Take a walk on the wild side...
Today was the last day for Batch Five here in Mumbai. They passed with flying colors, and averaged 92.5% on the final exam for the three-day training class.
Brian and I took a tuk-tuk autorickshaw back to the hotel. It's much cheaper (70 rupees compared to 1600 rupees) and much more interesting than the boring airconditioned hotel cars.
:)
I cleaned up and checked email, and then went up to the Executive Lounge (my, doesn't THAT sound impressive) for dinner. Actually it is hors d'oeuvres but, hey, if you eat enough of them it is as good as dinner. AND IT'S FREE! I had two nice pieces of roasted fish, two chicken fingers with special sauce, two quesadillas with different special sauce, two olive-and-mushroom mini kebabs on skewers, two glasses of apple juice ("Sir, we do apologize but it is canned and not fresh. Would that be acceptable?") and one dessert... cheesecake with raspberry topping. You only need ONE of those.
I watched the sun sink into the ocean from the fifth-floor vantage point, and then decided to go for a walk. We don't have to work tomorrow (hurray!) and it is a real DAY off, not a night off. Brian and I are planning to go sightseeing, our first in the two weeks we've been here.
He had mentioned driving past a movie theater last week while out on a shopping expedition so I headed off. Down the big stone staircase to the big iron gates. Wave at the (twelve) security guards so they see you going out, so they will maybe let you back in again. Look both ways and step out into the street. Literally. Remember, no sidewalks!
Head north. Normally the car turns east here on our way to work but I am going to continue on straight.
A big empty closed hotel, the Tulip Star. It looks like it was quite the place, but is now dry and dusty with broken-out windows, watched over by two security men out front behind more big iron gates.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church and School. Closed now, but I peeked my head inside last week on my way back from jogging. I was sweaty and smelly and wearing shorts so I didn't dare go in, but the service looked nice. More big iron gates, but they were open. Tonight I was better dressed, so walked into the courtyard, and found a small cemetary... and a fresh grave, still mounded up and totally covered with bright orange marigold and carnation petals.
A little clothing store "In Top" that might have had some cool T-shirts with fun slogans and stuff, but didn't. But DID have a whole surprise grocery section in about an area about six feet square. You'd be amazed what all they can cram in a small space, even Kellogg's cereals and Old El Paso Taco Shells!
Vegetable sellers still offering their wares at night, in the dark, without streetlights, but sometimes with a candle for light. Mangy dogs wandering the streets. Families out for a walk. Men sitting in shop doorways discussing who knows what. Boys repairing shoes out on the sidewalk. A tiny tiny barbershop filled by two barbers and their customers, one getting a shave with a straight razor and one getting a haircut, which reminds me that my own hair could use a trim. A single lane street full of people talking and laughing, that cars and motorbikes are still barreling down, with their lights off. Ladies in beautiful sarees of all colors, bright even in the dark. A man sleeping on the sidewalk with a sheet pulled up over him.
Down and around, past what was billed as the bus station but was more like a wide pullover/layby.
A huge Hare Krishna temple that people were constantly streaming in and out of. I am told that every town here has one, and it seems to be just one more temple among many thousands here, rather than the weird cult like it is in the United States. Loud din of music and chanting... which was still loud in the little green park next door. Truly a pocket-park, I walked once around it and back out again.
Past more tiny shops and stalls through more streets packed with people and cars and motorbikes and autorickshaws, and through a couple of mud puddles, avoiding the inevitable potholes. (Did you know the "inevitable" is French for "unavoidable"?)
Turn a corner and past a spooky decrepit falling-down three-story house. In the States it would have been torn down and built upon, or at least paved over. In Europe it would have been taken over by squatters. But here because of laws the families or creditors can leave it just sit empty for years. There are buildings all over where the top floor is not finished, just rebars reaching up into space, or the front facade and walls not there. This house looked like it had really been something back in the day, but today is an empty broken shell. What stories does it hold?
And speaking of French, turn another corner and voila! Shopper's Stop, a three-story department store. Only open nine months it had ladies' wear and cosmetics on the ground floor, children's wear on the first (second) floor, and men's wear and sporting goods on the second (third) floor, and a new five-screen movie theatre on the third (fourth) floor that will be opening in just three weeks. And the whole basement floor was books. I was in my element there. Fortunately I only had 100 rupees in my pocket and no credit cards, so I was safe.
:)
Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the center of India's prodigious film industry, so much that they call it "Bollywood." There are many cinemas and here are five more. Maybe I'll get to see the grand opening?
Nine o'clock and time to start walking back. I was only half an hour from the hotel, but was still light years away. I really didn't know at all where I was and couldn't have found a main road if I'd had to, but at least knew the way I came (didn't I?) and could trace my way back, so I did.
Saw everything from the other side, and in reverse order. It's nine thirty at night, and there are still hundreds of people out, of ALL ages. From little children to grandparents. And the little shops and vendors are still open: paper collectors, vegetable carts, laundry and dry cleaning, fresh dairy milk delivered to your door, photocopies made, and so much more.
I wish you could be here. I think you'd really enjoy it. It really is like living inside the Discovery Channel, or National Geographic.
Well, I made it back to the hotel (was there ever any doubt?) and am typing up this blog entry for you. More adventures tomorrow...
