Must Do Self-Plan: Journey to India

There are so many things I can do when it comes to Ramadhan, a month where all Muslims in the whole world are fasting. So I took this opportunity to write something for my India trip, next year.

The trip, which is 9 months away from now,is going to be something incredible and challenging. Incredible in the sense that, my buddy and I will have to face the trickiest people on earth, but not impossible. And challenging in the sense that we have to work hard to ensure our seats on the trains are reserved according to the initial plan. Return ticket to Kolkata has been booked which means the trip must go on no matter how.

Many people do not understand why I am so enthusiastic to visit India. And frankly speaking, most of them will pull out disapproving faces which I don't really care. When the subject matter India came up, the only thing most people could see the positive thing is the absolutely famous Taj Mahal, and Kashmir. The negative thing, well, too many too mention here and I don't like to mention it here. Even the seemingly perfect countries in the world have their own flaws, so India is the same...anywhere is just the same. Don't look at the bad things because nothing good can surface and we will end up regretting this and that.

India is more than just Taj Mahal and Kashmir. There are vibrant cultures, architectures and heritages one can appreciate and have good experiences observing these wonders. For those who don't know how to spend their money, India is the perfect place so spend on various fabrics and perfect for various occasions. And those who love photography, I bet bringing extra memory cards and batteries are a good idea. And those who run after the heritage sites (obviously me), India has so many to offer, only if you care to get to them.

My India journey will take 3 solid weeks, covering Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra state. Below is my rough planning for the trip:

18/4/13 Day 1 : Arrive Kolkata, and connecting flight to Delhi, overnight in Delhi
19/4/13 Day 2 : Flight to Srinagar and leisure activity in Srinagar
20/4/13 Day 3 : Srinagar to Sonmarg and Gulmarg
21/4/13 Day 4 : Srinagar to Yousmarg and Pahalgam
22/4/13 Day 5 : Srinagar
23/4/13 Day 6 : Flight to Delhi, and leisure activity in Delhi
24/4/13 Day 7 : Tour around Delhi
25/4/13 Day 8 : Tour around Delhi, depart Jaisalmer by train (evening) ETD 1530, 18 hours
26/4/13 Day 9 : Tour around Jaisalmer
27/4/13 Day 10 : Tour around Jaisalmer, depart for Jodhpur by train (evening) ETD 1715, 5 hours
28/4/13 Day 11: Tour Jodhpur
29/4/13 Day 12: Tour around Jodhpur, depart for Mumbai by train (evening) ETD 1500, 20 hours
30/4/13 Day 13: Tour Mumbai
01/5/13 Day 14: Tour Mumbai, depart for Udaipur by train (evening) ETD 1545, 16 hours
02/5/13 Day 15: Tour Udaipur
03/5/13 Day 16: Tour Udaipur, depart for Jaipur by train (night) ETD 2220, 8 hours
04/5/13 Day 17: Tour Jaipur
05/5/13 Day 18:  Depart Agra by train, Tour Agra (morning) ETD 0615, 5 hours
06/5/13 Day 19: Depart Delhi-shopping in Delhi
07/5/13 Day 20: Depart Kolkata - leisure activity in Kolkata
08/5/13 Day 21: Tour Kolkata
09/5/13 Day 22: Depart for KL

Train travel details (expected)
Delhi - Jaisalmer     : ETD 1530, 18 hours
Jaisalmer - Jodhpur : ETD 1715, 5 hours
Jodhpur - Mumbai  : ETD 1500, 20 hours
Mumbai - Udaipur  : ETD 1545, 16 hours
Udaipur - Jaipur     : ETD 2220, 8 hours
Jaipur - Agra          : ETD 0615, 5 hours
Agra - Delhi           : this is a popular route so booking is unnecessary

To reserve train tickets, it is quite problematic because the Indian Railway company does not except international credit card. International travelers are required to register at the IRCTC website and to complete the registration, Indian mobile no. is required. In this case, it is good to have contacts/friend in India who can lend his/her mobile number, just to get the one time password to activate the registration. And on top of that, the account must be linked to a website which accepts payment from international credit card  provider. Ticket reservation can be done 120 days before departure and can easily get sold out in peak season.

