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.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity - Batam Project - It was in the middle of close to nowhere, a small village in Batam and before we realize we were already on our way building a small house for the less privileged people. We started on Thursday, leaving from Singapore to Batam Island by ferry. The one hour journey was fascinating. Arrived there and after lunch we quickly geared up for work.

It was a joint contribution by MediaCorp to take part in this programme. I believe MediaCorp did support and sponsor for 10 houses to be built under this initiative.

The programme is arranged in such a way that the actual owners of the house are the ones who work to build their home. The programme provides support and materials and some on-off manpower like us to help build the homes. By doing this, the people receiving the support will have more value over the help the get and also will have ownership to take care of the property. The lady in the pink blouse and two guys net to her will become the joint owners of the house. The last guy on the left is our coordinator from HFH programme. Each house will cost and estimated SGD 4000.

We just helped for 3 days 2 nights before heading back on Saturday evening. We were extremely tired but it was a very good experience. The Indonesian people here are really hard workers. The amount of strength is probably 10 X more than us. Yup, maybe since we are just used to our daily office air-conditioned environment, we find it so difficult to cope here, but definitely its worth it

The Workshop Menace

Got Cheated? Looks like getting cheated in a car workshop is almost unavoidable nowadays. Mechanics at workshops have been trained for a standard operating procedure, never tell the customer what is the actual problem to your car.

They go on a trial and error basis, changing part by part until the matter is partly resolved or better to say temporarily undetectable. Once you are out of the workshop, in few hours, days or weeks it may come again.

Another important aspect is to cheat you of the parts. There are very few and very genuine people around to fix the car. First a part that only cost about RM 60 will be quoted to you at RM 160 to RM 260 depending on how vulnerable you look. Most women, young and elderly people get conned easily.

I have started to do this whenever I find an issue with my car. First go to the authorized or the dealer who does sales and service and check the actual issue with them. 9 out of 10 times they will be able to detect the exact problem, knowing the sound and type of the issue. For example a Honda Service Centre knows a Honda better. Since now you know what is wrong, go to a Spare part dealer (many in the area of segambut and sentul) and buy the part directly. Try a few shops and the price around, some may even give you option for local, good quality and original. Price will definitely defer. Then you head to a workshop that you are comfortable with and do the repair.

What I noticed is that some workshop does not like this and may turn you away since they are loosing a big cut from the overpriced spare parts. But if you wanna save and make sure you are buying the original or good quality one, this could be the only way.

Batu Caves Thaipusam

Thaipusam in Batu Caves Kuala Lumpur is a festival that every visitor should witness at least once in their lifetime. More than 2 million people flock in within a week. Thaipusam (தைப்பூசம்) is a festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month and falls in January/February of every year.

Important Tips when visiting

1) Just like any other large festivals, be extra careful with your belongings

2) Children. If you can't carry them or if they are hyperactive, you may want to consider not taking them with you during your visit. It is quite common to find missing children.

3) Car Parking has been a major  issue in the surrounding areas; there were reports people charging a whooping RM 30-50 and if you don't pay you car could be damaged

Mumbai-Se Jalti Karo!

Mumbai - A city that never sleeps. There are action on every angle of the metropolitan. A fast growing, congested, super polluted environment. But nothing stops from the people moving around. From dawn to dusk, you will see thousand of people walking in and out.

The railway network is one of the largest in Asia with more than 6 million people using it's services daily. You may not want to try this during the rush hour as you basically will not have any space to move around. Can also be a victim of pick pocketing and abuse. People will push you and you may push them, but don't worry you will not offend anyone. It is the norm for traveling on the Mumbai Transit.

There is a big gap between the rich and poor and you can clearly see the difference in the quality of the people life. Just imagine this, a person taking his bath out of his small hut, just a meter away you see a baby defaces, within a feat or two a housewife is preparing the lunch in an open stove and so on. But you will be surprised that when you turn the other side, there is a Rolls Royce waiting at the junction. Maybe you won't see that many foreign high end cars even in Singapore. Slums are aplenty. One of the places which you should add in to your itinerary. You can get in touch with Realty Tours. They have the facilities and experience to do the most sought after "Dharavi" Slum Tour. But please take the half day tour and not the full day tour. It costs more but a few extra minutes strolling in the Red Light Area "Kamathi Puram" and a glimpse of the Dobby Ghat is not worth it. You can actually do those two parts on your own. Just remember, some places you are better off without a camera.

Keep your eyes wide open in Dharavi. You will see lots of very friendly people and kids. It is very safe and you have nothing to worry about. Just remember, some people may not like cameras, so be invisible. You will walk through the small allies and back streets of the houses. Some even will be as tiny as 1-2 feet. The whole slum is full of small and medium level factories. About 90% people who are staying in Dharavi work within and most of them are from elsewhere and not Mumbai-tizens.More than half of the population sleeps in the half baked homes of slums. No proper pipelines means no clean water supply. No proper sewage. At times, during the wet season the place can get so flooded resulting in many people dying not because they drown, but due to the disease it carries. But again, don't ever miss the Dharavi if you happen to visit Mumbai.

You will enjoy visiting other major attractions in Mumbai including the Gateway of India. Catch a Hindi or English movie which cost about RS 250-300 nowadays. Tamil movies runs at Arora Theatre near Matunga. There are quite a huge Tamil community living in Dadar and Matunga area. You also can get good South Indian Meals there.  I felt like being in a part of Chennai. Fortunately I had the opportunity to witness the opening show (First Show) of Tamil movie Mappillai starring Dhanush in Matunga. It was an awesome experience! Also don't forget the Briyanis! Mumbai is one of the best place to try all kind of briyanis. So check out the medium range restaurants and who will enjoy a thrilling briyani experience at a very reasonable price. Generally Mumbai is a bit more expensive than other cities in India. You may only get a Motel range for a USD 30-50 or RM 100-150. A decent hotel would cost you a minimum of RM 200-250, and would be quickly gone before you knew it. So plan your travel well ahead. Some of the hotels have direct online booking and may be cheeper than Agoda or similar websites.

I have visited almost 70% of Indian cities and from my experience, if you plan well ahead you may be able to reduce cost to the max and get the best hotels and transportations. Air travel is cheep in India. So you also have option of flying or taking the trains within. But no matter what is said and done, I have fallen in love with India a decade ago, the only country that I feel has everything from snow mountains to the sunny beaches.

Alright, have a pleasant journey!