Indian Adventure -Flights & Bollywood No Go! (LINK)
March 24th 2008 03:00
I do apologise for not writing for a while but I have been in India once again. A number of reasons , mostly work in the usual cities but I also visited a few new places as well.[B] Some places I stayed had no internet access , hence no blogs.
Plane travel in India turned out to be a a nightmare and I experienced it all, this time.From not one plane taking off on time to sitting on the tarmac for 6hours due to fog at Delhi airport and arriving 8hours later to my final destination of Chennai.
Melodrama on every trip I took by plane from being any destination Delhi to Mumbai , Mumbai to Delhi or Delhi to Chennai , not one flight went smoothly. It was unbelievable !
Businessmen on the planes were having panic attacks , as they had lectures and presentations to give and new contracts to sign etc. I must say it was the most unusual set of circumstances I had ever experienced in the 8 or so years of travelling in India.For me although my time was limited I could reschedule my appointments. So I had to just bare and grin the situations I had been forced to endure.
On my 3 day break to Mumbai , nothing went right there also. The hotel I had booked 4 star, supposedly was a totoal dive. It was in Juhu and it belongs to a chain of hotels .If I remember its name I shall post it on the net as it was truly woeful and the price was astronomical, to give you an example the bed linen was soiled from previous guest , had not been changed , the room was filthy , hair all over the bathroom etc.
I called the manager and he profusely apologised and had I been able to I would have left but I had paid via the net for the room so I would have lost my money and at $350 AUD a night I could not move . After the clean up they compensated by offering a free dinner BIG DEAL!
Believe it or not Mumbai hotels are so expensive that if you want the standard of clean you have to pay in excess of $400 to $500 a night . I will not be returning to Mumbai.
The next day I wanted to go to Film City , that was the main aim of going to Mumbai, it is roughly an hour out of the main city and 99% of the time people are allowed to drive in and visit.
Having paid a taxi to take me there, a policeman in uniform stops us with barricades drawn and tells the taxi driver , it is impossibe to go in . I tell the man I have come all the way from Oz and am a designer of costumes and would love to see one set of the Bollywood movies being made and there are millions on at once.
Meanwhile streams of cars buses go through without a check of any kind.
It was at least 35degrees and I was really getting much hotter than this as I was really not happy to be ushered away.
Finally an important looking man , so he thought ,strutted up to the car and told us to go away, he said the Minister is coming and no one is allowed in, so that was the end of that , there was some Minister visiting with his entourage and as a foreigner they closed the entry unless we had a government letter to say we could enter.
I was very UNHAPPY to say the least . One thing for sure I will not ever visit the place again.
The film city is run by the Indian Governement and they really are not very business minded as they could charge people to view the sets and go on Bollywood tours as they do in Hollywood and bring in more revenue for their industry. Obviously they are not organised for this type of thing as yet!!!!
Never mind Rome was not built in a day and India will definitely have to struggle with many more dilemmas to come of age other than my tiny debarcle with no access to Film City in Mumbai.
From here I went to the beautiful caves in Mumbai that monks had built in the 6th century if I am correct. The most magnificently carved structures .
Over 100 of them with beautiful carvings and statues carved into the rock, well worth visiting.
The next day off to Colaba district , then onto the Ghandi Museum which was the last place Ghandi Ji had lived , a magnificent and exceptionally well preserved place tracing the the life of Mahatma Ghandi , well worth the visit.
Visited the Taj Mahal hotel and some boutiques in this area , very elegant and of course very pricey. Drove past the Mumbai stock exchange , a very congested area as is all of Mumbai.
From Mumbai my trip took me to Delhi where I had to visit many friends and also work, Delhi to me is like home so I feel more comfortable here. It is much cleaner and friendlier than Mumbai.
Also as mentioned the Metro is brilliant and they are now extending it to many other parts of Delhi.
The tuk tuk travel is the alternative way to get around or taxi or buses . I prefer the Tuk Tuk's , only the pollution was so bad this time that I had to always cover my mouth and try and breathe through my Dupta,(scarf).
Whilst in Delhi I also lectured at the Pearl Academy which is a very very wonderful Fashion Design College and they have a fabulous faculty and many great facilities with talented students coming out of the college.
I also lectured at two excellent business college KGIM in Greater Kailash and BLS Institute of Management in Mohan Nagar near Ghaziabad. Wonderful receptive students who i am sure will be the future business men and women of India.
As well I attended some trade fairs and developed some new products for some companies I design for.
All in all some memorable moments and some wonderful people once again interacted with.
I do have to say though India is not an easy place to work in , one must be patient and like anywhere else it is a huge learning curve of hit and miss. Sometimes you win sometimes you lose , one must be all persevering and be in tune with the different cultural moments you come across. No different to working in China , US , Europe or anywhere else in the world.
India though is a challenge but very distinctive and colourful .
On another note I really enjoy the vegetarian food ,and in my next blog I will share some amazing yummy recipes as I
love cooking .
So wait and see the next update, which should come along next week sometime.
Plane travel in India turned out to be a a nightmare and I experienced it all, this time.From not one plane taking off on time to sitting on the tarmac for 6hours due to fog at Delhi airport and arriving 8hours later to my final destination of Chennai.
Melodrama on every trip I took by plane from being any destination Delhi to Mumbai , Mumbai to Delhi or Delhi to Chennai , not one flight went smoothly. It was unbelievable !
Businessmen on the planes were having panic attacks , as they had lectures and presentations to give and new contracts to sign etc. I must say it was the most unusual set of circumstances I had ever experienced in the 8 or so years of travelling in India.For me although my time was limited I could reschedule my appointments. So I had to just bare and grin the situations I had been forced to endure.
On my 3 day break to Mumbai , nothing went right there also. The hotel I had booked 4 star, supposedly was a totoal dive. It was in Juhu and it belongs to a chain of hotels .If I remember its name I shall post it on the net as it was truly woeful and the price was astronomical, to give you an example the bed linen was soiled from previous guest , had not been changed , the room was filthy , hair all over the bathroom etc.
I called the manager and he profusely apologised and had I been able to I would have left but I had paid via the net for the room so I would have lost my money and at $350 AUD a night I could not move . After the clean up they compensated by offering a free dinner BIG DEAL!
Believe it or not Mumbai hotels are so expensive that if you want the standard of clean you have to pay in excess of $400 to $500 a night . I will not be returning to Mumbai.
The next day I wanted to go to Film City , that was the main aim of going to Mumbai, it is roughly an hour out of the main city and 99% of the time people are allowed to drive in and visit.
Having paid a taxi to take me there, a policeman in uniform stops us with barricades drawn and tells the taxi driver , it is impossibe to go in . I tell the man I have come all the way from Oz and am a designer of costumes and would love to see one set of the Bollywood movies being made and there are millions on at once.
Meanwhile streams of cars buses go through without a check of any kind.
It was at least 35degrees and I was really getting much hotter than this as I was really not happy to be ushered away.
Finally an important looking man , so he thought ,strutted up to the car and told us to go away, he said the Minister is coming and no one is allowed in, so that was the end of that , there was some Minister visiting with his entourage and as a foreigner they closed the entry unless we had a government letter to say we could enter.
I was very UNHAPPY to say the least . One thing for sure I will not ever visit the place again.
The film city is run by the Indian Governement and they really are not very business minded as they could charge people to view the sets and go on Bollywood tours as they do in Hollywood and bring in more revenue for their industry. Obviously they are not organised for this type of thing as yet!!!!
Never mind Rome was not built in a day and India will definitely have to struggle with many more dilemmas to come of age other than my tiny debarcle with no access to Film City in Mumbai.
From here I went to the beautiful caves in Mumbai that monks had built in the 6th century if I am correct. The most magnificently carved structures .
Over 100 of them with beautiful carvings and statues carved into the rock, well worth visiting.
The next day off to Colaba district , then onto the Ghandi Museum which was the last place Ghandi Ji had lived , a magnificent and exceptionally well preserved place tracing the the life of Mahatma Ghandi , well worth the visit.
Visited the Taj Mahal hotel and some boutiques in this area , very elegant and of course very pricey. Drove past the Mumbai stock exchange , a very congested area as is all of Mumbai.
From Mumbai my trip took me to Delhi where I had to visit many friends and also work, Delhi to me is like home so I feel more comfortable here. It is much cleaner and friendlier than Mumbai.
Also as mentioned the Metro is brilliant and they are now extending it to many other parts of Delhi.
The tuk tuk travel is the alternative way to get around or taxi or buses . I prefer the Tuk Tuk's , only the pollution was so bad this time that I had to always cover my mouth and try and breathe through my Dupta,(scarf).
Whilst in Delhi I also lectured at the Pearl Academy which is a very very wonderful Fashion Design College and they have a fabulous faculty and many great facilities with talented students coming out of the college.
I also lectured at two excellent business college KGIM in Greater Kailash and BLS Institute of Management in Mohan Nagar near Ghaziabad. Wonderful receptive students who i am sure will be the future business men and women of India.
As well I attended some trade fairs and developed some new products for some companies I design for.
All in all some memorable moments and some wonderful people once again interacted with.
I do have to say though India is not an easy place to work in , one must be patient and like anywhere else it is a huge learning curve of hit and miss. Sometimes you win sometimes you lose , one must be all persevering and be in tune with the different cultural moments you come across. No different to working in China , US , Europe or anywhere else in the world.
India though is a challenge but very distinctive and colourful .
On another note I really enjoy the vegetarian food ,and in my next blog I will share some amazing yummy recipes as I
So wait and see the next update, which should come along next week sometime.
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