Alice Cheong

Here is the photo teaser for the Chevrolet driveaway 2008… So, what is this event? It is a 3 day 2 night driveaway to Port Dickson over the last weekend, from last Friday to Sunday. The first day includes 2 treasure hunts, and the second day includes a go-karting session and shopping session or golf session, and a pirate-themed dinner with games and presentation of prizes. The final day is free and easy.

Yipee! Time to go. The cars lined up at the checkpoint.

The cars stopping for the participants to take photographs by the river.

The cars. Ops. Or rather the karts. It is go-karting time. Our fastest 10 drivers gearing up for the race. 1 flower, and 9 leaves… Ops, I mean 1 lady and 9 gentleman geared for the final race. Want to know the result of the race? Would the only lady be in the top 3? Keep you in suspend for the time being.

The answer is… The only lady…. is…. the first runner-up!

Port Dickson… Where is the sea? It is behind the trees…

Here is the beach of Port Dickson.

Another photograph of the beach.

And… a boat in the sea.

Can you spot the animals? Yup. There are a number of cows by the greenery on the left side of the image. We caught sight of cows, horses, and lambs during the trip… Yes, lambs with their wool on.

More transmission power lines. And old zinc houses, which can hardly be spotted back home.

Huge billboards… which I doubt we will get them by our roadside, unless the government is really in need of more earnings.

Commonly seen roadside stores. Their earnings will never be able to cover their rental if they are back home.

That is all for the time.

It’s a new day, in a new place. I woke up early as we had to meet the trip coordinator in the morning. Brr… where is the heater switch for the water? As my room-mate was still asleep, and not wanting to toggle all the switches to figure out the heater switch (or should there be one?), I showered in cold water. Brrrr… and just when I finished showering, the cold shower tap started to dispense warm water. Oh yes, the water was different from Singapore’s. It had a distinctive smell, but thankfully was clear translucent, and not the brown as some friend of mine had been frightening me with. And as a side note, the toilet worked properly, and there was no sight of cockroach, yet.

Armed with all the gear (actually, just a daypack and sling bag) for the day, we set out for breakfast, within the hotel. Breakfast was complimentary of the hotel, at the restaurant “Cafe de Royal”. Hmm… an insect “greeted” me upon my settling on a seat. It is… cockroach! And mind you, this is a 4 stars hotel, where a night cost around the same as a month of undergraduate double room hostel fee. Somehow, lonely planet is correct to mention that cockroach is a common sight in many hotels here. Sigh. There wasn’t much appetite left. It was plain oats, with mini sausage and an egg as breakfast from the buffet spread for me. The rest of the spread was mainly Indian dishes, which I wasn’t used to, nor sufficiently brave to try in the morning.

With breakfast done, and time to spare till being “shipped” off for a visit to the research centers, it is… internet time. Our helpful trip coordinator had already checked out the internet connection, and informed us of the username and password for the wireless connection in the hotel. Fishing out the slim and ultra light-weight Lenovo U110, which was a courtesy loan from Lenovo (Thanks Derrick) from my sling laptop bag, I started to check my emails.

Now, the “shipping” starts. A few scientists-cum-coordinators from CSIR came over to the hotel to pick us up. The trip coordinator went with the scientists in a cab, while Jean and me, took the other cab with another participant. The sun had lit up the entire city, and we could see beyond the previous night’s shallow radius of the street lamps. Low-rise buildings, bungalows, and slums lined the streets, with many instances of the poor living right next to the rich. Meanwhile, cows, horses and camels share the roads with vehicles, pedestrians (who were able to “magically” cross the busy roads) and passengers (who jog and hop onto or off moving bus).

After the visit, it was a long evening and a rush buffet dinner, courtesy of the conference. As expected, there was lots of hiccups on the administration and registration.

PS:

1. Draft of the posts were made on Lenovo U110 – a great lightweight notebook to bring with you everywhere.
   
2. Videos for the trip that will be posted, were taken using Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam - Capture Life… See it, Shoot it, Share it.

As I went out for October Fest organised by a few bloggers the evening before, I reached home around 930pm, half drunk (through it was just a single glass of beer), and packed my bag till morning 2-3am. Next, I popped over to Jean’s place, to coordinate with her on the things to bring, so that we could minimize the things we bring.

9:30am: Finally, we were able to reached the Singapore’s side travel agent and the Jarkata’s side travel coordinator.
11:30am: 1st e-ticket for me was obtained. Jean was still calling up numerous ticketing agents to get her ticket.
1:30pm: 2nd e-ticket for Jean was obtained. Trying to contact conference mangement company’s personnel for the hotel reservation and airport transfer personnel, to prevent ourselves being left stranded in Hyderabad airport.
4:00pm: Still unable to contact the conference management company’s personnel, and there had been no email reply from them since a week ago when I last emailed them the hotel reservation and airport transfer request.
6:15pm: Reached changi airport. Had an ice-cream as my first meal of the day, together with Jean and Nicole.
7:30pm: Checked-in the luggage bags.
8:00pm: Hunted for a Hyderabad guide book, as in the haste, we left our guide books at home.
8:20pm: Boarded the gate for the flight.

