It has been a while since I’ve updated this blog! I haven’t done anything exciting since Amritsar. I went clubbing to F-Bar, wasn’t very exciting. Spent many days shopping at Sarojini Nagar Market, I now have 30 new outfits. Skipped work a couple of days, today including because I’m sick. Other than that, nothing interesting. 

But what makes me very happy is that, it’s the final stretch of the entire summer! I have about 3 weeks to go on my internship, and about a month till I’m home! Time really flies when you’re not trying to count down the days (34 days left though). And I’m very excited to be heading home. Now we’ve got to plan plan plan for our 2 week trip, figure out which route to Leh and Ladakh, and how to get back, where we’re going to stay when we get back to Delhi, and packing! 

This weekend, I’m heading to Nainlital, another hillstation! I’m quite excited! Hopefully it’ll be fun :D 

I chatted with my two bestest friends in the whole world yesterday! That put a huge smile on my face, and made my day! (: I miss them, and seeing their faces (on oovoo) was a real treat, and I saw Meena’s mom and brother too! I can’t wait to head home and chillout at gardens with them :) spending the day/night talking about everything and sometimes nothing at all! <3 you always BFF & Meena :) 

It’s 52 days till I get back home! And although I’ve been enjoying traveling around India, and finally getting some work done (I’m almost done, just a bit left), I’m really missing home. 

I never thought I would be homesick. I guess I’ve never been away from home long enough to actually miss it. I miss my mom and my dad and my brother, and home-cooked meals, and watching tv next to my dad, and chatting about everything with my mom, and my bed, my room. I miss my friends, having people to call up and talk for hours about nothing and everything, and being able to go out in the middle of the night. I miss home. 

Although 50 days have passed - so I’ve got just about half of my entire internship/vacation left, I can’t wait to head back! I keep counting down the days. It doesn’t seem so long anymore. Just 1 month and 1 week of internship left and the 2 weeks of traveling, and I’ll finally be home!

I was really excited to travel to Amritsar! I’ve heard a lot about Punjab, Punjabis and the Golden Temple, and I was so psyched to head there and see it for myself. We got on the 9.15pm bus from Kashmere Gate and reached Amritsar around 7am. It was a surprisingly comfortable bus ride (for a public non-AC bus)! We met a really nice tuktuk driver who helped us get our return tickets home and dropped us at the Golden Temple. We hung out at CCD, freshened up, and headed to Neelam’s for breakfast. After that we walked over to the Golden Temple to get our accommodations. Walking into the Golden Temple, seeing all the Sikhs paying respect to their religious grounds - I felt a sense of strange calmness, it’s difficult to describe that feeling. The temple is so beautiful, this magical gold building in the middle of a pond, where people dip themselves in.

We visited the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, which was where the 1919 Amritsar Massacre happened, in which British soldiers fired on unarmed men, women and children without warning. We took a walk around the museum which explained what had happened during that time and watched a short video clip about it. 

After walking around for a bit, we went on a 20km drive out of Amritsar to the Wagah Border.

I was most excited for this! We got there before the gates opened, so it was really crowded and HOT. When the gates finally opened, the people started running, and we did too! Alnishyia and I blended in and pretended we were Indians (and I was the non-Hindi speaking South Indian), and got FRONT ROW SEATS! Around 5.30pm, the ceremony started! The guy in charge got a bunch of people to line up and they ran down the stretch of road with the Indian flag - there was this one old Indian man, who looked like he could barely walk, and he carried the flag too. As I watched him, I was thinking this could have been probably his proudest and most patriotic moment.

Then, the party started!They were playing really catchy Hindi songs (which are apparently national songs) and people were just dancing along the street! It was a real sight! One foreigner there commented it was like an open-air disco! And the whole time - we couldn’t hear or see anything from the Pakistan side! Although I’ve always had prejudices against India, during that ceremony, I felt something like pride to be there, to see how the Indians reacted with such exuberance to just a simple guard ceremony.

After that, the girls and I ran around trying to take picture with many of the guards and police officers! It was so fun!

We made our way to this restaurant famous for its Amritsari fish chilly - and had a feast! It was delicious! After that we headed back to the Golden Temple. where we met Jake - an American backpacker whose been traveling for 4 months. He’s been to Israel and Jordan and has been touring India. His stories of traveling are so cool - he just hoped on a train and went to wherever the first train took him. No plans, no worries, what an adventure! 

The next day we headed around Amritsar - went to see the Sri Durgiana Temple (known as the Silver Temple for its huge silver doors)

and the Mata Temple - a man made cave temple. It was really cool! We climbed upwards through tunnels and even a water way. After that we headed back and chilled out at Barista and CCD to enjoy the aircon! The weather in the afternoon is extremely hot! Summer in India is starting to get much hotter and a bit unbearable. We chilled till evening where we headed into the temple for dinner! Tons of people go in in batches, and Tric, Shree and I, actually gave up going in, cause everyone was rushing in. And one of the workers in the mess saw us and gave us special treatment! He took us to the front and we walked in with a lot of people looking at us! It was a sight to see the way they distributed food so quickly. Men with baskets of chapati come down the rows of people sitting on the floor, and drop 2 chapatis into their hands, the men with the dhal are so swift and neat pouring in dhal straight on to the plates with minimal spillage.

Although dinner was just ddaland chapati, but it was very delicious for something that’s mass cooked! 

We headed back and showered, said goodbye to beautiful Golden Temple (even more gorgeous at night) got our stuff headed to the bus stand got on our bus and reached Delhi Monday morning. 

We headed to Jaipur, also known as the Pink City because of the pink buildings within the city! It was an 8 hour bus ride (on a non-AC) bus, but it was tolerable! I guess we’re used to traveling on non-AC buses now, and overnight travels - you don’t feel the heat. When we got there, the hotel sent a car to pick us. We got to the hotel around 6am, and we showered slept till 10am. Let me tell you about Hotel Pearl Palace! It was amazing! (: For a budget hotel, the beds were comfortable, the shower facility was pretty good and the room was really clean! Got up, headed to the rooftop restaurant for breakfast - the iced tea at the restaurant is delicious! (: After chilling for a while, we got going around Jaipur! Visited the Jal Mahal - the Wind Palace known for its pink exterior

,

the Amber Fort,

and the Hawa Mahal - the water palace. Rajasthan is a desert, so in the afternoon, it got really hot. I didn’t go into the Amber Fort, because I found 200rps to be rather steep when my friends could fake their way in at 25rps. I don’t regret it though, I spent the time checking out the exterior of the palace and having a good long chat with my friend. After that, we went shopping around Jaipur. The shopkeepers are really funny salesmen - “Seeing is free, but buying is purchasing” - Every one of them said that! One of the salesmen even got me to put on a sari! We ate at a pretty awesome restaurant - where The next day, we all slept in on the very comfy beds of Hotel Pearl Palace, spent almost 3 hours at brunch at the Peacock Rooftop restaurant, finally headed to the ISBT to get our non-AC bus back! We took an afternoon bus, so it was hot, but after a while, you get use to being in the metal sauna (I mean the bus) and after another 8 hours we got back to Delhi. 

I really enjoyed the laid-back trip to Jaipur. I guess, these weekend getaways are relaxing, and I really enjoy seeing the sights and the beauty of these old cities and what it used to be like since Singapore is such a modern city. 

My weekend off was spent in Derahdun, Mossourie (AGAIN) and Rishikesh, but this time round, the 5 of us headed there with 2 interns from Navjyoti and their friend and another SMU intern. It was so much more fun this time around, cause the Indians knew their way around and took us to the coolest places around the hilltop. Trekking around took almost the entire afternoon, and soon enough we headed back to the main area of Mossourie for dinner. We chilled out on the deck of our guest house and had a great time chatting.

The next morning we got up early (well, our definition of early) and made our way to Cloud’s End, another hilltop. On the drive there we came across this amazing place! It was a field surrounded by mountains and the view was fantastic. We met a bunch of kids who were playing soccer there, and I just thought to myself, how lucky they are, to be able to play in such a place.

We made our way from Mossourie to Rishikesh - which is a religious city, known for yoga and made famous by the Beatles who visited an Ashram there. What’s popular there, other than religion and Yoga, is rafting down the Ganges river, which is what we were there for! We spent the night camping in this place called Elephant Brooks. We reached at night, so we couldn’t really see the place. We had a camp fire and spent another night chilling out and chatting by a small river, part of the ganges.

In the morning, I was stunned by the beauty of our surroundings! After that we headed down to the Ganges to rafting! We jumped in the water and IT WAS FREEZING!! We headed to a cliff diving point, where we all jumped off!

That night we all headed back to Pranav’s house and slept till morning, got on a bus and headed back to Delhi. 

The week passed really quickly, cause once again, we hardly did any work. Spent most of our time having a good time, laughing, and watching shows. The weekend came pretty quickly, and Saturday night we headed to Gurgaon for a night on the town! It finally rained in Delhi for a change and the weather was really nice! Sunday, met up with Melinda at Khan Market for the most delicious meal I’ve had in a long while at this restaurant called Watermelon. Shopped around for a while, and headed to the Big Chill Cafe for dessert! 

The week has passed really quickly. And yesterday, it was Pranav’s last day ): The office is going to be really empty without him! ): And tomorrow, will be Divianshu’s last day too! Work is going to suck without them around. I’m really glad to have met them, and they made work so much better and more fun. Gonna miss the long lunch breaks we took to Metrowalk and the awesome home cooked food they share with us during lunch and their lame jokes. Sigh. Oh well, it was great knowing them and I’m really glad to have met them! Can’t wait for them to come to Singapore, hopefully we’ll meet them one last time before we leave! 

This weekend we’re heading to Jaipur! Will update after that :D 

So it’s been two weeks in India. Another 88 days left till I’m back in Singapore. 

 
The first weekend was spent in Deradhun & Mousserie. First experience sitting on a bus for about 8 hours. Spent quite a bit of time sleeping, listening to my iPod, staring out of the window, looking at the real rural India. Arrived in deradhun around 11pm and found a place to eat. With no knowledge of Hindi whatsoever, acting like a hero I tried  to interpret what the owner of some road side food shop was saying and got us Chapattis and dhal, paneer and naan.

We spent a night in some dodgy hotel - played monopoly deal and watched tv till we were tired, slept, woke up and made our way to mousserie by taxi. It was a long and winded road for 1 and 1/2 hours and finally reached the top, where the weather was amazing! In Mousserie, we soaked up the mountain ranges, visited 2 religious sites (Buddha Temple/ Sikh Temple).

Sunday was spent traveling back to Delhi and we reached back really late! We got off at Gourgon (which is reallly far from rohini - where we’re staying) had dinner at this shopping mall and took a super long metro ride back to our area. Got off at Rithala metro at 11pm, and with our broken Hindi , tried to find an auto. Ms Nandita, the lady in charge of us from Navjyoti called us twice! Everyone in charge of us, Ms Rekha (the hostel warden) and Dr Chauhan (who the boys were staying with) were really worried. Rohini, according to them, is not the safest place especially at night. When we got back to the hostel, the warden who speaks no english asked the hostel girls to translate for her that we have a curfew which is at 7pm, which we were late by at least 5 hours!

Started work the very next day. Had a long introduction by 2 people on what Navjyoti India Foundation is about. Navjyoti has done many things for the underprivileged in their community, and hats off to Dr Kiran Bedi. Met another intern who we call 7-11 (cause his mouth never shuts) who kept repeating on about the organization. Got on our nerves after a while. Alnishyia’s reaction to him was epic! My job here in Navjyoti is curriculum development for IT course. Navjyoti already has an IT course, but they want to revamp and improve - so that’s what I’m here for. I have no experience in IT but, I’m here to learn! There’s quite a bit to do, and I should get on working at it. But, everyday feels like a vacation really. I just sit in the office, use the internet, have a good laugh with the rest of the interns! 

