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.

First Anniversary

March 4, 2011

Another flower bouquet for me hehe. My first anniversary ever so I should congratulate myself hahaha

Kate Spade

February 26, 2011

I cannot believe I missed out this brand before. Okay, so I was window shopping and came across this Kate Spade boutique in Raffles City and I instantly loved it. Their design is simple, casual and very american looking. So I checked their website to see their full range. OMG… I wanted one!! I’m always bad at holding out to buy something that I really really crave for. Like, some of my friends, if they’re eyeing some items, they can actually do a research and compare price from different outlets. I mean, I’m not considered myself a shopaholic, but I need to get the item I want like, now :p I don’t have patient to wait a couple of days or even weeks to do my research. And true enough, I got my FIRST Kate Spade bag a couple of days ago. Yay.

I was torn between two designs, but one of them was already sold out by the time I had to pick either one, so yeah, they made it very easy for me in the end ^o^ I was kinda nervous, because that was the first time I paid quite an amount of money for a bag. But it’s worth it, ya know, the fact that I got it 50% off does help me a bit hihi.

It’s weird, for the past few weeks, I’ve been having this urge to buy bags. Samantha Thavasa. That’s the next target wakkaka. One thing to ask to myself: How come I passed by sooo many Samantha Thavasa stores without even gave them a second look when I was in Japan? Well, this is what everyone’s saying, you don’t know how to appreciate things until they’re taken away from you. Now, I’m counting days to the day I make another trip to Japan to maybe buy some bag charms from Samantha Thavasa haha

Roses, Candle, and… Foie Gras?

February 14, 2011

Well, this was my first Valentine to actually spend it with someone,  so I was super excited that bf took me to this hotel in Marina bay area. We were having dinner there. It was a 5-course menu with champagne. I was super flattered haha. They gave us some kind of give away when we finished our dinner… a very sweet candle holder.

Hmm, finally I got to try foie gras after hearing it mentioned in almost every food program. How did it taste? I can say foie gras is not really my thing :p It was buttery *which is fine by me*  with a texture of tofu, I guess, but I couldn’t get over the fact that it was a fattened liver. I was having a hard time to swallow it. I wonder why it’s so freakin’ expensive.

I wanted to take a picture of the food that day, but… oh but… I felt so embarrassed just by taking out the camera lol. I guess there’s always this kind of ambience, of the fine dining that makes you sit upright and always worrying whether you pick the right spoon and try not to make some silly noises? Or is it just me? Well, I do prefer cooking at home and preparing the meal myself. Next time babe… haha

‘baby takashi’ with a bouquet of roses

Phuket sketch

Sketched this using ArtRage iPad app. ArtRage, I must say, is a complete tool to create your own masterpiece using pencil, ink, pastel, oil paint, and many more. And you can choose from the wide range of brushes as well! This ArtRage app even comes with setting that allow you to determine the pressure to be applied when using pencil, the type of blending for oil paint whether you'd like it thin or thick with not much oil. Bottom line, this app rocks if you have no instant access to canvas, brushes, etc while you're hit by instant inspiration. But, for using it to replace the real thing? Nah! For me, I guess even the most sophisticated apps can't beat the real joy of holding a pencil/brush.

This Present Darkness

So lately I've been reading Frank E. Peretti's masterpieces, This Present Darkness (book 1) and Piercing the Darkness (book 2). These two series are basically Christian fiction stories that center on spiritual warfare against New Age movement such as meditation, yoga, and a universal thinking. I can say I enjoyed reading them coz somehow I was reminded that even a simple problem is best put before Him through a prayer, like seriously, prayer is our main weapon.

But what about yoga? I remember my pastor once said in his sermon a few years back, that actually each yoga position is a form of prayer for certain gods. I don't know about you guys, but I used to think that if I do yoga for a healthy purpose, like, not take it seriously as a prayer to whatever gods, it should be fine. I did actually try yoga for a month, back when I was in japan, but I guess It just didn't feel right coz I knew what was behind it, so I quit. The same also goes with a Universal Understanding movement that its purpose is to unite the nations into only one nation. Take John Lennon's song "Imagine". The same pastor also said about the lyrics of this song that has double meaning. Must be familiar with the song right? Then there is this line saying about how wonderful world would be if there's no religion. That's the universal thing there. Okay now I know I sound like a preacher, but these things creep me out. I just can't help thinking maybe we are really that close to the second coming. Who knows.

Phuket: Phi Phi Island

October 08, 2010

Now, it was the time for the real experience in Phuket. A tour to nearby islands. The city offers several options when it comes to the island tours. We chose Phi-Phi island tour because of several reasons. Bf went to Phuket once before and he picked the “James Bond” island tour. All he got to see was a cave with bats dangling from the ceilings. Hell no I’m going to let myself IN that cave. So… we got ourselves the most attractive package of all; A one day trip to Phi Phi island. That covered other small islands as well, including Maya bay where The Beach movie was filmed.

