Step 4: Travelling

It's been already two weeks since i'm here. Here, as in Manipal, India. I still can't believe that I'm already stamping my footprints around this small university town. Life here have been good, not that bad as I have imagine. Okay, I will first start off with the journey here. My flight was scheduled on the 19^th. There was another group which left on the 17^th. I'm not going to give you a detail report about all the sobbing and goodbyes I did at home or at the airport. I'm sure almost everyone did shed a few tears here and there. All private students flew by Airasia and the sponsored by MAS. Reach LCCT at 12pm and headed straight to the check-in counter. The rep from MMMC, Dr. Anan was there, helping students with the check-in. We were to collect ribbons from him for our bags. Pink for girls and white for boys. Many were facing overweight problems and I merely pass with 30.1kg. Phew~

 The flight there took about 3.5 hours. Our flight delayed for about 30 minutes. My sit on the plane was at the aisle.

 On the same row was two other MBBS students, Tammisari and Leonard. Both of them were very friendly and we did shared a story or two throughout the flight. We were served Nasi Birani and water. (Iwanted Nasi Lemak so badly. :'( Totally dissappointed)

We arrived at Bengaluru International Airport, Bangalore at 5.30pm (India time). The airport was very similar to KLIA, just that it have some Indian Stone Cravings here and there.

There were a few crazy people waving to us was we walked to the customs. (I think they are Malaysian) After collecting our lugage, we pulled the big bags to the truck, all in single file. You can imagine one line of people all pulling huge bags walking towards a army-like truck.

Once we ensure that the bag was loaded into the truck then we were to get in one of the two bus provided.

We were to spend a night at Bangalore. It took an hour to reach the hotel. On the way there we were all greeted by the horns, horns from vehicles. It felt like being in Hanoi again. The Vietnamist are far more worse. The surrounding of India reminds me of Phneom Pehn. The roads are all muddy and the poors stay in tents by the roadside. Anyway, coming back to the hotel, we stayed at Royal Orchid Hotel. Apparently it's a five star hotel. We were all have to undergo sercurity check before entering the hotel. Everyone got a double sharing room. My roommate was Yoong from Muar. She is a MBBS student also. We had welcome tea before going to our rooms. I must say the bed was very comfortable.

The room even has a flat screen tv hung to the walk. Despite that, we experince the infamous blackout when we were in the room. Many girls in other room let out a short scream once it happened. It lasted like half a minute.The dinner was okay. The indian rice was long and fine. I like the green curry they served. Me and Yoong retired to our room early.

Morning call was late the next morning. We woke up at 5.30am and had breakfast. Meet Ms Dompok at the dinning place. She was in a white collar blouse with a blazer around; just like all other JPA scholar. Apparently they just arrived two hours ago. Poor thing. We took the same bus back to Bengaluru Airport. We have to take a domestic flight to Mangalore. They choose to fly with Jet Airways; one of the budget airlines of India. The sercurity check was so strict. All of us need to take out our laptop and then tied tags to our bags. We also have to go through a manual body search. It was just so MA FAN! The flight to Mangalore took 45 minutes. I was so lucky to get the buisness class sit. There weren't enough economy class sit and they put the last 3 person names start with Y to the buisness class sit. Many envy eyes were on us as the plane get loaded with practically 90% MMMC students. Once we landed on Mangalore, we were led to the college buses. Dompok and I sat together. It feel so good to have one of your best friend to travel together. The bus journey there wasn't that bad. It was quite bumpy but still managable. On the way we pass by many hill villages and also Udupi town. After an hour bus ride, we arrived at Manipal. We were all placed in a ballroom at Valley View Hotel (the best looking hotel in Manipal). Many seniors were already there. We were briefly breifed about the basic things ie: food, water, handphone sim cards and hostel. Each of us received a big white evelope containing hostel allotment slip, hostel rule booklet, an invertation to the orientation program, general student information form and hostel forms. The seniors also got us Vodafone sim card pack. Our lunch that day was also provided there. After all was settled, we were all brought to Old Chandrashekar building to collect our big lugage. There were many porters that helped students to carry the bags to the various hostels. Mine was instead carried by one MBBS senior since my hostel was just a stone throw away. I have to register at the warden's office before moving to the room. My room number: 416 located at the 3^rd floor. The warden's office is at 0 floor and the entrance to the building is at -1^st floor. (funny right?) My room is quite spacious. There are many fittings. I'll let the photos do the talking. (post this next time, internet connection terrible)

 That afternoon itself, the senoirs brought us out shopping. (Leave this for the next post :-p) We had dinner at this chinese restaurant called ThaiLin. My first ever auto ride was to this house turned restaurant. The cook is a chinese old lady. She was borned and raise in India itself. (You really can find chinese people anywhere in the world) The food was tasty and it cost about Rs 114 (RM 8). That night I also did some room visiting to Dompok (Premier Green Wood) and Dien (Sharada Hostel) place. I think that's about it. I will continue next time about how's life here.