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Sunday 25 February 2024

Vietnam Bhraman

      








Why Vietnam! 

Because Maldives seemed dead costly compared to the variety Vietnam had to offer. Because Bangkok, Krabi seemed kind of passe and most of us traveling had been to Singapore, to zero in on an international destination post COVID in a budget... Vietnam fitted the bill.

Flights were booked, Delhi/Hanoi ...Ho Chi Minh/ Delhi, internal flights Hanoi/Danang/ Ho Chi Minh without burning much hole in pocket. We hopped in to the Vietnam Airlines Airbus 321 at midnight with the thrill of visiting a new country post COVID.



Uneventful flight save the steward liked my name and came looking for me pronouncing my name with a sweet accent,  my husband tried to intervene but he was interested only in speaking to Somaaa... 😄... the reason we discovered later was the Hindu non veg meal I opted ( a bit unknowingly because I was only interested in Vietnamese food).

Hanoi airport was quiet not much hustle bustle and my daughter remarked after we got out of the terminal " Maa isn't it a bit like Guwahati Airport! " Cabs, cars just outside the terminal she was correct actually. Infact that was what we were afraid of, the topography would it be similar to our homes in North East....a bit of Guwahati and Silchar.

It was similar to any North East City, lots of two wheelers overloaded with vegetables, eggs , groceries might be for some retail store in the suburbs. We checked in to a hotel at Old Quarters, nice colonial feeling with narrow streets , congested buildings , bit like our own Kolkata. 

Day 1 :  Hanoi Tour: Temple Of Literature, Train Street, Ho Chi Minh memorial, One Pillar Pagoda 


We were a group of nine with six adults and three kids and our guide Henry was warm, jovial. Our first stop was Temple Of Literature, University opened by Confucius, giving us insight into Chinese influence in Vietnam.


Next was the much awaited ' Train Street' , yes hyped but enchanting none the less. Reel makers and Insta's delight train Street was fun with the cosy food joints on and off the streets.


  
 Rice Cakes ( Lots like Muri Moa in Bangla   with pork crumbs)


                   Egg Coffee @ Train Street

After tit bits with Egg Coffee, next stop was at Ho Chi Minh memorial. There was a fuss about short dresses , deep neck , thigh slits... After covering ourselves as much as possible and buying a longish skirt for my daughter we had the view of the beautiful street and Ho Chi Minh memorial and the One Pillar pagoda.





Dinner was some Banh Me ( Filled baguettes) from the street then visit to a local restaurant with awesome food where the lovely waitress taught us to mix the ingredients for the right taste of a local dish.





Day 2: Nin Binh

Day began with a two hours drive to Ninh Binh. Our guide Henry was full of anecdotes, fables and kept the journey engrossing in an otherwise mundane countryside. First stop was at Tam Coc where we went boating to see the marble caves, the marvels of nature!






Next on  recommendation of a friend and thanks to the sun we started our trek to the Mua Caves. Though we were in doldrums if the trek would be worth it and whether it would drain our energy entirely. The Mua Caves offered spectacular view we loved.Lunch was another round of Banh Me and then some average pizzas. 



Near Mua Caves was the Lotus pond but since the Lotus season we left behind it was only a marshy pond without much to offer.

Dinner we chose a local restaurant which serves only Pho, we had pho and bread rolls and the feeling was unparalleled.


We strolled around beer Street, shopped at night market, Hanoi before calling it a day.

Day 3: Halong Bay 

The day was destined for the much awaited Halong Bay and overnight stay in the cruise ship. The bay was emerald green, tranquil and the food was warm at the ship. Eyes feasted on the view and we soaked in the serene sights all around.






We visited the limestone caves by boat. Luckily there was no rain though there was a gusting wind. More enthusiastic ones went for kayaking, water was calm and Halong Bay was enthralling. Though the cruise had nothing much to offer but the stay made us feel the Halong Bay and make memories.



Day 4:  Flight to Danang

We checked out of the cruise ship and drove off to Hanoi airport to catch the flight for Danang. Danang hotel had a beautiful view of the ocean. Rains were incessant at Danang and we were scared of the ongoing trip to Bana Hills the next day

Day 5: Golden Bridge, Bana Hills 

And it turned out to be a dampener! Rains and mist, we wrapped ourselves in raincoats, some horrendous looking plastic shoe covers. View was marred and we hopped on in our raincoats. Golden Bridge , Flower Garden, lovely French Village which served awesome pizzas.






           Onion Soup @ French Village 


Back at Danang, we roamed through the streets, night market and clicked the beautiful dragon bridge.



Rains continued and we ordered dinner in our hotel room through the app ' Grab', which came out quite handy.