Now that we are in the plane boarding area, without any hotel confirmation, nor airport transfer confirmation, we need to locate the trip’s coordinator, who happened to be taking the same flight. It was a panicking moment, as we didn’t made any arrangement to meet the trip’s coordinator. The first check with the boarding counter was negative, as I didn’t have her full name. Thankfully, Jean was able to connect to her gmail account and grabbed her full name. The second check with the boarding counter was positive. The trip’s coordinator was just walking into the gate. She was a petite lady, dragging her hand luggage with one hand, while her laptop bag hung on her other shoulder, and her other hand was holding on to her full length organiser. It was a relief to see her.

We reached Hyderabad at 10:35pm India time. It took some time to clear the custom, which queue system does not go by our usual sense of order. The queue is cut left and right, despite having a controller managing the queue. After clearing the custom, we took a short glance at a duty free shop, before moving to the belt area to collect our bags. We waited and waited. The last bag seemed to be up, but our bags were not in sight. An enquiry by Jean led us to a separate area. Our bags had apparently be unloaded separately due to the fragile tag.

At the exit of the airport, a check with the personnel from the conference management company turned out that we were not under the list of passengers where airport transport will be provided as requested. Apparently, my email on the airport transfer has went astray despite being charged by the conference management company for both the hotel and airport transfer on my credit card. Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride with the trip coordinator.

The trip coordinator managed to get us a metered cab. As I was sitted next to her for the entire trip, I got to chat a little with her. We were all tired, and conversations was at a minimum. The cab apparently brought us to Katriya Towers and Resort, which is a different hotel from where we were supposed to be at. A few minutes later, we realised the mistake, and another cab was hired to bring us to the right hotel, as the original cab has left.

The next horror awaited us at the right hotel, Katriya de Royal. We were told that there was no booking for us and that the hotel was full. A few phone calls were made to the conference management company’s personnel, and it was finally sorted out at 1:30am. There was rooms for us, finally.

PS:

1. Draft of the posts were made on Lenovo U110 – a great lightweight notebook to bring with you everywhere.
   
2. Videos for the trip that will be posted, were taken using Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam - Capture Life… See it, Shoot it, Share it.

Around 2 days has passed since my plane touched down back in Singapore. I had been to Hyderabad, India in a short span of 5 days (+2 days in plane), with 4 full days (27-30 September) spent attending a conference.

A month before
Just a month ago, I was so excited at being giving the opportunity to attend this conference in India, together with Jean. It is my first visit to India, my first oversea conference, and since it is 2 years since I last travelled out of the country, I was especially looking forward to the trip.

I was scheduled to fly out of Singapore to Hyderabad on Jet Airways a day before the conference, with a stopover transit at Chennai. The flight timing was supposed to be:
9:15am – 1:35pm (Singapore time) Singapore to Chennai
5:30pm – 7:00pm (Singapore time) Chennai to Hyderabad
I would actually be reaching Hyderabad at 4:30pm India Time, as Singapore is 2.5hrs ahead of india’s time zone. That would give me plenty of time to travel from the airport to the Hotel Katriya de Royal. And perhaps some time to explore.

2 weeks before
It was a mad rush to finish a lot of pending work before the trip, as I will be unavailable for a week during the trip. In between, around 2 weeks before the trip, I went down to Mustafa Air Travel Pte Ltd (at 5 Verdun Road, 01-02/03 SPA Building, Singapore 207274) to apply for the visa to India. (Mustafa Air Travel is the appointed visa application venue, as with effect from Sep 10 2007, High Commission of India no longer accept visa applications at its premise.)

The visa application was really fast. I was served within 10 minutes from getting my queue number, and the 6 months tourist visa which costed $60 ($50 + $10 for service charge) was available for collection the next day. The only part of the application which gave me unneeded anxiety is the field “Names and full addresses of two references in India” (I was calling up my Indian friends to request for the two references), which actually can be left blank .

1 day before
My mood regarding the trip has been fluctuating up and down. I was both excited and upset. The funding for the trip is from an external fund, and there is trouble obtaining approval from the required parties. Not to say the least, I was really tired out rushing pending work and by the problems happening around me.

Morning : There is still no sight of the e-tickets.

Afternoon : The air tickets booking were cancel. It seems like the trip is cancelled, as approval for the funding of the trip is still pending. Sigh.

Late Evening : The trip is back, but uncertainty still hangs over the trip, as the air tickets will still need to be purchase the next day (the ticketing office is closed for the day), and the funding will be insufficient to cover the air tickets and accommodation for both Jean and me. Time to scamble to pack bag.

PS:

1. Draft of the posts were made on Lenovo U110 – a great lightweight notebook to bring with you everywhere.
   
2. Videos for the trip that will be posted, were taken using Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam – Capture Life… See it, Shoot it, Share it.