India

*Disclaimer - These are the observations of one very western person of a very eastern place. I do not mean for any observations to be critical or insulting. They are simply my observations.*

Okay… so here is my attempt to blog about India so far…

I left Mauritius on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Chennai, India at around 8:45 a.m. local time. Up until this point, things had gone smoothly as I travelled through Dubai. Nothing out of the ordinary… I got off the plan and headed toward passport control. I don’t think I have ever seen a line so long in my entire life. They had all of their desks open, but I think they must have all of their international arrivals at the same time. I picked a line that seemed like a good choice and inevitably it was the longest, slowest line. I was a little anxious because I had to pick up my bags and re-check them here… I finally got through the line and luckily there was no problem. Okay… I am officially in India. Good start.

Next, it’s time to find my luggage. I headed downstairs to the baggage claim area, which is also overflowing with people. I realized at this point, that no one cares if you can’t get to the belt where the baggage is. It’s everyman for himself and if you see your bag, you push your way through the crowd to grab it. This should be fun. Well, funny enough, after waiting for all the bags to come out of the shoot, I still had not yet seen my bag. All the time while the belt was churning, I was literally praying that my bag would be the next one. Ugh… Finally, I looked at the end of the belt and my bags were sitting there. It seems that while I was at passport control, someone got tired of seeing my bags going round and round and decided to take them off the belt for me. Gee… thanks. So, with my heart rate back at the “normal” non panic rate, I headed to customs and out the door. Okay… good progress. I find my way to domestic departures (which is a little walk) and discover that I have to go to the ticket counter to get my ticket to be able to get into the area where you check in. Excellent. I go, get in that line and get my ticket with about a 45 minutes before my flight is supposed to leave. I finally get in and find my check-in counter. Naturally, my bags are overweight and I have to pay a charge. So, I get in that line and pay my charge… 30 minutes remaining. Next I pick up my boarding card and proceed to go through security. This is always fun because I have to take out my computer, and take off my shoes… etc… Job done, I’m through security. Now to find my gate… Well, my boarding card says gate one, so I go to gate one. Two different people look at my boarding card and I am loaded onto a bus. This is a true Indian bus experience where about 50 people are crammed into a space meant to contain 5. That survived, I get to the plane to discover that this is actually the wrong plane. I don’t know how, but it is the case. Praise God the bus driver was able to take me to the correct plane. Potential heart attack two, overted. Funny thing was, they were not yet boarding. Again, thanks to God, they allowed me to board anyway, and I was able to cool off and relax waiting for the other passengers to arrive. God is good!

The flight was on a little puddle jumper for 1.5 hours and it went by really quickly. Unfortunately during our descent and landing, the small child in front of us decided to scream as loud as he could because he was not able to get off his mother’s lap. It was awful. Once on the ground, I realized that the fasten seatbelt sign and announcement to remain seated means nothing in India. People started getting up and getting their stuff and heading out into the aisles! I was lucky to shove my way off the plane when I did… Inside the airport, I retrieved my luggage and headed out to where Kalparaj, my ride, was waiting for me. We got my luggage loaded in the car and headed to my hotel.

The hotel I am staying at is one of the nicest in town. It’s huge and marble… At the gate, they have security guards who literally use a mirror to look under all of the cars before they can drive in. I was not sure whether to feel safer or worried about what people might trying to be sneaking in under their cars. I decided to go with safer…

Upon stopping, the bell boy was quick to get my bags and I was ushered into the lobby. I filled out my check-in information and was offered a glass of juice. This was a moment of truth for me. Everything I read said not to drink fresh juice, however, I knew that this hotel catered to international customers and in the position that I was in, not taking it would have been offensive. I (literally) said a prayer and drank the juice. It was actually really delicious. I was then taken to my room by one of the hotel managers and my bags arrived just behind me. The nice bell boy showed me where everything in the room was and I was on my own.

I took a few moments to settle in and decided that I would see what the internet access in the hotel was like. As I logged in, I realized that in the end, I needed to have an Indian cell phone number in order to get a confirmation code that I needed sent to me. So, I headed to the lobby and inquired about getting an Indian SIM card. Luckily there was a shop just down the street that sells these things. The gentleman in the lobby pointed me in the right direction and I found the shop with no problem. I asked for a SIM card and the lady told me that she would need a passport photo to attach to the application. At first I thought, “Crap”, but then I remembered that I had some extra photos from when I got my residency permit. They were absolutely awful, so I had gotten new ones for the other things I needed. So, I went back to my room and found these horrible pictures and returned to the shop. The rest of the transaction went easily. I paid my 78 rupees, and walked out with my SIM card.

I returned to my room and installed my SIM card and then proceeded to try to figure out the internet connection. However, everytime I got to the payment page, the system would crash and I couldn’t actually buy the time. At this point I had been awake for 30 some odd hours with maybe a 30 minute doze in the middle. I was sweaty and wanted a shower and just wanted to get in bed, but instead I headed back to the lobby and explained that I couldn’t get the internet connection to work. They told me that they could sell me either a 2 hour card or a 6 hour card. I chose the two hour card. The girl at the desk told me that she would have someone bring it to my room. I headed back to my room. An hour later, no one had come to my room, so I headed back downstairs to the lobby. This time, I actually got the internet card I needed and went back to my room.

After getting the card, I didn’t even want to use it, so instead I showered and went to bed without dinner. Ah… sweet rest.

Monday morning, I got up and got dressed after using Skype to talk to my hubby. (Thank you Jesus for Skype) I went to breakfast and discovered some very interesting breakfast choices. There was the typical pastry and toast section. There was an Indian section, complete with curry and paratha. There was another section that I couldn’t really identify anything on, and finally fruit. I played it safe and had a croissant, some potato wedges and a glass of juice.

After breakfast, I waited for my ride to collect me and take me to the office. I guess that in my tired haze the day before I hadn’t really noticed the traffic, but today it was hard to ignore. It seems that here, traffic rules mean nothing at all. The lane markings and speed limits are just suggestions. You can pretty much drive wherever you want to. Just be sure to honk your horn a lot to let others know where you are and not to cross your path. Interestingly enough, there is also no right of way, so if you want to drive across traffic or perhaps drive the opposite direction for a little ways, listen to Nike, and “Just Do It”. I cannot imagine driving here… Riding was enough of an adventure for me.

One side note on travel… There are a lot of “auto rickshaws” here. In Thailand they are known as took-took. Essentially they are three wheeled vehicles that have a bench at the back where passengers ride and a driver’s seat where there are motorcycle handlebars etc to drive with. When I saw them, I couldn’t help but think of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer tries to bring the rickshaw to New York…

In the office, everyone was very friendly. I have been treated extremely well since my arrival.
At the office, I had my first eating experience in India. I decided to try one of the little cookies on the table. They look like pecan sandies, and are very similar. They have the shortbread kind of content, but instead of pecans, they are filled with cumin seeds. I can’t explain the odd sensation that is. It’s like a spicy little cookie. They are pretty good.

It’s funny to think of this trip in retro-spect. Before I moved to England, I really, really disliked Indian food. I couldn’t stand it and had no interest in ever coming to India. I guess I can see how the Lord changed my heart and got me ready for this trip all along the way.

I am sure I will have more to share as time goes by, but this is just a little intro.