Wednesday, August 13, 2008

We're here!

So, we landed in Mumbai laaate last night, and my parents’ lovely friend Niyati auntie came to pick us up at the airport. Note to self – don’t stay in your seat the whole time next time you are on a 9 hour plane ride. My legs were cramping when we got off. Anyways, the flight was pretty good. The 5 hour layover in Frankfurt that fell at like 1-6 am Houston time was not so fun, but other than that, we got through the journey ok…I did lots of reading and sleeping, some knitting, and beat John at Scrabble. John read, studied Hindi, and took pictures of things. They even gave us vegan meals on our flights which was nice, and we didn’t lose any of our luggage which was very very nice and possibly a first.

Today we did touristy stuff in Mumbai. Niyati auntie took us to Mani Bhavan which is where Gandhi lived when he was in Mumbai, from 1917 to 1934. It’s a great place to visit if you’re a Gandhi buff like me, or even if you’re not. They had his old bedroom preserved, lots of pictures and old letters, a library, and a whole room with little displays depicting important scenes from his life.



Next we visited the Gateway of India which looked like it was being renovated or something. Across from that was the Taj Hotel which was built by the British like a hundred years ago. It’s really pretty and faaaaancyyyy. Niyati auntie, John, and I had lunch at the restaurant there which was yummy! John said it was the best Indian food he’s had (except for my mom's cooking).



The traffic here is worth a little mention. The driving here is a little crazy. In fact, I’m pretty terrified of it! The usual distance that exists between cars in the US just does not exist here. We would be right, I mean right next to cars while driving on the freeway, and what would be a big close call in Houston happens like every few minutes here. There are people everywhere, and the lane divisions seem to be purely for decorative purposes. But it works!



Now we are back home. John is taking a nap, and I’m fighting sleep. It’s 4:00 pm here, but 5:30 am in Houston so we’re not completely over the jet lag yet. Tonight we are having dinner with Ghanshyam mama and family which we are looking forward to!

That’s all for now. We don’t have a phone number yet. We’ll get that once we get to Indore on Friday. Please email and leave comments!

Love, sapana

3 comments:

AP said...

haha that pic of you sleeping is great.

Susan said...

Thanks for letting me know about your blog. I look forward to updates and have it in my list of "Favorites"
Enjoy every day!

susan nossa

Tere said...

Glad to see you made it there in one piece! India sounds like a fascinating place, and we are looking forward to more photos and stories.

Be safe,
Tom, Tere, Christina, Becky, Mazy, & Alexa.