Ciudad de Mexico - Part II

When it rains it pours my little bloggeroos. And I have a treat for you...2 blogs in ONE DAY...WOW! At this rate I might be only behind D.T.L.F by one or two blogs a day.

Anyhow Part I brought us Shakira and all her glory, part II will one up that....if possible.

So still in Mexico, we decide the next day to head to the Aztec pyramids of Teotihuacan (say that 10 times fast) which are about 40 miles outside of DF (District Federale). So it's 40$US for hotel bus...or if you are really frugal and looking forward to a 110000$ bill for your upcoming MBA education abroad you can spending a total of 27 pesos each way + 2 pesos for metro to ride with the locals and their chickens/goat/etc...hmm...so for me it boils down to 3$ vs 40$. And i get to spend time with wildlife? wow....option B it is. So turns out we have to take a one hour metro ride to the bus station, from where we need to find a local bus to the pyramids only to get dropped off on a road somewhere near the pyramids. (hopefully)

Soooo...during rush hour...SOMEHOW we board the train...somehow we reach the station, somehow we buy a ticket, and somehow we board a bus. The bus is really ghetto from the 70s and has NO tourists with nobody that speaks English. Also apparently it is not an express bus. It stops anywhere for anyone without hesitation. At this pont I'm thinking...what if it's not going to the pyramids....we are SCREWED. Also the rooster on the seat next to me is a bit vocal in his sensing of my fear. So I go ask the bus driver in my awesome spanish..."Este autobus viaje a las Pyramides?".
Driver - "Si"
Me - "Cuantos horas para ayer a los pyramides"
Driver - "una hora"


rooster on bus

great. So one hour to the pyramids. I can go to sleep (if the rooster shuts up).
So one hour later I get up and the driver is yelling in my ear..."PYRAMIDES...PYRAMIDES"...yes, finally we've arrived? I look outside the window and all I see is a corn field. Reluctantly I get off the bus, hoping worse comes to worse I show a little leg and hitchhike my way back to the Zona Rosa, but fortunately there was a little path leading towards the parking to the Pyramids.

The pyramids themselves were awesome. I wasn't expecting much after being the the Great Pyramids of Giza and as well as the Mayan Chichen Itza, but these were beautiful in their own right.
These pics are from top of Sun Temple towards the moon temple. After reaching the top of the sun temple, the sun gods provided us with bright sunshine the rest of the day!








Ok It's 30 stories high....


yet even the dogs can climb to the top with no issues.


A yes..the path to Human Sacrifice!


view of Sun temple from Moon temple...no moon from the moon gods....I think I like the sun god better. Sorry moon god. No wonder your temple is smaller!




sacrifice pit. Ouch.





And to top it off at the top of the sun temple we met these people that wanted us to take their pictures. We chat it up with them for a bit, and it turns out they are from Canada. We ask how come they are in Mexico City expecting a backpacking type answer, but the answer we got was surprising. They are friends with Ms. Canada and were there for Ms. Universe taking place that wknd! Can you believe it? Ms. Universe and Shakira same wknd? So turns out there was no way to get tickets to the event. But they invited us to an after party at the Hard Rock Cafe later that night.

So here are some pics from the Hard Rock Cafe:




Awesome times, I got to meet some of the girls and Invanka and Donald Trump. Was a great time. What can be better than spending an evening with 60+ of the most gorgeous women in the world? I doubt anything can top this. And no these girls are not high on themselves..which would be expected. The ones I talked to were down to earth. (which maybe explains why they talked to me in the first place!)




The next day there was a parade for the contestants

Next day at the airport I ran into some contestants and had a chat with some of them. I talked to Ms. Angola and Ms. Zambia for a bit, as well as Ms. Hungary. It was weird to see them in normal clothes with minimal makeup. They still looked gorgeous though, and are all super tall so they standout. Ms. Angola was really sweet and she said if I ever make it to Luanda she would chill with me and show me around. She gave me a business card, so now all that's left is for me to make a trip to Luanda. Any suckers (I means friends) want to go? I hear it's an awesome country! :)

Of course no Ms. Universe airport sightings would be complete without some nice stalker pics. Here is a pic of some Ms. Universe contestants boarding a plane at the airport.


Anyhow that's Mexico City, and to make things even better I got upgraded by Mexicana into business class on the way back! Damn right! What a trip. This is why I love travelling. The unexpected events, meeting new people, forming your own opinions on places that others may not see the same way....that's what travelling is about. In fact that's what life is about as well. It is experiences like this that make you want to live the extra day, make you want to earn the extra penny. I know it all sounds cliche, but it's true.

Ciudad de Mexico - Part I

As I mentioned earlier, this blog is meant to be a travel blog as much as an INSEAD blog. The idea is that both go hand and hand, and that a student that pursues an INSEAD education is likely to be very much into travel and moving around as well.

As I prepare to leave North America, I thought it is high time that I visited the largest city in Latin America and in North America - Mexico City.

When you live in the US, everything you hear about Mexico City is negative.
1) It's dangerous
2) Nothing to do
3) Polluted
4) Unhealthy/Unhygenic
5) Poor

Of course people in the US have this impression of pretty much any non-European city, or one that is not in what they consider to be North America (they don't count Mexico).

I decided to go anywways as the fare was really low, it was a long weekend, and I found a sucker (I mean friend) to come along with me. Also I remember travelling somewhere and meeting some people from Mexico on the train and them raving about Mexico City and the nightlife/food/etc...

So off we go, and bang 5 hours later i'm in the heart of Latin America....by myself...speaking really really bad spanish....with 20$US and a bankcard. Somehow I find my way to the hotel, after being conned into spending 250 pesos from the airport, even though I realized I didnt need to be in an SUV that seats 7 people. Could have probably got the same ticket for 150 pesos, but hey at least I made it to my hotel in the Zona Rosa, and that by all accounts was a miracle. The area around the airport was dodgy to say the least. At the time i was thinking I might have to spend all day in the hotel and get a tank to go places. As I got closer to my hotel the area got better and actually looked very safe.


Area Around Airport


We stayed in an area called Zona Rosa. It used to be the posh area of the city with all the embassies, but that has now shifted to Polanco once the metro started running to the Zona Rosa. Now Zona Rosa is home to some cool boutiques and cafes. It is also home to the gay district of the city. Now personally that's not why i was staying there, but I'm sure that goes along with the place being very clean and colourful!
Zona Rosa Pics





independence monument - was right outside our hotel.



Polanco - Posh district of DF. This is where the posh restaurants, clubs, stores are located. Most embassies are also located in this area of the city.



friday night at awesome bar...voted one of top 20 in world. The bar is at the Hotel Habita, which is a great Art Deco hotel in Polanco.





While Mexico City is known as the most polluted city in the world, it sure didn't feel like it. High altitude is tough to deal with but the pollution isn't that bad compaired to other places I've been to. They must have instituted some tough laws to get rid of the pollution. I wouldn't even put it in my top 5 most polluted cities. Here is my list:
1) Cairo
2) Athens
3) Beijing
4) Shanghai
5) Delhi

Here is a pic of Mexico City Skyline and the "horrible" Smog...LA is much worse believe me.


While in Mexico City they tell you not to use normal taxis since they rip you off or better yet may or may not kidnap you. We decided not to take this risk, so we were left with either taking ridiculously priced hotel taxis or taking the metro. The metro is safe clean and efficient. Unfortuantely it is not air conditioned....so it STINKS. Anyhow it costs 2 pesos per trip (so like 20 cents). I dont know how they can operate such an efficient and clean system on so little, but whatever it is the CTA in Chicago needs to learn from these guys.
Mexico City Metro Runs on Wheels like Montreal


notice wheels are not on the track




Another cool thing about the Metro is that all stations are identified by symbols. The station near where we are staying:


A list of stations on the line we used:

Some interesting pictures there. There are so many stations, and each has a symbol related to the area in which the station is located. The toughest neighbourhood called Tepito has a boxing glove as it's symbol! Maybe they need to change that to a gun?

