First impressions

I've been in Mubai for over 2 weeks now and it's about time to write something here. The first week I stayed at the Leela Kempinski hotel, which is a 5 stars deluxe hotel. Good hotel, bad location. As the hotel offers pillow menu including 16 different pillows to choose from, the view from the room is straight into slum and garbage. So while reading your pillow menu choosing your desired one for the night, you have people looking trough garbage on the outside searching something to eat.

The pillow menu:

The view from my room:

So I moved after one week to the Powai area in the suburbs of Mumbai, into the Residency hotel, a 3 stars hotel with the comfort of a 4 stars hotel. The location is good; a lot of nature as well as a big lake nearby. Another plus is that most guest are natives, so you get the feeling of living in India, compared to the Leela where most guests where Americans or Europeans.


Yesterday was my first time downtown in Mumbai; it's an hour drive in heavy traffic from here. I got to see the Gateway to India as well as the Taj Mahal hotel where the terrorist attacks happened. And with Amit, a colleague of mine, we had a few drinks in a bar, before I had go back to the hotel.


Today I returned to Mumbai with my driver. He showed me a beach, a 150 years old church and the Hindu temple Maharashtrha (which was closed). I brought my camera, but as I'm not much of a photographer I soon gave it up, you can see down under the pictures I took before putting it away.

People sleeping on the sidewalk:

A cow sleeping on the sidewalk:

The beach:

Maybe I'll take up dancing:

That's all for my first impressions. The best thing I've done so far is riding a motorcycle with colleagues of mine trough the chaotic traffic of Mumbai. It's a real rush. Honk ok Please!