One Night in Mumbai

Thursday 14 February

Rolling out of bed at 5am to catch a seven o'clock flight to Mumbai, I was weary but excited at the prospect of visiting India for the first time. Ray had managed my expectations down such that when I landed at 10am and there was no-one waiting for me at the airport, I didn't worry. When finally someone did show up and we took 40 minutes to go a few kilometres down the road to the office, I didn't see any need to worry either.

The traffic here is "Incredible India" - a sort of automotive anarchy where I didn't see a single traffic light or any semblance of rules, however everyone went for themselves and no-one got hurt. The absolute poverty of the slums lay directly next to the runway where shiny new jets ferried the wealthy from port to port. We had lunch among them at the Hyatt, with its pastries and lattes, and I couldn't help but feel lucky to be on this side of the fence.

Conducted a workshop all afternoon with the help of a little chicken essence, before knocking off around 7pm. Chetan showed me his skills and drove me to the guesthouse, where I dropped my bag and we rolled on towards the city centre. With seemingly all the restaurants in this city of 16 million people booked up for Valentine's Day, we took the time offered by the hour-long rush hour journey to make some calls and finally Chetan negotiated a table at The Jewel of India using the Kiwi card!

Had an enormous meal including some delicious lamb and vegetarian dishes, and possibly the best hot pickle I've ever tasted, all washed down with Kingfisher and Heineken. By the time we were out of there it was already getting late, and we ended up hitting only one bar, Shiro, which was a goodie. Drove through South Mumbai, the old colonial part of town and saw some beautiful buildings and a bridge along Marine Drive that was known as something like Queen Victoria's Necklace. Having been up for over 22 hours I was fading fast, but luckily the ride home was much faster after midnight and I crashed at the guest house around 1am.

Tiger Translate Thailand Finale

Saturday 9 February

For the occasion of the grand finale of Thailand's Tiger Translate campaign, Ray and I flew up to Bangkok on Saturday morning and headed to the Suanlum Night Bazaar for 8 hours of art, design, music and beer. A real festival vibe, there was a lot going on with two stages, street art, a massive lomo wall and a short film area which was great for chillin'.

The beer was fresh and cold, and served in the biggest cups I had ever seen - awesome! The crowd too was fantastic, totalling 7,000 by the end of the night, mainly twenty-something Thai cats. A number of bands battled it out (my highlights were an eight-man ska outfit and a four piece who blended metal with traditional Thai instruments very skilfully) and the winner was a young Bangkok band called Circle 22. Off to London for them!

Had a good tom yum for supper and got to bed at a very respectable 1.30am! Had 8 hours sleep and hit breakfast, a massage, some laps in the pool and then cruised home while doing a wrap-up presentation of the campaign for my boss to present on Monday. Celebrated the end of the CNY weekend with a choya and a sardine sandwich - ha!

The Jakarta So-Called Semi-Jam

1-3 February 2008

AKA The Washout Jam, I never had a really good vibe about this weekend in Jakarta to celebrate Luke's new job in Manila, however I wasn't going to rain on his parade (turned out the gods did that instead), so I gave my commitment along with Hookstarr and Bu La De. Barnaby was a late and ominous addition to the starting line-up and though he didn't add as much value for the team this time, it was, in his own words, "a jam for me".

Our scheduled departure from Changi airport on Friday night was delayed for 6 hours due to heavy rains and flooding in Jakarta, essentially blocking access to and from the airport. I almost pulled out more than once, not excited at the prospect of being stuck in a third world airport, city, or street that had become a river of sewage.

I stuck with it however as the chicken essence had me ready to roll, and we finally took off around 2am, caught a ride at the other end with Arief and his Japanese DJ, and made it to the Somerset serviced apartments exactly 12 hours after leaving the office. If that sounds bad, bear in mind that Barnaby had enjoyed a massive head-start, but arrived at the same time as us after spending 6 hours in a Jakarta taxi, meeting a Javanese sailor and coming into some polio/TB drugs.

Too late and too tired to do anything, we had a wind-down scotch (18 year old Glenlivet - very syrupy) and got to bed at dawn. Saturday was a chill day drinking Heineken by the pool, and we got ready to hit the bars starting with a sports bar named Aphrodite around 7.30pm. Had a good solid meal and a few jugs of Bintang before heading to an empty bar in an office building - thumbs down. The only highlight was the subsequent Red Square - a nice sized bar that was packed with Jakarta party people and decent tunes. Things had potential to turn into a jam from there but the rain came in and blocked our access to Embassy, where the Japanese DJ was spinning. We drove around through the floods back to a bar right across the street from where we started, X2, and it was a massive generic dance club that didn't do anything for me.

Brad and I left at that point and had some civilised nightcaps back at the apartment before getting some decent sleep. The next day saw a lovely brunch at Le Meridien, a foot massage across the street, and successfully escaping the world's largest Muslim nation with no hangover, no robberies and no sign of a real jam.