Mumbai continued ...

I had to cut myself off yesterday as we had to check out, but I've just woken up on the train to Goa and thought I could get a few more words down. However, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, as there are plenty of things worth writing about have happened since, however I pick things up after having taken a few pictures of the St. Pancras like CST.

Afterwards we continued north towards one of Mumbai many markets. It wasn't particularly special or noteworthy, but it did provoke a bit of thought. Just watching all these people (almost exclusive male) go about there business making a living made me wonder about whether the credit crunch registered on their radar. I'm sure they must have felt the impact indirectly, but these people are trading in stock and cash and I doubt they have run up debt on credit cards or have a mortgage they can't afford. My other observation and one that has been constantly re-enforced through out my time in Mumbai was the impact of the mobile phone. At this market alone, a significant part of the market was full of stalls selling phones and every kind of phone accessory. It's obviously had such a massive social impact at all levels of Indian society, not just the rich middle classes. India has such a blend of modern and old, and the one modern thing that seems to have permeated through all walks of life in India is the mobile phone.


I must also mention visiting Leopold's. If any of you have read Shantaram, then you'll instantly recognise the name. It's been something of an institution in Mumbai for many years, and since been mentioned in Shantaram, it's famous around the world, so I had to go and have a beer and something to eat there at least once. However, as is often the case with these things it's almost purely a tourist destination now. A large percentage of people there were westerners and there were even families eating there. It certainly wasn't some den of iniquity as portrayed in the book where the movers and shakers of the Mumbai underworld would hang out. Whether the book had destroyed that or it simply was in the bar's past I do not know but the fact the bar had five copies of the book for sale by the bar said a lot. However, it's still a cool place to visit, the food is pretty good and there is still a buzz about the place.

So, as I was writing yesterday we checked out of our hotel at twelve and set about making use of the day before taking the night train to Goa. We jumped in a taxi with the aim of getting to Chowpatty Beach. We asked the taxi driver (who we had a big argument with over price) to drop us off a little early so we could walk along Marine Drive round the bay to the beach. This road is lit with lights at night and has the nickname the Queen's necklace because of how it looks when flying over head. Whilst the beaches around Mumbai can look nice, unfortunately the water is so polluted that bathing is not really an option, even for the locals.

After a walk around and some refreshment at a bar on the beach front, we took another taxi (driven by a much more honest driver) towards the Haji Ali mosque, (another place that should be familiar to those that have read Shantaram) which is unusual since is sits in the water just off the shore connected by a walk way. There were hundreds and hundreds of people steadily streaming across to visit, obviously mainly Muslims. As we crossed over we caught the attention of a group of teenage boys, one of whom asked Maren to stop wearing a scarf she was wearing as a sash, since it had some sort of holy writing on it and was offensive to him for Maren to be wearing it around her waste. Slightly annoyed she did as he asked and then the guys followed us over to the mosque even though they were not Muslims themselves. One of the other guys show me around the mosque acting as a tour guide and showed me how to enter the mosque correctly, washing my feet before going in. At the mosque we were once again something of a novelty and were asked to pose for photos with another family. This time I was left holding a baby who began to cry as his father took a photo.


Afterwards we made our way back to sea front and picked up a snack before we caught a train to Juhu beach. Again the teenage boys were hanging around near by and they gave us directions and offered to walk with us to the station. I couldn't quite work out what they were after but as we chatted to them it became apparent that they just thought it was fun to be hang out with some westerners for the afternoon. Once we got to the train station I asked if they'd pose for a photo which made them very happy indeed and one of them grabbed a photo on their mobile phone in return.

It was about fifthteen to twenty minutes on the train north to our next stop to catch the sunset. It seemed we weren't the only ones who wanted to see the sunset, as there were several thousand people gathering along the wide sandy beach when we arrived. I managed to get a couple of beautiful pictures as a result. It was then off to Maren's friend's parents house to pick up the rest of her things, notably the green sari she'd wore at Jade sister's wedding a few weeks ago (which she looked amazing in) and also have a look at the videos taken from the wedding so I could see what I'd missed out on. Unfortunately we didn't have much time so we soon left and headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and make our way to the train station. This was to be another new experience, long distance Indian trains with sleeper carriages. It was actually a pretty civilised affair. The trains are air conditioned and the beds whilst fairly hard come with clean sheets and a pillow. I was able to sleep quite well however I woke up almost as soon as it began to get light as I excited to see where we were and how the landscape had changed. As with the local trains, the doors remain unlocked whilst moving and you can open a door to breath in the fresh air as you travel along and get a good view of the countryside as you travel by. It is refreshing to be in charge of your own safety with such things. As I looked out it was clear things were much more tropical with palm trees becoming increasing common in the lush green vegetation. Also, as we travelled along one thing that amazed me was the number of tunnels we passed through many of which must have been a kilometer or more in length and I wondered at labour involved in their construction. So, as I write we are just a couple of hours before we arrive in Goa. I can't wait. Soon we'll be checking in our hotel and heading down to the beach and then celebrating the New Year.

