Mumbai day 2

Mumbai Day 2:
So I went back down to the Gateway of India and did the cruise over to Elephanta Island. Course just walking across the gateway’s square I propositioned by countless people trying to see my trinkets, boat rides, and just for money. There was a guy checking bags, kinda. Once threw I didn’t see where I was supposed to buy my ticket for the boat ride. Luckily I asked the concierge on how this all worked and prices. Cuz numerous people tried to sell my their “cheap” boat packages. I basically walked all the way up to the boats when this last guy asked me if I wanted a boat ticket, and even here I thought it was someone trying to sell me a fake something till I saw he wore a hat that looked like he was part of the boat crew. So I boarded the boat which was almost completely full and made ready for an hour ride. It was great to be on the ocean and was so relaxing. I knew I should have brought some of my sunscreen, but wasn’t sure if it would have made it through airport security. At end of day I paid for it slightly.
We passed by numerous large barge tankers and some oil rig stations till we finally reached the island. This is worth mentioning how lax thing are here in terms of what we’re used to in US. We hadn’t even gotten close to docking yet and they opened up the gate to exit. Anyone could have walked by and fallen out. Plus I didn’t see a single life jacket. This reminds me too my driver that picked me up yesterday (and same today for ride back to airport) all his seatbelts didn’t work. Made me hugely uncomfortable being someone who always using his seatbelt.
Once docked it was a long walk in open sun till I reached what I thought was the gate for Elephant island, instead it was a tax booth and paid 5 inp. I kept walking on past all these trinket shops and soda stands. I was very glad I brought a bottle of water. Now, I was surprised to end up at the bottom of a very long and high stone stairs that were littered with all these shops selling wares. Also at base were guys offering to carry you up the steep stairs in a seat with basically two long rods of wood that two guys would hold and carry you kinda Egyptian style. Oh, did I say that Mumbai definitely lived up to it’s name as being very humid. I sweat up a storm this weekend. It definitely made NYC summers look like a cake walk.
Finally I made it up to the top, and now I was at the entrance to the Caves. The concierge said the price of admission also included a guide if you wanted. I asked guard about it and said to stand off to side and one would be there. I did, and waited, and waited. No one came and I gave up. It looked like everything was really well marked. I had no problem walking to the caves on my own without a guide. I have to say the first cave was the most impressive. Nicely carved columns and sculptures. The whole area had tons of little monkeys, who though being cute were feisty with people. If you had food man they were all over you.
I finished up seeing the caves and made the long journey back down. I figured I’d buy some little items for back home and successful haggled with the merchants to get a better price. Made my way to the back down the steps (which down was much easier than up). I walked back to boat and felt good to be in shade and just resting. I was just drenched in sweat. The hour long cruise felt so amazing after all the hot sun walking, and I made a point to sit in middle of boat in shade. I knew I had my fill of sun. We docked and I took some more shots of the gateway. As you can probably tell I love taking photos of architecture and not much on taking photos of me.
I went back to my hotel and was sad checkout was at 12 noon. I so could have taken a nice shower. I was starving by this point not having lunch yet. It was 3pm now. I ate back at the main restaurant and had a pizza. I’ve been having a craving and I was sadly disappointed. It was great to kill an hour till my driver picked me up at 4pm.
I checked out and had my bag taken out of bag check. The doorman had my bag and I looked for my driver who had just called me to say he was there. I couldn’t see the car or him. Then he popped into view, waving me over. So the doorman and myself walked over to find it was only him and no car in sight. He quickly took my bag from doorman, who I gave a quick tip and a shrug for I still didn’t see this guy’s car. I walked with him as he said the car is just here. Well, “just here” ended up being 4 blocks in the blazing heat later. I’m sorry but he just tried my patience. I have to say he has been my least favorite driver so far. Now I asked him to show me the Victoria Terminal, which is this grand train station from 1800s. We drove around and it came into view and we went around to see it from the front. Now you would have thought he’d park the car so I could take photos like all the drivers have done so far. Nope. He just kept on driving. I was able to snap some quick shots, but to be honest at this point I was just done with him and just wanted to get to airport. He went back to showing me obvious buildings again, but I did get to see some of the slums of Mumbai. This is the town that Slumdog Millionaire was shot. We drove through rest of town and I got to airport very early but was more happy to just be done with my driver, sorry to say. Plus being out in hot sun this past weekend I think just did me in. I’m in airport waiting while I type this. I ‘m a little disappointed because I’m not getting wi/fi here and Bangalore is a much smaller airport and they had it.
So bottomline I really liked Mumbai, it was totally like a New York city kind of feel, but this humidity made it a very draining weekend. I could see that this would be a fun place to live. It has all the energy and options you’d expect of a large city. I have to admit I was surprised that you still had the smallness like Bangalore. Livestock in streets etc. Hopefully nothing happens with my flight. I so want to just get home and rest up.
Well, I think I jinxed it by my last line. My flight was delayed an hour and 20 min. I just got home in my hotel in Bangalore at 1:20am. Work is gonna feel long tomorrow.

