Sunday, May 25, 2008

December 07/January 08 - Trip to Sri Lanka and India

Was away from Singapore for 3 weeks in December and January during which I went to Colombo to chill with family. What with my grand-aunt having passed away a couple of months previously (God rest her soul in peace) and my sister having married and eventually moved out of the house, it was a bit strange to only live with my mother in the house. But I think it was really great that she and I got to hang out and bond (I use this word loosely because if I were to tell her anything about my personal life, she would lock me up).

Hung out with heavily pregnant sister too and visited her house once or twice.. very nice. Very young-urban-professional kind of place; although neither of them are all that young, urban or professional (ha ha…ooh mean!). If they were, they would not have got married and even if they did, they would not talk to each other or have time to meet up with each other, much less have the time for a baby.

She also hosted a dinner at her place where close family were invited…. Food was brilliant and quite fun to be around cousins after such a long time. So Christmas was spent in Colombo too and I can’t really remember what we did…. Maybe nothing? Surely not? Clubbing I am sure..!Spent time with Ashan, Nishanthi, Inoshi, Hasira, Ashanie, Harshi, Shavanka, Shawn, Afshan, Israth.... a lot of fun. Oh yes, also met Shiny and Kevin in Colombo who were there for Shiny's best friend's wedding. So while Shiny was at the salon at Galle Face Hotel getting her hair, nails done, Kevin and I drank beers by the beach. Was a really good day!

So yes, flew to Chennai for a few days and met Pavs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So good to meet her and gossip and shop and do best-friend stuffz. We had a really fun lunch at Zara where she, being a smart-ass, ordered the foulest long island iced tea. It was terrible and had she had the stomach to finish it, some serious room-spinning may have happened.

I stayed with Dad’s sister which as usual was the most relaxing experience ever. Her house, although situated right in the middle of the city is actually located in a relatively peaceful lane with 2 massive trees in the garden. Therefore this lends the house a very peaceful and cool quality in which you can totally chill out. The only thing I can’t stand about that house, in fact, Chennai in general is that there are so many fucking mosquitoes buzzing about. You only have to bend down when you are watching TV and blindly thwack the area around your legs, and I guarantee you there will be 4-5 blood splatters on your palms. Disgusting? Tell me about it! I experienced that about 20-30 times the 4 days I was in Chennai.

I also had the time to color my hair a brown that turned out to be quite black color at Pavs’ family salon – Bounce! Go check it out. The service is brilliant. Ask for a guy called Murli. He may not be all that cool or glamorous (i.e. gay) looking but he is very good at what he does. Anyway, the brown-black color was super as it hid all my grey! Plus he also gave my hair a bit of a twist and although it only lasted one day, I lived that whole day with a confidence in looking like a trendy fucking bugger.

Cousin also took me out to this place called Casa Picola (correct me if I am wrong) and Mocha which is supposed to be India’s latest coffee-house sensation (see Barista – India’s latest coffee-house sensation circa 1998). Mocha’s built very well; it’s got an indoor and outdoor area with the latter being shaded with a few trees and the furniture being a mix of the traditional table-chair thingi, and swings and big comfortable couches. The menu selection is great with loads of great desserts and really complicated and exotic sounding coffee. But what really impressed me was the selection of shisha they offered. I can’t remember most of them but I tried out something called Nirvana which totally lived up to the rants of how totally superbly awesome it was. Try it!!!!

Went to some clubs – No. 10 Downing, Rhapsody and some restaurants which I don’t really remember and in each of them I just had a really good time. It was so refreshing to be away from work and the pressures imposed on you by the managers and assistants of the world.

Flew to Bangalore on the morning of the 31st of December. Was totally excited about the night since it was the first time in about 10 years that I had spent NYE in India with cousins. And even though some of my cousins did not make it to the Bangalore Club for the festivities, I had a really great time. The highlights of the night: Bacardi Cokes selling for about S$0.80 and a band that pulled off live performances of World Hold On and Gasolina and without any hint of hesitation played all the latest Hindi stuff from Om Shanti Om etc. Brilliant. Needless to say, I got wasted and don’t remember anything after perhaps 2am. But all the same, super super times.

The rest of the Bangalore trip was spent hanging out with cousins – special mention to Manoj, Vanita and Ritika for making it a great one. Places I visited were Couch (latest addition to my family’s portfolio of business ventures). It’s a pub/lounge/restaurant that is situated on M.G Road and serves great food. Again, ate at some awesome Chinese restaurants but I never remember their names…

Flew back to Colombo on the 4th of Jan and back to Singapore on the 5th. That really sucked balls!
Only bad thing about the trip: during the first 168 hours I was in Colombo, 44 of them were spent on work-stuff. Disgusting. It’ll take me some time to get over that experience.

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