Day 6:   My Khe Beach, Marble Mountains, Coconut Village, Hoi An 

First half of the day we spent at the beautiful My Khe beach which was underrated and beautiful. Infact Danang was a beautiful unhyped city with beautiful beaches and mountains. 









Our trip was booked to Marble Mountains, Coconut Village and ancient town of Hoi An.

We started with Tam Thai pagoda at Marble Mountains, Lady Buddha temple and the enigmatic Am phu caves.




Next was the Coconut Village, it was a different sight to see coconut trees with their roots submerged in the swampy water. The boatmen danced and swirled  their boats along with us. All swaying in the Gagnan style, though I'd have liked some peace and quiet but well that's how they marketed their tourism and no one's complaining.





Lunch was at a tiny restaurant in Hoi An. Fresh local fish and dessert but then not all in our group enjoyed the local taste. But we loved the sticky rice and fish, and the rice cake dessert. Hoi An had an ancient flavour, narrow streets with shops, cosy food joints. Though it was raining off and on and the city was flooded, we loved strolling, having crepes and rice fritters in the rain. Though it came as a shocker that the fritters were stuffed with cute looking pigeon eggs. The streets served all sorts of food including frogs for those who can dare.




We drove back to Danang, halted for shopping and foot massage at the night market and again ordered food through Grab and packed for our early flight to Ho Chi Minh City the next day.

Day 7:   Flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Half day City Tour

Reaching Ho Chi Minh we checked in to our hotel near Ben Thung Market. Had lunch at a beautiful roof top restaurant overlooking the lively streets.



                    Vietnamese Rolls

      
                       Coconut Coffee



Next was half day tour of Ho Chi Minh City. The war memorial invoked goosebumps, the witnesses of the horrific historical blunder made me cringe and cry and could not click much. We visited the post office and posted post cards which never reached! The Notre Dam cathedral was under renovation, so we spent the evening shopping at Ben Thung Market. It's a delight for economical shoppers like me, flooded with copies of premium brands.

Day 8: Long Hai Beach 

Our earlier plan was visit to Mekong Delta. But it's similarity with the already visited Coconut Village deterred us. We looked for an alternative and settled for Long Hai Beach at Vung Tau. Turned out to be an ordinary beach thronged by local people. We had lunch at KFC and roamed at Ho Chi Minh City. Dinner was again fabulous local fish.



Day 9:  Cuchi Tunnels, Flight to Delhi

Our friends left the earlier night. We stayed one day more to soak in the beautiful sights of the country. We had a trip booked to the Cuchi Tunnels, which reverberated with war memories and the stories I've heard from my father. How the gritty people survived underground bearing the atrocities, it's a story of human girth, grit and will power.




We drove back to the Ho Chi Minh airport for our evening flight to Delhi.

Vietnam was a delightful country with the right mix of geographical marvels and historical revelations, wonderfully tasting local cuisine and a country vibrating with its uniqueness and warm people where you can travel without burning a big hole in the pocket. Reasonable flight fares, good roads, clean washrooms...to all the travellers... Vietnam definitely should be on the bucket list.







Thursday 2 November 2023

Being Chandler Bing!




Mathew Perry's passing away was not unusual considering the lives celebrities live. But it was Chandler Bing, nah he wasn't my favourite in the show and I don't think he was a favourite of many out of the six . He was the most ordinary, most average, least eccentricities, most awkward! Yet his passing away created an uproar...nah it isn't social media gimmick!

Chandler Bing was a part of our lives since decades. Ordinary, awkward, shy...the fact that he is no more has created such a vaccum of the friend, who's always there, the ordinary friend who listens, the introvert friend who's there to fall back to. I think that has taken the world by storm. His absence, dug out a big vaccum, which was under wraps by his presence. Nobody's favourite, everyone's taken for granted buddy...but his absence suddenly showed us what he meant to us! The show is off the air decades now, but for most of us for some unplugged laughter, for some mood upliftment, any season any episode just led one to a riot of laughter and took us off from our lives.

I was thinking what was about the show, what was about Mathew Perry...what set it apart. I read someone's comment 'Friends' was actually a show which made being awkward, being bullied, having complexes, jealousies, failures...cool. The things we learn to keep under wraps, our embarrassment, our failures, losing friend to someone...the characters actually dealt with that without inhibitions. It was like a revelation that people in that chic city actually lived through the pain, frustration we do. The six characters had their eccentricities and yes I watched it for fun and laughs with occasional romance or a few emotional moments thrown in, though over the years wondered why there wasn't any more show like this, at least none for me. Matthew Parry's passing away pointed finger at an emotional dungeon created by his absence. The ordinary, the average, the unheard, the insignificant...he was just that... and isn't that many of us.... Many of us not so flamboyant ones aren't we all Chandler Bings with our complexes, dreams to get into the cool club, complications with parents, fear of being not accepted, trauma of being bullied ! Chandler told our story subtly which we hardly realised. We loved cute Rachael, finicky Monica, crazy Phoebe, nerdy Ross, dunce Joey but Chandler...he was so us...just one of us.

I am not a Mathew Parry fan to write about him. But I've watched Friends, all seasons, all episodes ( might have missed a few because I watched on Tv and not OTT) multiple times and each time found something new to laugh about! I had laughed unplugged, adored Joey, Ross, admired Rachael, Monica but it was the actor's passing away made me feel how like all I also could not notice the ordinary. Someone who's there always to laugh heartily, admire, listen how we miss such a person often in life. Is it that we have many Chandler Bings in our lives yet we do not know them or realise their worth after their absence! I don't know really! His absence as if is a call for us...let us pause and listen...to the ones who only suppress, who are there for us...let us be there for them!

Chandler Bing celebrated ordinariness, awkwardness, embraced his fallacies, was a friend, the friend we all wish to have and yet fail to be his when needed. He was also the lover, the husband nobody could think of! Yeah it's only a show, but a show about not our filmy heroes, a show about struggling people emotionally, financially, a show about emotions, sentiments under the beautiful wrap of laughter and fun. Chandler Bing is only a character, but a character like us, fears, frustrations, being ordinary, being insignificant , unable to open up...he made being average real cool. That's why like many I'm reeling under a vaccum wave, of missing the ordinary, insignificant but a friend to fall back to.

Let us not miss the Chandler Bings in our lives! They might just be there and we didn't notice, they might be in pain and we are unable to fathom! Let's celebrate being ordinary, being unpopular, being alone in a group...let's celebrate being introvert and let's try to lend our heart to all the Chandler Bing s around! Like Joey staring wistfully at the vacant recliner by his side...the friend we love, we will always love!


RIP


Sunday 27 August 2023

Girls on the move!





Well, Rakhi , Story Berry creator , gave me the idea! ' Soma you go on Girl Trips...do write about that! How does it feel! ' She showed me a Times of India clipping for Women's Day with the caption 'Girls on the move'

To begin with I'm a travel freak and honestly most bongs are! With a humble budget and humbler needs bongs travel around the country with an enthu which is hard to match! 'Girl trips' though so in now, born in a family of fiery, independent women, wasn't something new to me, something I had embarked on hardly when I was twelve !


Tryst with Indian Railways... journey in Awadh Assam express!

My first Girls trip was with my aunt, her friend and me. Both independent, single women and the twelve year old naive me set out for a rather prolonged, complicated train journey from Guwahati to Jhansi. My uncle was posted at Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh and we were supposed to join him there. What a ride it had been in a fateful train called ' Awadh Assam' , where our seat was booked in a ladies coup which actually had a functional door in the sleeper class! Not to speak of the broken glass of the toilet window which had men leering from the platform. The train had a special compartment which was left over by the parent Awadh Assam at Gorakhpur junction, where the compartment was shunted through out the night by some stray engine as we whined with pricking mosquito stings! In the wee morning the stray compartment was picked up by some other Bombay bound train ( name I can't recall) and finally I think around day three we reached Jhansi at late night! Well uncle was there in the station with a fauji vehicle! Imagine all this without any phone call only may be some letter before the journey! 

Himachal Highs:

My second girls trip was again with my Bubu (Bua) and another of her fiesty friend. One hell of a travel freak she was! Manu Pishi was well read, well versed and planned a Himachal Pradesh trip with exquisite detailing...I mean without any internet, just reading Bengali travel magazines, travelogues! She gave an insight into Himachal Pradesh like as they say not as a tourist but as a traveller! With places such as Bharmor , Chamba in our itinerary, it was a journey into the heaven!



Me and Bubu at Manali


🤭🤭

Meghalaya Magic:


Next I remember when I worked as a teacher at Barapani, my friend came over and we had a blast! Morning I used to make sandwiches with cheese before going to school and pack them for breakfast and leave some for her. Afternoon when I was back from school, I had a warm lunch waiting for me with innovative dishes! One innovative cook she is...and we relished each others culinary skills merrily!



Me and buddy Monalisa at Nehru Park, Umiam... Girls just love to swing! 



For believers she and me have promised each other a DDLJ trip to the Swiss Alps may be sometime in the next year! Well as they say...the world thrives on hope...

Twining in tea garden....


Bubu was my window to freedom! My first solo trip was a journey to Jorhat by bus to her place. Freedom tasted exotically delicious! Later I went with my friend to Jorhat, though memories aren't overtly sweet, but it was refreshing and counted as one of my beginner independent trips.


When we twined!



Barapani Bliss!



My one year stay at Barapani again with my, daughter, household help with my current job gave me an entire year to explore a world... unique and unscathed. My Malayali colleague and I sneaked in to the heavenly city of Shillong for some delectable food, shopping and a taste of the pine filled hills! So we had these all girls trip once in a while with a toddler at toes !




Singapore Swag!


Ok those were filter less, mobile less, social media less days where I wasn't that financially stable. Later when I joined my present job and was doing fairly well, me and my colleague turned friend embarked into our first foreign trip. I was almost frustrated hearing anecdotes of husband's work travel all over the world. So some guilt trips not withstanding, we headed for Singapore in a jumbo brimming with excitement and enthusiasm unplugged! That trip made us like we were out in the world, I remember my friend tracing the movement of Singapore Airlines flight in the display screen minutely as I had dozed off in the flight after a hectic night duty. The Singapore journey gave us an insight into waiting patiently in queues at metro stations, public restrooms, user friendly public transport, not to claim the reserved seat for the senior citizens in metros even if it remains vacant! Also Singapore was the place where we shopped in H&M first before it came to India. A trip of many ' firsts' for us!




Mount Abu Moments!


Well I didn't find the place picturesque at all and overly religious for my taste but we four girls had a blast! Though initially it was a ladies trip from office, we broke free and made it our own!



Masti @ Mount Abu

In the land of Greek Gods!


After a hiatus, my friend getting hitched, transferred to another corner of the country, her infant daughter...we came together again for a short trip to Greece! Boy it was fun! She had planned each detail and we were on our own in the country from day one. From staying at BnBs , to raving at the guards before Greek Parliament, to whom we foolishly asked what was this building and why people are crowding here! In reply we got a stern look and a curt answer that it was the Parliament! I mean from the land of Lutyens Delhi, this seemed a fledgling in kindergarten ! And patting my friend when she tried to hide the tell tale bra strap, ' Girl this is Greece! Let the bra strap show! Chill!' 

Mykonos, Santorini took us through the Bollywood songs we grew up with. While my mad penchant to click pics with Bougainville in the white blue doors as I saw in blogs was hilarious 😆. and yes the shock we had visiting a nude beach at Mykonos! How we called our spouses from there, how they panicked, ' Get away from here!' Both the spouses shrieked in different phones! How I told my friend ' I'm not going to leave ' and settled comfortably in the couch on the sand to watch the spectacle!


Goa Gang!


This trip was just before covid and there was days and months of terror and confinement after that. Five colleagues/ friends painted the town in Goa with those short dresses, shorts, casino visits for the first time! Five of us were different, eccentric yet we rocked ...there was faction yet we sprung back and hit it high!







The Land of Leh...


Covid was weaning off after the invasive second wave, that was when me and my partner decided for Leh. This was to be our third one after Singapore and Greece, our first desi one. And what a terrain it was, domineering formidable mountains, rivers from the beginning of civilization, Leh had us totally laid! High altitudes, pristine lakes, tough terrains, arid deserts..Leh had it all.






Leh was the true Shangri La to the core beckoning us to an ancient wonderland!

Jai Mata Di !


My latest trip was with a friend who isn't that keen traveler but a superfit trekker who wanted to do a Vaishno Devi visit. Yes I have nothing to do with temple visits yet since nothing was cooking up I agreed readily and added Patnitop to the itinerary to spice up the trip. We explored a bit of Jammu, relished some local cuisines, visited Vaishno Devi ( I also made a reel Chalo bulawa aaya hain!) and Patnitop welcomed us with loads of snow. The stay at JKTDC cottage was gruesome, where we were stuck in an isolated cottage amidst dense deodars in a dilapidated room with an eerie chowkidar present around one hundred metres away at least that's what he said! It was an experienced of a lifetime with dirty bed linen , fungal curtains, spooky forest, we danced the evening away. My friend slept off, I had the deodars prying through the ventilator all night! Next day we checked out and shifted to an army guest house my friend's brother had arranged! But that didn't dampen our spirit, a bright and sunny day in the snow and the welcoming deodars in the morning!






As I always say at the end of such trips I return a few years younger, more carefree and silly than I already was, a healthier heart bursting with joy and loads of anecdotes for my daughter and for all other women who'd have loved to take such trips! And yes you dress, make up without much judgement, you let your hair down and chill! Yes you do have some girl fights as well at times with a dash of ego or factions. But who cares!

Girls are on the move! The world is at our feet....just need to take the first step.