First weekend

Friday night was my first night out in Mumbai. After drinking some champagne at the hotel bar, we had our favorite driver, Balu, take us to V-Lounge in the Bandra area of Mumbai. We drank and ate some appetizers there, and then headed out for dancing at Enigma in the JW Marriott hotel. On the way, we had another elephant sighting! Too bad I wasn’t ready with the camera. I’m not usually a club person, but Enigma was fun! They played an interesting mix of music, some hip-hop and lots of old school songs. For no apparent reason, the one I remember most vividly is Pump Up the Jam. Hilarious. We were dancing for hours and didn’t get back to the hotel till 3:30am. Saturday was a bit rough for everyone, but we made it through the work day. As much as I’d like to say that we rallied and went out again on our one non-school night of the week, it didn’t happen. Everyone went back to their rooms, ordered room service, and slept….

Sunday was a busy day for being my one day off, but I wanted to get out and see Mumbai. First I walked with some coworkers to the local laundry place outside the hotel. For all my laundry from the last 5 days, it will be about $6 to have it washed, dried, and ironed. Not bad, and much more reasonable than the hotel. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get all my clothes back and that things aren’t shrunk two sizes down due to over drying. On the way back to the hotel, we took a rickshaw, just to do have done it. We were on a small side road anyhow, and they really don’t go that fast. What makes them scary is the kind of traffic they are usually in and the maneuvers people make around here.

I met up with team members in the afternoon to go for lunch and shopping, and I checked one item off my list – eating Indian Chinese! It was actually pretty good, and not really spicy. From what we tried, the hot-n-sour soup and the fried rice most matched what you get in the US. We ate at a chain called Asia Wok. The Kiwi had eaten at that chain in Chicago, but I’ve never heard of it.

After lunch we went to Shopper’s Stop. I guess it’s sort of like a Mervyn’s or Robinson’s-May, for you West Coasters. It was fairly small, but I tried on some outfits (I can’t remember the Indian names for the different styles yet, but they were mostly variations on sets of pants, long tunic tops, and scarves that you drape across your chest and over your shoulders). After realizing that finding clothes (particularly pants) that fit me in India is going to be just as difficult as it is in the US, I think I’m going to go the route of buying material, and having the clothes custom made. Prices are ridiculously reasonable here for that kind of custom service and then I’ll have exactly what I want. Don’t worry, I’ll get a sari too, but I’m going to wait a bit. There aren’t really any Indian weddings I would even have a chance to go to right now anyway, because it’s monsoon season, and very few people get married during this time of the year.

I also spent a fair amount of time at the jewelry counter. Jewelry is huge in India and prices are, again, quite reasonable, so I think I’ll come home with something! Maybe something with sapphires…These purchases are all contingent on finding the right places to get them. I’ll talk to some locals at the office and get some advice.

Another interesting experience was going to the Big Bazaar, including the Food Bazaar (basically a supermarket). The mission here was to get snacks for me to have at the office. For those of you who know me well, you know why. Christie does not do well if she’s not fed. With the long hours we work, and the lack of vending machines, I need to bring things to snack on and I’m getting low on my Trader Joe’s trail mix. I ended up getting nutra-grain type bars and some raisins at the Dollar Store, which I started calling the Two Dollar Store. Everything there is 100INR (Rupees), which are close to $2 USD. Then at Food Bazaar, I got to pick and choose the fixings for some trail mix. It’s like buying things in bulk at Whole Foods, but the guy behind the counter gets it for you. The Food Bazaar was absolutely packed with people, and also not air-conditioned. Yikes. I was happy to get out of there, and take the requisite picture of the American in the front of the first McDonald’s I saw.

Next we met up with more coworkers at Karma, a bar/lounge in Bandra. We watched the European Grand Prix race in Germany. I wouldn’t say this is my sport of choice to watch on a Sunday afternoon, but I learned a lot about it, and had a good time. At around 7pm, we had a few hours to kill before meeting up with more team members at Jazz by the Bay along Marine Drive. So we walked along Chowpatty Beach and halfway down Marine Drive. One kid tried to get us to pay to watch his monkey break dance or something. As amusing as that sounds, we just wanted him to leave us alone. There were scores of people on the beach and along Marine Drive. It was 8pm on a Sunday night, and you would think it was a holiday or something. I couldn’t believe it. At the end of the beach there was some kiddy carnival type rides, manually operated. So you’d have one of those Wheel of Fortune wheels that the kids would sit on, and a guy would just stand there continuing to rotate it. Hey, whatever works.

The plan was to stay for karaoke at Jazz by the Bay, but after a light dinner a few drinks, the team fizzled out and we headed back to the hotel, getting home around 11pm. Phew! An exhausting day off, really. In upcoming weekends, I’ll need to balance out my relaxation time with doing errands and shopping. It’s nearly impossible to get any errands done during the work week, so it’s a challenge to get everything taken care of that I want to during my time off. I’m adjusting to some things here very quickly, and other things are a challenge, but I’ll address those in future posts.