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Business Trip
Apparently these guys missed the memo on the whole thumbs up thing.One year and twenty one days after ending my six months backpacking in Asia by flying home from Manila, I headed back to the Asian continent. This time I was headed to India, and I had traded in the MEC Backpack and quick-dry shirts, for a London Fog carry-on and some dress shoes. As strange as it still is to me, I now work at a job that can require me to go to places like India on business, and that was the primary purpose of this trip. On a secondary level, this trip gave me a great excuse to bring this travel blog back from the dead, and to visit a country I had missed (Somewhat intentionally) on my 2010 Asia tour. I spent the first two weeks of August in India; splitting my time between doing business in the major cities and hitting the requisite sites in the Golden Triangle. This entry will focus on the first week and look at the time I spent in Mumbai and New Delhi; the fifth and eighth most populated metropolitan areas in the World respectively.
To reach the Indian subcontinent from an island off the West Coast of Canada is
Just doing my Job
The business part of the trip in a warehouse outside Mumbai. Look at that laser focus. to put it lightly, quite an endeavour. For me it involved stops in Vancouver and London, and 29 hours from going through security at Victoria airport to collapsing on to a hotel bed in Mumbai. I spent almost nine hours in Heathrow Terminal 5 and can confirm that it is a representation of Hell on Earth despite its modern amenities. That being said, British Airways is on fire right now from my perspective. The food was incredible by airplane standards, and the entertainment selection kept me entertained during the day I spent with BA.
Arrival in Mumbai, or anywhere in India, is nothing short of a sensory assault. As sleep deprived as I was; I still noticed quickly how hectic, overbearing, and completely different from home this place was. A cacophony of vehicle noises (Mostly horns), mixes with the putrid smells of an overcrowded city of 15 million, and the sight of massive cows walking down the middle of downtown streets. Mumbai is a seething mass of humanity and a city witness to as much social inequality as I have ever seen in one place. A metaphor for the city; Mukesh Ambani, a billionaire who it is predicted
World's Most Expensive Home
Ambani's crib. Google it for more detailed pictures not taken on a cell phone out of a moving taxi. will be the richest man in the World by 2014, lives in the World’s largest and most expensive private residence in Central Mumbai. One of the pictures below shows his home which is a 29 story building that has a private health spa, movie theatre, and helipad for his personal use, along with a staff of 600. From any of his many panoramic city view windows he can look out and see slums where millions of Mumbai residents live on less than a dollar a day. Some of these slums exist less than a kilometre from the World’s most expensive home, a striking reminder of how far India has come and how far it still has to go.
When I visited China in 2010 the signs of economic development and newfound prosperity were everywhere. From the gleaming skyscrapers of Hong Kong to the Shanghai socialites with Manolo Blahniks and Gucci shoulder bags, China was clearly a country on the come up with a clear path forward to becoming the World’s economic superpower. In India, the potential is there, but the path and eventual destination seem to be much murkier to me. If China is JFK as Senator, then
Hotel View in Mumbai
Great if hazy view on to the Arabian Sea.
Sidenote: Didn't know Mumbai was a coastal city until I started researching for this trip. India is more JFK as young war hero. A whole World full of incredible possibilities are open to the subcontinent, but India’s eventual ascendancy is far from certain. In fact, anyone who visits India will at certain times be amazed that this place forms the I in BRIC and is considered one of the country’s that will drive the 21st century global economy.
Since I spent only two nights in Mumbai, busy with business, I didn’t have much time to experience the city or see its sights. Most of the famous ones are relics from the British colonial era with the highlight being the majestic and gothic Victoria Train Station. I came upon it just as the building was being lit up for night, and would have to rate it as the most beautiful train station I’ve ever seen (Union Station in Toronto was NOT the previous title holder). It would be one of the most amazing buildings in any city it was placed in, and it is almost too nice on the outside to host the chaos that goes on inside one of India’s busiest train stations. The only other thing I can really recommend would be
Gateway of India (Mumbai)
Not to be confused with India Gate in New Delhi. to walk along the Marine Drive Promenade at dusk, after the searing daytime temperatures have dropped a bit. Indians of all ages come to walk along the boardwalk or sit on the numerous benches and stare out at the Arabian Sea. The view is expansive and unobstructed, with only a few small fishing boats on the hazy horizon. I can see the value of this view to the residents of a city that can feel claustrophobic, overcrowded, and incessantly loud and obnoxious.
