A Taste of Mumbai Mary, A Run along Marine Drive: SQ SIN-DEL/BOM-SIN (Econ/772/A380)

[yflyer]

My hunt for the Mumbai Mary began at the St Regis.



The Bloody Mary is the signature drink of the St Regis brand (Not unlike how the Raffles in Singapore has the Singapore Sling as a liquid mascot...), but each St Regis in a different country had their own twist: In Mumbai this was the Mumbai Mary.

While a definitive Mumbai Mary recipe exists, it is served in different forms at various F&B outlets at the hotel, including a non-alcoholic version at breakfast...



I enjoyed this version at the St Regis' stupendous breakfast buffet, alongside their version of masala chai...



...where the St Regis has tried their best to recreate an authentic roadside masala chai stall in their buffet restaurant...



There is also an excellent dinner buffet at the St Regis, served in their lobby restaurant...







A lovely buffet spread covering both international and Indian specialities.

But when I ordered a Mumbai Mary at the buffet restaurant, I was served what appeared to be a regular Bloody Mary -- tasty but nothing special. What was up?

[yflyer]

I only discovered the real Mumbai Mary through the St Regis loyalty member ambassador, Manohar, who caught up with me during my stay and invited me to the evening Happy Hour on the 37th floor of the St Regis.



The St Regis has no SPG Club Lounge, but there is an evening happy hour in the Luna Nudo bar each evening, with a special appetiser and beverage menu available to SPG Platinum members.

I thought Luna Nudo, with great evening and night time views of the skyline and Arabian sea, was a great place to unwind in the evening. The F&B menu for SPG members was impressive too. To me, this was a perfectly acceptable substitute to a dedicated SPG lounge.

This was the special SPG happy hour menu...





The bar at the Luna was excellent...

They served impeccably mixed cocktails, such as this Burnt Apple Martini...



The canapes, sourced from various specialty restaurants, were superb...superior to regular hotel lounge fare almost anywhere...

Over the next few days, I walked my way through the canape menu...

Including vegetable tempura...



Spicy salmon sushi rolls...



Lemon and Salt Calamari and Jack Daniels BBQ pork ribs...



...which I accompanied with Vijay Amritraj Reserve Red, from one of India's most well known wine producers, Grover Vineyards...



Soy tacos with habanero...



Another Grover wine, this time a Vijay Amritraj Reserve Edition Viognier...





While looking up the Grover wines online to find out more about what I was drinking, I learned that Grover Vineyards had merged with Valle de Vin, another Indian vintner, to form Grover Zampa Vineyards, with their vineyards now comprising the original Grover vineyards in the Nandi Hills, near Bangalore, as well as the Valle de Vin vineyards in Nashik, close to Mumbai.

[yflyer]

Manohar was at the Luna Bar mingling with the other guests, and came by to where I was seated.

"Have you tried the Mumbai Mary?" he asked.

"Yes I have!", I replied...at that point I thought that I had tried it...

"Let me introduce you to Bhagwan, who is the original creator of the Mumbai Mary..."

Bhagwan, a heavy set, jovial man with a broad, smiling face, was the kind of person you immediately liked when you met him. He exuded calmness, sincerity and good cheer. We took a photo together but the bar was too dark and the picture came out blurry...

He made me his signature creation, which he was justifiable proud of inventing...



Now this was the real Mumbai Mary, and it was a work of art. It both looked, and tasted, incredible...

This was real tomato puree and vodka, mixed with various Indian spices...a combination that was tasted and tweaked countless times before Bhagwan got the recipe exactly the way he wanted it...

One of the nicest, if not the nicest, bloody mary style cocktails that I have tried. Superb!

I congratulated him again..."It's great to meet you in person!"

He looked happy that I really enjoyed his creation.

The next evening I was back in Luna to savour a repeat of this delicious drink. By then he knew who I was, and I knew who he was, and he greeted me like an old friend.

After my second Mumbai Mary, I turned to Bhagwan, lowered my voice, and told him "You know what, the first night I was here, I wanted to try the Mumbai Mary, and ordered it at the buffet restaurant downstairs, and they gave me this..."

