Travel Tips

The first few meetings were unannounced meetings with different VT members who I met in Mumbai when they were here on holiday!!! So that's how it all started off for me in Mumbai!!! Soon it was interesting to meet different people from places known and unknown with stories of places they had seen and mine too to be discussed and we shared the memories of our travels around this small planet of ours which takes maybe till eternity to see entirely!!! HAHAHA!!! So if you are around this part of India and feel like meeting up for a cup of coffee or tea, do let me know!!!

The first meeting I had in Mumbai was with Nisha (nisha4u@VT) from India when we met at Cafe Mondegar followed by Ruth (piglet44@VT) and her family from Israel when we went to visit Chor Bazaar and Mahalaxmi Temple besides a dinner at Jimmy Boy's, later met Rathika (radz@VT) from India at Chetana restaurant for high tea!!! For the first multi member VT meeting in Mumbai, Stevie (canadienne@VT), her friend Jessica both from Canada, Amit (amitu@VT) from India and myself met for dinner at Indian Summer!!!

Then came the first VT meetiing that was announced on the meetings page and nobody agreed to come due to personal reasons so it was called off!!!! The next one was announced and a few people agreed but nobody turned up except for Julie (travelmad478@VT) and me (the hosts)!!! Maybe next time around we will have a better response!!! HAHAHA!!! Luckily for us, Julie and I had a lovely time together taking pictures of monuments and buildings including the St. Thomas' Cathedral, the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, the Town Hall, the High Court, Bombay University and Rajabai Tower, the Gateway of India, the Museum Art Gallery (on it's first day), the Kala Ghoda Festival at Fort, children playing cricket in the maidans, besides lunch at Chetana's and dinner at Jimmy Boy's!!! Unfortunately we had planned to go for the Elephanta Festival of music and dance when there were not too many members coming but then we did not want to see anybody coming to the restaurant and not find the hosts!!! So it is now postponed to next year (February 2005)!!! BTW, after walking for so long it seems it took it's toll on my shoes in what must be the most embarassing moment of my life, I found both the soles of my shoes came off partially, opening up like an alligator's mouth and flipping about when walking, so I had to stay put in the cab when I went to drop Julie off at her hotel!!! Luckily it happened just when we were leaving after dinner and not at the Elephanta caves we had earlier planned to visit!!!!! HAHAHA!!!

Then I met up with an Italian (Florentine) 'upcoming Bollywood star' Rene (mariocibelli@VT) who is acting in a movie called 'The Rising' starring the famous actor Amir Khan!!! We went around a few different parts of the city and saw a lot of different places. Had a quick snack at the Samovar cafe in the Jehangir Art Gallery premises where we ordered from a special Kashmiri menu and had some lovely green tea too!!! Later had a nice Falooda at Rasraj restaurant near Fort and he was delighted with the cool drink with vermicelli and dry fruits!!! Do not forget to try it out when you come to India!!! It's very cool and refreshing!!!

Picture Courtesy: Stevie (canadienne@VT)

This was a small evening high tea meeting with Rathika (radz@VT) at Chetana Restaurant behind the Jehangir Art Gallery!!! Enjoyed the iced tea and samosas (for me) and coffee and Jaipuri Chaat (for Rathika). Nice place for a quiet evening to share VT moments!!!!

Picture Courtesy: Rathika (radz@VT)

Ruth (piglet44@VT) and her family (hubby Danny and sons Guy and Adam) were in Mumbai during the monsoons (25 July - 18 August 2003) but were quite pleased with the weather they experienced here in Mumbai and also in the south where they had a lovely time!!! We had a nice outing to see the Chor Bazaar and the Mahalaxmi Temple besides getting her son Guy an astronomical telescope from my friend who manufactures them in Mumbai!!! We also went to Jimmy Boy's for a lovely Parsi wedding feast dinner!!! Lovely company and enjoyed taking them around my city!!!

Picture Courtesy: Ruth (piglet44@VT)

Fazahar and Sha met me at the Flora Fountain in Mumbai on 13th July 2004 and then we went to Jimmy Boy's Restaurant for lunch consisting of food for a Parsi wedding feast!!! Later we went for a long walk in the Fort area of South Mumbai before they left for Delhi to meet Rathika (radz@VT) and Agra to see the Taj Mahal!!!

Julie (Travelmad478@VT) travels often to Mumbai for work and we have now met thrice in two years!!!

February 07, 2004 VT Meeting: We had a lovely time together taking pictures of monuments and buildings including the St. Thomas' Cathedral, the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, the Town Hall, the High Court, Bombay University and Rajabai Tower, the Gateway of India, the Museum Art Gallery (on it's first day), the Kala Ghoda Festival at Fort, children playing cricket in the maidans, besides lunch at Chetana's and dinner at Jimmy Boy's!!! Unfortunately we had planned to go for the Elephanta Festival of music and dance when there were not too many members coming but then we did not want to see anybody coming to the restaurant and not find the hosts!!! So now it is probably postponed to February 2005!!! BTW, after walking for so long it seems it took it's toll on my shoes in what must be the most embarassing moment of my life, I found both the soles of my shoes came off partially, opening up like an alligator's mouth and flipping about when walking, so I had to stay put in the cab when I went to drop Julie off at her hotel!!! Luckily it happened just when we were leaving after dinner and not at the Elephanta caves we had earlier planned to visit!!!!! HAHAHA!!!

October 18, 2004 VT Meeting: Not an officially announced VT meeting but just an impromptu call and meet organised at the Indian Summer for dinner (palak paneer and murg kadai with jeera rice and naan) and followed by some lovely Darjeeling tea at the Tea Centre!!! Husain was also to join us but could not make it at the last minute!!!

February 25, 2005 VT Meeting: We (travelmad478 aka Julie, Mumbaikachokra aka Sandeep Shetty and me ofcourse) had a small VT meeting and had a nice dinner at a Malvani cuisine restaurant. Had some lovely fried fish (mackeral and pomfret) and prawns cooked in the Malvani style with the traditional solkadi (coconut + kokum curry). Initially we met at the Barista Espresso Coffee Bar at Shivaji Park opposite the Mayor's Bungalow (for some coffee, tea and coke!!!) followed by a walk down to the local Dadar beach front from where we went to Sindhudurg - the Malvani (South Maharashtrian coastal area) restaurant and then had some mango and apricot icecream for dessert at Natural's Icecream followed by some star gazing through my telescope at home for a night out under the stars!!! A lovely evening spent talking about VT (and the new VT!!!) and other interesting stuff discussing different world topics.

Picture Courtesy: Julie (travelmad478@VT)

This is the Virtual Tourist mini meeting in progress in Mumbai on February 07, 2004. Notice Julie's VT cap on the table?!!!

Picture Courtesy: Julie (travelmad478@VT)

A short note about the latest meeting we had in Mumbai on the 5th of December 2005!!! We met at the airport to pick up Chris_Treborn@VT and took him to a nice resto bar at a very happening place called Rhodas quite near the airport where we just had some drinks and had a great time talking about life in general as well as about our travels. There was a pilot Kinjal and his wife Neha, a software techie Amit from Mumbai and me besides our Canadian guest Chris who is a police officer. There was a nice live band with two foreign singers too so it was like the icing on the cake as it is usually unheard of to have a live band on Monday nights!!! When it was time to take some pictures the pilot had brought his camera and we tried to take the first picture but the battery ran out of life and then when we used the new set of batteries the same thing happened and we could not get any pictures from the camera even though we borrowed a pair from the restaurant TV's remote control handset!!! Even they were dead!!! HAHAHA!!! So finally we had to settle with some blurry pictures with their mobile phone camera. Just two of them and they are on the VT page of members Kinjal and Neha (kin79@VT). Then we went to drop off Chris to his hotel and then I proceeded home at around 2am!!! Had a lovely time together and we were talking about a lot of different topics under the sun and since this white guy was married to an Indian origin Canadian girl who still has not visited India it was a thrill for him to be here first before his Indian wife was here!!!