Days 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8: Work, Work and Work, and a daytrip!

Well well well, a certain person has been lazy! Sorry guys and gals, a few bouts of Delhi Belly and busyness at work has kept me away from you!

Haven't taken any hotel pics yet, promise I will soon!

So what to say?!? Haven't been able to take pics for days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 as a strict no camera's policy at work means it's not worth taking the camera in. However the company drivers are absolute nutters! After Day 2's rickshaw ride (been told not to call them tuk-tuk's anymore as that means prostitute in the local dialect!), I thought I would be ready for anything. Guess again. The journey too and from work is quite short, maybe a couple of miles max.. but due to the Mumbai driving style and traffic it can take upwards of 20 minutes to get there sometimes. On the journey back on day 3 to save time our driver took us on the wrong side of the road into on coming traffic! I knew 4 pairs of work trousers wasn't enough.

Work is going fine apart from the PC's run slower than an arthritic 90 year old chasing after the kids who keep playing on his lawn. It can take nearly 15 minutes for me to log in first thing in the morning! The teams we're training are great and really friendly. Some of them cant understand my deep baritone slightly brummie accented voice though.

Other than work we havent been up to anything interesting apart from the day, mainly eating and drinking in the hotel, enjoying the gym, pool, sauna, steam room and the jacuzzi, you know the usual, and playing with the worlds most expensive pack of cards (550 rupees!). Today was fun though, after the majority of the others had recovered from their visit to a nightclub (Hip-Hop music, uuurgh, A and I skipped that one), we went on a day trip to the Bandra market and a couple of beaches.

First stop was changing my large bank notes into a wad of smaller ones (to save excuses on no change).

The Wad

First stop on the trip was a dept store in Bandra the journey there wasn't overly interesting except L protesting her hungover state.

However we saw a car dented for even mumbai standards:

Anything from the boot sir?

Got a littgle snap happy today as you can tell, my camera kept giving me sullen looks due to the lack of use I had been giving it the last few days.

My first view of the sea whilst of been here!

Bit more Sea

The first stop off was the department store where we met the other half of the gang. Nowt interesting, just a seriously over priced chess set.

View across the road from the department store.

From there we went on to the open market. I'm getting better at crossing the road, the reasoning being if anything hits my ample frame it will cost more for them to get the dents removed. Even buses are scared of knocking me down. Whilst I was waiting for the others to catch up I spotted a few painters taking their lunch break:

Bamboo scaffolding (These are professional Mumbai painters, do not try this at home kids!).

The girls bought a few hand bags, nothing I really fancied, though the street hawkers were evrywhere, when will they understand I will never want a hankercheif!

From there we went on to the Bandra Bandstation beach:

The arabian sea.

More sea

Buildings and Sea

Sea-n enough yet? (Sorry for the awful pun!)

One of the buildings was surrounded by crows, looked like something out of a Ghostbusters movie!

More buildings, the balcony's are ridiculous here.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop safe enough to swim in!

The sun is there somewhere hiding behind clouds.

J blending in with the locals

The gang (thanks to GW for taking the pic)

There's something hitchcockina about this picture, cant put my finger on it.

They must get through a lot of cleaning on the top of this bulding.

The taxi's here are a little more colourful.

From there it was back into the taxi and off to Juhu beach (this one had sand!) I took a few pics on the way:

Light traffic for Mumbai.

Juhu beach was a lot of fun and a nice sea breeze cooled us down, apart from the two dogs having carnal relations it was lovely.

View of the beach from the alley.

You can just about see the high rises through the mist.

View looking the other way.

Some intricately decorated tiles were on the wall behind the beach, picturing the major religions in the area.

J getting his feet moist.

And returning from getting his feet moist, the water is nice and warm apparently.

the planes from the local airport fly over the beach, circle round and head back inland for domestic journeys, the noise was spectacular!

Anyhoo A and I took a rickshaw ride back to the hotel as we both needed the facilities quite badly. The ride took over half an hour but at 60 rupees we cant complain! As an extra bonus, I took a video on the way back (apologies for the poor sound and picture qaulity but my camera only captures at vga with a mono mic:

The trip is spit into 5 parts (100mb files each!)

Day Two: Hotel and Day trip

Right! Now I'm awake, some writing!

As we were trundling through the airport towards the car I took a few quick snapshots to show the shanty town right next to the airport.

Is that blue tarpaulin I see?

A little bit more of a closer view.

As you can see Blue Tarpaulin is de-rigeur in the run up to monsoon season. According to J so far all we have had so far was just some light showers. I suppose you could describe them as light if a heavy shower was one that has been lifting weights for the sole intention of killing you.

When we finally got through processing at the airport we found our sign's on boards we jumped into our cars, aikr con and beverages included :D L and I in one, with N and A having a car each. I managed to grab a couple of quick shots on the way:

More Blue Tarp! Also loads of advertising for a certain cola flavoured beverage...

And some for the rival brand.

I''ll take you on a guided tour of the Hotel tomorrow but for now I'll show you a few shots of the HUGE room!

The main room.

The lovely desk

One of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in.

Marble Bath, this is the life!

The shower is extremely powerful, best way to wake up in the morning.

Plenty of wardrobe space.

MINI-BAR!

You even get drops for your pillows. This is luxury!

My birthday card above the telly.

We went out on a little afternoon trip to the INOrbit Shopping Mall, we were considering getting a cab outside the hoel but J had another idea, TUK-TUK'S! N and I grabbed one and J and A grabbed the other.

J and A in their Tuk-Tuk.

The view from my side of the Tuk-Tuk.

The view from N's side.

The only quiet road in Mumbai.

Must set up a blue tarp business up...

The closesness of these two is actually quite a lot of room for vehicles in Mumbai.

Racing J and A.

After this our driver put his foot down and I put the camera away as I needed both hands to grip on. The tuk-Tuks go for gaps that no-one else would spot. If you think driving in brum city centre is busy imagine 4 lanes of traffic with about 7 vehicles spread across them, there is no lane discipline over here, if there's enough room for your vehicle you take it. A nearly fell out at one point. They should put these things as a ride in Disneyland. I nearly died of terror when the tuk-tuk forced a gap between a 4x4 and a bus.

The driver, though not speaking a word of English was incredibly friendly, he even offered N and I some chewing tobacco, which N thought was pot and we politely declined.

After we reached the shopping mall and I had recovered my breath I took a few shots whilst we waited for J and A's slowcoach tuk-tuk to catch us up.

The view across the street from the Mall.

We went into the thankfully air-conned Mall, there was a great range of shops, all your usuals Nike, Adidas, Levi's United Colours of Benetton. J and N got some shirts and a few other bits. I was astounded by how cheap the DVD's were, from 300 rupees a pop (about £3.50). The PC and xbox games were quite cheap too.

After a few hours we went to catch a taxi back to the hotel (Free Bar Time!). We had to cross the road which was fun, the nearside was OK as there was traffic lights just up the road. However, after we got to the central reservation things got a bit hairy, with traffic whizzing past. After about 5 mins of standing there and J having multiple attempts to try and get across, N decided he had waited long enough and just went out into the road. Cue screeching and honking. J, A and I were greatly impressed by his courage especially when he walked in front of a bus.

Thankfully we caught a cab on the way back. The cab was a bit tight and hot in the back. More pictures time!











The trip back was in a regular cab, lacking air con though so it got a bit sweaty. A, N and I were squashed in the back whilst J lounged in the front, a reasonable 175 rupees to the hotel though.


And to finish a picture of us all in after a few light refreshments in thr Bombay Hi bar.