Familiar faces... and freedom

Kawan-kawan aku - Sam, Halim, Ajak dan kawan Ajak (Asri kot) sampai malam tadi pukul 12 malam. Dah la lepas touched down tu tak sms (sbb roaming problem kot) tup2 dah sampai lobi hotel. Terkujat dgr suara Sam via hotel phone "Welcome to India" (kejadahnye). It felt so damn good to see familiar faces in this kinda alien environment (not so much anymore after a good 5 weeks).

Anyway, today, while they are having fun going to attractive places in Mumbai (80% of which I myself have not been able to cover during my 3.5 weeks of stay in this city), I was battling thru the most hated stage in any audit - exit meeting.

And it is especially tough (and hated, once again) when you have to argue with the best-lawyers-ever, the people of the "d" land. i lose my cool (like i ever have one pun) before even getting to my second finding - after which things turn out rather easier (to my advantage for losing "my cool") hehe. The whole meeting, joined via teleconference by our manager in Houston, took more than 5 hours (poor guy, it's 4am in the morning over there when the meeting ended by 2.30pm Mumbai time - with Houston behind by 10.5 hours).

But anyway, everything is over now. Just need to follow up on some stupid minor issues remain open. I feel like screaming "Merdekaaa!" - like anybody here knows what it means pun (except Tio perhaps).

Only one thing I found interesting during the exit meeting - to watch two ppl, both from the land of the "d", arguing - one is manoj (from audit team) and another from management. haha. seriously rasa nak tergelak. dua2 belit sama power.

anyway... tomorrow is gonna be my last day in office in this country. so perhaps, this could be my last post to this blog. ever. unless there's another assignment... nah, that's too hopeful. won't happen again in at least 3 years.

danervar for reading this blog...

Selepas penat membanting padi...

Oleh sebab irina dan soo kim (apatah lagi manoj) tak masuk ofis hari ni (Sunday), tidak lah stress sangat, so kitorang bolehlah lepak2 sikit during kerja:


P/s: To Azhar... I still miss pool table kat slb KL though. Pool table slb mumbai tak best :)

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna... To Work

A slight change of plan. Instead of watching "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" today, am gonna kabhi alvida naa kehna to work (literally means "never say goodbye to work"):

So Aniza, please wait for my return, and we will be watching the movie together in KLCC. I can play the role of translator whenever there is a mention of words like tikke, acha, kyahe, kyahowa dan kudi.

....

I hate audit. And I hate auditors.

Whatever.

"Dey Chuttia "

Seperti yang biasa dilalui masa kat GIA TM dulu, masa dekat-dekat audit nak habis ni bermacam-macam isu timbul, especially ketidakpuasan hati dengan team leader (in this case, Irina).

Since Ricardo dah balik Brazil untuk uruskan visa dia ke US (dia transferred from Rio de Janeiro ke Houston), tinggallah aku dan Tio. Tak kira waktu breakfast ke ataupun di dalam kereta dari ofis ke hotel, Tio (dan aku juga) akan meluahkan rasa tidak puas hati terhadap apa yang kami lalui di penghujung audit ni - last minute review by team leader, unreasonable requests etc - dalam bahasa masing-masing.

Walaupun dia sedar yang banyak term-term Indon yang dia guna dlm conversation tu aku tak paham (siapa boleh tengok "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta" tanpa perlu baca subtittle?), terusan aje dia menceceh mengutuk the TL. Haha. "I love Bahasa Indonesia" kata Ain.

"Never Say Goodbye..."

Walaupun tengah busy gila nearing audit completion, aku takkan melepaskan peluang watching a Bollywood movie in the Bollywood city. Since tomorrow is going to be our last weekend, nak tak nak terpaksa la korbankan waktu kerja (kerja ke weekend?) esok selama 3 jam untuk tengok gambaq (ppl here call movie as "picture") ni - Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna:

From Baroda with love…

Today, Tuesday 8.8.06, I went to Bopul, a 3.5-hour drive from Baroda, close to Ahmedabad, to perform asset count at one of the landrigs there (landrigs – pelantar minyak darat). The whole journey to and fro (campur break for lunch kat McD) took more than 8 hours! It was so tiring especially with slb driving limit i.e. 70km per hour in the case of India. Tapi sesampainye kat landrig tu, hilang rasa penat... hehe. Meet the site engineer-in-charge, Wei Jia from China:

Can you guys believe it that this girl has been living in bunkers at sites around Baroda for the past 3 years? I bet only few of us sanggup, melihatkan keadaan sites yang sebijik mcm bendang sawah plus huge trucks and equipments. Semoga one day dia berjaya jadi vice president slb ltd.

