Cyprus — 9 hour Delta flight to Athens with a quick change to Cypress Airways 75 minute flight to Cyprus. Athens new airport very nice and efficient — took me 15 minutes to clear customs and check in for my transfer flight out on a different airline. Delta business class is certainly OK but nothing splashy. The 9 hour flight is well timed to eat, read and sleep a bit. Taxi ride to Nicosia is about 45 minutes and about $50. Cyprus Hilton is only 5-star hotel in the city; not much to do there but there is an executive floor and a spa. First person I saw here was my friend who told me he has gotten engaged; this is my first trip out since I got married so I think that is good karma. Turns out the last person I see on this trip will also inform me of his engagement. Andreas: Greeks want to settle the Cyprus issue fairly with 1 man, 1 vote with special rights for Turkish areas but not with capitulation of the entire island to Turkey. EU will have to screw many of its own minorities asserting rights if it double-crosses the Greek Cypriots. Restaurants here are very nice but rather pricey — also found the price of food has gone up in Singapore.
Go 1 mile from the hotel to a border crossing at the Ledra Palace and a 2 minute walk to the Turkish side of Nicosia and the Turkish part of Cyprus. The border is open 24 hours a day with no charge, but you need to show a passport and fill out a form for a visa on the Turkish side. Lots of people crossing. Took a 3 hour tour of Saint Hillarion Castle, Bella Pais monasteries and the village of Kyrenia and its fort along the sea. This side of the island is a bit more green and some of the sites are very nice and they are kept up well. Historical sites are more tending toward Christian than Moslem in this area. Tourism exists but it is downscale; infrastructure is inferior to the Greek side but not horrible as I expected. They work off the same water system. They are selling lots of real estate but it is of Greek property on the Turkish side and buyers are buying into lawsuits. They tell people they will share 7% of the profits with the Greeks under the UN plan, except that the Greek side hasn’t accepted the UN proposal. Returned to Nicosia and ambled around the streets both on the Turkish side and the Greek side near the borderline of this last divided city on earth that I am aware of. It is eery — walls just end with gates put up and gutted buildings line the border. On the Greek side, the main pedestrian boulevard runs right up to a border wall where you can stand there and look across it. Both sides hum with commerce and too much traffic but the Greek side is more successful and life is much less surrounded by the aspects of occupation and militancy than on the Turkish side. Turks come to the Greek side, find they can’t afford anything, go back and stay put, unless they find work. Greeks go to the Turkish side, look around, see not very much except some homes they can’t go into, and go back. In the pedestrian area, the Everest sandwich shop is a good bet for quick food and of course there is a Starbucks there and everywhere on the planet (except in the Turkish area). Café Mundo is just outside the pedestrian area and a good spot to lounge around for a coffee. Not many flights running from here; at late night your choices are Amman, Beirut and Tel Aviv. This is a regional meeting place — at the Hilton, some Israeli company was having a meeting for its employees. A 45 minute flight gets you across Israel and into Amman. Takes longer to circle the Amman airport to get into line with the automatic guidance system than it does to cross the 1948 borders of Israel. From a plane, Jerusalem is rather small and Amman is huge because it is so spread out.
JORDAN — Every country changes to summer time (or doesn’t change) on its own schedule in this region and it is very confusing at this time of year to be traveling. In late March/early April you need to double-check with airlines and people what time it is because my flight left an hour earlier from Amman to Dubai because of the time changes and when I arrived in Amman it was an hour earlier than I expected. The Iraqi Airways jets are still on the ground here (I should have thought they’d be gone by now) — no longer because of sanctions but now because no one has the money to fix them and it’s been determined that it doesn’t pay to fix them so they sit here 2 years after the invasion awaiting money and a buyer. Why is this not a surprise? I’ve come here for some good conversation and to see a few local sites before leaving since I never seem to get to them. Here you get a variance of opinion whilst in Israel I get one of two opinions: either “I don’t know…ehhhh….We just hope for the best.” or “Nothing will change. You can’t deal with these Arabs. Go home.” I’ll be there next month to hear from them, by the way. Here and now the conversation is more illuminating. Mustafa: Hizbullah should join the Lebanese army. Sharon is straightforward and a person you can deal with. Israel should be a binational state. Hamas can be part of the PLO as it is Sunni — Hizbullah is Shiite but on the losing side of the Lebanon issue since it is identifying with Syrian occupiers when it is supposed to be a nationalistic liberation movement. People are angry about the assassination of Hariri in Lebanon and the instability caused. Tourism to Syria and Beirut will be down this year to Jordan’s benefit. Flights and hotels are busy (although my flight from Cyprus didn’t have 15 people on it). King is popular and domestically denied all his recent statements about Hizbullah and Syrian terrorism that he made in the US.
