India Again!: ASEAN-India Youth Exchange Program, Part 2 - Mumbai

- December 14-17, 2012, Friday to Tuesday.

- Our ride to Mumbai via Spice Jet was not a good one. Bad take off, bad service, bad landing (the scariest one I've had.) The only good thing about it was the food. Fortunately, the flight was only 2 hours from Jaipur International Airport.

- In Mumbai, we were welcomed in the hotel by Ms. Jayashri Singh, together with Mr. Pankaj Jain, Ms. Tracy Fernandes, and Ms. Aneeha Rajan. Our blogger/journalist in Mumbai was Karina, a Sindhi.

- Time flew fasted in Mumbai, possibly because its hustle and bustle, in sharp contrast to the more laid back, and gently ambiance of Jaipur. Right after lunch, we had a few minutes to "rest," and off we went to Crompton Greaves Ltd. for a company visit. No photos were allowed inside the company, as in most companies, so we were only able to take photos from the outside.

- We had a long long loooooooooooooong trip back to the hotel; the company was far from Marriott Mumbai, and the traffic was hell. At least the time on the road gave us time to appreciate the predominantly British architecture that is scattered throughout this very cosmopolitan city. Mumbai is also said to be one of the most "Western" cities in India, both in physical and mental attitudes and customs.

- We had a pre-dinner meeting in one of Marriott's conference halls with Mr. Govind Ethiraj, one of India's renowned journalists, and is the former founder-editor-in-chief of Bloomberg UTV. This session made me feel like I'm back to being a researcher in Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ,) or at least an undergraduate Communication major.

With Cambodian beauties. :D:D:D:D

Formalssss~~

Old and new, rich and poor.

Cooking demo inside our hotel.

Mr. Govind Ethiraj

- The following day was busier, and a bit frustrating. We first went to Future Sharp Skills Limited, where we learned some of the best practices in handing retail companies. However, what proved to be one of the most important (albeit for superficial purposes, cough cough, shopping) pieces of information we had was the existence of Future Sharp Skills' "Big Bazaar." (More on that later.)

In Future Group's cafeteria.

- We had lunch in the company and visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India. I had to shell out 200 rupees just so I could bring my camera in and take photos, but it was definitely worth it. I fell in love with the exhibits, especially after seeing Raja Ravi Varma's paintings; I had been a fan of RRV's paintings since I was a freshman in college. According to our museum guide Divya, it would take a person an average of 4 days just to visit all the galleries. Because of this, we only visited some of the more prominent galleries, as well as a temporary exhibit of Egyptian mummies (sadly, no photo-taking allowed in the temporary exhibition halls.)

British architecture.

We're here!!

Looks like a mosque or a palace.

Hard to fix the lighting, sunlight made the white dome seem non-existent.

With Brunei's Hazimi.

More British architecture outside the museum.

With Hazimi and Auji.

Jayson and Durga.

Filipino co-delegates chillin'.

A beautifully and intricately-carved Durga.

With Brunei's Suzanne. :D:D:D:D

Harappa/Mohenjo Daro.

With Karina.

Hello Nublun!!

With one of Raja Ravi Varma's paintnigs.

With Fathin.

Suesday, Leang!!

With hyperactive Cambodian friends.

- After our museum visit, we headed towards The Gateway of India, which possibly is the most iconic structure of Mumbai. Upon arrival, we were informed that we wouldn't be able to get off the bus, "for security reasons," because there was a shooting of a Bollywood movie. There was a massive crowd there, and it would have been difficult for the organizers to round us up had we got off the bus. 

- As a bonus/consolation, we saw Vivek Oberoi (for those uninformed: he's one of the more famous Bollywood actors,) together with his rather new lead actress. Due to the heavy (ehem, heavier,) traffic, we were also able to take photos of the majestic Gateway (it looks larger in real life than how it looks like in photographs.)

British architecture all around.

WHY HELLO MCDONALD'S.

Mumbai in one photo: the Gateway of India, and Bollywood. 

VIVEK OBEROI!!!!

Very majestic.

Take me for a spin??

The Gateway of India.

Sunset in Mumbai -- looks a lot like a Manila Bay sunset, no??

Surprisingly, this is a hospital.

This billion-dollar house, called the Antilia, is owned by Mukesh Ambani, owner of Reliance Industries, one of the richest men of India.

This links two far-flung parts of Mumbai, just like the Philippines' San Juanico Bridge.

- Upon arrival at the hotel, and finishing our dinner, the Philippine delegation decided to do practice for our cultural presentation in Gurgaon. We were ushered by one of the waiters to a vacant conference room (where we had the meeting with Mr. Ethiraj, and had our nightly dinners in Mumbai,) and practiced. Since it was Gino's almost birthday, we surprised him with a rich chocolate cake from Momo Cafe, conveniently located in our hotel's lobby.

Jayson leading the group.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINO!!!!

- During our last full day in Mumbai, the organizers decided to take us out to watch a movie, after we were all greeted by our morning alarm for the day: drums and trumpets from a wedding to be held in our hotel. Many of us hoped that they would bring us to see a Bollywood film at the theater right across our hotel (Bollywood in Mumbai, perfect, right?) Well, the organizers might have feared many being lost in translation and culture, so they took us to watch The Life of Pi, which was "Indian-themed " (close enough to Bollywood, and since it's not yet showing in Manila as I am writing this, I can have bragging rights to those who care. HAHA.)

- After the movie and lunch, we were brought to R City, the biggest mall in Mumbai. This is where "Big Bazaar" comes in. We realized that there was a Big Bazaar in R City, so most of us flocked to Big Bazaar to buy things. Big Bazaar, a project of Future Group, is a big department store that contains EVERYTHING but sold for really affordable (more than reasonable to be precise) prices. Good quality saris that look thousands of rupees worth can be bought for 800 rupees. Golden-embroidered kurtas usually worth around 10,000 rupees can be bought in Big Bazaar for 2000 rupees only, while the "common" kurtas can be worth as low as 300 rupees. Spices and other food items can also be bought for really low prices (I think some bought big cans of Oreos worth only around 100 rupees each can.)

I'd like to have a wedding like this. Haha.

Far right: the bride.

Entrance to the wedding venue.

None of these we watched, but it's fine. Life of Pi was amazing nonetheless.

SHOPPING GALORE.

Monica and her newly-bought sari!!

- Back in the hotel, tired from shopping, we all had dinner, where Gino was surprised again, this time, by the hotel's chef. The kind chef baked Gino a fruit-topped butter-cream cake. (It was quite yummy and light too.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINO!!!!

- We departed for Delhi/Gurgaon the following morning, and wondered where all of our Mumbai time went. We were a bit frustrated since we weren't able to get off the bus and take photos with the Gateway of India, and for some of us, we weren't able to watch a Bollywood film in Mumbai, and we weren't also able to visit Whistling Winds film city (since the other group - the Malaysian, Indonesian, and Lao group- already visited it,) but perhaps this made me want to visit Mumbai again in the future. I definitely want to visit Big Bazaar again, Mumbai or not, and shop the store dry. Hahahaha.