Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Mumbai: the beginning

Teizeen:

After a long 24 + hours in the air, and being almost run over by one of those airport buggies (the ones that transport people inside the airport - the driver was backing out and didn't see me because I was "too short"), we finally arrived at our hotel in Mumbai at 4:00 am on Tuesday morning.


We were walking through town getting some errands done (getting local cell numbers, checking out the train terminal, buying a Hindi-English book and stocking up on hand sanitizer), and came across this little internet cafe called "Portasia".  Cost = approx. $0.50 for an hour, and the internet speed is not bad (better than Kenya).

Our room is spic and span with shiny tile floors and a sink about 1/4 the size of what we have back home.  Breakfast was served on a tray in our room: paratha with lemon chutney (yum!), and hot Indian milk tea.  We're already looking forward to some good dinner cuisine... I've already set my eyes on the street-side banana stalls to get my daily morning banana fix!

Ryan:

As always, it was nearly impossible for me to get comfortable enough to sleep on the plane.  This is probably some kind of payback for having worked at a place that designed airplane interiors for four and a half years.  Anyway, the not sleeping on airplanes took place over a ~24hr period so my brain feels like mashed potatoes.  Teizeen was able to use her height to her advantage and curl up in the airplane seat.  She slept a little (but not much) better than I. We are both cranky!

It's 2:00AM back home in Washington as we write this - and our minds & bodies still think it is 2:00AM as well.  As a result, this first post may be a little thin - but, before we sign off, here are a couple of first impressions from both Teizeen and I from our walk out in town:

  • All the taxis look like the volvo sedan's of the 1970's - except really tiny versions of them - and most of them that I have seen are black with chrome details.
  • People honk to warn others to get out of the way rather than to scold traffic offenders.
  • The streets are vaguely familiar - dusty, crowded with vendors of all sorts, and busy.  It reminds us of Mombasa streets (but with fewer livestock and more people)

2 comments:

  1. SO excited! Keep us in the loop! Anna

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  2. You are guys are going to have an amazing time! I will look forward to reading about your travels. Are you going to post pictures anywhere?

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