this one is from Colombo. Kajal finally didnt have to fight with hotel staff and is totally happy with the room. oh yes m happy too.
today my co passengers (2 aunties) in the flight were quite funny. few seconds after we were given headphones, aunty's hand was over my headphones. she glanced at me for a moment and before i cud realise wat was happening they were already inside her huge hand bag.
obviously no prizes for guessing wat went next into her handbag (from her as well as my food tray) - salt pepper sugar r the regular take aways from flight.
but my aunty wanted to maximise her ctf (cost-to-flight). the red plastic bowls in which food was served were also shown way to her handbag- not just her's but mine too! tats wat kajal call as 'katori chor'
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
My first Rafting experience
m bak home after my second trip to kampala. of course the most exciting event was rafting in river Nile. after a sleepy 2 hr bus ride to Jinja we were given a small briefing of dos and donts, around 10am. most funny was the advise to wear two layers of undergarments and specially the ones with strings. last time a gentleman's underwear got washed away during rafting. immediately i started to tighten the strings of my pajama and i thanked my stars for hvng brought one with a string!
after eating couple of bananas we got dressed in lifejackates and helmet to get some practice lessons. . and then the first chance to taste river Nile when Olo (our guide) asked us to jump in the river...it was awesome...but quickly we were in raft again to practice for a flip...flip is a situation which can arise anytime while crossing any of the rapids....a flip occurs when raft turns upside down and u can imagine wat happens to people in raft .....
we were 10 persons in raft...2 Indians (Kajal and myself), 6 Norwegian school girls accompanied by their teacher and our guide Olo.
i m sure for all of us the most important instruction was 'move in' when we are supposed to duck inside the raft with heads out to prevent from falling out of raft when crossing rapids.....there was high energy on the raft, lots of excitement, and definitely an element of fear in many minds which came from looking at the flow of water, high and powerful waves and unstable current in the river.
'Champigu' (means funny in Norwegian) was the slogan of our team to celebrate in the true professional rafters style every successful moment.
we then started the 31km journey in Nile with a small break for lunch in between. in all we crossed 8 rapids and were allowed to swim in between at couple of places. swimming in Nile was too good to be true....for me it was simply wonderful because i learnt to swim this summer and i was extremely unhappy that i cudnt swim entire season because of swine flu scare...now imagine the vastness of river Nile, green trees lining both banks and you on your back in Nile watching the bluest sky u hv ever seen and slowly flowing with the river....tats what i call 'go with the flow'.
most exciting moment was the flip on level 5 rapid called big brother. before every rapid we were reminded tat raft can flip and when it actually did, first 6-7 seconds my brain went dead. i didnt breathe and then a sudden realisation i need to come out. then i pushed something and came above water to be immediately rescued. all 9 of us got separated and rescued to different rafts to be united later.
u know what after this i was secretly praying for the raft to flip on every rapid! unfortunately it didnt happen but crossing the rapid every time was as exciting as it was the first time.
6 pm we said goodbye to Nile and celebrated by having Nile and barbecue. again a long bus ride bak to Kampala but this time the passengers of bus had 1 common topic (but different stories) - about 'the flips'.
it was undoubtedly the most exciting sport of my life but all this while i dearly missed something which could have made this journey more special - 'my spectacles'.
after eating couple of bananas we got dressed in lifejackates and helmet to get some practice lessons. . and then the first chance to taste river Nile when Olo (our guide) asked us to jump in the river...it was awesome...but quickly we were in raft again to practice for a flip...flip is a situation which can arise anytime while crossing any of the rapids....a flip occurs when raft turns upside down and u can imagine wat happens to people in raft .....
we were 10 persons in raft...2 Indians (Kajal and myself), 6 Norwegian school girls accompanied by their teacher and our guide Olo.
i m sure for all of us the most important instruction was 'move in' when we are supposed to duck inside the raft with heads out to prevent from falling out of raft when crossing rapids.....there was high energy on the raft, lots of excitement, and definitely an element of fear in many minds which came from looking at the flow of water, high and powerful waves and unstable current in the river.