An important observation: Older people have adjusted to this business of peace with Israel over the past 10 years. A decade ago it made people nervous to even discuss these issues. Now it is free and easy talking about it and the positions are also becoming more dynamic. If people in their 60’s have gotten with the program, younger people are not hard to follow.
Meeting with secretary general of a political party who meets with Israeli leaders and was an observer of the PA election. If Israel bombs Iran, we will officially thank them as Iran is an enemy state which must be stopped. Syria wants peace, even without the Golan. It is just a matter of money for the people at the top to put into their drawers and to know they’ve been taken care of. Syria-Lebanon is a mafia state with scuffles among thieves. Egypt will change its constitution to deal with succession. Abbas is OK because the people want peace and the Jordanians are pressuring the Hamas to get with the program. He is OK with Sharon’s plan. Iraq will go to elections and the Sunnis will join the process. King wants Saudis and Bahrainis to treat their Shiites better lest they rise up and make an arch of Shiite countries from Syria to Iran. Condi Rice told the King to make more democracy in Jordan. Right of return for Palestinians can be reduced to monetary compensation as nobody will go back. King should replace more advisors now since he is in power for 5 years. The sacking of his brother Hamza as crown prince is seen as an internal family affair. People think the Americans went into Afghanistan so that it could build an oil pipeline with Pakistan, the ‘Stans and maybe even Iran and just bypass all the Arabs.
Ray and Adnan: Arab-Americans living in Jordan. King is confident and becoming more domestically popular. Upbeat about pro-Israel developments but internally PA will not be open for business for a few more years. Jordan still a bureaucratic nightmare stacked against foreigners. You need to put up $150,000 just to get a Jordanian driver’s license. Dubai still seen as a good place for real estate investment. Parts of Amman have gone up in value and the seashore areas have also appreciated; others have not. Will be economic relations between Israel and the Gulf within a year. Arabs have been all over the Palestinians to deal with Israel and get their item off the international agenda. Sharon, by continuing with settlements, sends mixed signals about Israeli intentions and makes people feel he is insincere and continuing to stick things in their faces — not the kind of thing you want to do if you expect to set the stage for reconciliation on a personal level between people. Considering that Sharon is talking about what he is going to do in 3 years (presumably to placate his domestic audience) but the Arabs think it is happening right now, there is room here to figure out a better way to convince Arabs of Israeli intentions while keeping Sharon safe. Justice? I mentioned how my business partner’s late father was forced to settle his claim as a Holocaust slave laborer for $6,000 as a result of a government-to-government treaty which he found insulting but it was in the context of thousands of people being paid with a cumulative total of around $5 billion (especially when the lawyers got $100 million). On the other hand, $6 million would never have compensated him for his experiences. We agreed that in some sense you can never achieve justice and that the Palestinians will wind up standing around in a circle with the Israelis who also lost property to Arabs and they will all pass a dollar bill to the right that the Japanese will give them. At least the Israelis don’t have real estate offices all over the West Bank trying to sell people Palestinian land as in Turkish Cyprus which has only been occupied since 1974. We lunched at the new Mecca Mall — a big American-style shopping center which is rather large and being expanded even more. The menus in the food court are almost all in English — if you can’t read it, you probably don’t have enough education and money to be shopping here. Abdoun area has beautiful mansions that still impress me.
Khaled is still rather cynical on the PA front. King may be overplaying his hand, may not be very popular with the majority even if the elites like him. Assad is an idiot; Iran very smart. US is not a good investment; doesn’t like the dollar. Likes emerging markets and Omani real estate. Dubai is a bubble. Dinner with Mustafa at Wild Jordan, a healthy-type restaurant with pretty views over the Citadel and the city. Four Seasons hotel is a very nice hotel with a lovely breakfast, beautiful spa and indoor pool, and nice restaurants. World-class. Full occupancy but trouble maintaining a high rate. Awni: King is not in control and neither is Assad. Too pat to think that Assad knocked off Hariri; it’s not their style to be so clumsy and open about such things. Thinks a Syrian faction opposed to Assad did it in order to weaken him. Israelis should invest in Palestinian psyche — no evidence of goodwill in Sharon’s attitude. Sharon only does what he wants and keeps “pinching us” with settlements as if to say “we’re in control.” Palestinians have nothing and will not build a good PA as they are too corrupt.
New York Institute of Technology has a campus here, the American University is building, and the government is considering a law to regulate private education as there are public and private universities here without much of a blueprint to regulate the new upstarts which threaten the old order. Visited Roman Amphitheater, Folklore Museum and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which tells you of the country’s political and military history (minus the 67 war). Lots of daytime traffic. Visited Chez Hilda for a quick visit to my pastry-chef friend and his mom and then to the airport.
DUBAI — Emirates runs a damn good airline. 5 course meal for this 2:20 flight in business class. I took pictures of my food (turns out someone has a website devoted to this airlinemeals.com). I am staying on the executive floor at the Emirates Tower hotel, part of the Jumeirah resorts chain of hotels. They meet and greet you even before you reach passport control, take you through a dedicated lane and get you right out into a car. This is Akbar! Dubai is a very vibrant city with lots of lights and 24 hour hum. Flowers and landscaping line every boulevard which is quite a feat considering how hot it gets in the summer (about 120 degrees). Public areas of this hotel are way cool; the health club, pool, shopping mall — everything you look at is really nice. There’s a wine and cheese restaurant in the hotel with a choice of 50 wines by the glass. Executive Club is open 24 hours a day and puts out a magnificent midnight spread when such lounges in all other areas in the world have long closed their doors. In Europe you pay lots and get something in return but usually with a stingy hand. I remember being charged 5 Euro for a bottle of water to carry into the gardens of the Villa D’Este after I am paying over $1,000 a night to stay there. Here they just put out everything first class and charge you a high but still reasonable rate. The breakfast was magnificent with 3 rows of buffet tables featuring everything from camel’s milk and rice pudding to trays of meats, Japanese, Chinese and Indian breakfasts, and over two dozen kinds of donuts, danishes and muffins and breads. Individual hearty tins of French butter, ketchup.. you get the idea. Stunning ballroom and foyer as well. The rooms were excellent with very interesting colors and decorations. The room key was shaped like the building and it has a laser in it that you point to the door when you want to enter. If this management company can run such hotels in the US, I’m all for them.
On a Friday around noon it is interesting to watch all the TV stations in the region showing Friday prayers in the various mosques. The Saudi English language channel puts some of it into English. Drove with Emad to the Marina. All these new malls they are building — one will have indoor skiing. The new Dubai Tower will be the world’s tallest and they are marketing it as the most prestigious square kilometer on earth. This is all past the point near the Jumeirah Beach Hotel where 5 years ago I was on the motor scooter with Emad and the phone rang from my brother asking where I was, and it was at a dead end with nothing before you but desert. Now there are more cranes in this city than in the entire country of Canada. It is absolutely amazing how much construction is going on here and that people feel it is necessary to handle the demand. Locals are still slow thinkers — my friend sells $1 million worth of equipment and gets a $300 bonus. Even 1% would be nice. We went to the Burj al Arab hotel to check in; they greet you with costumes, dates and tea. We were sat in the lobby tea room by the manager while waiting for my room to be set up since the previous occupant checked out late. The lobby is huge and atrium-like with giant aquariums lining the escalators. For the first few minutes it looks like chintzy Las Vegas but after awhile you realize that the architect was bold and innovative and that it is indeed luxurious and in good taste. The difference is that in Las Vegas you touch the material and it is plastic; here it is solid whatever it is. If it looks like gold, it probably is gold-plated. This place was built and is operated with money as no object and I don’t think they intend to make much of a profit on it. This is built to impress and to send a message to the world. They have upgraded me to a Club Suite which is over the top. It is a 3,500 square foot (about 330 meters) duplex suite with a huge 2-part living room with bar, plasma TV, panoramic windows 50 stories up in this tallest hotel in the world overlooking the city and the Gulf and the new Palm Island development that will be a big hit (island shaped like palm trees with villas) which reflected at night for a lovely self-portrait against the twinkling lights of Dubai city below, a kitchen my wife would die for, dining room, billiards room, huge ceilings, office with laptop and printer, sitting area, full bedroom, bathroom and dressing room. Had I known I would have invited 50 people for a party (they don’t allow that). Everything is attached to electronics (ie: camera to watch the door; there are 2 butlers on call and they come in ties and tails (here they walk you to your room from the elevator; I never used my key), remote controls to handle everything from Internet to drapes. There is about $200 worth of free amenities including all sorts of Hermes products, boxes of exotic sweets and fruits, a large fruit platter, bottles of fine wine and mineral waters from France, lots of flower arrangements, gold-gilled raised stationery, and fresh hor d’oeuvres which they replace a few times a day. You can have any one of over 200 newspapers from around the world printed out in real-life size that same day and delivered to your room. There are 100 TV channels. Even the toilet paper and pen are nice. They have a 10 page pillow menu and exotic chocolate covered figs by the bed, but I still preferred my own pillow. The bed has mirrors on the top of it and you can see the whole sea from your bed. This is a 202 room hotel but there are only 4 of these suites. The Royal Suite is as large as a football field. Definitely get nothing less than a Panoramic Suite or consider this one if you get a good deal on it. If you are going to pay the price for a regular room, the upgrade is not so pricey and you get so much more for it. After they checked us in inside the room, Emad and I went around to photograph this place and visited the rest of the property. He prayed into the setting sun through the panoramic windows and we went downstairs to watch the sunset. They have a beautiful rooftop restaurant with another ballroom. No more Sheik Zayed’s face on the side of the hotel at night; now they just show colors.
I visited their sister property — Al Qasr — in the Medinat Jumeirah resort which consists of several hotels and family-style beachfront villas, a big shopping mall and various restaurants connected by gondolas and a stream of canals. It offers a more Arabian type atmosphere and it is a bit Disney-esque to me but will be fun for families. It costs less than Burj Al Arab but you get a lot less for your money. Atlantis is also opening up a resort here. There is a shortage of hotel rooms with 100 5-star hotels under construction.
Ayman came for dinner at the Aquarium restaurant which you take a little submarine ride to get to. Tables are around a huge aquarium and prices are high for this area but not much different than Manhattan and the menu prices include tax and tip. Ayman: Process of change is going forward. Apathetic about religion and politics. Agrees that Palestinians are being pressured to settle. Petrol is $1.25 a gallon here. He has a nice 3 bedroom apartment in a building with gym and pool right by the Emirates Towers (a 15-20 minute drive away from the Burj al Arab) for about the same rent as I pay in Manhattan; reason for the high rent is he can walk to work in the Tower. Viren has 3,500 square feet for the same rent (twice as large as Ayman) but in a different part of town. Viren came for the huge breakfast. Says Sheikh Mohammed built Dubai in a brilliant manner and is the guiding light. He incentivized all the major industry leaders to come set up regional HQ’s in Dubai. Neighboring countries have real estate but will not get Microsoft and CNN to set up regional offices a 20 minute flight away. There is Knowledge City, Media City, Internet City, Medical City. Qatar has money to compete but Dubai has the head start.
Dubai is a place where people manage investments in the whole region because it offers a transparent economic environment. 55% of its expatriates are Indian, and you can sit here and manage your Indian company which is just a 2 hour flight away. Viren’s friend is minister for internal security — there was no expense spared to protect 70 Israelis who visited for a World Bank conference. They didn’t want any bad press. India has big potential for growth — has fixed up its capital markets. Dubai has so much business need and capacity that both Ayman and Viren think the real estate boom will go on, but no one knows for how long. Dubai is upscale and every brochure for everything is beautiful — every offering is oversubscribed in 24 hours. Sheikh has been following a master plan for development for the past 10 years. Personally went over and fired anyone not at their desks at 8am at the courthouse. Made a speech to 1,500 ministers from the region with senior Americans in the audience — “Either Change or be forced to change” was his opening line.
Burj al Arab is excellent without parallel — it deserves its 7 star rating. It actually offers good value for its money. For same price I get a junior suite in the Villa D’Este without any lagniappe (extras tossed in). If you have money and want the very best in quality and service, Dubai is the gold standard today, even better than Asia and Europe. Dubai is also an exciting place of progress in the world that commands attention. To me, the Switzerlands of the world for quality and security today are in Switzerland, Dubai and Singapore.
Nobody cares about democracy here; India offers rights without money; here you have money without rights. Guess which people prefer. Lots of expats here who have been with the Arabs for many years. Built up trust and friendship and the Sheikh’s message is clear — we are having an open economy meant to do business with the world. I expect they will have relations with Israel and that there will be more flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai than there currently are between Dubai and Zurich (4 per week). Why wouldn’t people come here for the dependable sunshine, shopping, safety and great hotels?
Dinner with Viren and family Indian style. Take your veges, put them in a little individual pan, put cheese on it, and then stick it in a little tabletop stove. Went back and cleaned out the suite of all its extras and sent it back to Viren’s house as I can’t travel with all this stuff that will be garbaged.
They are dredging a creek so that they can build more development with a water view away from real water. Tsunamis scared some people along the Gulf into selling. Singapore would have been vulnerable if not for this mountain of an island that blocks its access to the full sea. Even they are now thinking about tsunamis. There are still large swaths of desert along the highways with soon-to-be-built “Emaar” (the main real estate company) projects. Here you have one master controlling all of it. Dubai was for me 5 years very impressive and it was 5% of what it is now. This is a place that demands attention.
One funny point that tells you something: I was watching this music video on TV and asked the butler to translate the Arabic subtitle so I could identify the song and artist. They were hard-pressed to find someone who spoke Arabic in this hotel since all the staff are from outside the country. You never see a local here. After 10 minutes they found someone and of course the video was over. So I asked them to call up the station and find out the answer. They couldn’t figure it out — not the head of guest services, the head of IT or the concierge. When I got to Singapore, I asked their concierge to call up the TV network and show up the concierge and butler staff at the Burj al Arab. They also couldn’t figure it out. I got lucky — the Singapore Airways flight had an Arabic pop video program and showed the same video and I got the playlist from their office (as well as digitally photographed the video from my airplane seat). But amazingly a hotel which has been known to fly in chocolates from London on demand for its clients couldn’t find out what was on an Arabic TV network just 15 minutes earlier. The point here is that you can only get so far with money — you still have to deal with your people and until they do, Dubai will never be a world leader. At least Dubai is telling educators to do the best they can with minimal interference — Singapore educates well but is interested in making people fit into their system as opposed to educating people to lead. America is still the leading problem-solving oriented place for education, and we will be innovative and world leaders as long as this remains our method of madness.
