Soca in Moka 2012 … so you’re looking for tickets?

1 - All Trinidad Posts, 2012 2 Responses »

Jan 262012

I’ve compiled a couple years of photos on Soca in Moka below. I assume that you’re here because you’re looking for tickets for the fete. I’m not here to tell you the fete is overpriced and that it has been overrated for years, because if you’re looking for tickets, then you don’t care about the price of these all inclusives. I could rant about the old times, where the food was just as good but the price was not 15% of average Trini’s monthly paycheck. (And even that percentage is according to 2012 OECD stats, so you know the average person isn’t even making that much in Trinidad)

Here are two pictures from Moka Sunday fete in 2005

Here are two pictures from Moka Sunday fete in 2006

Here are two pictures from Moka Sunday fete in 2008

I wont even bother posting pictures from 2009 or 2010 … the pictures were exactly the same. So how about this?

I don’t have tickets to Moka, but I will have a picture of a ticket to show you and the price. Is that ok? If not, see previous rant about Soca in Moka 2008 or Soca in Moka 2006

Trinis like salt!! And I’m number 6 in the world … woot!!

1 - All Trinidad Posts, 2012 2 Responses »

Jan 192012

In Trinidad, we have a cliche… “Trinis like salt … cause they in eeeeeverything!” …

Sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m doing in some places myself. I’ve lived in Montreal for a couple years and I survived the great Montreal Icestorm (which really wasn’t that great … but losing electricity across the city makes you understand how pathetic and soft, normal humans are to the elements) … I thought it was pretty cool that it looked like Mr. Freeze walked through Verdun and hit us with his freeze ray.

So here in Calgary it’s cold … although not as cold as in Edmonton (where I heard it was -47C with the Wind Chill)

To give you an idea of how cold -47C is … you can do cool things like this …

This being said … what is not cool,

Walking three blocks from your hotel to work and experience shooting, radiating pains in your fingers in 20 seconds of exposure
Feeling your face freezing in mid breath
Deliberately jaywalking and facing oncoming traffic because walking to the corner of the street is 20 feet too far to experience
… oh yes, not being able to breathe – that is definitely not cool.

By the way, when I mention the walk from the hotel … this is what I mean, in terms of distance … according to Google … it’s basically 400m from door to door

So this leads to boredom and basically being stuck in front the computer … so lo and behold … searching my name leads me to find that today … I’m still the #6 Rishi out of 17.2 million search results on Google. I think this is pretty funky, when “Rishi” is like the “John” of Indian names. Although searching “The best Rishi in the world” … gets me nothing in top 500 … so I think I need to fix that.

By the way, this post has nothing to do with travel, food or anything useful except as a stream of unconsciousness … and to pat myself on the back!

I am a food douche … fuh real … and I make no apologies

1 - All Trinidad Posts, 2012, 4 - Consulting Lifestyle No Responses »

Jan 182012

I started watching a movie this weekend … this insipid Woody Allen movie called “Midnight in Paris” … it was so fucking stupid … I couldn’t even get through the first 20 minutes before getting annoyed … and the reviews talk about the charm and other nonsense … but the awesome part was the character Micheal Sheen played (this douche bag know it all professor) …check out the trailer from 0:23

I hate these type of people with a passion and I always swore I would never become THAT guy. Think about the following scenarios with that guy ..

You just had the best Gelato in Toronto and you tell him and he replies “Welllllllll … the best Gelato I had was just outside Santa Maria Maggoire , from a tiny little truck with 6231 flavours” … and you think …”Italy can go fuck itself with Gelato”
You just had some awesome all you can eat sushi somewhere in Canada … and you claim that it’s awesome and you tell him and he replies “It’s alright, but the itamae-san who prepared my sashimi at 6:45am in Tsukiji Market was awesome“… and you think “Your eeta-mami-san can go fuck himself and the fish he was slicing … matter of fact … he should slit your throat open and stuff sashimi down it”
You had some good Pad Thai … and you tell that guy … and his response was something like … “Pfft, if you think that was even Pad Thai, then you might as well have eaten shit and died … OK … hopefully you won’t die!”

Well folks, I’ve accepted that … THAT GUY is me, and I will join the legions of travellers who are recovering from utter and inane douchebaggery …

However in my defense, here was the thought process that went into the douchebaggery – I’ve invested time, money and energy into food exploration while on my travels. Through my travels, I’ve acquired an educated palate to the extent that when a Chef and Manager at Passage to Asia in Chaguanas, Trinidad tries to explain that the Tom Yum soup tastes a certain way because that’s the way they make it in Thailand – it will incur wrath and destruction and scorn … here is a snippet of the conversation

<Rishi> This Tom Yum soup tastes nothing like Tom Yum soup
<Manager> Well this is how we make it here
<Rishi> That’s fine, but it doesn’t taste like what it should taste like … just offering feedback here. Where is the Galangal or Lemongrass?
<Manager> Well this is how they make it in Thailand
<Rishi> Ummm … unless you’ve been to Thailand more times than me, then you can’t make that claim. In Thailand, this is how they make the soup … (recites ingredients) … If you’re going to piss on my head … at least don’t call it rain!!
<Manager> Well people here don’t know the difference …

This is what I mean … some people simply beg for douche baggery … absolutely beg for it. (Personal note : Any place that has a menu where they serve 4 different regions of cuisine, cannot be authentic … it can be tasty, but it cannot be authentic)

In the beginning, it was quite easy and simple, before douche progress

Man like to travel
Man has to eat while travelling
Man eats lots of things, simply because you cannot find a roti or callaloo in Cambodia
Man eats shitloads of other things, because he had to find out why people like Kangaroo in Switzerland
Man gets call from ocean informing him they’ve run out of tuna.
Man don’t care and becomes douche.

I feel like people and places are just out to fuck with me and my tastebuds … as though I am some type of idiot who likes paying and wasting money for utter dogshit food … and then having no name, no brain idiots on YELP affirm their utter ass fucking of food. If I had tons of money, to fly in my own chef or fly out to Buenos Aires for a phenomenal steak, then I would do so, but I can’t. So because I can’t fly out somewhere, does that consign me to silence about the ass raping of my favorite foods?

In my defense also, over time … I have become less of an ass about shitty food, unless you’re in Passage to Asia or almost anywhere in Trinidad, that will tell me, that the NON TRINI food they’re serving me is the same that they serve in the country of origin. Has anyone has a Shish Taouk or Gyros in Trinidad?

I have and it tastes like BBQ dogmeat laced with Angel Tears and Sadness sprinkled with FAIL salt.

So the next time, you meet a traveller who knows about food and they are an ass to you … regarding food … remember that they’re not trying deliberately to be douchy epic know it alls like Martin Sheen – they’re just sad, that they have eaten Revelations from the Book of Pepper Sauce, verse 3:99.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/

I want to be the most travelled Trinidadian in the world …

1 - All Trinidad Posts, 2012, 4 - Consulting Lifestyle No Responses »

Jan 172012

There … I said it!

It’s not some huge achievement … it’s really just a goal. So I’m aiming to hit my 100th country before 40 (6 years from now), which shouldn’t be a difficult goal, but then the most difficult commodity to find in your 30′s is actually time!

All the social pressures are multiplied and the gloves come off in terms of social pressures to conform …

Gotta get married
Got to have kids before the woman’s eggs are dried up and we end up with special children
Got to find money to pay for the ring and wedding
Have to start planning for retirement … since the advertising from the banks ensure that you feel like crap now and that you’ll be fearful in 30 -40 years that you’ll be broke and living like a hobo

So try and balance those pressures, along with a goal that is mutually exclusive to those things. Don’t you think it’s a bit difficult? So what happens? I’ll tell … somewhere along the line, you either find a super happy compromise or you give up something.

Travelling along at a good pace … you don’t realize how many places there are to visit, except that there are a couple fantastic websites with a true inventory of places to visit. When you get to those websites, you’re really put in your place as a traveller. I’m not here to debate what is travelling or the style of travelling … whether going to countries for a couple days or even a long weekend constitutes a travelling experience or whether I should take a year off for the “Round the world” trip that is becoming so popular with people my age.

I’m going to leave all the qualitative arguments, about what is meant by the word “visit”. Some travellers claim you must spend a night in a place; some argue it is enough to visit a lavatory there; some will say you have to sleep on a park bench or do it for less than $2 USD to make it real … I don’t really care about the qualitative aspects, I’m going to get to more

When I first started travelling, I based my “Top 100 bucket list” on the Hillman Wonders list, then as I got to more and more of that list, I also realized that there tons of places that weren’t on the list and that I wanted to visit. So while doing a search for other well travelled Trinis, I stumbled upon a newspaper article on Charles Veley (who is the world’s most travelled man) … obviously this dude had the fortune of being a millionaire in his 30′s, so he had time to craft and formulate a plan to achieve his goal of being the most travelled person in the world – which is no mean accomplishment!! He even developed a website and created a master catalogue of places … again, the luxury of having money to play with :D

Did you know that there is a phrase to describe uncontrollable wanderlust : Dromomania. It is the addiction to new experiences, the vagabond neurosis. I’m pretty sure that I don’t have that particular mania … since I do like being in my house and I don’t really think I’m an experience junkie … this weekend, I had tons of fun just lying in bed watching movies on TV. Never underestimate the awesomeness of simple pleasures.

Anyway … back to the list … so now having wasted time cataloging and stalking the list to come up with a total of 208 for myself, puts me on the Gold list, I found that Garron Hansen was the #1 Trini with 137 places … so I had to investigate, then in true Trini macco forms … I “googled” him to figure out, he wasn’t even a Trini … well me thinks so … I will add him on facebook and macco then

Anyway, it’s about 24 days before I head out to Trinidad for Carnival 2012 … hopefully there will be more feedback on my Trini World Beating Quest!

Hiking Aripo Waterfalls (Caribbean Hiking Adventures review)

1 - All Trinidad Posts, 2011, Trinidad No Responses »

Sep 152011

Going anywhere off the beaten trail in Trinidad can be a risky proposition. Hiking through the forest is definitely one of those recreations in the riskier categories, especially when you read of the holdups, group robberies while on the hiking trail, or hearing of trapguns shot at people who venture off the marked trails because the lost hiker stumbled into a marijuana field.

That being said, for those who are willing to hike through Trinidad, there are a number of different trails that lead to waterfalls and gorgeous vistas throughout Trinidad. Today’s hiking experience was done through Caribbean Hiking Adventures. This was my first time hiking with this company vs hiking with Island Hikers. I would highly recommend doing a group hiking expedition, if you going to do any hiking in Trinidad.

I struggled in writing this post, since I didn’t know whether to blog about the hike itself or the company – so instead I’ll describe the experience. In Trinidad, the phrase used to describe any inefficiency, laziness or lack of sophistication is

“Wat yuh expect, iz Trinidad nah”

This is the same phrase I will use to describe my perception of the organization of the hike. According to the email sent from them, we were all told to meet just off the highway in Arima for a 7am sign up (see screenshot below). Note that on their website, you can register online and pay online also.

Of course, in true Trinidadian/West Indian style, they were nowhere to be found at 7am, in fact we had to call a couple times to find out if the hike was still on, due to inclement weather. Eventually, the organizers showed up at 7:35am at the roundabout. This was annoying, since to be on time, I woke up at 5:30am … yes, this is a foreign concept that’s been bashed into my Trinidadian brain. So how do you think, this lack of communication worked out for the sign up process …

The whole sign up fiasco was more annoying, since we got there on time but didn’t leave till 8:30am to start driving to Aripo.

Suggestions for improvement

Multiple meetup spots – one at Arima and one at the final location in Aripo. (Late comers can come directly to the final location) – this can be applied to any hike where the initial meetup spot is not the location of the hike
Online registration for all. By pushing this, they don’t punish the people who follow the rules. If they can get email, they can surely reply via email or form
Proper expectation management – this is not the first time you’re doing a hike … set the proper expectation via the website about times and distance.
Map handouts for hikers

Once we all got to the final jumpoff point, it was yet another series of confused communications, resulting in … guess what??

Finally by 9:30am, we finally started hiking.

As for the hiking itself … as I grow older, I’m seeing a lot more of Trinidad than I ever saw growing up there. The ironic thing is that if I had done all of this while growing up, there would have been little elements of risk, that there are now … ah well c’est la vie.

It’s definitely an easy, family friendly hike in the sun, however as it rained the night before, the trail was slushy and those without proper hiking footware found the going rough. Better communication would have solved this frustration – had the organizers explained on the website that there would be some walking through pools and river water.

Even with a simple hike plan … there are many levels to the river and multiple shallow ponds as you hike higher and higher

Finally, on ending the hike, there was no proper checkdown of the people that came down from the hike. They assumed that as long as all the cars left, then there was no one lost and the organizers left before all the hikers left.

Overall : Great hiking expedition, but lack of organizational skills, communication and direction … makes it one of those “your mileage may vary” experiences.

Older Entries

Rishi Sankar: Ah Trini Travelogue / Ah Trini Traveller

Soca in Moka 2012 … so you’re looking for tickets?

Trinis like salt!! And I’m number 6 in the world … woot!!

I am a food douche … fuh real … and I make no apologies

I want to be the most travelled Trinidadian in the world …

There … I said it!

Hiking Aripo Waterfalls (Caribbean Hiking Adventures review)

“Wat yuh expect, iz Trinidad nah”

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