The minivan picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 AM. We spent an hour journey from Patong to the pier. There, we hopped on a speed boat after a guy from the tour agency took our photo one by one at the port. On the boat, we were briefed once again on our tour itinerary. The journey to the first island took about an hour. A good, bumpy one hour journey. I was almost convinced that the boat driver intentionally made it a rough ride just to wake us up :p

 

We stopped at the first island, Phi Phi Lei, for about 30 minutes before heading on to the next island. Here we jumped from the boat to the water below, as the boat didn’t stop at the beach but between cliffs. O.M.G. Never before in my life I jumped from a boat, let alone swimming in between cliffs. Not to mention a picturesque scenery of blue sky, cliffs vertically rose from the water, an emerald green, crystal clear water!! And I got to swim with so many fish also swimming alongside me. It was downright the best, THE BEST experience I had in my more-than-20 years living. It was almost felt like heaven on earth. Oohhh the weather was also superb. Not too much sun, otherwise I would have thought twice before exposing myself under the bright shining sun. ha ha. Too much UV is not good for skin ya’ know.

Our 30 mins of pure joy was up. Next stop would be Maya Bay. To venture the island, we were given 1 hour time slot. Not much we could do here, as the beach was jam packed with tourists. After that, leaped back to our boat and off we went to Phi Phi Don to have lunch. Yes, we were starving! But there was one more stop before lunch. I forgot the name of the island. I threw myself into the water again there and enjoyed being floated back and fro by the waves.

Welcome to the Maya bay.

Eva was here

Ahh… the lunch. It was an international buffet with a mix of spaghetti and local dish. Not too bad *or I can say: we were too hungry to bother much*. In this island, there are local shops selling souvenirs just beside the dining hall. Sun dresses, hats, shell crafts, and clays. I got my hat here :) We spent an hour to have lunch and already we were rushed back to the boat. We were going to the most crowded beach, Khai island. But, along the way there, the boat stopped at Monkey island. Off the boat everyone, we were going to feed monkeys, yiihaa!

Warning: Monkey bites

That monkey ignored me!! He *or she* didn’t seem interested at all, while the rest…mind you I tell the truth, fighting each other just to grab whatever thing the tourists offered them. ckck.

 

We had a chance to see Viking Cave (a name of the famous cliff) and Bird Nest.

Arrived at Khai island, we helped ourselves with pineapples and watermelon. Refreshingly sweet.

Never liked pineapples before, but that pineapple was GOOD

Hmm nice beach, nice weather… a good time to doze off

  

Ah, the day trip was over. We headed back to the marina and claimed our previously taken picture. It was 5 PM and we needed to go back to hotel as fast as we could, coz we had to be there when the shuttle bus came to pick us up to the Fantasia Show. Well, a long but needless to say, an awesome day we had. The highlight of my Puket trip.

Phuket: Simon Cabaret Show

7 October 2010

Oh Never before I thought this time would come, when I sincerely say: “I L.O.V.E Phuket”. For me, Phi Phi is the most beautiful island I’ve ever seen so far. Yes, even more beautiful than Bali/Lombok. I lived in Lombok for 9 years. As far as I remember, my family spent our free time playing, swimming at the beach. I thought there wasn’t any beach that could match the one in Lombok. How wrong I was. You need to go and visit Phi Phi and I let you decide :p

Well, how it all began? I took 2 days off work on 7 and 8 October and jumping on a plane to the next getaway, Phuket. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this holiday, coz me never been a great fan of Thailand, despite never being there, really. What I could think of was anywhere other than Singapore would be just perfect. I didn’t really care where I was going. A sign of overstressed, perhaps?

Anywho… we did buy a packet of free and easy travel to Phuket. And I tell you this: I’m glad we chose Phuket. We were flying with Silkair at 9 AM. The flight took more than an hour and we arrived around 10 AM local time. A minivan from the travel company were there to pick us up along with the other 8 Singaporeans. Since our check in time was at noon, the travel company gave us a half day city tour to visit some tourist spots, or I’d rather say, stores, along the way from the airport to Patong beach area where our hotel located. First stop was a local shop selling T-shirts and claiming to be the only one offering the best deal any tourists can get on good quality T-shirts. Bought 3 shirts for Pa.

After that, off we went to the gem store. It’s – based on the marketing video they made us watch – one of the biggest in the world. The building, is indeed big. Sadly couldn’t buy one, so damn expensive.

 

Next destination, Pornthip Phuket. it was time to taste local delicacies. For all of you who like durian, this is the place. They sell durian chips, dried durian, and durian paste. Also a various type of Thai sauces. Yummy.

Next: Honey store. Not much I can tell about this one, since they explained all there is to know about honey in… CHINESE!! The old man kept on mumbling about, despite the complete bored looks on our faces.

Final destination for the half day city tour: Kinnaree activity center. Here we can ride an elephant (elephant trekking), go-kart, shooting. We hang out with the tour guide and ended up buying tickets for the Simon Cabaret show later that night. Got to feed the elephant and posed with it. Gosh, elephant trunk freaked me out.

 

 

Then finally it was time to go to Patong (kind of like Kuta area). We checked in, ordered room service for lunch as the hotel is located at the hill (10 mins ride by car from Patong) and there’s no way you can walk to the centre of Patong unless you’re willing to walk for hours. Ahh… had an authentic phad thai noodle *sluuurrpp*

Felt beat up, I slept until 6 PM and quickly got ready for the night: Simon Cabaret. The minivan picked us up at 8 PM. Simon Cabaret show is basically a musical show performed by local ladyboys (transvestite). Hmm… it was like watching a concert. They all lipsync tho, singing popular songs from all over the world like Lady Gaga, Korean Wonder Girls, Beyonce. Geez, I saw one ladyboy, played a role of Beyonce, who look a bit like Beyonce. Trust me. Maybe it was the makeup. The props… wow!!! you should see all the props and costumes they’re wearing. They really go all out on it, very glam. I wonder what they’ll do with the costumes once they’re not using them anymore, coz I’m quite sure they keep changing costumes according to the artists they mimic.

Took some shots with the ladyboys. You’ve got to give them money if you wanna take pictures with them.

That was a wrap for today.

PS: You might want to keep an eye on ur bf, ha ha, coz gee, they look like the real deal, well, at least a number of them.

 

Stupid GPS and a Sneak Peek at Next Getaway

October 3, 2010, Sunday

Oh my, I don’t know if I ever again will truly rely on GPS!! So here’s the story. Mum and dad had reserved a resort at Kintamani for the next holiday. Since I’m pretty much a curious person, I asked mum a lot about this place until she couldn’t take it anymore and suggested why didn’t I checked the place out myself. And me being me, I said why not? That day was Sunday, so our plan *initial plan* was to go to church at 7 am, go to Kintamani, have lunch at Warung Bu Oka, Ubud, and finally pick up mum at the airport. But as usual, a plan is a plan. What is a plan without someone *unintentionally* trying to mess it up? (In this case that person was me). Yes, I wake up at 7, the service begin at 7 while it took us approximately 45 minutes to drive to church from the hotel. So, we decided to skip the morning service but we would still go to church… why? Because I really wanted to eat lumpia (spring roll) sold at church food court.

After we grabbed those yummy lumpia, Kintamani was our next destination. Now, this is the turning point. Dad was going with us, so he could show us directions, but… BUT… because of this new GPS device installed in our car, we would like to try it. This way dad wouldn’t need to pay that close attention on the road. So we followed the GPS directions.

It was okay for I think the first 20 minutes before bf missed the turn. Sure enough, the GPS showed us the alternate route. Then, us being innocent, without suspicion followed the directions. The roads pointed by the freakin’ GPS were all small roads, we even made a joke that time: “Even the GPS knows the side road”. After a while, things got worse, the road became even narrower, windier, going up and down in a dangerous steep, not suitable for car. But we kept on driving. Not long, we heard a loud scratching sound from under the car. Yes, the road condition was that bad it scratched the car body. The joke was on us then :( We decided to turn back, and what a nightmare. The road was narrow, with a dried small river on either side. And when the car passed the same road, we heard the same heart-ripping sound (oh, I felt sorry for the car).

Well, we were a bit down at the time. But felt a bit relax after we reached the resort. It’s a lake-front resort, very quiet and isolated.

A long journey caused us hungry and as planned, we headed to Warung Bu Oka. Now, there was a Balinese wedding ceremony held at the temple next to Warung Bu Oka. It turned out to be Happy Salma’s wedding. Well, because of it, they closed down the place for the day, so we decided to go to Bu Oka’s other restaurant :p Oh yes, we all  couldn’t take anything other than Bu Oka’s famous “Babi Guling” for our lunch. Bon Appétit.

Home Sweet Home

October 01, 2010, Friday

Me and bf went to Bali for the weekend. It was a short trip but enough to lift up my spirit. Boy, heaven knows how much I needed holiday. Anyway, our flight was at 9 PM, so we had to rush after work to catch the flight.

October 02, 2010, Saturday

Early in the morning, we packed our bag again coz mum had booked us a hotel room at Nusa Dua. But sadly, mum couldn’t join us, she went to Semarang later that day. We had our breakfast at Sanur beach; a local fave, Nasi Bali. The place run by three Balinese women and not that commercialize that it’s known only to local. Afterward, we sent off mum at the airport and straight away went to have… a SPA!!! Oh gosh, my shoulder and back were killing me for the past few months, so having a spa was just a must ha ha. The last time I had spa was.. I think December 2007… Kinda like déjàvu to me. Only this time, I was with the person who, despite knowing the ugliest side of me still wants to be with me. Hmm.. enough about that, overall it was a nice, relaxing time.

After being pampered, me, bf, pa, phopho and her two sisters went to Sanur to have lunch at Mak Beng warong before headed to Novotel Hotel. Mak Beng warong only has one single menu, i.e. fish head soup and fried fish. The fish head soup? Super delish.

At the hotel, I couldn’t wait another minute to throw myself into the swimming pool. Hungry after rounds of swimming, there’s no better place for dining out than Jimbaran! Pa managed to get the big family gathered in. What a nice way to end the day with the lovely crowd.

 

The three sisters