Earlier this week or somewhere in the early part of TET holiday, I was at a loss as to how to occupy my time in these dreary days of restaurants, coffee shops, groceries and boutiques being closed. So I hit upon the idea of calling a good friend of mine – Moon, a second-generation Vietnamese artist/web designer friend of mine, and her husband Dan, an American who started a charity organization here in Hanoi.

Apparently, the day after TET, it is the custom for everyone to visit family, relatives and friends. So Moon and I managed to arrange a time wherein I meet her at her grandmother’s house, which is the ancestral house of her family located at Dinh Liet road located in the Old Quarter. It was a large imposing yellow stucco house, the type with curved, pointy roof ends. To get there, you had to pass through a narrow long alley, and when you get to the end, it suddenly widens into a garden where this house is standing.

Moon used to say that before, as in before Vietnam became a socialist state, a lot of the old families living in Hanoi’s Old Quarter possessed a lot of land. With Moon’s family, they had several lands around the progressive and commercial Hoan Kiem area. Now, all they had left was this old ancestral house and a growing encroachment by neighbors of their property.

Here are some of Ms. Nga's paintings displayed in Moon's ancestral home. The flowers on the left is reputedly a famous painting and highly commended for its artistic style.

Moon belongs to a family of artists. Her auntie, Ms. Nga, is one of Vietnam’s famous artists, who personally trained Moon on the artisan craft even when she went to university to study fine arts. And because it was a day of going around and visiting old friends, Ms. Nga had the idea of visiting her old artist friends along the Old Quarter – to my delight!

First stop was Mr. Vuoc on Cau Go street, just behind what we call The Shark building or the 5-storey building where Legend Café and Highland Coffee is located. Climbing the narrow steep stairs is very typical of Vietnamese terraced houses. We had the good fortune of sitting down with Mr. Vuoc’s wife. Mr. Vuoc is certainly a contemporary of Moon’s auntie, Ms. Nga.

Mr. Vuoc’s painting style is a mixture of realism and impressionist. He had a choice location for his gallery on the 2^nd and 3^rd floor of the corner of Cau Go and Dinh Liet streets. His subjects are mostly ordinary street life on Hanoi’s ancient streets. Here and there you could see an eye-catching vase of flowers as his subject.

Here are we sitting down on a typical Vietnamese low-level table for guests to partake tea and other refreshments.

After expressing our thanks for her generosity, we bid goodbye to Mr. Vuoc’s wife and proceeded to the house of our 2^nd artist. On the way, we ran into Mr. Vuoc who was returning to his gallery. He decided to play tour guide to us, and so, we managed to get to no. 56 Cau Go, just a few steps away from his atelier, to visit one of Hanoi’s famous – and obviously prolific artist – Mr. Duong Viet Nam.

Mr. Viet Nam's lovely studio with a windown looking out onto the busy street of Cau Go, Old Quarter of Hoan Kiem.

Now it was a surprise to me when I was introduced to Mr. Viet Nam how someone could have the same name as their country. But Mr. Viet Nam was really a round-faced and pleasant sounding chap. His studio reflected a lot of light and hosted a most beautiful and romantic window which looked out onto Cau Go street and the terraced houses opposite. A student of Mr. Vuoc, Mr. Viet Nam certainly had a very impressive painting style, which can be seen in the photos below.

A short chat and some really good wine served to our little company was enough to keep Mr. Viet Nam talking – of which I couldn’t understand a word. Lucky for me I had Moon’s husband Dan, who was adept at the local language and translated for poor me. 

A gathering of artists - from left: Mr. Viet Nam, Mr. Vuoc, and Ms. Nga (2nd from right).

By then it was already past noontime, and we were getting hungry. One more artist before lunch. So Mr. Vuoc brought us to Mr. T. Khoa’s gallery – the famous Hanoi painter of predominantly flowers.

Mr. Khoa’s gallery, like Moon’s home, was also at the very end of a little dark alley. At first, there was no one home, so we came back through the little dark alley – and met his wife and the rest of the brood at the entrance. Back again to the dark, narrow alley, a gracious welcome, a climb of three flights of narrow stairs, and there we were at his painting studio (see pictures).

The famous Mr. Khoa (right) showing us some of his paintings published on a book about Vietnam. To the left is my friend Dan.

Mr. Khoa is known in the industry and among the artist circles for painting and specializing on flowers. All types of flowers. He said that he could paint at least 1 flower painting – doesn’t matter what size it is, small, medium or large – everyday. That makes at least 7 new paintings for 1 week. Amazing!

Flowers!

More flowers!

Mr. Khoa also belongs to one of the original and wealthier families of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. It is said that before the “cultural revolution” of Vietnam, which is the conversion of the country to a socialist state, Mr. Khoa’s family used to own 81 houses in Hanoi – at least 1 district of the city!

And more flowers!

After our simple lunch, our little group of friends took a cab to the house of another famous artist, Mr. Cho Pin. Residing near Truch Bach lake, Mr. Cho Pin certainly amazed us with his dedication to his craft. An avid painter of simple street scenes in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Mr. Cho Pin would normally sit lazily at a café and do sketches of the quaint scenes before him. The result is a very detailed painting, surprisingly giving depth and uniqueness to his art.

