Half Hour Time Zone Difference

Right now its 12:15pm (Friday) in India and 11:45pm (Thurs) in the States. My dad asked me to find out why India and a few select countries are on a "special" half hour tme zone that deviates from the standard 1 hour difference. I read that while time zones are based on lines of longitude, some lines are drawn to avoid populated areas or to follow borders. Some countries don't want to be divided into several zones, India included (For more info click here.) It makes sense I guess, India is too big to divide itself into two time zones. It still makes it hard to figure out what time it is back home!

"Only in India"

This was the veggie burger I mentioned earlier. Its just fried potato curry on a bun!

Cows on the street

It's become a common saying among the Expats here to speak of an experience or sighting as something "Only in India." Above are some interesting things I've seen.

Food or Gravy?

It's interesting the concept of gravy here in India. A lot of Indian dishes are made with vegetables and meat that floats in rich, flavorful (and often spicy) sauces and gravies. Funny thing is their concept of gravy is passed along into other types of food. On Monday night we ate at this restaurant called Far East, it was a posh Chinese restaurant located about 15km from our apt. The menu was extravagant, lots of different Asian dishes that you would expect to see on any Chinese menu. Looked safe - safe as in non Indian - to me. However when the food arrived it wasn't the same style of Chinese food we're all use to, you know the kind with light sauce and dressing that glazes on the vegetables and chicken. The food came in buckets of gravy and each time the waiter served me some of a dish he poured on tons of gravy onto my plate. I couldn't tell if I was having food or gravy? By the end of my meal my plate looked like a potporri of random colors.

Indian Traffic

The driving situation is insane in India. There are no driving RULES! There are no stop signs, there are no lanes that people abide to, there are no stoplights that people follow. There is a hierarchy on the road, big busses then cars then rickshaws then people walking. It's scary we almost hit a motorcycle head on!!! There aren't that many accidents, so surprisingly there is some kind of order to the chaos. And people honk ALL DAY LONG! Honk when their car is approaching a bike or a pedestrian, honking to let people know their car is coming. It's ridiculous but I'm starting to phase it out.

Mahabalipuram

The bathroom at Golden Sands

Dinner at The Wharf in the GRT hotel

That was our hotel room at GRT! GORGEOUS!!

We arrived in Mahabalipuram (also called Mamallapuram) and checked into this hotel called Golden Sands. It was BAD, SOOOOOOOO bad we didn't feel comfortable staying there. It was worse than a Motel 6. Really filthy and dirty with bugs everywhere. I didn't like it AT ALL but was willing to stay there if the other girls wanted to. Just an idea of the shower situation there, it was essentially a shower head attached to the wall that rained over the whole bathroom! We sucked it up and showered but I still felt dirty after.

We wanted to spend as little time in the hotel as possible, so we went shopping a little and then ate at this SUPER nice hotel called GRT. Its like the Hyatt in SF, maybe even nicer. At dinner I had seafood which was nice because I really wanted some fish. Our waiter did card tricks for us while we waited for our food and amazed us, they were great tricks! We tankered the idea at dinner to see if by chance GRT had open rooms, so we asked and they did! It was a little pricey but we were willing to eat the cost to avoid staying at Golden Sands. The room was fantastic, and well worth the cleanliness.

After breakfast we drove for an hour back to Chennai to fly home. Vacation was short but really fun. I think it helped me get adjusted to the Indian culture.

Pondicherry

Three of us with Maygesh, our favorite Rickshaw driver!

Three kids at the Botanical garden - Kids LOVE to have their pictures taken!

The airline we traveled on

At Matrimandir, Auroville

Early Saturday (30th) morning I went on a mini vacation with Anna and Stacy. We went to Pondicherry and this other place called Mahabalipuram (I'll write about Mahabalipuram in my next blog.) We flew through SpiceJet (picture above), which is one of the popular airlines in India. It's comparable to SouthWest. At Pondicherry we stayed at a 3 star hotel called Annamalai. The luxury levels here compared to back home are definitely different so you have to be careful about what the stars really represent. I was pleased with the hotel, luckily it wasn't anything worth cringing about. Funny thing, the advertisement for the hotel says "3 star hotel with 4 star service." I would think again about the 4 star service. One thing you have to keep mind of in India is miscommunication. Often times we would call room service to have a few items sent up and only 1 would arrive. That or it was the wrong item altogether!

