18th to 22nd June @ India

18th June – 22nd June (morning)

During these 5 days, I was staying at my buddy – Sid’s home. He is a 20-year-old boy, his parents were really nice to me and they treated me as their daughter, I called them uncle and auntie.

18th
Arrived at Baroda, a small domestic airport. As the flight was delayed and after collecting the baggage, it was already 07:30 (we told AIESEC BARODA we were arriving at 06:40). The first step out of the airport, the temperature is acceptable~~ and when I saw looking for any signs for picking us up, 3 young Indian guys said “AIESEC??” HAHA we found the AIESECers easily!!!! Sidharth, Raj, Dharmesh and Hardik. They drove bikes!! And Polly was at the back of Sid!~~ Moon and I took the rikshaw with all the luggage and to Sid’s home. (Sid is my buddy there). On the road, I see there were many cows, goats, dogs!! And there are also some well known brands – HSBC, Citibanks, Ads of Pepsi, Samsung………..the traffic as expected, which was really unorganized, horning can be heard every second and of course there are no traffic lights. Everything was new to me!!!!!!!!!!

At Sid’s home, uncle and auntie welcome us. Sid’s home was in a middle class (a little bit higher) family. Uncle is a seaman and auntie is a traditional Indian housewife. The master room is air-conditioned!! And uncle and auntie allowed us to take some sleep and even bath in their room! So nice and friendly. Although we were so tired, we were a bit shy to sleep on their bed after knowing them for just few minutes :P Instead we brushed the teeth and washed the face… Distilled mineral water is available at sid’s home, and I dun have to worry too much abt the water quality :P

I asked Sid that I needed to exchange money to repees, so he took me outside with his bike!! (motorcycle) I carried Moon and Polly’s money and exchanged for the Rupees, and they stayed with auntie and uncle. Sitting at the back of the bike IN INDIA is really exciting!!!!!!! It is true that Indian people are VERY curious for us – as the lighter skins, they looked at me all the times, but Baroda is not like Mumbai / New Delhi, he people here are less ”cunning”, and they are not being bad, they are just being curious. 1USD= 47.3 rupees so 1 HKD ~ 6 rupees

At Sid’s home, we had some chats with auntie and uncle and auntie worried that we were hungry, and made some snacks to us. As they are hindu, and thus the whole family doesn’t eat meat. Auntie prepared some snacks for us, sth like potato chips and “童星點心麵” :p “Papad Pauva”, and auntie prepared some green mango juice (homemade) for us!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO delicious!!!!!!!!!

Later, we went to the AIESEC office and met some of the Indian AIESECers, I met Hamza – the Indian boy that I contacted for 2 months. And also met Ja Red and Stuti, we visited the AIESEC office and I got the internet access there!! And I got my mobile sim card!! Hahaha +91 9662799061 :P ! after 1hr stay at AIESEC office, we were heading home, and had lunch. ^_^.Auntie taught us to make Naan, Roti

After lunch we had some rests, in the master room @_@ uncle and auntie are really kind!!! (Proved that Indians do sleep in the afternoon).ZzzzZzzzZzZzZZzz

After some sleeps, Sid’s fd – Setu and Piyush came to take us out for roaming!~~~~ we went to the bridge underneath with a river to enjoy the beautiful sunset ^_^ It was so happy that I could enjoy the beautiful sunset in India on my birthday ^_^. Setu and Piyush are Sid’s childhood fds and they are also very nice ^_^. The bridge is famous for dating!?!? And ppl are as usual, staring at us…..

After roaming, we were home again. Another intern from Germany – Linda came. We had some chats and I called Ray. Moon told uncle that it is my birthday and I had a small, instant, unforgettable birthday celebration@_@ candle + chocolate from fridge! And I was really impressed!!! Sid’s gave me a little duck ^^ for the birthday gift.

We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, auntie wanted to cook us dinner but maybe next time. We met Hardik (strong Indian boy) and Katrina from Ukraine (Barbie girl) at the restaurant and we had nice food, roti, lassi, and the “papad”. After that, we went home again…75 rupees ~ HK$ 12.5……rikshaw…..home….~30 rupees. Linda and went to the party and Polly, moon and I were home….

At home, auntie and uncle are waiting us and uncle said to Sid that it is unfair to us. After that bath, shower….dirty clothes to clean (by servant), uncle and Sid slept in the sitting room and 4 girls and auntie slept in the AIR-CONDITIONED room!!!!

This is the end of day 1…..

19th – 20th – 21st – 22nd
actually I have typed the full version of my diary, but maybe too detailed (boring) :P hahaha so~~ I write the summary then :P
During these 4 days 3 nights (we left baroda on the 22nd evening), we were still staying at Sid’s home, and every morning I went for morning walk (woke up at 5:30am) with uncle. As I really want to know more about India, although waking up at the early morning was a bit hard, I still willing to do it :P

Uncle drove me around the neighborhood and told me about the city, he brought me to parks where people do yoga, there were many kinds of yoga, some of them were just laying on grass (no movement!!), some of them hold the “thump-up” at their foreheads, some of them were “Laughing Club”, saying HEE HAA HEE HAA with some simple actions, some of them were stretching and some of them were only mediating. It was really cool to see these things!! I was glad that I asked uncle and joined his morning walk!!!

Because of the morning walk, I was able to see the mayor house (passed by), the different classes of school (private/gov), to see the morning worship of Hindu, the morning street hawker of milk, ………………..more and more…..the morning life of Indians!

Morning walk is really relaxing, the temperature is not cool, some mild wind~~~ The most attractive thing is that I can see the sunrise!!!! ^_^ REALLY ENJOYABLE!!

Everyday after morning walk (~7am), uncle makes Chai for me!! Chai = Tea = Indian milk tea! The taste of Chai made by uncle is 90% similar to HK’s milk tea!! Holding the cup of Chai, sitting at the balcony and watching the sunrise is the “routine” for uncle and me during those 4 mornings.

There were maximum 8 interns staying at their home, including Linda – Germany, Fabian – Austria, Ines – Spain, Marion – France, Kateryna – Ukraine, Moon, Polly and I – HK.

They usually wake up at 9:XX. So before they wake up, uncle and I go to a nearby supermarket – MORE, to buy some bread and juice for their breakfast. Therefore, during the morning time, I have plenty of time to chat with uncle, and that’s why uncle treats me like his daughter.

About auntie, as mentioned, she is a traditional Indian housewife, who stays at home and cooks for the family. Cooking! Of course I definitely not miss the chance to learn ^_^ Auntie taught me how to make Chapati, Naan, Indian sandwich, lassi, green mango juice, Idli, and some more ^_^!!! The food was really tasty!!!!

During the spare time, I helped auntie to prepare for the meal, just cleaning, cutting and stir-frying, very simple. Although it was so easy, it could see auntie was happy about it. Being more familiar with auntie, she told me she was pregnant and soon to labour but the baby dead……..8 months…..she said everyone in the family told her that “you should have a more daughter” and maybe that’s the reason that uncle and auntie treat me like her daughter….If I can make them happier, there is no reason not to do that.

About travelling in these days, Sid brought us to a park with a zoo, the hygiene level was REALLY poor!! The birds were REALLY smelly!! The first thing came into my mind was H5N1=_=!!well, the weather was veryveryvery hot!! Made me feel dizzy@@

And one day, we went the ahmedabad (2 hrs journey from Baroda) to visit the Akshar Dham (recommended by Vincent before), the whole “park” was quite big and nice,

Another day, we went to INOX – the most famous shopping mall in baroda!! There is McDonald, Subways, cinema and many other shops~! We watched a movie (angels and demons), I watched it before when I was in HK….the “intermission“ during the movie was really wield.

One night, we went to a Chinese Restaurant- CHUNG FAA. As expected the food wasn’t Chinese, I am sure my cooking was much better!!
Another night, we went to Pizza Inn, of course to have pizza:P YUM YUM YUM
Another night, we went to a ALL YOU CAN EAT restaurant…and one night went to NEW ALKA RESTAURANT.

EAT EAT EAT~ the food is really nice in INDIA~~

^_^