Viva La Singapore, My Deadliest Sin: Gluttony

I just returned from a four day whirlwind trip to Singapore, and I had an amazing time. The newness and the buildings of Singapore remind me of the over-the-top feel of Vegas buildings, plus I was a little indulgent. I had been looking forward to the trip for a few weeks for several reasons, most significantly for food and drink (I live in a dry city). And Singapore did not disappoint. I arrived very early Thursday morning and slept until the afternoon. First up: Korean BBQ buffet. I’ve had Korean BBQ many times, but never a buffet of meat where you choose the quantity of every type of meat you want to grill. The restaurant also had some non-meat Korean items which hit the spot for my Korean cravings. Anyway after we stuffed ourselves, we went out for drinks. Drinks in Singapore are ridiculously expensive. Like, really expensive. I’m a lightweight so it’s not a huge deal, but it’s still pricey. My lychee martini was SGD 18, which is about $14. Yea, ridiculous. Anyway we had drinks and I also checked off the next item on my food list: waffles covered in chocolate and fresh strawberries. It was delicious. After debating whether to stay out later, we ended up going home and watching Arrested Development in celebration of the new episodes. We rested up for night #2.

Korean BBQ

After about 4 hours of sleep, I woke up to go to the American embassy to pick up our passports. We had gone the day earlier because we both needed to add more pages to our passports. After that, I shopped in the Orchard area. I went a little crazy; it had been so long since I had been in a Western style mall. Shops in India generally don’t have many Western clothes, and the ones they have aren’t very fashion-forward. That and for some reason they only have like one or two of each item of clothing. The Singapore stores were overflowing with really cute shirts, dresses, and SHOES! I went pretty crazy on the shoes. I spent about two hours in the first store I went to trying on shoes, and forced myself to only buy two pairs. From there we went to sushi. Again, absolutely delicious. I also had udon and donkatsu to make sure I got my fill of Japanese food. From there, more shopping. About 4 more hours of shopping. Then, more Korean food. I love soondubu, it’s my favorite restaurant food. So my friend did some research and we ended up at a restaurant with good soondubu. Then onward to home to shower and go out for the night. We met up with my friend’s friend, and his friends, and went to Zouk, where apparently a big-name DJ from Japan was spinning. That’s cool. My friend’s friend’s friends left at around 4AM to make their 7AM flight (crazy people!) and we went on to a bar for a few more drinks.

 After about an hour of sleep, I force myself awake so we can make our 8:30AM bus to Melaka. I pretty much am a zombie through most of the sight-seeing we did, but we had some good Malay food and satay for dinner. We had planned on seeing the Kung Fu Doctor, this amazing kung fu master who swallows knives and can pierce a coconut shell with his finger. However it started raining pretty heavily so the night market was not very lively. We ended up at a bar (surprise!) where I got some amazing apple pie, check. From there we wandered a few more bars and made it to the hotel.

Trishaws in Melaka.

After my longest night of sleep, 6 hours, we get up to catch our bus back to Singapore. I had a quarter pounder at McDonalds (more meat!), then slept a little while we made our way into Singapore. After a little respite at home, we had ramen at Ramen Challenge. There were six ramen iron chefs from Japan who set up shop in a part of a mall. The chef with the most votes wins the Ramen Challenge gets to set up a restaurant in Singapore. Needless to say, the ramen was delicious. Then onto a building that looks like it’s from Gotham where we had a drink at its beautiful bar. The last stop of the weekend was a bar on the river where we passed out on a daybed while sipping Singapore Slings.

Ramen!

Ok so maybe I didn’t see much of Singapore, but I did have a nice break from my daily grind. I am predictably exhausted and wondering when I can make it out to Singapore again.

View from our daybed at Lantern.

