BANG-KOK

This time my trip to Bangkok seemed quite jinxed.Firstly, just fixing the date of departure and getting the desired flight was an issue and finally when it happened, we had to return from the Delhi airport due to some passport issues concerning my cousin. Going through the entire process for the second time was definitely not as exciting as usually it is ought to be. Though we were still battling to get our air tickets done, guess what? Emergency was declared in Bangkok in light of the protests by the 'red t-shirts'. Phewww... The media reports did give a sense that things were quite messy in Bangkok but few of my relatives their assured that things were under control.

So, finally things fell in place and we mustered the courage to board our Cathay Pacific flight to my most favourite place.Well, I love the place mainly because of the fabulous food,people and shopping. On getting out of the Bangkok airport, things seemed pretty normal and calm but as we were nearing our hotel which enjoys a good location of being near the main shopping outlets, we saw innumerable cars carrying Thai people wearing red t-shirts who were thankfully moving in the opposite direction to our car. To be honest, this was quite a scary site. As our trip to Bangkok was just three days long, I was dying to get to our hotel to refresh and get started with exploring the shopping malls. Due to the traffic jam, we were stuck on the road for quite sometime. Not getting affected by the ongoing tension, we headed to a nearby Thai joint to eat the yummy local food. On our first day, we checked out the Platinum Mall(a must visit for fashionable clothes and accessories), the Indira market and the Emporium Mall, a replacement for Siam Paragon as the latter was shut due to the protests. Now, Bangkok is known for its nightlife but well majority of the places shut early due to security reasons. So, we headed to Suan Lum market where we dined and enjoyed some great live music. After a series of activities during the day, we decided to relax and pamper ourselves with the very special Thai massage. Trust me, the massage helped us have a sound sleep.

The following day, after the regular and boring breakfast in our posh hotel, we headed to a market that can drive even a shopaholic like me crazy-Chatuchak market. One of the largest markets in the world which has something for everyone, be it clothes,plants,pets or home decor and the like. I pampered myself some more on the second day with a wonderful hair wash and massage. Getting a sense that the situation was improving, we decided to go to Khao San in the night. But little did we know that we ourselves chose to go to the problem area. On our way to the place we again saw the red t-shirt herd. Well, all four of us had our hearts in our mouth and asked the driver to immediately take us back to our hotel. We breathed a sigh of relief as we got out of the problem area.Due to lack of options to explore in the night, we hopped onto a nice bar opposite our hotel for a drink or two. Also, next morning we learnt that several people were injured and a few died just sometime after we had left Khao San. We visited the MBK mall and few other nearby places on our final day.

I won't say that my love for the place has lessened because of what I witnessed but I genuinely think that lots of locals as well as tourists are facing the brunt of the ongoing tension to quite a high degree. I have always liked going to Bangkok for the simple reason that one can just let go but this time with the restrictions on the places we could visit and things we could do-Bangkok surely wasn't the same. I just hope that normalcy returns soon to the place with the most hospitable people.

SO,WHO REALLY WON???

Well,two test matches down and one can clearly say that more action is happening 'off the field' rather than 'on it' in the recent India-Australia Series.

Be it the verbal war between the players of the two teams which kicked off much before the series actually kicked off,the recent racist allegations on Harbhajan Singh or the poor umpiring in the second test match.All this merely reflects that everything is more important but the game.

As expected,there were violent protests from indian fans all over the world,most of them even wanted the team to abandon the series.All this compelled the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) to send an official complaint to the International Cricket Council(ICC).The ICC then took some drastic steps like replacing umpire Steve Bucknor by Billy Bowden in the third test match etc, which has brought relief to all cricket lovers.
During a press conference,ICC chief executive officer,Malcom Speed,said that the decision to replace him was taken in the interest of the game.
He also added that the ICC would appoint a code of conduct commissioner to oversee the appeal lodged by Harbhajan Singh,who has been banned for three test matches after being held guilty of indulging in racial slurs against Andrew Symonds.However,he has been allowed to play till the next hearing takes place.

Well,all said and done i feel it was cricket that was on the winning side as all decisions have been taken in the interest of the game.