MUMBAI ADVENTURES DAY 7

The trip was coming to an end and we had to catch a 0900 hrs flight.. considering santacruz is close to andheri we didnt have to get up all that early.. and meru cab was on time too... we reached the airport and checked in and waited in the l;ounge... so much for the spirit of mumbai i did not feel like going back.. in the airport lounge i came across a few known celebrities from bollywood... but noone there was even giving them a lil damn.. the flight was on time and we reached mangalore as per schedule... as the plane was taking off from mumbai airport only one song was playing deep inside me ... yeh dil hai mushkil hai jeena yahan zara bachke zara hatke yeh hai mumbai meri jaan.....

MUMBAI ADVENTURES DAY 6

Early to bed , early to rise makes a man healthy , wealthy and wise... taught in school. but this proverb/phrase(whatever it is called ) is tough to apply practically in case u are a traveler to mumbai especially... early to bed is out of question given the night life here and in case u come out of the disc or pub early the traffic will make sure u wont reach ur dwelling place not before midnight!. after a tiring 5 th day we slept quite late at around 0100 hrs and when that happens getting up at 700 hrs is also tough .. we did mange to get upa nd get ready by 1000 hrs. for the day only IMAX was a must visit place and the remaining time was to be spent in dadar market... traveling in mumbai is a headache or i can add backache or bodyache to the list. the estimated time for travel from andheri to wadala where this magnanimous theatre is located was 1 hour 15 minutes provided there was not much traffic..and 2 hours or more if traffic s heavy. man i thought i could go to baharat mall , see a movie and come back in the time that i ll take to reach this theatre itself!! traffic was not too heavy thankfully and we took a hour and a half to reach the place.. IMAX was screeinng Space Station that day and for the experience of 3 d cinema in a dome theatre that would be apt i thought.. i had seen i max dome in hyderabad and was very impressed and now to watch in a bigger dome was more than jus exciting.. to describe the movie experience in a word it would be BREATHTAKING.. an experience that lasts for a lifetime... we then went to dadar market for some shopping..the market is so huge that its not very difficult to get lost in it.u ll find everything for sale here from sand to building , from needle to sword .... time was spent in bargaining a lot over evrything more than buying anything. meanwhile my friend gautham had asked me to get a good make up kit from mumbai to gift to his fiancee... and i stumbled upon some quality stuff ... thank god..after all this we decided to head back to the den ...to andheri again .. we stopped at tunga paradise at andheri for dinner and had a hearty dinner... the last dinner of this trip as we were leaving the next day...

day rating ; 8.5/10

MUMBAI ADVENTURES DAY 5

This was gonna be the D Day in mumbai.. it was called the sight seeing day. Mumbai has thousands of programmed one day tours for places in and around mumbai, but we wnted it to be customised as per our preference. so we hired a cab and struck a deal for the day. he ll show us some 25 must see places of mumbai and we pay him 2200 and that was indeed a nice deal we had struck i felt. We began the day early with our visit to the temple which gets all the bollywood atention Sri Siddivinayak Temple.. quite a secure place and sacred too..we moved to mumbadevi temple after whom the city gets its name.. and a few other temples including walkeshwar which was quite an experience.. haji ali was the next stop . outside haji ali is a juice centre which has a speciality preparation .. depending on the seasonal availability of fruits a preparation called seethaphal cream was offered to us. the fruit was ground into a thick shake like consistency and pieces of the fruit were mixed to give it a heavenly taste... something which needs to be experienced to be believed..it would measure 200 gms each serving and came at 120 per serving.. but each penny worth the taste.. after having seen the temples it was our turn to visit the financial centre of the city.. we had a walk around the bombay stock exchange and in the vicinity u could see each and every bank having a office ... being there feels richer!!!we walked around to ind Mahesh lunch home which was one of the recommendations as a must place to eat.. the place was filled with foreigners and the speciality there was sea food.. and surely it didnt disappoint.. was a touch expensive though ... but u really cant complain when u are at the financial heart of the country!!! someone there told me each square feet there is valued at 4-5 lakh rupees... holy crap!!!!after having a heavy meal we went to colaba and taj hotel and gateway of india which was under renovation after the dreaded terrorist attacks!!! the gateway as well as taj simply are breath taking... so bad to have targeted it!! the ride on the victoria ( which is a grand horse cart to put it simply) is a must if u have visited gateway... they take u on a small ride for a astronomical price but ya dont miss it... bargain a lil and get a ride...we also saw leopald cafe on the way.. from there we went to marine drive , wankhede stadium and to hanging gardens... bandra band stand and linking road for a lil shopping... we ate some mcd and kfc there and got back home bravingthe traffic which had just swollen up to enormous propositions.. quite a day!!!!