This post is just not a mere post as this can be part of my notes and reminder so that I will not change plan once I have decided this is the best plan, based on the research done. This includes whatever booking I have made, with the hope that I do not have to waste money due to overlapping bookings. This happened before for the Philippine trip which cost me almost RM300 damage.


These are the THINGS DONE for this trip
Return flight by AirAsia Kuala Lumpur - Kolkata
Informing CS friend on my visit to Srinagar

Things TO BE DONE
Book return flight Kolkata - New Delhi (~RM600)
Book return flight New Delhi - Srinagar (~RM300)
Book all domestic train tickets (~ RM250)

I guess that is all for now. I'm so going to bed now...ZZZZZZZZ

Must Do Self-plan: Classical and Natural Route of China

I can never stop dreaming of stepping my foot in every part of Asia,though I have impatiently flew to Australia twice. I have done South East Asia, though there a few more places I still need to get in and have fun. For Indonesia, I still need to get to the Nusa Tenggara region as well as East Papua. As for Philippine, I am so longing to dive Anilao and Puerto Galera and finally, Vietnam, where Nha Trang and Da Lat are the places I am dreaming of. Oh and by the way, I am so gonna buy those Ao Dai cloths in bulk if I get the chance to go to Vietnam again. I AM SERIOUS!! Just got my Ao-Dai-like dress from my tailor friend and I guess this is the best piece of cloth I have ever had. OK...OK...I am superfluously exaggerating the introduction for my new post today.

Thinking of my trip to India in 9 months time, I feel it is a must to start peeping on my next plan to the other part of Asia, especially China. I visited several places in China but China is too enormous to be visited once, or twice, In fact, my trip to Beijing was the 3rd trip and it did not satisfy my urge as a traveler. I have not written a thing about my plan for India trip, but let me just start with my Classical and Natural China. I am planning to start the trip in Hangzhou, and end it in Guilin, which will take 3 solid weeks. I have no idea if it is sufficient but based on my interest on the attractions, a day and a night in several cities are good enough. 

Below is the map of China, and the route I intended to travel is marked with purple line,

Map by: www.Travelchinaguide.com

I modified the classical route of China from the fellow travelers in Lonely Planet and combined it my own version of natural route of China which are Chengdu, Chongqing and Guilin. As usual, my travels and journeys are based on several reason. One of the reasons is, I am so into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of course other that this, I want to see, feel and extract some knowledge from the variations of cultures, ancient histories and beautifully designed natures. And to add the cherry on the top, camera shutter is my second eye and the memory card will be my second visual memory.

My rough itinerary is as the following

Day 1 : arrive Hangzhou  - overnight in Hangzhou

Day 2 : Hangzhou

          - depart for Huangshan by bus (evening)

          - overnight in Huangshan

Day 3 : Huangshan 

           - depart for Shanghai by bus (evening)

           - overnight in Shanghai

Day 4 : Shanghai

           - overnight in Shanghai

Day 5 : Depart for Suzhou by train (early morning)

           - Suzhou

           - overnight in Suzhou

Day 6 : Depart for Nanjing by train (early morning)

           - Nanjing 

           - overnight in Nanjing

Day 7 : Nanjing

           - depart for Kaifeng by train (night train)

Day 8 : Kaifeng 

           - overnight in Kaifeng

Day 9 : Depart for Luoyang by bus (morning)

           - Luoyang

           - overnight in Luoyang

Day 10 : Luoyang---> Longmen Grottoe

            - depart for Xian (evening)

            - overnight in Xian

Day 11 : Xian

            - overnight in Xian

Day 12 : Xian 

            - overnight in Xian

Day 13 : Depart for Chengdu by train (afternoon)

Day 14 : Chengdu

            - overnight in Chengdu

Day 15 : Chengdu

            - overnight in Chengdu

Day 16 : Depart for Chongqing (morning)

            - Chongqing

            - overnight in Chongqing

Day 17 : Chongqing --> Dazu Rock Carvings

            - depart for Guilin by train (night train)

Day 18 : Arrive Guilin

            - overnight in Guilin

Day 19 : Guilin

            - overnight in Guilin

Day 20 : Guilin

            - overnight in Guilin

Day 21 : Return home

The trickiest part of this journey is that, it is almost impossible to book the train tickets online and directly from the train company in China. There are several agents available online should any traveler wish to secure seats on the specific time and journey, but a charge of RMB 50 is applied FOR EACH ticket booked. The best idea to ensure the plan works out accordingly is to travel outside the peak season, i.e in winter, from December till March. On top of that, get to the train station as early as one could for short distance journey, and book the night trains at least 24 hrs before travel time. 

