Solo girl at Mumbai, India

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 Jes India , Travel 8 Comments

However, the review is held in Mumbai, India.

Really crowded India.. (Source: Wikipedia)

I have been hearing some horror news about India ever since I entered the work force. Some advice people tend to offer are:
1) Water is not clean, better to use bottled water even for brushing
2) Never walk around alone
3) Most food will cause diarrhea, only go to reputable restaurants and hotel ones
4) Better not wear skirts, dress conservatively

In Singapore, we take all these things for granted, clean food, water, air, neat streets and even our own safety. We grow up being sheltered and not knowing how blessed we are... until we travel to these places.

I decided to ignore these advice and test out on my own, after all it's the only way to find out.

This concierge gave the nicest smile I have seen

My sea view room

The first day I arrived, I had some free time and went to walk around the Oberoi Hotel's area, which was one of the hotel under terrorist siege in 2008. Security was tightened after that with a full body pat down and bags check at every enclosed building that you wish to enter. I assure you that their Number 1 position in Tripadvisor is well deserved with in-room checking in, personal butler service, impeccable service, ala carte breakfast where you can order everything on the menu and customized it to your liking too. It is just in front of the beach so I can get sea view from the toilets too.

Back bay and the whole sea view

I started to walk around and saw many Indian men around and it was pretty uncomfortable with them staring at you without turning away even if you stare back. 90% of the people on the streets were men and it seems like I was the only tourist roaming alone. Honestly. I thought that I would see many tourists milling around but the sheer number of Indians totally overwhelm the number of tourists, including at all the tourist attractions. Seeing how crowded it is everywhere, you would know that Mumbai has a highest population density than Singapore.

These food stalls are the lunch for office workers

Queueing up for food!

Walking around and ignoring the stares, I came across some of their local food stalls on the streets. It was lunch hour and everyone was eating at the streets. India has over 1600 languages but English is their official and common language so there was no problem speaking to them.

They were really friendly and nobody harassed me, except for the beggars.

The fruits are stacked so high, I wonder if anybody ever bumped into them

The friendly vendor introducing me his food

And then one of them shoved their menu to me so I ordered their most popular food, which is the vegetarian pizza. It consists of cucumber, tomatoes, cheese and onions in between 2 pieces of toasted bread and topped with cheese and other sauces. I had 30% of it to test the cleanliness of the food. The rest I had to throw away although it was really delicious. My first day there and I do not want to risk my entire trip camping in the toilet.

Some sandwich which looked disgusting

My $1 pizza sandwich which tasted great!

3 hours exploring and taking pictures around, I walked back and met my Indian colleagues. They said that I was brave to walk around alone, which indicated that they agreed it was not safe for ladies. I think day time is fine, just not night time.  The few ladies I saw wore pants and knees were not seen at all. It's better to avoid unwanted attention then.

We were brought to all the nicest Indian restaurant and frankly, I don't particularly enjoy Indian food. Singapore indian food tasted much more flavourful and intense and all the foreigners had the same taste on this.

I think my best meal is from the hotel's breakfast, with the waffles beating every other food hands down!

Crispy yet soft and not too sweet with a tinge of salty... yummy!

Not forgetting my main purpose of being here, the whole review takes around 30 minutes only. I had struggled for several days to come up with a great presentation with all the usual sales figures, competitor's information, commercial highlights and new opportunities. This really made me think of this proverb: 台下十年功，台上十分钟。Nonetheless, this trip was worth it.

Just 30 minutes (plus several days) of hard work and then fun all the way! We had time to learn cricket and  played a match among ourselves.

Super sunny and the cricket game was fun for team building

We went to take a yacht out to watch the sunset against the Taj Mahal Palace and Gateway of India backdrop.

Up on the yacht for a informal gathering

And to see the nice sunset over Mumbai's sky line

We did some local shopping which was stuffy and sweaty and not the least bit interested with the disorganized arrangement but it was definitely an eye opener.

The disorganized chaos from what I can see

Heard that Mumbai is the cleanest of the Indian cities but the cleanliness is worse than Shanghai. Construction works are at every street and dust particles are seen clearly. Heard that pollution is the main factor why their life expectancy is only around 60+ years old.

Unpaved streets and unmarked street dividers are common

Crowded, sweaty and not recommended

To conclude, this is what I have learnt:
1) Water is not clean, better to use bottled water even for brushing
False. My colleague brought 8 huge bottles of bottled water there and did not had to use any. The bottled water provided by the hotel is clean enough.
2) Never walk around alone
True only for night time and dark alleys, more dangerous for women of course.
3) Most food will cause diarrhea, only go to reputable restaurants and hotel ones
False, as the street food caused me no harm but 30% of my colleagues got stomach upset even from the reputable restaurants.. so it's up to individual.
4) Better not wear skirts, dress conservatively
True to avoid more stares, better to avoid sleeveless and low cut tops too. 

All in all, I can say that this sales review is fun and I look forward to the next one =)