First Love

We were all of 17 then, me a few months older

In the midst of an Accounting problem, I turned to my friend,

To share a laugh and a giggle,

When I saw you, sitting in an adjacent desk

Talking to your friend, turning my way.

I didn’t know the heart could feel so many different things

Until then, when my eyes found you.

I gaped unabashedly, shielded partly by my friend

Is this what love at first sight was?

I didn’t know, I couldn’t think.

Nor could I eat, sleep and drink

since then. Was it love, or was it an obsession?

I was consumed by all things you.

Since that moment, I existed solely for you

My eyes searched for you everytime, in class

At the traffic signal, in supermarkets,

Hoping against hope, the universe would

Conspire to bring us together.

My imagination ran wild – dreaming up an apocalypse in which,

Everybody but you and me perished

But despite all this, I never approached you

Never went up to you and said ‘Hi’,

Never sent feverish love letters sprayed with fragrance.

And with end of classes, you moved on

Having never known what I felt

While I lived only in my dreams, where I would courageously

Jump down rooftops to be with you, in the mystery of the night.

Years later – after we each found our respective loves

You still existed in my life, as a tender memory

Of an unattainable dream, an unrequited love,

And perhaps that is for the better,

for if you and I had come together, sourness

would have wormed its way,

normalizing us; and who wants normal?

I am content of dreaming of a what could be,

And this is my happily ever after.

Counting calories - my experience!

Before I start, let me clarify that this post is by no means a ready reckoner for weight loss or based on dietary research.  Nor is it an Ad for any fitness app. This is simply my experience with counting calories and weight management.

Recently I posted a survey on Instagram to find out how many people counted calories on an every day basis. More than 75% voted a No - not very surprising. Most think that it’s enough to just avoid junk food and that should be OK. I can’t completely agree to this for various reasons. It’s a very simplistic approach and will not work for people who lack discipline (read someone like me). Which  is why I thought it a good idea to pen down my experience with weight management through calorie counting. This is my story:

I have always had a battle with weight - I wouldn't say I have a very large appetite but I love to eat fried items and I just cannot resist food that I love. I can eat at any time of the day - even just after a rather heavy meal. Whether it's chips or cheesy nachos - I can never stop with one. And though I don't have a sweet tooth, I have a weakness for chocolates, and dark chocolate ice cream. And of course coffee - hot or cold! Quite obviously, with this kind of eating coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, accumulation of unwanted weight over the years was only natural. 

By the end of 2013, I realized that I could not go on like this forever and started to look for tips from the internet for weight loss. Any kind of dieting was out of question - I can never go on a diet. 3 solid meals a day was and still is a must. So I decided on eating less per meal and cutting out unnecessary junk. But this is easier said than done. Merely cutting down food without understanding the Nutritional information will not help. Besides, it is very easy to slip up and eat "just this one small cup of ice cream" or "just one extra poori"- these things add up!

So I decided to dig deeper and find a solution to this. I thought the best way to follow portion control of food was to count calories. This, I thought, was more scientific and I'd know exactly how much to eat. Many would argue on this point saying this is simply a superficial way of looking at it, but at that point I just wanted to go with my instinct. I read that the average calorie intake  should be around 1,800-2,000 kcal for a woman and ~2,500 for men. So if I had to lose any weight, I had to eat less than 1,800 kcal. When you eat lesser than you burn (over the course of the day), you tend to lose weight and I liked this approach of Calorie deficit. I discovered this App called myfitnesspal on the internet and installed it on my phone. 

Myfitnesspal has an exhaustive Database of different types of food and the calorie chart and nutrition info for each. I was delighted to see that it was not limited to only Continental/Asian food but also included Indian food - even things like Dosai, Jowar roti etc. It is so exhaustive that you would even find local brands like Thaayar dosai maavu, Mambalam Iyer, 777 etc in it. And if it doesn't, you can check the nutrition info in the packaging of the product and add to the app's database yourself.

By end December 2013, I started meticulously measuring my calorie intake by feeding whatever I ate into the app. The App lets you set a "Target weight" and helps you decide your Net Calorie intake to reach this target weight. The word "Net" is key here. It is important to note that it is not just about food, but also about exercise. So if you eat food worth 1,600 kcal but burn 200 kcal by walking for half hour, your net calorie count for the day is 1,400.

Till that point I would eat 4 of each in each meal - whether it is 4 slices of bread or 4 dosais or 4 chapatis. Sometimes if I was very hungry, I'd even eat five. I cut it down by half. It was incredibly difficult and I would get hunger pangs.... but trust me, once your stomach shrinks you'll get used to the quantity after a week or so. And that is what happened to me.

I set a daily goal of 1,200 calories (Net) and tried to stick to it. I would eat all three meals a day (but portion controlled), coffee with milk & sugar twice and made no other changes to the kind of food I was eating. Yes, I still had my cheese toasts and peanut butter sandwiches, chapati subzi, rice etc. I started walking everyday (something I wasn't doing earlier). This helped me maintain by net calorie goal. In fact I even ate ice cream and food loaded with cheese at restaurants at times. But I would compensate it by walking more. A 1,200 kcal a day diet is very difficult because even one single plain dosai is about 100 calories. A cup of sambar is about 150 kcal. A cup of coffee with milk and sugar is 120 kcal. One banana is about 80-100 kcal. If you keep adding the extras like pickle or a slice of cheese or oil for idli podi or walnuts -you get the drift - you will exceed the daily goal if you aren't careful. But with exercise, this was easily achievable. I would burn at least 400-500 kcal a day and my daily gross food goal became 1,600-1,700 kcal.

Counting calories and tracking what I ate & exercised helped me in the following ways:

•  I was able to portion control my dietary intake
•  Since I was meticulously measuring what I ate, I would hesitate to take an extra bread or reach out for the chips because every single thing was being counted. I was very cautious of not exceeding my goal.
•  I started taking keen interest in exercise (even though it was only cardio), since that helped me be flexible with food. This in turn was very good for my exercise starved body.
•  Apart from mere calories, the app helped me track the overall nutritional intake. So I knew if I was getting enough proteins, iron and Vitamins in my diet and didn't go overboard on carbs, fat and sodium. This is important because one mustn't simply eat things that have no nutritional value just to lose weight.

And after a point it was no longer a simple exercise of counting calories - it was driving behavioral changes for the better! Of course there were cheat days (because there was a family function or I was going out with friends or whatever). But I was quite sincere in this on most days.

I was astounded by the results. In 3 months, I'd lost 8 kgs. You might consider it less, but for me it was a dream. 

In less than 3 months I went from looking like this:

to this: 

Mar 2014

And I owe this change 100% to my sticking to the daily calorie goal !! So yes guys, it works! All it needs is a little motivation and consistency.

After this I got a little more ambitious and decided to hit a gym. I chose Gold's Gym which was walkable distance from my house. I even paid up for personal training. I would go to gym 6 days a week - alternating between cardio (treadmill, cross-trainer etc) and intense strength and functional workouts with the personal trainer. Going to the gym was hard initially but once you get into a rhythm it's absolutely addictive. The strength workouts were super intense. I went to the gym for a little more than a year, and I lost only about 3 kgs in all this time, but I toned up tremendously. And though I went easy on my diet, I felt and looked much fitter than ever before. 

Me in 2015

However things went awry when I met with an accident in Sep'15 and I had to be operated for an ankle fracture. I was bed ridden for 2 months and I couldn't walk without a limp for months after. Gym was not an option at all since I had a ligament tear as well (which was left as it is to be healed on it's own). Ideally I should have started to go back to calorie counting (via myfitnesspal) but I was not in the right frame of mind. I put on weight again and tried to lose it on and off by cutting down food but I had neither the sincerity of 2014 nor the discipline. I have now joined a gym and I am not even regular. I only walk on a treadmill and do nothing else. 

A few weeks back, I decided to restart calorie counting with myfitnesspal once again. It isn't easy but I have been on it for 2 continuous weeks now. I hope I am as sincere and dedicated as the last time. So let's see how things go this time around! Wish me luck!!!

The almost ‘Accident’

Between the ages of 2.5 and 9, I lived in a delightful township within a tiny village called Aapakoodal deep in the south. The closest big city from there is Coimbatore (about 2 hours drive). Erode is about half an hour away. As a kid it was a fun place because one could go around the entire campus without any adult accompanying us. It was a very safe place and everyone knew everyone.

I’d just skip out of my house and go over to any one of my friend’s houses. Sometimes we’d even do night overs (something which I stopped after moving to the city). Looking back I am surprised I did night overs at that young an age. 

My school was located right outside the campus on the highway. My family had a driver working for us and he would drop and pick me up from school. Usually I would drop off a few of my friends as well.

This driver, Murugan, had the habit of chatting up with all the local shopkeepers outside the school in the evening when he’d come to pick me up.  So my friends and I usually waited for him to finish up his conversation before we left the place. 

One evening, as always, I walked to the car after school. My classmate Arthi accompanied me as I was going to be dropping her off at her house. Murugan was talking to the owner of the shop just outside the school. I would have been around 7 then. I noticed that Murugan was busy and I could try being the driver for once. I hopped onto the driver seat. Arthi  was in front of the car, play acting like she was wiping  the windshield from the outside. 

I was fiddling with the ignition and stepping on the gas pedals. Suddenly I felt the car lurch. I had started the car, but in just a nano second I turned off the ignition. Murugan’s heart almost leapt out of his body as he witnessed this. If I hadnt been alert enough I’d have mowed Arthi down and then possibly all other people behind her. Arthi and I giggled about it after that because at that age we didnt know the implications. Everytime I think of it now I go ‘Oh my God! 😱 What if..... ?’ 

September 16 and the story of Sathya

September 16. I recently came across an article about M.S. Subbulakshmi and from it I gleaned that she was born on this date.  This was the first time I learnt of her birth date and I looked up wikipedia to confirm it. It checked out. I sat in stunned silence as my thoughts transported me back to my CA Articleship days. A fellow intern called Sathya Narayanan used to be crazy about MS Subbulakshmi and pretty much worshipped her like he would a Goddess. So devoted to her was he that he would carry a picture of her along with his favourite deities whenever he would travel on out of town audit trips.

Sathya had a slightly sad personal story. He was not very well to do. His mother had  passed away the day he was born due to labour complications.  His father had  remarried and life with his step mother was .... well, not the best. Nevertheless he was an extremely cheerful guy and would always be joking around the office. Some of his jokes would turn macabre especially the day before exam results, when he'd laughingly say things like 'Tomorrow is Result day. If you hear of a young man being found dead on rail tracks, it'll probably be me' . Of course he'd laugh it off.

There was this one joke that he used to tell us very often. Apparently some fortune teller in a local share auto had read his palm and exclaimed 'This hand is not meant to be in India. It is meant to be in the USA'. What he meant was of course that he was destined to fly abroad soon. He came to office and repeated the fortune teller's words verbatim when one of the Audit partners quipped 'Paathu Sathya, indha kaiya mattum yaaravadhu vetti eduthutu po poraanga' (Watch out Sathya, someone might just hack your hand off and take it to the US). He found her joke so hilarious that he went around telling this to everyone and followed it up with a hearty laugh.

It was sometime around the second week of September that year, that I went on exam leave. My last audit before leave was at Vasan Publications (Ananda Vikatan, Jr Vikatan etc) and he had been my fellow audit assistant. He was to go on leave a few weeks after me. Around 13th September or so, I remembered he had borrowed my Cost Accountancy notes  and hadn't returned them. I rushed  to Vikatan office and collected them from him. Little did I know that this would be the last time I'd see him.

A few days after that, one morning, he had gone to the bus terminus near his house to catch a bus to work. As he was boarding the bus, while standing on the footboard (steps inside the bus), he noticed his sandal strap had come undone. He had bent down to adjust it. At the exact same time, the driver had taken a sharp left and Sathya lost his balance. He fell off the bus and his hand went right under the wheel and was severed. A lady who was watching all this fainted. With great difficulty he was extricated from under the bus. Though bleeding profusely and in great pain, he was still  alive. His family, for some reason, couldn't be contacted immediately. After some delay, the people at the bus terminus decided to rush him to the General Hospital (GH). Someone even brought his severed hand along in a plastic bag with the hope that it could be stitched back. When he reached GH, he had apparently pleaded with the doctor to save him. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. Due to delay in bringing him to the hospital he had lost a lot of blood. It was all very unfair. Though he had lost a hand he could have easily been saved had help reached him early. The hand that was supposed to be in the USA, died along with him that day.

When we all heard the news we were shocked and devastated. Could this really be true? Our Sathya dead? We were in total denial and disbelief.  With heavy hearts we rushed to his house in Nanganallur to pay our last  respects, still unable to believe that he was no more. The world had lost a bright and young soul and we, our good friend.

I came back to the present and read the article again. My eyes glazed over. September 16.  The day his Goddess was born. The day he left us all. 

