Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mumbai. Show all posts

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Last day in India

Finally, my last day of the biz trip. Have to rush off to meet a client - thus, packed croissant to eat in the car

Ancient elevator - the man's job evolves around opening the gates on each floor (1st to 5th floor) and the gates of the elevator, as well as pressing the buttons for the passengers.

Not sure why I always like to take Citibank pic - maybe cuz Leecher is working in the bank and I want to let him see how his bank looks like in other countries. This building machiam like castle leh :P

Went to CAMY waffers to buy snacks home for the family. Lots of indian snacks available - you can even taste the sample before making your purchase. I heard from our driver that the titbits are all fresh from the oven.

This is known as the Gateway - right in front of the hotel. I never had the chance to go and see this historic monument, but grapevine says that Angelina & Brad once brought their brood here.

Off to the "freezer" office for meeting and no point for guessing what we had for lunch later on.

We had to go straight to the airport to catch our flight @ 12.20am. We took almost 2.5 hrs to reach the airport for there was massive jam along the way. Stopped over @ ITC Grand Maratha (hotel near the airport) for our dinner. The "door-man" (anyone knows what's the proper term for them) dressed smartly in his turban and uniform. The ones @ Taj Mahal wore white uniform during the day and changed to black uniform at night.

Looks very atas rite?

Even the toilet also very atas - got TV somemore ....

We had our last meal in India @ Peshawri. Rinta told me that Bill Clinton loves this restarurant. Located in such an atas place, this meal also commands a hefty price-tag.

Their open-concept kitchen, whereby you can see the stove in which they bake the naan. As this is a traditional Indian restaurant, no cutlery were served. We were told by the waiter to enjoy the taste of the food with our hands.

Their menu is on a block of wood; one side for vegetarian and the other side for non-vegetarian.

Naan, papadum , butter chicken. Not a fan of onion, but it goes well with the papadum & naan.

The chicken kebab - tender and juicy.

The airport just got renovated recently, so everything looks very new and clean.

Our pic before boarding the plane, bye! See you in SG, LOL

Ate my meal and Caught 27 dresses onboard - very nice romantic comedy. I am a sucker for such love flicks. James Marsden was kinda boyish; found him to be very familiar until I googled and realised that he acted as Cyclops in X-men.


Leecher said he would come to the airport and fetch me. I even reminded him 20 times that my flight will land at 8.20am. When i cleared the immigrations and shopped at duty-free, I was half-expecting to see Leecher standing outside waving to me .... but to my surprise, he was still at his place when I called him ... >_<"
In the end, I waited almost 1 hr for him to come and pick me up; isn't it ironic?

He had to push my trolley as punishment - from T2 to T3 .. bleah :P

We had POPEYES for breakfast - their chicken are really yummy! Wonder why they only have outlets in the airport .... I think they can give KFC a run for their money.

Lastly, to conclude my India Trip; shopping loots for closed ones :)

Till the next biz trip ~

Saturday, June 21, 2008

3rd Day in India

It was raining cats & dogs the week before we arrived. Strangely, it was all sunny (yet not humid) when we came over. Good for me as well, since I will be able to take more pics without the risk of dent dent being wet.

View from my room

My daily dosage of newspaper - interesting articles though the entertainment news were quite pathetic.

The flower on my couch has wilted - sign of sadness that I am leaving the hotel soon?

Our breakfast routine :)

The 5 star hotel in Mumbai that commands a hefty tag of $430/night for a room

Booked the meeting room, so that we can get catch up on our emails while waiting for the next appt

The cosy environment made me wanna sleep instead of working ....

Chocolate chips taste way better than ginger chips

Met up with a client, whose office temperature is that of a freezer. We were so glad to get out of the building and basked in the sun. Went to the mall for our lunch @ Japengo cafe.

The cafe serves pretty decent food; 1st time seeing soup noodles served in a square "bowl"

The hot soup certainly did wonders in defrosting my body ....

Rinta & her chicken wrap

Leaving my footprints outside the cafe :)

Met up with Rinta's ex-Bloomberg colleagues for dinner @ the Radio Club; a 10 min walk from our hotel.

Warm brandy = brandy topped with warm water :O The drinks here are pretty cheap, SGD$2 for one glass of red wine.

The gals-in-action :)

The club looks like some old men club, but it does serve pretty decent chinese food. Kinda missed my mum's cooking @ this point in time

last day tml; can't wait to be back home :)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

2nd Day in India

Rise and shine! Breakfast @ the usual place and I took more pics this time

The juices are really fresh- pure juices w/o being diluted by water. This is Rinta's fave corner for she claims that she can stand at the section the whole day just drinking juices.

Walked around and decided to have my 1st round of cereals. Nv been a cereal person until that fateful day Andrew brought cereals to the office .... since then, I think I consumed almost 30% of his cereals, haha

Still hungry, I ordered the plain dona again :)

Rinta - wearing her salwar kameez (literally translated into pants and tops). Love the vibrant colours on her clothes. Maybe I should buy 1 set for myself next time :P

Rinta decided to go for the Mesala Omelette, which is quite delicious, except for the leaves (which I hate absolutely!)

After a heavy breakfast, we headed off to our client's place located near the Bombay Stock Exchange. This is the square in front of the building, whereby the security is quite strict and there's actually a policeman scrutinizing the cars that drive into the square.

