The Real World: Mumbai

Hello again everybody. I'm on my final rotation of my International MBA program and wanted to update you on my status thus far. The IMBA program started off with two co-horts: Paris and Mumbai. We have since convened in Philadelphia, taking classes together for the past six months. The final rotation for everyone includes a month in Tokyo, with an optional week long stay in Shanghai between Philly and Japan. I opted to go to Shanghai because of all the commerce current taking place there. I chose to fly to Asia from San Francisco.

For the confused, this is my itinerary:

Philadelphia->San Francisco->Shanghai->Tokyo->Mumbai->Zurich->Philadelphia

Although I'm currently writing the latest edition into my blog from my apartment in Tokyo, I will include the details to my travels thus far. I left Philly for San Fran on June 26th and spent a couple of days with my cousins who I haven't seen in years. We spent time seeing some local sights, with stops at Fisherman's Wharf and the local In-n-Out. I'm sure there were more worthwhile things to do in town but I was more so interested in the company than the attractions. I did however learn a funny tidbit about my brother (upon seeing his first palm tree, he asks if it's true that they close up at night lol). Before I knew it, it was Sunday morning and I was on the way to the international terminal for a 2:10pm flight to Shanghai. Thanks for the chill time Kevin it was hella awesome and much needed, you rock!

Enter Northwest flight 27

I had the displeasure of sitting between the two most annoying people in the world. Granted I had a decent emergency row seat, these two skoundrels will forever bring about clenched fists when thought about. On my left sat annoying fob teenage girl with a penchant for smelling like mothballs and porridge. On my right sat the fidgety, hyperactive, fat michellin mascot incarnate. Between the stench on my left and the fat kid on right, I would have chose suicide if the plane had a dull knife on board. How can these two seemingly innocent parties drive a sane person to the brink you ask? Simple. For starters, the girl on my left straight up stank, that's right, STANK. I know I didn't smell like fresh laundry after a 14 hour excursion, but what was her excuse when we were only 15 minutes into the flight?!? Fine, I will turn towards my right. Wait, what's this? Fat boy has commanded the eastern front, trying to procure some media from the inflight entertainment fold out monitor. Instead of telling his son that the videos won't play until we are in the air, what does his dad to the right of him do? He goes to sleep, obviously exhausted from managing doughboy here for the past 7 years. So I'm left with reekin girl on my left, and hyperkid for the next 14 hours. I try my best to sleep through the flight but come up short at times. Not even walking around the galley helped, mainly because I dreaded going back to my seat. I'll spare you the details of me slapping the fat kid and scrunching up my nose at garlic girl to her face.

After enduring this torture, I'm ready to run off the plane as fast as I could. We pull up to the gate and the passangers get in line to get off the plane. An announcement is made that those connecting to Shanghai (me), will have to stay overnight in Tokyo because our connecting flight's plane has experienced a mechanical failure. Whatever, just get me to a hotel so I can lay down. We are bussed to an airport hotel in Tokyo with instructions to get up at 4am for a 5:30am flight to Shanghai. The next morning we are notified at 4:30am that our flight has been moved to 9am. Fine. They give us breakfast coupons so we can eat. 9am rolls around, and our flight has been bumped to 11:00am. Frustration is setting in, as some of us have in transit for over 24 hours now. 11:00am comes, as does a message that our flight has been BUMPED AGAIN to 1pm. An angry caravan boards the bus at noon, ready to get the hell out of Tokyo. We arrive at the airport to find that there is NO flight scheduled by Northwest to fly us to Shanghai!!!!! That was the brick that broke Becky's back. I swear, it was the most comical thing I've ever seen in my life. The NW representatives at Narita INTL were not ready for the angry chinese mob that was borned by they incompetance. We were only missing pitch forks and burning sticks to be a proper mob. We rightfully made a scene, anything to get us to our intended destination was the mentality. There was a couple from the states that was at risk at missing their cruise, another woman was trying to get to her sick dying father, and others lost in transit. There were threats thrown around (including contacting the FAA and Congress? wtf lol), tears shed, and much sucking of the teeth. Luckily, I was one of the few that they managed to book on a flight leaving within the hour. I took that opportunity to bizzounce the f out of there. Air Nippon flight 925 to Shanghai here I come!

Ni Hao, welcome to Xang Hai!

Let's just say it's good to be back overseas! The stark differences from day to day life in the states is refreshing and much needed. People just roll differently elsewhere around the world. Thank you Jimmy, for opening my eyes to the fine delicatessens that the world has to offer. Shanghai was very modern and amazing. There were lots of luxury good stores, and exotic cars around the city. They are building satellite cities and skyscrapers overnight. I can really see why prices for steel, concrete, and oil are so high. The chinese are consuming them at a very high rate. I will let the pictures do the talking!

