Singapore

View from the Singapore Flyer

As I was attending a course in Singapore, we figured this was a good opportunity to see the city. Though the days were mostly booked up for meetings and course for me and work for Espen who actually here had an office to go to, we managed to find some time to also enjoy Singapore. Landing in Singapore was a totally different world…It was CLEAN and ORGANISED!!  I suppose in that prospect Singapore is the total opposite of Mumbai! We stayed at a really nice hotel in Clarke Quai, which is a really nice and lively area with a lot of restaurants, loved it J

We arrived Singapore Saturday morning after a night flight from Mumbai (flew Air India, not recommended as among other things my seat would not recline leading to little sleep)  and after a little nap at the hotel we hopped on one of those city buses to get a guided tour of the city. We chose the bus stopping closest to our hotel (which also happened to be the cheapest) which was maybe not the best one… But anyways we got to see the city J

Me and my burger!

First meal in Singapore just had to be…. A big, fat, American beef burger! Mmm, so missed my meat… I mean, you can get meat also in Mumbai, but the quality is not quite there and since they do not eat it themselves they do not prepare it in the best way either… So a good burger was just heaven!



Espen enjoying his Starbucks



One more thing we have missed (which we don’t have in Norway either, but we love) is Starbucks! They just have the best coffee and chai latte (I know, India probably has the best chai latte, but have not tasted much of it here though, want to get my tummy used to India before trying too much street food/drinks). So when we realized that there was a Starbucks just across the road from our hotel we were in heaven! No need to say that we visited this one frequently during our stay ;) I even went over there in during the breaks in my course to load up on coffee and chai latte (yes, both at the same time, too hard to decide on just one of them…)



Can see the Skybar in the background, is on top of that building!



View from Skybar




Champagne at Skybar



We also went to Marina Bay Sands and their Skybar, what an amazing view!! We started off having a cocktail…But then decided that this view deserves some good French champagne, so we got a bottle ;) We agree that we would rather book the dead-cheap hotel in the Red Light district of Singapore for our last night, prioritizes you know… ;) Having the champagne up at the rooftop bar/lounge at the 57^th floor was just amazing!

On the way to the skybar we also stumbled by Marina Bay shopping mall, an enormous mall with a canal inside where you can go on a gondola ride!

Another indulgence we enjoyed on this trip was good wine and food (in that order).  We frequently attended the beef restaurants and enjoyed good meat with nice red wine J I love Indian food also, but when having the option to eat beef, pork and potatoes I enjoy this! We also found a wine bar, which was just lovely as wine is not something India is very good at… You can get some good Indian wine, but also lots of bad… So seeing all the European and South African wines we are used to from back home was really nice and we consumed a few bottles during our stay ;)



Mmm, beef....



Inside the mall

I also planned on doing quite a bit of shopping…But ended up only buying a pair of high heels.. Think it was a bit overwhelming with all the nice, clean shops so that I did not really manage to actually buy anything… But just looking was nice too…And so much cheaper! ;)

Getting my drip...

As I said previously, the area we stayed in was very lively in the evenings and had heaps of bars and restaurants, some more special than others… This one place Clinic bar was quite something different…It was set up as an actual clinic, having wheelchairs as chairs, hospital beds as couches and you could buy drinks either in syringes , test tubes or drip. We chose the latter one, which was quite interesting… Funny concept and had to be tried, though off course overpriced.

I do however notice that I have gotten used to the price level here in India as I found everything in Singapore to be very expensive.   

The festival season has begun!

The festival season has started here. India is a great country in the way that they recognize the holidays of several religions including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Jain, Parsee, Sikh and Hinduism in addition to the three national holidays they have here. Only thing though is that this leads to quite many days off during the year, which is not very productive.  productive. Many companies respond to this by having a set amount of public holidays.

First group didn't quite make it

First out this autumn festival season was Krishna Janmashtami, a hindi festival celebrating the birth of Krishna. The date for the festival follows the Hindi calendar and falls within mid-August to mid-September. This year it was on the 22^nd of August. My office did not recognise this as one of the public holidays to get off, but we still managed to participate in it during the evening. In the state we live it is common to celebrate by having competitions where teams of men/boys are making a human pyramid aiming to reach a pot of buttermilk placed high up. The team building the highest pyramid and manage to break the pot of buttermilk is the winner! This does however involve the risk of hospitals around town filling up with men/boys with bone fractures…



There is the pot of buttermilk far up there..



