BOM: Bollywood and Bhel Puri, all in one night!

So my friend Kim had recommended I do two things in particular while I was in Bombay. Try something called Bhel Puri, which is a sort of Mumbai salad, and go see a Bollywood movie while I was here.

These sounded like good suggestions, so I've been trying to do them the entire time I've been here. Its been three weeks, and I still hadn't managed to do either of them. I thought this would be the week to do it, but of course I worked all possible hours every day this week, so I did nothing much but sleep, bathe and work (and a little shopping for souvenirs for a very demanding Jon Smith).

I decided I would cut work off today, and planned to see a movie. I left work at six - which actually seemed to be ok with my colleagues.

Charles got us tickets to see "Malamaal Weekly".
http://www.globalindia.com/bwforums/showthread.php?t=8089

The best thing ever - before the movie I realized the concession stand sold Bhel Puri! So I could do two at once! Bhel puri was very yummy, and I munched it during the start of the movie. Totally fun.

At the start of the movie, we stood for the Indian national anthem. Very cool. Good idea.

Did I mention Hindee movies are 3 hours long?

It was pretty fun though. A comedy. I could mostly follow what was going on. I actually thought the cinematography was pretty good - although if Craigy heard the sound mix he would probably roll over in his grave. Terrible foley. ;p

There was only one dance scene though, and no one broke into song even once. I'll have to catch another one next time I come.

C "Still waiting to see if Bhel Puri is going to make my tummy not so yummy" Dossenbach

ps Almost midnight. It occurred to me if my flight out of Mumbai is 1.5hrs late (as currently estimated), does this mean I'll miss my flight to SF? I'm going to be a zombie when I arrive.

BOM: Awww...I'm gonna miss this place!

Suddenly last night I started to feel a bit sad to be leaving. This was tempered by the prospect of yet another Saturday night alone - whilst all my friends back home are in the midst of St Patrick's debauchery (or, um, I guess they would be waking up from it).

I went down to dinner - I wore my pretty skirt with flowers on it hoping someone would maybe talk to me. I was thinking it would be fun to chat with another traveler, but the likelihood would be pretty low, considering almost everyone at my hotel was a business traveler.

Just when I was convinced my entire meal would be spent staring around the hotel and noting various architectural elements - someone actually came and talked to me! It was a fellow I'd seen in the elevator earlier. It was fun - he was American (Atlanta), and we chatted about how
crazy India was for a while. I even had a glass of wine (all glasses of wine I've had in India to date have been notsogood). It was fun chatting with someone also on his first trip to India, who's also doing high-tech stuff here.

I'm going to miss my nice hotel. :) When I told my favourite doorman I was checking out the next day, I was sad. I didn't even have time to go for breakfast this morning - no chance to say goodbye to the nice restaurant staff. They knew my roomnumber, and that I liked black tea,
sat in non-smoking, and that I breakfast with the other American engineers (when they were here). They would come over and inquire about my cough when I tried to hack up a lung every night at dinner. I will miss them!

Also - who will turn down my covers at night now?? Who will set out my slippers beside my bed so I can wake up and slip right into them??? No one will come and fold the corners of the toilet paper to make it look neat! Who will empty my garbages every day? Turn on the light so it
looks friendly when I come home from work? Refill my shampoo, conditioner, body lotion and body wash every day? Ensure I have enough tissue, and two fresh bottles of water? And of course generally tidy up and make the bed, clean the tub and whatnot, put out fresh towels. Mmmm.

When I got to work today, I realized I'm going to miss those buggers too. They might have frustrated me at times, but they're a good lot, once you get used to the head wobble. The operators got really excited that I sort of know two Murathi words now - the word for 'remove' and 'place' (useful in giving rework instructions - had I stayed longer I would try the word for 'swap' - but its hella long).

I think now that I'm leaving, I'm learning to appreciate India more. I'm totally down with the wobble now - in fact, I catch myself doing it as well.

There were definitely times on this trip when I just wanted to GO HOME. NOW. When work wasn't going well, people were frustrating - everything was just so ghetto....but I will miss India, and I am looking forward to coming back. I want to go visit the Taj Mahal, have dinner at Charles' house - see more of Mumbai in general.

Speaking of Charles - I'll miss him too! He was such a great driver! :) He was my main contact for asking all sorts of stupid questions about Mumbai, and my main source of info about how things work there.