Red gladiola almost melts into the background of Cho Pin's work.

Mr. Cho Pin pouring us tea at his home and atelier.

From left: my artist friend Moon; her famous aunt, Ms. Nga; and Mr. Cho Pin - 3 generations of Hanoi artists!

Our last artist in residence whom we visited that very day is Mr. Ngo Cau Giang. Residing at 19 Hang Buom street, Mr. Cau Giang, also a colleague and close friend of Ms. Nga, welcomed our little troupe with open arms at his modest, typically traditional terraced Vietnamese house. Mr. Giang regales us of tales of his works. One of his famous paintings of an ancient Vietnamese King riding an elephant to battle is on his extreme right.

Mr. Giang is a multi-talented artist. Aside from exhibiting both traditional and modern, surreal-like styles of painting, Mr. Giang is also an accomplished poet and singer. While viewing his penthouse atelier, we got a taste of his singing as well Utterly amazing.

Later on, our last stop for the day is a visit to a close friend of Ms. Nga – a retired teacher, Ms. Nhan, who used to teach English. With her husband who also is a professional translator of Vietnamese to both French and Mandarin, we hustled ourselves into their quaint little home and had steaming cups of tea and sunflower seeds as well (a Vietnamese delicacy).

Aren’t we so lucky that day? At last I got a taste of what it’s like to live in the Old Quarter among Vietnam’s famous painters. Certainly it was a tour that cannot be found in any Vietnamese guidebook existing today.

Water buffalo in color by Giang the artist

A painting of a Vietnamese lass in the traditional aoi dai hangs in Mr. Giang's atelier.

Giang at the guitar - strumming and singing for his guests. What a treat!

Okay before I write about the great start to my first TET holiday IN HANOI (usually my TET holidays are spent outside Vietnam but this year I had to stay in the country during this time), I just have to write about my unfortunate experience with “opportunists”.

This is the great view of Truch Bach lake on the view deck of Nguyen Son Bakery on Tran Vu steet. No problem sitting for the great part of the day here, as long as you're not caught during TET holidays!

I mean REAL, MEAN OPPORTUNISTS! The ones who prey on foreigners like me who can’t speak the local language, are thought to be walking dollar signs, and stick out like a sore thumb because of the color of our skin, our lack of suaveness with the local language, or just look different from the local population.

So yes, if you get charged for a bowl of Bun Oc, a slightly spicy noodle soup with little or big snails and a few pieces of meat, you’re not supposed to pay more than VND 20,000 for that. But this lady in front of my house charged me VND 35,000 for that thing. And I can’t argue with that because the damn snails are in my gullet already. And she charged VND 20,000 for a similar bowl to a fellow diner which I happen to overhear.

Now you might be saying that “hey, that’s only over 2 US$ man!”. Think! We’re in a 3^rd world country – and I’m not referring to that in a derogatory term becoz I come from one too! In Bangkok, for US$2, you get a complete meal of rice, 1 meat-dish viand and a coke for that matter. In Vientiane, Laos, among the restaurants overlooking the Mekong River, for just US$1, you get a whole plateful of fresh vegetable salad good for 3 persons with real mayonnaise dressing as well!

And since I’ve been around long enough to know the difference in prices, it’s really irritating to have to go through this again. Before, I used to argue quite a lot with the seller in the little Vietnamese I know. But now, I just shrug and add them up to the list of vendors I don’t patronize – which makes me somehow sad because my list is unfortunately growing.

Here are the placid waters of Truch Bach lake with the swan boats. In the far distance is Sofitel Hanoi Plaza. Taken from the view deck of Nguyen Son bakery.

And these opportunists are not confined to the lowly street seller. I can name at least 1 more food retailer – the famous Nguyen Son Bakery that has a floating restaurant and bakery at the end of Tran Vu street.

Now it just so happened that the management of this bakery decided to operate the restaurant during the TET holidays – to the delight of foreign residents who opt to eat out always like me, and the consternation of its employees who have to work through their TET holidays.

But there is one hitch:  they created a “special menu” of dine-in food items that was priced higher by 25-30% than the regular menu and sold only that for the TET holidays. Moreover, they imposed a 30% service charge on the dine-in menu. 

So on the first day of this weirdly arranged menu, wherein they placed the 30% service charge along with the list of food items I bought like it was an item for sale in the receipt, I just wagged my head and told myself, “Well, it only happens once a year”. But then when I came back the following day to buy take-out cakes and other food items, they insisted on imposing the 30% service charge on the take-out items as well!

And that was when I had to put down my foot and say, “Your manager yesterday specifically told me that take-out items do not have this 30% service charge.” To myself, I really wonder why I have to pay a service charge for take-out items. It is totally ridiculous!

So the on-duty manager talks to the girl who was present with the manager I talked to the previous day, and who tried to avoid looking at me because she knew what I said was true. After a brief talk, they finally relented and let the matter go.

My point is, I am not against imposing an instant service charge on a special holiday like this. What I don’t agree to is the utter “whimsicalness” and “incredibility” of the sudden change of policy. If you really and honestly want to reward your employees for working extra time on what is supposed to be during their hard-earned holiday, then get the reward from your profit cache, not pass on the responsibility of giving that reward to your long-time customers. Pleez!!

I am not saying that the general population of Vietnam are like these. But yes, these opportunists do exist in the population. To tackle them, you must be a) informed and quick to learn the local quirks and ways of connecting with the locals, and b) stand your ground, even though they start shouting at you! You will realize sooner or later, if you intend to stay and work in Vietnam, that what we call “rude shouting” in certain cultures seem to be just normal behavior in several parts of the population. Again, it is a matter of perception, so do not be offended by it.

It’s the day before TET holiday, or in other countries, what is usually celebrated as Chinese New Year. TET, in Vietnamese, means New Beginnings. As celebrated by the Chinese and pseudo-Chinese worldwide, this year’s Chinese New Year of the Ox falls on January 26, which is a Monday. But for some reason, the Vietnamese start theirs a day before.

In fact, weeks before TET, everyone is in a flurry buying gifts and other stuff for their loved ones. Stores, clothing shops, lighting stores, etc. experience record sales per day. But this year, because of the new trend for “moderation”, people seem to be more practical when it comes to buying stuff. The food gift baskets, fruits, liquor, etc. are still selling like hotcakes. Other than that, there is the occasional rush for clothes at MNG and other branded places. But the emphasis seems to be on moderation.

For the past 3 days, people are ganging up on Hang Gai road (where the silk shops are), Hang Ma (where the Chinese ornaments are) and Hang Dao (where the night market is located). Normally, the night market would be appearing only every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. But on this week before TET, it has been there on Hang Dao road, right after 9 pm and lasting past 11 pm. After 4-5 visits to the night market in my 1^st year in Hanoi, you become tired of the same old unchanging merchandise that seem to be on display week after week after week. So the novelty of walking around the stalls wears off quite quickly.

If you manage to walk around TET, do try to have a pho bo (Vietnamese noodle soup with beef slices) or pho ga (same noodle soup but with chicken slices), if anything is open at all. My friend tells me that the walking food street called Tong Duy Tan is usually open during TET. Great! Now how to walk to there coz most of the xeom (motorcycle drivers) are also on holiday back to their provinces?

These are typical tall terraced houses of Hanoi. No elevators! Will exercise your butt and hams.

View from my friend's condo at Lakeview Towers, beside West Lake of Hanoi.

One of my favorite lakes - Thinh Quang lake in central Hoan Kiem district, is a study of shadows and light set against a backdrop of the placid lake and the buildings in the far distance.

Here is another tranquil view of my favorite place - Truch Bach lake.

One of the things that you could do to amuse yourself on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in Hanoi is to walk around any of the lakes in the city. As mentioned before, there are 6-7 lakes inside Hanoi city and just looking around some gives you the kind of quiet pleasure that only these lakes can provide.

So on this particular day, I went walking up Tran Vu and snapping a few pictures of life around the lakeside. There are the usual quaint coffee shops along the lake on Tran Vu road wherein local Hanoians drink the local coffee brew while sitting on low wooden stools on the sidewalk (literally saying that the sidewalk is the public property of the people ).

There is the little island of weeping willows (2 of them actually), which some enterprising residents in the area put up brightly-colored plastic chairs and tables to serve traditional coffee. It is also the area wherein old men play some form of backgammon to gamble sometimes.

There are also some nice places to spend your afternoons too, on a rather classier setting. There is the Nguyen Son bakery at the end of Tran Vu road, nearer to Than Nien street. Located atop a houseboat, the bakery cum outdoor café serves little mouth-watering chocolate and mouse cakes at 15,000 VND a tiny piece, as well as ice cream with a few flavors (not sure what the brand is, wasn’t indicated), and coffee and other drinks.

The best part of the Nguyen Son bakery is you could sit on the rooftop terrace and have a great view of Truch Bach lake. For me, it is a better view of the lakes here, with the except of the Highland Coffee place overlooking Tay Ho lake – but that’s for a spectacular view of the sunset over Hanoi! At night you see a lot of these lovers perched on motorbikes lining the whole length of Than Nien street (locally known as Lovers Lane) which separates Truch Bach from Tay Ho lake (otherwise known as West Lake).

My favorite afternoon pastime is to sit beside this place and soak into the writings of Osho, my favorite Indian mystic and philosopher.

Brightly-colored plastic chairs and tables under weeping willows lend a romantic air to this little lakeside cafe. Have a drink of traditional Vietnamese coffee at 10,000 dong only, complete with wifi you can steal from the neighbors.

This is a sunset view of Truch Bach lake from the side of Tran Vu St.. Here you can park your bikes and admire the tranquility of the lake. In the far distance is the Sofitel Plaza Hanoi.

It’s winter again in Hanoi. The temperatuve is down now to 12-14 degrees centigrade, especially at night time. My tropical-grown skin is peeling again – somewhere between my toes and now, on the palms of my hands. I look like a prune sometimes.

This is the loneliest seat overlooking Truch Bach lake -- if you don't have anyone to share it with.

But this is certainly much better compared to two winters ago. Having grown up and lived in tropical countries all my life, my skin couldn’t initially survive the temperature change. During my first winter here, I developed an unusual sensitivity to the cold. I would have terrible feet cramps in the mornings and whenever my feet would touch any cold surface. It was enough to want to go back to Thailand where I used to reside and having 365 days a year of sunshine, heat and more heat.

