Malaysian Grand Prix, An Extravaganza of sound !!!!!!!

My sister, Sugandhi and I, and because of the two of us, even our father, are ardent viewers of Formula 1. We are great fans (not die-hard though!) of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. We still support ferrari, but since Michael is not racing, our interest is in the team more than on the drivers. Well, as we all know, Michael bid good-bye in 2006 and because we had expected this, me and my sister decided to go for the Malaysian Grand Prix at any cost as it was the last chance for us to see him live. We were checking with some travel agents to get us our arrangements done for the trip. During this time, my sister accidentally recieved an e-mail from one Mr. Shankar Vishwanath, of the Desimators. They, along with Travel tours Pvt.Ltd had a package tour to Malaysia for a 2-night 3-day stay along with ticket arrangements for the race. I went and met him and came to know all the details. They were offering a seat in one of the cheapest seats available and we were not so happy about that. Come on yaar, you spend so much to go and watch the race and if you cannot see them up close, whats the big deal!! So, what did we do? Well, for starters, started playing the race on the computer. Why was that? To know which was the best stand available. So, I was driving the car and she was noting all the possible stands worth considering. Finally, we decided on the grand stand. We asked for different tickets for the race, if we paid the corresponding charges and also for a separate half-day tour of KL for us as it clashed with the timings of the qualifier. It was agreed upon by the organisers of the package tour and a separate car was arranged for the two of us! This person was simply astonished to see us work out so much for the trip. I guess even he himself would not have done so much. But for the amount we were spending, We Wanted the BEST!! So, with all arrangements made, with me finishing my second sem M.Sc seminar also in a jiffy, just for this, we headed to KL. Let me tell you that it was my first flight and the first experience of flying is definetly unforgettable. Our trip started on the 17th March 2006, when we took off from Bangalore. The qualifier was on the 18th and the race, the 19th. The flight was smooth, with good quantity of drinks on board. The worst part in the flight was the music being played and of all things, they were playing some dumb tamil movie. Well, you cannot have everything the way you want right? Anyway, we landed in KL International Airport in the wee-hours of the 18th. Boy! is it an airport or a City by itself? Just imagine, we had to go by an Air-Rail from one terminal to another!! Unfortunately, I could not get any snaps of the Airport. But it is simply amazing. After the immigration clearance, we headed for the exit. There, we were met by some Malays who were appointed by the local authority to pick us up, as arranged by Travel Tours. The Cab drivers, sorry cannot call them Limo drivers as the cars were not actually Limousines.. :), took us to the hotel, where we were to stay. It was a more-than an hour's drive.

We reached the hotel very close to the famous twin-towers, at about 5.45 am!! We entered the hotel and showed them the reservation of rooms and they said the booking is confirmed but the rooms will be available only at 12pm!! What a beginning! 6am to 12pm, no freshening up also. You can imagine our fate, and that too about 30 of us. We tried reaching our travel agent and also the person in Malaysia co-ordinating this. Both were not available!
Finally, 2-3 of them went in search of our guy and we started calling the Malaysian. Finally, we reached both. After much negotiations, the malaysian came down and slowly started getting rooms arranged for us. My sis and I were lucky because we told him that we had booked a car for a separate city tour. So, he gave us a room faster, and we got freshened up and came down for breakfast. The sandwich was good but the noodles was................., well, have no words to describe its taste and I would LOVE :( to eat that again!!!!

After breakfast, we started for the half-a-day city tour of KL leaving all the others blank-faced.. The tour was good,and because we were the only ones, the driver took us in a leisurely mode, starting from the king's palace. It is a good building. We covered so many places that I do not remember all but a few noteworthy ones are the Old Railway Station, The Butterfly Park, supposed to be the largest in Asia, The Centenary Club, The National Park, where the Heroes of War are celebrating, etc.. Our time deadline was 1pm because then we had to travel all the way to Sepang International Circuit for the qualifier that was at 2.30pm. It was a long drive,which my sis and I spent most of the time sleeping. Finally reached the place, got down and entered the circuit through the main entrance as we had Grand Stand Tickets.. The experience was simply out of this world!!!!!

