Featured in DNA, 27May2012: Mumbai does not welcome you

Mumbai’s victimisation of South Indians happened a little before my time. But I remember life in the city before and after the Babri Masjid incident. My city, my beloved home has gone from an all-welcoming abode to a place that hates Muslims as much as the rest of the propagandized world. The anti North-Indian is relatively newer. Adulthood and living away from home brought me the knowledge of how much Mumbai resents singletons. And no one who grew up in the 90s is likely to forget the anti-Valentine’s Day moral brigade.

I live with the the shrinking tolerance in my city. Everyday my pride in the city I call home, diminishes with every statement I hear like,

“Muslims are not allowed in this building.”

“I don’t rent to bachelors.”

“We will not condone any cheap behaviour which demeans our Indian values.”

I wrote a post titled ‘The city of Mumbai does NOT welcome you‘. As on a previous occasion, I didn’t expect anyone to read, comment or commiserate. My memories of Mumbai are my own after all. But perhaps it struck a chord somewhere. DNA featured an excerpt from my post yesterday.

I began a Twitter conversation tagged #UnwelcomeMumbai asking if anyone felt welcome in Mumbai. At least everyone doesn’t agree with me. Here are some responses:

@swatkat7: I politely disagree.. I’ve lived all across Europe and ‪#Mumbai‬ is one of the friendliest cities to live in..

@NomadWanderer: oh! I’m a north Indian , have lived here when single etc etc Bombay makes u feel everything good is possible

@anaggh: yup. Just like a lot of people. But will continue staying here.

The city of Mumbai does NOT welcome you

North-Indians unwelcome.
South-Indians unwelcome.
Muslims unwelcome.

Singletons unwelcome.
Couples unwelcome.

Artists unwelcome.
Drinkers unwelcome.

The City of Gold, blessed land of Mahalaxmi that was once given as a princess’s dowry is a treasure no more.

I’d like to say the average man on the street doesn’t carry these notions but the scary thing is that he does. This isn’t anymore a blamegame between politicians. Sure, every one of these acrimonious, poisonous beliefs have been seeded with a blatant political agenda. But this city and its inhabitants have lapped them up voraciously and the hatred is bearing fruit, the bitter fruit of intolerance.

The real trouble is that it can afford to stay this way since there aren’t any real options. Bangalore, Hyderabad and numerous others once held the promise of new cities. They’ve all sunk into oblivion or inflated beyond the reach of the common man. Delhi continues to grow at a monstrous pace and accumulate as many rape victims, cadavers and tales of debauchery as crores.

If you are a professional with an education, where can you hope to live and build something strong, positive and sustainable? If you’re not, the staggering poverty will make even this hellhole seem like heaven.

Perhaps Mumbai has been a cashcow for this country for too long. And we’re now a society that has successfully slaughtered the golden goose. Welcome to the city of gutters, greed and garbage.

A No Entry sign in San Mateo, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Blue Frog: Condescending Attitude, Offensive ‘Customer Care’

I haven’t had a reason to write a ‘What Not To Do‘ post in awhile and I wasn’t complaining. But you can always rely on one of the uber-cool, high-priced services to let you down, I suppose.

What Not To Do: Expect Blue Frog‘s security personnel and customer care to respect its customers.

Blue Frog is a hip nightclub in Mathuradas Mills Compound, Lower Parel. They have a stage which showcases musical acts (and occasionally other events). There is also restaurant-style seating and a bar. I’ve attended a few gigs before at Blue Frog.

My Friday’s plans sounded interesting. A friend mentioned that Blue Frog was hosting an experimental performance involving music & film. So we decided to catch the show after work. We got there around 9 and lined up for the mandatory bag-checking and security frisking. The security personnel asked to see identity proof. Two of my friends pulled out their company ID cards (a reputed Tata company). I didn’t know these were valid ID proofs till they told me that these had been accepted at airports too. But the security personnel refused to accept them. Here’s how the conversation went thereafter:

Security: These are not valid.

Us: Why not? Airports accept this.

Security: No, these are not valid.

Us: These are company ID cards (with photographs). It means we are employed by them.

Security: We need age proof.

Us: It is illegal to employee minors. Look at the ID card. The fact that this company employs us means that we are over the legal age, right?

At this juncture, another man strode up. He did not identify himself but his demeanor seemed to suggest that he was senior to the two people who had stopped us. He demanded to know what was going on and we explained. Here’s how the conversation went after that.

Him: At what age are you an adult?

Us: Why are you taking that condescending tone with us?

Him: Tell me what is the legal age?

Us: You’re a minor till 18. Legal drinking age is 21.

Him: 21? *snigger* Are you sure?

Us: Look, what’s the problem? Why are you being condescending?

Him: You tell your people to behave.

Us: Let’s take this down a notch. There’s no need to be condescending about it. You’re not making any relevant points. You’re just saying this to look cool.

For some reason, at this juncture we were allowed to go past. The entry fee (not the cover charge) turned out to be Rs.500 a head. This did not seem reasonable to me, especially in light of the unpleasant conversation just before so we walked out.

I tweeted the following,

Here’s what I received in direct messages:

The problem:

• Blue Frog is a premium nightclub. They showcase musicians and this sets them apart. What they charge is their prerogative. If I think it is not worth my while, I am free to not go. I have no issue with their high prices. But I don’t expect to pay to get insulted.
• The first problem was with the security norms. It seems odd to me that a service outlet would refuse to accept a document that airports deem valid ID proofs. But I’m willing to see that this is a process they have in place or that their security personnel are not equipped to handle any situations outside the script.
• The second and bigger problem was the senior security/bouncer’s attitude. I cannot think of a single service situation where condescension is permissible. What was the basis for this?
• I was quite taken aback by the excessively hostile attitude. My friends and I were asking for something beyond the script. But none of us were drunk (the evening had not even begun!). There wasn’t a single abusive, sexist or otherwise offensive word in what we said. Our voices were not even raised. What justified his saying that I should ‘tell my friends to behave’?
• It makes no sense to me whatsoever that after this hostility, we were allowed to go through. It sends out the message that security norms are not mandatory procedure but simply ways to bully customers (unless they push back).
• The last and biggest problem are the tweets. I found the second tweet really offensive. It implies that I’m lying. Why DM me to tell me that? I am not a kid who got into a fight, asking teacher to intervene. The only explanation I can think of for this, is that my tweets provoked them to hit back. (an earlier case where this happened). But if this were true, why ask to meet?
• The second part of the tweet is equally offensive. Blue Frog and I are not old friends who had a little tiff. The relationship we have is that between a service provider and a customer, a disgruntled one at that. If you let a customer leave the premises dissatisfied, what would their incentive be to return to discuss this? The onus of rectifying a customer’s negative experience lies with the service provider, not with the customer. What’s more, the tone implies a casual invitation (‘to hang out’) rather than an intent to reach out to a dissatisfied customer.

All in all, I’m disappointed by a business that believes it can talk down to its customers (for whatever reason). If you are a service provider, your customer’s questions & demands are not an imposition on your time. It is perfectly fine to not meet some of those demands. That’s just a business situation that is not possible for some reason. Hostility and condescension have no room here.

Customer care is customer care whether it’s for a bank or a ‘cool’, hip brand. Alienating the customer is the first no-no of customer service (in fact, isn’t their very function to resolve issues arising from such badly-handled situations?). I think Blue Frog is also confusing being cool with being a good service. The etiquette for resolving a negative issue don’t really differ. Be polite, be firm and be straight. It is a business situation and formality is an indicator of respect (a must for customer service), not stodginess.

If you don’t believe in paying to be insulted, you’re just going to have to do without Blue Frog.

Blue Frog is on Twitter and Facebook. They also have a website. I’ll update this post if and when there is a relevant response.

Tiny Spaces

The real bitch about Mumbai’s tiny spaces is that there is just never enough storage area. That’s right, storage area.

Human beings may still learn to live in tinier and tinier spaces. But how on earth do you get clothes, utensils, medical supplies & groceries to fit into smaller spaces? By doing without, I suppose.

The BarCamp Mumbai 8 Round-Up

I spent yesterday at Barcamp Mumbai 8. This has been my first unconference in nearly 2 years. My last Barcamp was over 4years ago, overrun by techie discussions and only drew me because it had a teensy segment for bloggers. BlogCamp evolved as an offshoot of that.

Yesterday was a pleasant return. For one, the event that usually struggles on time, breezed through the multiple sessions, speakers and classrooms easily. There were 4 classrooms in the ultra-posh Mukesh Patel ….. The wiki was flowing with colourful post-its even at 10:15 a.m., which is when I got there. And most delightfully, the subjects spanned a diverse range of intellectual tools, hobbies & interests & scientific applications in fun real life ways. One had to be truly ruthless to pick sessions to attend since there were so many good ones, several happening simultaneously.