Here's a picture of their skyline from the hotel room.

Here's a picture at night, didn't Tom Cruise do a folcrom onto that building in Mission Impossible III??

The air quality was marginal at best, often creating haze like conditions here and there. The weather was brutal to say the least. I could not go outside without sweating golf balls, and it was hot as heck. Despite this, saying the atmosphere was very nice would be an understatement. Because of the commerce taking place, there are many foreigners that live in Shanghai. But for the most part, I had to speak Mandarin in order to get around. I regret ditching chinese school! I found that I could get around, but anything more than basic conversation was too complex for me. Shei shi ni ba ba?!

These three pictures were taken in Su Zhou, a MASSIVE satellite manufacturing city two hours outside of Shanghai. In the last picture, notice the massive manmade lake and buildings in the background. This entire site was built only a few years ago. Jeebus!

I thought this was pretty cool. The restaurant we had lunch at had these strung metal beads that dripped water onto a baby koi pond.

Me standing in front of a Chinese gazebo in Su Zhou.

Corporate visit time!

These pictures were taken at a medical education equipment manufacturing facility near Su Zhou. This site was amazing in that each body has an immense amount of personal labor in bringing it to market. The craftsmenship and amount of detail allow this company to compete. Apparently they cannot seem to make enough of specimens to fill their orders. Maybe if they eliminated the bottleneck at the plastic molding shop and hired more artists they could realize higher revenues. But what does this mba candidate know? Doh!

Back to Xang Hai

What's for dinner ma?

Look at the massive amount of dim sum available!

Xeng gri kuei le
Happy 24th Kim

Picked up some new kicks for my birthday.

Did some sightseeing during my birthday. These pictures were taken at Yu garden. Anyone notice the chinese gumby? I challenge you to find me in the last picture. Harder than it should have been huh??

It's ya birthday

What started out as a simple outing turned into a night of debauchery. I won't get into the details, but lets just say they got me pretty polluted that night..

Farewell Xang Hai

We had a farewell dinner at the Shanghai Yacht club on the Bund. The restaurant sat on the water and had a good view of the harbor. It a really nice way to cap off such a nice trip. See you guys in Tokyo!!!

Whew! School has been kicking my ass lately, and I'm not alone accordingly to Julie! Physically I'm holding up well, but mentally this program is taxing to say the least. It requires you to actually attend every class and pay attention; something some of you guys know I'm bad at. The tests are vigorous as are our daily schedules. So how does the sanity equation balance itself? With a little bit of fun and relaxation or course. Here are some pictures that were taken this semester.

This is the Gateway to India. It's a pretty big tourist attraction, and it happens to be across the street from a 5 star hotel. A word of advice for you guys thinking of visiting this attraction. Beware the snake charmer who randomly opens his apparatus to reveal a springing cobra. Yeah, imagine our chagrin when some random dude on the street took out his cobra for show and tell.

This picture was taken from a crosswalk above the Koliwada station stop. More than half the city's population of 13 million reside outside of the city. The Train is the main mode of transportation for these folks. They hang from the side of the cars. I wonder what they do with their Lay's bags and other trash?

Dhobi Ghat! This is a unique feature of Mumbai, the dhobi is a traditional laundryman, who will collect your dirty linen, wash it, and return it neatly pressed to your doorstep. All for a pittance. The "laundries" are called "ghats": row upon row of concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone. The clothes are soaked in sudsy water, thrashed on the flogging stones, then tossed into huge vats of boiling starch and hung out to dry. Next they are ironed and piled into neat bundles. This is a picture of the most famous ghats at Saat Rasta near Mahalaxmi Station where almost two hundred dhobis and their families work together in what has always been a hereditary occupation.

This guy is taking a break to embrace the camera.

Here's an example of a mangy dog chilling on the sidewalk overlooking Dhobi Ghat. During the day, they are everywhere and are for the most part docile and harmless. It's a totally different story at night...

Lord Krishna's birthday is celebrated on the street in front of our hostel. Legend has it that when Lord Krishna was really young, he was really fond of eating the butter and milk that his mom bought for the family. She would have to go to great lengths to keep it out of his reach. One day she decided to put it in a pot and tie it high up so Krishna would be shit out of luck. So every year on his birthday, teams of people gather to form human pyramids to try to get to a pot hanging high in the street. The ropes holding up the pot of butter and milk are adorned with colorful fruits. There is a main challenge in the center of Mumbai(jackpot of $30,000), while recreations take place in all parts of town.

After two attempts, the yellow team got the job done. Mind you this is in the rain, in the middle of the street, and 40+ feet in the air. Here is an ecstatic member