From Rebecca
I feel compelled to say from the get go which one of us is writing which post even though it's probably pretty obvious from the writing content and styles. To avoid any confusion I'll continue doing this.
We arrived in Mumbai early this morning. Just after midnight IST. The time difference is 10 1/2 hours. Not sure why the half hour. I guess they figured it is such a big country that they could have at least two time zones so instead they split the difference and called it good. So as I write this it is 8:27am on Saturday morning and according to my computer clock it is 9:57pm Friday night at home. I'll try to reset the clock on Blogger to reflect the time change.
I hadn't planned on being up this early after 20+ hours of travel but jet lag is a funny thing. We hope to tough it out and stay wake with no naps, go to bed early with no nap and wake totally refreshed and acclimated to this new time zone but the reality probably will be a couple of nights when we are wide awake at 4:00am before we really settle in.
To sum up our last couple of days of travel. We left Marquette on Monday. Endured several days of nasty polar vortex, icy, snowy car travel but we managed to get Quinn back to Louisville with Charlie safely at her side. Got to see family and friends along the way. On Thursday we enjoyed a nice lunch with our wonderful hosts, the Stawaras, and Grant and Gabby. My last meal in the US was a big fat sloppy burger (in fact it was called the Slop Burger.) Not going to see any thing like that here in India. We arrived at the airport early and were able to catch our breaths for the first time in a few days.
We took two 8 hour flights. DTW-CDG (Paris- very posh airport,) a 3 hour layover then CDG-BOM (Mumbai- not so posh but very orderly.) Flights were great but long. Air France treated us well with free wine, a few meals, lots of snacks and good onboard entertainment. Flights were only slightly delayed, connections easily made, bags arrived intact and there were no problems with customs or immigration, and we easily found our way to the hotel in the middle of the night and checked in without any problems . All in all a very successful trip over but no matter how you look at 16+ hours is a really long time to sit on a plane.
About Mumbai- The thing about traveling in the third world is that there is a particular smell and energy like no where else. Stepping off the plane you smell/feel it immediately. The smell is (I guess)of people burning fires for fuel. Stepping off the plane it brought me right back to the first visit here. The energy is hard to describe- by the time we arranged for our ride into the city it was after 1:00am but the city is so alive. Lots of traffic, car horns, chaos, people everywhere, a few dogs (haven't seen any monkeys or cows yet.) Temps were in the 70's last night so the car window was wide open to take it all in. On our 45 minute ride to our hotel we got a brief view of the city and of course will explore later. Our hotel is clean and in a great location. On Marine Drive- right across from Chowpatty Beach. Nice room with an ensuite bathroom. In an hour they'll deliver breakfast to the room which is included in the price.
Mike is doing his morning exploration right now. It is our habit while traveling (and in life for that matter) that Mike wakes early and explores while I sleep a little more. I tried to snooze this morning but thanks to jet lag I find myself wide awake so I post this. Will get a few photos posted. More later...
I feel compelled to say from the get go which one of us is writing which post even though it's probably pretty obvious from the writing content and styles. To avoid any confusion I'll continue doing this.
We arrived in Mumbai early this morning. Just after midnight IST. The time difference is 10 1/2 hours. Not sure why the half hour. I guess they figured it is such a big country that they could have at least two time zones so instead they split the difference and called it good. So as I write this it is 8:27am on Saturday morning and according to my computer clock it is 9:57pm Friday night at home. I'll try to reset the clock on Blogger to reflect the time change.
I hadn't planned on being up this early after 20+ hours of travel but jet lag is a funny thing. We hope to tough it out and stay wake with no naps, go to bed early with no nap and wake totally refreshed and acclimated to this new time zone but the reality probably will be a couple of nights when we are wide awake at 4:00am before we really settle in.
To sum up our last couple of days of travel. We left Marquette on Monday. Endured several days of nasty polar vortex, icy, snowy car travel but we managed to get Quinn back to Louisville with Charlie safely at her side. Got to see family and friends along the way. On Thursday we enjoyed a nice lunch with our wonderful hosts, the Stawaras, and Grant and Gabby. My last meal in the US was a big fat sloppy burger (in fact it was called the Slop Burger.) Not going to see any thing like that here in India. We arrived at the airport early and were able to catch our breaths for the first time in a few days.
We took two 8 hour flights. DTW-CDG (Paris- very posh airport,) a 3 hour layover then CDG-BOM (Mumbai- not so posh but very orderly.) Flights were great but long. Air France treated us well with free wine, a few meals, lots of snacks and good onboard entertainment. Flights were only slightly delayed, connections easily made, bags arrived intact and there were no problems with customs or immigration, and we easily found our way to the hotel in the middle of the night and checked in without any problems . All in all a very successful trip over but no matter how you look at 16+ hours is a really long time to sit on a plane.
About Mumbai- The thing about traveling in the third world is that there is a particular smell and energy like no where else. Stepping off the plane you smell/feel it immediately. The smell is (I guess)of people burning fires for fuel. Stepping off the plane it brought me right back to the first visit here. The energy is hard to describe- by the time we arranged for our ride into the city it was after 1:00am but the city is so alive. Lots of traffic, car horns, chaos, people everywhere, a few dogs (haven't seen any monkeys or cows yet.) Temps were in the 70's last night so the car window was wide open to take it all in. On our 45 minute ride to our hotel we got a brief view of the city and of course will explore later. Our hotel is clean and in a great location. On Marine Drive- right across from Chowpatty Beach. Nice room with an ensuite bathroom. In an hour they'll deliver breakfast to the room which is included in the price.
Mike is doing his morning exploration right now. It is our habit while traveling (and in life for that matter) that Mike wakes early and explores while I sleep a little more. I tried to snooze this morning but thanks to jet lag I find myself wide awake so I post this. Will get a few photos posted. More later...
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