Linking Road

I guess Linking road is where Mumbians go shopping. The place has maybe 200 shops, each no bigger then 5 feet wide. All kinds of goods were on display, but the more interesting thing to me was the amount of people shopping here. There were enough of them that they kind of merged with the traffic, every once in a while a motorcycle would go right through the crowd, and visa versa. I stopped at a couple of bars along the way for sanity.

Back Road

Driving to and from camp we normally we fit 5 in a van plus a driver but yesterday we fit 6, this was a mistake. There was a crazy traffic jam on the road through the jungle which we normally take to camp and after about 25 minutes sitting in the same spot the AC started straining and the passengers became unruly. The drivers solution was to turn around and take the back road to the camp.

different advertising strategies are used in India

Races

I made my way down to the Mahalaxmi Race Course today. After attempting to enter the course through the jockey entrance I was directed by multiple men with guns to enter through the civilian gate. I quickly found my way to someones reserved box and made myself at home until the reserver showed up next to me. I found another seat and then was able to witnessed my first race.

I decided to go grab a beer after this, I wandered all over the park with no avail. There was only one place that would sell me one on the third floor of the stands, I found a sign there warning people not to bring there servants inside of the establishment.

After the beer I watched one more race in the stands and then made my way down to the fence on the side of the track to watch my final one for the day.

I decided to venture back over to Juhu beach yesterday and found a little bar called Vie. Throughout the afternoon planes were flying directly overhead from the domestic airport east of Juhu. After enjoying a couple beers and some prawns I tried to get the bill. The confusion that ensued from the language barrier somehow got me a half of discount. From the entrance of the restaurant I was able to walk onto the beach and get some pictures of the sunset while dodging cricket balls.

Late Night in Juhu/Bandra

I reached my hotel at about 11pm tonight and decided it would be a travesty if I wasted time sitting around. I decided to go walk down to the alley next to the hotel and get a rick to Juhu Beach. The first hotel I ended up at wouldn't let me in, so I asked the driver to take me to a place where I could see the sea. I ended up at the Citizen hotel. From the balcony I saw several merchants dragging kiosks through the sand, I suppose its a more direct route then taking the road for some of these people. After I was done with Citizen I ended up at Hawaiian Shack in Bandra until they started kicking people out at 2am.

Sunday

Today I decided to get out after sitting around my hotel until 4pm. I caught a rickshaw and took it over to the Taj Lands End hotel in Bandra. I didn't encounter anything new but I took some pictures of the ride over and the piano next to me.