My First Monsoon, I’m a Real Indian Now

After a few posts on traveling, I decided to write about my roots. After months of downpours and cloudy skies, I saw the sun for the first time.  It was great! I actually kind of forgot how bright it could be. This is cause for a celebration of another milestone, I’ve survived my first monsoon. I loved the monsoon, when I didn’t have to go outside. But I loved listening to the rain and the way it would wash my feet when they inevitably got dirty from walking on the street. It made the once brown and dead fields lush and green, right now everything looks like a rain forest and it’s so pretty! The rain also helped keep the dust down so now my eyes are itchy and watery as ever. But it’s still nice to see the sun. This also means that the solar-powered water heater for my building is also seeing sun which means no more ice cold, but lukewarm showers! I am really living the life now. This also means my laundry will get some warm water too. Laundry probably means something different to me than it does to you. I remember being lazy and piling up a month’s worth of laundry and doing five loads over two days. I now do about two loads every week. Laundry consists of soaking my clothes in water, and then wringing them out to get the excess dirt out. Then it requires a nice beatdown with a bar of detergent. From there it soaks in detergent water overnight. Then I have to manually rinse all the detergent out of the clothes, which is the most time-consuming part. What I usually do is squeeze all the soapy water out of the clothes that I can, and then soak them in water, and then squeeze out all the soapy water again. I do about four or five iterations of this until the water in the bucket is absolutely clear. Then I leave the clothes in regular water for about an hour to get the detergent smell out of them and wring them one last time before finding creative ways to hang them in my bathroom. Once they have been hanging in the bathroom for a few hours, they have stopped dripping and I move them out to my kitchen area where there is a long bar that I use to hang the clothes for the next day while they dry completely. One load of laundry takes about three days from start until being completely dry to wear. So I have to plan, running low on underwear now means only having a week’s worth left. I don’t mind it, I actually enjoy it and I feel that there is a lot of energy and water wasted with washing machines and dryers. But don’t get me wrong I will be using those appliances when I get home. I just think it adds to my Indian cred.

The second thing about Indian cred is using public transport. I’ve written before that the bus numbers are in Hindi script and they don’t really stop so you have to know and commit to getting on the bus while it’s still moving. I live near a small mall, but there is a really large one about ten miles away. It has nice stores and good restaurants. So if I need something Western, or am looking for good food, or just want to kill a few hours I make my way over there. I also usually meet friends there for the same reasons. Thus I developed the habit of going over there pretty regularly, and usually by auto or taxi. This costs about Rs. 250 each way, which is $5. Not so bad for a 20 minute ride. But this has been eating into my meager stipend so I decided I would get there by public transport. For me that means I still take an auto to the train station, take the train, and then take another auto at my destination. But I decided I was going to go at it totally Indian style. So I walked out to the point where I usually get my auto because I knew the bus goes by there. The bus started rolling up and I decided to hop on. Indians are so nice, and I knew people would help me if I asked for help. Sometimes I get help without asking for it too! Anyway I asked “rail station?” and the fare collector bobbed yes and I paid my Rs. 4 for my ride to the train station. That’s 8 cents. I got to the train station and was debating whether I should pay for a roundtrip rail ticket because I might change my mind and still come home by cab. Well each way costs Rs. 7 so I would only lose about 14 cents if I changed my mind later. So I decided to get the Rs. 14 roundtrip and spent the next half hour on the train. I got off at the rail station, and I did my research beforehand so I knew I could just walk to the mall. After my shopping, I decided I would take the train back home. I walked back to the train station, took the train, and then took the bus home. We were squeezed like sardines on the bus, and I prepared to get off at my stop. Well the fare collector didn’t have a chance to get to me so he didn’t know anybody had to get off at that stop, and the bus wasn’t slowing down. I made my way to the edge of the stairs, and once the bus slowed down at an intersection I jumped off. Well when I jumped it turns out the bus started moving again so I actually jumped off a moving bus. I was fine though and made my way home. I spent Rs. 19 to get to and from the mall I usually spend Rs. 500 getting to and from. I was grinning while walking home because I did it! I felt authentic and that I accomplished what I set out to do. Part of being here is to have the real Indian experience, and taking air-conditioned cabs just made me feel a little like a fraud and elitist. But now I can navigate the public transport with the best of them. Plus it helps knowing that people will have your back.

