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Showing posts with label My Experiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Experiences. Show all posts

Its Destination Colombo - a trip report [Part 3]


And here comes the last part of the trip report. I will put our budget and expenditure details at the end so that it is easier for others to plan with a rough idea.

After moving out of Botanical Garden in Kandy, we reached the Tooth Relic Temple. It is one of the most holiest Buddha temples in the world and is famous abroad as well. There is a small Lake adjacent to the Temple and we had a small boat ride. It was just a 15 mins ride and costs 1500 LKR. Though a little expensive the ride gave a magnificent view of the hills surrounding Kandy.

Boat Ride in the Lake adjacent to Tooth Relic Temple

After the Boat Ride we went inside the Tooth Relic Buddha Temple. There is shoe stand near the place where foreigners need to purchase the entrance tickets. We kept our shoes near the main entrance gate not knowing about the Shoe stand and one of us lost the shoes !! So use the shoe stand near the ticket counter. The ticket costs 500 LKR for citizens of SAARC nations and 1000 LKR for citizens from other countries. Sri Lankans can enter for free. Please check the temple timing and schedule the trip. It opens at 9:30AM and closes at around 11:30 in the morning and again opens in the evening. There is a museum in the same building that has the temple. It is a three floor building which showcases the remains of the Sri Lankan Rulers and many ancient Buddha statues, writings. There is a pizza hut outlet near the exit door. The cost of the pizzas are inline with the Indian outlets. We tried Veg varieties. That is all we saw at Kandy and started to leave for Nuwara Eliya, a hill station with lots and lots of tea plantations and Seetha Rama Temple.

Nuwara Eliya is just 70KM from Kandy. But it took us around 4 hours to reach the place. The route had a number of twists and turns. I can hardly imagine a 10m stretch without a turn. But the entire route is scenic. I could remember the trip to Kulu-manali in my 4th year during undergrad. The peaks and the valleys give you a soothing and relaxing atmosphere. The entire route was like this - on side you see big mountains and valleys next to the road, and on the other you find lush green tea estates. I was told that the Tea produced in Lanka is mostly exported and is world famous. We stopped at a 150 year Scottish tea factory for a break. The attendant explained the entire process of how the final powder is produced from the raw tea leaves. Most of the process was done manually during olden days and now they have machines imported from Calcutta for some of the stages. Amazed to see a machine that separates the tea grains based on the color !! Also we were surprised to see some tea varieties that cost around 10000 INR per KG. You read it right. 10000 per KG. It is called White Tea made from the tea leaves that are dried for very long and finally looks like silver stubs. We bought some other varieties which would usually not be available in the market. At around 4PM in the evening we could see clouds capping the mountains and our final leg of journey was through these clouds. It was an amazing and awesome experience. The driver told us that the presidents holiday house is in Nuwara Eliya. There is a big golf course and stud farm next to the presidents holiday house. We reached the temple at around 5:30 PM in the evening. Though a very small temple it is well maintained and connected to the city. You will find Tamil priests doing the regular poojas. We went for small walk in the city center. The bus stand is small and dirty because of the rains.We found vadas being prepared on the road side and they tasted same as they would in Andhra. We started back to Negambo from there. Don't ask me what happened before we reached the hotel. I was fully tired of clicking and strolling and fell asleep. The seats in our cab are comfortable though not the best !! Had a nice and sound sleep in the hotel that night.

The last day was not as exciting as the previous days. We checked out at around 11:30 AM from the hotel. The breakfast was good and we had dosas with coconut chutney in the menu that day. The hotel manager asked us to book trough their website directly from the next time as they would provide discount on the room pricing [they would basically give us the commission they pay to booking.com]. We stopped in Negambo city center for some shopping. We found a gift center where we could buy some souvenirs. we reached airport by 2 PM. Our kingfisher flight was scheduled for departure at 3:30 PM. It was on schedule and we had our meals on-board. We didn't get enough time to explore sri lankan food on day three. I dont want to elaborate on the experience at Chennai. It was the most horrible weather that i have ever experienced [worst even compared to Pilani and Suwon]. We reached Bangalore by around 5:15 AM in the morning.

Here are our budget details for those who wanted to plan with a rough idea

  • KSRTC Bus Tickets - 1300 INR[to and fro]
  • Spice Jet [Chennai to Colombo] - 2765 INR
  • Kingfisher [Colombo to Chennai] - 4100INR
  • Hotel [3 days including breakfast]- 5737 INR
  • Cab [3 days including driver,fuel and rent] - 50 USD per head
  • Entrance Fees [Botanical Garden and Temple] - 1500 LKR
  • Food and Misc - 2000 INR

A few observations

  • You will find Tata's and Ashok Leylands every where
  • The Lankans might have opened the market to Jap. You will Toyota and Nissan models from carriage trucks to high end SUV's
  • Girls wear a traditional Red Saree for marriage
  • Chicken tastes a little weird
  • They have a very good traffic sense [I saw them crossing roads only on zebra crossing]
  • You will find a lot of churches [very old and famous]
  • The roads are clean, i don't know if that fits only to the places that we visited

A few pics related to the journey path described above



View from the main entrance - Buddha Tooth Relic Temple


Near the main Entrance


Inside the Temple[1/3]


Inside the Temple[2/3]


Inside the Temple[3/3]


Road to Nuwara Eliya [1/2]


Road to Nuwara Eliya [2/2]


Tea Gardens en-route Nuwara Eliya


150 Year old Tea factory


Tea variants. Silver Tips are the costliest 10000 INR per kg


Near the stud farm at Nuwara Eliya


Seetha Rama Temple at Nuwara Eliya
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Its Destination Colombo - a trip report [Part 2]


We were back in the hotel by 5PM in the evening after Colombo city tour on day one. The driver stopped for lunch at around 3:30PM at a hotel named "almass". It's an Indian restaurant with all the Indian delicacies available. We liked the vegetarian curries compared to Non-vegetarian. The chicken tastes a little different in Lanka. I don't know if it is because of the spices or the chicken itself. Had a very relaxing time in the hotel at the pool. We spent around one hour swimming and enjoying the breeze from the Indian ocean.We later moved on to the beach area to enjoy the sun set by 6:30PM. The roaring sound of the Indian Ocean, the fierce waves and the cool breeze along with the orange Sun, all at the same time was an amazing sight to just sit and relax. Oh yeah, IPL finals were on the same day. Two of our colleagues went out to booze in the nearby club and i stayed back with another person to watch the IPL finals.

Indian Ocean during Sun Set

Day two began very early. We asked the driver to come to our hotel by 5:30AM in the morning so that we had enough time in the day to visit all the places as planned.We started for the long journey [Lankan Standards] at around 6:15 AM.The first destination was Kandy. Kandy is approximately 108 KM from Negambo in the central province.The journey was through hills and valleys with narrow roads. Except for a 20 KM ride in the middle the road condition was very good. We Stopped for breakfast en-route the highway. Though the Tea was excellent, i didn't like the chicken burger, again the same chicken taste :)

we were taken directly to the Botanical Garden at Kandy. The driver told us that the people from the rich castes, political families and industrial families reside in Kandy. It is one of the most beautiful, well maintained , rich cities of Sri Lanka. The entry ticket for the natives is just 50 LKR where as it was 1000 LKR [around 400 INR ] for foreigners. The place is well maintained. Don't be surprised to see newly wed couples [Girl in traditional red saree] posing for photographs and videos with their crew. We saw at least 6 couples on that day. It took us around 1:30 hrs to explore the place. There is one hanging cable bridge on the extreme opposite of the entrance. And yeah the same thing as that of Lalbagh. It seems there is an engineering college opposite to this botanical garden. We found lots and lots of young couples enjoying the cool weather of Kandy in there. Though not as big as Lalbagh we found it shady and more green. One word of caution. Avoid using toilets in there. There are very poorly maintained and emit a very foul smell. I don't know why they just left only this part when everything else is well maintained.
Some pictures from the garden are below.

Jumbo Double Coconuts


View of the Big Lawn


Looks Gigantic


Roots or Trunk ?



The Cable Bridge


Trees of different shapes


Artificial Rock Formations in the greens


View of some old and huge trees


Inside the Orchid House
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Its Destination Colombo - a trip report [Part 1]


After spending four long years at Samsung, the trip to Sri Lanka was a much needed break before entering the hectic schedule at IIM Bangalore[yet to experience, just heard this from the seniors]. I have been to Sri Lanka on a three day tour with my colleagues. We are 4 in all and didn't go for any tourist packages. I wanted to plan everything from end to end from exploring the places to booking the tickets to managing things over there.I would write about the entire trip in three parts so that it doesnt turn out to be a very long and boring one. And yeah i am gonna put many pictures of the places that we visited clicked with my canon powershot camera.!

Our tour started from Bangalore. We took a KSRTC Volvo bus to Chennai. Started our journey at 1:45 PM in the afternoon and reached Chennai Koyembed central Bus stand by 8:30. We booked a fast track cab prior to going to Chennai. Fast track cabs charged 600 INR for 4 hours, 40KMS package. We took a break at my colleague's brother room and headed to airport. It takes around 1 hour from central bus stand to airport and a little more at peak hours. So proper planning is required if you have to reach airport in time. Check-in closes 1 hour prior to departure.Chennai Airport is being modernized and they forgot the current airport is still functioning. It is a horrible airport. The WORST of all the airports i have seen till now. We are lucky to have a small queue at immigration counter. I expected a lot of questions since we are going to sri Lanka on a holiday. NO questions at all. Immigration was a breeze. Security check also took only 5 minutes. The waiting area is also a horrible place. There are not many seats to seat all the passengers at rush hour. Our flight was at 00:30 hrs on Saturday Morning. One more bad aspect of this airport is that arrivals and departures merge in the same floor and people get confused on what queue to stand to enter the flight. Spice Jet flight costed us 2800 per pax, with out any meals on board. The seats looked cheaper compared to KSRTC Volvo. It was a very short flight [45 mins flying time].

Bandaranaike International Airport was much much better than what i expected. It is clean, well maintained , well lit and gave a very spacious look though a very small airport compared to Delhi T3. For a country with a population of 21 million i suppose it is a very good airport. I don't know if we went there in the off season, but there are very few flights and we had the same experience while returning as well.

The guy at the Sri Lanka tourism desk in the arrival hall was very helpful in planning our trip. He showed all the places in the sri lanka that are worth a visit and that we could cover in the 3 day stretch.There are several cab and tour operators that are available in the same arrival along with all the FOREX desks. All the banks charge the same commission and same forex rate. We went to Budget Cab service as it is an internationally recognized service. Mr Lional Dalpadadu[shihanad@gmail.com] was very helpful in charting our trip. I was told that the more days you hire the cab the cheaper per day charges would work out. For more than 5 days it would be just 50 USD per day. We took the cab for three days at a cost of 200 USD. Details of the each day are elaborated below.

We reached Paradise Beach Hotel, Negambo which is just a 15 min drive from the airport at around 4am in the morning. We booked the hotel through bookings.com at a price of 65 USD per night and with the sri lankan taxes it would be 81 USD per night all inclusive and only breakfast in food section. The rooms are well maintained and have a television with 90% of the indian channels getting broadcasted :)

View from the hotel room

We started our trip with a guided tour of Colombo city. Our Nissan Cab driver Mr Rexy Fernandez could speak English though not very fluent. He took us around the city explaining about the places and stopping at places of importance.

The following are the places that we visited in the tour
Colombo Fort and Harbor area, Colombo fish market[both new and old], St. Anthony’s Clock Tower, St. Anthony’s Church[Very famous as per the driver], Kotahena area, Supreme Courts Complex[we were not allowed to take any pictures here], Sugathadasa Stadium, Armour Street, Pettah Market, Central Bus Stand, Fort Railway Station[not a great view], Lake House Complex, Air Force grounds, Galle Face Area[we stopped here for some time as this place has vast ground facing ocean], Presidential Secretariat, Colombo city hotels, Ministry of Tourism, Temple Trees[This is the street where the president resides], Colpetty Police Station, Liberty Plaza[One another shopping mall, not so great] Shopping Complex, Public Library, War Memorial, Vihara Mahadevi Park, St. Bridget’s Convent, National Centre for Performing Arts Theatre, Cinnamon Gardens residential area, Town Hall, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH)[under construction] and replica of the Aukana Buddha Statue[This statue is very huge] .Below are a few pictures of the above places.

Clock Tower


Galle Face Area



Independence Memorial Hall


State Museum



Aukana Buddha Statue


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"Software JOB"


This is an extract from the mail i composed to my club (CrAC) members when i was working as an intern... hope some of you might feel the same after reading this


is this something different??

Don't feel that i am advising you people..just consider some of these things when making some decisions


4 months at a software company

software jobs suck. i hate being a developer after just 4 months of experience.(its because of the work culture ..not because of the work)
-U r just a machine to make money for them
-No work timings,too many deadlines..a typical software life cycle
-The only good reason why u take up a job is money and only money

Do u ppl think that sitting in an AC office in front of big monitors ,with high pay scales is a risk free job??
XYZ told me this and i also saw this article in a news paper recently..because of the radiation field , the sperm generation capability of software engineers is decreasing these days( i donno what happens for gals( this is just an information..not to be taken in any other sense))[case study at a hospital in Chennai]


A recent talk with an A6 guy

" India is the best in the servicing industry (man power) for the time being and china is just behind us.It is concentrating on manufacturing rather than servicing industry
*For a country's proper growth,it should first concentrate on the manufacturing industry and then go to services
*We indian's as we got a very good quantum of man power the services industry(especially IT) expanded rapidly leaving behind the manufacturing industry.But what is the scenario 20 yrs from now??China after reaching an optimum stage in manufacturing industry and may jump into capture the services market( and truly they can provide a better service at a cheaper Price compared to us)What if the market goes there..What happens to the Indian software industry???Have you ppl ever thought of this???
A chat with the senior researcher at MSR -----people in the age grp 21-28 in INDIA because of the software jobs earn what is called as risk free moneyGetting a job that pays is 20-30 k per month??( this is something great ..caz a senior manager in a normal company with 5 yrs of experience would earn less than this)The ppl in this grp spend approx. 35% more than what is actually needed ( according to a survey..i forgot the source) compared to people who earn money thru a risky job( they know the value of money they have earned) People in software industry doesn'tSo think again if u r getting into or aiming at a software job( in case u belong to some other disp)Lets take the case of a civilite for example.Why does he or she wanna get into a software job??How many of you ppl know that some of the best of the best civil engineers from India are retiring from the government jobs in the next 4 yrs..and in the present scenario..where no one opts for a civil engg degree or drops into a different field in job...what happens to these vacancies???( unfilled for yrs ..if filled( by unqualified ppl)) But we are intrested in software jobs..make more money and spend more money..is this correct??-->

But what is the scenario 20 yrs from now??

why a job ?? the basic question??

is the main motive to earn money and live a life??... don't we have any aims or goals to make it big...to be the news maker...to be recognized as someone ?different?..?unique?

Have you ever heard of the institutes like these??

IISC..some might have heard this name in NEWS recently..but what is it??....this is the only institute in INDIA which produces good phd's....this has a life of 100 years producing phd's for INDIA
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/

TIFR---Tata Institute of Fundamental Research..is this a laboratory??....unfortunately..this damn good institute is a PS!! station as well..the best brains of India work here doing research in various fields
http://www.tifr.res.in/scripts/homepage.php

ISI----u ppl remember ISI mark on the products right??..this is INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE....do you think this has some thing to set standards and is a govt body...do u know that u can do a masters degree at this institute??
http://www.isical.ac.in/

and there are many more.....
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From China to Pakistan Border-(Shimla Episode)


Went for a trip during the apogee this semester. It was one of the most exciting trips i ever had in my life. 1 full week of travelling and having fun at every stop we had. As, we were a team of 19 members ..a big gang of enthued bitsians, we took three vehicles and started off late in the night at around 3am soon after MITHALI.
We directly set out for Shimla and didnt take a break in the journey till we were there. It is first time i have travelled that long on a GHAT Road(90km ) to reach shimla. That place is simply amazing . People genrally walking down the hills to carry out thei daily routine activities. All the houses in different colours making the mountains look damn colourful. We took rooms in a hotel at the very begining of the city and stayed there for the night. We went on for a everning walk t see the place and had dinner in the mall road.
Next day morning we set out for a place called KUFRI which is 15km away from shimla and a famous tourist spot. We had to ride on horses to reach the mountain top which is 3 km from the parking. I had a thrilling experience riding on that. My horse was over enthued all kept running all the time leaving the other group members. Finally we landed at a magnificient place which had a panaromic view of the himalayas. We could see many places using the telescope.
And the much awaited thing ..the SNOW... we played in the snow for a while till we got exhausted. Later we visited a temple which is on the peak of the mountain. We came back to the parking place again on the horses. We headed for the Shimla Heli pad from there before we left the place.
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A Trip to Pilani


One of the most horrible trips i ever had in my life. I went to Pilani to get recommendation letters from my professors. I had take a train from Bangalore to Delhi and a Bus to Pilani from there. The train journey was not that boring in the begining. But as the time passed on we felt why the damn we didnt book a flight. It was a 41 hrs tarin journey. And here comes the most horrible journey ever. It was a bus journey from Delhi to Pilani by a Haryana Roadways bus. The leg space is exactly enough to arrest your legs. You can't even move an inch once you take your seat. And the kind of people you find in the bus are also hopeless. Above all this journey is not for an hour or two...it is a 6 hr long journey with only a single stop for 10 mins.
I had to face the same experience while returning from Pilani as well, but it was a little better than the previous one as we got into a private bus instead of taking Haryana Road Ways.

Hope i dont travel again in a bus to pilani in my life.
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