On Thursday August 4th, I caught a Kingfisher Air (Footnote 1) flight to New Delhi, the capital of India and the biggest city in the Northern half of the country. My first impression was that New Delhi was greener and more tranquil than Mumbai, with leafy parks and quieter central roads. Mumbai is the commercial heart of India and would be the Indian equivalent of Toronto or New York, while New Delhi is the seat of the government and would be more comparable to Ottawa or Washington. Of course, being the more peaceful of two Indian mega cities is like being the more sportsmanlike of two Philadelphia Flyers; it’s just the lesser of two evils. Insert
Victoria Train Station
Easily Mumbai's best sight. your own Bobby Clarke metaphor here.
Amazingly I had even less time to sightsee in New Delhi than Mumbai, with the below picture of India Gate snapped out of a moving taxi being the only “Sight” I saw. So instead of boring you with business details I will instead go over two major things I noticed in India’s two largest cities: The constant and maddening traffic jams, and incredibly tight security at hotels and tourist sights. From my perspective, after poverty, traffic might be India’s biggest and most noticeable problem. To illustrate this, one of the clients that I met with during my business activities was Vishal, an eloquent and upwardly mobile middle aged Indian. Vishal lives 15 km from his office in New Delhi and his commute is over an hour each way every single day! Everyone honks, everyone is angry, and the amounts of near crashes you see everywhere is mind boggling (Footnote 2). As for security, it is very tight and has apparently been ramped up considerably since the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Both hotels that I stayed at were surrounded by the roadblocks and armed security guards that one would normally associate with
Taj Mahal Hotel (Mumbai)
Another luxury hotel that was stormed during the 2008 terrorist attacks. a US Embassy in this part of the World. Each car/taxi that enters the driveway of the hotel has to pop both the hood and trunk, and let an attendant look at the undercarriage of the car using a long mirror. After this, each guest who enters the hotel has to go through a metal detector and occasionally be treated to a full body pat down. A fun fact for my Mom: the hotel I stayed at in Mumbai, The Trident Nariman, was one of the central locations of the 2008 terrorist attacks with masked gunmen storming the lobby and eventually killing 32 hostages. I thanked Vishal personally for making reservations for me at such a historic hotel.
On my last night in New Delhi I went out for dinner and drinks with Vishal and his boss Sanjeev and got to see the side of India that most people forget about: Affluent Indians. I’m talking about those who can afford a full time personal driver, a daily maid, and have the money to send their kids to university in America. Dinner was at a nice and expensive restaurant in a neighbourhood where Vishal told me homes usually sell
The Promenade
Me on the Marine Drive Promenade at Night. Literally 2 minutes after this picture it began to pour rain and I had to run to my hotel. for 3-5 million US Dollars. In some 3rd World countries this restaurant would be populated by drunken expats, foreign businessmen, and a few well connected locals. In the New Delhi of 2011, I was the only white guy in a restaurant filled with middle and upper class Indians, enjoying their country’s now decades long economic boom. The bar we went to afterwards was a similar scene, with mostly young Indian professionals drinking Kingfishers and smoking flavoured shisha. Not too far down the road people on the other side of India’s great economic divide slept on the street or under the cover of their rickshaws.
After my whirlwind tour of India’s two most important cities I boarded a bus leaving Delhi on Saturday August 6th for six days of touring what is known as the Golden Triangle. I left the dress shirts and black shoes in New Delhi and slipped into the familiar backpacker outfit of cargo shorts and faded t-shirts. The first stop would be Agra to check another Wonder of the World off my list: The Taj Mahal. Expect the Agra blog entry to be published in four to five days.
Footnote 1: One of India’s main
Vishal and Sanjeev (Clients)
On my last night in New Delhi we ended up at a Shisha bar where we smoked and had a few Kingfisher beers. We also spent around 5 minutes in a very loud and aggressive nightclub before realizing it was completely inappropriate for the situation. domestic airlines and its most famous beer are both named Kingfisher and are owned by the same company. Can you imagine the marketing opportunities if Budweiser branched in to airlines? Being able to fly on “Air Bud” would make it worth doing this by itself. Not to mention the inevitable commercials with attractive flight attendants and bad jokes.
Footnote 2: I never saw a car crash during my time in India but I definitely heard one. I was on a bus stopped in traffic (What a surprise), and heard what I’m almost positive was a motorcycle hit a car and then the sound of a man skidding on pavement. Most people on the bus stood up to see what happened and based on the looks on their faces I knew it was gruesome and I decided not to look.
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