As the months went by, my sun-drenched skin adapted to the cold. But my heart was still on warm weather climes and the ensuing luxury, at this time, of having to bare your skin in a pink strappy blouse or a cotton MNG tank top.

Winter activities

What is there to do in winter here? Not very much, I’m afraid. But one of my favorite pastimes here is to indulge in reading a good book beside one of the calm, picturesque lakes here.

At first, the main attraction for me was Hoan Kiem lake in the middle of the old quarter. That’s because I used to live near there and it was walking distance. Every morning, around 5:30 am (except for winter, I suppose), people start jogging and doing their own calisthenics around the lake. About 6 am, there would be an aerobics instructor in front of the giant statue of Ly Thai To, the first king of Hanoi, with her blaring loud aerobics music calling all the aerobics participants. It was fun to watch.

I had great afternoons drinking a cappuccino or a mocha café at Highland Coffee, a very popular local coffee and pastry café here in Vietnam, at their branch on Cau Go, facing Hoan Kiem lake. It’s here also that I wrote some of my winning presentation pitches or wrote in my blog sometimes on lazy Saturday afternoons. They also have a branch on the side of the Hanoi Opera House, where upon the place is packed on Saturday mornings by families and businessmen having a hearty breakfast with their biz partners and associates.

My friend Cris sometimes accompanied me on these café touring incidents. It was also because he drove a bike and I didn’t (I’ll still be learning to drive one).

Later on, I moved to live in the neighborhood near Truch Bach lake, which is another picturesque lake here in Hanoi. During autumn, I would normally sit in this “little island” of weeping willows lined with brightly colored tables and chairs where you can have a cup of the traditional Vietnamese strong café sua nom (hot coffee with condensed milk) while looking at the placid waters of the lake. A fine place to be romantic or even to read a good book and let your mind wander . . .

This is the view from the side of Truch Bach lake where the little quaint traditional coffee shops are located.

In the days past, there used to be a pier beside the old Chau Long market on Truch Bach lake. Only the pontoons are left and what probably used to be the platform for the little boats that go up and down this lake, which I believe was part of a river before.

The barren wasteland of Bodhgaya - or was it the summer season only when the river that runs beside the national highway is dry of water?

Can you dig this? An almost 100-year old hotel with green-colored tiles in the lobby. Really unique!

Bodhgaya blues

Alright – this post is WAY OVERDUE since 5 months ago! On my way back from a holiday in India, I lost my memory – got a temporary bout of amnesia, went into business seclusion, got laid, then went into hyperdrive working – and then got a bout of amnesia again.

And worse, I lost my notes written on holiday.

So back to the beginning, before I move on to the real meat of this blog – which is blogging about me living in Hanoi – or Hanoi and how I fit into it!

From a great two weeks stay in Pondicherry, I went back to Chennai and took a flight to Calcutta, en route to my final destination, which was Bodhgaya, the town that the Lord Buddha was famously reported to have attained enlightenment in this world.

Calcutta was – an eye-opener, at least that is much what I can say. From the airport, the road to the middle of town – unfortunately to my personal opinion – had to pass through rows and rows of shanties, a poignant and true portrayal of Calcutta which is up to now. I boarded this ramshackle taxi into town, and like the shanties lining both sides of the road, it was basically as old as the rusting, corrugated ceilings of most of the weather-beaten houses along the road.

There was a movie I once watched before – “City of God”, starring Patrick Swayze. The setting was obviously Calcutta, and since the movie was shot years back, I had thought that there was some progress to the industrialization of this city. Apparently, if there was, the poverty can still be felt.

However, since I had spent only 2 days in the city, as the starting point of my trip to Bodhgaya, I am pretty sure there are other places in Calcutta which are historically interesting and worth remembering.

The Long Road to Bodhgaya

The most practical way to go to Bodhgaya is by train – a 7-hour ride through flatlands and through the northeast of India. An overnight train was the recommendation, and so I booked way ahead of this trip.

To solve the problem of commuting on my way to the train station, I decided to spend a few hours of sleep at a small hotel adjacent to it. I found the Howrah Hotel in the Lonely Planet Thorntree Forum, and since I was going to need a bed only for a few hours (my train was supposed to leave port by 11 pm), I parked my bags there first.

It was a bit of an old place – the Howrah, but rather quaint, I might say. It was formerly the residence of the French governor also of Calcutta – a palace of some sort. You could still see vestiges of past glory in the lobby, and in the ceramic tiles in my room, which the caretaker said were specially imported from Germany almost a 100 years ago. It was functional, I would say. Make sure you book the bigger rooms on the 2nd or 3rd floor in the inner sanctum. Gives you a feeling of being a maharajah in your palace though.

When I got to the train station, and on to my carriage, it was a shock to find that I was to occupy the upper bunk of a 4-bunk cubicle. I specifically asked the train ticket seller that I wanted a lower bunk, but apparently, they gave me the upper bunk. Worse, the guy occupying the lower bunk got my blanket and pillow as well. Anyway, I couldn’t care less; it was night-time, and I wanted to sleep for a few hours until I get to Bodhgaya.