After lots of research, I found out the name of the video. Singapore Airlines gave me the name, Marwan Khoury, and I reached a 15 year old fan of his in San Diego who runs one of his official fan clubs referred to me via the artist’s brother in Beirut who monitors his official website. Anyway, through the magic of Internet, here is a link if you want to watch this video called Kel Al-Qasayed (“All the Poems”), which I think is an example of great pop music, be it Arabic or otherwise. I enjoy watching the Arabic music channels when I am touring the area, because they are good songs and the videos are less raunchy than what you see on American or European TV (although they are increasingly testing the limits). Time Out Magazine in Dubai is also much more conservative than Time Out New York (instead of a section for Gays and Lesbians, they have a page of Charity Functions and the writing style is less racy).
http://www.mazikana.com/Videos/Search/M/Mazikana_Marwan_Khoury—Kel-Al-Qasayed.wmv
Hint: If the file doesn’t run by clicking on it, then cut and paste it and “Run” the file from the Start Menu.
Dubai is a very safe place with secret police everywhere yanking dodgy-like people off the streets before they can do anything wrong.
Dubai had a great business class lounge for Emirates with 3 buffets. I had to take 3 pictures to capture it all. (Singapore’s lounge was sparse with nothing to eat for me.). Arabs were drinking wine on the plane even in full head-dress and regalia. They give good chocolates — these little things count and Singapore’s chocolates are not nearly as good. This is important because Singapore sees Emirates as its #1 competitor and we will talk about this later.
Mumbai, India: 2:20 flight to Bombay/Mumbai. Airport is much worse than Amman, Jordan (their airport is actually not bad at all) and like the old Beirut airport. City looks pretty ugly touching down and the airport parking lot smells like cow manure and is absolute chaos. Do not arrive here without arranging for an airport pickup. Shanties line the runways and all sorts of people line the roads as you ride into town. This place makes an awful first impression. There is no good way to get into town and it took over an hour on a Sunday evening to get to the center of town — the roads are being built and they are clearing the areas around the airport for development. Near the airport is a swath of hotels and the suburbs is where the future is here, but the area right around it is miserable. Mumbai is on a peninsula. Hotel Taj Mahal Palace is an oasis in a lousy area. Food and beverage is all right and reasonably priced but nothing great. I ate in the coffee shop and the Zodiac Grill Room. The last night I ate by the pool and the fish and veges wrapped in paper was very good. (I ate Western food; I’m sure the Indian food is better.) Dubai this ain’t — I’m using mineral water to wash my face. Broadband in the hotel is fast and there are 90 TV channels on the plasma TV I ain’t watching as they are almost all local. Rooms are adequate but nothing great.
Dinner one evening with our Indian agent whose wife cooked their version of a bland Indian dinner. They are vegetarian so I can eat everything. I did my best to eat although it was spicy for me. They eat a lot of mangos here. My wife, who was not with me, loves Indian food and she would have been in heaven. My host is a Jain (reform-type Hindu) and has a temple in his house where he meditates 2 hours a day.
Pack List Hint: For Business Travel put papers in a big plastic sweater-type foldover bag you can get from a drycleaner. This keeps all the business cards, receipts and papers you get in place. An 8×11 folder just doesn’t do it.
Observation: Rotary International seems like a great international networker. People I meet everywhere are Rotarians and the top hotels all host their meetings.
Some business observations: A tip — sometimes people shake their heads from side to side which to you means NO WAY but which to them means they are listening to you. It is irritating but at least you should know what it is. Repatriation of profits is an issue and the 35% flat income tax is a problem. It is also a very bureaucratic place. Best solutions are to have your customers send fees right out of the country — pay you on their visa cards and take the money in some third country. Also, import goods with high markups (pay the duties) so you can show a high expense. In the education area, people want to go to America and get a job. Australia also beckons but it doesn’t have the same opportunity and neither does the UK which is pricey and has no job market. Villa Parle is a neighborhood in the suburbs that is the educational hub of Mumbai; office rents are almost Manhattanesque but this is where the action is at. If I were doing business here, I wouldn’t stay in center city at the Taj which is an hour’s drive from here. Instead I’d look at the ITC Sheraton 30 minutes up the road or one of the airport-area hotels. The Taj is good for tourism and it is a nice property with good service and its executive club is a good place to entertain people. 6th Floor Heritage wing rooms are better than 4th floor renovated rooms. Indians are used to traveling across town so it is not so hard to get people to come and visit you especially if you are entertaining them well in the club with its buffets, drinks and views of the Gateway to India archway along the sea. The hotel has a resident astrologer on duty, and this counts in India where some people get married according to their horoscope.
I visited the #1 business school in Mumbai that has a campus about an hour from town. It is nice for India but it is still pretty lousy for an American. Bathrooms for students had no flush toilets although the ones for faculty did. Neither did the business class lounge for Singapore Airlines at the Mumbai airport, by the way.
The best way to tolerate India is to ignore what’s around you. 50 feet from the entrance to the Taj are infants lying on the street, beggars tugging at you and people sitting on little 6-inch high crates. Give to one and you’ll be crowded by 100. Makes you feel horrible to walk outside the hotel so you probably won’t after you do it once. They are not going to steal from you, but you don’t feel safe or comfortable walking around here and the police are not going to help you. I’ll take Dubai over this any day.
I spent 4 full days here and completed my business after the third day. On the fourth I played tourist. Even the new buildings look decrepit here. They do have timed intersections — a clock counts down how many seconds till the light changes to red and then to green so you know how much time there is to go. This is important since there is so much traffic and people would go crazy if they didn’t have a sense of what to expect. Everyone in their cars is honking and pushing tuk-tuks and pedestrians away. I didn’t see any cows on the roads though.
Day tour with driver and guide. This can be done quite cheaply here. Telephone and food are also cheap, even in the hotels. You can do a city tour in 3 hours (at least I did although I am fast). Mumbai is on 7 islands. Lots of water around and tall buildings. Very crowded and dirty as hell. No proper sidewalks, parking lots or demarcations. Saw central city — diplomatic residences, synagogue, Prince of Wales Museum (took 20 minutes and go next door to a gallery to see Indian art — most of the Museum has British art). Jain Temple (reformist Hindus, non-violence, strict vegetarian) to see a temple with lots of people in saris and loincloths praying to statues. Gandhi’s house has a display of his lifestory and writings. Hanging Gardens and Towers of Silence — it’s a city park. On the whole, I wouldn’t tell you to fly to Mumbai to see this stuff unless you were already here.
Excellent guide who discussed religions, languages, history of country, etc. Jews get along here but there’s only 2,500 of them in Mumbai in this country of over a billion people. Marriages are arranged but finding spouses here is tough. They go abroad. Friday night dinner is fish, chicken curry, rice, beans and fruits. Cake is not big here. Cottage Industries has a nice shop near the Taj and I bought a jeweled carpet in a wooden frame from them for about $1,000 which was the nicest item in the shop. Not so many wall tapestries to buy here. Hilton Hotel is ten minutes from the Taj. Intercontinental Hotel is small and in a noisy area. The center of town is really for shopping, finance and tourism. Delhi I am told has some nice areas; Mumbai might be good for shopping but you have to know where to go.
I was told to see the Elefanta Caves and that this was a must-see, but I only had 3 hours till my next appointment and I was told you need 4 hours to go and return with a normal boat and I am leaving the country tomorrow, perhaps never to return. What to do? I hired the hotel’s faster yacht. Cost about $650 for the 3 hours but I got it done. This makes for a good story. Most dangerous moment on this trip was stepping into the dinghy at high tide to take me to the yacht. They brought on food, staff. The yacht had 3 bedrooms including a master suite. Just me and my guide to ride for half an hour and return.
A little railroad takes you from the dock to the entrance where you walk 120 steps over 10 minutes (the steps are about 10 feet apart) to the caves. You need water and don’t visit this — or Mumbai — from June through August because it is closed due to the monsoons with rain, high humidity and heat. The tides are so rough that the boats don’t travel, which means the 1,500 islanders are stuck on the island too. Right now in the first week of April it was hot but not terrible just yet. You can wear short sleeves here to business meetings and you’d die in a suit. Elefanta caves have carveouts of Hindu godlike figures in a cave. Some good souvenir stalls here. I also bought the silk robe they had in my room. You can see the cave in about 15 minutes once you get to it. No big deal — Petra in Jordan is a much more impressive site. The yacht was good because it moves — the little boats take 2 to 3x as long, you have to wait for them to fill up, and it is rough on the sea, and I hate the sea. Expect to sweat on this field trip. If you go with a group, take the yacht if you want to do this and spread out the cost. Or do this while entertaining a client and write it off. On the ride back to the boat, a little doggie came running alongside the train begging for some person to throw food to it. Someone finally had pity and did so. I thought that enterprising little dog unlike all the other dogs on the island was so sad but so typical here. What happens to that dog when the tourists don’t come?
Weird item from the Indian press — a 5 year old girl marries a dog to ward off evil spirits from the village. Next time my wife wonders if she married a dog, I have to remind her of this. In the UAE, someone divorced his wife because his parents were furious over the fact that he took her out to dinner and they said this would ruin her. Another article in the UAE said that someone threw someone out a 4-story window upon finding him with his wife. I don’t know if the US is any more civilized — I only read the NY Times.
India is 10½ hours ahead of NY, meaning on the hour here is on the half hour there. It is terribly confusing and I don’t know why they can’t choose a time zone. The hotel had good service — a butler to shine shoes at 1am and to deliver a bathrobe. The Do Not Disturb button on a phone is useful to avoid those phone calls in the middle of the night. Ties between India and Israel are strong across party lines here. There are flights twice a week. Dubai and Zurich only have 4 flights a week. Nobody cares if you deal with Pakistan. Dell got the message across that all this talk about war was bad for business. Tom Fridman’s columns are published everywhere I read a newspaper — he is today the most influential US columnist in the world. India is not moving fast — inflation and real estate are pretty stagnant. Rent a mobile here and recharge it in the business center because telecom is cheap, even if it isn’t that good.
Continental now flies nonstop from NY to Delhi, but will they continue to Mumbai? If not, I probably won’t fly with them.
Even the guy who walks you to the airport lounge wants a tip here. Took 75 minutes to drive to airport; check-in was easy. The airport has 5 gates with 10 flights during the whole daytime and another 30 at night. Singapore has more flights going out in one hour. India is still far away from anywhere. Only one daytime flight to Europe and that is Air India to London, a flight I’ll never take. Flights in and out of India are full because there are so few of them, as I described before. Airport has virtually no shopping or food service. Air India just ran an advertisement that said its airline offices now sell international tickets at market fares, whatever that means. China is night and day compared to this with sleek modern airports. This is really the bottom of the pile and it is amazing considering that Mumbai is the financial capital of India. 4:15 flight to Singapore and you move the clock 2.5 hours ahead.
Suffice it to say: I sandwiched Mumbai in between showers in Dubai and Singapore. All in all, India is friendly and somewhat honorable, if you can tolerate being here. You get nothing done without actually being here, so it is a real consideration, and many people find their time wasted here (although I managed to keep to schedule and not to be sidetracked by my handlers). It is best for now to avoid entanglements here. There are more pleasant places to conduct business (even Jordan might be better than this), and it is noteworthy how many Indians are running their companies and enjoying their lives from Dubai instead of here. It is a terribly bureaucratic place and there is uncertainty in business because of the changing legal structures and the sense that the country is still trying to find itself. Maybe in 20-30 years it will surpass China, but meanwhile it has a long long way to go. There is a lot of corruption and doubletalk here amid a sense that people say one thing to your face and another behind your back. We had a small office going here and it is amazing how much dirt was created in the span of just a month with 3 people doing hardly anything important. I was very happy to close it up right away and to redo our deals minimizing our exposure to the country and its liabilities.
SINGAPORE — Flowers line the runways here, from end to end. And India made Emirates spray its planes before entering its country. Cow calling the kettle black? I’ve been here before and I like this place. Digital TV looks amazing here. When you exit the airport, you stand in the air-conditioned line for a taxi and they send you to a numbered lane to get into one. Candy dishes at passport control. Lovely flower displays inside the terminal. Everything imaginable in this airport.
The synagogue bulletin mentions that on this day in history a pope banned all social contact between Jews and Catholics. On this day we are burying a pope who recognized Israel and apologized for the Holocaust. In his will, he listed only his personal secretary and the chief rabbi of Rome. We live in interesting times. In the synagogue they announce things several weeks in advance because many people use Singapore as a base and travel from there during the week. In its pretty and cozy synagogue you find Aussies, Brits, Americans and Israelis. The mostly transient expats sit on one side chatting away and the locals on the other. There is a full lunch after the service and it is run by the Chabad. Good amount of programming going on for such a small community and they are building a 5 story building alongside to house their activities. There are 100 school-aged children in the community but not enough to support a day school; people also prefer the high-quality public education. The synagogue is a 10 minute walk from Raffles Hotel.
Raffles Hotel is run very well. You have your butlers and all that and they will research what you ask for and give you back elegant notes with all the details. It is an unusual hotel — it has a refined sense of casual elegance about it. Old English charm. You cannot recreate it although the hotel was recently renovated. My Palm Court suite was excellent throughout with an unusually large and interesting bathroom. Raffles Plaza hotel is just across the street and it is a modern tall hotel with a shopping mall. The Westin is now the Swissotel. Singapore has a bum rap on its nightlife and I recall searching for food after 11 and finding my way to Denny’s — there is plenty of it now. For good Italian near the hotel, go to Prego’s in the Raffles Plaza. Great tiramisu.
In the metro, you flash a card and it gets read at the turnstile. Separate glass doors partition the entrance to the trains so that you cannot hold up a train by blocking the doors. I am told the reason for the chewing gum ban was that kids were using the gum to block the doors and it was causing massive jams in the transport. Here it is not so awfully hot yet. Lunched with fellow from the country’s economic development office which has about 500 people in it. His office and my company are fellow sponsors of a biomedical conference in June (we do translations in that field). Says China is a cowboy town where contracts are just a starting point. India has lousy airports and a bureaucratic legal system but at least people respect agreements and rights are enforced. China has laws but they mean nothing. He compared Singapore to an airplane with 2 engines at its sides — India and China. The plane can fly even without the engines but it wants to position itself to be running from the cockpit as opposed to the back of the bus.
People here talk Singlish — best to talk in a choppy manner and drop excess words in order to get around. Orchard Road is the main shopping street a mile long with tons of malls that run into each other. Cheap taxis. I priced a Canon digital camera here on the internet in an internet café in the same mall and it was 30% cheaper in the US, so don’t come here looking for cheap electronics without knowing what to buy. It is amazing how the Internet has leveled the playing field for the international shopper. Several galleries in the Tanglin Shopping Center (not the Mall) have good antiques, rugs and tapestries.
My friend has a rather pricey apartment (if you pay market rate) in the central business district without a shower. The rent would be about $1,200 per month for a studio. If you go 10 minutes drive away from the center the rent drops by a significant amount, but you have no subway service. Here, $3,000 a month can get you a huge apartment in a nice complex. Singapore government is a tough employer — they cut salaries unilaterally and are not renewing all their contracts.
The city offers beautiful skylines, cleanliness and security. Here you can walk around at midnight in a deserted park and think nothing of it, and it was so lovely to do so the night after coming from India and trying to walk around my hotel. Go to the top of the Swissotel; go up one flight further than the restaurant to a club where you can get a 360 degree view of the city, but sit in chairs by the bar for a great view and a good veg-out stop without cover fee. Go at sunset to get the views by day and night. You can see all the way to Malaysia and Indonesia. Casual late night dinner at the Movenpik Marche at SunTech City. The sign says “Free Booze Tomorrow…Dream On, Brother.” So there is humor here too. But I couldn’t take a picture of the sign. Rules and order just beneath the surface. Such as the top of the opera house which has been designed to collect rain water. Such as the road to the airport which becomes straight, the potted plants in the median instead of the trees elsewhere can be moved, and it becomes a runway for F-16’s. Gays are now tolerated because they are seen as good for economic development. But if there is AIDS, they blame the gays even though the majority of HIV is in the heterosexual community. (In India there are rather graphic sex-ed posters all over the streets.) The Government appears to liberalize, but they aren’t. Policy is basically we’ll do whatever we have to do in order to facilitate economic development but we will control it and keep people in line. There are Moslems here (quite a few restaurants and fast food chains such as the Delifrance have signs saying the meat is Halal or that there are no pork products) but it is not a religious country. The Straits Times is the local newspaper and it has mainly good news to report; best feature is 5 Things to Do in Singapore Today. A great idea that other papers should copy. Very nice quality magazines here. Lots of discretionary income to go around.
Travel Hint: Get free water from the hotel spa instead of the minibar.
Easy to get to the airport — $8 cab ride and 15 minutes. Pretty airline club with aquariums. TV’s, movies, gym, massages all available at the airport which is designed for people with connections. 18 hour flight to New York nonstop on Singapore. Food was Asian-style and spicy (even as vegeterian) and not nearly as good as Emirates although quite good for airline food, no question about it. Lots of TV channels — over 100 of them. Basically, Emirates is better on the food; Singapore has the best in entertainment. Business is 2/2/2 and premium economy is 2/3/2. Those are the only two classes of service. Premium economy is still pretty tight for 18 hours. Bulkheads are good though if you get them in premium economy. In business they are heavenly with at least 5 feet open in front of me. My agent got me all the front row seats for the entire trip. They serve lunch and dinner as if we are still in Singapore — not in New York, but the steward says that it would look cheap if they didn’t do it. Main problem is that there are too few restrooms on board and almost always a line.
The silk route for the future will be NY-Dubai-Singapore-NY, all of which can now be flown nonstop. Or else the route will run through Hong Kong with Cathay or maybe in the future through Shanghai. But Singapore is on the straight line across, and right now Emirates and Singapore airlines are the ones who do this and people will fly round the world because it is cheaper and easy to do so. They have to cooperate. Half of Singapore Airlines is publicly owned — the Sheikh owns the airline and it is part of his tool to build up the Emirates. He doesn’t need to make a profit with it; he owns the oil so his fuel is free — Singapore cannot win this competition. They have to figure out how to work with them, for their mutual benefit. Singapore is in the Star Alliance and Lufthansa is the European partner with no middle eastern partner. Lufthansa is weak in the Middle East. Emirates is not really part of an alliance yet though they are part of SkyTeam which doesn’t count for much as the only Asian partner is Korea Air.
