Life in Another Country - Long Version
Discussion
Brilliant, an excellent read. I went to Mumbai for 10 days and left just before the terror attacks the following day (very lucky escape but not so for some of the waiters at my usual restaurant). I loved Mumbai and am thinking of returning before too long. I survived some of the train, and bus, rides around the city and was met with the utmost respect and friendship everywhere I went. I only felt a bit threatened on one occasion when, despite having gone far out of the city, the sheer mass of people surrounding me (close to a market) brought on some irrational fear of 'what if' - needless to say, it was only my mind working overtime, the people were, as always, friendly and helpful.
A wonderful place to visit, and thank you for writing it all up in such a readable style.
A wonderful place to visit, and thank you for writing it all up in such a readable style.
My company is Indian (they're always in the papers over there, seen as a bit of a pioneer in the tech space) and as such many of the guys I work with both in London and via our HQ (bangalore) are Indian, they really are an interesting set of people. Super hard working, like f
king hell, I've skyped people about urgent problems when its well out of hours UK time but there is ALWAYS a response, to the extent where I think they live for work. I don't think our founders have many hobbies outside of what they do!
Interesting to read what you say, I am heading over there at some point and hope to get out of the tech town where we are based, but its interesting hearing about the traffic etc, it just sounds mental over there, and as such everyone that works for us basically lives next to work as its a total joke to get anywhere! One of the senior guys apparently runs to work with his driver following him! Mad, just the way you can live out there with a few quid is TOTALLY different to here.
One of the girls at my place was showing me a penthouse flat she was considering buying (from here and renting it out when its built and they move back) it worked out to be something like £180k but was 5k sq ft. Opposite our office they're building a new block of flats, its a pretty prime location, but she just could not fathom that the same thing was in said block was £10million.
Anyway, bit of a ramble, but like you I didn't know much of the place, I still don't really, but working with them for a couple of years has changed my opinion. Though they should probably lay off the smokes a bit, they're all on them big time!
king hell, I've skyped people about urgent problems when its well out of hours UK time but there is ALWAYS a response, to the extent where I think they live for work. I don't think our founders have many hobbies outside of what they do!Interesting to read what you say, I am heading over there at some point and hope to get out of the tech town where we are based, but its interesting hearing about the traffic etc, it just sounds mental over there, and as such everyone that works for us basically lives next to work as its a total joke to get anywhere! One of the senior guys apparently runs to work with his driver following him! Mad, just the way you can live out there with a few quid is TOTALLY different to here.
One of the girls at my place was showing me a penthouse flat she was considering buying (from here and renting it out when its built and they move back) it worked out to be something like £180k but was 5k sq ft. Opposite our office they're building a new block of flats, its a pretty prime location, but she just could not fathom that the same thing was in said block was £10million.
Anyway, bit of a ramble, but like you I didn't know much of the place, I still don't really, but working with them for a couple of years has changed my opinion. Though they should probably lay off the smokes a bit, they're all on them big time!
The write ups are so fascinating and so true, I haven't been out there for a couple of years but possibly going in October again and staying in Powai but it was so familiar (the traffic, the desire to please so much they will lie to say what they think you want to hear). Also the reverence of westerners, as a female it can be a bit overwhelming but is meant well.
Whereabouts in Powai are you staying, from the picture it looks like Central Avenue but I may be wrong. Is it Mehlua The Fern? I normally stay there but off to the Rennaissance on my next trip.
And I saw your mention of Amitabh Bhachin. When I was last there, we went on a taxi ride to Juhu beach and we went past his house and the crowds outside where ridiculous. It was fever pitch and I had never heard of him then.
Whereabouts in Powai are you staying, from the picture it looks like Central Avenue but I may be wrong. Is it Mehlua The Fern? I normally stay there but off to the Rennaissance on my next trip.
And I saw your mention of Amitabh Bhachin. When I was last there, we went on a taxi ride to Juhu beach and we went past his house and the crowds outside where ridiculous. It was fever pitch and I had never heard of him then.
Kateg28 said:
The write ups are so fascinating and so true, I haven't been out there for a couple of years but possibly going in October again and staying in Powai but it was so familiar (the traffic, the desire to please so much they will lie to say what they think you want to hear). Also the reverence of westerners, as a female it can be a bit overwhelming but is meant well.
Whereabouts in Powai are you staying, from the picture it looks like Central Avenue but I may be wrong. Is it Mehlua The Fern? I normally stay there but off to the Rennaissance on my next trip.
And I saw your mention of Amitabh Bhachin. When I was last there, we went on a taxi ride to Juhu beach and we went past his house and the crowds outside where ridiculous. It was fever pitch and I had never heard of him then.
It is indeed the Fern, it's a nice enough place but in reality it's very similar to a UK travelodge. Seems to be the default for westerners! I'd love to stay at the Renaissance but the cost would be eye watering. I've been there for the odd brunch and to use their pool, once every few weeks as a decadent western treat... Whereabouts in Powai are you staying, from the picture it looks like Central Avenue but I may be wrong. Is it Mehlua The Fern? I normally stay there but off to the Rennaissance on my next trip.
And I saw your mention of Amitabh Bhachin. When I was last there, we went on a taxi ride to Juhu beach and we went past his house and the crowds outside where ridiculous. It was fever pitch and I had never heard of him then.
Sounds like you'll be here for the start of the festivals, they sound crazy and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Drowning the Ganpatis, the people-ladders, the stick dances etc. I missed Holi which sounded like a lot of fun.
I feel a bit sorry for Western women, the expats I've been speaking to get a little nervous at the gyms and pools, the local guys will all stop what they're doing and stare while they use the machines etc. I don't think it's anything sinister as much as the novelty of seeing women integrate a little, but I couldn't say for sure either way.
Well, I'm back. And I have to say, the Andaman Islands are amazing. Well, Havelock is. I didn't really see anything of the rest of them except Port Blair on South Andaman, which has the airport. There's a large portion of South Andaman which is off-limits as it homes the indigenous people (not really Indians as such), and the last time the indigenous people met some of the mainlanders, there was by all accounts a substantial volley of arrows and spears involved. But the Islands are stunning, and not like India at all. I know everyone gushes about their recent holiday destinations, but this really was above and beyond anything I've ever experienced before.
Getting there is a chore. Flying to Port Blair from anywhere involves a stop at Chennai (formerly Madras), which is a huge city and full of people who apprantly don't see too many white folk. Lots of stares, more at Mrs OB I guess - Power ginge/fake blonde, and not really understanding the indian concept of "dress conservatively" meant lots of groups of guys just gawping. She was a little uncomfortable with that but as our bags were checked through, there wasn't much she could do about it.
Anyway, we flew out and landed in Port Blair, and needed to get permits as it's all a restricted area. Lots more forms, photos, and signatures later, we had additional stamps in pasports and the most fake-looking official documents imaginable allowing us to visit certain islands. We got a cheap 100r (£1) taxi to the ferry jetty expecting a ticket office and maybe a waiting room. Nope. Ticket office closed - "it's sunday sir" - and so we had to wait on the jetty for 3 hours for the incoming boat to dock, and then join an indian queue (what we would call a scrum) to get a ticket before they used up their quota. I think they can only take so many people to each island per day to keep in line with tourist regs or something. Anyway, we failed. But using my cunning western head, I just bought 2 tickets to Neil Island instead, which is the first (much smaller and vastly less inhabited) stop on the ferry route, and when we docked there we just stayed on the boat and played dumb, and then we were essentiually stowaways on the leg over to Havelock. It worked. I am a crafty bugger when I need to be. She was terrified we would be caught and thrown overboard but I convinced her, if caught, that we would bribe our way out of it.
The ferry was interesting. An ex-fishing trawler with a load of seats bolted to the deck, noisy, smelly, and slow. And crewed by an Indian version of Carlton Banks.
3.5 hours later, we docked at Havelock.