The entire Sepang Circuit is turned into a City of Carnival for these 3 days! People just are happily going around all the Kiosks, stalls. There is loud music on al lthrough the day and the crowd just keeps pouring in.. We decided to postpone our window shopping for sunday as we knew we had the whole of that day at our disposal. So, we managed to locate our entry gate and went to our stand. The sight of the race track just made our hairs stand up!! It was just mind - blowing. And our happiness was doubled when we saw that we were very close to Mr. Fantastic's (Michael Schumacher) Pit. Just then, he came out, waved at us, our day was made!!

Then was the real thing.. The QUALIFIER. Our first experience of a race car live! The sound is simply unbearable... You can tolerate the sound of a jet aircraft but not a race car, according to my experience.. 

The ear-plug can reduce the sound, but WHAT OF THE PAIN CAUSED DUE TO WEARING THAT????? Well, no answer to that. Anyway, Quals were fun, especially when Ralf Schumacher's Toyota engine exploded, in the characteristic way, in front of us!!. After it, we waited for Michael to come out for the Press Conference, and of course, Wave at us!

Then, we drove back to the Hotel, "Sleeping" as usual.... Then, had bath, had some more sleep and got ready for the COCKTAIL PARTY at 7.30pm.. We were taken in the Bus and there, We met Mr. Karamjit Singh, Supposed to be India's best Rally driver, Ironically, staying in Malaysia!!!!. There was a felicitation for him and his co-driver.. And who did it?? YOURS TRULY.... why? I was the "kid" of the group. Came back and roamed around KL, doing window shopping, went to Times Square.. Finally hit the bed as we had a long HOT day ahead of us..

19th March, 2006, The D-Day!! Boarded the bus after breakfast at 7.30 as we had to be in the circuit at 9am....

Reached there safely.. The environ was even more of an extravaganza... We went to the F1 Museum, had a nice stroll there... We were pitying the others of the group as they missed all this due to their ignorance..

Anyway, after the museum, we had something to eat, bought some water to drink and occupied our seats much before the race began as we did not want to miss anything.


And when it began, well, none of us was on his/her seat. Imagine, if one car makes a sound of a jet plane and 22 such jets taking off at the same time.. Well, cannot just describe it.. It was, in all ways possible, a ROAR of the engines. Not even the ear-plug helped, though we did not use it for the start as we wanted to feel the intensity of the sound :) It was UNBEARABLE and we had short - time deafness.. And here people watch the race not sitting on the chair but standing on it, for an hour and a half!!!!!! Madness to the core.. and we followed suit. For you to listen the effect of these engines, just visit the link.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7cAc5Ir-G0

The race was quite interesting right from the first lap, when Kimi (Raikkonen) crashed, of which we could only see the dust after the crash. The rest was as usual, as some people say, "cars just zooming past you and what fun is it??" well, for us, it itself was great fun, with the cars zooming past us at breakneck speeds. Then, we saw the meticulous ferrari crew live in action in the pits and also the great drive by Michael Schumacher that took him from 14th on the grid to 5th.

It was a good race. So what if we did not see HIM win, we did hear the Italian National Anthem for the winning driver, Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault. That was enough for us and as icing on the cake, we saw Michael in close quarters, coming out of his Pit to speak to the Press after the race. Well, after the race, it was a race for us to head back to the bus to come back to the hotel. Well, as usual, we dozed off!!!! :)

Then, in the evening, since we were free, we just roamed around to see the Barjaya Times Square, with all the F1 grandeur still there. We saw a Sauber F1 car kept there. Then, we had an early dinner, since we had to catch a flight back to India at 7am.

We also had some good dessert, Ice cream of course, during which, we saw a Renault F1 car being pushed across the road along the footpath as if it was some ordinary car!!!. Unfortunately, we were too late to realise that and so, could not manage to get into it ;)

Then, came back to the room, dozed off, but got up at 3.00 and were ready by 4am to head to the airport. There, the flight from KL to Chennai was good, but the one from Chennai to Bangalore was a horrifying experience, with an old, junked aircraft, which apparently had all the windows below the two wings and we apparently insisted on having a window seat on the right side of the plane, behind the right wing!!  he he HOW WONDERFUL!!!

But all in all, it surely was an EXTRAVAGANZA of sound of the highest level !! and I just cannot wait to repeat it. Probably Spa Francorchamps.. he he he he he