Here are some pics of the famous plaza called Zocalo in central Mexico City. It is the largest plaza in Latin America and the 4th largest in the world. We arrived and there was a stage in the middle. I was just telling my friend jokingly that maybe it's Shakira or Ricky Martin or someone like that performing. Later while sitting and having a drink with some people we met we find out that indeed Shakira is performing that night. Free concert in the biggest plaza in Latin America???? How could we not oblige. We stayed and had the time of our lives. I have never seen so many people in one place ever in my life. It was RAMMED. We tried to bribe our way to a roof, but apparently the American Dollar doesn't carry the weight it used to. Next time I'll bring Euros. Anyways here are some pics of the Zocalo, surrounding areas and finally the Shakira concert!




lineup leading into the Zocalo Plaza for the free concert. It's day and the concert starts at 9pm.




Will Rain Damper the celebration?


These Aztech Ruins were part of a much bigger plaza that resided where the Zocalo is now back in the day when Motazuma was king!




Market to the North of Zocalo. If you keep going North about 5-6 blocks you will hit an infamous area of the city known as Tepito. It is a black market where anything goes. The police takes a laissez-faire approach to the area. It is one of the most dangerous areas in the world.


Rooftop view of the crowd at 4pm.


People filing in.


View towards the other side from the Holliday Inn cafe on top of the Zocalo plaza.


About 3000 of the 210000 people trying to enter the concert.



7:30pm and the place is packed.


View of Stage


That's what 210000 people looks like!


Ok so in Mexico we are tall compared to the locals, so we thought we would be able to see the stage clearly, until we discovered the mexican telescope. It's basically a device made from cardboard that costs 2$ that is raised up in the air and acts as a telescope. Great idea, except when 200000+ people raise it, it's impossible to see anything for ANYBODY. They have to restrict sales of this thing for it to be of any use.

AND IT WAS ALL WORTHWHILE :)...wow Shakira!!!

And so ended the first couple of nights. We thought we had already had a great trip. I mean we were having a blast, had a free Shakira concert in the main plaza. We had met some locals, and had drinks with them....what could be better? Well the best was yet to come...stay tuned for part 2!

a day in May

So I haven't posted in ages. My blog is getting stale...:( Honestly I meant to post earlier. Lots of things going on. Here is a brief rundown:

a) Varun's Wedding - Just got back from an awesome wedding. It was my friend Varun's wedding in Toronto. Varun I have known since second year in college and he is like my brother and his family is part of my extended family. It was a great wedding, everyone from back in the day was down, music was great. The girl is from Bangalore so we thought it would be appropriate to crash the Mehndi in Dhotis. It was pretty funny actually. Have some pics that I will post when they become available. Was really tiring though. I left last Thursday and got back on Sunday, and during that period I must have slept a total of 7 hours. Well worth it though, as it was a great time and a great wedding.

b) My Sens - we made it to the conference finals. Playing Buffalo. Series starts tonight. Couldn't be prouder of the team disposing of the Pens and Devils in 5 games each. Could this be the year? Not like I can watch them next year anyways. Would be a nice sendoff. I have had a kill other team avatar for the past 2 rounds, so it is time to reveal the one for this round (FYI I found it on a sportsnet forum):



c) My Raptors - very dissapointing to lose in 6 games to the hated Nets. Just went to a wedding and we were all around a friend's blackjack refreshing the game every 2 seconds until we finally found out that the Raps lost by 1 in game 6 and their season was over. Sad, but this team is young and will have many good things to come.

d) Serb's Engagement - Next weekend I'm attending Serb and Komal's engagement in Paducah Kentucky. Now that should be a blast. I've never been in small town USA before and this is as small as it gets. Apparently we'll be hitting a local establishment and turning it dry.

e) Mexico City - So as if I didnt have enough things going on, I decided that it would be fun to spend the long weekend in Mexico City with an old friend from back at Microsoft. We'll be going for Memorial Day. Should be fun. I've never been there but I've heard its crazy. Any INSEADers in Mexico who want to meet? Give me a shout. I really want to go to this place called Tepico market...but apparently it's a bit dangerous :) You see, I have this thing, when I go to a big city I want to check out the Ghettos.
eg:
DC - Anacostia - DONE
Chicago - Cabrini Green - DONE
Atlanta - College Park - DONE
Toronto - Jane and Finch - DONE
New York City - The Bronx - DONE
Paris - Montmarte - DONE
Johannesburg - Hillsboro - DONE
Nairboi - ANYWHERE - DONE


So that's what is going on on this day in May....