There is not much I can really say about the next 7 days, apart from we spent it scuba diving and snorkelling, and eating and drinking... The most exiting PH thing I did was hiring a 125cc moped and breaking my "no driving" company agreement by tear-arsing around the island, hooting my hooter and generally driving like a local. I got my scuba certificate, 5 dives off a lovely 30 foot diving boat, down to 20m - saw some amazing fish, like parrot fish, puffer fish, barracuda, tuna, lobster, box fish, clown fish (the most unexpectedly aggressive little fellows!), angel fish, lion fish, clams, corals, all sorts. It was brilliant. And as it was "off season", I got 2 dive masters for just little old me, and the entire boat to myself every time I wanted to go out! On the offchance anyone reading is heading out to the Andamans, I can highly recommend Andaman Bubbles as teachers. When I first dived, I panicked, thought I was going to puke in to my regulator, but the guys calmed me down, worked on my breathing, and by the end of the week they were having to rein me in and stop me going too deep or too fast!
Some snaps of our humble bamboo bungalow...
Food-wise, it was as you'd imagine all fish and coconut based. Barracuda is surprisingly good, and the freshly caught Red Snapper and Tuna was superb. And so cheap. A tuna steak that could probably feed 3 people was £1.50, cooked to your liking and with whatever spices you wanted (provided they were in stock). Booze was cheap as chips - a 75cl bottle of Smirnoff was £3.65. It cost more to buy the coke than it did to buy the spirits! There is a big love of peanut butter and Nutella there, so much so that Nutella sells at a massive premium, and the cafe owners try anything to get an extra supply - one guy even emailed a future guest at the hotel next door and asked them to bring a bagfull from the mainland. Good job really as I was drinking these full time...
The inhabited part of the island is tiny, maybe 10% of the island is actually used for development, tourism, or farming. The rest is thick, inpenetrable jungle. As we found with some of the "locals" who came to meet us...
It feels like a small village spread out over a few kilometres, or like a soap opera street. We were sitting having breakfast one moring at a cafe along the roadside, and a guy stopped on his motorbike and asked us if Lynda (the owner of the "resort" we were staying at) had spoken to us - we'd never seen him before, but for some reason he knew exactly who we were and where we were staying! We said no, we hadn't seen her, and he jumped back on his bike and rode off again. We found out later that he was the owner of the cafe where we were sitting, and he'd gone back off to find Lynda and let her know where we were. Such a small, friendly place, and it didn't matter that there were no mobile signals, as everyone knew everyone and where each and every person was.
Being on Indian time, yet being so far east, the days were all skewed. It gets light there at about 5.30am, and is totally pitch black bu 5.30pm - so the entire island is in bed by about 10pm at the latest. We went for a late night ride on the bike at about 11.30 one evening, and it was deserted. No lights anywhere, no evidence of people at all apart from the odd motorbike parked on the side of the road. It was rather creepy!
And it's CLEAN. Like, totally different to anywhere else in India I've seen. I was talking to a coconut seller on my last day, and we were exchanging jealousies about how much we would each like the other's life. He gets to sit and look out at crystal waters every day, and doesn't have to make any real effort to sell his wares, and his cost of living is practically zero. Yet he wants to go to London, New York, Berlin etc and see what life is like there - I told him, cold, wet and a thousand times more stressful than this. He was saying that his biggest worry is getting down to the beach to tidy it every morning, because if it gets dirty then people will go to other beaches. That's the first I'd heard someone here talk about tidying somewhere that they weren't paid to do. In fact, he wouldn't sell us a coconut unless we promised to take the empty nut back to him, and not leave it on the beach or throw it in the sea. And you know, it worked. There wasn't a single piece of rubbish on the beach. It was beautiful.
All in all, a great and very relaxing holiday. If it wasn't for 3 different flights and a ferry to get there, I'd recommend it to anyone. Actually sod it. I still recommend it. It's a stunning place, great people and a lovely vibe. And without wishing to be vulgar and discuss the money, for 2 people to fly there from Mumbai, have a week there, hire a scooter, get a scuba license etc, cost less than £600 all-in. Butlins (OK, in high season) costs more than that. Amazing value.
Back to the hectic life of Mumbai now, and don't I know it...
Anyway, as ever, any questions about any of it, fire away - it's hard to know how in depth to go without waffling or getting boring!
Getting there is a chore. Flying to Port Blair from anywhere involves a stop at Chennai (formerly Madras), which is a huge city and full of people who apprantly don't see too many white folk. Lots of stares, more at Mrs OB I guess - Power ginge/fake blonde, and not really understanding the indian concept of "dress conservatively" meant lots of groups of guys just gawping. She was a little uncomfortable with that but as our bags were checked through, there wasn't much she could do about it.
Anyway, we flew out and landed in Port Blair, and needed to get permits as it's all a restricted area. Lots more forms, photos, and signatures later, we had additional stamps in pasports and the most fake-looking official documents imaginable allowing us to visit certain islands. We got a cheap 100r (£1) taxi to the ferry jetty expecting a ticket office and maybe a waiting room. Nope. Ticket office closed - "it's sunday sir" - and so we had to wait on the jetty for 3 hours for the incoming boat to dock, and then join an indian queue (what we would call a scrum) to get a ticket before they used up their quota. I think they can only take so many people to each island per day to keep in line with tourist regs or something. Anyway, we failed. But using my cunning western head, I just bought 2 tickets to Neil Island instead, which is the first (much smaller and vastly less inhabited) stop on the ferry route, and when we docked there we just stayed on the boat and played dumb, and then we were essentiually stowaways on the leg over to Havelock. It worked. I am a crafty bugger when I need to be. She was terrified we would be caught and thrown overboard but I convinced her, if caught, that we would bribe our way out of it.
The ferry was interesting. An ex-fishing trawler with a load of seats bolted to the deck, noisy, smelly, and slow. And crewed by an Indian version of Carlton Banks.
3.5 hours later, we docked at Havelock.
There is not much I can really say about the next 7 days, apart from we spent it scuba diving and snorkelling, and eating and drinking... The most exiting PH thing I did was hiring a 125cc moped and breaking my "no driving" company agreement by tear-arsing around the island, hooting my hooter and generally driving like a local. I got my scuba certificate, 5 dives off a lovely 30 foot diving boat, down to 20m - saw some amazing fish, like parrot fish, puffer fish, barracuda, tuna, lobster, box fish, clown fish (the most unexpectedly aggressive little fellows!), angel fish, lion fish, clams, corals, all sorts. It was brilliant. And as it was "off season", I got 2 dive masters for just little old me, and the entire boat to myself every time I wanted to go out! On the offchance anyone reading is heading out to the Andamans, I can highly recommend Andaman Bubbles as teachers. When I first dived, I panicked, thought I was going to puke in to my regulator, but the guys calmed me down, worked on my breathing, and by the end of the week they were having to rein me in and stop me going too deep or too fast!
Some snaps of our humble bamboo bungalow...
Food-wise, it was as you'd imagine all fish and coconut based. Barracuda is surprisingly good, and the freshly caught Red Snapper and Tuna was superb. And so cheap. A tuna steak that could probably feed 3 people was £1.50, cooked to your liking and with whatever spices you wanted (provided they were in stock). Booze was cheap as chips - a 75cl bottle of Smirnoff was £3.65. It cost more to buy the coke than it did to buy the spirits! There is a big love of peanut butter and Nutella there, so much so that Nutella sells at a massive premium, and the cafe owners try anything to get an extra supply - one guy even emailed a future guest at the hotel next door and asked them to bring a bagfull from the mainland. Good job really as I was drinking these full time...
The inhabited part of the island is tiny, maybe 10% of the island is actually used for development, tourism, or farming. The rest is thick, inpenetrable jungle. As we found with some of the "locals" who came to meet us...
It feels like a small village spread out over a few kilometres, or like a soap opera street. We were sitting having breakfast one moring at a cafe along the roadside, and a guy stopped on his motorbike and asked us if Lynda (the owner of the "resort" we were staying at) had spoken to us - we'd never seen him before, but for some reason he knew exactly who we were and where we were staying! We said no, we hadn't seen her, and he jumped back on his bike and rode off again. We found out later that he was the owner of the cafe where we were sitting, and he'd gone back off to find Lynda and let her know where we were. Such a small, friendly place, and it didn't matter that there were no mobile signals, as everyone knew everyone and where each and every person was.
Being on Indian time, yet being so far east, the days were all skewed. It gets light there at about 5.30am, and is totally pitch black bu 5.30pm - so the entire island is in bed by about 10pm at the latest. We went for a late night ride on the bike at about 11.30 one evening, and it was deserted. No lights anywhere, no evidence of people at all apart from the odd motorbike parked on the side of the road. It was rather creepy!
And it's CLEAN. Like, totally different to anywhere else in India I've seen. I was talking to a coconut seller on my last day, and we were exchanging jealousies about how much we would each like the other's life. He gets to sit and look out at crystal waters every day, and doesn't have to make any real effort to sell his wares, and his cost of living is practically zero. Yet he wants to go to London, New York, Berlin etc and see what life is like there - I told him, cold, wet and a thousand times more stressful than this. He was saying that his biggest worry is getting down to the beach to tidy it every morning, because if it gets dirty then people will go to other beaches. That's the first I'd heard someone here talk about tidying somewhere that they weren't paid to do. In fact, he wouldn't sell us a coconut unless we promised to take the empty nut back to him, and not leave it on the beach or throw it in the sea. And you know, it worked. There wasn't a single piece of rubbish on the beach. It was beautiful.
All in all, a great and very relaxing holiday. If it wasn't for 3 different flights and a ferry to get there, I'd recommend it to anyone. Actually sod it. I still recommend it. It's a stunning place, great people and a lovely vibe. And without wishing to be vulgar and discuss the money, for 2 people to fly there from Mumbai, have a week there, hire a scooter, get a scuba license etc, cost less than £600 all-in. Butlins (OK, in high season) costs more than that. Amazing value.
Back to the hectic life of Mumbai now, and don't I know it...
Anyway, as ever, any questions about any of it, fire away - it's hard to know how in depth to go without waffling or getting boring!
The snake episode was interesting to say the least. We had just had an early evening downpour, and it was about 7pm, pitch black and the frogs and crickets were in full voice. I was sitting on the sofa on the veranda with the Mrs, enjoying a few vodka and cokes. We were pretty used to the odd lizard, cricket and frog jumping in, and obviously neither of us are particularly bothered by them, or we wouldn't have gone. I was kind of staring in to the mid-distance, very chilled out and relaxed, when the scream came out - " OHMYGODTHERE'SAfkINGSNAKENEXTTOYOURFACE!" - I turned to see what she was talking about and it was there, about 6 inches from my nose, just looking at me. Being a chivalrous type, I screamed and jumped straight out of the window in to the bullrushes around the bungalow, soaking myself from head to foot. She was halfway out of the door on the other side. Reading all the rough guides, they say if you get bitten by a snake, then if possible kill it and take it to the hospital so I climbed back in, bravely grabbed my big 6 cell maglite, and got in to prime "clubbing" position should it attack me. But the snake just slithered (what does a snake do? It doesn't walk. Crawl?) around the floor, around my trainers (I wasn't wearing them) and the chair leg, and then went and laid flat under the sofa. It was probably 1.5m long, and only about 3cm across, but it was bright green, almost luminous.I shooed it from a torch-length away, and it went through a hole in the floor and disappeared. We then, understandably, were a bit nervous to sit back down there, but the resort manager had heard the commotion and came over, telling us it was an emerald something or other, and was quite harmless. It was just trying to get in from the rain, he said, and was laughing at us the whole time.
