Wow, it's been awhile since I've written. Sorry about that folks. I'll get right down to it...
On Friday night, Ellen, Traci and I went out with Rocky and Ali, some friends of one of the principals of Prana. We started at Olive, which is this very trendy, LA-ish type restaurant/bar with $26 martinis, a Bollywood crowd, and a DJ spinning great uptempo music.
I'd classify Ali as a party catalyst, with intensely contagious energy. He also ramps up in levels. So, after a few martinis and Ali reaching level three (out of five), we left Olive to go to Enigma, one of the big clubs in town. Enigma, though similar to Insomnia, is less about socializing, and more about dancing. People were dancing all over the place, not just the dancefloor. The DJ played a lot more Hindi music than at Insomnia, and I now have my official "song of India". I'm not sure what it's called, but its the song I talked about earlier where everyone yells "oh oh oh oh" at the top of their lungs with their hands in the air. It's awesome. Everyone gets so hyped up when this song comes on. Apparently, its from some Bollywood film. We stayed at Enigma until it closed at 3:30am and then everyone came back to our hotel for chicken tikka masala pizza.
Saturday was spent recovering, working out, and hanging by the pool. Last night, we had a similar night hanging out with Rocky and some other people. We swore that we were just going to dinner, but somehow (no one knows exactly how it happened), we all ended up back at Enigma until 3:30am again. Some pics...
The cool thing about this weekend is that I'm really starting to see the real Mumbai. By real, I mean the non-tourist side of the city. While local Mumbaikers still partonize the same clubs as the tourists, you have a totally different experience when you go with locals (including hanging out in different parts of clubs that tourists don't have access to). It was really great to start to see another side of the city that can only be accessed by actually living here, and not just with a quick visit.
I've also been surprised to see how similar Mumbai works to LA in the night life scene. There are guest lists, VIP rooms, and free drinks. I guess I wasn't expecting that, though probably should have since Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India. I don't really have much to say on the subject, it's just more of an observation that I thought might be of interest.
In other news, I switched rooms so that I could have a new view. My new room looks straight down the beach, and has a really interesting view of the high rise buildings in Bandra (the neighborhood that my hotel is in). It's sweet. I moved my desk and chairs around so that whenever I sit down to work on the computer or read, I'm looking down the beach. I included a picture below.
Lastly, Ellen and I have decided that the gym is the best place to meet people in the hotel. Just now, I was working out and met a guy who is from LA, arrived three weeks ago, and will be here until September for work. How crazy is that! Plus, his place back in LA is a few blocks away from where I used to live on Flores. It will be fun to have an LA friend who is here for the long haul as well. Tonight we're going to watch the World Cup at one of the restaurants in the hotel. Which, by the way, is all decked out with different countries flags and every meal that you order from their "World Cup Menu" comes with a free Budweiser. Yum!
On Friday night, Ellen, Traci and I went out with Rocky and Ali, some friends of one of the principals of Prana. We started at Olive, which is this very trendy, LA-ish type restaurant/bar with $26 martinis, a Bollywood crowd, and a DJ spinning great uptempo music.
I'd classify Ali as a party catalyst, with intensely contagious energy. He also ramps up in levels. So, after a few martinis and Ali reaching level three (out of five), we left Olive to go to Enigma, one of the big clubs in town. Enigma, though similar to Insomnia, is less about socializing, and more about dancing. People were dancing all over the place, not just the dancefloor. The DJ played a lot more Hindi music than at Insomnia, and I now have my official "song of India". I'm not sure what it's called, but its the song I talked about earlier where everyone yells "oh oh oh oh" at the top of their lungs with their hands in the air. It's awesome. Everyone gets so hyped up when this song comes on. Apparently, its from some Bollywood film. We stayed at Enigma until it closed at 3:30am and then everyone came back to our hotel for chicken tikka masala pizza.
Saturday was spent recovering, working out, and hanging by the pool. Last night, we had a similar night hanging out with Rocky and some other people. We swore that we were just going to dinner, but somehow (no one knows exactly how it happened), we all ended up back at Enigma until 3:30am again. Some pics...
The cool thing about this weekend is that I'm really starting to see the real Mumbai. By real, I mean the non-tourist side of the city. While local Mumbaikers still partonize the same clubs as the tourists, you have a totally different experience when you go with locals (including hanging out in different parts of clubs that tourists don't have access to). It was really great to start to see another side of the city that can only be accessed by actually living here, and not just with a quick visit.
I've also been surprised to see how similar Mumbai works to LA in the night life scene. There are guest lists, VIP rooms, and free drinks. I guess I wasn't expecting that, though probably should have since Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India. I don't really have much to say on the subject, it's just more of an observation that I thought might be of interest.
In other news, I switched rooms so that I could have a new view. My new room looks straight down the beach, and has a really interesting view of the high rise buildings in Bandra (the neighborhood that my hotel is in). It's sweet. I moved my desk and chairs around so that whenever I sit down to work on the computer or read, I'm looking down the beach. I included a picture below.
Lastly, Ellen and I have decided that the gym is the best place to meet people in the hotel. Just now, I was working out and met a guy who is from LA, arrived three weeks ago, and will be here until September for work. How crazy is that! Plus, his place back in LA is a few blocks away from where I used to live on Flores. It will be fun to have an LA friend who is here for the long haul as well. Tonight we're going to watch the World Cup at one of the restaurants in the hotel. Which, by the way, is all decked out with different countries flags and every meal that you order from their "World Cup Menu" comes with a free Budweiser. Yum!
posted by Steven | 5:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home