Visit Poland and Switzerland

It has been more than a year since I got the chance to visit Polish world. This was a business trip and I went there to train the new staff and handover the system responsibilities. Warsaw was nice and clean city, I stayed at Continental in hotel which was few minutes away from my work. I also had a chance to visit Germany and Switzerland for only a day or two but I spent most of my two week’s time in Warsaw. During my stay in Warsaw, I enjoyed Swimming – which I don’t know -, Running on trade mill – Yes, 43rd floor motivates you to run – and the delicious food. I don’t remember much, but following is to the best of my memory!

1) First and foremost, every other girl was very attractive including the front end girl at Burger King

2) Warsaw has saved its culture and old beauty in a street called Old Warsaw

3) While taking the photo of tram, I didn’t read the number of tram and eventually took the wrong one.

4) While reserving the train ticket for Germany from Warsaw, old man almost had a fight my colleague for mistakenly breaking the queue.

5) Things weren’t too expensive. I can say that because I got a Nike backpack for US$50 and good T-shirt for US$15

6) In May, Sun rises around 4am and sunsets at 9:30pm, pretty long day and weather is pleasant.

On my way back to Pakistan, I stopped in Zurich, Switzerland for one night, and it was fun. It was also a nice city. I was the last and lucky one to be the last Zurich city tour bus. I took the tour of city and took boat tour of Zurich lake, it was calm and nice. During my tour, I saw a newly wedded couple doing stuff as if there is no home after this tour. I also happen to meet an old man from Hyderabad India who was on world tour and he opted to be with me. We end up having a dinner at Indian restaurant and paid like 40 frank for not so good food. That restaurant was in Food Street where I saw lot of delicious food, I sort of regretted for following that “Babajee”

Overall Euro trip was fun; I am going again this August to Paris and Brussels for an IEEE student congress.

Visit to Berlin

Wikipedia Says “Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country’s largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union.[2] Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan area, comprising 5 million people from over 190 nations’

Few days back, I got an opportunity to visit Berlin City; I stayed there for two days and following is what my experience says

1.    Euro is the currency used in Germany. There is no Germany pound / dollar
2.    Germans know English as well but they speak it only where they have no choice
3.    Taxi is not the option for travelling through the city. Trams / Trains are the cheapest means of transport. Let me say it loudly, Berlin has THE BEST railway system.
4.    Berlin is a tourist city and has got lot of places to visit. Even diplomatic embassies are worth seeing and can be seen unlike Pakistan
5.    Germans speak high of Einstein (off course) and they are still angry on Hitler
6.    It’s easy to find and book cheap hostels in Berlin for 15 Euros. MEININGER City Hostel & Hotel is one of them.
7.    Germany city tour on bus and Night cruise tour by Berlin City Tours is worth visiting.
8.    Walking in Berlin at 19oC is fun when you have tour guide with you for free
9.    You cant help shopping souvenirs when you are in Berlin

It was pleasure to see visit Germany and Thanks to Berlin City Tours for arranging a free tour for me. You can visit http://www.berlincitytours.com/ for further information.

Done with Vietnam

In February 2009, I had to go to Hanoi, Vietnam to attend IEEE R10 Meet 2009 for 3 days. I had two options to take for flight, either Emirates ($1500) or Thai Airways ($800), I opted for Thai Airways to save the money . This time I had to go via Bangkok, following are few of the points worth sharing

1. Hotel within the Bangkok airport was awesome, though it was very costly.

2. Foot massage was good at Bangkok airport, my feet were shining like diamond , and I will try other massages next time specially face massage

