Pawan Blog

After returning back from Bali, my friends asked plenty of question about trip planning to Bali. Thought to share few tips which may help you if you are planning a trip to Bali -

• Bali is not a small island. From Kuta (South) to Singaraja (North), it takes 3 hrs of drive.
• Weather in South Bali is hot, but at highlands like Bedugul or Kintamani it is pleasant.
• Uluwatu temple (at cliff) is full of naughty monkeys, be careful if you are traveling with kids. Having any edible items or wearing any shiny objects like goggles, ring or chain is not recommended.
• Gunung Kawi Temple has very long downhill path of stairs, it will be tiring trip if alone and very tiring with young kids, note that its hot their.
• Road condition is good but mostly 2 lane roads one to for each way.
• If you can plan your trip in weekday it will come much cheaper. You can always keep an eye on airlines and hotel rates. I used www.tripadvisor.com for reviews and www.hotelclub.com to book hotel, while AirAsia for air ticket, its 2 and half hour away by air from Singapore.
• You need not worry about local transport, your hotel can arrange best option.
• If you love photography 3 days will not be sufficient, as there are plenty of panoramic natural landscape to shoot.
• Locals are friendly, cheerful and helpful.
• Food is good and you can get whatever you want. We had 3 very good North-Indian dinners.
• Over all its a very beautiful island for a long vacation.

Its very sad that such a beautiful place faces a couple of terrorist attacks.

I don’t think I need to write anything about this place .

Have a pleasant viewing

• Will return back on Sunday evening, please don’t try to reach me on my phone, but you can keep on posting your messages and text.

• Was feeling heavy; so took MC.

• Still need to pack few things.

• Search for GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filter has taken a lot of time, have a 1 GIG, micro-SD with adaptor and it works with camera, but have only one battery.

• Battery is charged, shouldn’t be a problem if I am not unlucky.

• I have more camera accessory than my canon bag can keep, dreaming to have a bigger bag.

• Kept tickets, hotel booking, ICs, passport and re-entry permit, but need to double check before leaving.

• Have to look into kids’ belongings, especially their food and medicines, their pack their cloths and mine too.

• My ticket has flight timing as 8:30, while Changi website shows 8:00, not sure which is the correct, will be there at 6, its terminal 1.

• There will not be any mobile or laptop for coming 4 days, don’t get me wrong, being an addict of these I am not feeling happy .

• Got to go now… have to double check packing…

Keep rocking !!!

The most magnificent feeling for me is when I hug my kids and they lay their head on my shoulder, words are not enough to explain that, those who have kids especially young can understand. It’s just a matter of 2-3 years more and they will be busy in their schools and friends; probably not as available as they are these days. Though having 2 very young kids is a tough job . I must praise efforts of Anshu for taking care of them all the time. It’s a 24X7 job for her without any break, No Sick Leaves, No Annual Leave, nothing.

As far as this Sunday is concern, we were busy doing some shopping for Bali, only packing is remaining, we still have 2 nights, so won’t be a problem. Coming three are work days and I still need to go for cleaning of my camera, viewfinder has got a big particle , not sure how long cleaning will take, else I have to live with it for this trip.

Have to go to bed now, have to wake-up early.

Went to underwater world, kids have fun and I enjoyed shooting… , most of photograph were out of focus though…  have to plan for Bali tomorrow… please take a look of photographs.

Too tired… everything is paining… going to bed…

not feeling any excitement for our Bali trip coming week…:(. Don’t know why?

Its like more pain to take than really enjoying it …

While searching on net I have found an article on submerged Dwarka (founded by Lord Krishna), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_archaeology_in_the_Gulf_of_Cambay

This is possibly the only remaining proof of Mahabharata era. As it got submerged underwater, so remained untouched by invaders.

If archaeologist can arrange findings in order, then what we will be talking about a history 29,320 years old.

It was Valentine’s Day yesterday, so here are few flower to Anshu . I like flowers so much that I decided to gift them to her without even hurting them

Love… always…

恭喜發財 (Gong Xi Fa Cai) this means Happy New Year.

Its Lunar New Year time here in Singapore and every one is at home celebrating. There are 2 days public holidays on Monday and Tuesday. Small shop owner and restaurant owner started closing their shop early on Saturday and it will remain closed till Tuesday. This gives me an opportunity to go out and shoot rarest site at Khatib central.

