Phuentsholing - Bhutan

A road less travelled. A country less visited. Bhutan is a beautiful part of Asia. This is my first time to reach the border and enter the county through Phuentsholing. To get to the border and the only entrance to the country that foreigners are allowed is to get a bus from the Siliguri Junction Bus station. There are 2 government buses that runs from here daily which is at 7 AM and 12.30 Afternoon. The last bus leaves at 2.40 PM and is privately run. The cost o ticket is RS 81. The bus goes to Jaigaon, the border town of India. From Jaigaon to enter Phuentsholing, it is a 5 minutes walk.

Important information: Phuentsholing is only accessible by road for Indians, Nepalese and Bangladeshis without a Visa. Other nationalities need to go through the proper process of getting the permits and Visa for Bhutan and through travel agencies. Generally the trip is arranged at a fixed cost of USD per night, which includes meals, transportation and visits to permitted areas. Then the foreigners can opt to access through Phuentsholing (Only one way, either entry or exit). So another entry or exit must be done by Government owned Druk Air. The flight tickets are expensive and the whole visiting process must be done as early as possible and at least 3 months in advance. Check online and you may find many options and travel agents.

From the Jaigaon bus station, take a shared auto to the town centre, and probably to the crossing gate. It should not cost more than RS 5 to 10. The hotels in Jaigoon are really bad. Some in total unacceptable conditions. Smelly, bad walls and baths, bed bugs and more like hotels for brothels! So do you homework and I suggest not to stay in Jaigoon. Some of the worst hotels includes Hill View, Kasturi and Sivam. For locals, these hotels are excellent so if you ask around they will probably tell you these are the great hotels. Basically nothing much to see in Jaigaon. Quick walk through the town will take about 1-2 hours, and off you go.

The crossing is interesting. There are separate entry points for pedestrians and vehicles. There are no checking done for pedestrian on Indian side. But there will be army personals all over the gate area. At the entry point of Bhutan, there will be Bhutan Police and will check the passport/id cards when they suspect that you are not from any of the 3 countries. Locals will easily get away. They are strict and they speak professional english. If you managed to cross that, then you are in the soil of Bhutan. No passport stamping needed. My PIO somehow helped me to cross that border!

You will see a vast difference between Jaigaon and Phuentsholing, mainly in cleanliness. Phutsholing is 20 times cleaner and neater than Jaigaon. There are many Hotels within few minutes from the gate. I checked into Hotel Central at RS 1000. Great service and very good hotel indeed, where for the same price you will get a lousy room filled with urine smell in Jaigaon. The people are friendly and they look similar like Nepalese. Most of then can speak Bhutanese, Hindi, Nepalese, English and even Bengali.

Phuentsholing town is quite small and you can take a walk around the town and see the place within 2-3 hours. Many nice cafe's and restaurants. I saw many locals wearing the traditional clothes. Even their police and customs personal's dresses are very different and has their traditional dress elements. From here to go to Paro or Thimphu, it is a 6 hour journey by mini-bus. But will first need to get a permit with passport copy and photo id. This is for the Indians, Nepalese and Bangladeshis. I did not try this.

I was happy to visit Phuentsholing and in someway very happy that I have stepped into Bhutan.

Dhaka to Darjeling

This is fun. It is not the normal path that most of the westerners or tourist take to visit Darjeling. But generally the Bangladeshis travel this way and it is a common during the high season in Darjeling. Now there is only one bus that goes from Dhaka (Bangladesh) to Siliguri (India). It is run by the trusted bus company Shyamoli Transports. The package includes an A/C Coach in a 2 X 2, forty seats coach, you have to book the seat in advance as it sells out at least 3-4 days before the scheduled departure, a packaged food and drink and assistance at the customs for border crossing. The ticket was Taka 1300, but may change from time to time. It is a computerized system and need not to worry. Shyamoli Services are professional.

The bus leaves about 10 PM from Dhaka. But you will need to be at the Ticket Office by 8 PM. There are quite a number of Shyamoli Ticket counters in Dhaka. So they will pool all the passengers to one Mini Bus before dropping you off at the changing counter at the outskirts of Dhaka. Bags will be tagged and you will be given a coupon. So need not to worry. Once you leave in the A/C coach, you will be given a bottled water and a pack of food (Snacks).



The bus then will stop at a Highway Cafe about 11-11.30 PM. Remember like any other stopover cafes, this place is expensive, but will be your last stop till the next morning.