I've managed to upload some more pictures to the Mumbai photo set so check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Mumbai

The Indian adventure begins in Mumbai

Hi from Mumbai! I didn't expect to be able to write again so soon, but it turns out that the rather nice hotel that Maren booked for us has free wi-fi, so I thought I better make use of it before we check out today.

The last couple of days has been as vivid and intense as I thought it would be. As the plane descended into Mumbai I began to get very excited and nervous. I'd been thinking about this day for two and half months. Once the plane landed, my first impression of India was given to me by a particularly unfriendly man on the passport control who wasn't impressed that I'd not put any address for where I'd be staying in India. I then waited for my bags, which also threatened to send me into panic, as the majority of luggage on my flight had been collected by the time my bag appeared. However, it showed up and that was it, just a short walk out of the airport and I saw Maren waiting for me. I don't think I can remember her looking more naturally beautiful. When I held her in my arms I wasn't really able to express my emotion, I was too choked up to say very much. Also, I knew that we had to be careful about showing too much physical affection otherwise we might upset the locals, so we headed to the hotel Maren had booked in Colaba.

Maren had decided that it might take a long time to simply get a taxi back, so I got a quick introduction to Mumbai's cheaper forms of transport with a quick ride in a rickshaw to catch a very packed local train into town. The train was quite an experience which was as crowded as any train I've been on in London. However the big difference was the lack of doors on the train. As a couple of trains rolled in, people were literally hanging out of each door, except from the compartments reserved for women. Fortunately, we managed to get well on to the train with our bags so we didn't need to worry too much about falling out. Everyone on board was remarkably good humoured and polite as people alighted and boarded, in fact some we're having a good sing song one carriage down and after a few more stops it emptied enough to sit down. Once getting off the train it was a short taxi ride to the hotel and we'd arrived.

The next day we went for a wander, first going to look at the Gate to India, Mumbai's equivalent to the Arc de Triomphe which was just a few minutes from our hotel by the water. Opposite the Gate To India, across a large square is the world famous Taj hotel, some of which still bore the scars from the Mumbai massacres a year ago in the form of scaffolding on the one side of the old part of the hotel. This is a busy tourist spot, but we were practically the only westerners I could see. It wasn't long before a number of Indian families were asking to have our picture taken with their baby, children and extended family. After posing for a couple of photos we took a walk along the streets of Colaba, towards the CST in the Fort area which is the main train station in Mumbai and where we'll be catching a train to Goa tonight.

As we walked along the streets I got my first real impression of Mumbai. As you would expect there is a hustle and bustle about the place, with lots of street stalls selling all manor of things, from food to clothes to kitsch tourist gifts. As you wonder around you notice that the vast majority of people on the street are men going about their business. The streets themselves are a mish-mash of buildings, some in a good state of repair, some modern and some that must date back many years. Some look almost derelict (yet are clearly occupied) and some look like ancient ruins over grown with vines. Huge trees frequently sprout out of the pavement which make the city look almost organic in places. There is a steady stream of traffic on the streets which is made up of modern (but generally small) and old cars, motorbikes, mopeds, bicycles and taxis. The taxis are very retro, being based on 1963 Fiat 1100 design, however these are supposedly being phased out for a more modern alternative. Negotiating the roads is a chaotic affair for vehicles and pedestrians a like. However, what struck me was the how casually people walked across the roads to a wail of horns, as cars passed them barely centimetres from hitting them.

Alas, I've run out of time to write any more right now, but check out the photos link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/Mumbai

Almost there ....

Just time for a quick post. I'm waiting in the gate lounge in Singapore about to board my flight to Mumbai. In just a few hours I'll finally see Maren again. I'm so excited, so much so I'm feeling a bit sick. I guess I'm nervous!

I still haven't quite got my head around this backpacking thing. I had a long stop over in Singapore (9 hours) so I decided to check into the airport hotel which was £150 for the night. Hardly going cheap is it? However, I didn't want Maren to see/put up with me after having spent the night trying to sleep rough in the airport. I think it will be worth the money.

Right, they are starting to board, so I better log off. I think today is going to be a very special day. :-)

So that's it from Sydney

So it's my last night in Sydney and I'll soon be on a plane to India. Christmas day was fun, but unfortunately the weather turned for the worse, so I didn't get to witness the full on Bondi Beach Christmas carnival I was hoping. It was cloudy and rained for a large part of the day. Still, there was almost a street party vibe, with everyone wearing Santa hats and people wishing each other a merry Christmas. Given how full the pubs and bars were at lunchtime there would be plenty of merriness for everyone. However, Lykke and I headed over to Daniel's apartment to have a Christmas day party with him and his house mates. It wasn't traditional Christmas dinner, but the steaks that were served up were certainly a worthy alternative. Today wasn't much better, in fact it was said on the news that it was the coldest boxing day in Sydney for a hundred years. I might have felt a bit robbed, but I'll be getting more hot weather than I can handle once I get to India. It's thirty degrees in Mumbai and doesn't look like changing any time soon.

Sydney vs Melbourne

This is my second trip to Australia, the first time round I spent a week in Melbourne and just over a day in Sydney. I'd heard a lot of hype about Melbourne and what a great city it was. It seemed that a lot of Australians moving back from London planned to move there and it was the first choice for a lot of Brits immigrating too. However after visiting myself I was a bit underwhelmed. It's a nice place, but personally I found it a bit lacking in character some how. Whilst I didn't have enough time in Sydney to form much of an impression, I instinctively felt like I preferred it. Now, having spent more time here, I definitely think I'd prefer living here over Melbourne. It just has that feel of a world class city, and whilst it might be a bit rougher in places than Melbourne, it's feels like it has a bit more depth to it. I've had a really good time here and whilst I would have liked to see Maren in India sooner, it's been really good to see Lykke and Daniel and have the chance to relax before arriving in Mumbai as I expect it's going to be quite overwhelming. However, I simply cannot wait. It's seems like such a long time since I last saw Maren and I just can't imagine what spending New Year Eve with her in Goa will be like. The real travelling begins now.

So I'm signing off. I really hope I'll have the time to continue to write this blog and the opportunity to get on-line every now and again to upload to it. Lastly many thanks to Lykke for having me over and also for Daniel's hospitality.

So this is Christmas.... in Oz

It's Christmas morning here in Austrialia. As I write, I have seen just seen not one, but two pairs of joggers in the space of 30 seconds from Lykke's balcony. Certainly, not the sort of thing I'm used to on Christmas morning, but then neither is sitting outside in just my boxer shorts. It certainly doesn't feel like Christmas, but certainly not in a bad way.

I do feel slightly hungover however after a few drinks on Christmas Eve, so I guess that's some sort of normality. However, that was more in celebration of the culmination of a couple of days of hard work moving Lykke into her new apartment rather than any festive cheer. Yes, I've been living the backpacker's dream with a trip to Ikea out in the Sydney suburbs and then up bright and early to move Lykke's (and my own) things to her new flat, taking delivery of the items purchased during the aforementioned Ikea trip, buy one of the essentials of any Australian home, a new Webber gas BBQ and generally carry things from one place to another like a beast of burden. I think Taz will on reading the following believe that I've been paying back some kind of "moving" karmic debt after narrowing missing out on return the favour of helping him move into his new place after he helped me move out of mine.


Wednesday's trip to Ikea didn't start off well, I got to see a bit more the Sydney suburbs than I wished after we changed on to the wrong train and headed up the wrong line for a good half a hour before realising our mistake. Lykke's plan was flawed from the start to be honest. Whoever heard of just popping into Ikea and been in and out in an hour? I let Lykke hold on to this fantasy (ignorance is bliss) and with so many other things to do I thought it would only stress her out if I told her about the reality of what we were facing. Whilst Lykke had a good idea of what furniture she had to buy for her apartment, there was all that "other" stuff that she needed when you are pretty much starting from scratch in a new place. As much I think highly of Ikea and spending more time there, it really is a one-stop shop for making a home which led to the trip pretty much absorbing the whole day. I did however, still manage to get down to the beach in evening for a run and swim. A vastly superior post-Ikea chill-out to those normally available in London. The day was rounded off by (another) great meal over-looking Bondi beach and an early night in preparation for the busy day ahead.

Christmas Eve started early as there was much to do and for everything to go smoothly it relied on some very good timing on our part and others. As is the way with such things you never get that lucky. The first thing on our list was to go buy a BBQ which we planned to cook our Christmas eve dinner on. This was important to Lykke as Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day is the big event for Danes like most Europeans. We got down to the shops as soon as they opened and I took the BBQ back to our hotel to store it along with all our other stuff. Lykke in the meantime headed off to make another trip Ikea to pick up the only, but rather important, item (her mattress) they had not had in stock the day before. So far, so good. However, it wasn't long before things were getting a bit more complicated. Lykke was hoping that by the time she was back in Bondi, her new apartment would be vacant (having been told that current tenants removal van was coming at 10) and that with a bit of luck the Ikea delivery would arrive closer to 2 than 11 in the 11-2 delivery slot she'd been allocated. Of course nothing of the sort happened. I had gone down to the beach after checking out of the hotel and dropping off the BBQ. At 11 Lykke sent me a text saying that she'd been told that the deliver would be in the next 30 minutes. I packed up and went over to the estate agent's who hadn't heard anything from the tenant yet and certainly had not been given the keys to the apartment. Fortunately I was given access to the basement garage to take delivery of all Lykke's furniture from some surly delivery men who were clearly lacking in any Christmas spirit when they told me they weren't prepared to carry anything over 50 metres. I took it all in my stride though, I feel almost impervious to stress and drama since I left my life back in London. Lykke turned up an hour or so later with her mattress during which they'd been a distinct lack of anyone moving out of her apartment. However we could at least move all our stuff from the hotel to the basement and pick up a gas bottle for the new BBQ whilst we waited. Lykke had been told the tenant would have left the apartment at three o'clock at the very latest, so we returned just after three and since Lykke now had a set of keys we went up to her apartment only to find the tenant still there waiting for his removal van to turn up. In then end, after a bit of encouragement from the estate agents he was gone an hour later (at least out of the apartment) and we were able to start moving everything in. Daniel showed up not long after and so began an evening of beer, furniture assembly, champagne, BBQ steaks and laughs. And a couple of spillages. I managed to knock over a beer on to a pristine carpet barely hours after Lykke's getting the keys to her apartment. This was quickly upstaged by Daniel in a moment of almost slap-stick comedy where upon noticing the plate of marinated steaks he was carrying out to the balcony were dripping sauce on the floor decided to made a run for it. Unfortunately, the patio door was not as open as he believed and the contents of the plate ended up on the window, along with a lot more sauce on the floor. However, that was quickly forgotten due to great mood Lykke was in. She described the day as one of the best in her life, having realised her dream of living by the beach and having her own place for the first time since she was nineteen.


And I don't find it hard to imagine why she is so happy, having spent the day with her on Tuesday living a bit of the lifestyle she'll be able to enjoy every weekend in the summer. Just two minutes down the street we have already found a cafe which serve a great brunch, I've already worked my way through a couple of breakfast burritos there and an eggs benedict that gets my coveted seal of a approval. It is just another two minutes walk to the beach and it's a lot of fun to play in the waves. Though that fun was not enhanced by the piece of **** body board I bought for $15. Lesson learned. However, along with learning to dive on my travels I'd now quite keen on finding some where to spend a few weeks learning to surf. After soaking up the sun for the day, it's a bus ride into town and on Tuesday we had a great meal at Churrasco which is an all you can eat Brazilian grill. The waiters and waitress bring a steady stream of delicious grilled meats on seeing your green token placed by your place. Once you've finished stuffing your face you flip the token over to indicate you've had enough. It's good fun. From there you can take a walk through town (where I stopped to have my picture taken on the street where they filmed the "Lady in the red dress" scene from to Matrix) to the harbour for a drink at the Opera House Bar and enjoy the view as the light fades. Is it any wonder that Lykke is so happy?

Well, that's enough for now, predictably I've gone on for far longer than planned and I have the rest of my Christmas Day to enjoy. Hopefully before I leave I'll have chance to write a bit more and my view of Sydney before the real adventure begins. So I wish a very merry Christmas to my girlfriend, all of my family and all of my friends, I miss you all and hope you all having a great time wherever you are.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/ADayOnHolidayWithLykke
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/GettingLykkeIntoHerNewApartment?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCyhbzTsL_S-gE

So my travels have begun, and hopefully this will be the first of many posts let you all know what I have been up to and that I'm still alive and well.

It wasn't the best start, my flight was delayed by 3 hours on the way out of the UK, thanks to a woefully under prepared Heathrow airport to deal with ice that had built up on our plane and apparently many others trying to leave terminal 3. When you have a 12 hour flight ahead of you, the last thing you want is an extra 3 hours sat on the plane waiting for a de-icing crew to allow your plane to take off. When one finally did turn up, they got half way through before "running out of capacity" as the captain put it meaning that we had to wait for another crew to finish the job! You can imagine how that went down with the people on board. Personally, I'd have thought that any aircraft, especially a modern one like an A380 could deal with temperatures barely below freezing. The flight didn't get much better. A horrible pair of brats were sat directly behind me, one of whom was ill and whilst he wasn't wailing like a cat being drowned for half of the night, he was coughing and retching and kicking me in the back of seat. I did feel sorry for the parents who were clearly at their wits end and nearly offered the Dad one of the valiums I'd brought to knock him out, however I wasn't sure how that would have be taken. That pity evaporated though when the parents allowed both children to sing, scream and generally be extremely irritating for the last hour of the flight. I was delighted to over hear that they wouldn't be on the connecting flight to Sydney as they were stopping in Singapore overnight.

On landing in Singapore however I learnt that having missed my connection due to the delay, I too would be staying in Singapore for the night and out on a morning flight. Whilst pissed off that I hadn't made it on the 12.30am flight to Sydney that night, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the sleep in Singapore allowed me to reset my body clock to Australian time and virtually escape any effects of jet lag. I also escaped the kids from hell as I watched every single passenger board the plane in the morning before getting on the plane myself and even managed to get not one but two seats at the back of the plane after complaining about having a window seat after booking an aisle on the original. Singapore airlines rock actually, best food I've ever had on a plane, friendly staff and the entertainment is cool. There is even a USB socket to plug your mp3 player, hard drive or camera in. Cool. :-)

Once in Sydney, it was straight off to the Bondi Beach Hotel (doens't get more cliqued than that) that Lykke had booked for me, since she won't be moving into her new flat until Xmas eve. Bondi Beach is not really what I expected. I some how imagined a very long straight beach, a bit like Los Angeles where it seemed like the the beach is wide enough and long enough for half of the city to hang out at. However, as you can see from the panoramic picture from the balcony of the hotel, it's a cove/bay that whilst a bit commercial is really quite pretty and has a bit of character. I can see why Lykke decided to live here.

Once I dropped off my stuff it was straight into city to meet up with Lykke's other half Daniel for a couple of drinks and a meal.

Next day I spent an overcast day at the beach, talking pretty much non-stop (I know you'll all find that hard to imagine) catching up with Lykke about everything that has been going on over the last 12 months. There was some half decent surf as well to watch the boarders do their thing and in the evening we had some great tapas at a place called Mojo's on the seafront. Today, I'm on my own and aside from spending some time sorting out this blog and uploading all my pictures. I've made the most of the perfect weather (25C and clear blues skies) by getting out for a great breakfast, where I had an awesome breakfast burrito and then heading down to the beach to work on getting a tan in preparation for the brutal heat in India. It was busy today and everyone is so active that it's infectious. I ended up swimming half the length of the bay, running up and down the beach and back and then doing a mini-work out on the bars and benches that are on the sea front. I have to make sure I'm in good shape for when I see Maren next week since she has been doing yoga since she has been out in India and lost several kilos apparently. Tonight I'm off for dinner again in the city with Daniel and Lykke at a place called Wildfire which apparently I will love. It's a hard life eh?

Before I go, I'll just give you some links to the other photos that I've uploaded to picasa. One of the cool features of my new camera is that it has a built in GPS to geo-tag each photo so you can see where they were taken on the map. Obviously I could help playing and managed to get a GPS fix when landing and taking off on the plane which had some fun results. Check it out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/TakeOffFromSingapore

http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/LandingIntoSydney

http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/BondiBeach