Here are few photographs, these shops and restaurant remain crowded from early morning to late night, 7 days a week, so I never seen them closed.

The day started with a sad news… Anurag pinged me on msn and informed Vijay Bhaiya passed away due to heart failure. A very helping man who always stand with us in our difficult times in Delhi is no more. My condolences to family, whom I always considered as my own … very own …

It was all started in early 2002, just before summer, I returned back from Katra (Allahabad) after handing over my Air cooler to repairer, it was 8 PM, my second brother (BK) informed me that he has got call from Anurag (who was in Delhi), that his company has some opening of software developer and they are conducting interviews tomorrow. He wants me to come and attend the interview. Anurag was already there in Delhi from past 3 months searching for a job.

I was not in mood to go there, as the time was too less and I was not prepared, but my brothers  forced me to go and make a try. The train to Delhi (Prayagraj Express) was at 9:30 PM, I simply pushed a pair of my cloths and a light sheet in a bag and started for railway station. Took a general ticket and boarded on a packed train.

Luckily got a half seat, it means half of my back was on seat and rest half on air, pulled a briefcase under me to get a seat for rest of my back. Just to add general class has wooden seats and I was going to spend rest of my night like this, sleepless and siting in such a uncomfortable situation. I was attending interview next days. I was not use to with the pace of Delhi and visited Delhi once or twice before that, so requested Anurag to come and pick me from railway station, I was nervous even after that.

We went straight to the company and attended the interview, this was my first interview, I was still not keen for a job so attended without any fear. There was no response of outcome from them after 2 days, I told Anurag to check with them, if they don’t need me there is no point wasting time here.

Result was positive and I have got my first job in Delhi, my initial salary was 5.5K (INR).

We were 3 guys staying in one Room (10×10) with a flooded kitchen and a common toilet in Katwaria Sarai. I had a trip to Allahabad within 2 weeks and bring my other belongings to Delhi.

Disaster strikes within 15 days, when we saw the lock of our room was broken and some burglar wiped-out all our belongings, including first salary of Anurag, they left only documents and nothing else. Total loss was around 50K (INR).

Anurag’s sis husband Mr. Sanjay came into the picture and supported with best what he can do for us. He took us to his friends house, which was closed for last 6-7 years in Laxmi Nager area. It was a 2 room flat and after spending bone-cracking day in cleaning, we manage to clean one room and started there as tenants. Here we met Vijay bhaiya for first time, he was renting the house next to us, while his own house was under construction in next street. The house was safe and we spend 2+ years over there and then moved to Vijay bhaiyas house as a tenant.

During our initial days Mr. Sanjay helped us buying a second hand scooter so that we can reach office on time. The scooter was having a character, once you stop it at traffic signal, it never starts in one kick, so Anurag keeps on kicking the scooter continuously, while traffic behind us keeps on scolding on us. As he was the person driving the scooter most of times, so he was the one who kicks also. Kicking gives me a illusion that he is dancing on hard beats. , now I know how can he dance well…

After settling down in Delhi, we have called our other classmates to Delhi for any opportunity we came across, and tried our level best for them to settle down. For few we manage to help, few are still angry that we didn’t helped them in tough time, one of them angry is my sisterly Ragini, whom we call Rags lovingly. Please forgive us if possible Rags…

My first job in Delhi didn’t lost for long, in an unfortunate day, when we had just returned back from lunch, our project manager call all of us in main hall. One of the three MD’s of company announce that due to failure of getting projects, we have decided to shutdown the company. It was just 6 months and a company of 35+ people shuts down its process within an hour.

Both me and Anurag were jobless, luckily he got another job within 10 days and pulled me IN in 15 days of his joining. Those 25 days without job were one of most difficult days of my life so far. Everyone back home were assuming that we are doing job, while I was not having any savings to survive, I was looking for any job possible including working on shop, typing work or home tuition.

Rest of my 4 years in Delhi I have spent with same company. In beginning, we were sleeping in office on alternate nights, so that we can work more to deliver project on time. We have started with 4 people including owner of company and by the time I left we were 20 over.