Mumbai (aka Bombay)

So I made it to Mumbai! Flew in on India airline KingFisher, totally cool flight.
My driver called me to say he was here, so that was cool. The car was a little on the down low but that's cool. But my driver once I'm all settled in "where are you going?". Here I thought through all these emails and guys are work called to verify he'd totally know where to go. So I say the name of hotel (which is a landmark hotel). He sounds like he never heard of it, and asks for a street. I was like um I don't know? It's by the Gateway to India wall (again another major icon). So he tries calling dispatch or something, doesn't get through. I pull out my travel book, there's no address for hotel. I found a picture of it and he recognizes it. Now another funny thing is drive into Bombay is 1 hour in good traffic. As we get into city I can totally tell this is a real city like Boston, NYC, LA, etc. and it's totally spread out. It feels like a hybrid of Boston because of the old british section (where I stayed), NYC's highrises and commercial buildings, and beachfront portion reminding me of SF for Embarkadero.
I guess he wanted to help be a tour guide but it was so funny what he pointed out. It was like total ordinary buildings. This is a hospital on left, I'd look left and yup a hospital (plus in big letters said, "hospital"). He kept doing this for all sorts of buildings. On left is college, (pass by another sign saying "blank" college). I just went along with it, but I was just chuckling inside. Then he'd complain Mumbai is just all commercial buildings nothing really for you to see. Once we actually got to hotel he was like you saw all of Mumbai on drive over, nothing left to see. Dude, not a very good tour guide. We didn't see anything yet from my tour guide book, and he's saying I'm done. So I was having serious doubts about having him drive me around tomorrow.
So we get near hotel, and all these security people etc (this is where the terrorist attacks happened and I'm staying actually in that very hotel where everything happened). Then driver didn't know how to get into hotel. Now I ask him how this works because he's supposed to be my driver for tomorrow and to airport. He said just call him tomorrow for when to pickup and I can settle bill then. I was like cool.
I got checked in (worked called and got me upgraded for free..very cool!) and was being shown my room when driver called. Said the security perimeter or something wanted money from him or something could I pay him for today. So he said he'll be in a second and what room number am I. So I said the room and finished with being shown various things for my room. Before I got chance to go downstairs, someone rings my room bell, and I open the door to see my driver standing there. I was totally shocked. So I paid him and said I'd call him tomorrow for time to pick me up and head back to airport. Ah, but good thing he did point out was that huge palace/skyscraper that richest man in world lives in. I made an arrow on photos. I had read about him somewhere. He's like number 4 in world for wealth. His home which is just for him and his family (4 total) live in a 25 story skyscraper. He's guy who had some feud with his bro, but they used to business partners.
Well, I went on long enough about this.
I took a bath before heading out, which was SO relaxing. I hadn't done a long bath in ages, plus Mumbai is way more humid than Bangalore. Today was all about adjusting to a different climate. So I walked around for about 3-4 hours today. Visited a couple museums and galleries. Once I got away from tourist spot like the gateway I wasn't bothered by people trying to sell me things, or go on their tour. Which was great because they would not take no for an answer when I walked by the gateway. That got old real quick after the 5th person in like 5 seconds was accosting me.
I totally loved just walking and being on my own with being driver dependent. Man, crossing streets in India is like crazy. It's the complete opposite of the US, by that I mean the pedestrian does NOT have the right of way above a car. If you don't hustle out of the way they would probably run you over.
After all that walking my feet got tired and I headed back. Tomorrow I take a short boat ride to Elephanta island.