I showed him a photo I snapped of the generic Bloody Mary that I was served...

He was horrified! "I am going there later...and I will show them how to make it!". This was his drink, after all.

If you want to taste the iconic Mumbai Mary, make sure you order it at the Luna Bar on the 37th floor of the St Regis, and look out for Bhagwan too, the genius of mixology who created it.

[yflyer]

At the end of the week I was there, India celebrated Republic Day. This was a public holiday in India, with a grand parade planned in the capital, New Delhi, as well as other festivities and commemorations all over India.

Our own Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, was present as well, to observe the parade, along with other ASEAN leaders, at the invitation of Indian PM Narendra Modi. PM Lee snapped pictures of the Parade and posted them on Facebook.

Of course, all that happened in Delhi, and I was in Mumbai, so there were no close encounters with our PM this time round (Unlike my previous trip to Hanoi).

I was only flying out of Mumbai that evening, and this presented me with my first ever opportunity to head out for an outdoor run in India, an activity that had been on my to-do list for a long time.

I grabbed a light breakfast in the hotel before changing into running attire, and then headed downstairs to catch an Uber car to the start point of my run at Chowpatty Beach, close to Marine Drive.

At the hotel driveway, the hotel staff, and invited guests, were preparing for a simple ceremony to commemorate Republic Day, and this included a march past by members of the hotel security team. A very patriotic gesture on the part of the hotel, and one of many commemorations I would observe during the day.



"Can Uber cars drive into the driveway, or do I have to walk to the street?" I asked the doorman.

"They can come in, sir! Let me speak to the driver!", he replied, and after I booked my Uber car, I handed the phone to him for detailed instructions.



We drove through quiet streets (Mumbai streets are only quiet during holidays!)...



...to my start point, at the northern end of Marine Drive, at Chowpatty Beach. (I used the Kennedy Sea Face Memorial as the destination on Uber and just asked the friendly Uber driver to stop me close to that spot.).



It was a wonderful day to be at Chowpatty Beach and Marine Drive.



As it was Republic Day, traffic was light, and there was a very festive atmosphere along the beach, with both pedestrians and bikers enjoying the celebration...

[yflyer]

I began my run along the wide and immaculately clean footpath...



There was some late morning haze in the air, but overall it was a very pleasant day to be out running...



Ample space for runners, walkers, and the occasional bicycle...



Huge flocks of seagulls along the coastline...





Many residents and visitors just out walking and enjoying the view...



Some of the art deco buildings along Marine Drive...



And further on, the Air India Building, a 23 storey tower that used to be the AI HQ until 2013, when the HQ moved to Delhi.



The Air India Building had a distinctive AI Red Swan logo on its rooftop. Previously, until the AI rebranding, the old Air India Centaur logo could be seen atop this iconic building, designed by New York architecture firm Johnson/Burgee. AI still occupies several floors of this building.

And to the south of the AI Building, the Trident and Oberoi Hotels were visible...





At the far end of Marine Drive, I arrived at Nariman Point, where the National Centre for Performing Arts was located...

[yflyer]

I jogged to the tip of Nariman Point for a look around...





...before tracing my steps towards the Air India Building, where another Republic Day commemoration ceremony was underway...





...I headed down Madame Cama Road...



...past the Government of Maharashtra Building...



...and the Oval Maidan...



...where several cricket matches were in full swing...



...from there, it was a further short run past intricately ornamented buildings...



...to the Gateway of India Monument, built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, although the structure itself was not completed until 1924 ...



...and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel...

[yflyer]

Along the run, as I jogged past first the Trident, then the Oberoi, and then the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, it was impossible for me not to recall the tragic incidents of 26 November 2008, when these and other places were stormed by terrorists in a coordinated attack, with heavy loss of innocent lives.

On that day so many years ago, I had just flown into Mumbai from another city in India, late in the evening, and had checked into the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, far away from Nariman Point. I had gone to bed blissfully unaware of any incident occuring, although traffic had seemed heavier than usual enroute from the airport to the hotel. It turned out that the traffic congestion was caused by a bomb blast, set off at 10.40pm as part of the attack, much further down the road.

At some point in the night, I received a phone call from home: "There was a bomb blast in Mumbai" my family told me..."OK, I'm safe, and in the hotel. let us talk in the morning...".

In the morning, the phone calls started coming in. The full horror of the ongoing incident was becoming known, and the situation was still developing. All thought of work and meetings went out the window as meetings were cancelled and Mumbai came to a standstill. My corporate security team called me: "Are you safe? Stay where you are in your hotel and wait for more instructions.".

I waited in my room at the Grand Hyatt. If you look at a map of Mumbai, you will see that Nariman Point is in the South, Mumbai Airport is to the North, and the Grand Hyatt, where I was, is in the middle.

I called my corporate security contact: "The terror attack is happening in the South at Nariman Point, I am at the Grand Hyatt with the Airport to the North. I have a clear route to the airport. I am going there now to catch a flight home!" and he agreed that was the best course of action.

Obviously I did not have a reservation for the next SQ flight out. I called SQ's Mumbai phone number, but lines were all busy. I called the SIA number at the airport itself. The phone rang for an eternity...eventually someone picked up the phone. It was the SQ team at the airport. I had seldom ever been so happy to hear a person's voice at the other end of the phone. "I cannot make a reservation for you right now, but there are empty seats on the plane. Just come to the airport and we will get you a seat on the flight". Fantastic.

I checked out of the Grand Hyatt and took a hotel car to the airport. Ironically this was the only time I had ever travelled along an empty Western Express Highway, which was deserted that day because of the events unfolding to the South.

At the airport, I was given a seat on the flight and flew out on the lunchtime SQ421 service. The atmosphere onboard the flight, which was at most 3/4 full, was somber, and of calm and relief. At the time, I wondered whether when I would return to Mumbai again, and how the events of the day would unfold. It was only later that I learnt that a young Singaporean had her life brutally cut short in this tragic incident -- just one of many innocent lives lost in this senseless incident, and just one way this global terror incident had a personal impact on many Singaporeans.

This happened years ago, but let us never forget what happened, and let us always be reminded of the need to remain vigilant and prepared.

It was all back to normal now, busy with tourists and visitors. But there was still also a high security presence in that part of Mumbai when I was there, on Republic Day, almost ten years later.

[yflyer]

Continuing my run, I retraced my steps through the streets of Nariman Point...



...passing roadside snack vendors...



...and a masala chai stall...the real deal this time, not the hotel version...



...and then I was back along Marine Drive, for a slow run back to my start point...



...but not before encountering the large flock of seagulls again...this time coming at me head-on at low-level and at great speed as the entire flock took flight...whizzing by just centimetres away from my head...something that everyone should experience first hand at least once...



I ended back where I started...



...and ordered an Uber car to take me back to the hotel.

I enjoyed the run very much, despite having memories tinged with some sadness when recalling the events of November 2008.

Total distance that day, just over 10km...



A wonderful, and very scenic jogging route, along Marine Drive, then to the sights at Nariman Point, including the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

To be continued!

[yflyer]

There were some really impressive restaurants at the St Regis Mumbai.

Among them, the Sahib Room, serving very refined, traditional Indian cuisine with some modern twists...



A rich Lamb shorba, delightfully chunky and deeply flavoured...



A delicately spiced fish curry preparation, accompanied by jeera rice...



...and a beautiful kulfi sundae...



Earlier in the week, I sampled the cuisine at the Yuuka restaurant, a Japanese/fusion restaurant on the 37th floor of the St Regis...



Hamachi carpaccio with chilli...



I was quite impressed that they used freshly grated wasabi at Yuuka...



...and claypot lobster risotto...





...which I paired with glasses of Grover Art Collection Viognier, and Charosa Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, both very tasty wines.



Dessert was Green Tea Layer Cake...



A wonderful meal at Yuuka.

I would recommend both Yuuka and the Sahib Room for very fine cuisine, if dining in the St Regis.

[yflyer]

On Friday evening, after a very late check-out and one last Mumbai Mary at the Luna Bar at the St Regis, I headed to Mumbai's beautiful international airport for my flight home.