Brian and I took a tuk-tuk autorickshaw back to the hotel. It's much cheaper (70 rupees compared to 1600 rupees) and much more interesting than the boring airconditioned hotel cars.
:)
I cleaned up and checked email, and then went up to the Executive Lounge (my, doesn't THAT sound impressive) for dinner. Actually it is hors d'oeuvres but, hey, if you eat enough of them it is as good as dinner. AND IT'S FREE! I had two nice pieces of roasted fish, two chicken fingers with special sauce, two quesadillas with different special sauce, two olive-and-mushroom mini kebabs on skewers, two glasses of apple juice ("Sir, we do apologize but it is canned and not fresh. Would that be acceptable?") and one dessert... cheesecake with raspberry topping. You only need ONE of those.
I watched the sun sink into the ocean from the fifth-floor vantage point, and then decided to go for a walk. We don't have to work tomorrow (hurray!) and it is a real DAY off, not a night off. Brian and I are planning to go sightseeing, our first in the two weeks we've been here.
He had mentioned driving past a movie theater last week while out on a shopping expedition so I headed off. Down the big stone staircase to the big iron gates. Wave at the (twelve) security guards so they see you going out, so they will maybe let you back in again. Look both ways and step out into the street. Literally. Remember, no sidewalks!
Head north. Normally the car turns east here on our way to work but I am going to continue on straight.
A big empty closed hotel, the Tulip Star. It looks like it was quite the place, but is now dry and dusty with broken-out windows, watched over by two security men out front behind more big iron gates.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church and School. Closed now, but I peeked my head inside last week on my way back from jogging. I was sweaty and smelly and wearing shorts so I didn't dare go in, but the service looked nice. More big iron gates, but they were open. Tonight I was better dressed, so walked into the courtyard, and found a small cemetary... and a fresh grave, still mounded up and totally covered with bright orange marigold and carnation petals.
A little clothing store "In Top" that might have had some cool T-shirts with fun slogans and stuff, but didn't. But DID have a whole surprise grocery section in about an area about six feet square. You'd be amazed what all they can cram in a small space, even Kellogg's cereals and Old El Paso Taco Shells!
Vegetable sellers still offering their wares at night, in the dark, without streetlights, but sometimes with a candle for light. Mangy dogs wandering the streets. Families out for a walk. Men sitting in shop doorways discussing who knows what. Boys repairing shoes out on the sidewalk. A tiny tiny barbershop filled by two barbers and their customers, one getting a shave with a straight razor and one getting a haircut, which reminds me that my own hair could use a trim. A single lane street full of people talking and laughing, that cars and motorbikes are still barreling down, with their lights off. Ladies in beautiful sarees of all colors, bright even in the dark. A man sleeping on the sidewalk with a sheet pulled up over him.
Down and around, past what was billed as the bus station but was more like a wide pullover/layby.
A huge Hare Krishna temple that people were constantly streaming in and out of. I am told that every town here has one, and it seems to be just one more temple among many thousands here, rather than the weird cult like it is in the United States. Loud din of music and chanting... which was still loud in the little green park next door. Truly a pocket-park, I walked once around it and back out again.
Past more tiny shops and stalls through more streets packed with people and cars and motorbikes and autorickshaws, and through a couple of mud puddles, avoiding the inevitable potholes. (Did you know the "inevitable" is French for "unavoidable"?)
Turn a corner and past a spooky decrepit falling-down three-story house. In the States it would have been torn down and built upon, or at least paved over. In Europe it would have been taken over by squatters. But here because of laws the families or creditors can leave it just sit empty for years. There are buildings all over where the top floor is not finished, just rebars reaching up into space, or the front facade and walls not there. This house looked like it had really been something back in the day, but today is an empty broken shell. What stories does it hold?
And speaking of French, turn another corner and voila! Shopper's Stop, a three-story department store. Only open nine months it had ladies' wear and cosmetics on the ground floor, children's wear on the first (second) floor, and men's wear and sporting goods on the second (third) floor, and a new five-screen movie theatre on the third (fourth) floor that will be opening in just three weeks. And the whole basement floor was books. I was in my element there. Fortunately I only had 100 rupees in my pocket and no credit cards, so I was safe.
:)
Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the center of India's prodigious film industry, so much that they call it "Bollywood." There are many cinemas and here are five more. Maybe I'll get to see the grand opening?
Nine o'clock and time to start walking back. I was only half an hour from the hotel, but was still light years away. I really didn't know at all where I was and couldn't have found a main road if I'd had to, but at least knew the way I came (didn't I?) and could trace my way back, so I did.
Saw everything from the other side, and in reverse order. It's nine thirty at night, and there are still hundreds of people out, of ALL ages. From little children to grandparents. And the little shops and vendors are still open: paper collectors, vegetable carts, laundry and dry cleaning, fresh dairy milk delivered to your door, photocopies made, and so much more.
I wish you could be here. I think you'd really enjoy it. It really is like living inside the Discovery Channel, or National Geographic.
Well, I made it back to the hotel (was there ever any doubt?) and am typing up this blog entry for you. More adventures tomorrow...
posted by Roger Agness @ 12:50 PM
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