Day rating: 7.5/10

Mumbai adventures : day 4

Lucky that we decided not to get up too early to take bath before water ran out as we were going to andheri that day and water would be running 24 hours there. The cab came at sharp 9 and we set out to mumbai. As expected we were greeted in mumbai by nerve racking traffic, senseless parking and irresponsible driving. everyone was in a hurry to get to their offices/shops/airport/where not??? a journey which would take 1 hour 15 minutes if all driving sense would prevail and discipline is followed took us 2 hours 15 minutes. good waste of 1 hour and the driver actually was feeling proud we could make it in that time;so much for his sense of humor! We got to work, took bath had a light snack and hit the roads again. We were on our way to crawford market and manish market ,places of shopping.It was 1 30 by the time we reached the place and the hunger centres in the brain were already signalling us to satisfy it by having food. We had to eat authentic punjabi and so we went to Sher-e-punjab ,a uptown restaurant. we were greeted with a chilled glass of jal jeera , truly refreshing till the last drop. Choosing the right stuff to eat in a retaurant is the quintessential thing and when u go to any place for the first time it becomes real tough and so I decided to rest the onus of menu to the person who attended us and he made sure we had some real classy punjabi food that would keep us licking our fingers and wanting us to have more and more. chicken lasooni had that wondreful flavor of garlic in it and tendre boiled chicken was just perfectly cooked and blended well with gravy which was onion and cashew based and a rich desi ghee taste and aroma to it making it simply irresistible.noone prepares tandoori roti better than a punjabi kitchen. rotis were extremely soft, mouth watering, absolutely fibre rich ,oil free and served hot right out of the clay oven(tandoor). Dal makhani , a preparation made form whole black urad dal with lots of spices added to it again is an authentic punjabi dish and was awesome . chicken reshmi kabab had these boneless pieces of chicken coated with spices and cheese and oven cooked leaving it light brown in color and a must have. veg do pyaza, chiken makhanwala were also very tasty. to sum up lunch was worth the drive! We then made our way to crawford market and did some shopping especially leather stuff and dry fruits. We found SADANAND a restaurant which has a branch in suratkal back in mangalore and communication in tulu meant us we got great service. manish market is a cheap shopping place were u get all imitation stuff foir real dirt cheap price. a ray ban glass looking original was initially priced 3500 and by the time i left the counter he had come down to 35. i offered 30 ,he would not budge further and i left the counter..We found a fellow selling tender coconuts there which were priced a whopping 25/- and we were thirsty and did not mind paying 2x the amount for which we would have got it back home. After a tiring day of shopping and roaming around we finally decide to head back home and rest and so we did...

Day Rating: 8/10

The mumbai adventures : day 3

After a good nights sleep we were forced to get up at 6 in the morning and not because we had to get somewhere reaaly early or see the sun rise or catch a flight.It was because we had to take bath and finish early morning activites before 7. wondering why? because the city receives water for only 1 hour in the morning.the hosing society does not have a tank provision for the whole apartment but each flat has its own separate ank and tank is obviously not big enough for 9 people to do all the things with limited supply ,so get up early and finish water consuming activities by then... something like make hay when the sun shines... this is take bath when water comes!!I had bath and hit the bed again to catch some pending sleep.We had early homely lunch by 12 and then proceeded to Ulhasnagar, a nearby town which is also famous as USA(Ulhasnagar Scindhi Association) due to the predominant scindhi population . this town is famous for shopping from clothes to imported stuff, leather articles,dry fruits and what not.but it is also famous for its chat stalls .The next 4 hours were spent shopping and buying some real good handy stuff.we then returnedto our base and after getting fresh we went to anubhav a bar and restaurant for dinner. and not so surprisingly the restaurant was run by a shetty and my tulu came in handy and we got great service.Chinese bhel was a lip smacking discovery .It was made of fried noodles with chilly sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce and garlic sauce all mixed in relative proportions to leave your taste buds craving for more..the other stuff we ate aws regular biryani,tandoori etc...and then we got back and called it a day..
Day rating; 7.5/10

The mumbai adventures : day 2

After a good nights sleep i got up early as we had to attend the wedding of my relative and by 630 we were alll dressed up and were waiting for the bus that was chartered to pick us up. It did come on time anhd we began hour 45 minute long journey to the venue. The same distance would have taken us 2 hours during peak time. What fascinated me about the roads of mumbai were the use of interlock tiles which are used primarily for footpaths and in the compound premises; majority of the roads had these in place and were functioning very well but later i found out they were custom made heavy duty tiles and not the ones which we used for our backyard. once we reached the mutt at wadala , there was this all familiar sight of people settled in footpaths with concrete walled house made for themselves and surprisingly enough every 10*7 feet house had a color tv with cable connection, electrical meter,fan, most had refrigerators, some even had air conditioner!!!only thing they lacked was a place to wash stuff for which they resort to the sides of the roads and toilets for which they find some bushes nearby or do it very early in the morning before sun rises and exposes them. terrible the way they are living but believe me they have no complaints or regrets about how they are living! supposedly the 'mumbai spirit'.we then decided to check out Dadar market and we had a tough time cos it was december 6 and apparently it wa the death anniversary of father of constitution dr.B.R.Ambedkar and his samadhi happens to be in dadar! we had the world famous Batata vada at Shri Krishna and it was worth its fame. we then returned back to the hall.marriage got over and a grand buffet lunch was served which was really lip smacking and finger licking good(as good as kfc) . from there we had to go to kal;yan in thana district for which we hired a innova and took to the highway in less than a hour and a half we reached our destination passing through 4 tolls which cost 150 bucks !! but no regrets because the roads were worth the toll. after refreshing we proceeded to see the birla temple and ganapati temple at titwala. both were nice one was more architectural in appeal and latter more spiritual.we came back home and had homely dinner and hit the beds.

Day rating : 8.5/10

The mumbai adventure- day 1

Of the innumerable must see tourist places in the country if I had not yet gone to were kolkata and mumbai. but not anymore, mumbai is explored. so that leaves me with only one more holiday to cover INDIA and I am proud of it. the next few posts will trace my journey. on 5th dec which could safely be called as one of the relatively(this word means a lot) cooler mornings in mangalore, I got up early and thats by 7 o clock not because i had a early flight. my flight was at 1115 but still the excitement of visiting the financial capital of the country,the city that never sleeps, dream city and what not did not allow my senses to take rest for long and then i finally succumbed to it and got my quintal weighing body out of bed and was ready to catch the flight by 830. my cab arrrived on timeat 930 and was at the airport by 1015.check in was smooth and i rested in the crampy and suffocating lounge at the mlore airport. it definitely needs some improvement.the worst part is walking in the hot sun for half a km is punishment of sorts ,they could do good with a bus or two(every airport has 1!!!)air hostesses were cute though and as hot as the weather outside.the artificial smile on their faces could not be more deceptive i thought.i quietly settled onto my seat controlling my emotions and snapping my fantasies short.hit by recession (flight was running full though) airlines decided not to offer anything other than a bottle of water free. i had to shell out 170 bucks for a cold stale chicken croissant, a good 6cm*6cm piece of plum cake and a 200 ml carton of froti and thats called as a non veg meal!!! not even a terminally ill patient would have a low appetite sop that u could call it a meal!!! but they do; and i found out why people say prices have reached skies! 170 for 25 rs stuff thats 6.75 timesu are charging and they say they are hit by recession! what the.....anyways i should ve been smarter not to have been tempted to try it but then temptation got the better out of me and i gave in.

the flight landed at mumbai at 1220 and i was out by 1250. as i was attending a weddibng they had sent a cab for me and i got into it and proceeded towards gorai in the suburban mumbai. I had my first taste of mumbai and its traffic, buildings and people. it took 2 and half hours to reach the destination twice the time i took to travel from mlore to mumbai! after lunch and refreshing , we (me and family) took cabs and went to ISKCON at juhu and then to juhu chowpatty beach, had some disgusting chat. it was supposed to be famous but i would give it less than 1 on 10.it sucked. but what i ate next cheered me up, it was the famous ice gola in which the crush ice and put it in a glass and top with flavours of your choice so you could suck the juice and dip again and suck the juice again till all the ice melted.it was good and i sucked for a change not the food!!! we then went to borivili from there in search of authentic gujrati meal and I was not disappointed. It was nice rotis soft, chutney tangy, sabu vada crispy, dal and subzi tasty but sweet(u cannot complain about food being sweet when u eat gujrati meal apparently) . all in all a day with lot of activities ended with a good meal. we went back to gorai picked our luggage and went to borivili were arrangements for our stay was made and as soon as I got there i obliged to the bed and slept off to glory....

DAY RATING : 7/10