From Mumbai with Love

So here we start..

On Saturday morning, i arrived in Mumbai at 4:30 India time. As i had nowhere else to go, i had to wake my poor friend Antonio up. After an ½ hr crazy taxi experience which i would say 10 times more intense compared to the Turkish taxi adventures, Antonio greeted me around 5:30 at his place after a sleep of only a couple of hours.

Antonio,from Italy, was a CEEDer (an intl AIESEC member) working in Istanbul office for 2 months back in 2002. He became the MCP of Italy and afterwards set his own business up in Mumbai. He has been living there for 6 years now and i haven't seen him since 2002, so it was a bit weird to do the first catch up in 10 years at 5:30 in the morning, all sleepy. 

The view from Antonio's place                     My dear host in Mumbai, Antonio

On my first day in Mumbai i didnt really get to see anything but having been in Mumbai before i was not so keen on going out neither. In the 2.5 days i stayed there, I planned to meet wıth some friends, Onur, whom i knew from AIESEC, Zeynep, whom i got to know through her blog on India and Shantanu, whom i knew again back from AIESEC Days.  

The plan for the first day was to have a chill out day, recover from the jetlag and take it easy.

2 Different Worlds : Colaba Market & Blue Frog

On Saturday evening, we went for a short walk in the Colaba market which was 5 minutes away from Antonio’s place. It was almost like our traditional ‘Pazar’s of Istanbul. Only more crowded, more food on the street, more varities and more colourful.

Colaba Market at Night                                 Women Cleaning Fish

My first treat in India was a chicken Shawarma from a corner stand suggested by Antonio who was a regular. Having tried some Shawarmas back in Belgium before, this one was more greasy, juicy and yummy of course.

My intention was to stay at home for the Saturday night and totally recover from the jetlag. However after drinking a Kingfisher Ultra, we decided to “flow into” the Mumbai nights.

        

My Juicy,Greasy,Yummy Chicken Shawarma            Antonio enjoying tropical weird juice

The destination was the Blue Frog, which can be considered as an upper scale club where a glass of vodka was around 15 euros. There was a Dutch DJ playing and the majority in the club was young Indians. There were a couple of internationals too but I was happy enough to be in a place where locals hang out. Music was OK –which was typical house music- and I have to admit Indian people, they were dancing quite well, especially girls. I could see that it is in their blood.

Voila, so that's how we ended the first night in Mumbai.