Off the top of my head, these are the ones I attended:

• Anatomy of a question – Sumant Srivathsan (How to design an interesting question in a quiz)
• Mindmaps – Rehab Chougle
• Kitne star diye? – Manisha Lakhe (on film reviewing)
• The censorship of AMEN, gay community rights – Harrish Iyer
• Comic book publishing for dummies – Aditya Bidikar
• Diagnosing Bipolar Disorder – Anubha Bhat

Interesting titbits from the day:

I entered Rehab’s session late, having misread the wiki schedule. It was interesting and fun, though occasionally highjacked by someone who claimed that genocide made him happy. Quick tip – if you’re demonstrating or talking without a powerpoint, avoid the big conference room. The larger crowd is harder to maintain & engage. Rehab did a great job though and showed off a mind technique that will help anyone from an artist to an executive stuck in a business dilemma.

Harrish is always entertaining and touching in equal parts. His first talk was about the film AMEN being denied a certificate by the censor board and he did a superb job of bringing out the inconsistencies in their policies. His second talk though, was the one that really had people talking. He was speaking of how gay people are treated in India, when partway through, he was interrupted by a very fervent member of the audience who insisted that,

“According to Hinduism, you can only have sex with your wife, inside a closed room. Only after marriage and only for procreation, not for fun.”

The uproar that followed had to be taken out into the corridor to make way for the next speaker. The episode illustrated one of the reasons that unconferences are a great way to seed ideas, bring out thoughts and get people talking, sometimes about controversial and difficult topics.

My session on ‘Social Content’ happened on the fly. It’s been years since I spoke completely extempore, as I did yesterday and it was a great experience. I was actually hoping to create interest for my upcoming series of blogging workshops, beginning with ‘Unboggle The Blog‘. But instead, I found myself naturally touching on several related but disjointed thoughts about this space. My 20 minute, stream-of-consciousness ramble imitated the way we consume and add to social content, on our Facebook Walls, our Twitter timelines and all out other channels of social media. I touched on the artificiality of traditional media, social media as an extension of normal, human behaviour, how trolls are mirror daily social miscreants experimenting in their own ways and that we’re all creators & consumers of social content. Here’s the talk:

I missed the #TWSS talk by Aditya Sengupta since the room was so packed that even the door couldn’t be opened. From what I hear, it was a tongue-in-geek demonstration of an algorithm used to generate and viral #TWSS (That’s what she said). But the geek in me found a corner in Anubha Bhat’s talk on diagnosing bipolar disorders using algorithms.

I’m not going to dwell on how great it was to catch up with old friends again, since that’s a given in any gathering. Yesterday was more than just friends catching up and people networking. It really was a meeting of minds, a true sharing of ideas. A big thank you to the Barcamp team for pulling off such a great day!

Bubble Blog

Look at what I spotted inside Sterling’s ground floor food court:

It turns out that ‘bubble blogs’ are those round, chewy, glassy things inside the cup. Imagine that!

* Cross posted to Plain Salted.

Full Moon

And here’s a poem from the archives, titled ‘Moonlight Walk‘

Meet me on the other side of the moon
And walk in shadows with me
It won’t be all dark
You put a gleam in my eyes
That will lead the way for a stroll into madness

I’ll take you right up to the edge, walking blind
But just on the brink,
I promise to tell you
And let you decide
Whether to take a step farther or not

And if the decision to walk be yours,
I’ll fall through the night with you
Into an everlasting sea of silver light
Till one day, the man in the moon watching another couple take a stroll together
Smiles…and one of them hears it…and smiles back
At him. At you.

But know also that,
If then, you deter
You will find yourself alone in the lightless shadows
To make your way back alone
I won’t return to show you the way
And – what’s more – you’ll never see the gleam in my eyes again ever

I’ll have forever one way or the other.

Missing Person Notice Turns Out To Be Kahaani Movie Promo

Here’s a poster I spotted on the walls of Tulsi Pipe Road, at Lower Parel. Think it’s a notice for a missing person? Look closely:

The text on the poster says:

ARNAB BAGCHI
Age: 31years, Complexion: Wheatish, Height: 5’11″.
Please share any information with Vidya Bagchi at
www.facebook.com/kahaanithefilm

This strikes me as a really cheap marketing ploy to grab your attention. Using something as vital as a missing person notice for an advertisement, makes it so other genuine missing notices will be mistaken for promotions and ignored.

Remember a movie called Criminal, featuring Manisha Koirala, Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishanan? A leading daily carried a piece right in the center of their news spreads, reporting that one of the actresses had been found murdered. It turned out to be a promotion for the movie. That was in extremely poor taste and I think, so is this advertisement. What’s a movie that associates with the likes of Sujoy Ghosh and Vidya Balan, doing with an ad like this?

I wouldn’t expect a marketer to think beyond his/her product and be willing to go to any extent to generate buzz. But what about the channels that carry these messages? Does it occur to them that these commercial messages masquerading as actual news/information, comprises their validity?

Posters not being under the control of any one entity, are difficult to monitor. But in this case, they may be violating other laws by putting up the posters in the first place. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Bollywood posters have been problematic. The Kahaani poster is a stone’s throw away from the Wall Project offenders.

Dirty Talk 2012 (Open Mic) By Queer Azadi Mumbai & Gaysi Family

The first month of this year promises to end on a colourful, vibrant note, thanks to Mumbai Pride Week. The week leading up to Queer Parade will see a host of related events. Queer Azadi Mumbai will host ‘Dirty Talk’ – an Open Mic event of original performances about & around the gay cause.

Expect an evening of varied performances including skits, music, poetry & other original expression. Here are the details of the event:

Dirty Talk 2012: Open Mic

Venue: The Big Nasty, Shatranj Napoli Building, Carter Road, Bandra West, Mumbai
Date: Wednesday, 25th January 2012
Time: 6.00 p.m. – 9.30 p.m.

If you’d like to participate, get in touch with GaysiFamily. To keep the evening safe & enjoyable for everyone, the organizers are asking participants to submit their pieces before the event. Come on along for an evening of fun & your expression!

Esselworld – Extreme Central!

I’m sick of overpriced theme restaurants, terrible movies at multiplexes, stale food court fare and weekends spent window-shopping at malls. I’ve been looking for some affordable, fun things to do and this weekend I found one. I spent Sunday at Esselworld.

My earlier trips were by road or the Marve ferry. This time, I decided to try the Borivili route. A taxi offered to take us there for Rs.250 flat rate. We turned him down in favour of an autorickshaw who consented to carry 4 passangers for Rs.100. The ride took us about ten minutes and he dropped us off bang in the center of a fish (and seafood) market.

The ferry ticket booking counter should have been an indication of things to come. I remember Marve (near Malad) as a little beach shack that sold tickets and had a ferry every half an hour. I’d warned my friends to expect to travel alongside fisherwomen, motorcyclists and regular thoroughfare. But we weren’t prepared for the Dadar-station-at-peak-time style crowd that thronged the counter. We managed to get only ferry tickets, despite hoardings advertising that Esselworld/Water Kingdom passes could be purchased too. Then we had to make our way down a narrow ramp, lined by fish-sellers on one side, incoming ferries on the other and sandwiched between a mass of humanity. Much line-jumping and fights ensued in this melee. Mercifully the rickety looking ferry took us across (‘ML Christmas’) in ten minutes to the other side, clearly visible from this side. The distance is short enough and the crowd vast enough to merit a bridge but I’ll guess the ferry lobby wouldn’t want that.

Once on the other side, we spent another hour waiting to get entry tickets. I’m pained by the ineptitude of having multiple ticket windows & computerized systems but only manning half those windows and allowing only specific transactions on each window. Multiplexes are as guilty of this, I suppose. At least neither the customers nor the service staff at Esselworld displayed the aggressive, boorish attitude that is a hallmark of most multiplexes. Our troubles ended right at this point and all the effort was well worth it for the day we had.

In retrospect, it would have been better to take a walk around the entire park before getting in line for any of the rides. We started with Zyclone, the first roller-coaster that’s just a few feet after the entrance. Zyclone is a single car ride with 4 passengers so the line moves really slowly. We spent nearly an hour waiting and the ride was over in under a minute. Still, this is a good basic ride, with enough rush to get an adrenalin junkie started but moderate enough to appeal to people with milder tastes.

Wouldn't prohibiting 'People with Menstrual Cycle' from Zyclone mean no adult woman could ride it? Also, Masik Dharam literally translates to 'monthly duty'. Indeed.

