My Travel Diary 3 - Hathras to Hong Kong in 21 Years

Hathras to Hong Kong in 21 Years

I don't exactly remember when the last time I went for a Bromantic trip (term coined to amplify brotherly love :-) ha! Actually I immediately fell in love with the term "Bromance" when I first heard it off Facebook (another benefit of safe social networking, thanks to all my wise FB contributors and to the nutty ones too...lol) Yeah, I guess it was summer of 1993 or so... that was the last time when two of us (the Baswan brothers) got out on a solo road trip. That was to a small town 230 kilometers Nothwest of Delhi and I guess we went there to resolve my brother's astrological mystery looming over his fate. As we didn't known his exact time of birth. We were hoping to get some clue from the super efficient Hathras Munciple administration (that was wishful thinking at its best ha!)

Another compelling reason for me was to taste the super delicious Hathras Rabri (type of condensed milk custard) and my granny's handmade meals that I used to relish ah! started drooling already thinking of that yummy alloo gobhi with poori and halwa! God bless granny for creating those neural pathways that taste is still safely registered at some hexadecimal address in my memory. It is actually a bit crazy to compare the two cities and by far there is no correlation between the two, apart from the only two cities in the world I had made solo leisure trip with my brother as of now. Later one is actually one the greatest countries in south of China where as former is just some small town of western UP (India) only importance in present is it's my brothers place of birth.

To me that bus journey from South Hong Kong island to Hong Kong Central was no different from Delhi to Hathras. Probably because I had the same company that no other person can give in this world. That is why they say relationship is the best thing to cherish forever, this reminds me of famous lines from fast and furious 7 paying tribute to Paul walker...

[last lines]

Dominic Toretto: [remembering the time he had with Brian] I used to say I live my life a quarter mile at a time and I think that's why we were brothers - because you did too. No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter mile away or half way across the world. The most important thing in life will always be the people in this room, right here, right now. Salute mi familia. You'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother...

Coming back to Hong Kong, after some painful cross border experience (actually may be second worse, worst was Shalu losing her passport in Thailand) this time we were travelling from Shenzen to Hong Kong and for the first time in my life I crossed over from one country to another on foot. Just cross the bridge from Shenzen to Hong Kong and you are in a different nation wolla!

We took train to Hong Kong central and  first thing I noticed on way out was Coca Cola hording at Hong Kong Central just like at Kings Cross in Sydney. That reminded me Coca Cola actually had set up their first factory in Hathras ending 26 years of political exile from India and we got to drink one straight from the fresh red crates during our first solo trip to Hathras 21 years ago. It was probably one of the first coke bottles on the first day coke relaunched and guess what? It was served in Coke's trademark 250 ml bottle. I felt pretty swish (didn't know much about coke at that time) but I just had it as my brother was keen on tasting it and I tell you he wasn't wrong.

We thought that was an accomplishment! it was probably the first coke bottle of my life lol... Although we got used to Thumbs Up much popular alternative to Coke in India till date. I quickly gathered my focus back to finding our hotel coach pickup point at Hong Kong Central it was bloody confusing and we frantically ran from one exit to another finally making it. Once again we came back at the same spot the big coke hording except this time we chose to have some beer instead... bloody grownup kids I tell you :-)

Blissful Wanderer

Blissful Wanderer

One day early in the Morning

very smooth and crisp weather

I saw a man in the park

clad in white silky Leather

I smiled he nodded

We started opposite merry go round

 Sunrise on my face, thoughts of lost and found

I ran like a pony, lost free on ground

Once, twice and thrice we passed by

I got this feeling if he was that guy?

Suddenly, I saw a big gust of wind rewind

Some itchy, joy and sorrow blitz through my mind

It was bliss, it was weird

I wanted to ask him all about my thoughts

Heaven is a place on earth

Haven is a place on earth

Is that true, is that true?

Funny he knew what I wanted; all he said was just nod

I could not ask his name but later realised

he was no one else but God...

Arvind J Baswan

My Travel Diary 2 - How to eat a Chinese Pizza!

My Travel Diary 2 - How to eat a Chinese Pizza!

First of all finding a pizza in Chinese city of Shenzen is a big ask, where homes are smaller but malls are bigger than a football stadium. Albeit a bit hungry we were almost on the verge of giving up pizza hunt after a 2 hour long journey visiting a manufacturing unit in city's east to another supplier in the west. Although, I must says I'm thoroughly impressed with Chinese infrastructure and town planning skills, I have never seen an eight lane road in any city's central district where you can zip through one end of the city to next in minutes without traffic jams. Yep you heard it right! "No crazy effing traffic jams" that is a delight in itself. Although living in Sydney has killed my visual appetite for seeing so many heads in a glance but coming from India I guess it was not a big shock.

Speed rail journey was fantastic didn't feel a bump as it shot up to speed of 160 Km/hr during our journey from Guangzhou to Shenzen, great roads, metro, hotels and food, wait a minute! I'll come back to food in a while, I know this journal is about Chinese Pizza and I'm rattling praise over Chinese infrastructure but I've so much to tell that it won't fit in one journal. Only thing that really sucked was what probably is India's strength IT and Internet. Facebook and Google are still banned in China and we got a shock of our life not being able to upload pictures on internet, in fact the hotel had excellent wifi signal but no internet bandwidth attached to it ha ha! 

Spending few days without internet, I felt as if my right arm was chopped off. Reminds me, how much of an internet addict we have become specially FB and Google. Bro chuckled "They (communist government) don't want people of China wasting time on unnecessary FB'ing and Googling" but to me it was a bit of learning to come out of our robotic lifestyles and spend few days without smart phones and internet to make us realise our human existence again. 

So coming back to Chinese pizza hunt, we found this beautiful shop hidden on the second floor of luxury mall complex in the Suburb of Nanliang that was the first pizza shop I had seen in last 4 days so we quickly jumped in. But hang on! We need to order the right pizza and my brother's newly learnt Mandarin wasn't skilled enough to communicate our needs hence the sign language. Here comes two crazy Indian guys in whole of Nanliang ordering pizza in sign language and my brother trying to explain chicken in sign language was hilarious (don't ask me what he did) the Chinese word for chicken is "Choo Chee" I was rolling on the floor. 

Finally made through the order and a delightful 12" inch pizza accompanied with fresh fruit salad and bubble tea arrived. It was a little bigger than we imagined and the pizza base had no hold (not sure why) so had to be eaten with two hands using a wrapper glove for comfortable and hygienic meal. It was probably a pizza of a kind that I had never had not even when I was in Italy. 

Nevertheless we weren't able to finish it and the left over was beautifully gift wrapped for later, see pic attached. So when in China learn some good sign language :-)