Sri Lanka is Not India’s Little Sister

Continuing on my travels, I made a quick weekend trip to Sri Lanka. I should have done a little more research before leaving; I had very little idea of what to do there other than visiting an elephant orphanage, seeing some beautiful scenery, and their ancient cities. I’ll admit that I also kind of thought of Sri Lanka as a close relative of India, being so geographically close must result in some similarities right? Although there are a few similarities, Sri Lanka is entirely different to me than India. I am growing more and more fond of India, but I really loved Sri Lanka (and not because it’s not like India.) Anyway I leave Mumbai on my 3AM flight and arrive in Sri Lanka to meet my friend at a hotel in Negombo. We pass out for another six hours before deciding to go to the elephant orphanage. Our limited research told us to hire a driver for the day, and we had to make it to Kandy as we had a bed and breakfast reservation there. The driver would take us to the elephant orphanage and tea plantation on the way to Kandy. Well it turns out Sri Lanka does not have any highways, the first one is opening soon, so to travel the 114 km (65 miles) to Kandy would take about 3.5 hours as the road is two lanes and passes through all the cities on the way to Kandy. Wow, ok. So we set out to see some baby elephants. On the way there our driver pointed out prominent landmarks and we learned really interesting facts about Sri Lanka. I did feel bad for our driver as my friend and I did not cease conversation for the entire duration of the drive, but we had a good time! One of the best parts of the trip was the driver; he was very nice, personable, and great to have conversations with. We hung with some elephants, took a bath with them, fed them, and got fed ourselves with some really delicious fried rice and coconut dal. We were late for the tea plantation, but we stopped by an herbal garden before climbing our way up a hill to our bed and breakfast. The view was incredible. The couple who owned the house was so nice and made some really great food for us. We talked a little with an Australian couple who was staying there and finishing up their week in Kandy and then passed out.

On the way to Kandy our driver pulled over and showed us this rubber plantation. There are little coconut shells at the bottom of the trees that collect the latex. 

Getting sprayed by the elephant. I got soaked.

Sitting on the bed looking out toward the beautiful view...

...which was this.

The next morning we went to see the Temple of the Tooth, a Buddhist temple with one of Buddha’s teeth as a relic. After touring the temple with the crowd of Buddhists, we got some KFC and decide to start our journey back to Negombo as my flight was later that night. It was much too short of a trip; my friend stayed an extra day and got to see newborn sea turtles! I would love to go back to Sri Lanka for a week and really take in all the sights. The country is so green and beautiful, I felt so at peace and serene whether I was in Kandy, Negombo, or just on the road. The people are so nice and accommodating, and very genuine. I guess here is the time to explain why these appeal to me so much. There are parts of India that are absolutely stunning, but the urbanization and the heaps of trash sometimes give a gloomy, and smelly, air that really takes away from the country’s natural beauty. Our driver told us that Sri Lanka went through a very extensive public campaign to clean up public areas and it really was cleaner than parts of Europe I have been to. I think that really lets you focus on the serenity and natural charm of the country. The second is that people in India have an unexplained fascination with foreigners. This translates into staring and being talked to as a novelty, especially an Asian-American! It’s all harmless and comes from genuine curiosity, but it can get demoralizing and uncomfortable. I didn’t get that in Sri Lanka, maybe because I was a real tourist and spent time with people who are used to seeing tourists, but it was refreshing to have insightful conversations that weren’t focused on why I look the way I do or what I’m doing there. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my Sri Lankan experience and only wish I could have spent more time there.

 The beautiful flowers that are offered to Buddha, you can see some of the lotus flowers. These are later the meals for the temple elephant.

At the Colombo airport (which is actually in Negombo) where apparently clergy are VIPs.

Trying Times and Front Row at Kolkata Fashion Week

I’ll be totally honest and admit that my first couple months of being here were tough, being separated from family and friends in a very foreign country in almost total isolation were very tough on me. These months tested how much I could take mentally, socially, and emotionally and there were times where I questioned whether it was all worth it. There were times when I thought it easier just to give up and go home to perfect San Diego weather with my family and eat all the beef, Mexican food, sushi, and chocolate chip cookies that I want. However in this last month I have reached a point in my journey where I am genuinely glad to be here, and to be living this very unique opportunity. The times where I thought I would break, I didn’t, and I am now a stronger, better person for it. I have more respect and awareness for myself and my capacities, as well as a new perspective on the human condition. If you aren’t pushed to your brink, then how will you know what you are capable of? How will you grow and cultivate yourself as a person? For too long I was comfortable with my life and being here has made me realize how much life there is to live. I am deeply grateful for the chance to be here and learn these timeless life lessons. I know I will come out a better person, and I will have memories and lessons to take away that I might have never learned.

