time on my hands to focus on movies but that leaves a social void and I guess I need to find a balance between work and social life.

I watched 1 and half bollywood movies over the past couple of days and I enjoyed the one I actually finished completely but didn't really care much for the one I left half way. The one I liked was 'Taare Jamein Par' and I would've loved it if there were no song and dance sequences plus for the better part of the movie the acting was understated. The other movie I tried watching was a remake of an old hindi movie called 'Don' and the new one looked slick but the acting was over the top and there was no cohesiveness to the storytelling and I couldn't really see any point in the remake since there was no unique point of view.

One of the things I've noticed here is that most people tend to go on huge diversions/detours while talking. You'll be having a conversation and mid-sentence the topic would change randomly to something not even closely related and after sometime the conversation would again veer back to the original conversation, somehow. And during the entire period, you are expected to know exactly what everyone is talking about. It can be slightly disorienting and my coping mechanism is that I phase out of the conversation till it comes back to the one I was following. :-) The other thing is people don't like introducing themselves when they call up. They expect you to recognize their voice and again it is very disorienting - especially when you can't recognize their phone numbers. It is fine if it is someone you've been talking to on a regular basis or someone you've talked to recently but calling up after ages and then expecting to just know who you are talking to is rather presumptuous.

Andhra Pradesh is a strange state in the sense that the government is promising unsustainable welfare schemes for the masses like offering rice for Rs.2 a KG {about NZ$0.05 per KG} with a limit of 20 KG's per person - for people living under the poverty line. Mind boggles when you think that at retail the rice goes upwards of Rs.25 per KG in India and in New Zealand - it is more like NZ$2-NZ$3 a KG. The price differential is borne by the state government and the burden of which ultimately falls on the middle class - which gets taxed more to cover the financial shortfalls. As it is there is global food scarcity and with populist and unsustainable schemes like this you have to wonder how much lower can the politicians scoop to stay in power.

A different aspect of the state is that the work ethic in general is poorer than other Indian states - people like to make a quick buck and don't even want to work for it. Hyderabad boasts of major multi-national software firms having their offices in the city but that does nothing to change the imbalance of work culture leaning towards inaction. Once you scratch the surface there are so many things you see that you don't like and in general the Indian intelligentsia doesn't like those faults either but the system is too big and too flawed for anyone to even try and fix it. Small steps can change the course of things but I am not sure if that'll ever happen in India - even in a global economy as the balance of trade is shifting towards emerging markets like China and India where whoever enters the market gets assimilated into the local way of thinking and functioning in order to make profits.

I might be sounding negative about the way things are in India - I am not - I am perplexed, surprised and at times outraged at the state of things but this is not my fight. Sometimes I wonder if New Zealand had a similar population explosion and scarcity of resources would people be the same as people are here in India - good natured despite all their flaws or would we see an uglier face of humanity? I wonder.

Amit

Unaccustomed Earth

2009-10-17T23:23:00.001+13:00

Unaccustomed Earth

Shaving can be such a hard task when the spordaic bursting of crackers and fireworks - far and close by, startles you. Thankfully I didn't cut myself. I finally had a chance to catch up on some reading that I'd been putting off for a while because of time constraints I always run into and the book I started reading is 'Unaccustomed Earth' by Jhumpa Lahiri even though mum handed me a book called 'The 3 mistakes of my life' by Chetan Bhagat. My first thought on seeing the title of that book was 'oh, not a self-help book I hope' and when I read the prologue it turned out to be fiction. The prologue of the book was interesting but after reading the first chapter I skipped right through to the epilogue since I didn't like the author's writing style. And I managed to figure out everything that happened in the story by reading the epilogue, so I guess that's one book done with. :-)

Having finished off '3 mistakes' I started 'Unaccustomed earth' and the difference between the 2 books is night and day. The prose in 'unaccustomed' is poetic and it is hard to put down the book because each of the short stories manages to connect with a different part of you so empathatically. I finished half the book since yesterday and the book really got me thinking. Jhumpa Lahiri's stories deal with expatriate Indians who have settled in USA and their lives and struggles and thoughts and joys but the thing that differentiates her stories from similar topics is that the characters she creates are very human. There is no effort by the author to preach what's right or wrong or the way things should be instead she explores the human condition in all it's glory and fallings. Even though the stories deal with expatriate Indians - it could be replaced by any race, ethnicity, person that has settled in a new country - that's how universal the condition of the human stories within the book are.

The thought process it started off in me was leaving me wondering if I was a coward running away from responsibilities and family duties here in India in the name of ambition, progress and sanity. I am my parent's only child and to settle in a country that's a convenient 21 odd hours flight away {if you count the stop-over since there are no direct flights as yet} seems a little too extreme. In Indian culture, kids always take care of their parents - especially when they are older just as the parents take care of their kids till they are able to stand on their own 2 feet while in most of the western cultures, kids are happy to escape the constant gaze and protection of their parents as soon as they can {and I think parents over there prefer that} and then there is no obligation for the kids to look after their parents when they are older. Both the systems have their flaws and advantages but the point I am trying to make is that I am my parent's only support especially now as they are getting older and I feel helpless as I am not earning bucketloads of money {which is one of the primary reasons people move to a different country} to support them financially and if I come over to India to support them emotionally and physically then I can't support anyone - not even myself, in any meaningful financial way since the work ethic and culture in India is not something that pays good money to good workers. And I probably won't survive the haphazard and hazardous way of working over in India - i'll probably go insane pretty quick which means that I won't be of much help to anyone.

Crossing the street

Waiting around

Light but chaotic traffic

I've always belonged to 2 worlds - when I was in India I belonged to North India and South India while now that I am in New Zealand I belong to both New Zealand and India. And being of 2 worlds always throws up so many questions and dilemas as evidenced by the conflict I am having right now. I hate thinking about the future because it is so uncertain and out of one's hands but I guess I do need to acknowledge certain facts of life and start taking them into account while planning for things.

More immediate concern of mine is making sure that my throat comes right. I had some indian snacks from the corner stall on the road couple of days back and the oil obviously didn't suit me because my throat seized up as soon as I ate the snacks. It has been a constant case of sucking on 'strepsils' and lots of hot salt water gargling. Hopefully it'll come right within a day or so. I went to get some milk from the grocery shop across the road and then to get some sweets since it's festival time and I must say it is an interesting experience because it is just chaos. Everyone is out festival shopping and no one wants to wait and everyone wants to be served first, so you have to forget all niceties and push people around a bit to get served at all. I don't like it one bit and the thing is that if there is some sembelance of order people will get served faster and there wouldn't be as much tension shopping but I guess this is the way of life in India and people like it that way. Besides the throat seizing up - my nose is dripping because of the amount of air pollution generated by people burning fireworks on the occasion of Diwali.

Gods & Goddesses

Diwali - the festival of lights

I don't like the commercial form of diwali where everyone is out buying and burning crackers. Andhra Pradesh has been hit by floods recently and certain districts are still coping with the loss but over in cities a good majority doesn't seem to acknowledge that. If people donated even half of what they spent on fireworks for flood relief it would alleviate the sufferings of the flood ravaged considerably but who am I to speak about such things. The thing I do enjoy about Diwali is the family get together part of things. We went to a family friend's house for dinner {it is hard to explain relationships in English, so easier to just categorize some relations as either relatives or family friends} and it was a nice evening especially since it was the first time I celebrated the festival with my family and friends in 7 years. The best part was seeing the kids enjoy the fireworks and the meal after wards but the pollution still really bothers me.

Igniting fireworks on the road

Blazing into the sky

Nebula

Everyone looking at the crackers burning

Shower of fire

Dad with Ashima

People celebrating Diwali

On a parting note - I learnt 2 interesting things about myself today:
a) I compartmentalize my past and then leave it behind and don't really rack up the past in order to live in the present {my point of view: I learn from my past and then I do tend to leave the incidents and stuff behind as it helps free up my my small brain in dealing with the present}
b) I have slowed down from what I was like as a person a few years back - apparently I was super-ambitious and would follow on my impulses without paying proper thought but now it seems that I am not as ambitious and have this demeanor of acceptance of whatever life is throwing at me {my point of view - I am still as ambitious as before but I do take a more measured approach to any challenge/opportunity - maybe because I'm tired of constant rejections and heart aches when I leap blindly without looking}.

Thats me for now.
Amit

Bigg Boss

2009-10-16T06:32:00.001+13:00

I watched 10 minutes of a reality TV show called 'Bigg Boss' and that was enough to have me in splits. It is basically an Indianized version of 'Big Brother' and it is hilarious {I am sure that wasn't the intent of the makers}. It is bland and boring to say the least because nothing happens and it is mind numbingly mundane. I skipped channels and landed on a hindi soap and it was a different kind of experience. Indian TV acting does veer towards being over-dramatic and unreal and it is painful to watch.I don't know why but here everyone does like the acting to be pretty over the top otherwise it doesn't register. I haven't seen any hindi movies or telugu movies yet and plan to do so over the next couple of weeks to form an opinion on the state of acting in film. There are some fantastic actors over here but some of their best work has been their understated performances and I wanna see if there are naturalistic performances on the big screen or if they follow closely in the footsteps of television acting.

Overall the best thing of TV media in India is that the market is HUGE and the number of channels available on the tele are mind-boggling and the cost of having that many channels is pretty cheap as well compared to what we pay in New Zealad. The same applies to the cost of telecommunication in India - it is cheaper than you can imagine and I seriously think that we are getting ripped off big time by the telecom companies over in NZ.

In the evening I went roaming around the local market trying to find a recharge point for mum's cellphone and I accidentally found a gym while at it. It is close to the house and it is a pretty basic gym with focus on weights/strength training but it is again cheap and serves the stop-gap purpose of trying to maintain some level of fitness during the holiday. I'll be joining the gym from next week once Diwali festival is over and done with. Needless to say I can't describe how happy I really am that I won't be totally slouch during the break.

It's been a week already since I've been home and man time does fly really fast. It is scary.

That's me for now,
Amit

Door Bang

2009-10-15T05:34:00.004+13:00

Hyderabad is nice and hot during the day and it is nice during the evening. I walked around in peak sun for a couple of hours today, doing some shopping, and I have gone 4 shades darker, atleast. The pollution is pretty bad and the roads are definitely not pedestrian friendly. Food is still super awesome and I am loving it.

I gave up the idea of going to a gym while I am here as the nearest one I could find was a couple of KM's away and that too on a traffic heavy road. Not worth it was my first thought when I finally tracked down the gym. I did run around on the roads plus I found a decent sized park, so I did that for a couple of days but had to take a 2 day break from it as I managed to strain my knee as running on the streets puts massive pressure on your knees since you don't have any cushion for the impact. Only small success over the past couple of days has been that I finally got a new computer chair and a wireless keyboard/mouse to make it easier to work online.

I acted in a short film before I started off this trip and you can see me getting tortured here: http://www.gorilla-tv.com/node/289

That's me for now.
Amit

Hyderabad

2009-10-12T05:39:00.001+13:00

I have been Hyderabad for 3 days now and I've still had no success in finding a gym anywhere close by. I used google maps to search for some gyms and I spent the last couple of days in a pointless exercise in trying to find them and it was only today that I figured out that the map was wrong altogether once I had a look at the map on bing - which is not as detailed as google maps but atleast it shows the correct location of places {shame on you google maps}. Why do I need to join a gym? Well the food here is awesome and I don't want to pack on a few kilos before I come back - that would be detrimental to my fitness goals plus it gives something physical to do in an otherwise sedentary holiday at home. Since I had no luck finding a gym I woke up this morning and went for a 30 minute run on the road - which is not something I like as it puts a lot of pressure on knees, but it is better than doing nothing I suppose. Now that I have the correct location for a couple of gyms close by I might check them out tomorrow and see what the go is.

Mum's home made food is delicious and I just can't get enough of it - even though I am regulating my diet. The plan is to learn how to cook atleast 4-5 dishes before the holiday ends. Since I've been here the only thing I have crossed off my 'to do' list is a visit to the dentist. I had my teeth cleaned and also getting that empty gap at the back of my right jaw sorted, which will take a couple of sittings this coming week but I am happy about it because the whole thing is saving me a bundle. To give you an idea, if I had this done in NZ - this whole thing would cost me NZ$3000 atleast while here I'll only be spending around NZ$180 and the dentist I am getting this done from is one of the best.

One of the things about living in India is that power cuts, water shortages, pollution, very high cost of apartments, shortage of domestic help {which is a common practise throughout India} is a way of life and people adjust to it pretty well; though I wish that mum can find a proper domestic help sooner rather than later. In my parents place there is a daily power cut for 1 hour a day and also fresh water comes through only every alternate day {so they store water for use on the day it doesn't come through}. For some reason I haven't taken any pics while I've been here and I'll try and take some but as I said it is a strange feeling acting like a tourist in a place you originally are from.

Today,dad took mum and me out {since I can't even dream of driving in the traffic here anymore} furniture shopping as I have been pestering both of them to get a dining table and also a new computer chair and table {as the old one is such a pain in the neck - literally}. Furniture shopping wasn't really successful as there was nothing good in the shop we stopped by, so the next stop was Salarjung Museum. The museum is amazing since all the collections there belongs to one man and the length and breadth of collection is mind numbing. To see so much history in one place, some of which is several centuries old is humbling. It is definitely worth a visit if you are in Hyderabad. The only thing that annoyed me at that place is that photography is not permitted even though it is a tourist attraction.

Crossing a road or an intersection here - whether you are driving or on foot, is a little bit more than strenous than normal. The easiest way to describe it is to compare it to the massive herds of wilde beest on their annual migrations, trying to cross the crocodile infested river from one place. It is a little like that - no one stops for anyone and if you are a pedestrian, you are on the lowest end of the food chain, so you have an even harder time. Indian roads are not a pedestrian friendly place at all.

I have my work cut out for the next couple of days - find that damn gym which is supposed to be relatively close to the house and also check out a few furniture places that I got addresses off from the internet. The thing I am loving about Hyderabad is that it is not humid at all - even though it is hot, which means that you are not sweating like a pig.

There is a lot of talk about me and my marriage and have to see how things pan out over the next few weeks.

That's me for now.
Amit

2 days in Mumbai

2009-10-10T15:26:00.000+13:00

Indians don't like following rules and give it to them to break them, bend them, ignore them and refuse to recognize them. It is alright when 1 person does it - that person would be called a visionary but when you have a billion and a quarter doing the same thing what you have is utter chaos that is fascinating and frustrating in equal turns - a true paradox. 2 days in Mumbai reminded me why I moved out of India and also why it is hard doing business here. People have the best of intentions but they don't have any sense of time and do end up dicking you around to the point where you don't care for the outcome. India has this way of grinding you down and beating you to pulp till you surrender to it's ways and play the game by it's own weird rules. In 'The Dark Knight', Batman spent 2.5 hours trying to deal with Joker - all he should have done is book a one way ticket for The Joker to India and his job would have been done. Joker was trying to prove that given a choice a city turns into chaos - well he doesn't have to prove anything because there is a whole country that lives in chaos.

The landing in Mumbai wasn't exactly the smoothest one but wasn't the worst I've had either. That didn't bother me as much as the Indian couple who were sitting 2 seats besides me, who wouldn't switch off their cellphones even after repeated announcements and kept talking on their cellphones right up to the point where the plane accelerated for take off. And I guess that in a way re-calibrated my system to what India was going to be like.

A view from my hotel room

Dad's friend had arranged a hotel room for me and by the time I got the hotel it was early evening. The humidity and the crowds and the traffic took me by surprise and I decided to stay put in the hotel for the night and do the sight-seeings and 'meet & greets' on the following 2 days. I was slightly famished, so I went down to the local 'dhabba' {no frills eating joint} and had a vegetarian meal that cost me NZ$2 all up. Food is cheap and delicious in India and that's probably one of the few aspects of India that I miss when I am over in NZ. Dad's friend also arranged for a car to drive me around and I was feeling very humbled by the generous gesture and at the same time felt it was kind of an unecessary thing to do and man was I wrong.

The next day, I got the driver to drop me off in South Mumbai in Colaba where most of the tourist attractions are and asked him to pick me up the next day morning at 6.30 AM, so I could come back to the area and check out Elephanta Caves - which is supposed to be a day trip. The distances in Mumbai are huge and the map I had didn't really give a clear indication of the scale of distances and combined with the heavy and chaotic traffic - the drive from central to south mumbai was long and tiring. Enroute I sussed out Hajji Ali Mosque from the road itself and stopped over briefly at Nariman Point to take a couple of snaps. After that it was off to Gateway of India.

Nariman Point

Edge of the city

Marine Drive into the distance

Once the driver left I roamed about the area looking at the places, taking the atmosphere in and also searching for a couple of places that I wanted to check out. After checking out Gateway of India area, I was walking around and the heat and humidity really got to me - Hong Kong was humid and hot as well but Mumbai definitely raised the level a couple of notches. I soon found a popular Parsi restaurant called 'Jimmy Boy' and tried one of their signature dishes called 'Saali par edu' - a dish put together with potato wafers, eggs and salad as the main ingredients, and it was awesome and again the cost of the meal was a couple of dollars. After the brief respite I explored the area some more and ended up at Jehangir Art Gallery.

The ferry terminal

Trying to unsuccessfully clean up the waterfront

Gateway of India

Taj Palace Hotel

'We are watching you'

On the waterfront

Mumbai traffic in non-peak hours

Communicating

Magnificent architecture

Jehangir Art Gallery is a place for emerging as well as established artists to showcase their art and I spent a chunk of time there and spent even more time upstairs where there was an exhibition by Venantius Pinto . I loved a couple of his paintings and asked him if I could take his photograph with one of those artworks and he obliged me. At that place I also met another creative person called Alarich, who was doing stuff for radio and who incidentally also happened to have spent 7 months in Auckland in 2006. Talking to both of them - one thing was clear - the plight of artists and creatives in India is even more of a struggle than in other countries. I checked out another artists work and then went to Cafe Samovar which is located within the art gallery building. The food there again is cheap and delicious. Since most of the touristy things were around and I had already checked out most of them, I didn't want to go back as I was supposed to catch up with one of the people I knew from my MBA days who was now working in film & television in Mumbai, later that evening.

