12 Days of Christmas

Well Christmas is over for another year so let the blogging begin!! We had a ball and hope you did too!! Jump on the link.. 12 Days of Xmas for a bit of a giggle at a traditional Indian Christmas tune.. (not)..

Ho Ho Ho.. oh yes very good...

Here's a big shout out to all our family and friends for Christmas when it gets here.. only a few more sleeps!!
There's a few places where christmas decorations have made it here, most of the major hotels, bars and of course the retailers have SALE sprawled across the windows.. even the street kids at the intersections have stopped selling books and matchbox cars in favour of Santa hats and flashing lights. We'll be celebrating with a South Indian curry and few Kingfishers when the time arrives so wherever the sun shines on you this christmas have a great time and enjoy!!
Shaz did you give Santa our new address??

Skype us!!

Missing friends and family abroad or close to home?
You want to stay in touch but don't have the cash?
Have a computer, a headset with microphone?
Well SKYPE is for you!!
For the flat rate of $0.00 you can download SKYPE from www.skype.com, that's right folks $0.00, no credit card details, no easy payment plan, it doesn't need to fold away under the bed for easy storage but wait there's more!!
Not only will SKYPE give you free calls from your computer, hook up a webcam to your computer and you can have a video chat with the loved one far away!! That's right, have a party with friends across the world, show mum that new tattoo or have a work conference call.. SKYPE has it all!!
So what are you waiting for? Download SKYPE now, grab the accessories from Dick Smith and start chatting.. Christmas is only days away..!
(internet speed can impact on the quality of SKYPE it is also advised to be adequately clothed before accepting skype video calls at your computer...)

Fingers crossed our upgraded internet connection is sorted today so skype will sound less like we have a condition and more like we're right next door..

Find us on SKYPE, our skypename is rustynmarkus which can be entered into the "search for skype users" to find us here in India. So jump to it and see you on the net soon!!

Wisdom

"the secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly"

- Buddha

Taking the Mumbai Express!

Thought I should add something to our blog, but finding it hard to get started. Might have something to do with turning on the TV and the ability to flick over 88 channels - not much on, lotsa singing & dancing!
We arrived November 22. Dave (my brother) arrived 2 weeks later. He must have been missing me terribly. We took our favourite and the easiest mode of transport - the auto rickshaw - always available on the corner outside the apartment and collected him from the the airport.


We thought we were hysterical creating this sign and hiding behind it.

Want us to pick you up when you visit us too??


He wasn't our first guest however.

Lessons in doing the "how to look sexy" look. (Hmm I may need some work)






Tania Zaetta stayed with us for a couple of nights. She took us out on the town the night Dave arrived, we discovered Bollywood & the exclusive VIP area's held for us Bollywood starlets, it'll be hard going back to the economy area.

We can't remember buying too many drinks, blame it on the weather. Mark, Dave and I couldn't keep up after our 3rd bar snuck home in a single tuk tuk.

Will finish this off tomorrow.... I took the train today! Who needs the superman ride when you can take the Indian Railway? It was a thrill!

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The Mumbai Express

We haven't been able to catch the train yet in Mumbai, check out the video and you'll see why...
Video of the Mumbai Express..

Ramblings after a night out.....

We ventured out to one of the places "to be seen" last night.. Olive bar and kitchen, in Bandra, a swanky fine dining experience. One of those places where the plates are enormous and the food is arranged like art just slightly off centre. Each outing we have is an experience, an all in one ride of translation, traffic, trememdous variety and all on Mumbai time

We only had to travel 6km so we left the house at 8pm for a 9pm booking. Our first job was to find a driver who knew where we needed to go.. Yardif came out to help with his best authoritive Hindi, to no avail, so Shaz ran back upstairs to grab her mobile and what is becoming a regular occurance, the third driver had to chat to one our local friends for directions. We have to learn Hindi!!

We are learning quickly that there are certain traffic routes which have peak hours that lasts half the day.. The traffic was at a standstill with only short bursts of movement to relieve the 2 stroke exhaust fumes gathering in the open rickshaw. Sitting in the back seat we feel like we're in a new playstation game.. Our driver rushes from gap to gap, edging his way forward amongst all the other drivers in the same race.. So far we've only seen one richshaw get shunted onto it's side after a collision with another rickshaw, which quickly used the break in traffic to speed away. Yes driving, being a passenger or being a pedestrian is a risky business in Mumbai. Recently we were told of a young bloke who took his fathers car out, made a bad turn drink driving and killed 7 people sleeping on the footpath.

We made it to Olive and cheers with vanilla vodka to the fact that we made it.. Unfortunatley no Bollywoods stars made themselves known so we decided to venture back to our local and check out the action. This time our driver knew how to get there. Along the seashore we drove, where a fishing village made up of shanties has to share their ocean view with the stench of fish rotting on the side of the road.. There's no avoiding it so onward we go...
Riding in the rickshaw does funny things to you.. from putrid smells, bringing out the ming mong to joyus laughter!!!

Bring on the madness!!

A week and half in and we're writing our first Blog!! We were here in Sepember '06 for a holiday, (well Sharon was working) and now we're here full on. It was only a short time in the making to get us here, from concept to reality, from Annerley, Brisbane to Juhu in the northern surburbs of Mumbai. Plug these Google Earth coordinates into the fly to tab and that's where we is! "Juhu Home" lat=19.1069492647, lon=72.8327652348

The differences are a mix of the extreme and subtle all at once.. We were given the advice some time ago to think of India not a 3rd world country but as a whole new world. It is so true, India is another world no doubt about it! We're no experts after 10days but the the difference of the poverty and opulence is unmistakable. Depending on which book you read, this city is home to between 13 and 18million people, all of which eat, sleep, work, play and everything else which comes naturally.. yeah Mumbai is out there for all to see, every minute of every day.. The bollywood stars on every billboard are seen in the exclusive bars of Bandra, the rich walking with the poor in the gray market streets, the street urchins latching onto any $$ mark they see and the endless beeps and honks from the ever increasing traffic.

Each morning on Juhu beach the middle class are out for the morning walk, cricket and soccer matches are played every 100m but don't even thing about swimming in the water because those people you think are praying at the low tide mark are simply enjoying the best loo with a view in the city.

Some in this area are rich enough to have their own 7 story building for the immediate family and others sleep in the rickshaw they drive, living in hope each day to pick up the golden cow of the tourists who can't read the meter.. OK I'm sure you get the picture but if you would like to see a short film on the ways of the Mumbai Taxi Drivers deal with their surrounds.. Horn OK Please

We traveled around Juhu and Bandra in the comfort of the auto rickshaws where let me tell you we've supported a few of the families until we learned how to read the meter.. no wonder they pass the locals by and make a direct line for us! People 610 on the meter is not 610 Rupee it's 61, big difference but no matter..

On our way to becoming experts at reading the meter we were treated to quite a bit of fun in the first few days... An overheated "cool cab" on arrival.. poor bugger.. was it our excess baggage which cooked the cab.. We felt for him, sitting on the side of the road, bonnet up with what seemed like 1000 onlookers, less than 1km to our new home.

The next morning we woke to drums and trumpets in the street heralding the arrival of a Jain Guru to our neighbours home. We ran out into the street not knowing what was going on but we soon found out this was something special. We were invited in to sit with, meet with and eat with the congrigation as they celebrated the Guru and the messages he had. The property owner was our translator describing the 28 disciplines of the guru and how they give up all worldly posessions to reach the highest level.. This is why he and his helper are naked at all times during the celebration..









Our new home is a modest 4 bed apartment with surburban views convieniently located close to shops, resturants and a casual walk (mind the potholes, dog sh!t and every kind of transport that wants to use the same piece of bitumen as you). Our night watchman is Yardif, he's a nice bloke, he's been with the building for 30 years and not a word of english, so we are communicating with hand gestures and lots of smiling and the odd head wobble... so far so good.. Gold Coast Tourism has an offical office in the east wing and Markus Engineering Designs is setting up in the west wing.. We have to thank the music gods for IPOD because it has been running full time until we get our shipment from Oz through the bribes of Indian Customs..


We've partly furnished the apartment with odds and sods from the markets and oh an LCD TV for the 200+ channels we're yet to receive... so far we've got 4 sport, 4 news and 50 bollywood channels!! Get this though.. we pressed the salesman for a good deal with the TV and he threw in some movies, one of which was Kalyug which starred Shaz and Paprika!! classic film people!!!

We've dropped into south bombay for a few beers at Leopolds, unfortunately no Shantaram this time but we'll persist!

OK I feel the onset of too may Kingfishers so it's time for a pause and a night in Bandra to be with the bollywood beautiful people..

Stay tuned for more Mumbai Madness!!