The bus will arrive at Burimari, the border village of Bangladesh (North West of Bangladesh) around 6 AM the next day. The fun part begins! The Bangladesh Customs will only open it's doors around 8.30 AM. So you will have some time to wash up and walk around the village. Shyamoli Counter offers some basic rest areas with toilet. The whole customs and border crossing process will take approximately 5 hours. The bus assistant will collect all the passports and do the necessary. If you are a foreigner, please ensure you have done all the checking and have no issues on Visa for India. From the bus stop to the border gate is about 200 meters. They will arrange a rickshaw for this distance and your bags will be transported by default. Expect to pay a Taka 10 for the ride. Next, the customs officers will call the names one by one, and you can from there walk another 100 meters to the other side of the gate. Not yet, this is still Bangladesh soil. Once you reach the other gate, this is where they will stamp the passport and let you go.

Cross the gate and there will be sign - India. Yes! There is a small hut after the gate on the Indian side. First the gate officers will check your passports. Next the customs officers will go through, stamp the passports and you are ready to go. Again, please ensure all your documents are right. There will be another Shyamoliy Bus waiting to pick up the same passengers. A different bus on the Indian side. The bus will approximately leave at 11 AM and reach Siliguri at 1 pm. Indian time is 1/2 hour earlier than Bangladesh timing.

    

The bus will stop at a Hotel, a little far from the bus/jeep stand to Darjeling at Siliguri. From here, take a rickshaw to the Siliguri Junction. RS 20. There will be plenty of jeeps waiting for turns to go up. It is a 4 hour ride and please ensure to arrive in Darjeling before 9 PM. After that the whole town goes to sleep unless you have an earlier booking for a hotel. The shared jeep costs RS 100 per person. Try to get the front seat next to the driver for a more comfortable ride. Happy journey!

Bangladeshi Farmers at the Burimari Border

Dhaka and the long lost Bangladesh

Dhaka, a city full of mysteries and magic. Beautiful colours, friendly people but with some eyes always watching for some possibilities to lure you. The less visited and appriciated Dhaka and Bangladesh as a whole is not that bad. People just have not seen the true colours of the city and the country. A reverse meaning of true colours.

Smoking Autos, more than 400 thousand rickshaws and rest of the population on foot. A few minutes before landing at the International Airport, I believe I saw Dhaka almost sinking in. The whole city looked as if it was drowning. Waters everywhere. The airport was decent and convenient. I met a a Bangladeshi whom immediately identified me as Malaysian. Then he spoke to me in fluent Malay. This guy was working in Malaysia for more than a decade. Step out of the airport and you will see the most interesting Bangladesh.

People are generally friendly and helpful. Unlike India where anyone on the street could speak some basic English, the communication in Bangladesh tend to be difficult. English is for the upper class and the new generation is generally good at it. The rikshawallas, auto drivers and the merchants speak Bangla. Knowing few words on Hindi/Bangla will help you. Most of the Bangladeshis speaks Hindi and Bengali. There are many interesting areas in Dhaka where you can enjoy visiting. Sadarghat Boat Terminal is one of the place that should not be missed. This is starting point of the "Rocket" Steamers & Boats Khulna and Barisal. The cost starts from Taka 600 to 4000 per night journey depending on the type of room. The scenery of people crossing the river is definitely to be witnessed.

Take note that Bangladesh is still new for incoming visitors. It was actually a little difficult to get a Tourist Visa at the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia without an invitation. Meaning that you must be invited with a valid letter and identity of the Bangladeshi to be given a Visa. The question was, there are nothing much to see in Bangladesh?! Why do you planned to go there? Fortunately after an Interview with the a good diplomat, First Secretary of the High Commission, they gave me a 15 days Single entry Visa. Please check on the Visa requirements before booking your tickets.

I spent 5 days visiting the important monuments and places in the city. Clean food and water are rare unless you tend to choose the high end restaurants. Hotels are bad for the price you pay. Some of the hotels which costs even up to US 35-45 are unacceptable. So imagine the cheaper ones. After some initial disappointments, I found a good hotel. Hotel Ashrafee with a single room for Taka 1850. Decent, clean and comfortable hotel in Rajabargh close to the main Kamalapur Train Station. This is the station where you get the Maitree (Frenship) Train to Culcatta from Dhaka. It runs every Tuesday and Thursday  from Dhaka and Sunday and Wednesday from Culcatta with almost 12 hours journey including the checkpoint procedures. The train timings and days has changed, so please check again and don't just follow information on the web. The cost of one way ticket is about Taka 1260.

Clothes, jeans, paints and jackets are the speciality of Bangladesh. Bango Bazaar is so far the best place to shop for rejected branded goods. It's extremely cheep and original items. Again do check yourself to confirm the original items as recently they are mixing the clothes with counterfeits from China and Thailand. You can easily buy a good Levi's jeans and a Dockers pants for about US 3-5. Bargain hard. Start with 1/4 of the asking price. and don't pay anything more than 1/2 the price. If you are not getting it, just walk away and look for other shops. There are very few buyers nowadays, so as long as they make a little profit, they will sell it to you.

Unfortunately, Air Asia has suspended their flight to Dhaka from 1st of July. So plan you travel with other Airlines, but at a higher cost! :)

Naalum Vanangum Theivam (Deivam) Enge?

I managed to catch a wonderful movie yesterday, Vaanam [Vaanam - Tamil Movie from South India directed by Krish and produced by VTV Ganesh - Year of Release 2011]. The lead played by Simbhu, Bharath and Prakash Raj. Some may say that movies does not need a message; All I want is some entertainment! For me, a message is the ultimate of a film and the a reasoning for a filmmaker.I have been in the production and entertainment industry for more than a decade now. So I believe I have some credibility to comment :)

I would say it was a great job done for a Tamil movie. I always prefer a simple and humble plot which reflects people's daily life. I am not fond of super rich characters, super-fiction movies which gives you an imaginative world to the audience. Well, I can dream all I want but the reality is what is there on the table.

Story revolves around 5 different characters whom by co-incidence will meet and be at the same place towards the ending of the film. All 5 characters reflects the normal people that you will probably see around you, people like you and me. Middle Class Citizens who leads a normal daily life with happiness, sad stories, problems and so on. But there is a lesson learned by each of the character.

Shots and camera work is genuine. Music is good. Cast selection is excellent. Screenplay is fast even though I felt the song "Evandi Unne Pethan" is unnecessary. But the director and team would have done that to add some commercial value. "Theivam Valvathu Enge" song is fantastic, and it comes as background score throughout the movie which adds value to the scenes. Simbhu and Prakash Raj did a great job. Bharath is not that prominent but he plays an important role too. Saranya and her uncle was a great selection and Saranya well deserve the National Award.

Now there are two scenes in the movie that really touched me;

When Simbhu could not overcome his guilt and decided to break the truth to his girlfriend, he returned the stolen money including whatever he had in his pockets; Saranya's uncle found the cash in front of the hospital room; when he cried out loudly thanking god I cried as well;

After all the incidents, towards end of the movie the policeman who never believed Prakash Raj from day one, insulted and hit him many times, put him behind bars and shot his leg, came to drop Prakash Raj back to his house; the look and the expression of the policeman crying and asking for forgiveness without saying a single word and the reaction of Prakash Raj's character whom silently holds him and forgives him; I could not hold my emotions and cried again;

There are two things that I learned, realizing ones (my) mistake and asking for forgiveness and the heart to forgive no matter how cruel the others have been to you.

No matter, whom do you believe in as your God, no matter how hard you pray, forgiving and asking forgiveness is the god within you.

Theivam Valvathu Inge . . . .

The Facebook Fanatics!

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and all kinds of networking "tools" are available now. I am witnessing many whom are so much hooked into the social networking sites. Eat FB, Sleep FB, Dream Fb and so on. At one point of time, I just feel that people are overreacting rather than actually making use of these facilities.

No doubt. All the social networking sites are useful and so to network with people. Exchange informations, happenings and ideas online. Get to know people and even get hired online. But a social network should remain a social network and used for specific reason and time period. Malaysia is said to be having the fastest growing social network dilemma. People are not just hooking online with social network all day and all night without realizing how much valuable time that they are missing or better said, wasting.

What I realize is that people are so happy to exhibit, share and distribute their personal informations and pictures to people they do not "actually" know. My point of view is that the more you tell people about you, the more you are making yourself vulnerable. You also don't realize that those pictures that you happily share with a big smile and pose, can be used anywhere and anytime for different purposes including defaming you. After all what are you talking online? Some crapping - hey thats so nice-lah, you are so pretty today, i am so stressed.... blah blah blah....

Who is so interested to know if Mr.X likes Air Asia, Toyota or the all new Ipad 2?

Who cares if you just got yourself a super nice jacket, if you drive a BMW or if you just ate Walls Ice cream?