On a lighter note, this new appreciation for my opportunity here has partially translated into more traveling! My friend invited me to go to Kolkata (Calcutta) for the weekend and I jumped at the chance. I was excited to see this famed city and yes, a part of me just wanted to get out of Navi Mumbai! Getting to the airport requires an auto ride, then one and a half hours on the train, then another auto ride, and making sure to get to the airport early enough to pass screening for entrance into the airport, check in, and security. So for my 8:15PM flight I left my house at 4:15PM. I usually get past security quickly because there are separate lines for men and women, and there are usually about 5 women and 100 men. After getting a chicken sandwich for dinner, I met a fellow Accenturite! (spelling?) He’s an SAP consultant based out of Bangalore but traveling to Mumbai for the client. His next staffing opportunities include a choice among Stockholm, Indianapolis, and Singapore. So unfair! Anyway, our flights were about five minutes apart so we spent some time talking about how great consultant and Accenture life is (I’m not joking).  I know that at certain times of the year, like after annual reviews, people can be a little disillusioned with Accenture. However I can tell you that after being a poor NGO worker for the past six months, Accenture is a heavenly dream. Health care! Dental care! Life insurance! 401k! Traveling! Hotels! Rental cars! And of course, really great people (still not joking). So to all those people who diss on the corporate life or complain about their jobs, I invite you to spend a week here with me living on my $7 a day and then tell me how much you want to quit.

Back to my story. I get to Kolkata, and the hotel we are staying at is on the famed Sudder St., pretty much the most poverty-stricken, dingy part of India I have been to so far. The hotel is nice, but the street’s characters were definitely a highlight of the trip. Every person was incredibly nice (except this one old lady) and as Indians, always eager to help. I crashed pretty hard after watching Family Guy (TV!) in the hotel room and was ready for a day of sightseeing. If you can believe it, Kolkata is more humid than Mumbai. I don’t know how you get more humid than 100% Mumbai humidity but you can. We saw the sights and then went back to the hotel to get ready to go to a fashion show. I did not have high expectations for this show. I half expected it to take place in a TGIF room with no catwalk and the models walking down the center of the restaurant. I had never been to a fashion show so I was excited but I wasn’t expecting Christian Siriano. Anyway we get there and the hotel is really nice. Not a bad start. We get shown to the ballroom where the shows will be taking place and it is really nice. A nice runway with full lighting and a really great DJ. Oh, and did I mention that we were front row? And this was Kolkata Fashion Week? Yea, we’re pretty  dope.  The dresses were beautiful, and after spying on all the models’ footwear I really, really miss wearing heels. I have not worn heels for six months and currently do not have any in my possession. I think once I get home I will only wear heels for at least a month. Oh and the models were gorgeous too. After the fashion show we are ushered to the after party in the hotel bar, which again is really nice.

Show 2 of the night.

The designer and her beautiful dresses from show 2.

The first day of Durja Puja started while we were here. Durja Puja is a six-day festival that celebrates Hindu Goddess, Durja. In West Bengal (where Kolkata is), it’s the biggest annual festival. It also includes the worship of Shiva, who is Durja’s husband (and if you remember from the previous post, Ganesha’s dad and mom!) There are more than 2000 pandals set up in Kolkata, and the city is covered with lights. Lots of tourists come to go “pandal-hopping” which often stops traffic. It’s referred to as the Rio Carnival of the Eastern Hemisphere. How lucky am I! Ganesh Chaturthi and Durja Puja!

Durja Puja pandal.

Sunday consisted of more sightseeing and relaxing. Both our flights were that night, to different cities, so we headed to the airport. All in all, a very nice weekend. From Sudder St. to Kolkata Fashion Week, I experienced the new and old, the privileged and unprivileged of Kolkata.

Kolkata is one of the few places in the world with hand-pulled rickshaws.

Ganesh Chaturthi

One of the festivals I was looking forward to experiencing while in India was Ganesh Chaturthi. Because I am so close to Mumbai, I was excited that I would get to witness this great celebration. I’ll be honest and admit my initial interest was sparked by Shantaram, but is that so bad? Anyway Ganesh Chaturthi is the Hindu festival of Ganesha, who bestows his presence for all his devotees on earth during the festival. He is the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune, and was declared by Shiva as superior to all the other gods. Shiva is Ganesha’s father and one of the most prominent deities in Hinduism. Artisans make models of Ganesha and sell these two to three months before Ganesh Chaturthi. These are then installed in homes and public places. The public ones are larger and beautifully decorated, with communities competing for the most beautiful and biggest statue. Priests then invoke the statues to life through mantras and then the statues receive offerings. For ten days Ganesha is worshipped, on the eleventh day the public statues are carried through the streets in a procession with singing and dancing. Then they are submerged in water as seeing off Ganesha to his home in Kailash and taking the misfortunes of his devotees with him. The family Ganeshas are taken to the water on the third, fifth, or seventh day depending on the family tradition. It’s a huge event for the communities as well as artists and businesses that depend on the economic success of Ganesh Chaturthi.

