Month: October 2008

A 2000 year old Hindu Buddhist cave / temple complex. I’m sure someone can Wikipedia it here.

UPDATE: Karle Caves. Wikipedia’s preferred spelling is “Karla,” but the one English sign on the premises was “Karle.” It was extremely cool to see, and older (per this) than the sign indicated.

Yummy?

A few days to catch up on, I fear. I will not complain that I am not getting well fed on this trip. or that my existence is tied up solely in neverending drudgery — but it’s been a pretty constant set of activities, leaving very little time to do pretty much anything other than the group activities. 

So, lots of anticipated blogging/online activites going undone, email not much gone through, books unread, etc. Apologies for those waiting for stuff from me.

Wednesday 

1. We had meetings in the office here only one day. Instead, we had our management meetings at the business center at the adjoining Olderoi hotel. Many good discussions.
2. Looooong lunch at the small restaurant in the Olderoi lobby. Very yummy. Ate more than expected, but hard to resist.
3. Long meetings the rest of the afternoon.
4. Short break before evening activities. Exited the hotel to run across the street to the waterfront to take a picture of the towers of Mumbai across the bay. Accosted by a friendly but persistent beggar, who, once I didn’t want to buy his maps of the city, panhandled 1500 rupees to help sister. (I owe a post on begging.)
5. The group hired two taxis for the evening — blue “cool” taxis (i.e., with a/c). Went to some upscale markets — the sorts of places with minimal haggling involved. Rupees are going at about 47 to the dollar, so costs are pretty easy at divide by 100, multiply by 2.  My boss was looking at small rugs, and boy can those rug salesmen talk like … well, rug salesmen. Basic tactic: start talking, keep talking, keep showing more product, “just one more, just one more, very nice, just one more, very nice” — the sale isn’t lost until you literally flee the scene.  I did find some trinkets for the family back home.
6. Dinner at a place called Khyber. Not a bad restaurant, but the food was not as good as Kandahar (or even lunch).
7. Back to the hotel around 11pm. Crash immediately.

Thursday 

1. Woke up around 6:30. Took a quick shower. Turned on the TV — and, egads, the Third Debate. Watched, blogged.
2. More looooong meetings during the day. Ate at the buffet restaurant at the Trident. Good food. That’s been a generally true thing everywhere we’ve read — the food has ranged from quite good to faboo.
3. Half hour to freshen up, then off to the taxis again. Alas, taxi strike today, though that seems to be more “notional” than real. But we end up in a non-a/c taxi, which has the disadvantage of (a) higher temps in the car (though not too bad with the window down), (b) more vulnerability to beggers at intersections, (c) lots of petrol fumes.
4. Off to the Gateway to India, an historic landmark. Seems a popular spot for folks to hang out. Some vendors, some beggers, lots of people (non-tourists) just lounging about. Like everything else in Mumbai, not in very good shape; under rennovation, but not impressively so.
5. Went an hour-plus across town to a shop named Paaneri. It’s a clothing shop where you find a counter in the proper area and ask for what they have in a given size or type. Unending pulling out of stuff, “just one more” — ended up buying a couple of outfits for Katherine (and had to fight off another dozen suggested sales from various sales folk before making it out the door — “if you don’t ask, they can’t say yes” seems to be the philosophy).
6. Hour back across town to Indigo. Mmmmmmm. Spicy plum-glazed Tandoori chicken with ginger marmelade. Hot Kahlua souffle. Mmmmm.
7. Off to Jazz by the Sea, karaoke (no, really just a cover) bar a klick or so down the road from the hotel. Tired, well-lubricated, and thus find myself missing Margie something awful.
8. Back to the hotel. Go to sleep around midnight.

Friday – last day! Yay! Sad in some ways, but very happy in others.

More info on that … probably when I get home Saturday. But expect pictures today.

I really am in India! Tomorrow is “field trip” day, but I’m seriously ready to be home.

Erected to commemorate the landing in India of their Imperial Majesties King George V and Queen Mary on the Decond of December MCMXI.

Or, rather, driving from the airport to the hotel. Or, rather, being driven from the airport to the hotel (as you could not pay me enough to take the wheel of a car here).

