Travel Blog Posts
December 23rd 2007
Apparently, when cooking a Christmas Turkey, it is recommended that the turkey be cooked for 35-40 minutes for every kilo using a pre-heated oven set to 200 degrees celsius. However, all of my research indicates that the same is not recommended for humans. So, given that it is the middle of an Australian summer and we have no air-conditioning in the apartment, a road trip seemed like a good idea. As well as taking advantage of the air-conditioning in the car, it also gets us out of Sydney during the silly season (which is a pretty good thing too). So, after updating the tent to a newer model (the old one was looking pretty sad) and purchasing a few essential camping items, a plan was put in place to head up the east coast of Australia ... read more
December 2nd 2007
After a bit of a lie in to catch up on some much needed sleep, I spent a lot of Saturday wandering around the various shopping malls in Singapore. If shopping is your thing, Singapore is definitely the place for you. The main shopping area - Orchard Road - is filled with shops of every possible type that you can think of. I am not much of a shopper but even I was happy to just walk in and out of the various shopping centres to see what they had. After a while it does become a bit repetitive because most of the shops tend to sell the same items. It really comes down to how much of a bargain you want to get. If you are content to pay "full" price, you can be in ... read more
November 30th 2007
Well, I finally left India and moved on to Singapore (not without a struggle though). It seemed like Mumbai threw everything it had in my path to prevent me from leaving. First, my normal 1 to 1.5 hour transit from work to the hotel was extended to nearly 3.5 hours due to some of the worst traffic I have ever seen. I am pretty sure it doesn't even qualify as driving when you don't move at all for 45 minutes. By the time I got to the hotel I barely had time to complete my packing and get to the airport so I could check in for my 00:30 flight to Singapore. The next few hours were like a crash course in queueing. 1.5 hours to check in, 45 minutes to clear customs and 50 minutes ... read more
Bollywood Dreams and the Beach Lifesyle
Published: November 25th 2007Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai
November 25th 2007
Today was my second (and last) non-working day for this trip to India and I can't believe that by the time I leave I will have been here nearly three weeks but will only have had two days when I wasn't confined to an office staring at a computer screen. I again had the services of a driver (called Ali) so I decided to try to squeeze in as much as I possibly could. First stop for the day was Film City, which is located on the outskirts of the national park east of the main city. While Bollywood is not actually a place, Film City is as close as you will get. It consists of a number of indoor and outdoor shooting areas as well as editing and recording facilities and about 900 movies a ... read more
Gateway of India and Elephanta Island
Published: November 24th 2007Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai
November 18th 2007
Okay, first things first. For those of you that read my previous post, the mystery of why they check under the car at the hotel has been solved...and the answer is not good. Bottom line is that it IS for bombs (so the movies were right - who would have thought?). From what I can gather, the police have recently captured a terrorist in Mumbai and the lawyers are refusing to represent him. In protest, his terrorist group have vowed to bomb the court buildings around Mumbai and they have already done so to 3 different court houses. None of this is anywhere near where I am at the moment but it is a bit of an eye opener. Anyway, today was the first day since arriving in Mumbai that I didn't have to work so ... read more
November 13th 2007
Well, I have arrived in Mumbai (or Bombay if you prefer) after a pretty uneventful journey. I am here for a work trip unfortunately so there won't be much time to do the touristy thing but I will try to sqeeze in some sightseeing. This trip actually works out pretty well for me. I was in Mumbai previously in February 2005 for a few weeks and again this was for a work trip so the sightseeing opportunities were limited. However, due to a disk crash on my lap-top, what photos I did manage to get on my last trip were lost so I really had no evidence that I had ever been here. That is something that I will be able to correct with this trip (and I have learned my lesson so pictures will be ... read more
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