I'm at the airport now (flight delayed until 2:40 AM. Jebus.) I've have a fun day, despite some nasty technical problems at work. Work was very relaxed (giving that it was Sunday, and even in India they don't work on Sunday). They have these nice loungy chairs you can recline in at the airport - I suppose because tons of flights leave in the middle of the night here. It almost seems unreal that in 30 short hours I'll be back in SF.

Bye India! Best Regards.

BOM: Let's throw paint on each other

So one good thing about being my trip being extended is that I got to stay for Holi. Holi is the Hindu new year, and people are out on the street celebrating and throwing paint on each other all morning. Please do not think I took the above photo, the quality is far higher than I can do. :)

For full details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

So no one works on Holi, and I was warned not to leave my hotel lest I get pink hair. Pink hair?!? That sounded fun to me, so the female Engineer from [satellite receiver company] and I decided to go out on Wednesday and see if we could get all colourful.

Wednesday dawned, I slept in. I ate a leisurely breakfast, and was ready to go out by 10:30ish. In preparation for the day's events, I had put vaseline on my finger and toe nails, so they wouldn't stain pink. Pink hair is one thing - but pink cuticles I thought would perhaps look a bit like I had some sort of disease.

All morning I could hear the revilry from my hotel, and was very excited to go out. Before we left the gate the guard warned us we'd get coloured if we left - he didn't want to let us go!

So out we went. We walked and saw coloured people, and everyone wished us a happy Holi. Ok....but there was not so much throwing of paint. What what what? I was wearing my ruined Salwar Kami, I WANTED to be painted. Why was no one playing Holi with me? :( I was starting to realize why they said we should go out in the morning -I think the main Holi fun gets going pretty early, and peters out in the afternoon. Or perhaps it was that everyone was too shy. I think they were asssuming maybe two white ladies didn't want to play Holi, we were just walking around by mistake.

Was this dog going to have more Holi fun than me?

Someone threw a bit of green paint on us as they drove by. Ok-ay....was that it? Was that all the Holi fun I was destined to have? :(

[insert suspenseful music]

Thankfully, we ran into a bunch of happy Holi little boys, who were more than willing to put colour all over us, shake our hands, and say "HAPPY HOLI MA'AM!". They were super cute. They got really excited when I took their picture:

On the was home we played Holi again - some fellows in an AutoRickshaw stopped and coloured us up good.

Anyhoo, you're probably dying to see what I looked like.


Ha! There I am!

Alas, no pink hair for me - all the colour washed off in the shower.

I spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. It did not even smell. Word on the street was that the pool area smelled, but the wind was in the right direction, because it didn't smell much at all. The slums on the other side of the hotel - they smell.

Woohai.

BOM: I don't see how changing my flight can be a saga, but this is the 3rd installment nonetheless.

Ok, now my tickets are really changed.

All those phone calls - yes, yes, yes. Fine, the reservation was set.

I still had to GO PICK UP my tickets. I couldn't even send my driver!

[haha, I'm totally getting used to being in India. I will tell you a secret. This morning the alarm went off right in the middle of my dream. In my dream I thought it was a house alarm, because I had just opened a door. Before I woke up and realized it was the morning alarm to wake me up I had the fleeting thought - "No worries, the maid will get it". Hah!]

So, we left work around 11:30. We had to stop for Petrol, but basically it took un an hour and a half to get to Town (aka, South Mumbai) where the United office is.

1:00 is lunchtime. So we had to wait until after lunch.

The super great thing about this is that Charles and I went for lunch in Town. So nice! Right on the ocean, beautiful temperature and nice ocean breeze. Really lovely! I've been inside a lot lately, it was nice to be out and about. South Mumbai makes me like India. North Mumbai makes me dislike India. Huh.

Anyhoo, after that great lunch I went back to the office. The lady had to fill out my ticket by hand, and fill three other forms out by hand.

GHETTO!

It took ages.

I did not get back to the office until 4:45. Seriously. I did have a nice nap on the drive back though! :)

I spent half of the work day getting a new ticket (seeing as I worked until 10). This does not make business flow smoothly.

-C. "Flying home on the 20th, for real" Dossenbach

BOM: Transformers. More than meets the eye.

So right now it looks like there is a pin swap on my transformer. Not the end of the world, but certainly not very good.

And I finally got my ticket changed! W00t! I am coming home on the 20th.

Honestly, it was a lot of work to get changed. I have advice about such matters - call the help number that is based in the country that the airline is based in. When I called the United office in Mumbai - zero help. She was pissed I kept calling. She insisted there were no seats available. But I say: "There are so seats available! You can see them online. You can call the other airline, and they have plenty of seats. Seats with no people sitting in them. So what do you mean by 'available'?"

For that is at the heart of the matter. The 'Star Alliance'. I traveled on United to London, then BMI to Mumbai. So BMI can't change the ticket directly, United has to, and the allotment of BMI seats given to United was used up. Its all in the allotment.

Finally I used the magic trunk line to call the US customer service, and the nice lady fixed it for me, for a fee. All good! The only catch was I had to wait until business hours EST to call, which is rather late to be in the office. (I was at work until 11:30. Boo. That's only because the gate closes at 11:30, and if we didn't leave then, we'd get locked in this economic zone overnight. Double boo.)

BOM: Sorry about the Monkeys...

I've got some dead time here at work, waiting for the first boards to come back.
And everybody likes Monkeys!

To finish my story of Sunday:

We got back from the caves at around lunchtime. I did not want to be stuck in the hotel for the entire day, so I asked Charles to drive me to a museum. (Anything, really - I am really familiar with the hotel, I don't need to spend all my time there. Its like pulling teeth - the other Engineers are content to chillax in the hotel 24/7.)

He took me to the Princ of Wales museum. I much enjoyed myself. South Mumbai seems way more fun than North Mumbai. North Mumbai seems to be more decayed (read: ghetto), with less cultural stops. I have lost my little Mumbai book, so the less-museum bit is from memory.

Anyhoo, at the museum I started feeling a teensy bit heat stroked, so I sat down and had some water. I still felt not-so-hot, so I decided I'd seen most of the museum, it was time to head back to my driver. I pretty much went back to the hotel and dunked my head in water, then felt much better.

Its odd, its not that hot here - a pleasant 80 degrees everyday almost. Nonetheless, I was happy to be back in the hotel Sunday evening. I think skipping lunch was maybe not a great idea.

Ok, boards due in half an hour....cross your fingers!!

BOM: Hey! Hey! We're the Monkees!

People say we Monkey around!


But we're too busy [picking nits of each other's tails]

To [bite anyone and give them rabies]!

BOM: Caves

There are some really neat caves just outside of Mumbai, carved by Buddhists over 1000 years ago.

We went there today.

It was really really cool! There were stone staircases everywhere. In the rainy season it is supposed to be best, because there are waterfalls all over the place.


Here is me standing in front of a carving (smiling Buddha) in another cave. This was the largest carving. In general, most of the caves seemed to be for the business of daily life. There was a school-cave, a kitchen-cave, sleeping caves - even a 'washing machine' carved into the rock (see below).

BOM: Total number of mosquito bites...

....
(drum roll, please)
................

3

In case anyone is curious, Dengue fever takes 15 days to incubate.

I choose to believe I am innoculated against said fever.

Hell ya!

BOM: I bought two Saris!

Saturday afternoon we left work a bit early and did more shopping!

I bought two Sarees (also a pretty skirt and a bazillion hankerchiefs - of the medium quality).

What was I thinking? Where am I going to even wear one Sari? Let me also dispose you of the notion that they are cheap. They are not cheap. They are especially un-costeffective when you consider the fact it is doubtful I will ever wear them.

They sure are pretty though.

The bodices are just arriving now. The little tops get tailored specifically for you.

Question - Will I remember how to tie it? This remains to be seen.

Mmmm....pretty....

If anyone has a party they would like to wear Sarees to, I'm there. Darn, Amit just had one in SF - but the weekend before I came to Mumbai!

Oh! They just arrived. FUN!

------------

ummm.....

a. They are just as pretty as I remembered!
b. Ahem. The bodices are kinda...boobylicous.

This is not what I asked for.

The bodices, besides being 'boobylicious' (and this I will up to your imagination), also just plain don't fit. Perhaps they measured that I had large deposits of back fat? And that my shoulders are about an inch higher than they really are. I think that is actually the case - but if that were the case (aka, I pull the shirt down) WOAH are they boobylicious! Not okay!

I hate returning things. But I can't wear them like this - they need pinning at a minimum in order to wear.

BOM: If possible, work is going even worse than before.

Where once my board simply did not work very well, now the power cycles every few seconds. Super!

I almost had a heart attack today when it started this nonsense. I should have been a basket weaver.

Meh. It'll work out fine in the end.

Travel Update:
There probably are flights out of Mumbai on the 20th, probably just the wrong questions were asked. My tickets have not yet been changed, the lady was not at work today. I hope she's there tomorrow!

BOM: 2 hours from work

Everyone seems to live two hours from work here. I think its the traffic, and the high price of living in Mumbai. Total bummer. When I work until 9, the poor engineer that has stayed with me doesn't get home until after 10, and has to get up in time to get here around 8:30! Ouch!

One engineer has his family in some town 4+ hours away, and only sees them on weekends - but only if he doesn't have to work Sundays! He's got a new baby too.

I really think that the people here work all the time. They work most Saturday, many Sundays, and spend 4 hours a day commuting. The test engineer I work with has worked 7 straight Sundays. Ouch ouch ouch.

This is a quality of life issue, I see. I think this commuting is quite common. There are lots of women who work here too - if they are at work 12+ hours a day, I am assuming they don't have house-husbands - who looks after errands and children and things?

Maybe that's why people don't seem too chipper here - they are too tired.

This is that third-world labour thing, giving us cheap goods. This is certainly no sweat shop, just a regular factory - but the commute for the workers must be a killer!

Although maybe its not that people have to live so far away, its just that this killer traffic makes any distance seem long. Today it took ~40 min to get here from the hotel - and I swear its only about 5 km. Less than 10 km, anyhow. When there are no policemen acting as traffic lights there is naturally gridlock, and no one gets anywhere very fast. Usually there are policemen, but sometimes not, then you have the random extra crazy traffic.

-c

BOM: I can't ever leave. Who in the what now? I can't ever leave?!?!

All flight out of Mumbai on United are booked until the 28th. Wha???????

This seems sketchy to me.

Perhaps they'll fly me directly to Hawaii.

Details to follow.

BOM: Hump Day

So Wednesday pretty much blowed.

My board is misbehaving, its quite embarrassing.

We did go out for a nice lunch, but I have not felt so super all day. Oh, but the best thing ever about lunch - the washroom had toliet paper! Such luxury! W00t!

I decided to go home at 6:00 today. I was all stressed out, and thought I could use an evening off, to chillax.

On the way home (it was just me, the other engineers are working late) our friendly driver Charles put me in a much better mood. We will maybe go shopping for high quality hankies at lunchtime on Saturday. :)

Did you know cell phone service is super cheap here? (Less than a Rupee per minute. I didn't know they have less than a Rupee. Charles told me a funny joke:

At a light a man stops and a beggar asks for money. He gives him Rs 10. (about 22 cents) At the next light, another beggar asks him for money. This time the he gives the beggar Rs 1. The beggar says "Why did you only give me Rs 1 when you gave the other beggar Rs 10?" The man says "How did you know how much I gave the other beggar?", the beggar says --- "I got an SMS!"

HAHAHAHAHA!

So I went to the gym, and now I am going to have room service for dinner (same price as in the restaurant).

I also plan a bubble bath.

-c

BOM: Man, I'm gonna be stuck here forever....

I'll be jiggered!

Project slipping. Will most likely change flight to sometime around the 22nd.

This means I miss the utlimate St Patrick's event of 2006. :( [Kim/Paul/Andrew mega Irish blowout, aka Craic party] In fact, I will probably be working late into the night on that very night - when I should be honouring St Patricks for...um...driving the rats from Ireland? Creating Guiness? Um...potatoes? Something important along those lines, anyway.

It means I will barely be back to SF in time to take off to Hawaii for Scot and Christy's wedding!
Yeah, fly halfway around the world, so I can fly an additional quarter way around. Snaps.

Dang, yo.

Also, all other engineers leave around the 16th. I hope Shilpa's cousins email me! :)

-c

BOM: Shopping, part deux

So, I apologize for being negligent in BOM postings! I will try to be more verbose.

Last night (Monday night) was a grand shopping adventure indeed!

After work our driver Charles brought 'Mary Cranston' and I to a different neighbourhood for shopping - no mall this time. Sort of a loose collection of little shops that have all space utilized. I think the neighbourhood was Andheri, but I'm not 1000% sure.

First we went to a children's clothing shop. Sooooooo cute. I bought a cute little shirt for Liam, and a newborn baby set for Allison's upcoming baby. Its SUPER cute - it says "I am a tricky tiger" or something equally cute. I hope to go to TO in July, so the timing will be right.

Then, it was time for buying Salwar Kameez!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salwar_kameez

Everyone at work wears them every day. Saris are also worn, but it seems maybe the working class women wear them for daily wear, and middle class women wear S.K.?? This is a broad statement, because I think where many things are divided into class here in India, this isn't one of them. Just a general observation.