1. If you’ve ever been to Disney World or Disneyland, think of the crowds moving, wandering, shuffling, pushing, shoving, twisting, turning down Main Street as the park is near its close. Now replace all those people with busses, trucks, scooters, motorcycles, putt-putts/autorickshaws, little Fiat taxis, and other vehicles, add a lot of horns and blinking lights, and not-infrequent pedestrians, all racing ahead at 35-50 mph, and that’s driving in Mumbai. It’s all breathtakingly fast, close, and the lane markers are not only not a suggestion, they’re generally missing.
2. The city is wide-awake and milling about like an ant hill, even at 10:30 p.m. on a Monday night.
3. Everything — especially the trucks — are plastered with decor and adverts. As well as the ubiquitous “Horn OK Please” painted signs. And, not surprisingly, everyone uses their horns.
4. Even (or perhaps especially) at night, urban decay was all over the place, as you could generally see right into rotting-yet-still-inhabited buildings (who keeps their windows covered, assuming the wall is still there, when it’s in the mid-80s and equally humid at night?). For those not lucky enough to live in such little few-room quarters, any wall will do with (if there’s a least a modicum of fortune) one or more tarps or large plastic advertisement signs to keep the rain off, lean-to style.

1. Up at 7:30 or so, getting some final blogging, emptying the dishwasher (and refilling it), showering and all that. Leave at 9:30 or so to be at the airport a good two hours before the plane leaves.
2. Almost forgot my hat. Eek!
3. Did forget (dagnabbit) the camera battery and charger. Not the camera, mind you — but the battery, plugged into the charger, plugged into the kitchen peninsula outlet. Dagnabbit.
4. Check-in goes fine. Alas, Continental is not doing Frequent Flier exchange with United yet. Would have been nice.
5. The TSA have, as earlier noted, exchanged their white uniform shirts for more police-like blue ones. Still (as Denver always is) professional and cordial.
6. Chef Jimmy’s does a good Denver omelet.
7. Flight to Newark was uneventful. The in-flight movie was Get Smart, which was on my “target of opportunity” list. Review to follow.
8. Flew into Newark, lovely sunset view of Manhattan. Lovely.
9. Nice airport. Lots of restaurants and shops. There was a camera store right outside my gate (!), but no indication they had a replacement battery/charger, and any temptation I had to buy a camera with a decent zoom lens (if the cost were reasonable, itself a dubious proposition) was foiled by a sales attendant who couldn’t be bothered.
10. Finally decided on a not-very-Indian all-American dinner at McDonald’s. A planned dessert at Ben & Jerry’s was aborted by a phone report from a fellow traveler that they were requiring a second check-in and passport check at the gate. Ah, well.
11. Boarded our nice 777. I was on an outside 3-seat on the aisle. Someone was at the window — but shifted to an empty center row, leaving me with a trio of seats all to my lonesome. Yay!
12. And though I didn’t initially find a power jack — I eventually did. Yay!
13. And … a real metal knife for dinner? The terrorists have won!
14. The flight path goes over Newfoundland, curves back around at Finland/Murmansk, crosses Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan — all the cool places in the world. 
15. It’s 8,302 miles (per the navigational display). Or 7,806 miles according to the ticket (and, likely, the frequent flier statement).
16. Movies-on-demand system. Watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Speed Racer. Disappointing and fascinating, respectively.
17. Napped for about three hours. I’m losing time traveling there, and I get in at 9 p.m. or so local, so I didn’t want to oversleep and not be able to sleep at the hotel.
18. Got up, ate some of the snack kit provided. Watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and High Noon.
19. Breakfast, coffee, juice. Already getting all sorts of bits of Indian airline food — yogurt, a weird curry nut roll in my snack bag. Best part so far is after each meal, a nutty breath freshener thing — fennel, coriander and sesame seeds, peppermint, tamarind leaves, etc.
20. Plane got in and landed early, and immigration and customs were relatively easy (if inordinately hot — mid-80s at 9 p.m. at night). The earliness was countered by our having to wait for the driver the company had sent for us to take us to the hotel. (One does not rent a car in Mumbai.)
21. The trip to the hotel was over an hour, as traffic was zany and we took a circuitous route. I’m staying at the fabulous Trident Nariman Point, which overlooks the Arabian Sea — and I have a sea-facing room, which is also nice. The room is well-appointed, very Euro-style.
22. We meet tomorrow to go to the office at 9. Time to start posting and then getting to sleep!