Here...
Flying into Mumbai was sort of surreal. I kept having to remind myself that I was landing in India. I was so dazed and out of it from the crazy travel schedule over, that I kept having to remind myself that this was it...I was finally here. The Mumbai airport was beautifully inefficient. When I got off the plane, I had to go to the bathroom. Usually, there is a bathroom as soon as you get off the plane, right? Not in India. We had to walk for MILES before we even got to Immigration (at which point, I could see the nearest bathroom in the distance). Thanks to the lady in Singapore, I was completely prepared for Indian Immigration and sailed right through.
Stepping out of the airport, into the thick Indian air at midnight was a feeling I will never forget. There were hundreds of people shouting and holding signs. The guy who was holding my sign was right in front and whisked me away before the crowd ate me. Thankfully, I was coached on how to deal with being driven in India. You literally have to turn off. You can't really look at other cars or judge (as we are trained to do) whether they will hit you or you will hit them. You have to completely just let go and trust that the driver will get you there in one piece. Everyone honks. However, it's not a mean honk, it's more of a friendly, 'hey, I'm here and I'm about to come within one inch of your left side, so you'd better not veer left!'
Once I got to my room, I ordered my first meal in India...a chicken tikka masala pizza. By far, one of the most genius meals ever created. After brusing my teeth with bottled water, I went to bed around 2am.
The next morning, after repeated attempts to get up, I finally peeled myself out of bed around noon. The night before I wasn't able to see what was outside of my window. In the morning, I could: The Arabian Sea. (I've included a few pictures below). After eating some breakfast and showering, I decided that I wanted to go into Prana. Ellen came to pick me up and then we drove over to the business district of Mumbai. This area is sort of funny because you have these big, beautiful business buildings ("sky scrapers," if you will) and yet there are dirt sidewalks and people milling about below them as if you were in the middle of an Indian suburb. Prana's offices are beautiful with Hindu god statues next to pictures of Shrek and Nemo. Everyone was incredibly nice and welcoming. However, as if I have a hard enough time remembering people's names, here I also have a hard time saying them. I kept asking people, 'how do you spell it?'. That's going to take some work.
Around 7, I came back to my hotel, went to the gym, ate some dinner and crashed. I know, sort of boring, but I'm still adjusting...
We have a four day weekend this weekend, so I'm trying to decide where to go. Right now, it's between Delhi (which would also include a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal) or Goa.
In addition to pictures of the Arabian Sea below, I've included a shot of the hotel across from me. I'm not sure how well you can see this, but they are renovating it. Their "scaffolding" consists of sticks bound to other sticks. Last night I saw a few guys working on these sticks 12 stories up and about threw up. (It sort of reminds me of the bridge I had to build out of toothpicks in high school Physics. The bridge was supposed to be able to hold a lot of weight inside of a bucket. Needless to say, the minute the empty bucket was hooked on to my bridge, it buckled). Very scary. I hope these guys did better on their physics bridge.
On my way into Prana with Ellen now...
Flying into Mumbai was sort of surreal. I kept having to remind myself that I was landing in India. I was so dazed and out of it from the crazy travel schedule over, that I kept having to remind myself that this was it...I was finally here. The Mumbai airport was beautifully inefficient. When I got off the plane, I had to go to the bathroom. Usually, there is a bathroom as soon as you get off the plane, right? Not in India. We had to walk for MILES before we even got to Immigration (at which point, I could see the nearest bathroom in the distance). Thanks to the lady in Singapore, I was completely prepared for Indian Immigration and sailed right through.
Stepping out of the airport, into the thick Indian air at midnight was a feeling I will never forget. There were hundreds of people shouting and holding signs. The guy who was holding my sign was right in front and whisked me away before the crowd ate me. Thankfully, I was coached on how to deal with being driven in India. You literally have to turn off. You can't really look at other cars or judge (as we are trained to do) whether they will hit you or you will hit them. You have to completely just let go and trust that the driver will get you there in one piece. Everyone honks. However, it's not a mean honk, it's more of a friendly, 'hey, I'm here and I'm about to come within one inch of your left side, so you'd better not veer left!'
Once I got to my room, I ordered my first meal in India...a chicken tikka masala pizza. By far, one of the most genius meals ever created. After brusing my teeth with bottled water, I went to bed around 2am.
The next morning, after repeated attempts to get up, I finally peeled myself out of bed around noon. The night before I wasn't able to see what was outside of my window. In the morning, I could: The Arabian Sea. (I've included a few pictures below). After eating some breakfast and showering, I decided that I wanted to go into Prana. Ellen came to pick me up and then we drove over to the business district of Mumbai. This area is sort of funny because you have these big, beautiful business buildings ("sky scrapers," if you will) and yet there are dirt sidewalks and people milling about below them as if you were in the middle of an Indian suburb. Prana's offices are beautiful with Hindu god statues next to pictures of Shrek and Nemo. Everyone was incredibly nice and welcoming. However, as if I have a hard enough time remembering people's names, here I also have a hard time saying them. I kept asking people, 'how do you spell it?'. That's going to take some work.
Around 7, I came back to my hotel, went to the gym, ate some dinner and crashed. I know, sort of boring, but I'm still adjusting...
We have a four day weekend this weekend, so I'm trying to decide where to go. Right now, it's between Delhi (which would also include a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal) or Goa.
In addition to pictures of the Arabian Sea below, I've included a shot of the hotel across from me. I'm not sure how well you can see this, but they are renovating it. Their "scaffolding" consists of sticks bound to other sticks. Last night I saw a few guys working on these sticks 12 stories up and about threw up. (It sort of reminds me of the bridge I had to build out of toothpicks in high school Physics. The bridge was supposed to be able to hold a lot of weight inside of a bucket. Needless to say, the minute the empty bucket was hooked on to my bridge, it buckled). Very scary. I hope these guys did better on their physics bridge.
On my way into Prana with Ellen now...
posted by Steven | 8:03 AM
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