Memories from a time gone by: My paati

It is now 5 years since my grandmother (mother's mother) passed away.  My earliest memory of her was when she used to cook paruppu saadham laced with flavourful home made ghee and feed my cousin and I, sometimes topping it with a ladle full of steaming tomato rasam. As we grew up she would spoil us with all her yummy dishes and I can still remember the masiyal and mendhi kozhambu that she used to cook to perfection. Not to mention her pickles which would be stored in huge jars and the juiciest of mangoes that she would offer us during summer holidays. She would constantly worry about her children and grandchildren and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to keep us all healthy and safe. She was the kind who'd put everyone else's well-being in front of her's and never care much about herself. There is one incident that comes to my mind now.

During my school days, my mother and I used to spend the weekends at my grandparent's place. There used to be a big library close by and I would pick up six to seven books each time.

Sometimes I would just not be able to put the book down and read until 1 or 2 at night. Since I used to share the bedroom with my mother or cousin, I was not allowed to keep the light on beyond a certain time and so I would take my book and continue reading in the living room. 

One such night ( I was about 12 or 13 then I suppose), as usual I was sitting in the living room close to the main door and reading a novel with great interest. I heard a sound and looked up from my book to see grandmother coming out of her bedroom. She stopped briefly to peer at me and then wordlessly proceeded towards the kitchen and I could hear her rummaging through some things.

I then saw her come out of the kitchen, walking towards me with her hands clenched. Her expression was odd - she had this determined look about her and she looked quite serious and strict. It was a bit funny for me and I just gave a short laugh and asked her why she looked so angry.

As soon as she heard my voice, her expression changed drastically. She looked relieved and laughed in embarrassment.

Then she told me "Oh It's you! I couldn't see you properly. I thought you were a burglar. I was going to put chilly powder on your eyes". So that's what she had been holding in her clenched hands - chilly powder!

I burst out laughing. She laughed as well and went back to bed.

When I look back and think about the incident now I am actually amazed. Here was a 73 year old lady who suspected that an intruder had barged inside the house in the middle of the night, and instead of waking up her husband or one of her daughters and putting them in danger, she was determined to take him out all on her own!! If he was going to harm anyone, let it be her and not her family. That must have been what was going on in her head. That was how she always was. She was one in a billion. Miss you, paati!

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 9

Thanks for following my blog so far. I promise you this will be the last in this series :D

As I'd mentioned earlier, Macau is famous for its Casinos. Gambling is legal in this small town and it is a big business out here.

Our hotel had a lot of casinos on the ground floor and I wanted to try my luck in at least 1 game. I felt like I was part of the Hangover movie where Alan and his wolfpack dress up and try their luck at gambling. I was unsure about any of the games and I wanted to bet very little. There was one Roulade table with a Min $50 bet and I decided this is where I would try my fortune. I dug into my wallet and noticed I had no change for 100$. I tried telling the guy I would bet for $50 and if he could give me change (I know you are laughing at this), but he didnt seem to understand. He bet all my $100 and I lost the entire thing. Just like that. I tried another kiosk and lost some more money. I left the Casino after that. The gambling life was not for me.

   

We visited some of the shops inside the hotel and called it a night.

The next day we were up early and went down for breakfast. The spread was huge and there was lots of vegetarian dishes, most of them Indian. After breakfast we went back to the room to finish our final packing. We had to check out at 11 but we could keep our bags at the concierge till we left. Check out experience was just the opposite of Check in. It took just a few seconds. You just need to leave the room and slide the key cards into the Express check in drop boxes situated on each floor. And that's it. No need to meet any hotel staff.

We explored more shops and my mother took a ride on the gondola. On principle, I refused to join her. I have already taken a ride on an actual gondola in Venice. So I didn't want to do this fake ride. But my mom had fun.

It was 12.30pm and time to leave the hotel. We collected our bags and rushed to the shuttle bus which took us to the Taipa Ferry station from where we boarded our ferry back to Hongkong International Airport. It was very convenient that we could check in one bag each at the ferry station (at the Cathay Pacific counter) itself and this would go all the way to our final destination in India. So there was no hassle of collecting our luggage at HKIA and checking them again at the airport. But the limit is 1 bag per person. I wanted to check in both my bags so I had to check in one bag at the ferry point at Macau and one at HKIA.

Since we were done with immigration formality at Macau, we didn't need to go through it again at HKIA.

The ferry dropped us directly at HKIA where we collected our tax refund and boarded a train within the premise which took us to our terminal from where we would be boarding the flight.