3. While landing at Hanoi, I thought there would be Rikshaw coming to pick me up, but it was Camry :)

4. Hanoi is full of motor bikes; they have 2 million motor bikes and 5 million population in total.

5. I had in my mind that traffic sense in Pakistan is worse, but Hanoi proved me wrong

6. Motor bikes are also used as taxi . They charge 100 Dong / KM

7. They have currency called Dong. 1 PKR = 216 DONG. People get salaries in millions over there

8. Hotel Melia Hanoi was wonderful; I didn’t expect such beautiful hotel. It exceeded my expectations.

 9. Its fun shopping there. When you bargain they give you such weird / cute looks that makes you smile / angry and pay them whatever they ask / run away

10. They have lake in the center of city, which is the dating point. I used to walk around that lake every day to get the tips

11. Halong bay was awesome place to visit. I liked the nature & it was drizzling and I enjoyed it more than anything.

12. In just US $35 package, I had 3 hours drive one side(To and Fro), 3 course meal, 2 hours boat ride and a tour guide :)

I also had an opportunity to visit Thatta and Keenjhar Dhandh yesterday; I will hopefully share the details…!!

Macau Explored…!

These days, I have been very busy with my office work. The project I was working on finally came to an end and went live on Feb 6, 2009. After project cutover, its taking time to fix & streamline the processes because its very huge for organization, specially my team. I got an opportunity to visit Macau, China to attend IEEE R10 Ex-com meeting this January & finally now I have sometime to write about it

1. English Language is an issue with Macauians…!

2. Lot of lot of bridges around & Very narrow roads

3. 0.5 Million population only

4. Its Expensive, Shopping will cost twice and Macauians are not as hospital as others.

5. Currency note colors are really good

6. Girls are good , I don’t know why but chinese looks very beautiful to me

7. Visit visa is required for poor Pakistanis

8. Casino is in every street of Macau Gambling is one of the hobby for Macauins

9. Weather was supercoool

10. I saw a Rolex watch for 7.1 million PKR and I wish to purchase it

11. Food was an issue

12. Currency is MOP = Macau Pataca

I hope I wont be dead again…!

Training in Dubai

Few days back I travelled to Dubai for training by my company. In 5 days stay, I visited limited places; following are few of the important points.

1. Monika the Air-hostess from India in Emirates was very talkative same as me. We were silent until we were 5 KMs to Dubai and she suddenly saw my tattoo on my hand “Om” and we started talking for 15 minutes. We didn’t feel like we have talked for only 15 minutes
2. Attitude of Arabs at Dubai Airport for Retina scan is pathetic. 3 out of 10 counters were functional and 150 people were in one line waiting for 2 hours to get it done. Arabs were treating the foreigners like their servants and the way they were talking was driving me crazy.
3. Numerous citizens of Pakistan & India come to Dubai & there is special counter for Pakistanis & Indians at Ariport.
4. 45 degree Celsius was unbearable especially when you have to walk.
5. Hiring a taxi is not an easy task, sometimes you need to show your Pakistani skills
6. Traffic is an issue in Dubai but 120 KM/Hour is normal speed on Dubai roads though we touched 170 KM/H once . Metro train will start soon in Dubai.
7. Shopping Malls are worth watching and Burj-Dubai is an amazing building
8. Because of Dubai Pizzas & Mexican food, I will go again to Dubai in September
9. Taking bath with hot water even in Al-Marooj Rotana hotel is not an easy task
10. I was surprised to know that Jabel Ali city has more than 10,000 companies in it.

Meeting in Manila

In June 2008, I had to travel to Manila, Philippines in order to have the official meeting with business experts of my company. Actually they were supposed to come here in Pakistan but due to our law & order situation here, we went there. I stayed there for 14 days. I took the flight from Karachi-> Dubai -> Manila (same was the return route). Following are few points worth sharing.