In Bangalore airport

Well, it was an early morning I had to get up at 5:45am in order to reach airport for my 9am flight to Mumbai (Bombay). It didn't help matters that last night was a late night.
I got picked up by Arun (Raman's driver) and left for airport with no problem. Arun is a really nice guy so it was comfortable drive in. Traffic was light and I saw the way to airport for first time since I got in to Bangalore at dawn last time.
This airport is really clean and organized. Super easy transition. It was weird having so many armed security not only carrying pistols but automatic rifles.
Once inside terminal it's just like any regular airport I've been in. I expected a super crowded busy airport but it's very chill. I was really excited that it had free wifi. I just had to send a text from my phone and got a password. I'm waiting for next few minutes till boarding as I type this.
I'm super excited to see Mumbai and explore this busy city.

FRO--Office of Foreign Relations

Well, I've heard lots about this and yesterday was my introduction to it.
All visitors who work in India for over so many weeks need to fill out this work visa stuff in Downtown Bangalore. This must be done by 2 weeks time after entering the country, I was down to my last day. This is how it all went down.
I needed to be there at 10:30am, so work had a driver to pick me up at 9am, or so I thought. I exited the hotel and told the doorman I should have a driver waiting. They called down and no driver. I called one of the guys who organizes the drivers. No answer. I waited a few minutes maybe he was running late. 9:15am came around and I called him again. Still no answer. So I decided to use one of the hotel drivers. I could see Arun, who had driven me from airport and to downtown before. I asked the doorman could I have Arun to drive again. He nodded yes yes. A car came around. The driver was not Arun. No I tried telling the driver, I forgot his name, where I was going and he seemed confused. The doorman came over, I said where I needed to go, he seemed confused. No Arun came over and he asked also, but he understood. I gave him the address and name of place, he quickly spoke Hindi to the driver. Looked like he knew where, but all I wanted was to jump out of his car and have Arun drive me. But it was a no go.
So I read my travel book on what I'll do the following weekends, during the ride I noticed the driver take his cell phone apart (while driving) and took apart a spare cell phone. He was swapping SIM cards and batteries. It made me a little cautious, because I needed to call him to pick me up after this.
We finally made it to the FRO office, which is on a super busy road with no place to park let alone pull over. He told me here you are. I asked him for his cell phone number. He rattled off the numbers while I typed them into my cell, then I hit send to confirm all was good. When he saw I dialing he quickly took his bits of cell phone and tried to put them together. While he was scurrying to do that, someone answered the phone number he gave me. Okay, what cell did he give me, because his phone was still not together. Cars are honking horns. A guard from FRO rattles on window telling him to move. The driver points ahead and says he'll be there. I'm like where? Just by the traffic light. So I jumped out of the car and figured this should be interesting for later.
Ah, now I'm at the FRO. I'm sorry to say it was this run down looking place. No signs telling you where to go. Just a chubby guard out front of a metal scanner. I asked the guard where do I go for the FRO. He pointed to left side where there was only a sign, VISTORS. I went over and had to fill my name, what my business for being here was, and my cell phone. They chuckled that I had to look at a sheet of paper for my cell phone number. Now I asked them where do I go? They pointed over to the right side building where all these people where just huddled around. The security guy had me go through the metal detector. Now, I'm at this mass of people with no sense of a line or what to do. Everyone had this thick stack of paperwork. I asked the guy out front of me where do I get the paperwork? He ended up being American and said around the corner. I went around and this inside room was just this mess random tables, paperwork and again no real signs spelling anything out. Everyone looked confused. This place makes the DMV look like heaven.
So now I dug into my bag and called two of the numbers I had received from work. The first guy, Ganesh, told me to call the woman, Sri. I reached Sri and she said she'll be there in 5 minutes. She finally came and had a stack of papers for me. She said she'll be right back. So there was indeed a line, kinda, she went to this little table where two guards were at. Here is where you sign in again, write your passport number, and they give you a blue chip. I was number 77. They had only called 30 just a few moments ago. Sri told me to sit on the left side where there were chairs, which put me right out front of the two guards who basically gave people entry to the inside door where we all wanted to go. Sri told me to wait there and they will call my number, once they do that go to the left and there will be a table of 3 people, give your paperwork to them. So I waited, and waited, and waited. A half hour went by and more people were there. No numbers had been called. One of the guards saw my number and told me to flip it over. I did so. Now all it shown was a blue back. This is when I realized something not too kosher was going on. Some people were allowed in and others not. It seemed all so chaotic. The numbers were now up to 100. Finally after an hour they called 31-35.
Sri came back and gave me a piece of paper and took my blue chip. One the paper it said #34. I had just jumped up 34 places in line. I told Sri that they had called that number and she pointed me to stand in this line. I was totally uncomfortable because it was totally apparent I skipped ahead. I had seen people yelling at those two guys that they had been there for over 2 hours and they hadn't been called. Of course on the other hand I was glad not to be there all day as it seemed I would with my old number.
I now got inside, if the outside looked bad then the inside definitely a step down. The walls were peeling where the old wall had peeled. Only vintage fans were running on the ceiling. Stacks of processed applications were huddled against the walls, and looked very old. No file cabinets could be seen. I was now out front of the 3 men who took my paperwork. One man flipped and re-flipped through all the pages. He asked me a couple questions for which I had no answer, Sri wasn't allowed in with me. He then gave my stack of papers to the guys next to him. I had to sign in various places. Now I was told to go into the office on left. I went in and a woman was there with you guessed it stacks and stacks of paperwork. I gave her my papers. She too flipped through and re-flipped through. She then left the office without a word and didn't come back till about 10 minutes later. She had me sign and show my passport. She told me to go to the counter over there. I was now at the counter and no one was working on anyone's paperwork but none of them looked like they wanted to help me. Finally one woman looked at me and asked for my paperwork. You guessed it she flipped and re-flipped through it all. I showed my passport again and had to sign here and there. Now she gave me a form and said to come back tomorrow between 4:30pm-5:30pm. I was done for today. I went back outside and found Sri. She took my form and said to come back tomorrow and I'll get my processed form then. My entire time at FRO was 1 1/2 hours, which was speedy considering everyone who was before me when I arrived they were still waiting. I saw the guy who was ahead of me in line who was still waiting for his number to be even called. I felt like a heel.
Now, to find my driver. I walked left down the street. I got to the street corner with the traffic light trying to find a place where my driver would have parked. Then I spotted my driver standing across the street jumping up and down and flagging me with his arms. My first thought, was he waiting there the whole time I was inside? What if it took me as long as everyone else. The ride back was another hour.
This was probably one of the craziest things I think I've seen here. I just don't see how things get done or processed speedily.
I just got back from my return trip to FRO. This was funny because it took me over an hour to reach FRO again only find I needed to pick up the processed form in like 5 minutes and then another hour long drive back to office.
The funny thing I ran into the American guy I talked to who said basically how'd you cut yesterday? Um, yeah...