Actually, its really coool. All the women here look so elegant, all the time! (Well, some women wear western wear, so they look...regular. Most don't though. At least on the ghetto drive to work) Even the women doing construction work on the side of the road are wearing saris!

There are huge infrastructure projects going on - the sidewalk all all dug up in this section of town. I've seen women move dirt using baskets on their heads - yet are still wearing Saris!

That's hardcore.

Ok, back to shopping.

The colours and styles popular here are much brighter and spanglier than perhaps suits my tastes. I think the poor tailors showed us almost every outfit in the store! I kept saying "No, no pink" and "Too bright! Too bright!" and "Too many sparkles" or "Too many sequins".
Finally I settled on a nice blue one with blue pants and pretty blue/cream scarf, and a copper-ish and yellow/gold one with embroidered flowers and only a couple sequins here and there.

[COVER YOUR EARS, MOM]



[seriously Mom, Do Not Open the next sentence until Mother's Day]







I also picked one up for me mather. I think she'll dig how cool it will be in the summer. Hopefully it fits ok! Its also not too spangly - just a bit. Its very elegant.








[MOM, YOU CAN UNCOVER YOUR EARS NOW.]

Now here is the bad news:Last night I thought I'd rinse my SK, to get some of the new-clothing chems off before I wore it today. The pretty blue embroidery bled EVERYWHERE! It is ruined. Dry-Clean only was no joke in this case! (On Sunday we'd been told everything says that here, to just ignore it. I didn't ask the nice tailor-man who sold it to me, I assumed it would be ok! M'I bad!)

Bummer. There goes $25......

Also, the pants were not loose and flowy, they are HELLA tight around the calves. I didn't realize....

I also bought a cool Ganesh wooden thing, and some medium-quality hankies. I would dub them 'sport hankies'.

-Dossenbach out.

BOM: Shopping was a bust.

So things arn't all that cheap.

We didn't buy that much.

We're going to maybe try again tonight.

Total bummer.

BOM: Sunday

Ha! Its already Sunday, beat you to it! ;)

Last night we went for a fancy Indian dinner with coworkers. That was pretty nice. Although most of the dinner was spent listening to our American contact here go on about all the travel he's done, and all the secret engineering he's done, and all the submarine-ing he's done (ok, fine it was very interesting!).....it was very Ben-esque. Surprisingly, this guy has Ben beat, hands down. The stories would never end!

Some were very interesting. Ask me about the secret stuff in person. ;)

The jet lag got the best of me by the end of the dinner though, and I just wanted to get out of there and back to my hotel.

Today is for shopping!!!

I'm pretty excited. We did pop in a 'mall' last night, and I was highly dissapointed. It was very expensive - and the Western women's clothes were almost non-existant.

BUT, looking on the bright side, I think both 'Mary Cranston' and I will be buying Salweer Kameez to wear to work. They look hella comfortable!

http://www.seasonsindia.com/beauty/salwarkameez_sea.htm

Also, maybe a sari for fun?

Thankfully we have our driver Charles to see us around, and ensure we are paying a proper price for things.

Oh, I bought Grandma a fancy shawl. If anyone wants anything, ASK IN THE NEXT HOUR!

BR!
-c

BOM: My General Health and Well-being

I know everyone is interested to know how my cold is gotten, and whether or not that dodgy piece of shrimp has gotten the better of me!

I'll consolidate this information here.

Cold: Moving along, yesterday taking a turn into the chest cough zone. I seemed to be on the way to losing my voice. There is a doctor on staff at work here, and I've decided if I actually do lose my voice and am reducded to whispering (ala the Massey Waterloo trip of '96), I will go see the doctor. [Side note: It sucks losing your voice. Here I was, a fresh OAC student, visiting the school I desperately wanted to get into to, and all my friends desert me for the Science faculty tour. So I spent the day touring the Engineering faculty with people I didn't know, and I could only whisper to them. On the up side, I do remember and interesting whispered conversation about Torque with Stan. "Torque. I don't know what it is, but that big construction machine sure has it, I bet."]

I did sleep VERY well last night, and I think I'm doing much better. I took some expectorant, and expectoration up some of the badness.

Shrimp: Its cool. (I mention this, because as I ate the shrimp, and started to think "Uhhh, this does not taste fresh...", I was reminded of Shilpa in a hospital on an IV due to scallops. Thankfully I had taken only one, so I didn't make a fuss. I don't like fusses.

Mosquito bites: Two. Malaria, Dengue fever, Japanese enchephe..sleeping sickness, etc. - all possible. Well, just Malaria and Dengue fever, really. Apparently there ARE mosquitoes in my 5 star hotel that puts out killer smoke every night to kill them. Boo.

BOM: Work Saturday?

Who knew they work Saturdays??? So it seems I only have two days free in Mumbai, not 4.
Bummer. Maybe I'll scooch out early today.

The plan is for shopping tomorrow, and next Sunday to visit Elephanta island (cool caves that were carved by Buddhists several hundred years ago).

It turns out is here. A female engineer who works there is also staying at my hotel - we're going to meet for breakfast soon. She seems like a nice lady. Sort of reminds me of Mary Cranston, but no wheelchair. So
I'll be shopping with 'Mary Cranston' tomorrow!

BOM: Traffic

Ok, for all of you that have been to third world countries, you're going to be like "Duh." - so you might as well not read on.

But for those of you who haven't.........

OH. MY. GOD.

Its super insane. They weren't joking.

I'm not sure how everyone hasn't died yet in a traffic accident.
There seem to be no rules - although I will pay close attention to see if I see any. It seems like people and bicyles and motorcycles and buses and cars all just GO. You honk if you want someone to notice you - and that makes it ok for you to GO. If there is traffic flowing in one direction and you'd like to turn, you just GO.

No one wears helmets. I saw a few guys on motorcycles carrying helmets, but not actually wearing them.

Its made even worse by the construction in this neighbourhood - no sidewalks (are there normally some? I'm not totally sure), so people just walk sort-of to the side of the road. No lanes - you just drive/walk/cycle where you fit. Thankfully, we rarely go above 40 km/h. When we get going that fast, I get nervous - I just know we're about to squash someone. Pedestrians are super crazy too - they just wander through traffic, chatting with one another.

I suppose its just a different system. It did take ages to get from work to the hotel last night though! I'm guessing its less than 5 km.

Oh, and there are these crazy AutoRickshaws. The name didn't mean much to me until I saw one, then its super obvious. Dad, I think you'll get a kick out of them. I'll try and take a photo today.

Thank goodness for drivers! I'm kind of bummed, but I don't think I'll be doing too much walking around. We'll see....

I do think the longer you stay here, the more normal it seems.

BOM: What? Its Friday?? I never could get the hang of Thursdays....

Opps, I seemed to have misplaced Thursday.

So it goes.

I'm here!!!!!

Boring flight details? Ok. Read on.

United to London:
-Really good vegan hot lunch!
-(Cover your ears Garth) REALLY good vegan chocolate chip cookie!
-$5 for wine and beer on an international flight? Boo, hisss.
-Sat next to 'Chloe' from 24. Well, for a while I thought she was much like Chloe - totally ignored me - often going OVER me to get to the aisle. But then it turned out she was German, and maybe just shy.
-Not much sleep. Maybe 1 hr?
-Saw 'The family Stone'. Didn't much like it. Thought the story was a bit thin. Somewhat dissapointed in SJ Parker.
-Saw 'Rent'. Can't decide if I hate it or dislike it. The damn songs keep running through my head. Make it stop! Jeez, I actually pay my rent! Its not fair!
-United did not have eyeshades. Boo hiss!

Then Heathrow. Augh. Went through security TWICE more. I did get a chance to buy more Kleenex though. I think my bags have been xrayed a total of 4 times. I am extra safe now. I was too tired to send my Grandma a postcard. :(

BMI to Mumbai:
-A suspicious lack of passengers on board. Really. There was less than 1 person per row.
-Thought I lost my return ticket, and the nice BMI man went to go talk to someone about it. Haha, it was just in my purse in another compartment. He then hated me.
-Food was icky.
-Flight attendants wore funny hats.
-The plane was super old. I sat above the wing, and I could see where some paint was gone. Ahhh...I closed the windowshade.
-No eyeshades. Booo-urns.
-Slept considerably more. Perhaps 5 or 6 hours.

Cutoms in India was a breeze! Although there was a lane for 'Unescorted Ladies', I didn't have to go there. I was a bit worried my hotel wouldn't have send a driver, but they did, it was all good. My hotel is quite near the airport.

Mumbai is hot and smokey! Why is it smokey? I don't know!

Ok, more about the hotel in the Hotel post! W00t!

Dossenbach out.