Monday, March 19, 2018

KERALA INDIA - DAY 01 - DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL

Kali terakhir kami ke India ialah pada 2012 iaitu ke New Delhi, Kashmir dan Agra di utara India. Trip pertama kami untuk 2018 ini kami mulakan dengan ke India sekali lagi dan kali ini kami memilih untuk ke Kerala, di selatan India.

Jadi kenapa pilih Kerala? Sebenarnya saya teringin sangat nak ke sana sebab, a few years ago, masa kami fikir-fikir nak pergi bercuti ke mana, Kerala was in our list. And at that time masa buat research tentang Kerala saya jadi teruja dengan the Backwater Cruise di Kerala ni.  

And so off we went masa cuti weekend panjang Hari Wilayah dan Thaipusam pada awal tahun 2018 ini. Cuma 4 hari 3 malam sahaja. 

Brushing up skill ambil gambar 360° dalam teksi ๐Ÿ˜Š.

Kami naik Air Asia. 


Turun di level Perlepasan.

Cuti panjang maka ramai orang di airport ni. 

CNY decorations.

Check-in di Kaunter Y.




Makan kejap.

Awww.. cute, right!

Pocotee and friends. Suka si Mao tu.. hehe.

Teringat Tam Tam... hehe.

Centerpiece CNY dรฉcor depan ERL di level 2 ialah an ancient Chinese home. Nice!

Moh ke Perlepasan Antarabangsa. Masa tu about 5 petang. Flight pukul 7:30 malam.

Gate L14.

AK 0035.

Bersolat Asar di surau. 

Pintu Perlepasan.

Trip kali ini turut serta ialah my wife's kakak ipar dan anak saudara.

Boarding.

Nampak macam full flight.

Pemandangan senja dari dalam pesawat di KLIA2. 

Beautiful!

Seating: 3 seats then aisle and then 3 seats. Makanya saya terpisah dengan isteri sebab dia duduk bersama kakak ipar dan anak saudara dia. Just across the aisle je. Ok la, also flight cuma 4 jam saja.

Mostly passengers adalah warga negara India. Suasana bising dan kecoh. Dah on board pun ramai still using handphone. Siap video call, maka berbualnya pun terjerit-jerit. Like seriously. Salah seorang yang tengah buat video call tu duduk 4 seats in front of me, dok pulak nak pass phone pada kawan yang duduk a few rows di belakang, maka menjerit-jeritlah lagi. Hadoii... And I must add, this is after the cabin crew berulang kali suruh mereka to switch off their phones! I must add cabin crew Air Asia masa tu adalah sangat bagus. Sabar betul mereka. They are firm yet professional. Oh by the way, did I mention betapa kuatnya bau badan passengers dalam flight ni? There were so many of them, tepu dan pekat jadi baunya dalam enclosed area ni. Hadoiii... lagi. 

Then, ada la sorang lelaki ni, a father who was flying with his 2 kids. I was seated by the aisle and the guy and his kid yang dia riba was seated in the middle. His older kid was at the window seat. Dia kerja di Melbourne dan was on his way to his home in Kerala after he was visited by his family di Melbourne. Dia mula menegur saya and we talked a bit. The casual conversation then turned into him venting his frustrations. Ehhh.. apeni? Saya dah mula rolling my eyes dah masa tu. Pulak tu tak henti-henti complain. One thing dia complain pasal Air Asia ni seat sempit. To me selesa je with nice leg room. Seat pun boleh lean back. Malas nak dengar saya pun snapped la bagitau dia, since dia tak nak beli seat for his kid dan chose nak pangku anak dia, mesti la jadi sempit. I added, 'It is like that, how much you complain, it will still be like that'. Terdiam dia. I thought that was it, but no.

Lepas tu seorang stewardess pun datang bagi the guy toddler seat belt dan tanya tahu ke dia nak pakai seat belt tu. Dia boleh cakap dia tak nak pakai. Ehhh!!! Of course la stewardess tu kata mesti pakai for safety reasons. Lelaki tu boleh terus berkeras dia tak nak pakai and kept on arguing. After much persuasions from the stewardess, the guy grudgingly took the seat belt and fastened it on around his kid. Dan salah pulak cara dia pakai. So stewardess tu pun pakaikan. The stewardess apologized to me for the inconvenience sebab terpaksa lean across me. Of course la I said it was no problem at all. She was just doing her job and a very good job she did indeed dealing with such irrational passenger. Dah secure toddler seat belt tu, stewardess tu pun left.

To calm myself, I pun closed my eye sekejap. Tetiba terasa ada sesuatu menyentuh bibir saya. Tersentak! What the...?! I opened my eyes dan terkejut ada puting botol susu disuakan ke mulut saya. Rupanya anak si lelaki sebelah saya tu la. I can't help but laugh la dan cubit pipi si comel tu. Cepat-cepat bapak dia tegah kelakuan anak dia as the kid was about to sua botol susu dia to me again. Agaknya anak dia pun nampak saya tension and nak offer his milk to calm me down.. hehe.

Then selamba je the guy unbuckled the toddler seat belt. Like, seriously?!! And he started to membebel to me about his incident with the stewardess earlier. Hadoii... Then a steward noticed the unfastened toddler seat belt and another round of arguing/persuading took place. This happened for a good 5 minutes with the guy, again, agreed to finally fastened the seat belt. Then he had the cheek to say to the steward, 'Are you happy now?' ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

After the steward left, again the man started to membebel! I cannot take it anymore. Dengan suara yang dead serious I told him, 'It was not to make him (the steward) happy, it was for your own kid's safety. Understand?!' Terus dia senyap. 

You see, I was a passenger so I can use whatever tone I like. And I know the steward can do the same but of course he did not and should not cause that is not how things are done in the service industry. I do salute the steward for being so patient and what's more important he had successfully got the man to fastened the seat belt. He was focused, professional and firm.   

Agaknya perasan saya dalam keadaan 'tersiksa', steward tadi who was passing by pun beritahu saya, later saya boleh pindah ke seat depan saya sebab seat tu kosong. Flight berlepas, saya pun pindah. Punya la lelaki tadi berterima kasih pada saya sebab he can now sit his kid in my seat. 

And I thought that was the last 'unpleasant' encounter I had with the man. But noooo. Tetiba something hard hit my head. Oh what now?!! Rupanya the guy took his bag from the overhead compartment dan masa nak turunkan the bag accidentally banged my head. Terkejut lagi saya masa tu berserta dengan rasa sakit. Hadoi... Dah rasa guilty, terus lelaki tu dengan kedua-dua tangan dia usap-usap kepala saya. He did not say anything just continue to rub my head, agaknya tu cara dia mintak maaf dan nak buat rasa sakit pada kepala saya hilang. First the shock from the head bang, then the very sudden and very unexpected head massage. How am I to respond? So I just politely shrugged him off and look for panadol. 

Of course through all my ordeals, my wife can only look at me dengan rasa penuh kesian pada saya.. hehe. 

Beautiful sunset. 





Makan. Nasi lemak, assorted cookies and chocolate brownie. 


Lebih kurang seminggu sebelum berangkat ke Kerala, kawan saya DrSinga ada beritahu tentang gerhana bulan penuh yang dijangka akan berlaku pada 31 Januari 2018. Kebetulan flight saya ke Kerala adalah pada hari tersebut. So saya pasti la tak akan dapat tengok gerhana tu, apa lagi nak ambik gambar kerana flight kami tu berlepas pada pukul 7:30 malam. 

To my surpise, my wife told me she did take a few shots of the moon dari dalam flight Air Asia kami tu. She was seated pada row yang tingkapnya mengadap bulan malam tu. Wah! Me so happy lah!

And she took this one too! Uwaahhh! ๐Ÿ˜Š Syukur Alhamdulillah dapat juga a couple of shots of the eclipse. 

Fyi, by this time pernafasan kami dah biasa dengan bau-bauan yang pada awalnya tadi adalah menyusuk dan memeningkan. 

Kami selamat mendarat di Cochin International Airport pada pukul 8.30 malam (11:00 malam di Malaysia), lewat 20 minit berbanding jadual. Kochi dan Kuala Lumpur mempunyai perbezaan waktu 2 jam 30 minit di mana waktu di Kochi lebih lewat berbanding Kuala Lumpur. 

Ada a beautifully decorated patung gajah yang bersaiz sebenar di Cochin International Airport ni. 

Mengisi borang imigresen. 

Pemeriksaan passport.

Macam airports lain, mesti kena lalu Duty Free.

Duty free shops and tempat ambil bagasi.

Cochin International Airport, world's first airport fully powered by Solar Energy. 


Kakak ipar dan anak saudara isteri saya beli Local Data SIM Card. Kalau tak silap harganya INR 1,500 (RM 91.00) untuk 2GB sehari bagi kegunaan 4 hari.

Cantik Cochin International Airport ni.


Pemandu kami yang bernama Roji dah sedia menanti di airport. Unfortunately, si Roji ni bukan tour guide dan adalah seorang driver. So tak banyak info kami dapat dari dia. Dan selalunya seorang tour guide akan fasih berbahasa Inggeris, salah satu sebab kenapa saya requested for a tour guide. Tapi si Roji tak pandai sangat cakap Inggeris. Mujurlah kami berdua dah buat enough reading about Kerala.

Kami terus dibawa ke hotel di bandar Kochi terletak kira-kira 45 minit perjalanan dengan kereta dari Cochin International Airport.


Di India, pemandu di belakang kenderaan besar macam lori ni digalakkan menekan hon. 

Di Kochi ni kami lagi banyak nampak gereja dan masjid dari nampak kuil-kuil hindu. Kira menghairankan juga la sebab 47% penduduk Kochi adalah beragama Hindu, 35% beragama Kristian dan 17% lagi beragama Islam. Agaknya lokasi kuil-kuil Hindu adalah bukan di sekitar bandar Kochi. Fyi, jumlah penduduk di kawasan Metropolitan Kochi adalah 2 juta orang.
Gereja-gereja Kristian di sekitar kawasan Kochi juga terdiri dari mazhab yang jarang dilihat di tempat lain. Ini adalah kerana mengikut sejarahnya, salah seorang dari 12 Apostles pengikut Jesus Christ yang bernama St Thomas pernah datang berdakwah secara langsung ke sini. Bila Portugis yang menganut mazhab Roman Katholik datang menjajah, mereka cuba menukar fahaman penganut Kristian di Kochi kerana menganggap ajaran Kristian yang dianuti adalah sesat. Tapi usaha Portugis tidak berjaya, kerana penganut Kristian di sini tetap berpegang dengan ajaran yang dibawa oleh St Thomas.

Ini antara masjid-masjid yang kami nampak semasa dalam perjalanan ke hotel.

Tiba di hotel penginapan kami di Kochi, PGS Vedanta Hotel, pada pukul 10.30 malam. 4 bintang hotel ni.



Betul-betul depan PGS Vedanta Hotel ni ada stesen Kochi Metro, a metro rapid transit system.

Lobi hotel.

Checking in.




Alhamdulillah, cukup selesa biliknya.


Di sini pihak hotel kata jangan sekali-kali minum air paip atau minum air paip yang dah dimasak. Minum bottled water saja. Kalau nak bancuh teh/kopi, masak lah air botol tu. Air paip boleh buat mandi je. Punya la kami berhati bila berkumur sebelum/selepas gosok gigi.. hehe. Last-last kumur dengan bottled water.. hehe.

Terasa lapar pulak.. hehe.

Waktu solat di Cochin.

Ini lokasi India --> Kerala --> Kochi --> Ernakulam --> PGS Vedanta Hotel.

Dan terima kasih banyak pada kawan saya DrSinga for these flight paths! ๐Ÿ˜Š

Bersambung....

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4 comments:

  1. kesian mao kena tinggal lagi!!!! look at his doe eyes!!! whyyyy whyyyyy you go away lagi bruh .... whyyyyy .....
    omg!! sangat dramanya dalam flight !! dengan bauannya .. dengan kepala benjolnya ...dengan hampir nak terhisap putongnya ...:))
    berlagaknya mamat tu .. dan degil .. swrves him right kena sound dengan en syed !! padan muka !!puak puak depa ni kalau dah kaya sikit , educated sikit mulalah berlagak ..
    lawanya sunset dari tingkat tu!! alhamdulillah dapat jugak nengok gerhana tu! kita orang yang dekat sini berhujan lebat !! hancur cita cita nak ke planetarium !!
    apesal tak beli seat duduk berdua-duaan ?:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mmg doc, dia macam faham. Sedih saya tau tgk muka dia macam tu. Exactly mcm you cakap, mcm dia minta jgn tinggalkan dia. Saya rasa dia faham setiap kali bila dia nampak kami bawak beg-beg besar :(.

      Hmmm... while I try to understand the man's predicaments, I totally cannot accept his irrational behaviour. Nak annoy dan express rasa tak puas hati dia pada the steward by jeopardizing his kid's safety? Loco!

      Mmg lawa sunset dari plane since above clouds. So nice. Tak sure kalau ada seat berdua dlm plane ni doc. Tak check pulak.

      Delete
  2. Saya dah strike off India from my tour list.

    ReplyDelete