Free of our bags we shopped a bit at the Duty free shops and ate our final meal there. It was time to bid adieu. It had been a wonderful trip!

Click here for the beginning of the blog series: HK and Macau Trip - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 8

The day had finally arrived when we had to say goodbye to Hongkong. For even though we were going to come back to Hongkong International Airport (HKIA) the next day this would be the last we would be on HK soil.
We had had so much fun and we knew were going to miss it a lot.
I had not booked the ferry tickets (onward journey) to Macau since I didn't want us to hurry or miss the ferry. We just decided to get the tickets at the counter.
Check out at Holiday Inn was a breeze since we had already started the procedure the previous day. We hailed a taxi and left for China Ferry terminal where we would take the ferry to Macau. There are 2 primary Ferry operators that sail between HK and Macau - TurboJet and Cotai Ferry. I had already booked the return with Cotai so I thought it would be nice to sail with Turbo one way.

There is not a huge difference between the two except that the Cotai is probably a little more plusher than Turbo.

The one thing we found a bit tough was to lug around our heavy suitcases at least to and from the ferry point. There were no trolleys at the China Ferry terminal and even though all our bags came with wheels it still proved to be a bit of a challenge. But luckily there was an option to pay and get our luggages checked in which we did. We got our tickets and proceeded towards immigration. Once cleared we boarded the Turbo ferry to reach a new destination - Macau.

The journey was roughly an hour long and we reached the Ferry station at Macau and collected our bags. We were going to be staying at the Venetian hotel and we knew that there would be free shuttle buses taking us there. With great effort we lugged our bags to the shuttle bus (via a subway) and boarded it.

For those who are unaware, Macau is a resort city which is peppered with Casinos and luxury hotels. It was once ruled by the Portuguese until the late 1990's and you can see the remnants of the Portuguese rule by looking at the architecture of all the buildings around the city.
Unlike Hongkong (which was a British colony until the late 90's), people of Macau are not very comfortable with English. Most can't speak it. They have a separate currency - Macanese Pataca distinct from Hongkong but mercifully they also accept HKD everywhere.

We reached the Magnificent Venetian hotel which was HUGE. It has many casinos and shops within it and it is no surprise that the Venetian features as a tourist attraction in itself. In fact left to my mom, we'd have spent our entire stay at Macau within the hotel. Which wouldn't have been a bad idea except I wanted to venture out at least for a short time.

Coming back to the hotel, however much the hotel is gorgeous and fancy, the check in process sucks big time. It is painfully slow and leaves everyone impatient and angry.Even though there are multiple check in counters the process is still slow any time of the day. We joined a long queue which snaked its way slowly. It took us more than 1.5 hours to finally reach a check in counter and by this time we were tired, angry and totally vexed with the hotel. But once we got inside our room, all our anger evaporated. The room was what dreams are made of. And the bathroom was uber luxurious. And this after staying the last few days in a much smaller and less luxurious room !

My mother was dying to eat something Indian and we ordered Dal chawal and rotis via room service and the way they served the food was akin to a star hotel.
We were in heaven.

As we had less than 24 hours to explore Macau and it was already evening, we could not venture out much. We had to pick one place to visit and we decided to visit Senado square - a historical place where once important meetings, flea markets and large events were hosted. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It was a captivating place with Portuguese style buildings all around.

We looked around, saw some nice shops (things are cheaper in Macau than HK) but  didn't want to buy too much.
We got back to the hotel for the big night - we were ready to hit the casinos.  Click this link to read the final part of the blog.

Here is the link to Part 1 of the blog series: HK and Macau - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 7

Day 5 of our trip. Today we were going to visit the Lantau Island and Tian Tan Buddha.

Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha, is a large bronze statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, completed in 1993, and located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island. The statue itself is 34 metres tall and you have to climb 268 steps to reach the top.

It was going to be long journey and I relied completely (as always) on google maps to take us there. We took trains on two connecting lines and got off at Tung Chung station. From there we took a bus that took us to Ngong Ping. It was a loooooooong bus ride as Ngong Ping is quite far away from Tung Chung. We were glad that we had loaded up our Octopus cards well as the cost of the bus ride was relatively high probably due to the distance. Usually cable cars would take you there but that option was not possible as the annual maintenance of cable cars was in progress. We were already aware of this fact and were not hugely disappointed.

The Buddha looked magnificent and took our breaths away. It was a very windy day and we walked up the 268 steps to reach the top. Once up we felt a different sense of calm and peace which was truly magical and no photo can capture that feeling.

Before going up the flight of steps, we had to necessarily buy meal tickets in order to visit the floors beneath the statue where a Relic (or alleged cremated remains) of Buddha Himself is showcased. We saw the Relic but I could not make out what part of his created remains was there - nothing was mentioned either. I suppose it would be pretty macabre to mention it. No pictures were allowed there.
We were there at the top for a while and then came down the same stairs to visit the Monastry's restaurant for which we had bought meal tickets. The restaurant is strictly vegetarian and signboards outside warn people to not bring anything other than vegetarian food to the open dining area. The food was good but quite a lot for the two of us. That didn't stop us from eating desserts from the Dessert bar outside - black sesame cake and mango pudding - both of which were fantastic.

Then we finished our tour by exploring Po Lin Monastry and the Hall of the thousand Buddhas. We did a couple of Buddhist rituals (which were uncannily similar to Hindu ones), like lighting incense sticks and offering it to Him and bathing a statue of Buddha with water.

For those who want to know if it's feasible to club Disneyland and TianTanBuddha on the same day because both are located on the Lantau Island -  my personal advice would be 'Dont try it'. . Even if you were to spend just a few hours at Disney (like we did) and proceed towards Tian Tan it doesn't make sense as it takes a long time to reach the place and the place closes to public by 1730. It makes no sense to squeeze both these attractions on the same day.

Completely satisfied with how the day turned out we took the long ride back to Kowloon. We still had some free passes via BigBus for the Ferry ride along the Harbour and we decided to do it today as we were leaving for Macau the next day. We got off at Star Ferry Pier and spotted a BigBus volunteer who ushered us to the Harbour Ferry entrance. We were just in time for the last ride of the day!
It was windy and cloudy day but we still managed to get some good views from our ferry. The cabin itself was quite nicely furnished like an old colonial club but the real deal was to get out and stand on the deck to enjoy the cool wind and magnificent views.

We had a big task at hand now - Packing! We were leaving for Macau the next day and we had to pack all the stuff we'd bought inside our suitcases - a difficult task indeed.  Click this link to read Part 8

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

HongKong and Macau weeklong trip Part 6

Another new day at Hongkong. Today we were going to visit Peaktram at the heart of the Island.
The tram is a furnicular railway that takes you from the Peaktram station to the mid and upper levels of the island.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that Peaktram is probably one of the biggest tourist attraction - otherwise there would not be this mile long queue for it.  Literally everytime you go that side you see long queues waiting to get tickets for it. You can get the tickets online here: Peak Tram tickets. Luckily for us we had free passes from BigBus so this allowed us to join the queue waiting for the tram straightaway.

You are not exactly packed into the tram but you may or may not find seats. Thankfully we did. It's a short trip anyway but it goes up a slope and you could lose balance if you are not holding onto something. Plus it's quite inconvenient to take pictures that way.

The only interesting thing about the Peaktram journey (for me, atleast) was that because we were going up a steep slope, we could see all the tall buildings outside in an almost 45 degree angle. It almost makes you wonder if our mind's playing tricks.

But that was all there was to it. I expected it to be a long journey but it was cut short and we ended up in this touristy peak tower at the top with more souvenir shops and other attractions like Madame Tussauds, Skyterrace etc.

We spent some time up the tower, and then took the tram back down. 

Once back down, I was eager to visit a vegan restaurant  I had earlier googled back in India which served Dimsums and tea. The Lockcha Tea house is located quite close to the Peak station inside a pretty huge Botanical park. We had to rely on Googlemaps to guide us to this place. Lockcha teahouse

It turned out to be this exquisite place with very polite waiters giving you the royal treatment. Since we had not reserved our table (I didn't think it would be such a big deal), we were seated in a corner and provided with our own customized menu card which we had to just circle what we needed with a pencil. As the name goes, LockCha is primarily a tea house. Therefore Tea is mandatory. If you do not want tea you would still be charged for it. So I ordered a King Chrysanthemum tea for myself. My mother, being allergic to tea, was OK to just pay for tea but not get anything. They gave us a bottle of water instead (The most expensive water we had bought in HK :) )

The tea was great but I just absolutely LOVED the dimsums. I was eating the most authentic Chinese dimsums without worrying about whether they contained eggs or meat. 

That's me handling the chop sticks like a pro ;)

 After a hearty meal (my mother wasn't as much impressed as me with the food though she did like one of the dishes) , we headed back to the Peak station to take the next trip atop the Bigbus. This time we took a bus towards the western side of the Island. We got off at Queen's road central and proceeded to take the famous mid level escalators. The Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system in Hong Kong is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. It bisects at several streets where you can get off at anytime.

To be honest we had no agenda there except to see what the escalator was all about. We got off at one of the streets and looked around to see shops everywhere but the area looked sort of dirty and the shops didn't appeal to us although we probably covered very little of the area. We wanted to get back but finding a ride proved to be hugely difficult for some reason. Finally we decided to take a cab and just get back to the more familiar Central Pier. I was a bit disappointed at wasting a whole lot of time for this mid level escalator sojourn and my mother was tired. We hadn't yet explored the north eastern part of the Island! So we took our final Bigbus on the Red route which took us along Golden Bahinia square, and Wan Chai before getting off at Causeway. Causeway Bay was a lot more crowded than any other part of the city. Malls were packed and people were literally queuing up outside shops. There was a sale going on in the Michael Kors store in SoHo and you'd think they were giving free MichaelKor bags. I haven't seen this kind of crowd in the malls anywhere, even in India and believe me it can get very crowded in India. 

We just walked away from the crowd and looked around a few independent electronic stores before deciding to head back to our hotel.

By the time we reached our hotel, my mom was super tired. It was only 6 in the evening but she was totally beat and said she was going to bed without dinner. I let her sleep and went to the MTR station wondering where to go. I finally decided to go to the famous Night market on Temple street in an area which was called "Jordan". The night market is similar to ladies market and you get great bargains. I picked up some more knick knacks and bags here. 

I got back to the hotel to find my mom still asleep, ate some dinner and googled a bit about the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. For that is where we were headed next day.  Click here to read Part 7

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 5

This blog is becoming longer than what I had hoped it would. But I wanted to write down as much as possible so that years later I could come back to this and recall some of these moments wistfully. Plus a little extra detail never hurts:)

On Day 3 of our trip, we set out to make use of our 48 hour Bigbus Pass. We took a local bus to the Star ferry (we could have walked, but we wanted to take a ride on the local bus and it was just 1 stop) and took a ferry across to Hongkong Island. Big bus had provided free passes for the local ferry (both onward and return for 2 days) so we didn't need to buy the tickets.

It was a quick ride across and we reached the Island fairly quickly. One thing that I do need to mention about local transportation - be it MTR or ferry... you need to walk a lot.... A LOT! inside the stations I mean. There are travelators in some stations but despite that you still need to walk. This was OK for both of us, but at times it would get tiring for my mother. Especially after a long day or at places where we needed to walk up long flight of steps where there were no escalators. No wonder the Chinese look fit and healthy. They don't need any additional exercise.

Once we reached the Central Pier, we quickly spotted a BigBus and walked over. We had planned to take the Red Route today which would take us around the Island. But we changed plans when we learnt that we'd have to wait for half an hour for a bus going along that route. There was one going to Stanley/ Aberdeen (Green Route) which was starting immediately and so we hopped on to it.

The Green route bus took us through Aberdeen, Oceans park, Repulse Bay and we got a fantastic view of the South China sea from the top of the bus (unfortunately none of the photos I took of this view justify the beauty so I am not attaching any). We finally got off at Stanley where we hit the famous Stanley market. The first couple of days had been nice and sunny but it had started to get very cloudy on this day and it was constantly drizzling. Thankfully Bigbus was prepared for this eventuality and provided us all with light hooded raincoats. I had brought my own windcheater but my mother's umbrella proved to be difficult to use what with the winds blowing quite strong. The raincoat helped.

Stanley market was unlike the Ladies market at Kowloon in that it was definitely a lot cleaner and more upmarket. Also there were a lot of Art work being sold here which was beautiful.

We bought some bags and souvenirs from Stanley Market, ate our lunch and waited for the next BigBus to take us back. There were several local buses that we could have taken but we wanted to finish the Green Tour as it would take us to our next  ride - on the Sampan (a traditional Chinese fishing boat).

BigBus provided us free passes for the Sampan ride and we got off at Aberdeen to experience it. The Sampan is a traditional Chinese fishing boat and we had an old Chinese fisherwoman taking up the oars. It was decorated with gaudy plastic flowers and traditional Chinese lamps. We went past a traditional looking building right in the middle of the sea and we were told that it is the Jumbo floating restaurant. However we only admired it from outside as the boat didn't make a stop there.

