mumbai/bombay - take 2!

AHHHHH. For anyone who didn't happen to read my last blog, or perhaps just skimmed it and missed this info - I am currently in Bombay. INDIA! Again! It feels SO strange to be back here. Things are familiar, I know my way around, I am even using the same internet cafe I used last March. Which makes me feel like I am not really here, but actually just wandering around in a dream or something. It's a bit surreal, I don't believe I am actually here again so soon. I am very very jet lagged and haven't had a proper meal in a day and a half though, so everything seems a bit foggy.

I left Halifax on Friday afternoon. Some planes there were practicing tricks (for an air show coming up, I assume) and we got to watch a fighter jet doing fancy spins while we were waiting on the plane to leave. In Newark I met up with Erica (who is my travel buddy this time) and we managed to kill the 6 hours of layover by eating and walking excessively around the terminal.

The 15 hour flight over here was fine, except it just felt like night the whole time. We left at night, then it turned into daylight as we were going over the ocean, but all the windows were shut so it seemed dark and everyone went to sleep. Then when everyone woke up, it was getting dark again outside, and we landed at night in Bombay. So I just feel like I had a really long Friday night and missed Saturday completely.

But the plane ride itself was fun - Erica and I were sitting next to a guy named Amit, who became our friend right away. We all shared similar tastes in Bollywood stars. He was on his way to India for his wedding, and invited us to come, but it's in Chennai which is quite far South so we couldn't make it. But there is a reception in Bombay on the 21st, which we're definitely planning to attend. He met his wife-to-be on an internet dating website! The other highlight of the plane ride was the view. Mostly it was dark the whole time or too cloudy to see, but in a few places it was clear and we had an incredible view. I got a good look at the deserts and mountains of Turkmenistan, of all places. Here are some in flight photos - Turkmenistan, fancy clouds, sunset, and the in-flight map that shows us coming in to India!

When we landed, we had the challenge of collecting all of Erica's luggage and hoping we didn't get hassled at customs. Amit stayed with us and helped us out, and also let us use his phone to call Erica's friends and relatives to try and figure out what to do with all the luggage. She realized, a bit too late, that the domestic airlines in India might not let her check in 4 suitcases.

In fairness, half the stuff she brought was for other people, but still! We bypassed customs, because the customs guys were lazy and just waved us by without checking. So Erica didn't have to explain why she was carrying multiple laptops and cell phones. (Gifts for family, actually.) Erica's friend Punit picked us up from the airport then, and because nothing was open that late (it was after midnight by this point) he just drove us around the city. Everything looks different here at the moment because they are in the middle of a big festival for Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god, so there are decorations and lights EVERYWHERE. Very pretty. It also started raining really hard while we were driving, with lightning. It didn't rain once the entire time I was in India in March, so this is kind of a novelty. Also - Bollywood moment! We saw John Abraham's car. John is a very attractive male model turned Bollywood star. Celebrity cars - how exciting! Don't worry, I'm (half) joking.

Finally Punit dropped us off at the Domestic airport so Erica could catch her flight to Hyderabad. We stopped in a parking lot so Erica could rearrange some of her luggage and transfer some of it into a suitcase she didn't need right away and could leave behind with Punit in Bombay. You have to imagine, it's 3am and she has got half her suitcase dumped out on the ground in the parking lot. Actually, it was mostly shoes. Hilarious.

We waited for many hours for Erica's flight, then I waited a few more hours and phoned some hotels. I finally found a decent one, and so I am staying here for a few days on my own until I meet up with Erica again in Delhi, probably around the 10th.

All is well here, India is pretty much like I remember it. A cockroach tried to attack me in the airport bathroom by falling on my head but it missed my face by an inch. I also got cheated pretty bad by a taxi driver who charged me double the fare (his "meter" was definitely broken), but I was soooo tired and dying to find my hotel so I didn't bother to argue with him like I normally would have. And everywhere I go, young men stare at me and yell out "Hello Madam!" so it's all the same as before, really. It's fun, but will be a bit better once I've slept, for sure.

Now I will go locate a restaurant and eat some Indian food. I'll write again once I've done something more interesting than just land here and find a hotel, haha.

maiden voyage of the milky dream

The travel blog becomes a travel blog once again! It's about time. Many things are happening in the near future. But before I talk about those things, I'll first show you some pictures. My brother recently purchased a sailboat, which was a dream of his for some time. Someday he will circumnavigate the globe. But for now, he just sails around the Halifax Harbour. Last week, I had the privilege of being on the boat when it had its maiden voyage. I didn't actually know it was the maiden voyage, and that he and my sister had never attempted to sail it before, or I probably wouldn't have gone. I was tricked. But it was pretty awesome, except that I thought we were going to tip over several times and I screamed. I'm lame. My sister used to be a sailing instructor though, so she probably knew what she was doing.

Random funny story about the boat. When my sister first saw it, it was from a distance. She was struggling to read the name of the boat on the side, which actually is Misty Dawn. But because she's a bit special, she thought it said Milky Dream. Ever since, we've called it the Milky Dream, which is a much better name than Misty Dawn anyway. So, here be photos.

1. I wear the hat. I steer the boat.
2. Brother Adrian hides in the cabin.
3. View from the top with the crew down below.
4. Pretty view from the boat.
5. Cheers to the Milky Dream.
6. Totally unrelated photo of my dog putting his face out the car window.

Okay, so, in travel-related news... I am working seriously on the whole teaching-in-Korea thing. I've applied and have interviewed for a few jobs. The interview process is exhausting because I have to operate on Korean business time, which is 12 hours ahead of my time, meaning I end up having phone interviews at midnight. And since I get up at 4:30am for work most days, this doesn't really put me at my best. But whatever. I've had 2 actual job offers so far. The first one I didn't accept because the pay wasn't great and they deducted a lot more from the pay for stupid reasons. The second job I'm still debating, but I think will likely turn it down. It seems like a decent school and it's in a great area of Seoul, but the contract is pretty sketchy. I tried to discuss the contract with the boss but he wasn't very helpful. I asked him to change a few things (basically I asked him to write in the rates of things deducted from my pay, like taxes, pension, etc.) and he did not. He "revised" the contract and sent it back to me with minimal changes. He also lowered the pay offer without mentioning it. Not cool. And also he wants me to teach kindergarten for a million hours a day, which is a bit too intense for me. Older children would suit me better. So the point of this massive paragraph is that I am still looking for a job in Korea and I am aiming to get there and start work around early November. We'll see what happens.

Now, if you've read this far, it's about to get a bit more interesting. In a sudden burst of last-minuteness, I am going back to India. Very soon. On Friday, actually. As in, about 3 days from now. This doesn't seem quite real to me yet. It all came about sort of suddenly. My friend Erica decided she was going to India, for a number of exciting reasons which I won't babble on about here yet, and she invited me to come with her. Many factors were involved in making this decision, but basically I couldn't pass it up and so I bought a plane ticket. We are meeting up in Newark on Friday and departing for Bombay on Friday night. We'll be there for 3 weeks, and I'll be back home again on Sept. 30th. I'll mostly be in Bombay, Delhi, and Hyderabad. We have tentative plans, but only tentative because the best thing to do in India, really, is just go with the flow once you're there. We'll really be going with the flow because it's still monsoon season over there. Eek. Anyway, I'll maintain the blog as much as possible, and Erica and I have plans to video blog too! So, watch this space. ;)

And, one last exciting thing - I have cut all my hair off! I have been keeping it long for ages, in hopes that it might look like this:

But then I accepted that this would never happen. So I cut it all off and it's a million times better and I love it. Here is a before and after picture.

This blog has been all over the place. More to come very very soon.

unbreakable... sans underwear

Under normal circumstances, the Backstreet Boys show would not warrant an entire blog entry, but it's kind of a funny story. (Travel-related blogging shall resume next entry, I swear.)

Last Saturday afternoon, 3 hours before we needed to leave for the Backstreet Boys concert, Tiffany and I got it into our heads that, because we had 10th row tickets, it would be absolutely hilarious if we made a really ridiculous sign for the concert. (Since we'd definitely be close enough for the Boys to read the message.) Now, dorky as I am, I have never made a sign for a concert before. After running through a number of options that were probably only hilarious to the two of us, we finally settled on the following message:


We spent 2 hours designing, drawing, and coloring the poster. Then we recruited Alex (a co-worker of mine, who was going to the show with us) to help us hold it up once we got there. We were hoping one of the Boys might see it and wave to us or something, but beyond our wildest preteen dreams, all 4 of the Backstreet Boys saw it during the course of the show and had funny reactions.

Only a few songs into the show, Brian sees it. He makes an X with his fingers at us, then motions forcefully for us to put the sign down. We comply.

Later, ignoring Brian and putting the sign back up, we catch Howie's attention, who pauses, reads the sign, then makes an exaggerated surprised face.

In between the next songs, Nick sees it. He points to us, grins, and gives us a thumbs up. We all freak out and thumbs up him back. Then Howie looks at us again, points and laughs, and gives us a peace sign. Until Brian, out of nowhere, hits him to tell him to stop! Brian really didn't enjoy our sign. Is he extremely conservative? He's been doing this job for 15 years, surely he has heard and seen much more explicit things from girls. Was he annoyed that we were being attention hogs with the sign? Was he pissed that we blocked the rows behind us? (We left it down for all the songs, and only threw it up a handful of times during talky bits of the show.) I suppose we shall never know.

Someone posted this video on Youtube from the show... if you watch between 1:45 and 1:55, you can see Brian's initial response to our sign and angry gesturing at us. Eek.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu7jVRmQOwU

But the best moment was at the end, right after the finale (Backstreet's Back, alright) when AJ, last to notice us, finally reads the sign. He points to us, walks up a few steps to the front of his stage, then points at his jeans, and pretends to lift his shirt and check if he is wearing underwear. Then he looks at us and gives an exaggerated shrug. It was pretty thrilling. If a Backstreet Boy had acknowledged me like that 10 years ago, I'd probably have wet myself. But I'm obviously too mature for that now.

Everyone in the rows ahead of us were turning around to see what the Boys were looking at, and they'd all start laughing at our sign. Even some of the security people were laughing at it.

In summary, of all the Backstreet Boys shows I've been to over the years, this one was the best. For the combined reason of the joy the sign brought, and also the fact that it was actually a really entertaining show. Much more upbeat than their last tour.

On a terrible horrible negative note, opening act Girlicious was the grossest thing in the history of gross. I don't want to talk about it at length, but they made me ashamed for my gender. They also made me feel like I needed a shower.

If anyone is ever in row 10 for anything and wants to borrow a sweet sign, just let me know.

*note - all of us were actually wearing underwear. the sign was a lie. though i can't speak for the rest of the strangers in the 10th row... so who knows?*

unforgettable... in toronto!

So Toronto was... amazing. The whole trip was fantastic, and the Bollywood show was the best thing I've ever seen in my life. We had a great week - Alex and Kim were awesome enough to let us stay with them again, and I spent most of the week just shopping (I love you H&M) and eating good food. Friday night was the show, we met up with Shikha and her friend Diljeet for dinner beforehand. Then we all went to the show... where I basically just screamed my face off for 3 hours because I couldn't contain myself.

Here are some before photos, in which we are all very excited.

We had a bit of a panic when we first got there, because our original seats in Row 2 ended up disappearing. They actually cut out our whole seating section, because it was too far to the side of the stage. But they moved us into 11th row in a section closer to the stage, so we ended up with a much better view. They did ALL the songs I ever wanted to hear, and the energy was incredible. It was a total nightmare for the Rogers Centre staff, as they couldn't control the crowds. People were rushing the stage, stealing other people's seats, physically moving their seats to different rows, etc. Shikha got into a fight with a little old man behind her, who was mad because everyone was standing up and he couldn't see. It was hilarious. The man was INSANE. He was hitting Shikha with his program booklet. And he tried to pull a chair out from under someone else who was pissing him off. Indian film fans are psychotic. (Myself included, haha.)

I posted photos from the concert here, for those who care:

http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn102/choohi/UNFORGETTABLE%20TOUR/

I also took a bunch of videos, which you can see here: (Edit: Apparently the nice people at Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd are mad at me for posting concert footage and infringing on their copyright. They have deleted all the videos and are threatening to close down my account. So there's nothing to see right now! But I'll see if I can get them back up again later.)

http://www.youtube.com/user/maliceandmannie

Other highlights of the week include dinner with Shikha and Gaurav (we meant to go see a Hindi film but ran out of time so opted for dinner/drinks instead), "special" milkshakes with Alex, and Canada's Wonderland! A bunch of us went there Sunday. It rained a bit which was good because that meant smaller lineups. We rode the Behemoth, which is Wonderland's new roller coaster, and apparently the highest and fastest one in Canada. It was sooooo much fun - best roller coaster I've ever been on! Photos below: Everyone looking like dorks before the Spongebob Squarepants 3D Adventure, and the 4 ladies who conquered the Behemoth, next to a photo of the beast itself. We're awesome.

It kind of sucks being back home again and going back to work. I've been doing all the opening shifts, which is cool because I finish around 2pm every day, but also horrible because I don't go to bed any earlier to compensate for the early start, and end up exhausted beyond all reason after a few days. Oh well. Money is needed for future travels. This used to be a travel blog. I need to get back to that.

island photos

I meant to post these a few weeks ago - just a few random photos from the trip to Prince Edward Island in June for the family reunion.

And here are a few pics from the night that Tiffany and I thought it would be a good idea to take the dog to the beach. He misbehaved and ate a lot of sand.

2 days till Toronto vacation!! And UNFORGETTABLE TOUR!! I am dying of excitement.

india vs. canada

I just found this gem on Youtube - the scene for the TV show I worked on when I was in Mumbai! You can't see me anywhere in it, so don't try. I was very tiny in a crowd scene, so tiny in fact that I can't even see myself. But you can see the soccer game, all of which was filmed when I was there. And you can see the cheerleaders dancing. You may remember I was fired from being a cheerleader, for the combined reason of me being too fat, and also being mouthy with the crew.

The scene is HILARIOUS though. India VS Canada in a soccer game. Don't ask me why the Canadians are wearing green and yellow, and have British accents. And why they are apparently assholes who try to injure other players on purpose. I have tears in my eyes from laughing at this. Indian TV is... special.



Random update: Toronto on July 17th! Yay. Went to Prince Edward Island last weekend and it was great, will post some photos once everyone e-mails them to me.

punjabi wedding crashers

So, today I was looking through some of Micah's photos from the trip - he has thrilling photos from the wedding we crashed in Amritsar, which was one of the coolest random things that happened to us in India. (To recap: Micah and I met two girls in the Golden Temple, became friends over the course of the afternoon, then they brought us to a wedding where we dressed all fancy and ate a load of food, despite not knowing anyone.) Pictures abound!

1) Here we have myself and new friend Ruby arriving at the wedding in style. 2) Followed by the groom arriving in even more style, atop a decorated white horse. 3) And here we have a dance party gathering around the horse and groom. That's how they roll there. 4) Inside there was a giant mountain of fruit. It was awesome.

5) I wasted no time in stuffing my face. 6) The marriage happened and everyone was joyous.

7) Micah and I pose for what I am pretty sure is the only photo from the whole 2 months that has both of us in it, actually looking nice. 8) Ruby and I leave the wedding, still stylish in an auto-rickshaw. We were singing a Hindi song and I was laughing because I wasn't very good at it.

9) We stay overnight with our friends, then leave the next morning by motorcycle. 10) Vroom vroom. 11) Holy crap I'm on a motorcycle!

And finally, just for fun, random shots of Micah and I being dorks at the Taj Mahal, and Micah sporting a very fetching faux beard in front of the Red Fort in Delhi. Haha.

That is all I have for now! In other news, I have no other real news. I am still trying to figure what to do next in life, which is a slow process. I've been stressing out a lot. On the plus side of life, I now have the dorkiest summer of concerts ever lined up - along with the Bollywood Unforgettable tour, I will also be attending the Backstreet Boys Unbreakable tour when they're in Halifax. Unforgettable and Unbreakable... it's like we have some kind of theme going on. Gloriously, we managed to get 10th row BSB tickets online! My inner 13-year-old self is squealing with excitement.

Also, I have yet to book plane tickets, but have booked off a week from work in July from the 17th-23rd, which is approximately when I will be in the Toronto area for the Bollywood show, among other things. Kim wants to go to Canada's Wonderland - oooooh. I am glad I will get at least one week of summer in Toronto. I forgot Nova Scotia doesn't actually have summer. It's cold here. Very very cold. Brrrrr. I miss India.