As promised, here are some more glimpses from my trip to Thailand.......


Given that I am a self professed foodie, I have to say that food was a major disappointment. The hotel we stayed at, had a really meagre buffet breakfast, but I think that this might have been due to the fact that the previous places we had stayed at, had incredible spreads! Whether it was Singapore or Malaysia or HK or Dubai.....all these places took special care of the idiom " breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"     

The city tour was another disappointment - they took us to only two place - one to see the incredible reclining Buddha and then to the completely commercial gem factory (where undoubtedly, the tour guide has a cut!!) But we did end up buying a few pieces - one for me and two for mom; and even though I hate to admit it, they were pretty reasonably priced and come with their own guarantee. 

The tour guides also want you to spend as much as possible in their shops and markets, which is perhaps why after the Reclining Buddha and the Gem Factory, they drop you off at the shopping mall of your choice.   

Since we had done our own bit of reserach work, we decided to go to MBK Mall, and decided to walk it out, from the point where the driver dropped us. The one thing we found incredibly interesting was, whereheber there was a metro line, just a level below that, there was something called a 'skywalk', whihc was simply an elevated walkway. Away from the sun - and very little chances of you taking a wrong turn....what else could you ask for??


But I have to say, some of the better shopping in Thailand is the street side version of it - I found some cute bags, really nice chappals and pretty souvenirs! And I have to admit.........this was my first trip abroad, where I did such little shopping!


We did spend a day in Pattaya as well, but unfortunately, Ma fell a little ill, because of which we had to forgo our day at Coral Island. Pattaya is not much different than Bangkok, except that it's seaside.....it's filled with similar sights - old men walking around with Thai girls, young enough to be their grand-daughters!!


All in all, Thailand was a slight disappointment, but I think a part of it was mainly because we went to fantastic Hongkong first! 

The Land of the White Elephant

Wasn't that how Thailand was once referred to as....The land of the white elephant? However, I didn't get to see any "white elephants" on my trip there. Actually, I didn't get to see any elephants!!

Entry into Thailand was reasonably smooth. (At Hongkong, we had to wait for about 2 hours, for immigration to give us clearance!). Although, the gentlemen sitting at the immigration counter at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok, did look at us in a slightly odd manner........they were looking at everyone as if they were aliens. And I have to say, that the people in HK are way politer!!

Anyway, once we got out of all the formalities, we were greeted by a nice guy, who made sure that we were safely deposited in our taxi and sent off to our hotel. 

However, it was the way to the hotel, that had all 3 of us (my mom, dad and yours truly) squirming in out seats. The route that our cab driver was taking seemed to us, was the entry into the biggest 'red light' area in the city. It was only later that we discovered, a little bit to our discomfort, that the whole of Thailand looks something like that, come evening. 

But, I have to say, not one person tried to harass us. The people in Thailand are nice and do try to help  you out if possible. There is no denying that language is an issue, no matter, which part of South East Asia you go to, and it wasn't much different here either. 

Some more about Thailand.....coming up in my next blog!!

Black....white....and shades of grey.....

In My Name Is Khan, Rizwan's mother teaches him the lesson that there are two kinds of people in this world - good people who do good things and bad people who do bad things.

But is it really easy to segregate people like that? I have always believed that there are no clearly 'white' or 'black' people, but that there are people with plenty of shades of grey.

Imagine a scenario, where a genuinely nice person commits one wrong deed - does this mean that he is wrong? Or if a terrorist, who has the blood of thousands on his hands, saves the life of one man - is it enough to pardon him of all his crimes?

I like to think of myself as a person who has never intentionally hurt anyone...but there might be times, when I have hurt others. Which category does this put me into - black or white?

Which is why I said that we exist in shades of grey. Most of us are good people, but there might be times, when our passions or desire to succeed or the vision of happiness makes us do things, we wouldn't generally do. 

Perhaps, this is why, it is important to look at people in their totality, rather than judging them on the basis of any singular act.