Blogs from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 90

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 26th 2006

Greetings from Mumbai!! Here's what's happened since my last update. It's pretty long so perhaps copy and paste it into Word so it looks like you're working, or print it off and read it on the loo. Wed 15/2 - Very easy day. Read a book called Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater who travels up the west coast of India with the monsoon - funnily enough. Thoroughly recommended. Was thinking of hanging around in India long enough to see it but apparently the humidity is so unbearable it drives even the locals to murder & suicide and I'm struggling enough as it is. Thurs 16/2 - Up at 9! Earliest yet. Only to get my laundry in though. Then back to bed. Then a little frollick in the surf. Plenty of Israeli's in Goa. I'm ... read more

It's the Bom-bay be

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 25th 2006

Culture Programme

Carolee and Jay

Reentered India via Bombay, a good place to make a return. As the country's economic capital, it's a good place to see today's modern India. It's a busy metropolis (16 mil), but beyond paying too much on fancy meals and nicer hotels (they provided towels) there really isn't much else to remark on. Besides the fact that it was the first place we've seen in India to house the Golden Arches. We've been without it for so long we no longer had a craving for a hit on the McCrack pipe but we were still curious to see how they could go about bastardizing the local cuisine. There aren't any burger items on the menu-- no Baba, not in Hindu country. So we tried the Chicken Maharashtra burger, the McAloo Tikki, and the Paneer Curry Puff. ... read more

Yet again -another- entry from my written journal.

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 24th 2006

Andy Strife

Yeah, I know, I kind fell apart on my updating duties. Last time I wrote, Sandi and I were in Delhi. We've been to a couple cities now, such as Agra, Jaipur, and Mumbai. Right now we're on a train headed for Goa. I've got alot of time so perhaps I'll go through my experiences in each of the cities. Lets start with Agra, home of the Taj. When Sandi and I arrived, we lucked out with our rickshaw driver. His name was V.K or something like that. He picked us up from the trainstation and charged an actual ok price to a ride to our hotel. Well, he didn't bring us to our hotel, he brought us to a hotel that he gets a commission from. The hotel he brought us to was called Hotel ... read more

madness

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 22nd 2006

henryrolls

I think I've taken on the madness pretty well, but my impressions of Mumbai were slightly different. Don't think in all my travel experience did I foresee such a contrast between abject poverty and posh rich, but all built around the foundations of mud and a slightly worn and dilapidated infrastructure. I’ve been doing a lot of wondering about in the stifling heat (34'c and very humid) and taking it all in, as well as staying a couple of night at a friend of Kat's - Ankur who along with his mates are just sound as a pound. They're all really likeminded individuals about my age and all work in films, leading less major budgets rather than the Bollywood hits, but all part of that scene. They're all really talented, well versed in english and very ... read more

Proof of Life

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 20th 2006

jemand

I wrote this once already and lost half of it when the connection crapped out. Email in India, like everything else, is unpredictable: connection cuts out, terminals freeze, power fails, you get the idea. So i'm inflicting group dispatches on you all. I'm just about ready to leave Bombay after spending much more time here than I'd anticipated. It'll be a mad dash down the coast to the tip of Kerala by next Wednesday. With the help of friends and relatives of people I know in New York, I've got my feet underneath me in Bombay. Mona's parents, Mohan and Mary Donna, are members of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club (the only living relic of the empire but far less auspicious than its title suggests) and have been a comforting touchstone in town. Mary Donna packed ... read more

Free beer in one of the best hotels in the world!

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 19th 2006

The Taj Mahal Hotel

Shlub

I've just uploaded pics for the last two blogs and will do ones for this one later. I've got a bit carried away with typing again here but the first paragraph summarises everthing pretty much. Wow! In one awesome day I have had about the biggest contrast in lifestyle possible! It went from my dingy hotel and lunch that was a couple of Samosas with sauce in a local cafe to drinking beers in some of the best hotels in the world and partying until 2.30 in one of the best clubs in town! I arrived in Mumbai at something like 5am off the train (which turned out to be another great and very different journey). To cut costs I hooked up with a couple of guys from Finland (who have been travelling around with their ... read more

You say Mumbai, I say Bombay, let's call the whole thing off.

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 16th 2006

Udaipur

jfreilich

I arrived in Udaipur at 6:00 am after taking a night bus. I was exhausted and my rickshaw driver ended up taking me to a different hotel than I had booked. I was so tired that I just ended up staying at the one he took me to. It turned out to be great. I had a balcony with an amazing view of the city. Udaipur has some beautiful views, but like most of the places I've been in India, it looks and smells like shit on the street. I went to see the City Palace and museum, which was alright. Then I took a boat ride in the lake to see all of the fancy hotels that are actually their own islands in the lake. It's funny, all of the big sight seeing stuff in ... read more

Black Horse

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 12th 2006

Wally

Not to be disturbed by the name of this entry, play along and I shall explain the need for such a title. The annual "Kala Ghoda festival" is on right now. The week long cultural festival enthralls visitors, tourists and artists from all across the country. Special stalls are set-up to offer a platform to budding artists to showcase their talents during the cultural festival. A number of events take place at various venues in downtown Mumbai from 9am to 10pm. The best part about the festival is that you could catch a film, listen to a concert, attend a special class on indian dances, get a portrait sketched or pick up a souvenier, all under one huge roofless venue. Now coming to the mystery behind the title of the entry, "Kala Ghoda" means black horse. ... read more

Southern India Trip Completion

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 5th 2006

Conclusion -- the Travellers

hambone

The trip is over but the memories are many. I spent the last few hours on the subcontinent in Mumbai with my guide, Amin. Anyone vaguely interested in Mumbai (Bombay) should check out this novel http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2004-11-17-shantaram_x.htm and also use the services of Amin who loves the city to take you on a memorable tour -- check Amin out at: www.snehatravels.in . Heres some pictures of the travellers, the faces and inanimates that will stay in the memory bank for a long time. Here is an excerpt from Jan's diary re: the trip (I could not be as eloquent): "India is more than just a foreign country with different customs. It's an ancient land. People talk about its timeless quality. That's more than poetic description. I could not have experienced a greater range of contrasts on my ... read more

The "Sleeper"

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai February 5th 2006

DaveWells

I had a feeling that the "Sleeper" bus would be a bit of an adventure and I wasn't disappointed. When we arrived in Ahmedabad the agent told us that our bus was at 9pm so we should be back at his office for 8.30. That gave us a couple of hours to check emails and get some food. We wandered down the street and after a while it became very apparent that very few people spoke english, 99% of the signs were in Hindi or some other non-Latin script. We later discovered that this was common across the whole of Gujarat. I'm not complaining that they didn't speak english, it was just a very strange experience going somewhere where you can't even recogise the letters used in the words let alone the words themselves. At least ... read more

Brief history of India

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in...more history

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