Day 8-9: The Leela

We are now living at the Leela. A hotel right out side DLF Cyber City in Gurgaon. It is incredibly luxurious. The room is really nice, the service is excellent and the morning buffet so overwhelming that I lack for words. Coming home from work to a place like this makes you feel content in a way, that I rarely feel. Of course it is expensive even by Danish standards, but for now I don’t care.

This evening we went for dinner at the Spectre Restaurant at the ground floor. Food was fantastic and if I had to complain about something it would be, that the AC was turned down a notch to far for our liking.

Right now it is raining outside. Monsoon rain and everybody tells us that the rains should be over for the season. They are not. And outside in the green zone it also rains on the tents. This is a country of contrasts.

Day 7: Taj Mahal

On Saturday we went for a day trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal. 4 hours drive down from Gurgaon and 5 back due to traffic. Sights too see was the tomb/mosque of Sirikandar, the Taj Mahal and the fort of Agra.

At the mosque we were met by a guide who was to take us to all the sights. I don’t know whether that was good or bad, as he offered some insight we might not otherwise have gotten and smoothed the process of getting in out, but on the other hand he set the pace for what we saw and I think we would have liked to see more and spend more time at each site.

First of all. The Taj Mahal is just about as beautiful as it is supposed to be. It is amazing and it almost shine in all its whiteness. I know countless Danes have been here before, but this was one of the “wonders of the world” I had never thought I would see. So I was pretty amazed.

I tiny thing that means a lot to me in terms of how exotic every thing is, is the fact that there were monkeys in Agra. In the abandoned buildings in the city, climbing the walls of the fort and so on. Total Mowgli/Indiana Jones to me.

Day 3-6: More Days at the Office

I’ve had the pleasure of going to the office for a full week now. The work place is extremely nice and the food is good – even though some of my Indian co-workers complain that the caterer isn’t quite as good as when they first started. The usual office complaints.

Jasmina has been visiting Delhi and done all sorts of interesting things. Not me; I’ve just been struggling with work related issues.

MGF Metropolitan. One of the many malls in Gurgaon.

On Tuesday we went out for dinner at a restaurant called the the Coriander Leaf. I asked for a pint local beer as I could see that on the menu. Apparently local means nothing more than bottled in India. I got a 70cl Australian Fosters and since it was happy hour they gave me a second one too. I don’t particular like Fosters. We had a starter each and a main course. In India I think it is common to order a set of dishes and then share, but when the restaurant is fancy one like this, then I don’t know the norm. Anyways it was way too much food.

I had some spicy lamb in tomato. Very dry but good. My main course was chicken in some green curry. I didn’t like that too much. Jasmina’s dishes were the opposite around. The spring rolls (they weren’t really spring rolls, but I don’t know what to call them) were not that appetizing, but her main course was good.

The nights we have mostly spend in the apartment. It is a little boring, but very prestigious I understand.

On Friday my two of my colleagues were to return to Denmark, so the local management invited us out at Golfworx. A digital golfing venue with bar and restaurant. A really weird experience since we weren’t really into golfing and there was loud music. The weirdest part – if I have to pick one – was the coach why tried to teach us golf and his consistent “feel good comments” like “Good shot, sir” every time a made a 20 yard shot. Not impressive!

Day 2: First Day at the Office

So I managed to oversleep the first day I was supposed to meet the office here in Gurgaon, India. Embarrassing and I was pretty nervous on the ride in which took about an hour and 10 minutes. The traffic here is on another level of insane.

The office was a pleasant surprise. Really nicely furnished and decorated. I even recognized some of the furniture that had been sent from Copenhagen to India. But I really liked what I saw here.

The team I got to meet was a group of really nice people. I don’t know how my work went, but I was “on” for a long period of time. Very tiring.

We had lunch in the cafeteria. The people I had just met claimed that the food was getting worse. The exact same complaint I would have to any catering in a Danish company. A feeling so homely that it made me smile. Still, the food was way better than most food you’d get in an Indian restaurant back home.

I left the office at around a quarter to 7. Long day and I have 9 more ahead of me.

Day 1: Gurgaon, India–Just arrived

Yesterday we arrived in Gurgaon, India. It is one of the new tech-suburbs of Delhi and I am here on behalf on the company I work for.

The trip here was uneventful. Austrian Airlines over Vienna. MY first time using Austrian. It wasn’t that great, but at least there was plenty of space on the plane and that is fine.

A driver picked us up in the airport and drove us to the apartment that we own (not me personally). It is huge! We were tired and jet lagged and went to bed. Around 8 o’clock the maid arrived and we had to get up in order to let her in. There is so much electronics for handling that, that it got a bit confused. Back to bed and when we woke up she had gone. It is all a bit hazy.

At noon the driver came back to drive us to a mall. Just to get out a little. I think we were mostly doing this out of a sense of duty to get out and see something. True sightseeing will probably have to wait for next weekend. Anyways. The mall was noisy and not very interesting. Best part of it was having tea in the food court (such as it was) and an excellent dinner in an Indian restaurant.

The drive back to the apartment was more exiting: it rained hard and it was more like sailing a boat than driving a car.

Along the road you see more poverty than I can really stand and I am trying put it off my mind before going to the office tomorrow. As a co-worker said before I left: “big city poverty seems worse than country side poverty”. That is so true.

Day 12-13: In Siem Reap

Siem Reap is a mess. Extremly messy town on the one hand and a very nice park and a bunch of very fancy looking Chinese hotels on the other. We stayed at a small guesthouse called the Two Dragons. It was probably owned by an American expat and his Thai wife, but who knows. The room we had was so-so, but the restaurant was excellent.

First day we joined another couple for a tour of the Tonle Sap lake. The floating villages and all that stuff. Beautiful day and probably more than 4 hours in a tuk-tuk. I'm not so sure that the stuff the guide told us about the floating villages were true. It seemed very rosy to me at least. In the evening we went to see the sunset over Angkor Wat. It was probably pretty, but the hordes of tourist made it all very unpleasant.

The next day we had a tuk-tuk drive us around to see a lot of temples. Angkor Wat at 5:30 for the sunrise and we ended the day at Ta Promh (The Toomb Raider temple) at around 17:20. Long day.

Day 11: To Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

This started out with the wildest border crossing I have ever done. Basically you have Aranyaprathet on the Thai side of the border and Poipet on the Cambodians. Poipet is like the wild east. There migth be a Sheriff in town, but he is probably drunk and his horse is dead. It is a casino, corruption and scam central. Al Capone would have felt right at home.

We were told before that this is the worst border crossing in south east asia. It is by far the worst I have tried. Luckily our guesthouse in Siem Reap had a contact in Poipet who, for a small commission, would help us get through. For first time visitors I definitely recommend something like this. We had a booking to border in a bus. When we got there they set us of about 800m before the Thai side and tried to sell us a ticket further. Plus help with the visa. We just walked away and suddenly we felt very much alone and out of place in the middle of nowhere. The distance up to the border itself was full of all sort of scary people, but we walked fast and got out of Thailand.

On the Cambodia side we walked even faster until we met out guide in the Cambodian immigration. His help and a small "commission" to the border police got us through in about an hour. It took 3 offices (health declaration, visa and arrival-office). Out guide then got us onboard the shuttle bus located among a number of casinos and it drove of right away with only the driver, our guide and us onboard.

After about 5 min we arrived at the taxi-central where a nondescript Toyota Camry awaited us. Ahead waited 2 hours drive to Siem Reap. It is a very strange feeling being two white people alone with a Cambodian driver for two hours of asphalt through the wasteland of western Cambodia. Although everything felt very surreal, it actually worked out alright and we got to destination on time.

Day 10: Back in Bangkok

We left Chiang Mai and flew back to Bangkok. Pretty uneventful. The flight was fine and so was the bus ride back into Bangkok. We checked into a guesthouse near the Hua Lompong trainstation. A place called the Train Inn that we had found in Lonely Planet. That is -- by far -- the worst place I have stayed ever. I truly regret not just sleeping in the street. And it was kinda expensive too. This should teach me to always check the rooms before accepting a place to stay.

Worst part was that later we went out looking for internet access and found a place called "@ Hua Lompong", which was a very nice place, cheaper and just as conviently located for going with an early train next morning.

In the end we decided not to take the train. It was 3rd class only and didn't go beyond Aranyaprathet. Instead we took a bus recommended by the staff at the train station. Somewhat nervous about that since the busses leaving Khao San apparently is scam-central. How could we be sure that this was better?

In the bus' favor was that it was recommended not only the train station staff but also an american expat living in Cambodia that we met. It didn't seem like there were anything in it for any of them to lie. Still a bit scary though!

Day 7-8: Last night in Chiang Mai

Finally yesterday we manged to go on a tour out of this nice city. We did the standard kliche kinda thing. Ride an elephant, swim under a (very cold) waterfall and do some rafting on a river. Great fun even if not too original. We were only 6 people on the tour with me as the only non-american. That was great. Jasmina traded business cards with everybody probably assuming the trip was just for networking.


Today we visitied a temple and went to the day market. Great fun too. We are a little sad though. We really like Chiang Mai.

Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok. We don't have a hotel or guesthouse reservation there, but I hope it will work out anyway. Sunday we will try to make it to Cambodia. It sounds like quite the challenge.

However, the driver made a detour to a travel agency, which is one of the visa scam places.  I already had an e-visa (http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx), which I would recommend to avoid the hassle at the border.  The salesman at the travel agency wanted me to go into his office to talk to him and asked to see my passport.  I refused to hand him my passport and the tuk-tuk driver drove me away quickly when I told other travellers not to get their visa at that place, but to get it from Cambodian immigration at the border, where it will cost less.

Still I look forward to the adventure. Even if it scares the shit out of me.

In Chiang Mai we have really enjoyed the free wifi provided by our hotel. We probably won't have that for the entire trip (especially not in Bangkok), but I hope we will have it Cambodia. On paper we have reservation for places with wifi. You can follow my google buzz-stream here.

Day 1-6: Bangkok to Chiang Mai

So we arrived in Bangkok and took a taxi to our hotel. It was located about a 10 min. walk south of Khao San road, which apparently is where all the backpackers hang out. The immediate neighborhood was aweful. Spend the first day resting and exploring the streets close to the hotel.

Second day we went walking for real. We went to the train station to buy tickets for Chiang Mai and continued on to Siam Square and the huge department store called MKD (or something similar). Strange that we should end up spending our first full day in Bangkok exploring bookstores! Other than that, there is not that much to tell from Bangkok, which seems to be a really big, hot, noicy city. Unpleasent.

The train trip up to Chiang Mai was fun. 12 hours with reasonable good food onboard and an unexpected change of trains in the middle of nowhere. Arrival in Chiang Mai was nice as our hotel here turned out to be really pleasant. Basically we have been walking around Chiang Mai for a couple of days, doing very little other than enjoying the weather and the food. Yesterday we took a boat cruise on the nearby Ping river. That was pleasant as well.

Our plans for the next couple of days are uncertain as well. Probably go f or a tour somewhere and head back to Bangkok on Saturday. Then on to Siam Reap in Cambodia.