Who wants to know if you are in Selayang Supermarket, Golfing in Italy, or at the Chicken Rice Shop with your boss?

Social Networking and more over with Malaysian becoming a bragging and self proclaiming network rather than putting the SN to real use. Mr.X tells people that he got too much work to do at office, but still active in FB telling people what he was wearing yesterday night and he forgot to brush his teeth this morning. We are in the midst of making Malaysians the most less progressive people with recent reports claiming than more than half of civil servants are hooked to social networking sites during office hours. How do we expect people to really work and be productive?

Just look at an example of Tony Fernandez Facebook site. He is using the Social Network site to market and exchange information about his business. His words are marking the progress of the company and his team. He share facts on the developments which indirectly promotes his brands. That's a smart guy using his Social Network wisely. Does he share his photos with his kids? or what he was saying to his wife over last nights dinner?

For some, Change is just a word.

Cruise To Cambodia

I have got a ticket to take the 2 days 1 night trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Ho Chi Minh. The journey takes me to a small village called Vinh Long. I visited the some floating market, small fish paste making factories, "keropok" making factory and a market. We were taken by a long boat for to visit the floating village. Fishermen and people whom are living just on the boat, a floating home. They are traders and the boats will hang the item they trade on a pole for other to identify. You will see a different tradition here, and each and every one of them are dependent on the mother river, Mekong.

From there we were taken to another small town called Chou Doc. The group has decreased from 40 pax to only 7. I am the only Asian on the group. Rest are from europe and a old couple from Australia. I realized that backpacking is not an interest to Asians. But other do realize that they learn and see the real world this way, mixing with the people at the ground level. I had to stay in a small motel. It looked like a shop lot converted to a hotel, but I was confident that it would probably be one of the best in the town. Nothing to grudge. A good night sleep after a long day.

In the morning, I was late. Rest of the people were already waiting for me, the group now has only 5 pax. An omelet sandwich and a coffee, take away. Reached a small dock. From there we were on a long boat which could accommodate about 20 pax. About 20 minutes to the other side of the river. and then we arrived at a small canal. 3 small boats were already there waiting to take us. Now, this ride was awesome . They took us through some small villages along the canal. KIds and people waving at us. I was told by the Guide that 99% chances are that they have never left the place, even up to any bigger town nearby. We arrived at a part of the Mekong River where a lots houses were floating, now this looked like real houses and were built using plastic and steel floats. What they do? they rear fish in the Mekong water. A big tank with wires are built underneath each floating house.

Next was the big thing, myself with 4 other backpackers were transferred to another long boat. Destination - Cambodia. From Chou Doc, It was close to 8 hours long boat ride. After about an hour, we arrived at the boarded station of Viet. Had a meal and waited for the passports to be returned. It was quite modern with a small cafe inside. Then it was the customs of Cambodia. Some of the foreigners were stranded. My Malaysian Passport kept me going, but they did give me a different look. I believe they have not seen a Malaysian Passport holder crossing this way for a very long time. People along the river are probably 60-70 years backwards. The boat ride goes until a town called Neak Loeang. From there is was a 1 hour drive to Phnom Penh.

Hotels in Phnom Penh are cheeper than HCM. Actually everything is less expensive in PP compared to HCM from food to transports. Don't bother changing your currency to local cash. USD is preferred and accepted everywhere. If you tend to change to local currency, you will loose quite some money. Again Phnom Penh have some very nice places to visit. It is a small city by development probably something like Ipoh. I stayed there for another 3 days before flying back to Kuala Lumpur. Compared with HCM, Phnom Penh is up in my list for a second visit in future.

3 Days in Ho Chi Minh

I was planning a short trip to Ho Chin Minh. The largest city in Vietnam typically know as Saigon. It is a very nice city, and there are lots of things that you can do here. I did my hotel shopping on Agoda. I got a great deal at a decent hotel very near to the center area in HCM, Hoang Lian Hotel. It is about 10 minutes walking distance from the famous Ben Tanh Market. Along the same street, you find lots of good budget hotels with great deals. My advice, buying online and as early as possible will get you the best room at the right price. Most of these hotels provide so called breakfast. Forget the continental or american breakfast, this will be purely Vietnamese. You are lucky if you get some bread and butter. WiFi is offered free in most hotels.

