Mumbai: City Tour (kinda...)

April 3, 2011, Saturday. 10:10 AM


Today I'm taking 8 hours city tour in full knowing that the traffic will be at the frenziest coz ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 will be held this afternoon at 2:30 PM. It's a final match between India and Sri Lanka and if India wins, they will finally hold a cup after 7 or 8 years waiting. Well, anyway, here I am in a taxi and as I'm sitting comfortably in spite of the almost-not-working AC, I'm struck at how Mumbai never fails to amaze me everyday by its dryness. Especially today, it seems to be even more drier than yesterday. Smoke and dust are visible and some people selling food in a side road, some people are eating. I mean, how could you eat outside in this environment? I guess they just so used to it or merely don't bother at all.

.: Haji Ali Mosque :.
We're not even near the city yet and the traffic is crawling. It took us an hour to reach half the journey to the city that normally takes only 45 minutes. The cab driver is pointing to the Haji Ali Mosque located a few hundred metres in sea from the coastline near the express highway. It's awesome especially with the mist around us *now let's assume that the dust is a mist. That way you can really see how magnificent the mosque is - wink* The cab driver asked me whether I'd like to walk there and see it from upclose which I refused politely. This morning, I came out with my mind set that I will try my best to avoid breathing outside air. So I'm perfectly content with my video cam at hand, shooting the city from my taxi window :p

.: Gateway of India :.
We arrived at Gateway of India at exactly 12 PM. I went out and walked among the crowd to get as closer I can to the gateway. Since in two hours time the match will start, the police baricade some roads near the stadium and Gateway of India is fairly close to the stadium. This monument was built to welcome Queen Mary when she arrived in Mumbai on December, 1911.

There is this clothes store in front of the Gateway and I bought one knitted olive green cardigan. They're having 40% off price. And after some shoppings, I went to an Italian cafe next door, bought home a sandwich and quickly retreated to the taxi.

.: Colaba :.
Colaba is a shopping district located very near the Gateway of India. Sadly, I didn't have a chance to actually shop there. My taxi driver only showed it to me when we passed by it. The main road in front of the beach is bustling with people waving India flag. They're queueing to get inside the stadium. I've never been in any matches before *high school basketball matches don't count* so to actually be among them is an experience I never forget as I can feel their anxiety and the excitement of the final match. It is the highlight of the day. People are waving, laughing and shouting.

I still have until 6 o'clock of this city tour but I decided to go back to end the day and go back to the hotel. If it took us almost 2 hours to reach city at 10 o'clock in the morning, I simply cannot imagine how many hours will it take for the ride home in this crazy traffic in a midst of Cricket supporters. It's worse than Jakarta, mind you.

Mumbai: Lunch ala Indian

01 April 2011, Friday

Finally, my work's done here. It was kinda sad actually. I mean, I know I met my clients only for a short time - two days, but still, parting is never a happy occasion. They're really really nice people. They took me out to lunch and ehm... it was an adventure in itself. At least it was for me.


Well, we finish our first session for today at 2 o'clock and we headed out for lunch. Oh gosh, how I wished they took me to some restaurants upstairs (because earlier they mentioned they got restaurants upstairs). But instead, we're going out. Luckily, I was mentally prepared. Oh boy, outside was a mess, the road is small so we had to walk alongside and between the cars, motorbike, rickshaws and people! It was hot and windy which was a bad news, coz it only means more dust, more flying sands and smoke got blown by the wind. Anyway, I survived and we were in a first restaurant. There was a very long queue and we decided to try our luck at another place.


You know, walking in Mumbai is overwhelming. There were attacks to my nose. One moment, I could smell cow's poop; the next time, an incense burning smell followed by smell of spices and God knows what else. So here I was, walking while trying to avoid motorbikes and rickshaws only inches from me. I saw a car moving in a midst of pedestrians! Bottomline, I was beyond relieved when we reached the second restaurant. This restaurant called Mahesh and is specialized in seafood. We were asked to wait outside. I was like, what?! You freakin' got to be kidding me! But I guess I had no choice. We were sitting on a pedestrian walk (really, pedestrian walk and a road, I cannot tell the difference, there's no clear line here), cars honking nonstop, and finally we had a table ready for us.


The first dish was, I think, a deep fried tofu skin with a chopped shallots. I'm a no-onion eater but I gave it a try. Hmm... quite tasty but I still couldn't get rid of the fact that it was shallots that I was eating. What next, happened quite fast. They served fried fish (I still could manage that), followed by dossa (thick rice paper) and some curry dippings. The waiter serve the dipping directly to our plate. He gave us each 2 type of dippings; more fish and chicken curry. I finished my third dossa and I felt like I couldn't swallow anymore. The spices were too strong and everything tasted strong it overwhelmed me. Then the waiter came with a rice. They said I, at least, gave it a try. Well, they were being so nice and I couldn't let them down. it would be rude. So I helped myself to one small spoon of rice and forced myself to swallow it. Then, one of my clients asked me to eat the black, deep fried vegetables. He said it was good for health. I just nodded and geez... how I wanted to correct him and said "Dude, you know anything deep fried ain't healty, don't ya?" The deep fried vegetables were coated in oil. They're shiny!!


After that, I just didn't bother anymore, I said no to everything they offered me. And how glad I did. Well, they asked whether I wanted to try butter milk, I immediately said no, so they ordered for themselves. Came the butter milk, and it was the colour of strawberry juice. They forced me again to take one gulp, and... oooh... I couldn't describe how awful and strange it tasted. It was salty but bitter, with a pang of sourness. They said one of ingredients is Tangerine. It explains. I.Don't.Like.It. And look at how they drank it. They finished it in one shot! It's good for digestion they said. Hmm... no wonder. I drink that and I'm sure my stomach cannot handle it.


But one thing that strikes me as funny, and the highlight of the day for me. It was hilarious. It's the way one of my clients moved his head. It happened after the waiter came with a drink. My client shook his head, the waiter took his diet coke can and opened it. Another head movement from him and the waiter poured the drink into the glass, one final move from his head, and the waiter stopped pouring the drink.No words spoken. Amazing. I was watching them in awe.


Overall, it was a unique experience, like, I'd never been surrounded by so many Indians before haha. They're generally very nice crowd.

Mumbai: Day 3

01 April 2011, Friday


09:00 AM


So today is my second day working in India. As I'm waiting in Fort House for the client to arrive, I'm reliving back the taxi experience I had on my way here. As always, I enjoyed the car journey while taking in as much I could the passing city scenery outside the window. India is no exception. I did enjoy the one hour journey. There's always something new about Mumbai but accompanied only by sadness and "skin crawling" sensation as I watched outside car window just now. If yesterday I saw cows, today I saw a women, barefooted, standing in the middle of what appeared to be a garbage dump just on the side of the street. This woman was holding a big garbage bin and pouring it over with her hands. With her hands! This happened in Mumbai International Airport area, North Mumbai, an area they claimed to be the most looked after area. There are lots of 4-5 stars hotels in this area but they look odd, standing proud and tall in the midst of what I say, a mess. A really big mess.


Other than that, once I was getting nearer to the city, there's a line of small houses. Gee, people wouldn't even call it a house. They are built with thin wood, in a size of a tent! And people living there are bathing outside their home, which means, on the road!! I cannot fathom it at all. And their clothes are hang on the roof - made of thin wood. All of these are in a city they call financial district. Mumbai is a financial district. My customer place is located in a famous area of the city, called Fort. And judging by the company name (it's a branch office of the biggest bank in Singapore), I expected to see a really nice and modern building just like its main office in Singapore. Well, no. Actually, all the buildings here are old, collonial style. I like the architecture actually, almost the same as what you'd find in Melbourne. It's just that they don't maintain them. You can see in many parts, paints are peeled, black moldings *gasp* and... dusty. It seems that all buildings, no, scratch that, all things here are covered in dust. Even Jakarta is wayyy better, and I thought Jakarta was dirty.


Modern buildings can be counted by fingers (I did count, from my hotel building and 20 more kilometres down to South Mumbai). I dreaded walking outside and yesterday, my client said they're going to take me out for lunch. Oooh... I mean, I'm grateful, really, but outside? Come on man...

Mumbai: Day 2

31 April 2011, Thursday
I woke up early today coz it took 1-2 hours driving down depends on traffic. Well, since today is my first day meeting the clients, I didn't want to be late. I stayed at Holiday Inn hotel located near Mumbai International Airport. This area is in North of Mumbai and my clients place is located in South Mumbai, more or less about 25 kilometres from my hotel.


So I took a cab and payed about 700 rupees one way. And man, if I wasn't really awake before hopped on a cab, the taxi driver did definitely wake me up. We were almost get hit by a bus! We were spared just by inches!!


Oh Mumbai. One comment from me. This city needs a huge splash of water from above. Everything here is so dry and dusty. I heard that they don't have rain in 6 months.