The trip was good. We got there on Friday morning.... the flight was a short 1 1/2 hour trip from BLR.
First stop after we got settled in was to the Chinese Embassy. Yes.... we are off to China... We needed to drop off our paper work passport to get our visas. This was supposed to be a 10 minute job... unfortunately, typical Indian style... it did not go off so smoothly.... Let me take you thru the adventure. First, I was very thorough to make sure that I got all the documents as they had listed on the 'official' website. I thought that was good to go.... not so much!
They asked for a 'cover-letter' which was not asked for on the website. Now, this is where things get complicated. They insisted that I needed a 'typed-cover-letter'. They then suggested that I go to a cyber cafe 15 minutes away to type my letter and come back.... I then kindly insisted that I was not going to do it since the website did not specify that I needed one... I asked if I could use one of their computers... they were not going for that idea. After about 20 mins of going around and around, they finally said that I could hand write the letter. That was not it... I brought the payment just as the website stated... demand draft for the right amount (at least it was the amount that was on the website). They only take cash (not demand draft)... and the amount was different!!! It was such a mess. I was so mad at the end of it all!! I wonder if the Chinese officials with their communist views would approve of the operation being run in India!!
Then we were off to see the Gateway to India and all of South Mumbai. Since my last trip to Mumbai back in 1996, a lot has changed. There is a big effort to address the pollution and really clean up the streets. They have made a lot of efforts to address the traffic with 'flyovers'. The 'chowpatty-beach' and 'juhu-beach' have been cleaned up. You can actually see the beach!! Don't get me wrong... there is still a lot to be done, but you can see that it has improved. It is good to see the progress moving in the right direction!!
Shopping here has such a buzz.... I could really go crazy here. I think that it was good that I had Vim and the kids holding me back, or else I could have dumped some serious cash!!
Check out the pics....
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