Sorry this is so delayed! Internet has been nonexistent, but we're still going to write about every day so you all can live this adventure along with us!
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Well, we made it to India! Our journey began at 6am this Morning when Marinda got up to finish getting herself ready. The suitcases were packed, and there was only some last minute things to be done. Plus, she wanted to make herself look nice - not overly done - just “I’m traveling international” nice. I mean, if she was going to live out this dream of going to India she wanted to do it right!
However, the universe, as it is bound to do, had other ideas. Luke had a cold/cough since Sunday and even though they got it checked out at the pediatrician the day before and confirmed it wasn’t anything special - Luke seemed to think feeling bad warranted him being snuggled for an hour. So Marinda’s nice, relaxed morning turned into a last minute frantic throwing stuff in backpacks and running around with only enough time to splatter on some mascara.
Then we were on our way! Checking in and security went fine, and before we knew it we were at our gate on our way to Amsterdam (our layover) and everything seemed peachy. Marinda had even gotten pre-boarding and Amit submitted his research paper from the airport (YAY FOR HAVING IT DONE!). But then they called pre-boarding, and Amit was in the restroom, and the canopy for the umbrella stroller wouldn’t come off so it wouldn’t close, and Marinda couldn’t set Luke on the ground because it was gross, and the sky started raining fire and a dinosaur started eating people on the runway. But then Amit showed up, we still got pre-boarding even though they had moved on, and life was peachy again!
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| I'm going to India! |
We had traveled internationally before for our honeymoon, and Amit and Marinda remembered it as long, and smashed. This time, however, we had bulkhead seats. Note to people planning on traveling internationally with small children - Pay The Extra Cash! It was soooo worth it! We had plenty of leg room, no one smashing us, and we even made a tiny playpen on the ground for Luke. All this was nice (topped by the interesting sisters we were sitting next to who were picky eaters and gave us all their food) but in the end we didn’t get hardly any sleep from Luke being sick and needing to be constantly soothed.
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| Playtime! |
Ten hours later we arrived in Amsterdam and walked across the room to our next gate and met Amit’s parents and aunt. They were VERY happy to see Luke - and Marinda got her first taste of what the next two weeks would be like. We had to go through another security line, and while we were waiting Marinda stuck out as the tall white girl. People kept staring at her, but then they would see Luke and completely forget about her.
The next flight was only 8 hours long, but Amit and Marinda can say it was the longest 8 hours of their lives. Luke was so cranky and they had to kick up the soothing to keep him from screaming the whole flight. They were both able to switch back and forth and got a few hours of sleep. The good part of that flight was a nice man offered to switch seats with us because his row was empty, so we had four whole seats to ourselves! We would say his random act of kindness saved our sanity.
Then *drumroll* we were in India! And Luke promptly passed out. :) It was midnight, but the airport still had a good amount of people in it. Some men approached us wanting to help (for money of course) so Marinda got to see Amit put his Indian on and turn them away. We made it though customs, and then we were outside and it was HOT! And very humid with mosquitoes everywhere.
Normally when we travel, the trip from the airport to the hotel is uneventful. It’s simply a 20-30 minute gap of time stripped from the official records of life. Not so in India! The adventure started with getting to the car. Amit’s dad had contacted the hotel beforehand and they had a car waiting for us. So we grabbed our luggage carts and started walking. At one point someone came up and grabbed Amit’s cart and said “It’s okay, I’m a porter.” At least that was the meaning. In his broken English he actually said: “Okay, yes,” and pointing to himself, “Porter.” Amit’s dad and the guy from the hotel didn’t seem to care so that was that. (In the end, he was pretending to just be part of the hotel team but was just another guy wanting some extra cash). For the car, it turned out there was a slight miscommunication, and they only sent a car with room for 5 people and little to no luggage. We, having 5 people and a ton of luggage, were a little confused. They said “Oh yeah, you’ll all be able to fit.” There was a front seat and two bucket seats in the middle with all our luggage in the back. Thankfully, Amit’s dad and Mausi (Amit’s aunt) took a cab.
The car ride was fascinating for both of us. First off, Indian driving is a little insane. Lanes are viewed as suggestions, and most of time bad suggestions. Safety is overrated, as evidenced by the absence of car seats, helmets and people not dangling off the side of scooters. And you know the general rule in the US about leaving plenty of space when you pass someone? Yeah, in India the rule seems to be get as close as you possibly can to the other car. And to top it all off, they drive on the left side of the street, which everyone knows is crazy.
Mumbai at night was much busier than we expected but also not quite as nice. “There still tons of cars and people around,” Amit said. “Most of the people were poor, and most of the shops were run down. It really struck me how what we view as ‘poor’ in the U.S. compares to what counts as poor in India.” “You know, most cities are pretty much the same nowadays,” Marinda said. “You have some buildings, cars, roads and they all look pretty similar in this day of globalization. But the differences are in the details. There were beautiful tropical trees and hanging flowers. There were stray dogs everywhere. And not the cute, cuddly kind. Outside the airport there was a tank of a police car. We saw some barefoot rickshaw drivers. There was an open fire in the parking lot. We saw two off-duty policemen holding hands. We passed a women riding side-saddle on the back of a moped and she wasn’t even hanging on - after all, she had to hold on to her baby. The city of tents where the poorest live, and the massive amount of tin roofed slums with satellite dishes on top. Pictures of Hindu gods nailed to trees, and apartment towers that looked that they were rotting from the inside out. Beautiful office buildings next door to apartments with clothes hanging out the windows. It was so different, and yet it was their world. And I became very aware of how big the world really was if this could be their normal and have it seem so alien to me.”
That brings us to our hotel. The entry way to the hotel was mostly nice. There was lots of marble and Egyptian artwork (not sure why). Continuing noticing details, our room, like the city, was pretty average at first glance. Then we noticed that the ceiling fan was hanging out of the ceiling, that the paint was pealing on the walls and the tile in the bathroom looked like it was rotting away. To contrast this, our bell boy was the pinnacle of detailed service. He went around the room and meticulously adjusted the furniture, and then when he set out the bottles of water he made sure the labels were facing us. It was kind of beautiful in a way that in a city where the outer environment is wanting, the people are so attentive to your needs.
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| Our comfy room (moments before Luke launched himself backwards off the bed...) |
With that, we hopped into bed and caught a few hours of sleep, thus ending out first day in India.
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