Accommodation in China is somewhat cheap. I will allocate RM1500 for accommodation, RM1000  for train and bus tickets, and RM1500 for meals, shopping and entrance fees. By the way, entrance fees of the heritage sites in China are somewhat expensive, so it is a good idea to check the current price of the sites and re-do the budgeting accordingly. 

My Little Underwater Critters - Sea Slugs and Flatworms (Part 1)

I am going to jot about the mostly admired underwater creature, known as sea slugs. Well, in layman term, these invertebrates are known as nudibranchs. Just to make things clear that nudibranch (or nudibranchia) is the scientific term used to represent the order of true sea slug which is slightly different from other sea slugs in terms of morphology, anatomy, physiology and habitat . The other orders of sea slugs are sea hares, headshield slugs, sidegill slugs and sap-sucking slugs. Most non-scientific underwater photographer would mistakenly label all sea slugs as nudibranch. 

For those who are keen to know the scientific classification, or taxonomy of sea slugs, below is the full taxonomy of sea slugs up to order level;

                                            Kingdom : Animalia

                                            Phylum    : Mollusca

                                            Class       : Gastropoda

                                            Subclass  : Opisthobranchia
                                            Order      : Nudibranchia (True sea slug)
                                                             Cephalaspidea (Headshield slug)

                                                             Anaspidea (Sea hare)
                                                             Notaspidea (Sidegill slug)
                                                             Sacoglossa (Sap-sucking slug)

                                                          *source:  Behrens (2007) and Debelius (2001)

All photos posted in this blog are entirely from my own collections and my buddy's, taken from the diving trips in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines with my dive-buddies. That was 2-3 years back and now I do not dive that frequent as I have been focusing on traveling. I miss these cute, colourful and charming little creatures that I decided to post  their photos and to reminisce the moments of encounter with them. The arrangement of the sea slugs photos is in alphabetical order and i am trying my best to include the taxonomy in the caption.

As what my dedicated dive-buddy and I have been photographing to date, the most frequently sighted sea slugs are from the order nudibranchia and most of them belongs to the family Chromodoridiidae. This order is then divided into 4 suborders, with which the suborder Doridacea has the most families in it, altogether 14 families. 

Family: Chromodorididae

Genus: Ardeadoris

Species name: A. egretta

Location: Sipadan, Sabah, Malaysia

Genus : Ceratosoma

Species name: C. tenue

Location : Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Photo credit: Kamaruddin Abd Manan

Genus : Chromodoris

Species name: C. annulata

Location : Coral Garden, Pulau Payar, Malaysia

Genus : Chromodoris

Species name: C. coi

Location : Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Inonesia

* this is one of the most frequently sighted species and normally found on walls or boulders. 

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. coi

Location: Pulau Aur, Johor, Malaysia

* Mating C. coi found on a wall at Reyner's Rock

Family: Chromodoridiidae 

Genus : Chromodoris

Species name: C. colemani

Location : Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Photo credit: Kamaruddin Abd Manan

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. dianae

Location: Mabul, Sabah, Malaysia

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. fidelis

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Genus : Chromodoris

Species name: C. hintuanensis

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Family: Chromodoridiidae

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. lochi

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

* this nudibranch should appear white here but improper white balance setting made it appeared bluish

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. magnifica

Location: Cebu, Philippines

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. strigata

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Genus: Chromodoris

Species name: C. willani

Location: Sibuan island, Sabah, Malaysia

Family: Arminidae

Genus: Dermatobranchus

Species name: D.  cf. albus

* This is a juvenile Arminid which is less than 2 cm in length. Macro lens was used.

