LYJ21: March 2011

India trip
Something that I hoped for last year
And yes, it's a great feeling to be travelling there
For the 2nd time somemore
Awesome-ness!

Watched 127 hours on the plane
Wasnt impressed by it?
Thought it was Oscar winning or something?
Honestly felt it was kinda poor to me
And yes, the part on amputating the arm to get free
Felt sleepy by the time it reached there
Zzz....

2am dinner
LOL!
1st taste of the deadly masala that I soon would come to apprehend
The pudding tasted.........weird?

5+ hours later......
New Delhi from the sky!

Very traditional Hindi stuff
“ 如来神掌! ”

Airport checking out
Always a hassle
Something always bother me when I check out of the airport
OCD perhaps?

The moment we stepped out of the New Delhi airport
It was around crazy 4am Singapore time
130am New Delhi time

1 way ticket to hell is not bring a personal jacket along
Trust me
Because I'm the only few who didnt bring
Once I board the car to the airport
It was "Game Over" already
:(

India has this chilly weather
Last heard before we boarded the plane was 14 degrees and below
So coupled with the winds
It was the next closest thing I felt to being like frozen pork
:/

Somehow this shot would have turned out better with my D90
Just got this gut feeling
职业病
Hahaha!

Everything looked great
Just like our T3
But then once you stepped out of the airport........

You seen incomplete road works
Orange cones here and there
Wild dogs as big as small children running about
Cars, buses, vans and what not all lined up disorderly
Construction works going on and there
And BAMMED!!!
It hits you in the face that you are in India!!!
And the chilling winds were killing me
Like totally sapping my life out
=[

One thing that is totally cool about the New Delhi expressway
was the fact that there were lines of blinker lights on the ground
So much so that it was like from one end of SLE to the BKE
Cool to the G6!

Took the bus to Centaur Hotel
Just kinda outside the New Delhi airport
Short refreshment and smoke break
Looks like a good place to stay if you're near the airport

After passing through plenty of roadblock-style barricades
Like clearing an obstacles course that is
Reminds me of the India drivers
And their "Who Dares Win" attitude
Only the cows on the ground could stand in their way

Moving on to the highly anticipated train ride
The first thing you jump right off the bus
You see ppl peeing by the roadside
Yes, just onto this piece of wall
Totally rocks doesnt it?

It was like 5am plus
Everything was kinda dark yellowish
Seriously no pun intended
But hey, it's kinda scary
You dont know the feeling until you're there yourself

Many many eyes are laser-scoping onto you
From the street-side stall owners using their bunsen
burners to heat up the food and drinks
To the consumers buying from them
Everything was happening at once
Plus the winds
And the lack of proper sleep
To not really knowing what's the next step besides taking the train
It just feels kinda........freaky
But hey, adventurous spirit is up there!
Like this kinda feeling when I'm overseas in less-visited countries

The New Delhi train station
Everything looked high-tech pretty and all
Or is it.........?

In your face
Totally in your face
1st world to 3rd world in a blink of an eye
Culture shock #1
People sleeping at the train station
Minimum clothings and baggage
Maximum emotions-evoking
=/

New Delhi train station platform
No yellow lines
And the shadow in the centre
Yes, there's a person who just jumped straight onto the train tracks below
And climb up on the other side
Imagine someone doing that at Ang Mo Kio
(the only train station I can imagine that something like this is do-able)

I think beside him being electrocuted or stomped
The next reaction I can train of is ppl fainting
And yes, the train in the background is moving
Their trains are not 100% stationary at all times

There are like many stalls there
And got all those crates around
With random ppl coming to just pick them up
Then travel to somewhere
And come back with the crates empty and stuff

While we were waiting there
(our place was platform C6)
Some dude just came over
And set up his stall

Until we realise that he was packing the train meals
Like 200% random

And you got nowhere to go already
Cuz the train station was filling up epic-ly fast
So we were all prepared to be asked to buy stuff or what not
Because there are plenty of beggars going around
Asking for money or food at the train station platform

It's sad
But its something that you cant avoid
Or something that you can just ignore
Because it's totally not by their choice
And totally not us to just walk away without feeling some emotions

The "rabbit-caught-in-between-headlights" feeling

AND THE GREAT SINGAPORE SALES BEGIN!!!!

Holy-mother-freaking-crazy-madness!!!!!
And I was crazy enough to stand still and take a photo too!
Yes I thought I was out of my mind
People were pushing and running
But I know I would feel hard done if I dont capture this moment in my life

One of the major reason for this mayhem?
We were standing at the platform C6
As denoted by the electronic signboard above our heads
And when the train was about to brake completely to around 95%
The electronic board blinked and blacked out
And the sign changed to C1

IT JUST CHANGED TO C1
Just like that?!

And all hell break loose like the Undertaker was coming for us
Throwing our backpacks overhead and hand-carry all up
We quickly made a dash for it
As there was only a mere 5 mins for us to board
And from the pictures above
5 mins is the merest of all required time already

Another crazy reason for the mayhem?
There were 2 doors for boarding and alighting.....
And only 1 in the blue hell was open........
=/

We had to let the passengers on board alight first
Not to mention the door was only 1-man size wide
But somehow the locals
With their huge-ass luggage
Can squeeze you left and right and make it 3 persons into the door
At one go
You gotta give it to them

Singapore rush hour at City Hall?
Dont mention it ok?
There's nothing like that compared to 6am at New Delhi train station
N-O-T-H-I-N-G compared to it
Totally exciting stuff
Heart-racing and all!
;)

Meals on wheel
LOL!
Not so appealing
Plus this Jumpin' Mango
I think it's 90% syrup 10% water
Either that or it's 1x real mango squeezed into packet-drink size
=.=

The train ride is like my first-ever train ride in my life
Hey, I haven't even been to the train tracks area in Singapore!
And this "virgin" ride of mine
(LOL! Sounds porny leh!)
Had to last about 7 hours

STEAM-ED!
Hahahahahaha!
Epic one of a kind experience
The peeing part was the most memorable
Something I would never ever forget in my life

Balancing with one hand pressed onto the train toilet door
The other hand for "direction assist"
And then aiming to "score" into the hole inside the toilet
All the while with the train rocking left and right and sometimes up and down
Yes, please remember to bring your "scoring boots"
Dont leave them at home
If not be prepared to change into a new pair of jeans or bottoms
Ahahahahahaha!
=D

Oh ya, the train allowed you to charge electronics too!
Cool huh?
;)

From the early hours of the morning till mid day
It was sights aplenty for us

Tell me honestly
How often do you see people shitting beside the train stations?
Like 100% ass crack to you
With their friends besides them doing the same thing
Squatting there
And you can see the pile of shit there
Pardon me for this obscene description
But there's National Geographic to me
Incredible India culture shock like #2 or #3 or #4 or doesnt matter already

In your face again
And yes, there's no toilet besides the railway tracks
And I didnt manage to capture them
It may seem funny to some of us
But to me, it was OMFG 恶心
Ok they had no choice
But.......still OMFG 恶心!!!

7+ hours later
Arrived at Jhansi
And it's like 5 stops away from New Delhi only
5 stops ok?
7 hours
The Maths don't work that way hur?

The various dogs around
The golden retriever lookalike on the nice green grass
Giving me the feel of owning a dog overseas
Like somewhere in the US or Aussie side
Whereby you just sit on your porch
And your dog just laze on the garden of your own
Swee lah!

Plus it was very obedient
Wagging it's tail and just looking at you with it's 水汪汪 eyes
Cant help but like them

The black dog was sadness max
The fur was bitten off here and there
Kinda colourist the dogs
Haha!

And the last dog was like a small puppy
可爱!
:)

The amount of vastness
Never ending

Close-up of cactus style plant
Imagine you actually press your hands onto them
IF you slipped that is lah!
Ouch!

I like this a lot
Cow skull
Excellent capture!

The sunset in India
It's just beyond nice
It's something you would want to look at
But being Singaporeans
We don't really appreciate something that we can see everyday do we?
A much stereotyped and generalized comment
But oh well

Anyways
Everytime in the morning at 6am plus to 7am
I can get to see the whole of sunrise
From the orange ball of flames
Slowly rising up onto the sky
With the sky behind parting in slow motion
And the red-orange hues clouds scattering in all directions
Brings a smile to my face
Because I know I wont have the opportunity to see such
a thing in Sinagapore everyday
And I do appreciate it
Maybe due to the fact that I wouldn't travel to East Coast to see such things
Hahahaha!

夕阳无限好
。。。。。只是近黄昏
Someone completed the line when I mumbled it there
Hahahaha!
Good job! Same mindset

Duty free cigs
I can be their company photographer hur?
With sunset as backdrop
And a pretty slick packaging
Without the awful pictures of lung cancer and what not
Looks tasty......or even healthy!
;)

300+ sheep that go from East to West in the morning
And then back from East to West in the golden hours
Makes you wonder where they go
:)

But hey, I like this shot too!
Proud of it!
Something you cannot find in Singapore

And the sheep are very cute!
With all their ''mehhing'' sound and pausing to graze here and there
With a leader in front leading all the rest
Plus some confused and lost souls following behind
Just a sight to behold in person

And the following photos below would be of life on the road in India
For people who want to know how India looks like
From the view of a bus of course
Through the towns and expressways and slums and customs and all

There will be like endless roads leading into the horizon
Followed by majestic scenery of mountains and hills and greenery
And then to the hustle and bustle of the towns
With motorbikes and cars and vans and buses all squeezing through one junction
There will also be cows lying at everywhere and anywhere
Like they own the road and such

It's beautiful
It's really incredible
To take in all these breath-taking sights
On a 8-hour bus journey
Yes, 8-hours was a killer
But these 8-hours were put to use to feast my eyes
Fill them up with the sights and sounds of Incredible India

Lunch at a restaurant near Taj Mahal
The tandoori chicken is awesome stuff!
With the orange-curried mutton!
Tasty tasty tasty tasty!
=D

Tourist con-job?
LOL!

Sadness
=(

Do you know you had to take an electric bus to 150m away from Taj Mahal?
No petrol powered bus is allowed within a 1.5km radius
And overloading is common
Trust me!
:)

Entrance to Taj Mahal
No electronic boo-boo or what not
Only cameras
And a simple water bottle
No baggage allowed too
And of course no cigs and fagging allowed inside

I came out of the entrance feeling violated
All of us did
I thought the security touched some "sensitive" areas
Until I heard about what "places" they touched my friends
LOL!
Considered myself lucky

And do you know locals only have entry priced at around 10 Rupees?
Foreigners = 710 Rupees
There's SGD$20 difference
=|

Okay
I cant be bothered
It's 1 of the 7 Wonders of The World
I dont wanna complain about that

Hot North Indian chick!
:)

The various gates leading to the mausoleum itself

The 11 white domes (2 sides) represent the 22 years needed to build Taj Mahal

22 years........no joke

Taj Mahal is an architecture marvel
It's perfectly symmetrical
100%

From the centre of the ground
You can see the centre line on the floor
That will leading directly to the middle of the mausoleum door at the palace
With it cutting through the mid-point of the gate
And positioned with symmetrical mosque on the left and guestroom on the right

It was built in the 1600s fyi
To be able to do that in the 1600s say something about the late Emperor
And the bunch of world renowned architects he hired
Of course, not forgetting the fact that he wanted to show the whole
of Planet Earth that his love for his 3rd wife
Who bear him 14 kids btw
And died of miscarriage on the 14th birth

Shah Jahan gotta be the best lover ever
14 kids leh!
Okok
The Taj Mahal is really beautiful everytime I think back on it

Horrific again
"Be careful of pickpocket" keep ringing in my brain

"The most photographed place on Earth"
Or some say it is

Yes
I have an obsession with symmetry after hearing about the story

Nothing less than right smack in the middle
:)

There are licensed photographers around
They charge you around $2+ Sing for a 6R photograph
Professionally taken
And yes, we all took it
And it's displayed on my table right now
Quite an epic display of emotion
You gotta see it in person to know
;)

Those licensed photographers will insist on forcing you to do certain pose
And it takes a great deal of persuasion to tell them not to do it
Seriously, must be forceful
If not they force themselves onto you
And then its kinda unpleasant

First time in my life
Someone say I jump too high

HAHAHAHA!

Sorry but can they build the Taj Mahal higher so I can appear in the middle?
Became a jump shot expert after this India trip
=)

This is the pose they will force you to take
Kinda awkward for me to do it
So I had to refuse them profusely
Talk until no more saliva then they can understand
Maybe should flex some muscles to do the job
Ok..........hahahaha!
Just kidding
All peace and love in the place of eternal love yeah?

Dynamism FTW!
Playing with curves

These 2 dudes were holding hands
And by the "index-hold-pinkie" way
As voted by Taiwanese as the most lovey-dovey kinda
hand-holding position leh!

OMG! OMG! OMG!
I gotcha!
Stalker I am!

Taj Mahal as viewed by all the various angles that I can captured

A photography tip I know from books was looking at postcards of the place first
And see what kind of angles they can be shot at

So I remembered vaguely taking a look at the postcards right outside Taj Mahal
Before going in to capture the inside

For Taj Mahal
All the best angles came from the centre
And yes, indeed, it's the best there was
Find me another angle that can show the Taj Mahal at its very best
I will be impressed

The Quran written in perfectly identical-size
An amazing feat
With the late Emperor already knowing that if he painted on the wall instead
The letters wouldn't have been identical

The mosque / guestroom
Both are similar in shape and size
And colour of course

Garden of paradise
As captured from the mausoleum side

This river in the centre was supposed to be filled with milk
As ordered by Shah Jahan
Milk was considered pure or related to paradise/heaven or some sort
But somehow it couldnt be done
Too cost-ineffective perhaps

Then the architects resorted to using reused water
That has a slight stain or what to it
Making it look milky and stuff
To simulate the milk/paradise effect
Which leads us to think that the water might actually be sewage water
LOL!

Hahaha! Pardon me if I'm wrong ok?

We need to take off our shoes and footwear before climbing up the mausoleum

The queue into the tomb of the late King and his beloved Queen

Another crazy experience
With the locals just sitting at the steps outside
Blocking whatever free way you have to climb down the steps
Like they are having their own weekend picnic there

And there are hundreds of ppl at one go
Coming out of the entrance and exit
With the Indian Army just trying to solve the unsolvable human jam

Throw in ppl trying to out-hustle each other
And snap secret photographs of the tomb itself
(which was prohibited but nonetheless......)
You can get the situation there

Oh ya, the jewels and marbles inside
It's precious stones
Rare and hard to find
They are the colours of Taj Mahal itself
Providing the red, orange, green, blue and purple all that
Plus a cool feeling upon touch
Part of the reason why Taj Mahal took 22 years to construct

That was the railings which warned people of going too close to the edge
Whereby this river separates the Taj Mahal from the one at the back

There is actually a BLACK Taj Mahal being build by Shah Jahan last time
He wanted one BLACK Taj Mahal for himself
But his son thought it was gonna cost them the whole of their empire fortune
Thus he imprisoned his own dad
And thats how Shah Jahan passed away in prison
Those are actually the foundations of the BLACK Taj Mahal
You can see the marbles and construction left behind there
That was cool!

Camwhore!
LOL!

And so we set our way back to Singapore
The tiny island of perspiration and high humidity
Hahaha!

Yes, this is the Agra train station
More litter and rubbish at the tracks
And more little kids and poor beggars
Coming to cling onto you
Begging for some stuff or what not
And really, the beggars especially, they look like zombies out from
the Resident Evil movie series

I'M NOT JOKING!
Because they have missing arms and legs
And they crawl on the ground those you
I cant explain through my words here
And its only how you see at that time
Can you experience the emotions I felt at that time

Plus the fact that I watched Slumdog Millionaire in India itself
Seeing how there are syndicates capturing young kids
Breaking their legs/hands/blinding them and asking them to beg for money
That all these negative thoughts come to mind
It's wrong of me to think that
But you cant change the perception at that point in time
Even after coming back
I believe I will still feel the same if I go back to India
Because the poverty gap is too too too big
Something that cant be address in the short run
And something that will haunt India for a long time

The airport is the best example of poverty gap

The rich carry luxurious luggage brands
Wear bling bling and all

You dont see all those beggars and poor little kids there
Zero of them
None
Sad to say
But it's the truth
:(

Lastly
End off with my power food in India

Munch and 4-piece Kit Kat
Awesome heaty-ness!
No ulcers over there
Shiok shiok!

For now
Call an end to travelling to India itself I guess?
Been to the most famous place in India itself already
Been to Bangalore the IT Hub of India too
Left Mumbai, Bombay and Calcutta
Next time perhaps?

Now
Just gotta wait for Japan to recover
With sincere wishes
Cancelling the air tickets there was the most painful thing we did

Tell me
Where can I go now?
ORD trip looks like a bleak plan.......

LYJ21

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Stomping Around

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Supafly!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Earth Hour 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

Gotcha!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Final Juuuuuuuuuustice!

Monday, March 21, 2011

India Revisited

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