Dedicated entrance to the security lines from the SQ J/F check-in area...



A bustling airport, with lots of shopping and dining options...

[yflyer]

As Krisflyer Gold, I was directed to the "Loyalty Lounge", the designated SQ lounge for Gold members. This was one of several contract lounges in the airport.

My last lounge experience at BOM was the GVK Lounge, which I was entitled to use because I was flying Air India from Mumbai to Singapore. That lounge was superlative.

What would SQ offer to their KF Gold passengers?

First off, the lounge was impossible to find. Unlike the other lounges which were prominently located, with good signage...the Loyalty Lounge was tucked away in a windowless basement. (This seems to happen distressingly frequently with SQ.)

And when I did find it, I wished that I hadn't. It was essentially a large hall with seats, and it was full.



I have visited hospitals with more pleasant waiting rooms than this.

And if you were a First Class guest, you had a separately cordoned off area, with larger sofa's, but I couldn't say the ambience was much better.



Another view of the F section.



Why a premium passenger would want to spend any time in these dire surroundings, when the regular terminal public area, one floor above, was such a beautiful space, is anyone's guess.

Was this really the best SQ could do? Or was this an issue to take up with Mumbai Airport? Everything else in the Mumbai airport terminal was spectacular: the design, the facilities, the passenger flow. Top notch and best in class in almost all respects. But here, in the Loyalty Lounge, I felt as if we were back in the bad old days of air travel in India.

At that point, my next impulse was to reach for a drink. A glass of wine or beer would undoubtedly have helped calm the nerves and dull the dismay as I surveyed the scene around me. But no, not today...it was a dry day.



No alcohol here, or anywhere else in the airport for that matter. Just soft beverages on offer.



On the bright side, there was a passable selection of food, including hot selections.





And ice cream...



Overall, I felt that this was one of the most disappointing lounge experiences I have had in recent years.

I thought it was just crazy that an otherwise wonderful airport like BOM, with incredible facilities all round, would have a lounge that was so average tucked away in the basement.

And even crazier still, why would SQ even direct their guests to such a mediocre lounge? The difference between this "Loyalty Lounge" and the excellent GVK Lounge, which Air India uses, was jarring. If no suitable lounge was available, I would have preferred just to receive a voucher for F&B in the main terminal.

I decided not to spend another minute in this congested waiting room, and headed back up to the comparative luxury of the public areas of the terminal.

[yflyer]

Upstairs, the situation, with respect to beer and liquor, was no better...





...but at least the ambience and shopping were very pleasant.

And the spa was open for a very relaxing round of foot reflexology...



...which did wonders to restore my spirits.

I headed to the gate...



I found the public seating area at the gate to be a much more pleasant space to spend time, than the "Loyalty Lounge"...

[yflyer]

Airbus A380 registration 9V-SKI at the gate...



My seat was in the upper deck mini Y cabin, so I boarded through the upper deck...





...through the upper deck J cabin, with the groundbreaking (At the time...) 2006 J seat products....



These are still among the widest J seats offered by any airline today...

[yflyer]

Not many opportunities to fly in the upper deck mini-Y cabin these days.



When flying Y on the A380, I usually pick the upper deck if it is offered.



Side storage compartments for window seats...



Decent seat pitch, with paddle-shaped footrests...



Emex preferred seats...



Full Widescreen AVOD IFE, using the handheld controller.



USB power is available, as is A/C power (not pictured).

About 5 hours to Singapore today.



My first widescreen viewing of the new safety video...

[yflyer]

Hot towels...



Amenity kit...



Tonight's supper menu...





Choice of an international selection (fish)...



...or Indian veg / non-veg options...



I opted for the butter chicken, along with a whisky soda...



A tasty starter...Palak Pakodi ki Chat...a spiced spinach lentil dumpling...



...and delicious Chicken Tikka Makhani, served with sultana pulau rice...



I've almost always been very satisfied wth the Indian mains on SQ. The strong, spicy flavours always seem to work well onboard.

Dessert was a very tasty Shahi Meva Malai ice cream...