We went to eat at the restaurant downstairs and I ordered a Veggie Burger. To my surprise (and dismay) it was nothing like the veggie/garden burgers at home. In my pictures you'll see that it was curry potatoes in a bun! I didn't eat it, and just ate the bun and fries :)

We then took our first Rickshaw ride, which is basically like a scooter that has an awning and seats, a bit rustic and dangerous but fun because it felt like we were riding around on an actual scooter! Above is a picture with our favorite Rickshaw driver, Maygesh. He took us on a personal tour of the city; saw some really interesting things and shopped at a few bazaars. There is this super cute french area that we adored. You'll see pictures in my album. We also visited a botanical garden where we say MONKEYS, my favorite! It was really funny because they were chasing these kids around. Touring around the city was similar to Mexico and other parts of Asia. Lots of cute little stands with jewelry and fabrics.

That night we ate at this hotel called Promenade which was gorgeous, and then went to check out a Ghandi statue they brought out for Ghandi's birthday. It was fun to see everyone celebrating the holiday on the streets.

Sunday morning we had a free breakfast at our hotel, and called good ol' Mygesh again to show us around some more. He took us to a weird temple with statues that looked like clowns. In temples you have to remove your shoes but we decided not to go inside because outside the temple was dirt. He then took us to see this monument called Matrimandir that looks like Epcot Center. Here's a link with info on the monument: Click Here

After lunch ate at this beautiful French hotel called L'orient in the French quarter of Pondi, we headed to Mahabalipuram.

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Viewing My Pictures

In each of my posts I will attach a link to view an album for different trips and experiences, but you can always view ALL my photos by copying and pasting this link into your browser:
http://picasaweb.google.com/charisewong

My Room

My cozy (and big) bed

The front of my complex

View from my apartment

Here are some pictures of my room and apartment, I'm at Apartment Gamma. It's a nice, big space, my room is twice the size of my room at home and I have my own bathroom! The first picture is a view from my balcony, it overlooks a green field. Sometimes the sun will shine through and illuminate the entire open area, its beautiful.

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Head Bobbing

An Indian gesture we've noticed which is extremely funny is when Indian people speak to you they will bob their head from side to side. It's like teetering back and forth along a spring. The bobbing is used to represent "yes" and "no," so its really hard to figure out what the head bob really means! Some people have picked it up, especially Joel (a manager from MV). He does it a lot and tries to stop himself from doing it. I've found myself doing it a little too, haha.

Two Day Travel to India

Pedestrians in Little India

Hyd airport arrival terminal

I flew for almost 20+ hours on Wednesday (27th) night but it essentially took two full days because I gained a day traveling. I met this really nice woman who sat next to me throughout my entire departure flight, her name is Swetha. She was traveling for business to Calcutta and is originally from India. It was nice talking to her, she gave me good suggestions on how to survive the food and surroundings. We chatted after sleeping for 9 hours and arrived first in Hong Kong, then flew another 3 hours to Singapore (there are pictures of the HK airport on the photo link below.)

I had a 9 hour layover in Singapore, the Singapore airport is THE BEST! They have all designer stores like Gucci and lots of cool little tech shops. I had a lot of time to kill so I took a free bus tour around the city. It was a Cultural Tour that ventured around Chinatown, Little India, the Financial District and Malay Village. Above is a picture of people walking across the street in the Financial District. After that I went to work out at a gym where you can pay by the hour. It cost me less than 7 dollars to work out and take a shower which was nice because I felt dirty from flying for nearly 15 hours.

At 8:30pm Singapore time, I jumped on a plane to Hyderabad! The only bothersome thing about the flight was they sprayed lysol in the vents when we landed! It was rather disgusting. I arrived at the airport and Anna (my friend here) and a driver came to pick me up. The picture above is of the Hyd airport. We then went back to the apartment which is super big, I'll show pictures soon.

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