There is a lake in the city I work and live in, and one of my co-workers offered to take me on the seventh day to see the processions and the submersions family Ganesha to the lake. She happened to live by the lake and had a motorbike so I hopped on and was excited for the adventure. There is a lot of fanfare for each procession! We were stopped in traffic from about a half mile from her house as the processions took up the whole street and were moving forward at a slow walking pace. On the way she took me to two of the public Ganeshas and they were beautifully and extravagantly decorated. The families themselves did not submerge Ganesha, but there were volunteer divers who would take the small Ganesha to the lake and immerse it. There was also police monitoring the procession route and the area near the lake, I guess because people can get a little rowdy? 

One public Ganesha on the way to my co-worker's house.

The public Ganesha at my co-worker's building.

One of the many processions we encountered. We are driving on the wrong side of the road to bypass it.

Now you see it, now you don't!

India Measures Itself Against a China That Doesn’t Notice

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/business/global/india-looks-to-china-as-an-economic-model.html

This article sums up so well what I have tried to portray in certain blog posts. A good read.

Workplace Culture

My pre-departure training focused on many aspects of living in a foreign culture and included examples of how the workplace culture can be different from the Western workplace. The aspects I kept in mind for India were the fluidity of time, the hesitance to give any form of bad news, and very rigid bureaucratic hierarchy. I told myself that these would be different and might really fly in the face of my dislike for tardiness and appreciating when someone was straightforward with bad news instead of just saying yes to save face. I was ready, I might have a hard time at first but I know these are the things to look out for.

I was totally not ready. Living in the midst of it, where deadlines aren’t usually given, and if they are then they are very flexible, and in a culture where it was more important not to break bad news than to be blunt with it was very different than knowing to confront these things. When I would ask when a co-worker if he could please do this task by a certain date and it doesn’t happen, my instinctual reaction would be frustration at making me behind in my deadline and why he didn’t simply tell me that he was overloaded with other work and just wouldn’t be able to get to it. In the heat of the moment it never occurred to me that this situation is exactly what the training was for. After weeks of frustration, I’ve realized that the workplace culture is just different. I was finally able to see this is what fluid time means, how important it is to save face or not give bad news. The switch in my head went off and now I am at ease at work. Time fluidity is embraces the attitude that things will happen when they happen. There just isn’t the obsession of getting things done by a certain time; there isn’t really a bad consequence if it’s not done by a certain time. The world really doesn’t end if I don’t get the spreadsheet on time. I am actually grateful that things work differently here; I can sometimes be very rigid and by the book with work. But here I have learned to take things as they come, and using my judgment to determine which situations require me harping a little on the deadline and which situations I should just let play out. The harder aspect to get used to is the hesitance to give unhappy news. This can range from “sorry I won’t be able to finish that today” to “I will not finish this assignment because I don’t know what you’re asking me.” This extends to everyday life as well, when auto drivers will say they know what obscure building you want to go to. At times I’ve discovered they haven’t understood what I said but nod and say “yes.” I’m still trying to figure this one out, I understand how wanting to save face is important but I also think being straightforward will accomplish more in the long run. I’m sure they know that as well, so I’ve tried to figure how to work with it. I’ve found that people are so incredibly helpful when I ask for help, on the street when asking for directions or at work. They don’t seem to judge me when I shrug and say “I don’t know,” so I’m curious why people I’ve become familiar with show such hesitance to asking me for help or showing they might need some further explanation. The rigid hierarchy also took a little getting used to. Every assignment that is finished is sent to peers and superiors for feedback and comments. Thus the process of completing a simple assignment can take weeks and months waiting for all the feedback and implementing all the comments received. This is a complete departure from what I’m used to. I remember starting out in my work and being surprised that I was asked to complete assignment for formal submission without a review from my boss. One time I asked “You don’t want to look over it?” and my boss said, “no I’m sure you did fine.” I guess I got used to just submitting briefings and deliverables, but now everything I write or review is reviewed again. Hopefully I can jump back into non-reviewing mode when I get back. Although it took a few months, I’m glad that I’ve adjusted to a different workplace culture. We’ll see how the reverse culture shock goes when I return to work in the US.