Mumbai Travelogue – Part 2

Not much of interest to report on yesterday. Got up, getting breakfast, then getting all gussied up for the office. Hour and a half to get there, this time in daylight (which just lets you see more than the night) before getting to the office.

Day full of good meetings, liaising, discussing, meeting, etc.

Travel to the hotel around 5:30p, and an hour-forty-five this time. 

(New Mumbai traffic metaphor: Remember the asteroid chase scene in Empire Strikes Back? Now replace all the ships and asteroids with cars / scooters / lorries / autorickshaws / pedestrians, move them more in the same general direction, and you get the idea. Lanes markings? Obviously there is a great internal debate in India as to whether you go between them, or follow them along, and the Indians, ever polite, are willing to go along with either position at the drop of a hat.)

The boss and a couple of the others had a call at 8p that was supposed to last a half hour, so the rest of us went up and splashed our faces and changed out of the less uncomfortable clothes. We actually met up at 9p (long, bad meeting), then wandered over to the adjoining hotel, the Oldurai, and ate at a traditional (and excellent) Indian restaurant, Kandahar. Yum.

Got back to the room around 11, relaxed for a bit, watched The Catherine Tate Show on BBC Entertainment (like the Tracey Ullman show, only with, um, Catherine Tate), and then eventually hit the sack.

The time zone shift is still sending me a bit for a loop. I’m still groggy in the morning, and at night, with my body running 11.5 hours off its pace.  I have a lot of things that need doing, but the brain hasn’t been quite up to snuff to tackle them in the evening. I have no doubt I’ll be back and adjusted … oh, just about in time to fly home.

Current plan is meetings here at the hotel the next few days. Some going out and/or shopping in the evening mebbe. Friday is touring day, which will probably be more rural than hitting all the big classic Mumbai sites.

Now — off to breakfast.