Some update:
Looks like ss_redir is working considering the international page for Bing would load up if I try to go to bing.com using its previously resolved IP and my browser does seem to have the external IP of the remote server.
It seems to me that somewhere between ss_tunnel and dnsmasq is broken that's causing DNS resolution to fail. I am completely lost now 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! <3
EDIT: Looked around the forum a bit and I suspect this might be a duplicate of this issue. Not sure tho.