That was the beginning of my solitary adventures to Bodhgaya. Boy was it an adventure!

Walking the Buddha path at Bodhgaya

Stepping off the train at Gaya, which is the little town that is on my stop from the long train ride I had from Calcutta’s Howrah station, it was just a good 30 minutes away from the station to Bodhgaya by tuktuk or “autorickshaw”, as these three-wheeled conveyances are called. Along the road was the barren and dry plains of Uttar Pradesh, one of the more impoverished provinces of India, but one of the more blessed to have had the Lord Buddha as one of its illustrious residents. For it is here in Bodhgaya that Gautama Buddha, a prince of an illustrious clan, traveled and stayed, and historically attained enlightenment under a bodhi tree.

Here is the Giant Buddha resting on a lotus flower in the grounds of the Root Institute. Behind it is the giant prayer wheel containing a million prayers written on long note paper.

In my quest for personal enlightenment (pun intended!), I traveled 7 hours to get to my little place in the vast plains of Bodhgaya. It was called the “Root Institute for Wisdom Culture”, a non-sectarian meditation and retreat place founded in 1983 by Lama Thubten Yeshe, a highly revered Tibetan Buddhist monk. After his death, his disciple Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been the spiritual director of the Root Institute.

Located just half a kilometer away from the Mahabodhi Temple, which is the temple dedicated to the Lord Buddha and sits adjacent to the bodhi tree which he historically attained enlightenment, The Root Institute sits on more than 3,000 sq.m. of gardens peppered by little buildings housing a meditation hall, a little hospital, and small rooms for retreat participants all-year round. Because I came in the off-season, there were no training seminars or retreat courses happening at that time. But I was still welcomed to stay at one of the rooms there.

It was a great place to contemplate and meditate. My room was on the 2nd floor of a two-storey building that overlooks rice fields. It was just heaven to wake up in the morning, sit at my window and look over the rice fields, with a good book to read. Sometimes, I meditated facing the rice fields, while little birds twittered on the bodhi tree that had overhanging branches across my window. From the tiring long trip on the train, this was utter bliss!

Here is my lovely view from the window of my room - rice fields and twittering birds in the morning. Very peaceful!

So for the next 7 days, my routine was to wake up, have a modest breakfast at the dining area, chat with the other Root Institute volunteers, retire to my room, meditate a bit, read a bit, go for lunch again – sometimes outside of the Institute in one of those little doshi restaurants near the Mahabhodi Temple, come back to sleep or read again at my little window overlooking rice fields. And at 5:30 pm, I start walking the half a kilometer to the Mahabhodi Temple for my daily prayers and circumambulations around the Temple.

While still residing and working in Bangkok, I usually visited the more prominent Buddhist temples in the capital. And the usual practice was to circumambulate around a temple on a clockwise direction for 5 times. While doing this, you were supposed to pray to the Lord Buddha.

In my case, I bought more than half a dozen Buddhist prayer beads called “malas”, which I was going to offer up to the Buddha at the shrine, so that they will be consecrated and given out to my friends as gifts back home. And while I was circumambulating around the temple, I was praying on my beads as well.

The long view of the Mahabhodi Temple from the top of the stairs. You descend this flight of stairs to the 3,000 year old temple. Beside it is the sacred bodhi tree - the son of the tree that the Lord Buddha supposedly attained enlightenment.

And this happened for about 7 days near sundown. It was also taught to us that while you circumambulate around the temple, it is also a way to pray for the forgiveness of your sins, and to generate good karma and absolve bad karma accumulated in past lifetimes.

The malas I bought were made of rosewood, and I bought them from a very nice and generous Muslim trader whose shop was just in front of the main gate going to the Mahabhodi Temple. Mr. Tarik’s little hole-in-the-wall shop was full of beads of every size, color and stone, from top to bottom. Here, Mr. Tarik can be seen sitting cross-legged, stringing a mala necklace or rosary for everyone to see.

It was so funny – a Muslim trader zealously selling mala beads. But here in Bodhgaya, every nationality and every religion comes to visit and pay homage to the Buddha’s place of enlightenment. Within a half-mile radium from the Mahabodhi Temple are the different temples of the countries with Buddhist followers – each temple representing a bit of the architecture of that country. So with the Thai Buddhist temple located on the road going to the Mahabodhi temple, you have the characteristic curved ends with a bell at the end of the roofs that is so architecturally Thai. For the Japanese Buddhist temple, it was the usual Japanese-looking dark wood roof that characterized it. And so on with the other temples from China, Sri Lanka, Korea, Myanmar, etc.

The Buddha statue in the inner sanctum of Mahabhodi Temple. Every 5:30 pm, Tibetan and Indian monks pray and chant in this area everyday.

Other than the Mahabhodi Temple and the little stores outside of its gates, there wasn’t much to see in Bodhgaya. There was an archaeology museum on the road to the temple, but I didn’t visit that. I didn’t see it in the guidebooks and was not recommended by people to visit it. So Bodhgaya was a quiet place to be in, not your usual tourist trek.

People gather around the famous Bodhi Tree where the Lord Buddha supposedly attained enlightenment.

On my last day at Bodhgaya, I volunteered to participate in the grand “light-up” of the 100,000 lights for the Root Institute’s annual “Festival of Lights and Merit”. This was an annual event wherein 100,000 lights were stringed along the grounds of the Mahabhodi Temple, signifying the millions of lights that were supposed to illuminate the millions of souls awaiting redemption from the cyclic path of karma and retribution.

About 100,000 colored lights were illuminated during the Festival of Light and Merit at the grounds of the Mahabhodi Temple. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime event.

So early that night, I was clutching a piece of paper wherein more than 300 names of people were written down – mostly Chinese sounding – and reading them off as the sponsors and petitioners for prayers in that momentous event. Along with prayers that we chanted – in English – and in the light drizzle of rain that accompanied our little group of 3 people praying for the redemption of souls from cyclic pain and suffering, it was something that I was going to remember for a long, long time!

On the way back to Calcutta, I got caught in a 10-hour train ride – 4 hours delayed because of the sudden rain downpour in the northern part of India. It delayed train schedules, it left me waiting at the train platform for almost 4 hours waiting for my train to emerge, and while inside the train, it took us 10 hours to reach Calcutta again.

The manager at the Howrah Hotel where I rebooked for my return trip before flying off to Bangkok, said I was lucky I even arrived at all. Some of the other train runs were cancelled. Despite my tiredness and exasperated state, I’m still one lucky dude!

My first sunset on my arrival at the guesthouse on Pondicherry beach.

1.  Sit in a breezy café beside the beach and gawk at the blue waters of the

Bay of Bengal

The Park Guesthouse I am staying in is located at 1 Goubert Avenue, which is at the far end of the beach road overlooking the reclaimed beach of the French colonial town of Pondicherry. It has been standing there since The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have been in existence.

It was a picturesque view. Sometimes, I just sat there on the balcony on a little tatami mat and just stared at the turquoise blue waters of the beach not too far away.

With more than 40 rooms, Park Guesthouse has spacious single and double bedrooms, complete with hot and cold water, ceiling fans and for the 2^nd to 3^rd floor rooms, a spacious verandah where you can have your meditation and yoga every morning facing the sea. At 400 rupees a night for the sea-facing rooms, it is a bargain. Moreover, filtered water is given for free. Just bring your water bottle to the tap near the stairs in every level.

A great way to spend your early mornings is to have breakfast at the seaside café of the Guesthouse. With a masala tea, an omelette and your bread and toast, I would start writing away the whole morning with just the sound of the breakers in the beach just 4 meters away.

Having breakfast at the dining area, you have a great viw of the beach and the pier not so far away.

2.  Take a stroll along “The Promenade”, the 1 ½ kilometer stretch of reclaimed beach along Goubert Avenue (Beach Road) in the seaside part of Pondicherry town. A daily pastime of most Pondy residents, particularly at the end of the day where the Indian sun lets up on its heat, the Promenade skirts past the 27-metre Old Lighthouse in the middle of that stretch of beach, as well as past a gigantic statue of Indian’s most revered national hero, the Mahatma Gandhi.

     When you’re tired of walking, have a local ice cream at Arum Ice Cream House, just a few meters away from the Park Guesthouse and near the Pondicherry Tourism Office, or have afternoon tea at Le Café, a small café on the Promenade just right on the beach.

3.  Walk like a Guru

Living and acting like an ascetic in India, particularly Pondicherry, is not a difficult thing to do. Pondicherry is famous worldwide for its Sri Aurobindo Ashram, so named after the poticial activitst turned poet and ascetic Sri Aurobindo, and his spiritual partner and co-founder, The Mother, a pretty French woman who was a young painter during her time. Together, they built Auroville, a self-contained community of more than 1,000 individuals who practise and adhere to the Integral Yoga of the Mind.

A visit to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, located at Rue de la Marine (almost all of the street names here start with the word Rue, which means “street” in French) will give you a sight of mostly spiritual pilgrims and followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, visiting the tomb of The Mother (they call it Samadhi), as wellas the living and working quarters of Sri Aurobindo himself. A bookstore onsite containing most of the master’s and The Mother’s books and writings is conveniently located for those who want to read more about this extraordinary pair.

Likewise, the city has its own slew of Hindu temples, the most popular of which are the Manakkula Vinayakar Temple on the street of the same name, and the Kalasthirvaram Temple on Mission Street. The Kalasthirvaram Temple has both the Hindu deities of Shiva and Vishnu represented in 1 temple.

4.  Shop till you drop like a true-blue tourist

On my first trip to Pondy – as the locals lovingly call the town – in December 2005, there were only a handfull of shops that you could splurge your rupees on. Most of these shops are clustered along Mission Street, J. Nehru Street and in the junction of the Grand Bazaar. Most of the merchandise were taken from variou sparts of India and imported here.

Now, there are scores of shops selling Indian-style cotton and silks – kurtas, salwar khameezes, shawls, capri pants, bedlinens, semi-precious jewelry in silver and gold settings, cloth bags, etc.