ETA my Google-Fu says it was probably this:
http://www.andamannicobarsnakes.com/Dendrelaphisan...
kINGSNAKENEXTTOYOURFACE!" - I turned to see what she was talking about and it was there, about 6 inches from my nose, just looking at me. Being a chivalrous type, I screamed and jumped straight out of the window in to the bullrushes around the bungalow, soaking myself from head to foot. She was halfway out of the door on the other side. Reading all the rough guides, they say if you get bitten by a snake, then if possible kill it and take it to the hospital so I climbed back in, bravely grabbed my big 6 cell maglite, and got in to prime "clubbing" position should it attack me. But the snake just slithered (what does a snake do? It doesn't walk. Crawl?) around the floor, around my trainers (I wasn't wearing them) and the chair leg, and then went and laid flat under the sofa. It was probably 1.5m long, and only about 3cm across, but it was bright green, almost luminous.I shooed it from a torch-length away, and it went through a hole in the floor and disappeared. We then, understandably, were a bit nervous to sit back down there, but the resort manager had heard the commotion and came over, telling us it was an emerald something or other, and was quite harmless. It was just trying to get in from the rain, he said, and was laughing at us the whole time. ETA my Google-Fu says it was probably this:
http://www.andamannicobarsnakes.com/Dendrelaphisan...
Edited by OpulentBob on Wednesday 9th September 17:58
Sorry I may have missed it in your write up, but what Havelock "resort" did you stay at? I scuba dive and I love looking other sites to dive.
It's interesting how culture's evolve and strangely are similar. When I was in North Africa, I saw the same "administrative" demands as you have, ie lots of books rather than computers. To park my motorcycle I had to climb 6 flights of stairs and get 3 people to stamp a piece of paper so that I could give this to the car park attendant. As for the saving face bit, I'm currently working in the USA and the number of people who agree to every thing, say yes to deadlines they can't meet and are so title orientated is surprising.
Your write up is great, keep it coming. I fancy Japan next but not sure of what to expect ;-)
It's interesting how culture's evolve and strangely are similar. When I was in North Africa, I saw the same "administrative" demands as you have, ie lots of books rather than computers. To park my motorcycle I had to climb 6 flights of stairs and get 3 people to stamp a piece of paper so that I could give this to the car park attendant. As for the saving face bit, I'm currently working in the USA and the number of people who agree to every thing, say yes to deadlines they can't meet and are so title orientated is surprising.
Your write up is great, keep it coming. I fancy Japan next but not sure of what to expect ;-)
OP Bob
This is a great write up of a different world
I'll never go there, I'm old decrepit and actually dont want to anyway
But this 'telling' of your visit is making me like the idea better
Please keep on posting about the stay, I did like the scuba bit
I envy you that after having a baptisme dive session in Tenerife many years ago which I loved and failed to follow up
Thanks for telling us "wot I dun", it's brilliant
cheers
This is a great write up of a different world
I'll never go there, I'm old decrepit and actually dont want to anyway
But this 'telling' of your visit is making me like the idea better
Please keep on posting about the stay, I did like the scuba bit
I envy you that after having a baptisme dive session in Tenerife many years ago which I loved and failed to follow up
Thanks for telling us "wot I dun", it's brilliant
cheers
carinatauk said:
Sorry I may have missed it in your write up, but what Havelock "resort" did you stay at? I scuba dive and I love looking other sites to dive.
We stayed at the Flying Elephant, about as far south on the island as you can go without hitting the heavy jungle. It's more of a yoga retreat but as it was off season, we were the only ones there and there was no yoga going on. The owners also have a stake in Andaman Bubbles and a couple of other resorts on the island too, but they're not megalomaniacs or anything, just a really down to earth Canadian/Indian couple who have built a nice peaceful life for themselves there, and as the island is becoming more popular, they are almost being forced to expand to cater for them all. I heard tales from my instructors of Leopard Sharks, Whale Sharks and some variety of Ray off the coast on some of the larger reefs out to sea. There is also something substantial in the waters because I say the smashed up remnants of a the biggest lobster I've ever seen on the sea bed when I was down there! If you can handle the chore of getting there, then it's got potential for some excellent diving.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff