Randomness

I walk into the lift at about 5:20 pm, already a little late to be able to catch 5:45 pm condo bus from Clementi. I walk in and see another person in the lift. We exchange a friendly smile, as anyone would to a stranger meeting for the first time, and we went back to our own end-of-the-day thoughts. Suddenly I realized that I have seen him before. But when, where? Accenture has 5 floors in the office, so he could actually be a colleague from floors 32 to 35. May be I met him in a meeting or short conversation near the barista. But I couldn't remember. 

After about 30 seconds of deep dive in my memory: I remembered! We met at the dinner with Steve, a common friend. Actually a friend of my wife. Steve lives in Malaysia and was visiting Singapore with his family and friends. He invited us for dinner and we all went, along with my toddler. And this friendly person I just exchanged a smile with was sitting just next to me, keeping my glass of whisky always filled.

I approached him, not having enough time to think what to say, I just started verbalizing what was on my mind, "We met at Steve's dinner." He looked at me and said, "you look familiar". I repeated, "We met at Steve's dinner!". His eyes just brightened and with a big smile he extended his arm for a nice handshake. He asked, "do you work here?" I said, "Yes, I work at Accenture." He also worked in the same building but on 38th floor, another company. I was so pleasantly surprised that I didn't know what else to say. I could only add what I felt, "It's really nice to see you again!".

To be able to meet him exactly today, about a week after the dinner with Steve, was such a random event. There are more that 40 floors 4 lifts, usually super crowded that we can't see everyone's face when you enter a lift. So random! I work at the same place for almost 5 years, we probably were in the same lift in the past, crossed each other, we will never know. I left at 5:15 from the office to take the lift, but I forgot my phone in a meeting room, and I had to go back to fetch it. If I didn't forget my phone I probably would have taken a previous lift. The fact that I was in the office, was also a coincidence because often I work from home. The fact that we met at the Steve's dinner was also very random. That evening I was willing to stay home to respect the kid's bedtime, but we decided to go in the end. The fact that my wife is friends with Steve is because they both decided to do executive MBA from Manchester in the same year and Cohort. It's all such an interesting combination of random events. And these are the randomnesses I can see from only my point of view. What about the random sequence of the events in other people's lives which all somehow fitted together for me to meet Baven Chin again today.

Randomness, You make me wonder!

Coz Nuts are not born everyday!

Name: Nitish Aggarwal
DOB: December 5th, 1989
Also Known As: Nuts, Nitu, Nitisss, Nitisswa, Tidda, Natasha, Paddi Paddi Player etc etc
Favourite Childhood Games: Paddi Paddi and Tiddi Udana.
Why I'm writing this post: Coz Nuts are not born everyday :P

Nitish can be described as a fun loving guy with nice sense of humor. Mostly I've seen him happy, cracking jokes, making fun of people (but not offending :P) and making fun of himself. I have rarely seen him sad or upset, that's the best thing about you bro!
So here's a brief post about how we celebrated his 25th birthday. If you were the part of this party then I'm sure you gonna say, "yeah, we had a good time ;)"

Chapter-1 : Bang Bang
Location: Our Flat. Time: 11:54 pm, Date: 04th Dec.
I was having a nap when I woke up by the sound of people laughing and talking in hall. I checked time, pheuuuu... still 6 min to his b'day, right on time. I went to the hall and was surprised by seeing a mob in front of me. Suddenly the mob saw me and started shouting, "Tu so raha tha kaminey?" (You were sleeping jackass?). Considering the sudden tension in the atmosphere, I decided to quitely get away from it.

So coming to the party, this lucky fella got 3 cakes that night. That too of different flavours! WTF! I think in my whole life I've not got 3 cakes in total. People must be crazy about him!

More Than A Great Ocean Road Tour

The Great Ocean Road! It was there in my "things-to-do-in-Australia" since I came to know that I might get a chance to visit this continent. Some of my colleagues who came here before us highly recommended it to us

The trip of my life - Part 2 - Laos

After Thai immigration, we took the bus to Laos border for 15 BHT pp. We took VOA for Laos costing 40 USD. A tuk-tuk lady was with us the whole time trying to convince us to go in her taxi. But we went out to bargain with the price. Always check for other transport options and find the cheapest one. We took a tuk-tuk @ 60k LAK per person to our hostel Dream House.

We reached our hostel at 2:15 pm. The staff was really cool, especially the girl at the reception. She was Vietnamese and her English was good. With braces on her teeth, she looked very cute! We checked in, and thought of having a beer. The most famous beer in Laos is Beerlao. I like the name - Beerlao, aur beer lao! After having a couple of beers, we went to take a nap, as we all were quite tired from the journey.

We woke up and went out at around 8 pm to roam around in the city. Vientiane is lovely place at night. There are lots of restraunts of different quisines, We started towards the night market, a big market at the bank of Mekong river. When you travel in different country, Indian restraunts and food stalls will always catch your eyes. We saw a Paratha food stall. The guy looked like a South Indian and later we found out that he was a Tamilian. We ordered egg parathas and started talking to that guy. In a friendly and funny way he told us that it is very easy and cheap to pick up girls there. But yeah, be careful about the ladyboys, you don't wanna end up  with someone with a girl with penis, not even in dreams!

The Trip of My Life: Part x - The Sunset

It was my first day in Koh Tao. I came back from three dives in the evening, around 4 pm. I went straight to the room and took off the lenses. They were killing my eyes. I checked my phone, ping from Alex - "Dude, wru? We are going the High Bar. Will you join us?"

Yeah, you got it right, High Bar. The name itself suggests what you are going to get there. I replied, "Yeah dude, will come in 20 min. Meet me at the bar on the beach." I got excited! The bar on the beach was the one where I met him and his friend last evening. I was low on cash so I took out my other wallet from the backpack, where I keep the most of the case. I opened my wallet, and for a surprise, there were no Dollars and Bahts, only Indian Rupees. "What the fuck! I'm forgetting things frequently these days!" I cursed myself. I took out my other wallet, which I always keep with myself when I go out. I was very confident the I will find it there. But now I was shocked - only 500 Bahts  Where are other 7,500 Bahts and 100 Dollars?

The search and rescue mission continued for 15 - 20 minutes, but no success. I got disappointed and lied down on my bed! Now I started doing the calculations. It was around 20k Rupees, all gone! Somebody stole it. But how? It was in my backpack the whole time! How can someone steal from the backpack? But only Bahts and Dollars are gone, he didn't take the Rupees! And the passport was also at the same place, between the flaps of my wallet. Was he so talented? I saw the money last time on that night in Phuket. I took our 2k Bhat and the rest was in the wallet itself. Then I went out, had a couple of beers, came back to the hostel, had one more beer with Loraine and Rob, then I went to bed. In the morning I took the bus at 7 am, my wallet was in the backpack. And I reached Koh Tao in the night and slept after having a shower. I didn't check the wallet. Now today I went for diving. It was stolen in this time frame! Did I left in the locker by mistake on that night in Phuket. I left the wallet in the locker only. By mistake, did I took all the cash out of the wallet and left it the locker, didn't put it back in the wallet! I sent a mail to the Hostel in Phuket and stood in front of the mirror. What will I do now?

I pinged Alex that I lost all my money and I won't be able to come. He understood and went offline. I laid down. Another round of brainstorming! But soon I was tired and wanted my mind to relax. What's gone is gone! There is no point of sitting in the room and cry about it! I should go out, do what I wanted to do. Money will come somehow!

Being optimistic, I went out. I pinged Alex that I am going to High Bar and see you there. I asked a girl about the way and she said with a smile, "Follow the signs!". There were sign boards which helped to reach that place. One needs to walk on a road which had almost 45-degree elevation, for about 15 min. I was panting like a dog in hot summer noon.

I went inside the bar. At the entrance you will see a pool table, two dudes where playing there. Then there was the bar cum reception and then the sitting area. The sitting area was facing towards the West, perfect for sunset. All the chairs and tables where facing West. On the right side of the view, one can the rest of the Koh Tao island. This bar was almost at the highest point on that island. right infront was the sun going down, very slowly.  On the left side of the view was the sea. And one can see couple of beeches. The bar was alomst full. And everybody was high! I looked around for Alex but he wasn't there. I went to reception, took WiFi password and pinged him, in case he reads. Yo u can't go in a bar and sit there without a drink. As it was high bar, I bought a joint!

I went inside again and was looking for a place to settle down. Everyone was in a group and there was table vacant. I saw this guy, in early twenties, sitting alone, rolling a joint. And the seat next to him was vacant.

Me: Do you mind if I join you?
Him: Of course not my friend, please have a seat. (smiling)
Me: Thanks!
Him: Solo traveller?
Me: Yeah.
We both smiled and I lighted my joint. As the marijuana's smoke replaces the usual air in my lungs, slowly I moved my head back, keeping the smoke inside until it was absorbed nicely and hit the blood stream, and slowly I let go my breath, right upwards like a chimney! It felt like my brain cells were smiling as they were at peace and having fun! They were tired thinking about the unfortunate thing happened just an hour ago. I started talking!

Me: I had a bad day! Just before coming here, I found that all my money was stolen. That was all the money I had for the rest of my trip!
Him: Are you serious? How did that happen?
Me: I have no fuckin clue! It's gone!
Him: That's sad man. I'm sorry for you!
Me: That's okay bro. It's just money. And what's gone is gone, not gonna come back you know!
Him: Yeah! That's true. My phone was stolen on my first day in Thailand! I felt so pissed off and bad about that. But now I realize that it's that I don't have a phone. I don't need it!
Me: That's good!

As the joint going shorter, I was getting higher! Wow! I like it when it starts working quickly. I like going into the "happy zone" and then just stay there until I want. Maintaining the happy state with the correct amount of regulated puffs!

New Zealand South Island Backpacking Trip Itinerary and Budget

Flight from Sydney: AUD 580
Total expenses in NZ: AUD 3300

New Zeland - People - The Beginning

It's second day in New Zealand. I am out with my backpack on the way to Lake Tekapo from Ashburton. It's 10 am in the morning, nice weather to walk. I reached the State Highway 1 soon. The streets were quite, as expected! "I need a coffee." I saw a really nice cafe and went in there. It was nice and cool! And surprisingly there are lots of people in the cafe. I had to wait for 5 min in the queue to get a coffee! It was worth waiting! Nice one.

Now with a good amount of sugar and caffeine in my blood I started waking out the city.