Dalal Street is the equivalent of the Wall Street in India

Pic of the 2 pretty babes @ work, haa

We must walk through the barrier only when it signals "WALK", quite old-school

Met up with the CEO of the company, turned out that I already met him last yr when he was the CEO of another company, haha. Only recognise his name when I saw it on his name-card. 45 mins later, time to head out for lunch. While waiting for the driver to come, I was away snapping pics of the surrounding. The sound of horns filled the air - I think it's the way drivers communicate to one another. People can just jay-walk as though it's the most normal thing on earth.

The driver of this cab just parked in the middle of the road and started to clean his car, power sia. The circled part in the pic is the fare meter, interesting rite?

Went back to the hotel to have lunch - look @ the spread! I was busy taking pics for Leecher to drool at, since he will most prob be lunching alone in Hong Lim Food Complex, haha.

Salad bar, lots of variety to choose from. I am not a greens person, so I took the prawns instead, haha.

The smoked salmon is pretty decent - though I prefer the ones yesterday

International - love the beancurd with prawn baked with cheese

These crackers are damn good, esp those shelled-like ones. It's a pity that i didn't manage to buy them for Leecher to try.

Snacks/Side dishes (can't rem the exact name though) - but I like dhokla (yellow "gueh" at the top left) taste like our version of 猪场粉

Ordered the cheese naan (my fave!) & Roti

Our feast - must eat in small portions so I can try different variety, haha.

Can't wait to dig in - yummy!

Next up, desserts time! Do you know that when STRESSED (spelt backwards) = DESSERTS? I must be feeling kinda stressed out (by Leecher, I think :P)

Cakes - bet they must have tasted delicious but I didn't try it :(

The mango & chocolate mousse - instantly melt in my mouth, wow!

The rest of the selection - I think I took everything that was on display :O

Our feast - I took almost everything that has to do with chocolate, yummy!

After the spread, it's back to work again. This time, we need to travel across town to see a client. My first time spotting Mac in India (but didn't have a chance to taste it)

This is their main train station, very Victorian-looking.

The father-and-son that held up the traffic by pushing their cart in 1 lane. Despite all the horning, they just continue to move @ their speed. 真佩服他们的坚持!

We ended all our appointments for the day . So, decided to go to a beauty palour, hee :) to reward ourselves. I opted for face threading instead

Before my virgin face threading session ... oh that's dent dent! he finally got some air time on this blog :)

Applying the cooling mask on my face after threading .... (I must be crazy to post my picture here, deter my potential suitors away leh....LOL)

Yeah, my 红红的 "hair-less" face, 好像monkey的屁股....

Next up, Rinta brought me to Dome @ Inter-Continental hotel (overlooking the Arabian Sea) to view the splendid sunset view.

Nice and cosy place to chill out. The whole place was literally bathed in candle lights when it's nearing dusk.

Meet up with Rinta's fren - Lavi. Had some snacks while we engaged in girl talk.

It's a pity the canopy are up due to the monsoon season, if not, the view will be even more magnificant.

See how strong the wind is with the little "window" left open? The whole place might have been a war zone if not for the canopy.

Didn't manage to catch the sun-set, for it was cloudy :( However, the view quite made up for it. The street will light up at night and the Queen's necklace will be formed.

Back to the hotel for dinner. Rinta & me went to Masala Kraft for authentic Indian food.

The interior of the restaurant - there was even a fireplace, but I was too paiseh to capture it for there were some patrons sitting there. I had my best meal in India here :P

Indian food has 3 very unique ingredients: secrets, tricks and magic. At Masala, they added a fourth: Kraft. It is the delicate art of slow roasting spices (masala), the most important ingredient of the Indian cuisine. Once the spices have been endowed with the magic touch of their chef, customers will have a taste that never fails to linger. They even have unique names for their menu in classifying the appetizers, main courses, international cuisines etc.


The unique candle-light holder, that contained all the spices used in the dishes and the "Masala Kraft" bottle cover.

The lime was wrapped with yellow mesh, so that patrons could squeeze out the juice without having to pick up the seeds. (PS: I showed Leecher this pic and he thought that it was chocolate >_<") I really love the crackers. You can eat it on its own or dip into the chilli sauce for the extra spice. This lamb kebab will be the only reason why I will go back to India again. It literally melts in your mouth. The waiter told us the story behind this dish ....

"There was once a king who loved meat and hunting. Once, he went hunting and unfortunately, he fell off from his horse and broke all his teeth. Being a meat lover, he told his royal chef to think of a dish that will allow him to eat without having to chew - that was how this dish was invented ....."

The chef preparing our naan

Cheese naan .... my fave naan besides the garlic ones.

Butter chicken and Red Kidney Beans curry - both sauces are super rich in flavour, yummy!

We had to use our hands to eat the food, for the real authentic taste. The waiter will drop by with a pot of water and basin for you to wash your hands once you have finished the meal. The amazing thing is that your hands will smell of rose after washing!

This is the Indian version of 槟榔. I tried it and immediately spit out, cuz the taste was too overwhelming.

Both of us were extremely full after the meal and we took a little walk around the hotel. I just had to post this pic to end this entry :)

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