We walked into town just in time to see the winning team in our local area. It might not look like it, but the pyramids get quite tall and they strategically put the smallest boy on the top, which turns out is a little kid looking quite padded up (though not really sure how much this would help if he actually fell down from the top there..) After reaching the buttermilk pot and manage to break it, they were all dancing and playing in the street –it was fun being a part of this J

They made it!! :)

Starting from a solid base...

Well, this was a short blog about our first experience with the many Indian festivals to come. I will keep you updated on those coming (Indians love festivals) as well as other things happening here.

First night out in Mumbai

 

My lovely Spicy Lady



Saturday we had our first night out in Mumbai. We started the night with dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant (which also has amazingly good drinks, am loving the “spicy lady” with jalapenos, vodka and lime/basil). After dinner and some drinks here we were ready to head off to town. First thing we needed to do was to get hold of an auto to take us there. Autos are 3 wheeled vehicles that are very popular to use instead of taxis here in Mumbai. They are very cheap to use and better to use when the traffic is bad as they are good at slipping in between cars, buses, trucks, cows and other vehicles and/or animals that might be queuing up at the highway here.  

 






Auto

   

After managing to get hold of an auto we were on the way, luckily we had teamed up with Karsten, who has lived in Mumbai for a year already so he could guide us through this new adventure of Mumbai by night. After about half an hour on the bumpy, crazy road they call the highway here and 150 rupi (about NOK 20,-/USD 3,40) we arrived at Juhu Beach which is one of the nicer areas in town. One would not think so though looking at the welcome we got there… Once the auto stopped a group of 6-8 street children as well as a young mother with her infant came running towards us and blocked our exit. They off course started begging, touching our faces and hair. They were very intruding and I was not expecting this at all in front of a fancy 5 star hotel… This is the first time I experience this since I came here. We did our best to ignore them and escaped into the hotel area. The hotel security tried to chase the kids away, hitting them with sticks (which I know should make me feel  sorry for them, but I must admit I didn’t as I felt totally overwhelmed by them intruding on my personal zone in such a close and intimidating way). What surprised me was that this beating did not scare the kids off or refrained them from begging and intruding at all.

JW Marriott Hotel

 After this not so expected welcome to Juhu Beach, we continued to the JW Marriott hotel and Enigma night club. What a world of difference! This is as luxurious as it gets… And I love it! The hotel is just totally amazing… Being in Mumbai, entering a hotel starts with going through security, getting your handbag screened and walking through a metal detector, just like at the airports. But once inside you are treated like a queen, as you are now a part of the relatively (I say relatively as the number is quite high, but out of the 20 million people living in Mumbai the percentage is low) few high class society members in Mumbai. Entering the night club we were guided to the VIP area, overlooking the dance floor and non-VIP bar. We had our own VIP bar meaning no lines for ordering drinks (as Espen seemed to enjoy going over to the bar quite frequently ordering more drinks).



And we are in! Enjoying a drink



Hotel security check



And here were the miniskirts… Finally! This is just a totally different world from the outside… You would never see women dressed like this in the streets here in Mumbai. I have been wondering ever since I arrived here where all the short dresses and other western clothing that I see on display in all the shops in the fancy shopping malls are actually used and now I know!  It is in the night clubs… Was so happy to also see this side of Mumbai as it felt like a totally different world… And I will also gladly admit that I am a fan of luxury and quite enjoy being treated like a queen ;) The most evident of thie luxury though were the prices at the bar… You had to pay around  1200 rupi (NOK 150,-/USD 27,-) for a drink… To put this in perspective this equals 3 days of work for my driver… To pay for one drink!

After a bit of dancing and a lot of drinking, it was time to head home. We managed to bribe off one of the “standing outside the hotel organizing cars man” to get us an auto inside the hotel gates.  So entering the gold gates into the marble pavement between shiny Mercedes’s and BMW’s our auto arrives. This was quite a sight as I am sure that absolutely no one inside that night club we just were nor the ones staying at the hotel would ever consider travelling with an auto as they are way to upper class for that…But we are not ;) So into the auto we go and head home. Were on the outlook for some night food on the way, but nothing to be found (and now when I think back that might be just good as I am not sure how our tummies would deal with Indian night food…)

So that was our first night out in Mumbai, a night full of contrasts between some of the best and worse the city has to offer.