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.

A Visit to India

I was in India for 10 days to attend IEEE R10 Student Congress 2008 at Chennai and IEEE R10 meet at Ahmadabad, Gujarat. Blog is written in points like a summary because 10 days in India were wonderful. Neither I can forget that experience nor can I write that down here because it will take additional 10 days since every moment of that time was fantastic.

26th Jan – 31st Feb (Karachi -> Mumbai -> Chennai)

- Mishandling by PIA authorities at Karachi Airport. They removed my ticket “Mumbai->Chennai” instead of “Karachi->Mumbai” besides my saying “Madam, I think you are tearing wrong ticket, can you please re-check”. She had some proof of being the right, so I ignored.

- Rickshaws of Bombay are wider than ours.

- Indian Airline’s staff was very supportive. They called P.I.A to resolve the issue and didn’t let me say few words to them since I was very happy with the performance of P.I.A

- I liked the south Indian food on first day but later on I started feeling like I am in China since In china “language and food were the only issues for me” same goes for Chennai.

- Enjoyed a lot at Ice-breaking activity in lawn where every one introduced in a group activity and I could remember more than 30 students in first meet, few people started calling me KOOL guy. Probably they were mistaken

- First day was wonderful, activities were good and 95% of the participants knew me with name.

- Many were willing to have a snap with representatives of a peaceful country (Pakistan), People were curious to know more about Pakistan and specially my life in Pakistan being from the minority.

- My announcement of being IEEE Regional Student Representative (RSR) by R10 Student Activities Chair (SAC) surprised almost 70% of the participants.

- Interaction with students from different countries was cheering me up, Chinese were yet again the attraction point for me

- Congress third day was horrible for Pakistanis. We Pakistani get the Indian visa city wise and we have to report at POLICE station within 24 hours of arrival. Fortunately, 3 Karachites were exempted but 4 from Lahore had to report and they faced lot of issues on it.

- Interview with IEEE.TV went very good and interviewer feedback was good about Pakistan after getting some information about it. While I was at interview organizing committee was searching me as I was to be at stage for some good that I did with my team in July 2007 (Pakistan Student Congress 2007)

- Chit Chat with Bhavika, Ravendar, Namita, Shoaib lasted for 6 hours Out of 6, 3 hours were utilized in Khichae of Ravendar on a step he took that morning

- Hari was also a good friend. He accompanied us for whole day to visit Chennai. Beach was same as ours but we had to walk around 10 minutes before reaching there, buffet was cheaper than ours and shopping there was costing more than it should

1st Feb – 4th Feb (Chennai->Ahmadabad->Mumbai->Karachi)

- Visiting Ahmadabad was fun, Historical places were good, Gandhi Nagar was a nice place and well maintained but Kirshna Mandir was exceptionally good

- Shopping with few friends from Madras and Australia was a nice experience. Shopping Mall was very good like we have in Karachi. But I was amazed to see that kind of shopping mall in a city like Ahmadabad.

- First time in my life, I was attending a professional meeting which was for 2 days. Environment was very good. Accommodation was more than satisfactory. I was enjoying the weather and was feeling like flying

- In Bombay, I stayed at friend’s relatives. Their hospitality was outstanding. They were caring same as my family does . I didn’t feel for a minute that I am not in Ghotki. Hats off to them. Every member of the family was tremendously good and caring.

- Even after 10 days one P.I.A guy remember me for being the victim of their outstanding service so he didn’t bother to say anything to me for 25 KGS over weighted baggage than allowed (because I was carrying 30KGs of a friend )

In short, memorable trip, No office calls, No office tension, only fun. Special Thanks to Dr. Ashwin Sahoo (Organizing Committee) who cared a lot for all of Pakistani delegates and gave them special privileges after POLICE teased 4 Pakistani delegates for whole day. A few pictures of my visit are available at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/opbatra2kn/AVisitToIndia

Chinese Experience – Celebrating Anniversary

I clearly remember July 13, 2006 – one day before I left for Beijing, China- Sunny hot-day and I was running after a travel agent for visit visa of China. I was already rejected by the consulate because of prime requirement of invitation letter from Chinese government and even a travel agent who had promised me visa had failed. I was feeling totally down and was already on this visit compensation treat by my friend at Bar BQ Tonight.

Luckily I had gotten this delayed invitation letter from Beijing and I planned to give a shot to my luck. So I entered into Chinese consulate and there I saw this Pakistani lady and tried to seek her help in getting visa but she straightforwardly rejected and redirected me to Chinese lady who saw my documents and started comparing, in the meanwhile my heart was pounding and then I was surprised to see the same copy of Chinese letter with her that created a hope in me and she asked:

 “You are going for the first time to China? Where is your bank statement?”

“I don’t have that right now but I can provide that to you in an hour.”

She said: “Ok get your passport with visa in evening after providing bank statement.”

Hmmm I was more than happy. Then I rushed to travel agent and came to know that there are no seats available in any direct flight on that day so I agreed to have a winding indirect flight and I got this strange and tenuous root of Karachi->Lahore->Bang Kong -> Beijing and then I was also told that check in time for the flight was within 30 minutes and Airport was a good hour away!

Basically, I was supposed to go to Beijing china in order to attend an IEEE region 10 student congress 2006 (R10SC2006) for four days (July 14-17); which was being organized by four universities of Beijing where delegates from almost all the world were supposed to come and I was eagerly waiting for this event to happen for one year.

After traveling in flight and waiting at airport for around 24 hours I reached at Beijing airport. Here comes the pain again, Chinese generally tend to be very incompatible with English and since getting to China was nowhere in my calendar one day before I was totally not prepared for the travel. So I forgot the digital cameras, congress and travel guidelines. So I had this un-usual expensive yet bargained taxi ride for $25 –I was initially quoted $50- to BUPT University. I traveled through this 20KM long highway to city on that scenic taxi ride and when I reached at BUPT another surprise stuck me because there was no one to receive the only delegate from Pakistan, all were at another university where 2nd day program was going on. I was roaming around in the one square KM university with my travel bag. I found one guy who knew English; he helped me a lot, besides spending his one hour in searching organizers he also made some calls for me as well. I had already few Chinese friends so I made calls and became very happy to get warm welcome from Xing Jin (Honorary Chair R10SC2006). After paying my registration fees and getting into my room I was asked to join the culture night. There I was surprised to hear “Kajra Re” song, 12 Indian delegates to the congress were dancing inside and they were the heart of culture night. After some time I saw this pretty girl coming to me; “Are you Om Perkash Batra from Karachi?” Yes “How you are my friend? How was your journey?” She was Sammy, one of my friends with whom I used to work together on the IEEE Region 10 Pen Pal club project. I had a conversation with her along with many other fellows, enjoyed the culture night and then we left for hotel. I was too tired and my roommate from New Zealand was also waiting for me, we had a little bed time chat before jumping into dreams.

We went to a university where we were warmly welcomed on the third day. We were supposed to play physical games, we had some tools to search some hidden points and report there, we were getting some score based on reporting time. All points were in the university which was more like a city in itself. Chinese are very caring, while running my team-mates were taking care of me and saying “careful.. careful … careful” again and again. That game was awesome; I was the member of Chinese team and surprisingly got 5th position and I was awarded one gift for that as well. Then we went to the Summer Palace which is spread on approximately 3 square KM and it took 4 hours for us to visit half of it. After getting tired we (me, Sammy and two Thai chaps) had a singing competition in our native languages. My voice is not that good but they were still happy with it, I don’t know how they managed to bear it.

On 4th day we had delegates’ presentation session which went good, every delegate in his/her presentation praised the much-obvious dedication of Chinese volunteers. After that we had a gift exchange session, again I had no gifts to exchange but I got many gifts from friends I made in three days but promised to send them gifts from Pakistan, which I fortunately did. Then we had a visit to Tieman Square which is also a beautiful place. That day congress was officially closed but still I had few days to visit Beijing. 5th day I was supposed to leave to see The Great Wall with some friends from China, Japan and New Zealand. It was fun to be there, the weather was awesome at the top and I got the HERO card as well, the statement written over there was “If you don’t climb the great wall, you are not he real hero”. There surprising moment was an old Chinese was climbing fast than a young boy. On remaining days I had a little shopping because Beijing is expensive, visit to Forbidden City, Ming Tombs, old temples and other famous places of Beijing. Then I came back to Karachi following “Beijing->Bang Kong-> Karachi” route, after reaching Karachi I directly went to my hometown “Ghotki”, so my total traveling time increased from 24 hours. This ended my journey.
Concluding it would be, Chinese are very hospitable, helpful and too much health-conscious. Their ethics background is strong; they use bi-cycles a lot. But the problems one might face over there are Food and language.  Some of my pics in Beijing….!

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NASCON 2007, a visit to Islamabad

I went to FAST-NU Islamabad campus to compete in the Engineering Problem Solving Competition along with my two other friends on March 24-25, 2007. If I start writing about this trip from start it going to take hours for me and days for you to read and understand it. So let’s write un-forgettable moments of NASCON 2007 and Islamabad.

- Getting the fine food in the new train so called Sindh Express.
- Irritating behavior of a couple in train.
- Waking up early at 6am and asking other friends to also wake up.
- Doing fun with a group who was participating in Hardware Competition.
- Changing the Journey path at run time and getting off from train at Faisalabad instead of Lahore.
- Feeling Cold in shots while walking in FAST-NU Islamabad campus.
- Missing the bus to hotel while I went to call other friends in campus on request of my teacher.
- Getting depressed after competition while others were telling about their attempted questions in competition
- Getting un-official news that we have secured some position.
- Having Biryani two times a day (Lunch and Dinner)
- Doing breakfast twice; at hotel and Islamabad campus
- Searching for an ATM machine and gift shop in Islamabad.
- Roaming around Daman-e-Koh and Faisal Mosque.
- Hearing round of blasts from the audience in Auditorium for securing 1st position by our team.
- Getting 20,000 cash in hand on the same day.
- Getting Congratulations from friends and family on Phone and in person.
- Irritating behavior of some of the colleagues and arguing on paying even 10 rupees by themselves.
- A cream fun in train and cheera of one guy who was annoying everyone around.

This is what I could remember. Feeling Sleepy at the moment, can’t write more.

Moments I can’t Forget about Beijing, China

- Support of university and Karachi section in sending me to Beijing, China.

- Getting treat from friends for not getting the Visa of China.

- Achieving first milestone of getting Visa on congress first day and second milestone was air ticket and reaching Karachi Airport in half hour after getting Visa.

- Not taking the camera, laptop and manual guide by organizers with me was a blunder.

- Telling family and friends about my departure from Airport.

- Paying PKR 70/= for two simple Photostat copies at Lahore Airport.

- Using free Internet service at Karachi Airport.

- Excitement of traveling for the first time in plane and people praying for the safe journey.

- Take off; landing of plane and looking outside from window was a fun.

- Waiting at Bangkok airport for 4 hours while going to Beijing and 5 hours while coming back and reading ONLINE magazine.

- The Problems I faced while coming to BUPT from Airport and talking with Taxi driver like a deaf and dumb and paying $25 instead of $15.

- Help of a Chinese guy to whom I was unknown, he spent half hour with me and made some calls for me.

- Warm welcome by Mr. Abraham and other Chinese at BUPT.

- Finding VISA outlet at every ATM and having one ATM in BUPT University.

- Behaving like Deaf and dumb in front of Super Market staff of BUPT and allowing them to take money from our hands and looking at the device for the amount.

- Dance of Indians and Cultural Show by Chinese at Culture Night.

- Traveling and talks in delegates bus was a fun itself.

- Hospitality of Chinese and help by Volunteers of congress.

- First meeting with the room-mates from New Zealand Mr. Miles and sharing the culture and activities of our respective countries.

- Calling of Prof. Marzuki to welcome me and remembering an announcement related to travel imbursement after looking at me.

- After speech, realizing the mistake done by me “Talked on other’s topic too”.

- Running for 40 minutes and getting a prize for having 5th position where as we were expecting first or second.

- Saying “Careful” of Wang” congress chair” while running in a university equal to a town in Pakistan

- Smile on the face of volunteer from Tsinghua University, while interacting with every one.

- Visiting the large places like Summer Palace, Tia’man Square and BUPT itself.

- Singing competition with Sammy, Alice and boiltz at summer palace in native languages.

- Help by Volunteer’s friends and dedicating a day for us to visit Great wall and Ming tombs.

- Climbing the Great wall and feeling the fog at top, visiting the Ming tombs and museum where Chinese history was shown.

- Tour guide telling us the history and importance of great wall and we were sleeping that time.

- Getting discount for students at Great wall and White Temple.

- Getting T-Shirt as gift from Vivian and Jane and Visit to Beijing for 3 days with Jane.

- Receiving calls from friends and family at 3am mid-night.

- Queries of Jackie on Beijing streets about life in Pakistan and telling her about Pakistan.

- Talks with Ms. Wang and her boy friend on BUPT Street for 2 hours.

- Visiting the Forbidden City and a white temple and taking the wrong way and coming back.

- Paying $18 at Hotel for 6 hours stay, because Rules are Rules.

- Shopping with Jane and bargaining for the Price and getting “Great Bargainer” title from a Chinese seller.

- Not eating for 7 days and having the only milk and Pakistani manufactured biscuits.

- Gifts by all Chinese and Thai friends.

- Rejecting the offer of a Taxi, who was taking me to Airport in 20 Yuan (too cheap) and waiting for the shuttle.

- Irritating behavior of a lady with her child and people rushing towards flight gate while it was shut.

- Welcome by Rakesh and Vishal at Airport and un-recognization by Vishal for me.

- Smile on Mom’s face after looking at me while I was back from Beijing to my hometown.

Some of the Pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250443373/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250443374/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250443376/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250443378/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250443381/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250443382/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250505152/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250505153/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21613588@N00/250505154/