Some of my favorite shops here are:

*Kalki – on 134 Mission Street. The high-end of Indian clothing manufactured mostly in Auroville’s myriad handicraft communities. Cehck the shawls of good quality silk dyed in the most amazing colors and ways, and hybrid cottons. The 1^st floor has bags and other knick-knacks like scented soaps, aromatherapy oils and fragrant incense. The 2^nd floor has clothes and rather premium-priced shawls and bags, as well as a knitted clothesline. Sale season happens in December. Prices range from 325 rupees for one of those fishnet shawls, 41-100 rupees for the aromatherapy oils, and 450-1,500 rupees for the clothing line.

* Suruchis – a few meters away from Kalki. More choices of Indian-style clothing. In the 33 degree heat, India’s handloom thin cottons are a perfect solution to combatting the heat.

* Vibe – on no. 6 Surcouf Street. Pondicherry’s one avant-garde take on the modern boutique. A mix of everything – clothes, books, paintings, interior design stuff like vases, incense, bags, etc. The ones that caught my eye are the highly embroidered with gold and silver thread kurtas and blouses which apparently came from Jaipur, and the gold-thread embroidered wall hangings from Coimbatore. Blouses are priced from 495 to about 1,000 rupees. The men’s line is very basic, with a few kurtas in tow.

* Auroville Store and Auroville Gift Shop

     Two stores selling Auroville-made products. One store is on Rue Rangapoulle, a few meters away and not far from the Kalki Store. My favorite items in this branch are the silver jewelry embedded with semi-precious stones of turquoise, peridot, garnet, moonstone, etc.

     The second store is on J. Nehru Street, near the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Daily Dining Hall, wherein I have my noon or evening meals. Great recycled papers of varying colors with block prints of Indian elephants and arabesque designs. These are handcrafted into gift paperbags, boxes, foders, etc.

Best of the lot are the incense sticks of sandalwoo, and some Indian scent- packaged in very interesting flat cardboard sachets, and lovely as gifts.

 

Great cotton and silk shirts for women and men, plus curtains, bedsheets and other things for the home await you at this quaint little shop – one of India

* FabIndia

Located on #59 Rue Suffren Street, FabIndia is one of India’s

 fashion icons. A purveyor of the finest cottons and silk items, FabIndia uses the art of indigo block and tie-dyeing to create fabulous brightly colored patterned blouses, salwar khameezes, kurtas, capri pants, pantaloons, shawls and even bed and table linens, as well as curtains. Price range starts from the very reasonable 190 rupees for a simple blouse to 900+ rupees for a double bed bedlinen. A fabulous line of shawls made from the finest Indian silks are also available.

5.  Take a leisurely walk through Pondy’s history

What a great way to view the French colonial history of the town. Drop by Raj Nivas, the historical residence of the French governors of Pondocherry. Or pay a vist to the Pondicherry Museum next door with its ancient artifacts of Arikamedu, the Greco-Roman trading port established some 2,200 years ago just north of Pondicherry. Or just walk through the quaint picturesque streets of the French quarter of Pondicherry (all street names start with the word “Rue”).

The Hotel Dupleix - a smart little new hotel that once was the residence of the French Governors of Pondicherry. A very nice boutique hotel - worth recommending!

6.  Take a French language course at Alliance Francaise or have a cup of masala tea in the garden of the French café at the grounds of the Alliance Francaise at Rue Dumas

Interesting building. Wish the guards could speak English too!

     While waiting for the electricity to return at the nearest internet café, I had the acquaintance of Vikram, a young, handsome Indian teenager from Jaipur, who was studying a French language course at the Alliance Francaise. It was during those long 2-hour blackouts in Pondicherry, so it was a respite to be chatting with someone who knows the terrain.

     I asked Vikram why he chose to learn French in Pondicherry. He told me that the environment was perfect to learn the language, as most of the old-timers and residents of the town could still speak French, and the course costs were not as high as going outside of India, or even in the more plush cities like Mumbai or elsewhere.

     Plus, how could anyone beat the prospect of learning la lingua franca in an 18^th century French colonial mansion, with native French teachers to boot? And Saturday or Sunday afternoons would not be complete without taking “high tea” at the Alliance Francaise café.

7.  Go visit some old, “heritage” hotels like the Hotel de l’ Orient on 17 Rue Romain Rolland or Le Dupleix on #5 Rue de la Caserne

A quaint hotel, with a great little garden and big high-ceilinged rooms with four-poster beds. Reminds you of days long gone by.

     Formerly the French Department of Education, the Hotel d’ Orient has been refurbished since by the Neemrana Hotels Group and converted into a pastel sandstone orange and white hotel with all the quaintness of an 18^th century French colonial mansion (with inner garden courtyard and 2^nd storey high-ceilinged rooms with overhead fans, gigantic four-poster beds and a verandah. Prices range from a reasonable 2,500 rupees for the single bed rooms to 5,500 rupees for the luxury suites. Breakfast at 100-180 rupees.

     On the other hand, Le Dupleix on 5 Rue de la Caserne is a historic 18^th century French colonial mansion, home of the former French Governor Joseph Francois Dupleix. Renovated with the original and oldest wooden doors of the Governor’s residence in Pondicherry, 14 well-appointed rooms are decorated with a blend of antique French colonial architectural pieces and that of the more contemporary arts of India.

