Yesterday (Saturday) was tiring. I went sight-seeing with another intern from Canada. We started off at 11 am and decided to start off at this place called Tipu's Palace. We were expecting a lot to see and thought it should take up about an hour. Anyway when we reached, the entrance fee was 5 rupees for Indians and people from countries surrounding India (Thailand and Myanmar included).
It seemed like those people working at the gate did not realize this rule as I had to show them the bloody sign stating it. Anyway, when they asked where my friend was from (he's Burmese), we made a stupid mistake of saying he's from Burma. This @$$ then said Burma is not on the list (Myanmar was) and he won't budge on the fact that Burma is Myanmar. I wasn't willing to let my friend pay 100 rupees but he got tired of it and paid anyway. That really got my blood boiling and I told the guy at the gate in Hindi to go learn some geography before working for the tourism department. The place was tiny and run-down, and honestly, a big waste of money.
After that we went to see an aquarium (my friend had done all the research, and expected just the aquarium and palace should take up like 5 hours). Anyway, the online reviews CLAIMED this was the second largest aquarium in india, and was three storeys high. Once we reached there, it was only 2 storeys high, and it was again not what we expected. If anyone's been to one of the major aquariums such as in Atlanta, Singapore or Bangkok, you would expect HUGE tanks of big fishes going all around the place. This was just a series of aquariums, the size of what you'll expect to see in someone's house. Major disappointment. We also had a quick walk through Caddon park or something like that
At this point, we had knocked out two places in less than an hour. So we finally decided to ask the cab driver (who was very helpful throughout, considering both of our phones had not been activated yet) to take us somewhere nice. He took us to some other park, I forgot the name. It was a huge park, quite nice. And there was a stone hill kind of thing. That was worth it. It seems like a place for families to go chill on a weekend, kind of like Rama 9 park in Bangkok, or a bigger version of Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.
From there, we headed for lunch at a place called Koshis. It was air-conditioned, so that was a good change because we were feeling kind of hot before. Food was really good, I must have eaten like 6 naans (I don't know why, I seem to eat even more over here).
After lunch, we headed to the main thing we wanted to do all day, visit ISKCON temple. We had heard good reviews about the place and honestly it was quite nice. The architecture of the building is beautiful and to quote one of the tourists over there, they had an "excellent crowd management mechanism" There was a long line to go to the place where people pay respect, and there was a two sentence chant that was repeated a on the PA system. There were also these marble slabs on the floor about one step apart each. So basically people walk step by step, but they only take one step at a time, at the beginning of the chant, while you chant out loud. It was a brilliant idea. There was this hyperactive kid though who just kept running up front and then going back, again and again, and that kept me entertained =D We weren't allowed to take cameras in, but a lot of people were taking pictures with camera-phones so I did the same!
After the end, to exit the temple, you had to walk A LONG WAY through many souvenir shops. That got frustrating. Another really frustrating thing is the lack of concept of queues and lines. People will just bloody try to squeeze their way through. And when the crowd is walking really slow, people will start pushing from behind. I got so annoyed that I elbowed one guy who was pushing from behind. He kept pushing on, and then I just turned around and gave him an evil stare. He apologized and after that I could walk comfortably lol. Sometimes I'll just create a wall with my body and refuse to let people through (when the line was stopped) just because it makes no sense for them to try to squeeze through when there is NO WHERE TO GO!!!!
After that I came back to the campus and headed to the gym, but it was closed :( So I had dinner (ran into a few other interns) and then headed back to chill out and watch shows.
Today was a lazy day, didn't do anything exciting.
That pretty much sums up the majority of the day, and if you've read till here, thanks for reading!!!
It seemed like those people working at the gate did not realize this rule as I had to show them the bloody sign stating it. Anyway, when they asked where my friend was from (he's Burmese), we made a stupid mistake of saying he's from Burma. This @$$ then said Burma is not on the list (Myanmar was) and he won't budge on the fact that Burma is Myanmar. I wasn't willing to let my friend pay 100 rupees but he got tired of it and paid anyway. That really got my blood boiling and I told the guy at the gate in Hindi to go learn some geography before working for the tourism department. The place was tiny and run-down, and honestly, a big waste of money.
After that we went to see an aquarium (my friend had done all the research, and expected just the aquarium and palace should take up like 5 hours). Anyway, the online reviews CLAIMED this was the second largest aquarium in india, and was three storeys high. Once we reached there, it was only 2 storeys high, and it was again not what we expected. If anyone's been to one of the major aquariums such as in Atlanta, Singapore or Bangkok, you would expect HUGE tanks of big fishes going all around the place. This was just a series of aquariums, the size of what you'll expect to see in someone's house. Major disappointment. We also had a quick walk through Caddon park or something like that
At this point, we had knocked out two places in less than an hour. So we finally decided to ask the cab driver (who was very helpful throughout, considering both of our phones had not been activated yet) to take us somewhere nice. He took us to some other park, I forgot the name. It was a huge park, quite nice. And there was a stone hill kind of thing. That was worth it. It seems like a place for families to go chill on a weekend, kind of like Rama 9 park in Bangkok, or a bigger version of Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.
From there, we headed for lunch at a place called Koshis. It was air-conditioned, so that was a good change because we were feeling kind of hot before. Food was really good, I must have eaten like 6 naans (I don't know why, I seem to eat even more over here).
After lunch, we headed to the main thing we wanted to do all day, visit ISKCON temple. We had heard good reviews about the place and honestly it was quite nice. The architecture of the building is beautiful and to quote one of the tourists over there, they had an "excellent crowd management mechanism" There was a long line to go to the place where people pay respect, and there was a two sentence chant that was repeated a on the PA system. There were also these marble slabs on the floor about one step apart each. So basically people walk step by step, but they only take one step at a time, at the beginning of the chant, while you chant out loud. It was a brilliant idea. There was this hyperactive kid though who just kept running up front and then going back, again and again, and that kept me entertained =D We weren't allowed to take cameras in, but a lot of people were taking pictures with camera-phones so I did the same!
After the end, to exit the temple, you had to walk A LONG WAY through many souvenir shops. That got frustrating. Another really frustrating thing is the lack of concept of queues and lines. People will just bloody try to squeeze their way through. And when the crowd is walking really slow, people will start pushing from behind. I got so annoyed that I elbowed one guy who was pushing from behind. He kept pushing on, and then I just turned around and gave him an evil stare. He apologized and after that I could walk comfortably lol. Sometimes I'll just create a wall with my body and refuse to let people through (when the line was stopped) just because it makes no sense for them to try to squeeze through when there is NO WHERE TO GO!!!!
After that I came back to the campus and headed to the gym, but it was closed :( So I had dinner (ran into a few other interns) and then headed back to chill out and watch shows.
Today was a lazy day, didn't do anything exciting.
That pretty much sums up the majority of the day, and if you've read till here, thanks for reading!!!
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