Venantius Pinto explaining a point to Alarich

Venantius with one of his paintings that I love

Another of his sketches that I loved {the one of the right hand side} - it was un-named but I call it 'Tsunami'

The painting that is absolutely stunning that I LOVEEEEEEEE

So I walked back to Gateway of India and enquired when the last ferry to Elephanta caves was. I wasn't hopeful since it was late in the afternoon and they only run the ferries to Elephanta Caves till 2.00PM but as luck would have it they had extended the times and the last one was leaving at 3.00 PM, which is the one I caught. The return tickets cost Rs. 120 {about NZ$4} but the journey itself was such a mission. It took an hour and a half to cover the 10 KM distance - if I could walk on water I could have easily have done that distance in that amount of time easily - that's how slow it was. And the Elephanta caves themselves were anti-climatic and definitely over-rated. Don't get me wrong the sculptures and rock carvings and stuff were amazing but for that long of a journey I didn't particularly enjoy it much. The trip back took an hour and was definitely much more pleasant.

A view from the ferry

Super slow ferry - which is why you don't need to have the seats tied down

Checking that no water is coming on board

The main cave at Elephanta caves

Beautiful architecture destroyed by the Portuguese

Hindu mythology

Under the mountain

More caves

Lion guarding the temple

More caves

Monkeys running riot

Sunset from Elephanta caves

Stranded

Mumbai in the distance

Paradoxical

Alone at sea

After landing at Gateway of India I searched out an eating joint called 'BadeMiya' which makes awesome kebabs. Again I had a couple of different kinds of kebabs and the cost again was a couple of dollars.

Kebab joint - Bademiya

The smell of kebabs cooking is awesome

I rang up the person I was supposed to meet but they bailed out of the meeting as they were busy with something else and the plan was to aim for the evening of the next day for the meeting, so I decided to try and walk back to the hotel. I only got till Nairman Point when I decided that the best course of action was to catch a cab back otherwise I would never get back to the hotel. Nairman Point/Marine drive at night is like a couple's retreat - you have heaps of couples - young and old, enjoying the sea breeze while whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears. I was surprised at the level of PDA since India is a pretty conservative country. I flagged down a cab at the same time as another girl but gave her the choice to catch that cab and walked a little bit more before I found another cab. An hour and half later I was back at the hotel - exhausted from all the commuting. I was also trying to fix a personal meeting as well and I hadn't heard back from that person in a while, so I presumed that they didn't wanna catch up but I got a message saying that maybe we could catch up the next day.

The next day - the first stop was Sanjay Gandhi Park which is a wildlife reserve set right in the city, which I think is an amazing achievement. I had the option to either go on a tiger/lion tour or go to kanheri caves and I took the option of walking to Kanheri caves {about 6 KM's one way} and decided to forego the option of either renting out a bike to drive till there or catching a bus till there. The walk was great - it took an hour to get there and I was drenched in sweat by the time I got there and en route I got growled at {without any reason} by one of the monkeys that were roaming about {I am presuming it was the alpha male leader of that group}. Kanheri caves were a revelation and I enjoyed it so much more than Elephanta caves - it was like coming across a lost city since there were so many caves {overall I think there are 119 caves in that area} and the amazing thing was that they are carved out of the mountain. One of the tour guides showing a foreign tourist around stopped by to have a chat with me and asked me if I had walked all the way to the caves and when I replied in the affirmative he was surprised and at the same time seemed to admire me for doing that {no one else walked to the cave during my trip there or back}. After rehydrating myself I walked back to the car and en route the same monkey growled at me again as we crossed paths again and as I got near the end of the walk the guide I talked to earlier and the tourist went past me on their motorbike. The guide slowed down enough to yell out 'You walk fast' and honked the horn a couple of times and then zoomed away.

Walking to Kanheri Caves

Abandoned house enroute

Kanheri Caves

Buddha statue

Prayer Hall

Steps leading to a lost world

I walked all the way across that distance in the background that looks hazy

Lost City

Caves built into the rock

More caves

Lost civilization

Entering a lost world

A room with a view

Chiseled into the mountain

More cave structures

Railway tracks within the jungle

By the time I sat in the car I was drenched in sweat - head to toe, so the first thing I did as soon as I got back to the hotel was take a cold shower and drank heaps of water and had a short nap. Once I woke up I gave both the people I was supposed to meet later that evening a rang - only to find out that one of them backed away completely while the other one had postponed the meeting further into the evening. After much fluffing about I finally got the instructions for the meeting place.

Once I got there, the meeting itself was pretty good and I met another of his friends who also worked in film and television. We discussed state of television and film over a couple of mocktails and compared notes and experiences and it was during that time I kind of made up my mind that I didn't want to work in India or try and raise money from India for any projects - atleast till the scene changes and there is a little bit more professionalism injected into the industry. The comparision between getting the money from there and the cost of emotional and physical upheaval of the process don't match up and when that equation is a little more favorable I'll give this another shot. After the meeting I went back to the hotel, packed up and went to bed early for the early morning flight to Hyderabad.

Overall I liked the cheap but delicious food in Mumbai but I didn't like the traffic, the pollution, the humidity and the lack of time sense in people. I like Delhi way better than Mumbai in a lot of respects - I might be biased because I grew up there but that's my preference. It will be the first time I'll be spending a good chunk of time in Hyderabad and I am looking forward to it.

Thats me for now,
Amit

Farewell Hong Kong, Hello Mumbai

2009-10-06T12:47:00.001+13:00

This morning I woke up at 5AM and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got ready and went roaming the city wanting to see what it was like so early in the morning. It was pretty deserted at first but as the city picked up momentum it started buzzing again. Before all of that I went to the waterfront and got some cool photographs. People running, exercising and chilling plus the homeless sleeping there combined with newspaper deliveries getting sorted to be sent to different corners of the city.

Mechanical

Empty Streets

More Empty Streets

Silent Morning

First pedestrian

City waking up

Newspaper delivery

Enjoying the morning air

Cleaning up the waterfront

In search of more trash

Magazine stalls setting up

Newspapers ready to be sorted

Delivery starts

Good morning HK

Enjoying the morning

Walking to work

Tai Chi and the homeless

Cleaning up the city

Running away

Homeless

Taking a breather

Running in the city of dreams

Enter the dragon

Since there was still a fair chunk of time to kill I went in search of some local bakery to try out their breads and I finally managed to find one. The pies were tasty - unlike meat pies in NZ which have a crispy outer filled with a gooey centre filling - the pies in HK have a sweet tasting bread surrounding the filling and it definitely makes it more edible.

Local bakery

Light and awesome breakfast

Traveling

Starting off the day

Into the light

Smoke

Dragons looking after their eggs

Streaming lights

Sun trying to break through

Good bye Hong Kong

Any trip to Hong Kong isn't complete without having 'dim sum' - HK style breakfast where you order different kinds of dumplings and enjoy their different flavours and textures as they are served. I didn't have the time for a traditional dim sum since it takes time and I didn't want to be under time pressure. So I caught the bus to the airport and before checking in and going through the customs, I decided to check out one of the restaurants in the non-restricted area since they are supposed to be only slightly more expensive than the ones in the city but much cheaper than the restaurants in the restricted area. And my first dim sum experience was awesome - I ordered 4 different kinds of dumplings and each of them had a very different taste and it was a very enjoyable experience. It is again something you do as a group since it is supposed to make it more fun but I enjoyed it as much alone. I haven't tasted similar quality of dumplings back home and it is definitely a must do if you are visiting Hong Kong.

After the breakfast I checked in and went through the customs and typed the first part of the blog at the airport - which has free internet throughout unlike Auckland airport where you have to pay to get onto the net - which shows the difference in the value placed on customer experience. I wish Auckland Airport would take a cue from HK airport and do something about enhancing traveller experience.

Finishing off this blog on the flight to Mumbai and I must say that the Hong Kong experience has been very different from last time and I managed to do almost everything I had planned and some. It has amazing food, the public transportation is fantastic and cheap and it is a city that's alive and on the move all the time but I don't know if I would be able to live here because it is polluted, it is a little too materialistic which causes immense social pressure and then there is the question of living in small spaces.

It always comes down to trade-offs between lifestyle and money and I know where I stand on that matter. Macau is good for a day trip or if you are into gambling but other than that I didn't find much to love about it {besides the Portuguese architecture and food}. Next stop - Mumbai.

Amit

Lamma Island and Shopping in Hong Kong

2009-10-06T12:46:00.002+13:00

After the lunch I caught the ferry to Lamma Island and had a 10 minute snooze on the 25 minute ferry ride there. I was kind of looking forward to it because there wasn't supposed to be much devlopment on that island and the seafood is supposed to be amazing. 15 minutes into my time on the island I was pretty disappointed because there was lots of construction happening and it didn't have the village feel to it {maybe in comparision to HK - yes but not otherwise} plus I didn't feel like having seafood, so I decided to catch the next available ferry back to HK.

Lamma Island

Cycles Galore

Flies on a fish - no wonder it killed my appetite for seafood

No one sits here anymore

Boomline

Only village view in a village

Observing

Windows

Hazy Memories

The trip back was definitely the highlight of the visit to Lamma Island as I got talking to the guy sitting next to me and he turned out to an owner of a vegetarian restaurant on Lamma Island, called Bookworm. The 30 minute ferry ride went by in a flash as Ken and me were talking about various aspects of HK and NZ society and comparing notes. And it was also the first time on the trip that I found someone I could have a conversation with {besides the guest house owner}. I am figuring that it was because Ken was more laid back than your average Hong kong'er that he was actually interested in knowing more about the people and world around him. Plus he could speak english - which was a big bonus I suppose, since I couldn't speak Cantonese :-). After the ferry ride back - the next stop was a visit to Mong Kok to buy myself a cellphone and instead of walking or bus'ing I decided to take the MTR since that was the only mode of public transport in NZ that I hadn't yet tried. I have to say MTR is my least favorite mode of transportation in HK. It is quick and relatively cheap like rest of the public transportation in HK but it is also crowded and just a big mass of humanity which just crushes you senseless.

Mong Kok was amazing - it is probably what you envision when you say the words Hong Kong - neon lights, crumbling skyscrappers, heaps of shops, crowds. I got some amused looks from fellow shoppers whenever I would go into a shop and ask the sales people what the cheapest cellphone they had was. Here was everyone buying the latest, flashiest, feature packed cellphones and I was going the exact opposite route. After running through most of the shops on the street I settled on buying a very basic Nokia model from Mongkok Computer Centre and I got a good deal. Listed price was HK$499 but I got it for HK$368 and the sales guy threw in a battery charger, an extra battery, screen protector, a running arm band in for free - to seal the deal. And that completed my shopping experience in Hong Kong. I returned the octopus card off at the subway and got the remaining amount refunded.

Mongkok

Crowds

Masses of Humanity

Body Shop anyone?

Man on the pier

Since I found one of the eating joints I was looking for - I went back to Central and had Korean Fried Chicken at Chillout Bar on Staunton Street. It was really nice and nothing like i've tasted before. SOHO, Hollywood Road, Wellington Road and the area around there towards the mid-level escalators is filled with pubs and restuarants of different kinds and from what I observed it was mainly tourists and expatriates who were eating/drinking there. I didn't really stop to check out any other places as it was late and I wanted a decent sleep before my flight to Mumbai this afternoon.

One of the only things remaining to do on my 'to do' list was getting a foot massage. On the recommendation of Raymond I went to one of the many foot massage places around and it was great. I took a 25 minute foot massage after much arguing with the lady over the counter who was trying to push a 55 minute massage session onto me. The massage itself was painful in parts because my legs were feeling tired from walking around so much over the past 3 days but the results were amazing - after 25 minutes I felt like I was walking on air. Feeling battered but refreshed after the massage I promptly went to bed with the aim of waking up around 8 AM in order to get ready and catch the cityflyer back to the airport.

NEXT UP - FAREWELL HONG KONG, HELLO MUMBAI

Hong Kong - Part Deux

2009-10-06T12:45:00.004+13:00

Lady walking to work

Trapped

Early morning on Canton Road

Purple and White

Nature v/s Man - Man 1 Nature 0

Upmarket shopping

After disembarking and going through the immigration process again - I walked back towards the Star Ferry terminal to catch a ride back to Kowloon side, so I could leave my day pack behind and travel light. Hong Kong Island has this amazing network of walkways in Central district which runs through most of the buildings, shopping complexes and offices, so you don't really have to get down onto the ground level if you don't intend to. It makes getting from one place to another while walking a breeze. On my walk to the Star Ferry terminal I was confused as half the walkway was filled by groups of women sitting around- chatting, playing cards, gossiping etc. and it was a bizarre sight. My first thought was that maybe they are using it as a way for social activities and didn't think much more of it and kept walking to the Ferry terminal.

At the guesthouse I got talking to Raymond and was telling him about my experience in Macau and casually asked him why there were so many people in HK who were shopping and he mentioned that it was a 1 week holiday in mainland China asthey were celebrating 6th anniversary of communist China, which is why there were heaps of tourists from mainland visiting HK - primarily for shopping as goods were cheaper for them by 30-35% in HK {especially the luxury items}. That kind of explained why I saw so many chinese with tourist maps as well.

People hanging out under the bridge

Queue in front of a luxury store

After the brief chat I headed off back to Central district to see if I could catch a tram to see more of Hong Kong. Trams run on Hong Kong Island along with normal buses, MTR and cars and it is probably the cheapest mode of transportation there. A one way ride costs HK$2 flat for anywhere on the route and it is an awesome way to see the city because they run at a relaxed pace which means you can see more of the city - especially if you are sitting on the top deck. I caught a tram from Central to North Point and back and it was a great ride, seeing the city alive, going about it's business.

Tram service

Travelling through HK

Shopping crowd

Closing up for the day

Going home

By the time I came back to Kowloon side it was pretty late and I decided to try and search out some Sichuan restaurant {since there are various kinds of cuisine available within Hong Kong}. After a good walk around and exploring the area I found a restaurant {can't remember the name} that specialized in Sichuan cuisine and I tentatively walked upto the 2nd floor and it opened out into being a proper restaurant. All the people in the restaurant were in groups and eating is definitely a social thing in Hong Kong/China I suppose, so it was a weird feeling having people stare at me because I was sitting alone and having food on my own. The food was amazing and I was so engrossed in it, so I didn't mind the stares. I settled the bill and went back to the guest house to call it a night. I had a huge day planned ahead of me the next day and I decided to be extra precautious and wanted to set an alarm,so I switched on my cellphone and I was pretty taken aback when it wouldn't switch on properly. I don't know if it was the long haul flight or if it was something else but it wasn't working and I was kind of annoyed but at the same time kind of thankful because I was in HK and I could buy a cheap cellphone - atleast that was the plan. Since there was no other option I decided to trust my body clock and went to bed, making a mental note about the change in my planned itinerary.

I woke up pretty at 6.00 AM on my own, got ready and hoped for a better day. Being Monday - I knew there wouldn't be as much crowd and I was feeling quietly optimistic. First thing I did was try out congee at a local fast food chain called Cafe de Coral. It was filling and made me feel ready for the big day. I caught the ferry to Central and then used the walkways to get to Peak Tram station without getting down onto the roads {and my directional senses and navigational skills seemed to be back to normal}.On the way to Peak Tram station, a couple of roads were blocked off by women sitting around and doing the same things I observed the day before. They were doing some kind of strike/protest against something because I came across a couple of rally speeches. That kind of satisified my curiosity as to why all these women were just hanging out on the streets. I didn't enquire what the protests were about or anything since it wasn't my time or place and kept walking to the tram station.

Getting to work

HSBC

Court of Last Appeal

Enjoying a newspaper

A quite spot by St. John's Cathederal

Walkways

Free newspaper distribution

Waiting for the tram

Caged

A boy in the sky

The peak tram took all of 15 minutes this time around and since it was still pretty early in the day and the visitor information centre at the peak wasn't open I decided to just take a moment to enjoy the stillness over a cup of hot chocolate at Pacific Coffee Company. The hot chocolate was amazing and it gave me time to flesh out what I wanted to do. Once the information centre opened I queried them about trekking from the peak to Aberdeen and also about a visit to Lamma island and about best place to buy a cheap cellphone. The hike to Aberdeen would've taken about 2.5 hours and I quickly decided against going to Aberdeen. Instead I took a walk around the trail around the peak. You just get onto Luggard Road and pretty much keep walking and you'll end up where you started in about 45 minutes time. I would highly recommend doing this walk because you get some mazing views of Hong Kong, some of which just take your breath away.

Nature overlooking man

Sky scrappers

HK into the horizon

Another view of HK

And another one

Trapped

Trail around the Peak

People enjoying the trail

Serenity now

Wheels

After the walk, I caught the tram back down and figured I would miss the next ferry to Lamma Island as I wouldn't be able to get to the ferry terminal on time. The decision was then to check out mid-level escalators which take you up to the mid levels of the district. That again proved to be a good decision as I soon found a couple of roads that I was looking for. The use of escalators is free and is a good way to see the usual way of life in HK. I then walked down and checked out a couple of eating joints that I was looking for on different roads around there. And since I was in the area I also decided to check out Man Mo Temple to kind of provide a balance to all the churches I had visited the day before.

Stairs uptowards the mid level escalators

Good day to get the day started

The mid-level escalators

Occupational Hazard?

The Man Mo temple was being renovated/repaired but it still had amazing atmosphere. There is lots and lots of incense smoke and burning candles and incense and nothing more - which was refreshing to see.

A girl walks past an artist painting

Artist at work
Construction at Man Mo temple

Incense, Candles and smoke

Burning incense

Faith under construction

Temple and Sky scrappers

After the temple I was walking back to the Ferry terminal when I found Mak's Noodles {77, Wellington Street, Central} - a highly recommended place if you are looking for traditional Hong Kong style wonton soup noodles and I have to say it didn't disappoint. It was an awesome lunch and the taste kept lingering in my mouth for atleast another hour after I had finished lunch and the best part was that it was reasonably priced too.

Enjoying the views

Mak's noodles...yummmmm

Shopping in Central

Wheelers Dealers

Walkways running across the buildings

Cranes

Pregnant in thought and body :)

NEXT UP : LAMMA ISLAND AND SHOPPING IN HONG KONG

Macau

2009-10-06T12:44:00.002+13:00

I woke up at 6.00 AM without the need for an alarm and I got ready and walked over to where the China Ferry Terminal is supposed to be from where I could catch the ferry to Macau but was again thrown off by the lack of any foot traffic and it looked like the building was closed. Around 6.30 AM I decided to brave it and just walked into the building since I saw a couple of people walk in and to my surprise the ferry terminal was actually open and it was set a little further towards the water, so you had to take a lift up and then walk some to get to the main ticketing areas. I couldn't find the ticketing service for First Ferry and as I was roaming around lost, one of the security guards came around and pointed out the till from where I could buy the tickets. Macau is a SAR {Special Administrative Region} just like Hong Kong, so you have to go through the immigration process and get a visa to go to Macau. It took me only 5 minutes since it was still early in the morning.