After the ride, we hopped right back onto the bus which took us to Central Pier. At Central Pier there is this huge Ferris Wheel which gives one a spectacular view of the city. And the good thing is that each group gets their own cabin. So we bought our tickets (At 100HKD per ticket, the price was a bit steep which explained the thin crowd).  More than me my mother enjoyed the ride, and we had a spectacular view from up the wheel of all the skyscrapers built on both sides of the bay. 

 Click here to read Part 6

And for those who want to read the blog from the start, here's the link: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

HongKong and Macau weeklong trip Part 4

If you want to experience the best of Hongkong and understand it's culture and history, there's no better way than signing up and taking a ride on the iconic BigBus. I can vouch for it. The bright red double decker open top buses give you a joyride around the city and cover pretty much all the important points in the Island as well as Kowloon (Does not cover Lantau Island though). This is especially useful for those who are on a short trip to HK.
I had already shared the link to BigBus, but here it is again: BigBus Tours HongKong

The BigBus covers 3 Routes - Kowloon, Hongkong Island and Stanley & Aberdeen. We took up a Deluxe 48 hour package which included a Night tour of Kowloon as well. This included a complete tour across routes and also had provided us with free passes for Peaktram (or Sky100), Harbour tour and a Sampan ride. It cost us 69 USD per person and worth every penny.
The thing about BigBus is that you can hop on and hop off at any point wherever and whenever. When you buy the tickets online it is valid for anytime in the next 6 months, but once you "activate it", you need to use it within the next 48 hours. But the free ride passes like the Harbour tour need not be used within the 48 hours.

After getting back to the hotel from Disney, we freshened up and then set out once again towards the Peninsula office block (which is where the Kowloon Night tour kickstarts). It took us a while to find out the exact place where the Bigbus was located, but once we reached, we identified a bigbus volunteer who activated our tickets and gave us all the necessary passes.

We gleefully got to the top of the bus (which was open top), and settled down to marvel at the Night scenes of Kowloon. It took us through the heart of Kowloon, through Tsim sha tsui, Jordan, and Mongkok. We were able to understand the history of these places by tuning into the pre recorded audio guide via earphones provided by the bus.

The tour was for an hour and we got back and took a cab on the same route - but this time we were headed to the Ladies Market in Kowloon. The market is open until midnight with streetside shops selling bags, shoes, clothes, electronic items, souvenirs and pretty much everything else.
You can bargain heavily at these places and the shopkeepers themselves expect this.

We picked up some stuff, mostly gifts, ate at a local restaurant there and got back to the hotel. The next day we were going to the Island.  Click here to read Part 5

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau weeklong trip Part 3

After a relaxed first day (or rather half a day) which we spent just checking into the hotel and walking around nearby areas, we were ready to explore further. Today we were going to Disneyland. You might wonder why two grown adults would find Disney exciting. But Disney is Disney. We just needed to experience it having come this far.

We woke up later than when we'd have preferred and walked into the breakfast buffet lounge at around 10 in the morning. The spread was elaborate but we were a bit cautious about identifying vegetarian food. To our surprise there were even a couple of Indian dishes (idly and sambar was available pretty much everyday. Sometimes there'd be poori chhole, sometimes rotis). I was not really keen on eating Indian in HK so I filled my plate with fruit muesli, brown breads, fruits, yogurts, veg sushi, tofu and various other veg offerings. My mom loved the spread as well and we ate to our heart's content. We needed all that nutrition because we would be expending all our energy.

Around 11 we left the hotel and headed towards the closest MTR station (East Tsim sha tsui) and took two trains that took us to Sunnybay on Lantau Island. From there we switched to the Disney line and reached Disney around noon. We had already got our tickets online which they just scanned (from phone) and let us in.

Disneyland in HK is a much smaller version of the original Disney in the USA. Not that I have been to the one in US, but this is what I have read and I can confirm that this one is quite small.
We did have a good time going around the place though we didn't wait for the parade. We went on a ferry ride (where we saw these realistic looking animals lurking around) and to Tarzan's tree house which were both probably the highlights for us.

Lunch at Disney was just a cheese filled croissant which was seriously yummy. Not much choice for vegetarians at Disney but we were happy with this.

We were ready to leave Disney before the clock turned 4. Once again we took the same route back home (taking 3 trains including the Disney line) and reached the hotel.

Next on the agenda was to activate Big Bus tour. All that and more in the next part.  Click here to read Part 4

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau Trip - Part 1