1.    140 countries doesn’t require visa to enter the Philippines but Pakistan does
2.    Requirements of Philippines visa were very high like they needed clearance from the POLICE and Ministry of affairs. I was laughing at the clearance from POLICE, even If I had committed the crime, how would our POLICE track that?
3.    Travelling in business class is comfortable but for only 4 hours, after that you are saturated specially when you know 7 hours more to go
4.    The rush at Dubai Airport was same as the traffic at Jinnah hospital signal
5.    I loved the way hotel staff used to call me “Good Morning Mr. Perkaaaaaaaaaash”
6.    Finding the Halal Food in Manila is an issue, though Indian vegetable food is great to have as an alternate.
7.    Training on security in Philippines by our company staff looked funny to me because we already have seen lot of things than they covered in their presentation
8.    Malls in Manila are closed by 8pm.
9.    Filipinos can understand English.
10.    Horse & boat riding on weekend was awesome. Though I pity on that horse
11.    It was fun to see the active volcano. Smoke everywhere was amazing but the way to volcano was TOO tough. I was praying to be back safely
12.    Filipinos charged us hefty amount for boat driving due to monopoly.
13.    Ocean Park is manila is also a wonderful place where you can see various kind of fishes.
14.    A girl in our group almost had a fight with a guy on commitment VS actual
15.    Asia Shopping Mall is the largest mall in Asia. It was very huge to be visited in a day and was also costly but I managed to buy a few things from there as well
16.    Beaches are on 2 hours drive from Manila which will be explored by me in the next visit to Manila in September 2008.
17.    On my return, at Manila airport we met with the judge of Supreme Court of UAE, he was a great guy. He told us a few things related to politics and I was astonished on them. He also asked us to contact him in case we face any issue unlike Asif (The Cricketer).
18.    In flight, we two friends told the Air hostess that we are twins. After that we ordered the same in appetizers and food. While serving deserts she didn’t ask me but served the same ordered by my friend. After serving, she again asked “You both doesn’t look twins ”

An official visit to Muzzaffarabad

I got a chance to pay a visit to Muzzaffarabad city with around 30 of my colleagues to inaugurate the 3rd school sponsored by my company after the Oct 8, 2005. It took around 2 hours in fight till Islamabad and around 3 hours more towards PC hotel Muzzaffarabad. The way we passed through from Islamabad was the way to death, passing through mountains was freaking experience. We were passing through 6” margin and I was sitting at the window seat of coaster. On the way, I was relieved to see the beauty of nature.

On the first day, we went to see the school inaugurated one year earlier and see how children are passing their time in school. We were divided into groups and we got chance to interact with students and for the first time I felt that IT’S VERY HARD TO TEACH SOMEONE because we had drawing competition between groups and I am not good at drawing and I was supposed to teach them. Anyways, drawing was made by children of all groups; I was surprised to see the communication & drawing skills of those students, they were simply the best. Top Three Groups were awarded some awards and off course my group wasn’t one of them . After that we played around. That three hour experience was the best experience of mine with children.

Second day, after driving for three hours on zigzag mountains, we reached at the remote area of Muzzaffarabad where we were supposed to paint the school & plant the plant, after that school was officially inaugurated. After that whole team went to visit the city and have the food at Food Street. Surprisingly, in Food Street there was no arrangement for cooking food of 30 at a time, the person managed to serve us the food after 2 hours. After food when we tried Kashmiri tea, it was damn salty.

After having dinner we came back to hotel and had a chit chat with each other along with singing & telling the spooky stories to each other. I didn’t sleep that night at all since we had to leave by 3am as we may catch the flight from Islamabad by 8am. On the way to Islamabad, we faced a dangerous accident, the other vehicle was about to fell down from the mountain and we hit the mountain at the left. I checked for the girl who was sitting at the front seat and fortunately she was OK, interestingly she was still sleeping . Well after the 15 minutes Pashto fight, we continued our journey. We reach at airport around 7:15am and checked in on time and reached Karachi safely.

Disclaimer

I get damn angry on following points regardless of the scenarios I am dealing in.

(1) When someone makes fun of my emotions
(2) When someone starts judging me without looking at the complete details
(3) When someone doesn’t agree just to show he/she is right
(4) When someone shows that he/she got me but he/she doesn’t in reality
(5) When someone passes bad remarks about my family
(6) When someone is not being given food because its being saved for high profiles
(7) When I don’t have money in my pocket because of false commitment by some friend
(8 ) When I am supposed to answer because of other’s mistake
(9) When someone doesn’t take me seriously when I am serious for his/her goodness

P.S: I might have missed few points. So extrapolate from these points and be careful of these points while dealing with me

Trade Off

“Its life my friend, sometimes you ought to choose one, we call it trade off”, this is what one of my friend told me when I expressed that I couldn’t attend the offsite planned by my company due to my brother’s marriage. My brother’s marriage was planned on April 18, 2008 at Ghotki city and I was out of office for 11 days (6 working days) on behalf of this. On my last working day before leave, it was announced that we are going to have offsite in Karachi for our department 

It was hell lot of fun being at my brother’s wedding. I was feeling so good to be with the family. I enjoyed seeing all the relatives together after such a long time. I enjoyed, I danced (forced to), I worked and I didn’t sleep for almost 2 days as told in Managing Shadi post below.

Whereas I missed to be with another family, P&G family where they all had very nice time together, having a 3 hours boat ride from Kemari -> Sanspit Beach, stay at beach with lot of fun and jokes along with Bar B Q dinner, dancing, firework, singing, water scooter riding along with unending games (cricket, football, volley ball, fuze ball etc) not forgetting the group discussion on first day. Second day, they had tons of fun activities to do at beach, lunch at pizza hut, adventure at Go Aish (paint ball shooting, hanging on rope and passing above the water etc), gaming at Playdium (gaming zone), dinner at burns road and ending the second day by staying at Marriot Hotel. Third day, they had a training in Marriot and return to home along with two gifts. One was Ipod Nano (4GB) and other one was a packet containing wallet + key chain + card holder.

I made the choice to attend my brother’s wedding, because my brother is marrying for the first and last time whereas offsite is going to happen next year again; I chose to be with family at my native town, I am glad with that, but I do sometimes miss the fun my colleagues had at offsite.

Managing Shadi

Managing a Shadi especially in interior is hell lot of tough job. I experienced this in April 2008. Though I was given very few responsibilities but my father and groom himself took LOT OF RESPONSIBILITIES. One thing which irritated me the most was Absence of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). There is no SOP for managing the shadi, every one does it as per his/her wish though many things are common but again if we had SOP we might not have worried a lot and could have focused on some other things.

In interior, you are the whole sole responsible for managing the shadi. You yourself have to arrange the place for treat, tent, food stuff, return of stuff, transport for guests, decoration stuff and transport of food to your relatives in near by cities. You have to fulfill the requirements by Pandit, ensure the availability of stuff at right time, follow the traditions, follow the religion for sure.

On the other part, it was wonderful to enjoy the brother’s marriage. Funny chit chat with the family on arrangements, pin pointing cousins to wash the plates, dancing with and without music, getting comments on dressing, taking snaps on funny moments, demand of 5000/= for entry into home for bride & groom. One astonishing moment was when my two brothers picked me up with their single hand, Amazing na

I worked straight for 72 hours by sleeping only 6 hours in between and I am sure my father and groom slept less than me. Thanks to my friends especially Rakesh, Vishal & Jairam who showed up on Shadi day and helped me in arranging the Ring Ceremony of my Sister planned on the same day.

“No matter whatever you do, people are going to find some shortcomings in the marriage arrangements and pin point this after the marriage” told by one of my relative and I had a very clear answer on that “We are trying our best but even that doesn’t satisfy them, Who cares”.

We recently got this blessing of having a marriage lawn in Ghotki but unfortunately that was booked on that day. After this experience, I am planning to open two more marriage lawns in Ghotki to serve the people and earn the money If I faced any issue in getting Australian visa for my Masters . Any one who is interested in investing, I have lot of options like these