Family: Discodorididae

Genus: Discodoris

Species name: D. boholiensis

Location: Batu Ibai Penunjuk, Terengganu, Malaysia

Photo credit: Kamaruddin Abd Manan

Family: Flabellinidae

Genus: Flabellina

Species name: F. exoptata

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

*frequently sighted and one dive spot which has abundant of this species is in Batu Ibai Penunjuk reef

Genus: Glossodoris

Species name: G. atromarginata

Location: Lemberh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Family: Halgerdidae

Genus: Halgera

Species name: H. batangas

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Family: Hexabranchidae

Genus: Hexabranchus

Species name: H. sanguenus

*Hexabranchus stands for 6 gills and this species can row up to 40 cm length. 

It's common name is Spanish Dancer

Before I keep on posting more photos here, I would like to share the variations of nudibranch of the species H. bullockii. Well, as the photos below, there are at least 4-5 variations of this species which is reallly interesting. It is difficult to determine if the variation depends on geographical factor, or it occurs randomly, since there is no specific observation done on this. Based on my experience diving in Malaysia and Indonesia waters, the purple H. bullockii can only be found in Celebes sea (Sibuan island, Mabul etc) but I have neer seen anything like that in Indonesia. But the bright pink H. bullockii nudibranchs have been sighted everywhere else, thought the shades of the pink varies. And as for the picture just below this paragraph, this was my first experience sighting this variation of H. bullockii. 

Family: Chromodoridiidae

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. bullockii

Location: Mawali Wreck, Lembeh Straits

Family: Chromodoridiidae

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. bullockii

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

The yellow coil is the egg mass of H. bullockii after mating. Note that nudibranchs are hermaphrodites.

Family: Chromodoridiidae

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: Hypselodoris bullockii

Location: Mabul, Sabah, Malaysia

* another variation of H. bullockii. This variation is found only in Celebes sea so far.

One of my favorite nudibranch because it is purple. Hehe...

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. bullockii

Location: Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

* Another variation of this species.

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. emma

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. infucata

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. maculosa

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Genus: Hypselodoris

Species name: H. whitei

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Family: Kentrodorididae

Genus: Jorunna

Species name: J. funebris

Location: Pulau Perhentian, Terengganu, Malaysia

This species is abundant in Malaysian underwater.

Local divers call it, Kungfu Panda and other names include

'funeral Jorunna' which I have no idea why it is called 'funeral'

Little Kungfu Panda about to feed on tunicates

Genus: Mexichromis

Species name: M. multituberculata

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

A group of M. multituberculata which is a rare sighting anywhere else but in Lembeh

Nembrotha chamberlaini

Nembrotha cristata

Genus: Noumea

Species name: N. crocea

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Family: Phyllididae

Genus: Phylidiella

Species name: P. rudmani

Location: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Family: Phyllidiidae

Genus: Phyllidiopsis

Species name: P. phiphiensis

Location: Pulau Payar, Malaysia

Order: Notaspidea (Sidegill Slug)

Family: Pleurobranchidae

Genus: Pleurobranchus

Species name: P. forskalii

Location: L.I.P.I, Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

* This slug was found during night dive, slightly bigger than a saucer

Another variation of P. forskalii

Species name: Prostheceraeus sp
Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Species name: Pseudoceros bifurcus

Location: Menjangan Island, Bali, Indonesia

A flatworm, Pseudoceros sp., mimicking a nudibranch Glossodoris atromarginata. 

Famile: Phyllidiidae

Genus: Reticulidia

Species name: R. fungia

Location: Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Sabah, Malaysia

Genus: Risbecia

Species name: R. pulchella

Location: Pulau Payar, Malaysia

* A pair of R. pulchella is tailgating, or simply tailing and it is believed  

R. pulchella feeds on sponges

Genus: Risbecia

Species name: R tryoni

Location: Lembeh Straits: N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

Family: Polyceridae

Genus: Tambja

Species name: Tambja gabrielae

Location: Lembeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

One of the largest sea slugs in its order

Family: Polyceridae

Genus: Tambja

Species name: T. morosa

Location: Lemeh Straits, N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

The colour of T. morosa may be dull, but it is lovely to watch its graceful movement

(To be continued to part 2 after I have acquired all pictures in my laptop)