And meet the future-president-of-slb at work:

Uncommon scene

Bukan benda yang biasa ku jumpai – unta dan lembu berkongsi pinggan!


P/s: Aku selalu complaint kat org2 kat delhi "Delhi is similar to Kuala Lumpur in terms of weather and cleanliness of city. It is even nicer with all those green parks around the city where we can commonly see families picnicking in the evening even on weekdays after work. But i cant stand the sight of ppl easing themselves anywhere along the roadside - we can see at least 10 guys peeing in a 30-mins drive journey from hotel to office." Understanding that such is because of lack of public toilet in this city, strangely enough, i never saw a girl/lady doing such. Where do they do their business then? Tahan jer? Senak la. Then, yesterday after coming back from Bopul (where i performed asset count in one of the land-rig) to Baroda, i saw this lady, barely 20 metres from our car (moving of course), with her sari lifted up, and she was squatting doing you-know-what. It was gross! I was totally shocked i couldnt even lift my finger to get the camera. it's definitely more than i wished for. and... no picture for that hehe.

Banjir! Banjir!

Today, Monday 7.8.06, after conducting the fixed asset counts in Baroda base, I was working in the office (while Tio was away in Halol bunker – some 1 hour drive from here – doing inventory count), when someone came into the office at abt 4pm saying everybody needs to evacuate the base / office because they are releasing water from the dam, so Baroda town (def not city) is gonna be flooded. Now am safely working (err… not exactly) from hotel room. It’s kinda hard to believe that flood can really cause interruption to work such as this, but then, yeah, this happens at some places somewhere on the globe (these pics are taken from a 4WD so bleh imagine aa ketinggian paras air).

Airport Baroda in Gujerat lawa

Aku suka airport Baroda ni, unik la daripada airport delhi (yg mcm stesen bas) dan airport Mumbai (baru tapi still kecik) tu.

What am gonna miss most about Le Meridien

Despite tak sabar nak tinggalkan Le Meridien Delhi dan move to another Taj hotel (which eventually turned out to be not as nice as Taj Lands End in Mumbai), I am definitely gonna miss these 2 things so far only found in Le Meridien:

The 42" samsung plasma tv.. (and the FTV channel as seen here, of course)

The nice "paip ujan" as we kelantanese might call it... and this one is literally a "paip ujan"

Final tour on the last day in Delhi

Sunday morning before checkout ke Gujerat, aku amik riksha jalan2 sikit2 lagi kat Delhi.

Gate of India...

Kat Old Fort...

Sikandra

Last place that we went before going back to delhi was Sikandra(kalau tak silap aa ni aa nama dia), another tomb for another important person. Haha.

This is the gate to Sikandra

This is the real sikandra

These 2 are views inside sikandra

People that i met during the tour

Dlm tour group (lebih kurang 15 orang) aku berkenalan dgn beberapa personality menarik worth mentioning here:

Ini adalah jiran/geng atas bas sepanjang perjalanan to n fro delhi/agra yang memenatkan itu -environmentalist who works with NGO, travelling around the world to raise awareness among teachers and government officials on environmental issues.

Minah ni doctor from England, datang India to help setup a 20-bed hospital kat a very remote state (tak ingat dah apa nama state tu, nama mmg Indian abis), where tetanus n polio is still a major problem (dia aa cakap).

Dia ni plak nurse, also from England, pun ada assignment kat hospital kat India for a month, tapi bukan bersama2 dgn doctor kat atas tu.

Pakcik ni plak dari Hongkong, tak sempat plak interview apa kerja dia, tapi aku yakin ada kaitan dgn kebajikan / noble work la.
Mamat ni plak accountant kat slb kat kl. Kerja dia takde langsung unsur2 kebajikan ataupun membantu alam sekitar.
Is it time to start thinking about changing job? Hermmm…

Agra Fort

Lepas Taj Mahal, pegi agra fort. Agra fort basically contains the palace where Shah Jehan and his ppl (including his 5000 harems [gundik kot]) lived. Surprisingly we spent more time kat agra fort than taj mahal. Byk benda nak tgk kat sini. Tgklah sdiri hehe.

