Mumbai

I spent this past weekend in Mumbai, the financial and cultural capital of India, but I must confess that I didn't see much of the city. This was thanks to Marriott, who once again honored me with a wonderful (and free) room with a view of the water. And just like in Goa, it was easy to forget I was in India when I was in the hotel. One of the highlights was definitely the daily breakfast buffet that was included with the room. I suffered from my usual dilemma of deciding between eggs or pancakes/waffles. Because because it was a free buffet, I could have both!

On Friday night, we checked out the club in the hotel called Enigma, which is allegedly one of the best in Mumbai. It was nice, but not that great and I can't imagine paying the ridiculous cover charge they usually charge. But since we were hotel guests, it was free. Later on in the met up with Irene Hong (from Georgetown), who just arrived in India that night. She's spending most of her time in Delhi, but it turned out that her 8 hour layover in Mumbai would overlap with my visit. So, being a trooper, she left her bags at the bell desk and stayed in Enigma until she left at 5am for her flight to Delhi.

On Saturday, we lounged by the pool and finally ventured outside of the hotel complex for dinner. Upon returning to the hotel, we opted to hang out in the lobby instead of heading to Enigma again. But the lobby of the JW Marriott is the place to see and be seen in Mumbai. In addition to a model/actor and a singer I didn't recognize, we saw throngs of people there to look for stars. This included a 14-year old boy who was very excited to show us his photos with the abovementioned model/actor and singer, as well as some photos of the Bachchan Bungalow, as he called it. He was visiting Mumbai with his family from Ahmedabad and was in the hotel armed with his camera, just to try to capture some celebrities on film.

Next stop: Pune. On Sunday afternoon, we headed to the train station for the much shorter (only 3 hours) journey to Pune.