Getting out of the place was easy. You can rent a bike for USD 4-5 per day. Remember you will need International License to ride it around. However even the rental guy will not ask for one. You only need to worry about this if you are caught by police. But it is always "negotiable". From here if you walk 10 minutes to Pham Ngu Lao, you will find a whole street full of backpackers hotel and tourist agents. Now, the hotels here are designed to cater backpackers. So if you don't mind the simplicity and privacy is not an issue to you you probably will like this place. But for a bout extra USD 2-5 you will be able to get a nice room on your own at other places. So do your math.The good thing about this area is that it offers you lots of options for traveling further to other parts of Vietnam and Cambodia. They have the 2 days, 3 days and up to a week tour for Mekong Delta trips, to the villages on the south and to through Mekong to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I will come to that latter. You will also find lots of restaurants here, from Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese and Western. But for me, the food prices here are much more expensive compared to what I can get in Malaysia.

You will get lots of good information on places to visit in Ho Chin Minh online, just google it. So I am not going to elaborate on that. My idea is to share information from experience that may be different from those standard picture given. For Malaysians, you may want to change your RM to Viet in Kuala Lumpur. RM does not have big value here so you may loose big on changing it here. USD is okay. There is a nice Mariamman temple in the middle of the city. But it will be quite different, with prayers and practices are very much redesigned to Viet. You will also see people wearing sandals and shoes inside the temple. To make things easier grab a free city map at the airport. Most of the main Tourist attractions are there. Take the bus to the city centre from the airport, they know the normal places where tourist will get down (hotel areas).

I did one of the HCM River Cruise. It was USD 15. The food was not great but the experience is. You will board the cruise ship at 7.30 PM if I am not mistaken. Please check the schedules again. It will leave the dock and return to the same dock in about 1.5 hours to 2 hours time. Please note that there are few companies running this river cruise. Price differs slightly and also different ships boarding from different dock. The drinks including alcohol on board is very expensive and the food portion is very small. There will be daily traditional shows as well. Again do this only if you want to experience the ship. There are few specific shops that sells model ships and boats made from wood in HCM. You can get a 80cm long ship for USD 25. Bargain hard. I find the model ships to be a HCM specialty.

After visiting many places in Ho Chin Minh, I decided to take some risk. Cross over to Phnom Penh, Cambodia by taking the long way - a boat ride in my next post!

The Yangoon Story

My father posing with fellow Burmese Tamils

Traditional Dance at the Myanmar Buffet

Myanmar - An asian country less visited or probably not even in the list of many tourist. This may be because many still feels it is not safe yet to travel to Myanmar or Yangoon in particular due to the recent military and internal issues in the country. If you google and check, there may not be many interesting article about Myanmar. But even then, I planned a tour with my family last August.

Monks preparing lunch

Well it was a wet landing in the Yangoon International Airport. Before leaving I checked with few tour operators there via email, good thing is they respond fast and with good information. I decided to take the Green Palace Tour Service (grpalace@myanmar.com.mm) as they quoted a good price plus it sounded more convincing. As expected they were in the airport, a driver and a guide, the van was reasonable for Myanmar standard. The tour was arrangement was good even though I must say that there are very few places to visit in Yangoon and surroundings. We visited Yangoon's best and I would say only attraction, Golden Pagoda. Its magnificent. Then to other pagodas in Yangoon, Bago, the main market and some river sides. A 3 days, 2 night trip is good enough for Yangoon and Bago. If you are planning to go beyond that, then you may want to consider a 4-5 days slow trip.

For tour agencies you may use USD. Actually USD is more appreciated than any other currency. Malaysian Ringgit is close to not recognized and if you found any who would change, the value would be pathetic. Hotel was reasonable. We stayed in Asia Plaza Hotel. But I have found that Panorama Hotel is better, in terms of the rooms, breakfast and free wifi. Both hotels are very near in within the main city area. You will be able to walk to most of the places from here. There are a significant number of Tamils living in Myanmar. While generally you will see that Myanmar people are poor and only have the basic standards of living, the Tamil community are very much under privileged. Particular area across the Yangoon River is the home for almost 200,000 Tamil people. Most of them do not have any kind of identification card, passport of receive any benefits from the government. It is quite saddening to see the state of the Tamil people. The language is also vanishing over time. The 1st and 2nd generation still speaks Tamil. The third and fourth generation barely understand Tamil but fluent in Myanmar language.

Below is the view of the Golden Pagoda from the Asia Plaza Hotel. It is pure gold and beautiful at night. Overall if you like to see the local people and their lifestyle, you would appreciate a visit to Myanmar.