Gate into agra fort...

Must be a ballroom where shah jehan held his party...

Tempat semayang harems (gundik2) shah jehan... (guide aku cakap la)

P/s: agra has a lot of nice things to see... these are just some previews... of course the pictures wont do enuff justice to the real thing that u can see... (this i guess is quite in contrary to taj mahal - lagi cantik dlm pics lepas dah balik hehe)

Taj Mahal et al - Part 3

Lepas Taj Mahal, pergi tgk cara2 diorang buat corak kat marble kat taj mahal tu... demonstrasi a'la buat papyrus kat mesir dulu... it was kinda neat, the have to shape very small pieces of semiprecious stones, then cungkil marble putih tu utk lekatkan2 stone2 yg bermacam2 kaler tu to make corak2... none is painted... stones come from various parts of the world (not india alone)

Teknik cungkil tahap 1...

Teknik membentuk kepingan semi-precious stones... kesian aku tgk mamat ni struggle nak terjungil mata...

Inilah antara hasil yg dah siap... korang imagine berapa bulan nak siap masterpiece ni (yg ni meja bulat diameter 1 meter kot, and ukiran dia sumer halus2)

Ini plak carpet yg penuh bertatah semi precious stone.... lawa gile aku ingat nak beli for my mum... sekali tgk harga dia INR140,000 (lebih kurg rm12 ribu... pendamkan aja la hasrat tu)

Taj Mahal et al - Part 2

This is the guest house that flank Taj Mahal on the left side...

This is the masjid.. on the right side of taj mahal... exact symmetry of the guest house earlier...

Ramai gile org dtg taj mahal, and most of them are ppl of mordor itself...

Sedih nak meninggalkan taj mahal... sob sob

Komen – aku selama ni imagine taj mahal tu a kind of palace. Bile sampai, baru tau yg dia cuma house Mumtaz Mahal’s mausoleum (wife Shah Jehan) and nothing else. So agak kecewa di situ. Cuma architecture dia mmg gempak la.

Taj Mahal et al --- Saturday 5/8

Oleh sebab the travel agent tak dpt bawak aku ke fatehpur sikri but instead taj mahal n agra fort jer, I cancelled the car reservation n called hotel to join the group tour instead. At least much cheaper n ada gak kawan2 – takde aa loser sgt pegi taj mahal sorg2.

Sbb jenuh meround new delhi mengambil org2 lain kat hotel2 lain, we left Delhi by abt 7am. The whole journey from delhi to agra (where the monuments are) took about 6 hours! Penat gile atas bas tu. And oh, am not the only lone ranger in the group. Ramai lagi losers lain haha.

First, we went to Taj Mahal.

The red arch above is the main gate to Taj Mahal - even gate pun lawa

Taj Mahal seen from inside the gate - teringat Petra city kat Jordan dulu...

Tu dia....

Mafus yang hitam di depan taj mahal...

aku takde allowance

Slb bukan mcm TM. Kalau kena assignment oversea mcm aku di India ni skang, mana ada allowance apa2. Apa yg dia bagi cuma – accommodation, and apa2 yg aku makan dia tanggung. Tapi subject to actual receipt aa. Means kalau aku makan and ada resit USD100 for per day, dia bayar USD100. Kalau makan dan resit cuma RM20 sehari pun, RM20 lah dia bayar aku.

Kalau macam TM, masa gi Cambodia dulu, dia bagi RM220 per day, fixed. So ada lah peluang utk buat duit, i.e. makanlah berjimat sikit, say rm50 per day, dah dpt RM170 duit extra per day, kalau 2 mggu dah RM2380.

So one might ask - apa yg bestnya assignment oversea with slb? Takde untung apa2. Makin habis ada la sbb sure nak kena spend nak jalan2 sikit2 masa weekend and beli souvenir utk anak beranak sekampung. Hurmmm… mmg takde untung dari segi duit la. Tapi, yg bestnya, dpt hidup dalam luxury (wlpn temporary hehe). Naik keter power yang chauffeur-driven, laundry takyah susah2 hantar kedai but at the press of a button dan kompeni sponsor plak, dan paling bestest – makan kat restaurant fancy tiap2 malam, contohnya Spice Route ni, lauded as one of the best restaurant in Asia. Heh heh heh: