Marriott Jw Mumbai Mumbai (Bombay)

Heida left this morning-- she roused me from my sleep to say goodbye. It got me to thinking how strange this life is, with people coming and going so quickly. We form instant attachments, and then instant distant disassociations. I didn't shed any tears (as I am apt to do) and thought without much feeling that I will very likely never see her again. Farzan and Sara will leave in a week or two, and then Kitti will leave a week after that. We all go our seperate ways, and I shall be by myself i...

I stayed at the JW Marriott in Juhu beach per the suggestion of Iqbal, a former team mate who came to Mumbai for this project. Driving up to it on Friday night was interesting. As you wind through the endless city, you end up on the beach and Juhu Road. Full of traffic of course, but as you go south on the street, you all of a sudden see these two huge gates on either side of this building. The gates are all lit up and stick out of the typical facades you find in Mumbai. It truly is a grand h...

After yesterday's shopping spree, I chose to do nothing today. I setup a massage and just walked on the beach and hung at the pool. The massage was the best massage I have ever had. She was Thai and put all her 95 pounds into it. The pool is fantastic, infinity pool overflowing into the sunset over the Arabian sea. I got an awesome picture of Yona's profile with my cell. When you wake up and look out the window, the most striking thing about what you see the fact that you can not see the hori...

After my buddy, Anette, and I said our sad goodbyes in Goa, I was off to Mumbai to catch my 5:00am flight to Bangkok. Going to Mumbai is like entering the depths of hell, so to say I wasn't looking forward to my 8 hr. layover is an understatement. I figured to ease the stress, I'd spend most of my time unwinding at the luxurious JW Marriott by the airport. At baggage claim, a girl turned to me and asked if I had a guide book. Having lost my book 2 weeks prior, I didn't have one to give her. T...

We ended up staying seven nights in Bombay/Mumbai. It was nice after the constant long distance travelling to chill out somewhere for a few nights. Mumbai is certainly the most lively of cities that we have visited. We arrived on a Sunday and over the over are week we took in a couple of tourist spots. We travelled to Elephanta Island - which was somewhat dissapointing and visited the sites advised by the lonely planet. We got approached on the Tuesday night and we agreed to become an extra i...

(Jim) We arrived in India very early this morning, at 12:30 a.m. Mumbai time, which was 10 p.m. by our South African body clocks. Mumbai is the main city of India. The airport would do credit to Harrisburg, PA. We had failed to respond to our hotel's e-mail offering to have a car pick us up at the airport. We emerged from passport control to find a line of stalls, offering car rentals, pre-paid taxis, but no ATM machine. Needless to say, we had no rupees. I was told an ATM was available "outs...

It's been a little over a week since the rains unleashed their fury on Mumbai. While the city, slowly but surely, gets itself back together the devastation is hard to believe. Hundreds have died and many have lost everything. I read of stories in the newspaper of people dying of heart attacks when they came home to see all their belongings underwater. As the flood waters subside and Mubaikars begin to pick up lives, it will be interesting to see what comes of this disaster in the form of bett...

dec. 30 Juhu Beach (Mumbai) this morning I did a preliminary purging of my bags and I took the cooking pot, a pocket knife (one of three--what the hell was I thinking?), a few superflous zip lock bags and went to the beach. At 9 a.m. it was rather deserted and no one hassled me particularly. A little boy with a trained monkey had his monkey do a funny dance for me including jumping through a hoop and standing like a guard with a stick for a rifle. I liked the kid's good humor. I gave him the ...