waiting for our ride at the airport
Looking for a place to get some lunch after dropping off our bags at the hotel, we stumbled over the Leopold Cafe, right down the street on Colaba Causeway. The Leopold is a very popular watering hole around here and was one of the targets of the Mumbai attacks - 26/11 as they refer to it here.
I remember seeing something on CNN earlier this year about how the Leopold was coping in the aftermath of the attack, and about how they decided to not cover up the bullet holes in the walls - and indeed, there was a big one right there, above the painting between the windows. The place is tiny, and it's just terrifying to imagine what it must have been like, two guys showing up with machine guns at the door and opening fire. There's really nowhere to hide, unless you're in the kitchen or on the balcony upstairs.
fresh lime soda and a Bombay Masala sandwich, filled with spicy potatoes, at the Leopold Cafe
After lunch, the mission was to not give in to jetlag and to not fall asleep before night time. Mumbai is 13h ahead of Los Angeles at this time of year, so this was about 4am for us. We figured the best way to stay awake was to move around and started walking to explore the area. These are kids playing cricket on the Oval Maidan by the University of Mumbai.
A painted cow on the way to the Tea Centre in search of a caffeine fix
The tea centre is an endearingly old-fashioned place run by the Tea Board of India (eminently civilised is our guide book's turn of phrase for it), showcasing India's finest teas. We opted for a Nilgiri and a Kashmiri green tea with cinnamon, cardamon and ground almonds and pistachios.
plus some very tasty dahi puri
we continued our walk down Marine Drive towards the National Centre of Performing Arts, the conference location where Ritesh will be presenting. This is the view of the so-called Queen's Necklace from Marine Drive near the Oberoi Hotel. It's really not as hot as we expected, and there's a very nice breeze coming in from the water.
Ritesh on Marine Drive. The Oberoi is the green building on the left. The yellow one next to it is the Trident, where Ritesh's cousin works. We'll see her tomorrow.
finally - we made it to bedtime! cab ride back to the hotel at 8pm.
waiting for our ride at the airport
Looking for a place to get some lunch after dropping off our bags at the hotel, we stumbled over the Leopold Cafe, right down the street on Colaba Causeway. The Leopold is a very popular watering hole around here and was one of the targets of the Mumbai attacks - 26/11 as they refer to it here.
I remember seeing something on CNN earlier this year about how the Leopold was coping in the aftermath of the attack, and about how they decided to not cover up the bullet holes in the walls - and indeed, there was a big one right there, above the painting between the windows. The place is tiny, and it's just terrifying to imagine what it must have been like, two guys showing up with machine guns at the door and opening fire. There's really nowhere to hide, unless you're in the kitchen or on the balcony upstairs.
fresh lime soda and a Bombay Masala sandwich, filled with spicy potatoes, at the Leopold Cafe
After lunch, the mission was to not give in to jetlag and to not fall asleep before night time. Mumbai is 13h ahead of Los Angeles at this time of year, so this was about 4am for us. We figured the best way to stay awake was to move around and started walking to explore the area. These are kids playing cricket on the Oval Maidan by the University of Mumbai.
A painted cow on the way to the Tea Centre in search of a caffeine fix
The tea centre is an endearingly old-fashioned place run by the Tea Board of India (eminently civilised is our guide book's turn of phrase for it), showcasing India's finest teas. We opted for a Nilgiri and a Kashmiri green tea with cinnamon, cardamon and ground almonds and pistachios.
plus some very tasty dahi puri
we continued our walk down Marine Drive towards the National Centre of Performing Arts, the conference location where Ritesh will be presenting. This is the view of the so-called Queen's Necklace from Marine Drive near the Oberoi Hotel. It's really not as hot as we expected, and there's a very nice breeze coming in from the water.
Ritesh on Marine Drive. The Oberoi is the green building on the left. The yellow one next to it is the Trident, where Ritesh's cousin works. We'll see her tomorrow.
finally - we made it to bedtime! cab ride back to the hotel at 8pm.
1 comment:
I had no idea that toasties were so popular in Mumbai. The food looks soo good. Please keep posting all the fab pix.
And I also love that Virgin safety video... man, it's ages since I flew with them. They always have the best inflight entertainment.
Are you going to see any Bollywood pictures while you're there?
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