(no subject)
Got into Mumbai around 1:30am. We were scheduled to arrive at midnight but we had to sit on the plane in London while they tried to find the luggage of 8 people who checked in but never boarded the plane. Understandable security risk, but two hours? Ugh. But this was the only problem we encountered the whole trip, so I shouldn't complain. Customs took 2 seconds, the luggage came within 5 minutes of us arriving at baggage claim, ALL the luggage came and I enjoyed every movie I watched on the plane. ;-) Sadly no good Hindi movies were being shown.
Got outside the airport and found the people picking us up. We waited an hour for the car to come and then it was another hour drive to the hotel. I got to sit in the front next to the driver, so I had a nice view of Mumbai and the mostly empty streets. I'm fairly certain we drove along Marine Drive (a road featured in many bollywood movies) but didn't have the courage to ask the driver. But I'm pretty sure it was. We arrived at our hotel (YWCA!) around 4am. After surfing the TV and checking out the bathroom, etc. We took a little nap and woke up at 7:30 for breakfast. Weird thing about the showers, there's no lip to divide that area from the rest of the bathroom and keep the water in. Nope, just a curtain.
Breakfast was good, I'm having no problems adjusting to the food. I had idli sambhar and three pieces of toast. After breakfast, about five of us decided to go walking around and also find an ATM. We decided to head for the ocean. I knew we drove past it so I lead everyone back we way we came. Of course, travelling by car and walking are not the same thing and after twenty minutes we decided we better ask directions. We did and were told to go straight, then turn right, ask people for Church Gate and then from there ask for Marine Drive. This is where my compass came in handy! I noted that straight from where we were was between West and Northwest, so we retraced our steps back to the hotel to make sure we didn't get completely lost and then headed west.
Crossing the streets is an adventure because there are hardly any traffic lights and there are roundabouts instead of intersections. Also there are no lanes. Well they're there, I can see them painted on the road, but they might as well not be. So you just have to go when you see an opening. And weave around the motorbikes, though really they weave around you. We aked for directions one more time and then we passed through the oval maidan, a big oval shaped grassy area where people were playing cricket or just laying down. From there we found Church Gate, a roundabout not an actual gate, and from there a short walk to the sea. We sat on the wall for a bit and looked out over the water. Then we had to head back because we needed to check out of the hotel by noon. On the way back we passed the restaurant Jazz By the Bay, which was in the movie Rock On!!, my first filmi moment. :) That pretty much concludes my encounter with film city. Sadly no star sightings but I'll be back.