The next weekend Shreeya and I had plans! We were going to go to Central Delhi - Connought Place, spend the night - so we can escape from the F.U.H.H.  (aka our hostel), but every decent hotel was out of our price range. Everyone else headed out for dinner after work, but Shreeya and I had to head back. It was really depressing, we had the saddest faces on. But on Sunday, we met up with Al and her mom for shopping! Bought myself a few tank tops and accessories from Dilli Haat and Sarogeni Market. Bought Mom her 3 sarees too! Dinner was macs! MAHARAJA BURGER. It’s brilliant! It’s like a BigMac but with grilled chicken patties instead. It’s absolutely the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten! 

Back to work, and well still stuck on my project. Revamping an IT course means I have to understand the need for the computer course, the type of computer course, what the course can do for the students after. There’s a lot of research required, but I need to find a starting point - which after almost 2 weeks of “work” I’ve yet to find!! 
Tuesday was an epic day of slacking! Al, Shreeya, Pranav and I didn’t want to eat crappy lunch, so we decided on going to get pizza - and so began a 3 hour long journey to Metrowalk and back! When we got there, we decided on macs instead so MAHARAJA BURGER again! :D Back at work, we took an hour long lunch break where all the interns feasted! 

So it’s thursday, and just one more day till the weekend. This weekend, we’re heading to Deradhun and Mousserie (again) and Rishikesh, but this time with Pranav and Divianshu as well. They’re going to show us around to cooler places, and we’re going rafting down the Ganges River! 

Guess it’s back to work now :) 

I never thought I’d actually go to India, and when I applied for the internship, it was kind of surreal. Packing (for me) was a hassle! I didn’t know what I really needed, what I should wear while in India, stuff I’d actually need, my bag was overweight when I put in everything I thought I needed, and had to take out stuff - the final weight 19.8kg. Grabbed a few photos of my parents (in their most unglamness) and got to the airport. My family was all there - my cousins took used their lunch breaks to send me off, and my uncles came from work to see me off. I love my family so much, they took the trouble to see me off. Walking through the departure gates, I could see mom start to cry. This is the longest I’ll be away from home, and with Shaun gone, I’m sure it’s hard for mom to see me go. Dad must be sad too, but as usual, he never shows it. I was sad to leave mom and dad, but India is going to be an adventure and the first time I’ll be on my own really, and it’s an experience, so I have to put aside my sadness, fear and worry, and just hope for the best. 

 
Plane ride with Al, Alaric and Shreeya was fun, entertaining. During our stopover in KL, we played monopoly deal in Dunkin Donuts. Awesome :D Monopoly deal is going be our thing - we’re gonna get really good at it - if we don’t after 3 months - we must suck real bad. 

Landing in India - first experience of the heat of India - the hustle and bustle and craziness and crowdedness of India. WE COULDN’T FIND OUR CAB DRIVER - HE SPOKE ONLY HINDI - you know the people that say people in Delhi speak English, lied!! They don’t. Its a few, the more educated ones that do. Anyway, thanks to Al’s mom and uncle -  we managed to get into our cab and find our way to the hostel! BTW OUR HOSTEL WARDEN ALSO ONLY SPEAKS HINDI 0: I guess I have to pick up Hindi much faster hahaha.The hostel is not what I expected - the website and the real thing is so very different - Dom already warned me about this. The bed is hard, the blanket is thin, the pillow is practically non-existent, the finishing is halfpastsix and the toilet - PLEASE DON’T GET ME STARTED. AND THERE IS NO INTERNET.

Oh well, just have to wait for Jeremy to get here and Alaric, Shreeya and I will be heading to deradhun (since I can’t do the exchange worksheet cause there is no internet. 

Will update again soon :)

I figured I should have a blog to encapsulate everything I’ll be experiencing while I’m away so that family and friends can check up on me without me having to call/write/text/fb.

Time has gone by so quickly and I’m already flying off. I really wish that it’ll just slow down, so that tomorrow, I can make full use of my last few hours in the country - to be with my parents mostly. Oh well, everyone only has 24 hours in a day right? I guess I have to be extremely cautious.

Till my next post <3