We wisened up from our long wait at Zyclone and decided to avail of the maps handily posted every few feet of the park. Our next stop was Hoola Loop, another roller-coaster, this time a 3-car one carrying 12 people per ride. Hoola Loop also boasts dips twice the lengths of Zyclone and a full 360-degree turn on the turn. We had to wait for this ride too but the line moved faster as twelve people went in on each round. I kept my eyes firmly shut on the first dip but plucking up courage from my unfazed companions, I kept them wide open and saw the ground shift beneath me on the upside-down loop the loop turn. It happened so fast that it left me with a mild headrush and that yay! feeling that comes from having faced down a longtime fear successfully. Hoola Loop is a more extreme ride so you can skip Zyclone and move right onto this for a headier rush.

We’d had our fill of roller-coasters so we moved onto an octopus-like ride called Monster. I seem to remember this ride as having maroon-coloured cars. The cars are vaguely heart shaped so that memory can’t be too off (blood and all that). But the cars are now a vivid green-and-yellow and dangle, 4 to an end of a tentacle. There are 6 such tentacles and 2 people can be seated in each car, making it a total of 48 people on each round. The base turns around, spinning the tentacles. Each car also rotates in a smaller circle, thus simulating the earth’s rotation-and-revolution movement. None of us were expecting too much, after our back-to-back roller coaster rides. So we were a little shaken by the slight queasiness that this ride left us with. I think this may have something to do with the speed as well as the slight angle that each car is on. I wouldn’t call this an extreme ride, but if you’ve been on a couple of others, this is definitely not the one you want to relax with.

Spurred on by having been on these rides, we pressed forward onto the mysteriously named Enterprise. This one starts like a merry-go-round. Once it picks up momentum though, a gigantic arm lifts the merry-go-round off the ground into a fully vertical state and now it’s a giant wheel. What’s scary is that the cars are individual cages that hang off the edge of the wheel and so turn over with the movements. You’re actually spinning upside-down when it reaches the giant wheel state. You’re also alone in a cage, unable to cling to your partner or scream to them. What a pleasant surprise it was then, that the ride turned out to be different, quite different from our fears! The cages contain no safety belts and once I was in the ride, I realised why they didn’t need them. Centrifugal force keeps you pinned to your seat and if you’ve anchored your feet well, you stay secure and comfortable. The lift-off that look sudden from the ground, felt smooth and comfortable while actually on the ride. It was a curious sensation, almost like flying. While I wouldn’t rate this one high on the fear factor, it was my favorite ride of the day. Enterprise proves my premise that it’s possible to get a thrill without getting a chill.

Spotted: A mural on the wall behind Prabal the Killer (submarine/ship model)

I’d been dying to get onto Rock n’Roll, mostly because I was intrigued by its bright colours. It also look relatively safe, since there was no lifting off or spinning. Rock n’Roll consists of a series of round boxes, 2 seats to one, fitted in a circle around the base. The base revolves, of course. Each round box also spins in a clockwise manner. That’s the misleading bit. Since you don’t see people flying into air or even catch their fear-torn faces as they get tossed about, you completely discount the fact that you’re going to be hanging upside down and hurtling about in forced cartwheels. Unlike Enterprise, where you’re moving with the motion or above it, Rock n’ Roll throws you against the motion and straps you in your seat to keep you safe. It’s not a comfortable feeling at all. Add to that, I got strapped in too tight, despite my protests. The burly female guard just wouldn’t listen and just barked out a ‘Loose karenge to baad mein aur loose ho jayega!’ at me. All this was compounded by the fact that the ride at 3.5 minutes is longer than any of the others. I spent most of that time, with my eyes screwed shut, forcing breaths from between the strap & the seat, dragging my foot back in as it kept swinging out of the car and trying to keep my hold on the wheel in front of me. When I got down, I felt like my brain had come loose of my skull and I had a headache for the better part of the evening. If you have a sensitive inner ear, respiratory disorders or bony hips, you’re better off not experiencing Rock n’Roll.

