Rameswaram, chidambaram, vaitheeswaran koil trip Nov 2017

Three amazing places, I got an opportunity to see two of them by chance  and by god's grace.

Firstly, Rameswaram:
We booked the car who is next to our in-law's house in Gundur, Trichy, it was Mahindra Xylo, nice car with spacious 3rd row.
We started early, 4:30 am so reached very early there, i think around 9:30 am or so, had breakfast there, the food was not great, we saw Pamban bridge, it was overcast conditions for the past few weeks in tamil nadu, though so a bit cloudy.
When we reached the temple, there were so many people, mostly North Indians.
There were agents running around saying they would help with the bathing; ok, there is something to explain here, there are 22 wells, each of these are named after either a famous indian river or a dosham.
eg: ganga theertham, yamuna theertham, chandra, surya, guru hatya dosha nivaran theertham ( name is not exactly the same but similar),  its a belief that you would get rid of the sins after you bath with the water from these wells, the actual fee is 25/- per person and you have to go in a queue passing by each well and the agents there would pull water with a small bucket and pour in your head.
For 1000/- commission(for one group), they will guide you to each well and pour water on each person, for 25/- they will just throw one bucket of water on who ever is there.
Any how we finished, ryan was shivering but he was still ok, we changed our clothes and went for darshan, 50/- shreeghra darsanam wasnot bad, took 25 mins or so; there were agents here as well asking for 1000/- but we declined.
People said you should first bath in sea and then in these wells but the sea water was very dirty so we just sprinkled sea water( kadal neer) on our heads.
We did see APJ abdul kalam memorial from our car.
And we went to Dhanush kodi, its the tip of the ocean, people say we can see ceylon from there, we bought so many gems there, its a nice place, we also vent to a SriRama temple, legends say that the King Vibheeshana from Lanka was coronated here by Lord Rama.

Chidambaram was a great temple, so many giant entrances to the temple, lord natarajan's shrine looks like that of a mosque, this is a unique one, we went in the night but i was mesmerized and awe struck by the temple, i was asking a priest about the secret of the temple and my father-in-law gave a clue that I was from Aus, so the priest said they would send prasadam every month to Aus, I agreed and filled up the form and then he said 3000/- per annum, luckily I had that much in my purse, anyhow I asked him to send prasadam from march to the new house, let's see what happens.
Vaitheeswaran kovil is special, all the statues are made with black stone, there is a shrine for angaraka and we did puja there, this temple is very old and I had a feeling that this one was special, I loved it.

Best hotels in Kancheepuram - trip 2017

Food in kancheepuram is great, its a big town so have a lots of hotels.
Vegetarian
My favourites are:
1)Chakra- breakfast is great here, sambar vada, ravva dosa and filter coffee, great place for south indian breakfast
2) shakty ganapathy- another great place for breakfast, I really liked onion dosa here, 55/- though, looks like the price has gone up due to onion prices. Rava dosa ia not bad.
3) coffee house, we were late to this place on that day, 10 pm, they were almost closing so they had only dosas, i remember the plain dosa was very good here.
Non vegetarian:
1) taahira- biryani used to be the best here but lately I heard that the quality dropped considerably, so haven't gone this time.
2) Balaji military hotel- biryani is nice, my wife gets brain fry whenever we go there, I dont eat so I dont know.
Last time I ordered prawns fry, 280/- per plate, it was good but felt sand inside the fry while chewing, i didnt bother as it was tasty.

That incident in the train secunderabad

Some incidents are so strong that you would remember for ever especially when you regret of inaction:
1) i boarded a train to warangal at secunderabad station, general compartment, a man with bandage on his foot, he was sleeping, people asked him to get up but he didnt, a lady was shouting, i'd asked him but he didnt and the lady asked me to complain to railway police, i told them that I would gey down at kazipet and its ok, i had to stand for 3 hours in that train, i still regret that i didnt protest and I didnt take any action, i regret every time I remember it and I am a changed man now.

India trip 2017 november

Not much changed atleast near Palavakkam, ECR road, chennai.
Due to rains, roads are severely affected, pot holes, stagnated water, stray dogs everywhere.
However coffee still costs only 10/-, its amazing how after many years its still the same.
I had a haircut near Gundur, Tiruchinapalli which costed 50/- and a shave for another 40/-, it was incredible, I was so happy that I tipped him 10/- but I regret now, I should've tipped 50/- atleast as it was one of the best I had.
I bought vegetables near Tenali, the prices were ok, 7/- for 250 gm of tomatoes, 45/- for 1 kg onions which looked expensive as I remember we used to buy onions for 2/- 10-15 years before.
Guava became so expensive, 3 for 20/-, not sure what happened, pomegrante were cheap, 6 for 50/-
Corn - 10/- each which was delicious.
Beeda/pan were between 12-15/-
Overall i felt that there is still some value for 10/- in small towns

Thailand trip

So many things to cover and our short trip has a lot of memories.
Krabi ao nang beach:
Everything near the beach is expensive, if you go away then its cheap, we got coconut water for 20 bhat in the town, 40 bhat at some other point of the town, whereas its 60 bhat in phuket (patong), 70 bhat in phi phi island.

TaxiFares:
Airport transfer from phuket to patong is 800 bhat if you book at the airport but our tour agent (mu mu) later said we can get for 600 bhat if we know people.
Airport transfer from ao nang beach to krabi aiport is 500 bhat.

We booked a small auto, its a 4 wheeler similar to tuk tuk, we bargained with the person for local sight seeing, initially he said 500 bhat and he would take us to krabi town, later once we started, he was observing my watch, attire and asked where we were from, when we said malaysia , he p increased the price and said 500 bhat for 1 hour, we bargained a lot and finally settled for 700 bhat for 2 hours.

Currency exchange:
We bought a mastercard currenct card from travelex.com.au , the rate was ok ,24.8 bhat for aud but we were not aware of the fees , none explained.
The reality is for every atm transaction in thailand, there is 220 bhat fees and 89 bhat charges, and around 5% service charge for card use, we lost close to 1500 bhat due to this.
The best way to get money is to bring AUD hard cash and then exchange locally in thailand, they give great rates, 25.5$ which is more than the prevailing rate.
Thailand is like Indian villages and towns, cash is the king.
Generally people are very hardworking and they are the best in hospitality, wr haven't seen a single begger anywhere, all the roads are very clean, they really care for their roads, they take care of their waste, we see bins everywhere.

Massage:
Thai massage shops are everywhere, its cheaper in Krabi, even near the ao nang beach, its 200 bhat for traditional, 300 bhat for oil massage which is cheaper to those in Phuket, Patong. In Patong, prices vary from 400 to 700 for oil and 300 to 400 for traditional, it depends on the area.

Ryan's first carnatic music lesson

His first class was on 1st oct '17, he cried a bit and was constantly watching me from the window.

Ryan's first chinese class

I've been learning Chinese for the past couple of months and I am teaching Ryan as well, so I took Ryan to our Chinese teacher yesterday, 29th sep 2017.
He liked it and was learning for some time and then he started playing, running around. Overall another new learning experience for Ryan.

I shouted at Ryan

I think I should write this down so I dont do it again.
Yesterday, 16th may 2017, i was tired, didnt have energy, came home and making watermelon juice, ryan was winging about his stickers, so I shouted and pressed my fingers hard on hos head, he cried and i felt sorry and I apologised to him later.

Sydney weather

Its beautiful, sunny and amazing view from the sky, i wish melbourne is like this. I feel great coming here, everytime I do.
When you dont have listeners what would you do, write a blog...
I think people write either when they have too many people who wants to talk to them but they can't or when they have nobody to talk to
..17th may 2017

Catching the Devil

Regaining my lost glory, getting back into shape,
Day 1- kettle bell circuit- 10th jan 2017- 16 mins buy felt really good.
Busy with work, Day2 hasn't come yet, but I will update this space when it comes.
Day 2 - 15th jan 2017,
    3 reps of bench press- flat, max weight                  25 kgs
    3 reps of bench press- incline
    Max weight 20 kgs
Day 3- 16th jan 2017,
  Kettle bell circuit
  2 reps - lunges,  swings, rows
Day 4- 17th jan 2017
Biceps, triceps, curls, max weight 12.5 kgs each hand for biceps, 7.5kgs for triceps
Day - 19 th, 20th, fever
Day 5 - 30th jan 2017- shoulders, lats
Day 6- 4th jan 2017- chest press, max weight 37.5kgs

My Sydney Visit - 2016-12-15

My visit this time is ok, not great due to the weather.

Its raining in Sydney, so no beers and no walks in the sun; however we went to Neptune Palace, my favorite Malaysian restaurant, my mate has got the vegetarian curry recommended by me and he fell in love with the dish; the prawn curry I ordered was not great but was ok, i enjoyed my Chivas Regal.

We just went for a walk with our umberellas and luckily there was a surprise waiting, the biggest ship in that region, "Ovation of the seas", with a capacity to carry 5000 people, this was the largest ship I've ever seen in my life, some pics from that night are here.

some of the pics are here: