MUMBAI Day 1 & 2

DAY 1

This is my brother and i at an Air India flight. Besides the both of us, there was only one more Chinese. Talk about feeling left out right? Haha.. can you see my little eye peeping into the camera? Lol..

Coz my brother and i are sweet like that. :)

It was a 4.5 hours flight, with a 2.5 hours time difference. In other words, if it's 12pm here, it's 9.30pm for me at Mumbai. I'm supposed to be a little jet lagged right? Only that i was super jet lagged. It was as though i came from London or somewhere else. Coz i was sleeping at 3am Mumbai time there, and that was like what... 5.30am Malaysian time. I'm the best. :)

We had Vegetarian food everyday at Pooja's house. All looking something like that. You may not think much of it right now (because i'm a bad food photographer), but i would so NOT mind being Vegetarian if i lived at her house. She had her own chef and everything. :)

Me being the adventurous sibling who is well, used to eating with hands always ate with hands there. My brother however insists on the fork and spoon. Don't mind the face. That's the face you get after a flight where you got hardly any sleep and a very runny nose. I have that first day flu everywhere i travel.

We went out after it anyway, to meet with Gauravi and her friends. In this little restaurant where my brother had to bend down because the ceiling was too low. Haha..

Thats us with Gauravi and her friend. Okay, i don't remember names. :( Oh poo.

After that, we went to see the Taj. The hotel that was one of the places the terrorist attacks happened 2 years ago in Mumbai. We don't realize it because we weren't there, but the attacks do leave scars in the people there. It took a lot of courage for Pooja to step in because she knew someone who was a victim of that attack. :(

the dome from the inside.

It's all done up very nicely again. And the security is really tight now as well. As Gauravi says and i try to quote

"the thing about Mumbai is that we don't let anything break us or get us down. We were all affected by the attacks but we will bounce back again and see, in two years now, everything is running smooth again."

we had an amazing road side stall named Bachelorr's (so i read from the cup) chocolate milk shake and uhm, strawberry cream. Super yummy.. and sinful.

DAY 2

these are pictures i took as we were in the car...

that's how a typical flat/ apartment looks like at Mumbai. Looks a lot like JB's low cost flats? But don't be deceived by it seriously. The way we would think all Singapore HDB's should look as nice in the inside as the outside and sometimes be let down, Mumbai is the opposite. The maintenance of buildings on the outside may be like crap, but on the inside, it can private condo standards.

That's how they dye colour on cloth.

and how they deliver their gas cylinders. Dangerous huh. Poor guy who has to cycle that heavy thing.

Stopped by to see people play cricket for 2 minutes and basically just snap pictures really. India's really good with their cricket by the way. In case you don't already know that.

After that, we went to Fashion Street.

Pretty much like Bugis Street without a shelter.

All the fake Converse. Check it out.

My brother bought an army pants there.

And i bought a whole lot of scarves.

We ran across the road to get to the other side. Pretty scary.

Went for tea... that's Pooja's boyfriend's friend from the US.

We went to Cafe Royal for dinner. Had Sizzlers. YUMMY TTM.

My first non- vegetarian meal there. LOOK AT THAT! Drool worthy? :D

After dinner, we went to a lounge/pub called Dome that is in my opinion one of the best places ever. It's like a rooftop lounge. There's one in Singapore too anyway. Never been though.

With all of Pooja's friends. :) and now, my friends too!

That's Supriya. I think she's so pretty and not to mention tall. She's like few cms away from my brother's height.

DAY 3

Our day was to be spent with our new friend from Korea, Lee.. who has lived in Mumbai for 6 years. He loves it at Mumbai and has his business set up there. Studying at the same time too. Anyway, Lee brought us to the biggest slum in Asia- Dharavi. If not mistaken, it's one of the locations for Slumdog Millionaire's filming. Even if not, it's one of the 'inspirations'.

Old school barber...

I took this picture because i found the woman really interesting. Not to mention that there's a goat next to her looking at my camera. Haha..

I would LOVE a Mumbai cab in Malaysia. So cute and old school!

People live here! Road to their houses.

Upstairs maybe?

Took pictures with little kids living there...

And spotted a naked one in the middle of the road. I don't know if he was being punished or what. But i highly doubt he was there for a tan.

Left the slums and went for lunch...

For such a hot day, what could be better than a local beer? Kingfishers! It's better than Tiger Beer.

This is the Victoria train station. How beautiful is that? We actually look like we're in Europe and not India right? Why don't i see places like this here in Malaysia?

The extremely crowded train stations. There seriously is A LOT of people in India. China and India are not said to be growing countries for nothing. There's like people everywhere and anywhere, every time.

We went to this fountain that was located in the middle of the town later that evening.

This is one of Pooja's driver, Akhil. He's super nice. Despite the fact where we only had hand signs to communicate with him because Pooja had not followed us around that day to help us break the communication barrier, we still really enjoyed his company.

Day 3 onwards tomorrow! :)