The ferry takes about an hour to get you from HK to Macau. I landed in Macau and was expecting to get a head start by getting all the information I needed from the information centre and then doing the things I planned. And again I hit a major hurdle - I had caught the 7.00 AM ferry, which meant that I was in Macau departures around 8.15 and the information centre was closed and there were no helpful signs or information whatsoever as to what to do and where to go. There were free shuttle bus services to one of the many casinos in the region but I had no intention of going to a casino and I didn't want to sign up for any local tours as I wanted to explore things on my own. I tried asking one of the security guards at the terminal for information but they couldn't speak English, so I decided to walk around a bit and while away another 35-40 minutes before the information centre opened. I wish I knew how to speak Portuguese or Mandarin or Cantonese as it probably would have made things a lot more easier and made a mental note to try and learn some conversational Malay before next year's trip to Borneo.

At 9.00 AM I was back at the information centre and got all the information that I was seeking and got around to catch a bus to the main street which runs through Macau. Hong Kong dollars are accepted in Macau and have equivalent value to the Macau Patang. and bus rides cost a flat 3.20 for travel anywhere within the city. The down side is that you have to tender exact change and if you don't then you end up loosing a chunk of change.

Macau to me was a weird experience because it felt like such a transitionary city/state. Maybe it was because of the casinos that overpower the city or maybe because I went there on the weekend but it had this pretty empty feel to it. The best part of the whole experience was the Portuguese influences - on architecture and on food. Once you get down near the main fountain - all the main attractions are walking distance on both sides and it is probably the best part of the entire city. An interesting fact that I picked up was that because it was a Portuguese colony - the Portuguese government decided to award citizenship upto a particular year to all inhabitants of Macau. I am not sure of the year - it might be 1980 but a further read of this article only muddles things up.

When you walk towards the old ruin's of St. Paul's there are various eating joints and shops and I highly recommend you give them a go. You can walk in and have taste samples of pretty much everything in the shop except for Portuguese style egg tarts. Talking of which - the egg tarts are amazingly wonderful. They are crispy and hot on the outside and once you bite into it you hit cool custard filling in the center. The taste and texture is amazing and as an added bonus they are pretty reasonably priced. Another thing you need to taste are the various kinds of jerky that are available - do give them a go as well.

The main fountain with the town hall in the backdrop

The square

Walking the street

Faith

Candles :-)

Waiting for a bus

Cobbled Streets

Don't know what the hell those dried things were

Shopping

Taking a break in the square {roundabout}

Cobbles

Street where there are lots of local delicacies

St. Paul's ruins

Touristy

The next step

View of Macau from St. Paul's ruins

Exhibit at Macau museum

Chinese face mask

A video exhibit at the museum

Portuguese influence

Looking through the window

Macau City side

More Macau

Canons at Macau Fortress - rightly pointed at the Casinos :-)

Martial arts practise group

Trying out a new move

Since all the attractions are close by - it is easy to check them all out within a short span of time and for me the Portuguese architecture was a highlight. I soon got fed up off the churches and decided to grab some lunch as the only food I had since morning were a few egg tarts. I searched for Fat Siu Lau restaurant and decided to give it a go. Their specialty is their special roasted pigeon but I couldn't get myself to try it out and settled for another Macau specialty dish called African Chicken. The food was scrumptious and I would highly recommend it - even though it is slightly on the pricier side. After lunch I decided to walk back to the ferry terminal as I didn't want to break any of my HK dollar notes because you then get Macau Pataca in return and it is hard to get them converted once you get back to HK. The walk was easy enough and didn't take too long.

More Portuguese architecture

Through the narrow streets

Through a window lightly

Driving up the street

It was an interesting experience walking past the casinos - the buildings were massive - to the point where I couldn't really get any of the building to fit in entirety while composing photographs. And the feeling of vacant energy walking through the various streets near the casinos was disconcerting to say the least, so I was pretty happy being on the ferry back to HK. On the way back I decided to catch Turbo Jet ferry instead of First Ferry and I have to say it was a lot more comfortable and I promptly fell asleep. The siesta definitely recharged me as I was ready to go exploring Hong Kong. The difference between the 2 ferry services {besides being operated by 2 different companies} is that First Ferry runs from Kowloon side while Turbo Jet runs from Hong Kong Island side.

Grand Lisbon Casino - that thing is MASSIVE

Illusions of Grandeur

Next up: Hong Kong - Part Deux

Hello Hong Kong

2009-10-06T12:42:00.008+13:00

My second time around in Hong Kong and I enjoyed it so much more than last time - mainly because it was a longer stay and I didn't feel lost as much as last time. Flying into Hong Kong was surreal - maybe because of the smog (??) or low lying clouds - you can't really see much and it is like flying into a mystical world where things reveal themselves before your eyes as you peer to take a closer look.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful - except for the fact that I kept drinking heaps of water to keep myself hydrated and to reduce any jet lag. What it meant was that I had to go pee every hour or so and I am sure the Japanese lady sitting next to me was not impressed. I usually sleep really well- even on flights but since I was trying to get my body used to HK time I slept only an hour or so through the 12.5 hour flight. The rest of the time was spent watching movies and TV shows on the in-flight entertainment system.

Hong Kong airport is amazing and the first scary experience was walking through sensors which detect your body temperature to check if you have high fever. It is one of the precautionary measures against the bird flu I guess. After that it was pretty smooth sailing - got visa on arrival at immigration {I love my NZ passport}, picked up my backpack and exited the customs area and the first thing I did was I got myself an 'on-loan' octopus card - which is like a debit card that you can use on all public transport and a fair few restaurants and convenience stores. I would highly recommend doing that instead of buying the 1 day tourist pass or the 3 day 'airport express' card because they are not good value for money as they can only be used for unlimited MTR travel{which turned out to be my least favorite commuting option} and not on other forms of public transport. The 'on loan' Octopus card costs HK$150 out of which $50 is refundable deposit and you can top up however much you want - any unused amount is returned to you along with the deposit when you return the card. After getting the octopus card sorted - I checked out the information center about where to catch the air bus and went around to bus terminal and paid for the fare with my 'octopus'. The fare was HK$33 - which is about 1/3rd the amount you pay for using Airport Express MTR. It takes longer for sure but then you get to see Hong Kong.

There was some diversion on in the main area, so the driver {who could barely speak any english} asked me to get off about 4 stops before my intended destination and I did. It was a hard 1.5 KM walk on Nathan Road, lugging around my backpack and my day pack but it was still enjoyable as I got to experience the sounds and smells of HK straight away. I love the smell of Hong Kong {despite the pollution} unlike Bangkok - where I did not love the smell of it. Anyway - coming back to things - accommodation in Hong Kong is expensive and I had searched for backpackers hostels online and settled on Yiu Fai Guesthouse - which had good reviews and had a helpful owner-operator. I found the place easily and Raymond- the owner was there when I checked in. There was some problem with the booking because of various reasons and he only had a double room with common bathroom available for a day before he could put me into the single room with attached bathroom. I wasn't too concerned and I said I was happy with just staying in the double room for the entire 3 days if that helped him out and it obviously did - which meant he offered me a refund of the difference in prices of the 2 rooms as it was helping him out immensely and for me I guess I had a bigger bed. :-) After settling into the room and taking a breather - I set out to explore Hong Kong.

I remember the crazy/amazing energy from the last trip but I was really taken aback by the number of people shopping like crazy. There were lines outside of luxury stores - with people waiting to get into the shop. That to me is insane and I couldn't get my head around it - is there so much money in Hong Kong that now the stores have to enforce a queue? The other thing that struck me was that the shops had massive windows and ceilings and it made you feel really small and punitive - especially combined with the backdrop of the skyscrappers all around. I had done some research on HK before I came over and had drawn up a rough list of things I wanted to do and some of the things that I wanted to taste and I promptly set about trying to find a couple of eating joints and also to check out the view of HK from the peak.

I took the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong island and started getting my bearings and soon enough I was lost {a running theme - considering I was briefly lost in Bangkok}. I had a very hard 1 hour trying to locate the eating joint I wanted to check out but had no luck whatsoever and the humidity was slightly getting to me as my T-shirt was wet from just walking around. In frustration I gave up the search and decided to catch the Peak tram to the peak and was able to find it easily because of the excellent signage across the place.

Hong Kong Island Skyline

Aboard the Star Ferry

Sailing through the harbour

A guy playing the flute as the world walks by

Constructing Hong Kong

PDA in Walkway

Bizarre

A night-time Deli

Catching the peak tram was an experience - the lines were massive and I was tempted to just walk away but I decided to rough it out. It took an hour from starting in the line to finally getting onto the tram. I decided not to buy the Sky terrace ticket option - which is basically a viewing platform to get views of HK, and just explored around and found some free spots to take photographs. I wanted to walk down from the peak to the main city area but the girl at the information centre dissuaded me saying that the path is pretty dark in places and it would be much more safer to just catch a bus or the tram back. I looked at the line for the tram and decided that I didn't want to go through the agony of another hour's wait, so went across to the bus station and there were heaps of buses waiting to go down. It takes half an hour for the bus to get you down {as opposed to 15 minutes by tram} but it is an amazing experience itself since the winding road down is pretty narrow and the route weaving through the city provided a fascinating glimpse into what was in store.

The crowds wanting to use the peak tram

The line running across to the other side of the street

Gold

Colourful reflections

A moment for reflection

Tourists taking photos of HK skyline

HK skyline at night

At the Central Pier

Ferry sailing towards Kowloon

Colourful HK skyline

A traditional junk against the skyscrappers

A shopping mall

The stylehunter

After I got back - I got back to Kowloon side and explored some markets and streets in the Tsim Tsa Shui area before deciding to get KFC - since I couldn't seem to find any restaurants. I was all the more confused because there were no restaurants at ground level and it was only later {into my second day} that I realized that most of them are either underground or above ground level {on 3rd floor or 4th floor etc..}. The KFC was gross and I wasn't particularly happy that I had come all the way here and had decided to try out some KFC. I was feeling tired and didn't have much energy to spend, especially since I was planning on catching an early ferry to Macau the following day, so I decided to call it a night. The other thing that stood out for me was that there no point in saying 'Thank you' after everytime someone does their job, like in NZ. With the massive population it would drive you nuts - plus people just don't have the time to respond back - they are too busy carrying out their job. After saying 'Thank you' a couple of times and getting weird looks, I stopped doing it. I am a quick learner you see. :-)

NEXT UP - MACAU

Fitness Tracking

2009-09-30T20:26:00.004+13:00

Through last night I was running ideas in my head about the best possible way to do the edit on the scenes that we shot over the weekend and the first thing I did this morning was wake up, switch on the computer and attacked the edit with a gutso. I managed to finish doing rough cut on 3 scenes over a 3 hour period and decided to take a breather, so went and brushed my teeth and as I came out of the bathroom I got a scare as Lance was standing there. He seemed pretty excited and he immediately asked me if I had heard about the Tsunami warning for NZ. I said no and he asked me to check out the news - basically a tsunami hit Samoa and it was on it's way to NZ and the whole country was put on a civil defence alert.

I couldn't get back to edit and needless to say it was exciting and frightening at the same time because of the constant news updates about the status of Tsunami. And because of it I couldn't go back to edit and I was almost about to cancel my fitness test but then I decided against it and did go in for the test. The results were surprising {because I had reduced the intensity of my workouts by half over the past 2.5 weeks because of workload} and encouraging.

My weight is 63.7 KG {downward movement of almost 3.5KG}; Body Fat %age is 16.5 {down 1.5% & almost close to my target of getting it down to 15% by end of the year}; Blood pressure is normal; VO2 Max levels are at 49.8 [up 0.5] at Level 15 {while the last test was at Level 11}. So overall improvements in all areas and now just have to see how this 1.5 month break impacts on it. Plan is to see if I can find a gym near where I'll be, so that I can atleast maintain the fitness levels - if not improve them during that time frame.

The tsunami alert was cancelled at mid-day and big waves didnot hit NZ as it was feared but reports coming out of Samoa show that they are pretty badly hit because of it. Just shows natural disasters can strike anywhere, anytime.

Simon, Lauren and me had a fantastic workshop for our storline yesterday and it is going to be good - kind of ties everything together pretty nicely in terms of themes that we are exploring in the movie. Tomorrow I am acting in a short film - a small but fun part. And on Friday, I intend to finish off the rough cut on the remaining scene that needs to be edited before I am ready for the holiday.

That's me for now.
Amit