'Champigu' (means funny in Norwegian) was the slogan of our team to celebrate in the true professional rafters style every successful moment.
we then started the 31km journey in Nile with a small break for lunch in between. in all we crossed 8 rapids and were allowed to swim in between at couple of places. swimming in Nile was too good to be true....for me it was simply wonderful because i learnt to swim this summer and i was extremely unhappy that i cudnt swim entire season because of swine flu scare...now imagine the vastness of river Nile, green trees lining both banks and you on your back in Nile watching the bluest sky u hv ever seen and slowly flowing with the river....tats what i call 'go with the flow'.
most exciting moment was the flip on level 5 rapid called big brother. before every rapid we were reminded tat raft can flip and when it actually did, first 6-7 seconds my brain went dead. i didnt breathe and then a sudden realisation i need to come out. then i pushed something and came above water to be immediately rescued. all 9 of us got separated and rescued to different rafts to be united later.
u know what after this i was secretly praying for the raft to flip on every rapid! unfortunately it didnt happen but crossing the rapid every time was as exciting as it was the first time.
6 pm we said goodbye to Nile and celebrated by having Nile and barbecue. again a long bus ride bak to Kampala but this time the passengers of bus had 1 common topic (but different stories) - about 'the flips'.
it was undoubtedly the most exciting sport of my life but all this while i dearly missed something which could have made this journey more special - 'my spectacles'.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
The gay guy at kampala
This blog is inspired by my frnd's blog. she is compiling chit chat between her 3 yr old daughter and her husband. i thought i too shud write my stories before i forget them. So i welcome myself to this blog dedicated to kuch khatte kuch meethe moments of my life.
M in Kampala at the moment. Most wonderful city i hv been to. weather is perfect and people r fun. highest consumption of alcohol in world in this country. every second shop on the street is a bar. yes, m too enjoying, Nile is my fav.
here is the dramatic story from the first visit in sept. I was going upstairs to check my room in hotel. as i was walking upstairs i saw a feet with red painted toes. slowly my eyes were scanning the person wearing blue jeans, a white beautiful off shoulder top and then my eyes got fixed on the face. for a moment i cudnt decide the person was (wo)man. next morning the same person helped me to get hot milk for my morning coffee, again wearing the same dress but with a nice broad stylish black belt (which my colleague kajal mistook for a belt worn for health reasons). the person was always seen in the lobby next 2 days. third morning the person wasnt seen..........news of a suicide on our floor was soon spreading. next there was police and more rumours about murder, drugs, suicide. the person actually died of heart attack because of the medicine and hormones he was taking for the sex change operation due next month. his life story was very sad but surprisingly at that point it was an exciting story for us. truly speaking he was the first gay i got to observe closely....very stylish i must say.
M in Kampala at the moment. Most wonderful city i hv been to. weather is perfect and people r fun. highest consumption of alcohol in world in this country. every second shop on the street is a bar. yes, m too enjoying, Nile is my fav.
here is the dramatic story from the first visit in sept. I was going upstairs to check my room in hotel. as i was walking upstairs i saw a feet with red painted toes. slowly my eyes were scanning the person wearing blue jeans, a white beautiful off shoulder top and then my eyes got fixed on the face. for a moment i cudnt decide the person was (wo)man. next morning the same person helped me to get hot milk for my morning coffee, again wearing the same dress but with a nice broad stylish black belt (which my colleague kajal mistook for a belt worn for health reasons). the person was always seen in the lobby next 2 days. third morning the person wasnt seen..........news of a suicide on our floor was soon spreading. next there was police and more rumours about murder, drugs, suicide. the person actually died of heart attack because of the medicine and hormones he was taking for the sex change operation due next month. his life story was very sad but surprisingly at that point it was an exciting story for us. truly speaking he was the first gay i got to observe closely....very stylish i must say.
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