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:
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)