8.  Visit the Cluny Embroidery Centre on Rue Romain Rolland

     Managed by the nuns of Cluny Convent, this embroidery centre has been in existence in Pondicherry since 50 years ago. The purpose of the center is to teach young Indian girls the art of French embroidery. As of last visit, the center is looking for a generous patron to refurbish the historic building and make sure that the girls there manage to continue their training and eventual livelihood.

Architecture in the French Quarter reminds me of the French Quarter in Hanoi. Very beautiful and picturesque indeed!

9.  Visit the Pondicherry Tourist Information Office at 40 Goubert Avenue

     Where you can have detailed information of the ancient town of Pondicherry (established sometime in 1760 or earlier), plus a few free maps and information for guided heritage tours or daily tours that don’t cost that much.

10.   Explore the towns near to Pondicherry

Pondicherry is so well-connected to other interesting towns in the Tamil Nadu area of Southern India. Visit Mamallapuram (about 98 kms north of Pondy) and see its famous Shore Temple, one of 7 temples built during the Pallava period of Southern India, in the 7^th century. The rest of the temples are already underwater.

Or go to Chidambaram, where the famous four-sided Chidambaram temple, with its 1,000-pillar hall, pays obeisance to the Lord Shiva. The Chidambaram Temple is a tribute to the Lord Shiva in its form of the “Cosmic Dancer”, under the Ananda Tandava pose (one leg raised above the other leg, 2 arms on each side and a round halo of flames behind him).

My favorite pastime is to wake up at 5:30 am, sit on my balcony on my tatami mat, and meditate and do my yoga there. Pure bliss!

My well-worn strappy sandals scuffed the airport hall at Chennai (Madras), India. It was 11 pm already and surprisingly, the modestly-spaced Chennai airport was abuzz with arriving Indians. Yes, you heard it right – Indians from the southern part of the subcontinent!

From my Tiger Air flight that left Singapore 4-5 hours earlier, there were only 2 Asian in that flight – me and a Singaporean looking dude – and 1 Caucasian guy. The rest were Indians. So you can probably ascertain how many tourists the South was receiving these days.

And damn hot it is here! About 33 degrees centigrade – and in the middle of the day, no aircon shopping malls or cafes to cool the smouldering heat within.

But enough of the airport stuff. My destination was Pondicherry, a quaint French-colonized coastal town three hours south of Chennai. It was a long but pleasant drive in the dark through what they call the ECR (East Coast Road) which traces the eastern coastline of India all the way from Chennai to Pondicherry. My trustsworthy driver, a burly South Indian guy who speaks little English, was nodding his head off at the wheel. I had to keep making polite conversation to him = like “the road seems better now than before”, or “what are those cute lights on top of the mountain” just to keep him awake and us free from harm.

The burly driver was pissed off with me – and for good reason! I mixed up the dates of my arrival, so the poor guy had to wait at the airport from 11 pm to almost 6 am the night before my arrival. The result was he charged me double – 1,500 rupees (US$30) for the actual pick-up, and another 1,500 rupees for the morning I didn’t show up. Ouch!!

We stopped at a roadside café at 1:30 am. There were still men going in and out of the café – mostly truck and bus drivers. I find the situation funny. Little Asian girl drinking a cup of milk tea at roadside in the dark of night with only burly drivers for company. But I was not alarmed, for in India, at least in the rural areas outside of Chennai, crime was a manageable minimum.

Almost just 2 kilometers away from the Guesthouse, my sleepy driver hit part of a steel barricade fence lying halfway across the road. He kept on driving. When we pulled up in front of the Guesthouse, driver walked out, took a look at the front steel fender of our circa 1960s vintage car and said, “No problem!”. The fender didn’t even sustain a scratch!

It was 3 am already. Welcome to Pondicherry!!

First stop of my whirlwind holiday outside of the enclaves of picturesque Hanoi was a trip to my dear old ex-colleague from my old multinational and multi-cultural communications days in Bangkok.

Ann and Roland basically built up Front Row, a hip fashion boutique catering to the upwardly-mobile professionals of Singapore. Housed in a 3-storey shophouse on hip Ann Siang Road, the street itself is dotted with cafes, antique and curio shops, restaurants, galleries, etc. Housing seven labels from young Singaporean and Malaysian fashion designers, the place is literally hip, with a bookstore and cafe on the first floor, the women’s and men’s apparel on the 2nd and private function rooms on the 3rd to cater to parties, launches and the odd gallery exhibiton that dots Singapore’s fashion and lifestyle scene.

But the best thing about my visit to Ann is seeing her cute baby Sophie and her ever so lovely mother-in-law.

Fabulous in Hanoi visited her old haunts in Singapore – and got a shock of her own. The old Raffles Hotel didn’t look like the old Raffles Hotel. There were more boutique shops, spas, skincare salons, etc. at this colonial icon of Singapore’s British heritage. Nevermind Fabulous in Hanoi didn’t even try a Singapore Sling at the famed Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. She had her brownie sunday anyway at the little delicatessen at one corner of the hotel.

A chat over her old buddy Al was enough to make Fabulous in Hanoi contented with seeing the Lion City again. The Great Singapore Sale was however not that great anymore. Pretty watered-down. What happened to all those 50-70% reductions on MNG and Zara at Orchard Road? Only Fossil had a 50% reduction!