After this, you might be surprised to note that I managed to actually get onto another ride. Thunder was next in line and looked like the scariest one to boot. This ride consists of two platforms of seats, fitted at the ends of long arms, which in turn are fitted to a vertical stand. The two arms swing out like pendulums, in opposite directions. You’re seated inside the cage at the end of an arm and the effect is like being on a giant swing. Higher and higher you go with that stomach sinking feeling on your downward journey. All of a sudden, you’ve gone just a tad too high and the pendulum arm has stopped and you realise that you’re hanging upside-down in mid-air. Then tortuously, the arm turns and you’re descending again but your upward journey takes you back to that point of crazy upside-downness. The next round, you think you’re prepared to hang and return. But this time, the pendulum continues its journey and you’ve just made a full circle around! Thunder got rated ‘the ride of the evening!’ by my friends. It was scary to just the right extent and thrilling in equal measure. Also, we were all tickled beyond tolerance but none of us felt queasy at the end of it. This of course, varies from person to person since our ride was delayed in order to clean up someone’s puke from the earlier ride.

It was almost 7pm by this time and we had barely an hour to go. The crowds had thinned out a bit too so we just rushed around. We managed to get in a go on Aeroswinger, which is just a nice, safe merry-go-round with cane chairs at the end of ropes. My friend climbed an almost hidden wall in under a minute at Riki’s Rocking Alley. The boy batted a perfect score in Cricket Zone. We walked around in the intriguingly titled Prabal – The Killer (a model ship/submarine). All three of my friends took a turn on the buckin’ bronco bull, ending up on their backs, each fall funnier than the previous.

And we finally ended with Aqua Dive, a simple enough roller-coaster with just one dive, into a pool of water. My last experiences told me that we’d only have a few drops of water on our sleeves. But on the actual ride, we hit down with a massive splash. And then the car just stopped. We all looked up and as my friend put it,

There was this gigantic cloud-thingy up in the air and it was coming at us!!

We were soaked so thoroughly, a straight dive into the pool would have been slower. This at 8pm on a January evening, when we were at least 2 hours from home! Freezing and giggling, we managed to wring out the worst of it, trudge through the lines (again!) out of Esselworld and onto the ferry. The autorickshaw ride back cost us Rs.80 and none of us were in a position to reason why. This is the kind of day that leaves you wrung dry of energy and filled with satisfaction in a way that work-till-you-drop doesn’t.

My expense tally for the day:

• Autorickshaw from Borivili station to ferry: Rs.100
• Ferry ticket (2way): Rs.70
• Esselworld ticket: Rs.599
• Gola: Rs.30
• Cotton candy: Rs.20
• My share of Dominos pizza lunch: ~Rs.200
• Cheese toast sandwich: Rs.35
• Autorickshaw from ferry to Borivali station: Rs.80

That’s a whole day’s entertainment, food & travel for under Rs.1200 a head. Considering the sheer satisfaction & fun I had, it was totally worth it.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

EsselWorld Do’s & Don’ts

• Start early. The park is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. There is enough to keep you occupied all along.
• Anticipate crowds everywhere (especially on weekends & holidays) with poor crowd management. Wear comfortable clothes & shoes, don’t carry heavy bags and bring along water.
• Take Marve (Malad) rather than Borivili if you have a choice.You have to wait longer for the ferry but you’re waiting on a beach as opposed to a filthy, narrow fish market. Also, the ferry ride is longer but it isn’t unpleasant.
• If you’re in a group, have a person stand in every line. You’re likely to get tickets faster.
• Once you enter, walk around the park to get a sense of the rides & crowds on each one before getting in line. You’ll save much time & energy that way.
• Each ticket comes with a map. You will need this so hold onto it. It’ll save you the effort of having to find the nearest hoarding map.
• The extreme rides are Hoola Loop, Rock n’ Roll, Thunder & Enterprise. If you have milder tastes, you can still do one of these and move on to the other activities.
• The tamer rides are Zyclone, Monster, Big Apple, Aeroswinger & the rest. Pick these if you specifically do not want to go extreme.
• Alternate activities like Riki’s Rocking Alley, the bucking bull, Cricket Zone, Prabal the Killer (submarine/ship) don’t see too much crowd but are interesting anyway.
• Carry an extra set of clothes if you go on Aqua Dive. It really is like falling into a pool. Leave your wallet & mobile phone on the bank before you go.
• There are plenty of food options ranging from fast food (cotton candy, popcorn, gola) vendors to food courts to a Domino’s. This last is overworked so don’t expect instant delivery.
• Toilets are well-spaced but not too clean. Carry tissues, hand sanitizer & face towel like I did.
• There are no vehicles inside Esselworld so it’s quite safe to let kids run around.
• Cellphone reception is patchy, even though the mobile phone will indicate otherwise. Calls within Esselworld seem to be fine, though.