The soundtrack comes from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Solitude. I chose this as a sign of respect for all of those who have been affected by the Tohoku earthquake and resulting Sendai tsunami that happened on 7th April 2011, almost exactly one year prior to my visit to Japan. 12 months on and live is still not back to normal for many; for some it will never be as the National Police Agency reported over 15,000 deaths.

What makes this different is that I have used the Slideshowpro Director API and some PHP code in order to retrieve the results and then generate a tag cloud of all of the associated keywords. For those of you the are developing your own site, you can see the code here.

So here I am “Stuck in Shanghai”. It’s not simple in such a bureaucratic country where you need a passport just to check in to hotel and you also need a valid visa even to leave the country.

However, I saw what I could of Shanghai (albeit on a budget because I need the money I have to pay for the hotel, clean clothes – I only packed for the weekend!), and food all in cash. I probably have 3 photos that are any good. I’ll post them once I’ve had a shower and finally changed my boxer shorts.

So, having finally got to the airport, I thought I would write out the instructions got the “great escape” process in case anyone stumbles on this blog who has ended up in the same unfortunate position as me.

Friday:
Lose passport
Go to Police Station and get a police report. KEEP THE ORIGINAL guarded safely.
What no one tells you, and would save you a lot of time is, while you are at the Police Station, get a Temporary Residence Permit. You will need this in a few days!
Also, use this time to get passport photos. You can get 7 for RMB 20 in East Nanjing Metro Station.

Monday:
8.30am Call the British Embassy (3279 2000) and arrange for an appointment. Aim for about 10.30am on Wednesday.
Go to the Exit/Entry Administration Bureau (1500 Minsheng Road). It opens at 8.30 but no one opens the counters until 9.00am. Go to counter 13 and hand in a completed Report of Lost Passport form, which they have at the back of the room. You will also need a photocopy of the original passport. Smile (the guy is pretty rude), and be ready to be told to come back in two days.

Tuesday:
Book a flight for Thursday evening wherever you need to go. Make it flexible in case any further delays happen. Print the ticket confirmation.

Wednesday:
9.00am go back to Counter 13 at the Exit/Entry Administration Bureau. Collect the Lost Passport report and tell them you will be back at 2.30pm.
Head straight to the British Consulate (Suite 319, 1376 West Nanjing Road). The building looks more like a mall complex, but head up the lifts on West side by Starbucks. You’ll get there at about 10.15am if traffic isn’t bad.
Complete all the forms. You need two passport photos (you’ll get one back, which you should keep for later), RMB 1000, the police report, the flight ticket and the Administration Lost Passport Report.
It will take them about 90 minutes to create the emergency passport, so in the meantime, the Gourmet Burger on the ground floor at the front of the building does good coffee and has free wifi.
After you have the emergency passport, you need to head back to your hotel to get the Temporary Residence permit (or skip this stage if you were smart and did it at the police station as i mentioned earlier).
Then head back to the Administration bureau with all of the paperwork.
Note that the bureau counters are unmanned from 11.00 to 1.30, so don’t worry if the Embassy takes a little longer, but do get there by 2.30.
Complete the visa application form (at the back of the room) and have that flight confirmation ready again. Go to Counter 4 (not Counter 13, otherwise it will take 7 days instead of 1). Its a typical Chinese queue (fight!) so be ready. They’ll take that one passport photo the Embassy gave back to you and they’ll give you a collection time.

Thursday:
Go to the Administration Bureau (again) and collect your passport now with a visa that is only valid for a week. Pay RMB 160. Head to airport RMB 120 taxi.

I hope for those that are reading this that you don’t have to go through this ordeal! If you are though, I know how it feels!

The tour started in 13th compound, where an estimated 80% of Mumbai’s plastic waste is recycled. We saw plastic being melted down into colored pellets as well as aluminium being melted down and re-cast into machine parts and the inner-workings of kitchen blenders. We saw palm oil canisters being washed ready for re-distribution back to factories where they would be re-filled and re-labelled. We walked past tens of rooms where young men sat on the ground in poor conditions sorting bags of disposed materials into piles of different types and colours. They will earn 100-150 Rupees per day (2-3 US Dollars) and be allowed to sleep on the factory floor at night.

From there the walk headed through Poon Wala Chawl and into Chambda Bazaar, where the maze of alleyways almost shut out all sunlight. For most, a home will be 10 square metres, house 4-5 people, and rent with be around 2,000 Rupees per month (30 US Dollars). The deposit is 11 months up-front.

We finished up in Kumhbarwada, named after a community of potters. Furnaces between the houses, covered in raw cotton to achieve a slow burn, act as kilns for the large quantity of pots and urns manufactured for sale elsewhere in Mumbai; the sides of the buildings were covered in soot.

The experience was unforgettable. As our guide said, it is a City within a City, with its own postal service and water system (which is on 3 hours per day). I imagine most people think of slums as a dangerous gathering place for the unemployed. Dharavi was far from it. Its manufacturing capabilities, albeit small-scale because of cost restraints, have enabled it to become highly productive with multiple industries, schools and hospitals all within the space of half of New York’s Central Park. And while the approach of the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) is proving unpopular – because residents only qualify for re-settlement if they have been living in Dharavi since before 1st January 2000 – efforts continue via numerous NGOs to find other means of transforming the Slums.

I would highly recommend the tour. Note, however, that photography in Dharavi is not permitted while participating in the Reality Tours visit.

Source: New York Times article on Dharavi

The train from Churchgate to Mahim where the tour of Dharavi begins.

It was incredible to have stumbled across such an unbelievably photogenic village and with people that were so welcoming. I left with my cheeks hurting having been smiling so much.

After a delicious Thali lunch in the area, we, once again, set out into the heat to take pictures of the bustling street life. After a little while we had to head indoors into the market itself to escape the afternoon heat.

Here are a couple of the shots from the day, as usual, straight from the camera:

Bombay continues to astound me. There’s something about the friendliness of the people here. I can’t think of any other country where people selling their goods on the street whistle at you not because they want you to buy something from them, but because they’ve seen your camera and want you to photograph them. Though some ask for the photo, most of them are simply happy that you took the time. We were looking at a portable printer for this trip to be able to print the images on the spot and hand them out. Unfortunately the battery didn’t come with the printer and there wasn’t time to pick it up, so we’ll have to do that next time.

Today, we also visited Churchgate station and found the spot where Sebastian Salgado took his wonderful image of two commuter trains arriving.

Here are a couple of images from the afternoon: