We have arrived! So my wonderful friend Amy dropped us off at LAX for a 12:30pm departure. We arrived in Houston a couple of hours later. I brought along 2 mp3 players, my Iphone, and two India guidebooks, sweaters, and my stroller which I checked and picked up at each gate. I also brought snacks and my laptop which I never used and will go back in checked luggage on the way home. I also had a backup battery pack for charging and I had planned on recharging in the airports, but we never had enough time between flights. From Houston we had a 10 yes I said 10 hour flight to Frankfurt. The flight was uneventful, except for the delicious vegetarian, Indian food. My back and knees where hurting mid flight as I tried without success to get a little sleep. When we landed, Drake was sleeping. So I put him in the wonderful Ergo carrier on my back and Draven and I walked down the stairs from the airplane and stepped outside. Boy was it cold! The wind was blowing and it woke up little Drake, so glad I had sweaters! When I got to the gate I was told it was changed and after lots of walking carrying Drake on my back and Draven in the stroller, with the help of a kind Indian man on my flight, found the right gate. There was a huge crowd getting on the plane of mostly Indian people and it was just really bizarre. The airline attendant was giving announcements which I could not hear. I was told by another passenger I could board, so I pushed my way through the crowd, went through one of those big rotating glass doors and into a shuttle to the next plane. This would be an 11 hour flight to Mumbai. I have to say the mp3 players and I phones saved us. The kids were totally content watching shows and playing games. With the battery back-up, we had just enough power to get us through. A bollywood soap opera type of movie was playing. I have to say I was a little put off by how American the family was being portrayed. Eating spaghetti and pizza and using silly American slang, just wasn't into it. It made me wonder about daily Indian life and the influence of media. I spoke to an older Indian woman about it briefly while waiting to use the WC. I just don't know enough to put anything together about it, but I thought it was kind of lame. As we descended I looked out the window and noticed we were flying over little islands all lit up. It was really pretty. When we arrived in Mumbai, both kids were sleeping so Draven went in the stroller and Drake went on my back and we went through customs. They had a line for infants and handicapped people which they sent me to. I hadn't completely filled out the forms so I had to step aside, finish it and go up to the desk again. A nice man asked me a couple of questions and I went right through. As I walked through the seemingly small airport, I noticed the shabbiness of it. It seemed old and tired. On to baggage claim. Two men immediately approached me, in competition and asked if I needed help, I said no and they promptly left me alone. My bag came right out, one of the firsts, so I was able to wheel my bag and push the stroller with Draven in it and Drake on my back to go through security. The man took one look at me and waved me through. Now I was walking down a hall, passed money exchange booths toward the exit of the airport. There were windows and I could see many people waiting outside, some sleeping, it was 2:30AM. I wan in India, now where was Del. I had read so much about harassment and scammers that I was a little paranoid of being bothered. You basically walk out and surrounding you in a horseshoe is a short wall with many people staring at everyone coming off, many holding signs to pick people up. I came out by myself, so I felt I was being stared at by a whole crowd, all around me. A man walked up very close to me and said in an Indian accent, "Take your bag, I take your bag, I take your bag" Without really looking at him I said a firm, "No thank you", only to look up and see Del! I don't have to tell you I was so happy to see him. It had been two weeks. So we went out toward the parking garage. Nothing like L.A. The cars didn't really slow down, just honked as we made our way to the elevator. The first one we couldn't get to work so we took the second one. The driver was alseep in the little car, Del said they both were sleeping in there for awhile as they had been there since 11:00. The kids woke a little and we had a very exciting, very fast ride out of the airport. The driving was like NYC only much, much faster, crazier,not really respecting the boundary of lanes and not bothering stopping for any red lights. He did however stop for a dog in the street which I appreciated. Looking out the window it reminded me of run down areas of Mexico I had been in. There were quite a few little fires that people had going and I am still not sure what they were for, our driver didn't speak any English and I haven't asked anybody else yet. We made it to our hotel and I greeted the doorman with a Namaste my hands in prayer and a little bow. He seemed to really appreciate this and greeted my back the same way. It warms my heart to get this namaste greeting whenever I go down into the lobby, I love it! We got up to our room and were wide awake. Poor Del had to work the next day and didn't get much sleep. The kids finally went to sleep somewhere around 6am, and I was able to do a little yoga and meditation. During my meditation the feeling of being just where I needed to be here in India in this very moment came over me, as well as a feeling of gratefulness for everything, including the opportunity to be here, on the other side of the world with my family, eagerly waiting the exciting adventures to come.
Our first few days in India, I think I was high on all the newness of everything. The time change was difficult because the kids were waking up at 12:30am and then either going back to sleep around 6am or not at all. We were all tired to say the least. Del was already adjusted and he was trying to sleep as he had to work the next day, but with two wide awake boys, it was a little crazy. I think all of the warnings and bad things I read made me more paranoid than necessary. Driving and crossing the street in this town took a little getting used to. The first couple of times in the taxi, we all would just laugh because it was nothing less than insane compared to the driving we are used to. I mean, traffic lanes mean nothing. There is constant honking and the drivers stop in the middle of the intersection. They get 1 inch from each other. Don't really slow down for pedestrians, just honk while coming within an inch of the person crossing the street. Red lights sometimes matter sometimes don't. My favorite pass time is to stand in front of the chai wallah and just watch the street. Someone inevitably will walk a cow down the street, another person will come by carrying something on his head, very entertaining. So we figured out the taxi situation pretty quick after getting ripped off a couple of times. There are two types of taxis, older and newer. The older ones have these boxes on the outside that display a number then there is a rate card that translates it into a fare of which you have to ask for. My sister in law actually downloaded an app on my i phone that does the translation for you. The newer taxis have electronic meters inside that display the conversion and amount of rupees owed. So we get into an old cab and blindly trusted the driver to tell us how much we owed. He told us 120 rupees which we paid. The next cab tried to tell us 180, we had gone about half the distance so we knew something wasn't right. Del said that the last taxi had only cost us 100. He said, "ok, then 100". I asked him for his rate card and Del noticed the whole meter was broken. Del laughed and gave him 40 rupees. The driver protested and Draven said, "take it or leave it". So the driver took it. After that, I started taking the newer taxis with the electronic meters. I figured out pretty quick that it costs 16 rupees a kilometer and one taxi I got in the driver had not reset his meter. I noticed because it was higher than 16 rupees. I quickly told him to do reset, and I try only to use the newer cars. Another time there was tremendous traffic, there always is but this time it was more than usual. We had an older driver who I could tell was slightly stressed. He kept saying to Del,"much traffic sir". We finally arrived at our hotel. The ride came out to around 60 rupees of which Del gave him a 100 and told him to keep the change. The driver immediately made the most wonderful chuckle. A 75 cent tip absolutely made his night! Funny thing is, that with the first driver, "ripping us off", it amounted to an extra $1.00. So really it was like, who cares? Another time, we were entering a temple and there was a couple of people trying to sell us flowers, and it can be a pretty high pressure sale. After negotiating a price, the vendor did not want to give Del his change. He got pretty mad, ripping his bill out of the vendors hand, giving back the flowers and stomping off. It was a pretty big display. When we were climbing all of the stairs to the temple, Del said, "I think I just got mad over 50cents". So small losses in figuring some things out. 