cough cough

I'm sick, again. I had two colds during my 5 months in India, and now that I'm back, I have a cough/cold that might be the flu. I'm not sure yet, I just know that I feel miserable. The sneaky virus just crept up on me too. I just thought I was clearing my throat for a day or two with intermittent coughs, and then I woke up the day after Christmas (well, hungover), but also just feeling terrible in general. By today, it's a full blown head cold and cough with body aches, and I'm about to get on a plane in just a few hours.

I have travel plans over the next several days to visit Santa Cruz and Sacramento before driving back to SF on New Years Day. At least since I'll be staying with family and close friends, I'll be able to go to bed early or do whatever I need to do to get better, but it's still a bummer.

But hey, for those of you who haven't heard, my next assignment for work is local! (If you can call Pleasanton local, but since my commute doesn't involve a plane and I'll be able to come home at nights, it's local). It kicks off on January 9 for 6 weeks. Wow, it will be nice and strange to actually work in the Bay Area. I've traveled 100% for the past 2 years! Just wait, in a few months (assuming I stay local for awhile, which is likely), I'll be itching to travel again.

The family that cooks together, stays together

...that was our trial motto this Christmas at my Aunt and Uncles.

Christmas morning started with brunch and then opening presents amongst my mom, dad, brother, his wife, myself, and all the grandparents at our house. Then we went to my Aunt and Uncle's where, knowing ahead of time we would be delegated kitchen tasks (because we volunteered to help), we were each assigned a recipe. They had already bought the ingredients, and basically said there's the cookbook - go! With a family full of manager-type or otherwise strong personalities, it was interesting to see us all negotiate for stovetop space, and maneuver around each other in the kitchen. My dad, who was spared the recipe assignment until my mom put him to work on hers, was enjoying the show and snapping photos along the way.

But, the cooking was interspersed with wine tasting of three amazing Cabernets (a 97 Kenwood Reserve, a Legacy, and a Cain something or other). Chop chop, sip. Stir, stir, sip. The main course was prime rib, and the other dishes were a scallop soup, green beans sauteed with garlic, butter and tarragon, garlic mashed potatoes, and poached pears in a port sauce for dessert.

All of this was following appetizers of salmon with capers and onions on crackers, jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce, and a champagne tasting. After that tasting we are now all blaming my Uncle for ruining what we thought was a good champagne by tasting it against an even better, and more expensive, version that now we all think is how champagne *should* taste. Oh well :)

In the evening, my brother commandeered the golf cart, and we drove around the neighborhood looking at the beautiful homes made even more attractive with Christmas lights and decorations. Even though I sometimes lament the Southern California Christmas weather (which at times has been 80 degrees in the daytime), it was nice to have a cool evening where you can be outside and not be fighting off rain, snow, or bone-chilling temperatures, and yet, still enjoy the warmth of the fireplace when coming inside.

Christmas Day is definitely my favorite day of the year. My family and I always have a good time, usually the "cousins" all play a trivia game of some sort, the food and wine is absolutely fabulous, the homes are tastefully and warmly decorated, and it's a time and a place where I feel grounded and feel like, "this is me". It's good when you can feel that way around your family.

Reunion Night

On Friday night, I doubled up the unofficial reunions by having dinner with 5 friends from UCSC and then going to a party with 30-40 people from University High School in Irvine. Dinner was up in Brentwood, and even though I hadn't seen a few of them in several years, it's always interesting to get back together with people, reminisce on funny stories, share gossip about mutual acquaintences and realize, again, exactly why you were or weren't friends with those people. I don't mean that in a bad way at all, but it's interesting how you can forget about a certain person's quirks or sense of humor, and then when you see them against, you react the same way you always did. At least, that's how I find it is with friends from college.

For high school friends, it's a bit different; because really, we've ALL changed since high school. I have a core group of about 5 people who I regularly keep in touch with and make a point to visit, even if that means flying for a weekend trip to see them. There are several others who I was happy to see, but most interesting was the fact that the cliques we belonged to and the activities we did in high school don't really matter any more. Everyone was friendly, and at least at this particular party, everyone knew each other's names, even if you wouldn't have considered them a friend in high school.

It was intriguing to find out what people are doing: Nonprofit work, social work, corporate sellout (that was me :), rocket scientist, advertising sales, pro baseball player (that's Garrett Atkins who plays for the Colorado Rockies if you are curious). I ran into one girl who I found out lives in my same neighborhood in San Francisco. Yes, another UNI grad from 1997 who lives in the Presidio - how random is THAT? She also has blonde hair and blue eyes, so she'll fit into the group with my roomies when we go out in the Marina - LOL.

Having driven from Brentwood to Balboa Island in Newport Beach, I wasn't drinking, and I didn't even get to the party until 12:30am, but stayed until 3 am when I gave rides home to a few of my inebriated classmates. Finally, a party with these folks when we are all legal! I was teased about my 6th grade "boyfriend" who was also there, and old stories from high school, junior high, and elementary school were dug up and shared. Overall, I really had a good time, and I am looking forward to our 10 year anniversary in 2007. It will be great to reconnect with friends, and entertaining to laugh at the people who brought their spouses on display, or generally are still just being shallow "OC" style.

Oh, Christmas Tree

This year is the first year in a long time that I am so excited about Christmas. I get to see my family and friends who I've missed, I'm back home from traveling abroad for the second half of the year, but most significantly, I haven't suffered the bombardment of Christmas hype since mid-September, or whenever it is nowadays that they start the ads, and the decorations, and the cards. Each year seems worse, and by the time Christmas actually rolls around, you just don't want to see tinsel ever again.

Arriving back to this over-consuming and marketing-driven culture mid-December is perfect. I'm ready to see all the lights and trees, hear the caroling songs, and shop/wrap presents for the next two weeks, and then it will be over - poof! Easy come, easy go. No matter what Christmas actually means to you, be it religious holiday, a time to spend with family and friends, or simply another day off of work, it shouldn't be all about buying, buying, buying, especially all those stupid secret santa gifts. Sigh. Well, I don't mean to be a grinch; I'm just thankful that I'm ready to enjoy the Christmas season!

Escaped from India

Ok, now that I've actually been back for a few days - here is the last entry about India. By the way, I will continue to keep this blog, but I'll rename it (when I get the motivation) and will keep it updated with my travels and adventures.

My last day at the client in India was Tuesday, and even though I had everything "under control" I still felt that sense of dread that something would go wrong, the client would pushback, or SOME-thing would come up to keep me from leaving that night. However, amazingly, it was smooth sailing. I received sign off on all my deliverables at 4:30pm in the afternoon, had a causal chat with the client sponsor for awhile, and...I was free!

It also just so happened that we had a team dinner on Tuesday night at Olive restaurant, the same restaurant I went to on the night of my departure the previous time in September. The entire team was there, totaling more than 20 people, and we had an excellent time. I, of course, was in a fabulous mood, and I think everyone else appreciated the night out as well. (Photos are to come...) It was a nice way to end my experience in India, considering I've shared commutes, meals, and adventures with most of these people for the past 5 months of my life.

My flight was at 3:25am on Wednesday morning, so once it was edging towards 1am at the bar, I thought, hm, I better get moving, despite my partner's jokes about his goal for me to miss my flight :) He kept telling me about a great place he wanted to take me to lunch the next day...as if that would keep me in India! :)

I got to the airport at nearly 2am, and had no problems until the Lufthansa rep said I owed them $200 for the change fee. The client was supposed to pay this, but there was no one I could confirm that with at two in the morning, (and I don't have much faith in the client's travel agents anyhow) so out came the magic Gold Amex card and I was on my way. I was extremely lucky with seating on both flights. I had an entire row to myself on the Mumbai to Frankfurt flight, and then from Frankfurt to SF, and empty middle seat, so I was never *too* cramped, although in Economy that's all relative.

I lay across the row and slept the entire first flight - 9 hours. But then I was awake the entire 11.5 hours of the second flight. What to do? Well, I read a book from start to finish, and watched two movies. That's about it. I landed at SFO at 12:30pm on Wednesday afternoon, and it felt so good to be back! My regular car service picked me up from the airport, and when I got home I found that my roommates had left flowers and a balloon for me in my room. I started to unpack, and then crashed for 3 hours, since my body thought it was 3 in the morning.

Over these past few days, now that I have some distance from my India experience, I'm starting to come to conclusions about my impressions, what I've learned, and what the experience has meant to me. I suppose I needed some distance from India before I could start to really figure these out. It will be interesting to see how I feel about it in a few months time. For now though, being home is perfect.

I never left the house on Wed, but on Thursday was up and doing errands most of the day and I went out on Thursday night to dinner and drinks with friends in town from NYC on business. Friday though...back to nesting mode. I've been in my pjs all day and haven't even stepped foot outside, although I have finished all my laundry, unpacked completely, and reorganized my wine fridge and closet, so I'm being productive! :) I'm going out tonight to see Cirque to Soleil, so I'll get ready....eventually. So, for now, I'm back, I'm safe, I'm healthy, and (will be) ready for another adventure should it arise!

HOME

I made it home, on schedule and in one piece...another entry with more details to follow. For now: SLEEP ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

Last Commute

I decided to have my camera ready this morning because you never know what you'll see on the roads, (I was hoping for a final elephant sighting) and today is my last day doing the long commute. I was able to get a few good pictures, such as the overturned delivery truck with the wheel popped off on the highway, the traffic jams, etc. I wasn't able to get pics of all the usual stuff: the loaded down taxis used as delivery cars, the rickshaws with more than 5 people, the fuel carts pulled by oxen/cows (I don't know what they are), the sleeping donkeys in the middle of the road, etc.

But, the ride didn't disappoint. I saw a guy walking down the road with dead chickens hanging off a rope around his shoulders. I saw another man going to the bathroom while his pet monkey waited patiently on his leash on the stone wall (no, this is not a euphemism for anything...). And there was a swarm of autorickshaws like bumble bees on the road, with their black and yellow painting, all jumbled together. There were the usual pedestrians playing "frogger" to cross the highways, and we had the requisite "near misses" when I thought a bus was going to jam into the side door that I was leaning against. I saw the loaded down bicycles, with enough goods to fill the back of a pick up truck, that some poor guy had to push down the road to its destination. And there was me, the white girl behind the tinted windows, that attracted "window tappers" like moths to a flame.

All the crazy things...I do have to admit, daily life in the US seems mundane in comparison, but that's ok by me. :)

Final weekend (lack of) revelries

Well, it's my last Sunday in Mumbai, and sad to say, I spent Saturday night working till 1am, and today, after meeting up for brunch with my local friend Minal to say goodbye (sniffle sniffle), I continued working. I just hope I still get to leave on Tuesday. If I've given up my last weekend to work so that I can get out of here as planned, and then am still held back...let's just say I won't be a happy camper.

Friday night though, I did go out for dinner, so I had a bit of a weekend to enjoy. A group of us went to the new Italian restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel on Marine Drive. Excellent food, good company, and good wine! Got home at 1:30am, and then back to work on Sat...other than that, I've spent the entire weekend working, and just finished all the packing that I could with just a few days to go.

Ok, there a FEW things I'll miss

As I am wrapping up here in India, I'll admit, there are some things that I will miss, but plenty of things that I won't. Here's my first attempt at a list.

Will Miss
1. My new friends! (Within my company and in Mumbai)
2. Wearing flip-flops to work
3. Showing up at the office at 11am
4. 50 cent lunches (even if it is prison food)
5. Seeing elephants on the road
6. Rides home in autorickshaws after a night out

Won't Miss
1. One hour+ each way commute to work on terrible roads in an uncomfortable car
2. 6-day work weeks
3. The lack of general infrastructure and the poverty in Mumbai
4. The smells...
5. The difference in my idea and India's idea of "customer service"
6. The business culture in India/Asia

World Traveler

Wow, I just realized I've been to 6 new countries this year, definitely breaking any previous year's records (I don't count airport connections, but if I did, there would be Sri Lanka and Germany to add to the list ;)

2005 Travels
1. Costa Rica
2. Canada (Vancouver)
3. India (Mumbai, Goa, Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur)
4. Maldives
5. United Arab Emirates (Dubai)
6. UK (London)

Also, Eleeza asked us to "workshop" blog and post lists of countries we wanted to visit. Here was my next "top 10" I posted to her site, but not necessarily in this order:

1. Thailand
2. South Africa
3. France
4. New Zealand
5. Portugal
6. Italy
7. Australia
8. Brazil
9. Malaysia
10.Canada (parts other than Vancouver :)

Getting better

I finally think I'm starting to improve and get over this cold. The scary thing is that I think it may have something to do with the 8 Bacardi Breezers and the 4 hours of sleep I had last night. Maybe I've just been sleeping too much and drinking too little? LOL.

My coworker John left India today to head back to London, after 5 months, so it was his going away party. He arrived here 4 days before me, and he is leaving 5 days before me, so our stints are almost exactly the same length.

Since we didn't get back from to the hotel from the office until after 10pm, a few of us had a party in one of our rooms, ordered room service, raided the minibars, played music off the iPods, and stayed up until 3am joking around and being silly. Today, I am surprisingly refreshed and feeling much better, although I still have the lingering cold symptoms. I just want to beat this cold before beginning the 22 hour journey home next Tuesday night. Being sick on planes is just no fun.

Countdown?

Well, I don't want to get too excited until I have my E-ticket in my Inbox and the road is all clear with the client, BUT, I am expecting to be back on American soil in exactly 1 week from now! The plan is to work through this week (meaning Sat - ug), and then work Monday/Tuesday before flying out on an early 3am morning flight on Wednesday. I'll arrive in SFO by lunch time on Wed. Woo hoo!

This, as usual, could change if s**t hits the fan in some form, but as of now, things look pretty good. I'm excited, but since I am still trying to work through this persistent cold/virus, and since I still have work to do, I don't know, it doesn't FEEL like my last week (at least not yet). But it is nice to know that I actually have a reason to check the 10-day weather forecast in San Francisco. :)

The Big B

Amitabh Bachchan is one of, if not the most, living famous person in India. He is their most renowned film star (over 164 movie credits on the IMDB alone), he promotes so many commercial products that I can’t keep track, and everyone adores him. He’s like the Princess Diana of India, if you know what I mean. He hosts “Crore Pati” (the Indian “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”), and people flock to any event they think he might be attending. At the client site a few Fridays ago, everyone was released from work early because there was a special event being held on the corporate campus – turns out the President of my client is friends with Amitab and he was going to be there that day attending the party – basically, they wanted all the commoners out of the way, so we got to leave work at 4pm. : )

Well, the Big B (one of his nicknames) has had a turn of health and required some sort of intestinal surgery. He’s been based at Lilivati Hospital here in the Bandra section of Mumbai, one of the best hospitals in the area. Unfortunately for us, this has added an average of about 15 minutes to our commute every day. There are news vans 24-7 surrounding the hospital, and people flock from all over India, surrounding the hospital gates, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, or someone else famous who might be visiting him. I heard some quotes from bystanders on the news – it was really pretty funny (“when he’s in pain, India is in pain; I’ve traveled all the way from Delhi to show my support for him”).

I’m not belittling his role in the Indian public, but c’mon, he’s a film star. I guess I just don’t get it, but it’s at least interesting to have all the action in my backyard here in Bandra.

"Guest of the Week"

I was more or less randomly selected to be Guest of the Week last week at my hotel. If this happened in the States, I would expect something like a free beer at the bar or something else sort of cool, but not worth making a fuss about. This hotel, however, really does it right. They delivered a bottle of red wine and chocolate cake to my room, and gave me a voucher for a dinner for 2 (including alcohol) at any of the hotel restaurants, as well as any one service from the salon or spa.

I found out about this the day I flew back from London, and I had the rest of the afternoon to spare anyhow, so I took advantage of the free services immediately. I booked myself for a 1 hour massage at the spa, which I thoroughly enjoyed after laying out by the pool for about an hour, and made a reservation for dinner at the Chinese restaurant downstairs.

I’ve had extremely bad luck with food in general at restaurants in India, particularly at Chinese restaurants, so I figured that at least this way, if I didn’t like something, I could just keep ordering more, and not have to worry about paying for it. We ordered appetizers, mains, and drinks, and it was all much better than I had expected. One thing I have a distaste for is food where the sauce is “gludgy” which is the only way I can describe it. I’ve ordered “grilled fish” and it comes out in a pan of yellow sticky gludgy sauce that I didn’t even bother trying it.

Anyhow, here we got lobster, scallops and honey pork ribs for appetizers, and then fried duck rolls (I forget what it’s called – the ones you make yourself with the hoisin sauce and the really really thin pancake-like tortillas), fried rice, vegetables, etc, along with a few rounds of cocktails. I couldn’t believe it – it really was free! And the food was good!

Being Guest of the Week rocks!

Weekend: food, drinks, countryside, drinks, food (repeat)

Got back at a reasonable time from Windows and after a restful 10 hour sleep woke up starving. We walked through Borough Markets in the London Bridge area, which made me even hungrier. It's like a fabulous Farmer's Market with loads of cooked items as well as fresh ingredients. Free samples, fresh food, packed full of people - it was awesome. Seems like a great place to go get some gourmet ingredients to make a lovely weekend meal.

We ended up at a cafe where I had my typical breakfast for 3 days running: latte and croissant with ham and cheese melted inside. Mmmmm.

A few hours later, John and I met up with friends of his at Live Bait restaurant in Covent Garden. A bottle of Bollinger, a few bottles of Sancerre, and several platters of seafood later, we were stuffed and happy, again. Covent Garden is full of tempting shops, but I had neither the time (nor the willingness to spend) so we headed back to Paddington Station to catch the train to Reading.

John's friend Tom has a place out there. Well, "place" is an understatement. His family has a proper English countryside farmhouse, with vines growing up the building, large rooms, an Aga oven in the kitchen, and loads of bedrooms and bathrooms added at various stages. Outdoors are horse stables, swimming pool, a garden, and I'm sure other things that I missed during the night tour.

Tom invited his mates over for a roast and a full on meal of fresh food. Beef roast, salmon in a pastry shell with veggies, a leek and cheese dish, steamed and buttered carrots, parsnips and potatoes...it was amazing. The veggies were fresh from the garden, believe me, since I washed and peeled most of them. There was a group of 8 of us, and it was so nice to be chilling out at someone's house with a homecooked meal, eating off Wedgewood china...it was so English! : )

Most of us were up till 2am, doing silly things like wrestling in the living room and setting off fireworks in the backyard, all the while drinking through the wine and port. His friends were all really cool and easy to get along with. I had an excellent time.

Sunday morning we woke up to a dirty kitchen and a need for caffeine, so we starting the coffee and the cleaning, ending up eating leftover roast beef sandwiches for breakfast. Most of us had plans in the afternoon, so we set off towards the train station around 1pm or so to get back into London.

The rest of Sunday was just spent napping, enjoying some sushi and getting ready to fly back to India (sniffle sniffle). I had such a good time in London, and would love to have a chance to spend more time there. It was another much needed getaway from Mumbai, but now I am just homesick for home with a capital H. A few more weeks...

Another POV

Elizabeth has written a beautiful description of her trip to London, much of which overlapped mine :) If any of you care to read it, check it out on the "Elizabeth's Musings" link to the right.

"The Menu"

Degustation menu for Saturday, November 26 at Windows on the World at the Park Lane Hilton:

1. Marinated scallops on a bed of aubergine and mango salad, beetroot dressing
Gran vina sol, chardoonay, Spain, 2004

2. Pan-fried swordfish with a saffron pancake filled with lemon and potato, courgette and basil sauce
Vidal Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand, 2005

3. Venison fillet and a confit parcel, salsify ragout, cooking jus
Bourgougne Pinot Noir, France, 2003

4. Stilton with a young leave salad
Taylors 10 year Tawny port

5. Genoa Bread with a creamy chocolate mousse, candied fennel and mandarin sorbet
Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, France

6. Coffee and petit fours
(and 2 Irish coffees - eh, what the heck!)

One of my best meals EVER.

Continued weekend stories...

On Friday, we went out to Oxford for the day. It was freezing! but a cute town to walk around. We ate lunch at a pub called the Eagle and Child which is famous for a variety of reasons, and then we browsed through Blackwell's, a well-known huge bookstore. I stopped in for a pint at the pub beteween the Blackwell's buildings, and then lost track of my friends for various reasons, mostly involving lack of cell phone reception. Didn't have a chance to tour any of the universities there, but did see Trinity from the outside. Probably worth a day trip out there some other day when the weather is sligthly better.

Friday night though, John and I had a fantastic dinner at Windows of the World on top of the Hilton Hotel with, as you would expect, views of London. There was a live jazz band, and a delicious fixed price menu with wine pairings. I was in heaven. The food was amazing, we were lucky to get a booking because of a last minute cancellation, and it was an awesome night out. Every course was superb. I'll post more about the menu later...

Thanksgiving Day in London

As much as I love my family and want to be with them during the holidays, I'm becoming a big fan of spending Thanksgiving in random cities with friends. A few years ago, I was in Washington, DC with Liz and Brian, and this year, also with Liz/Brian and some of their friends (1 American, 1 Brit) , we celebrated Thanksgiving more or less American style, just sans turkey because of the mostly vegetarian group. We had everything else though...sweet potato casserole, spinach and cheese casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green salad, artichoke dip, and stuffed portabello mushrooms. Oh yeah, and pumpkin pie with homemade crust!

During the day, Alex and Becca shooed us out of the house to sight see while they worked on the dishes. We went to the Tate Modern and St. Paul's Cathedral. The Tate was really cool, a well planned out space with many areas to sit it and just have a few of the Thames. Also, Rodin's "The Kiss" was on display, as was a painting by Gerard Richter of a Paris landscape that really impressed me.

When we went to St. Paul's in the morning, we decided not to go in because there was a Thanksgiving service in progress (?). Yes, apparently there is enough of an American presence in London that St. Paul's even joined in. So when we went back later, we looked around a bit, and planned to climb to the top, but they had just closed it down because of inclement weather. Bugger. We could only walk up to the whispering gallery. The cathedral was different than most of the ones I'm used to seeing in France--less stained glass, more gold paintings, and overall very impressive.

We headed back to Becca and Alex's in Hackney late in the afernoon, and by the time we were back, they were ready for us to start eating! Several courses and bottles of wine later, we were sufficiently full and quite pleased with the overall success of the meal. We took turns going around the table saying what we are thankful for, and mine was, not surprisingly, that I am a. thankful for having been born and raised in a first world Western country, but b. that I am also thankful for having had this opportunity to live in India and see how so much of the rest of the world lives.

First Day in London

My British Airways flight was quite nice actually - easy check-in, no lost luggage, really comfy headrests - I slept virtually 8 hours straight, and I get American Airlines miles for it (every mile counts). I spent my first few hours at Heathrow this morning changing money and sorting out details with United Airlines and American Airlines for my holiday itineraries because I am using vouchers that needed to either be delivered in person or mailed to the States ASAP (which wasn't really an option from Mumbai).

Then I went straight to my friend's house in Hackney (these are friends of my friends Liz and Brian who were arriving a few hours after me) via the Heathrow Express to Paddington and then a cab aride to their place. They just bought a really cute 2 bedroom flat in a decent area of Hackney, and the walk to the post office through the park (or was it a cemetery) was actually quite nice later in the afternoon.

It's cold here - near freezing, but nice for a change, and I more or less have the right clothing. We didn't do anything touristy today - just chatted, made lunch together, took a walk, rented some DVDs, and went out for...Indian food. I know- hilarious. We went to a place called Rasa that my friends absolutely love, and even I had to admit that the food was very good (dare I say better than the Indian food I eat in Mumbai?). It's been nice to have a relaxing day with friends. The kind of "family day" that I always associate with holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Being in a home like this does make me miss so many things though that are a result of me traveling all the time. Seeing their fridge full of organic fruits/veggies/milk, and just the way the house is set up...makes me want to have a place of my own. But I'm not ready for that yet, so travel I will.

Tomorrow should involve some more touristy things while we allow Becca and Alex to prepare some of the vegetarian Thanksgiving mains. I am splurging with my last bottle of California Napa Cab that I brough back in October for the occasion, and it should be a nice and indulgent day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope your travels have been safe and you are able to spend it with family or friends!

Off to London...

Well the change alone between 30 degrees and 15 degrees Celsius for a high temperature will be interesting…but I have my wool coat, cashmere scarf, gloves, and leather boots and am all ready to head out to London this evening! As a heads up, I will have limited email access until Monday, November 28, but I’m sure I’ll get online periodically. I’m flying British Airways red eyes both directions (to save vacation time, mostly), but I’ll still manage 5 full days in London. Seems weird to already be taking another vacation since traveling around India in the first week of November, but hey, I’m not complaining.

When I get back, it’s 2-3 more weeks of work, and then the holidays!

"Dry" Night

Last night was another dry (no alcohol) day, although we found out too late (this morning) that it was only dry in Bandra, the specific neighborhood of Mumbai that we live in. Today is actually dry everywhere in Mumbai—something about an election or something, but really, this happens all the time.

So last night we made dinner reservations at one of our favorite bars that also happens to serve really excellent continental cuisinse. I had 2 Bacardi breezers at the hotel before we let (hey, my minibar selection isn’t all that great), and took another one in a water bottle as a traveler. At the restaurant, we tried to convince them to serve us alcohol anyway, but the manager said the inspector had just been by 30 minues prior, and if he gets caught serving alcohol, he could lose his liquor license. Ok, that’s fair I suppose.

So, when asked for our drink order from the Mocktail menu, we ordered 4 OJ’s. How many times do you see 4 adults at a nice restaurant all ordering the same, very mixable, fruit juice? The guy totally knew we were going to spike our own drinks with some vodka we had also brought along….so about 10 minutes later he comes by to say he could provide us with some “Absolute Mocktails” and “Bombay Sapphire Mocktails” Uh-huh. I guess he figured that since we were going to drink anyway, he may as well try to make some money off of us. Two rounds later and after an excellent meal, we headed back to the hotel for a party in John’s room.

We busted out the iPods, and some previously purchased bottles to make some mixed drinks, and had our own little party for a few hours. All in all, it was a fun night!

European Travel Ideas?...

My roll off date is still in flux, but it will be somewhere between Friday, December 9 and Friday, December 16. Either way, I am going to extend my Frankfurt layover (because I’m flying Lufthansa) to be a least a few days and then take a train to go somewhere else in Europe, preferably France so that I can practice some of my recently relearned French.

Anyone have any particular ideas or recommendations? (France or otherwise?) I want to do this cheaply, therefore the train is best (tickets are already pretty pricey) and I’ll try to stay in hostels and similar accommodations.

Holiday Schedule

As most of you know, I’ll be in London for Thanksgiving visiting my friends Liz and Brian from college, who are there visiting friends of theirs. Even though it goes against tradition, we’ll be having a vegetarian Thanksgiving, which is fine by me. We’ll still have all the rest of the traditional items: stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. This is only my second time ever in London, and my first time was a 3-day whirlwind tour with a group in high school, so I expect this experience will be significantly different.

For Christmas, I am really looking forward to being back in California, and since I’ll be trying to see as many of you as possible, here is my holiday schedule (as it currently stands). Let me know what’s going on with you so we can start to make plans to get together!

12/18 – 12/22 San Francisco
12/22 – 12/28 Irvine
12/28 - 12/29 Santa Cruz
12/29 – 1/1 Sacramento
1/2 - San Francisco…

Oh yeah, and I’ll also be in Boston the first or second weekend of January, and in Chicago Feb 18-26 (work during the week, play on the both ends of the week), and then sporadic weekend trips to Tahoe throughout the season.

Parlez-vous francais?

Well, after several years, I’m starting to learn my French again. There are a variety of events that have prompted this decision, but more or less, I realized by talking with a close friend of mine, that not keeping up with my French is one of the few things I regret. I always thought I would travel back to France on a regular basis, and yet I haven’t been back since 1999. I also always hoped that I would have a chance to someday be on a consulting project in France, or to take a leave of absence and move there for a few months traveling around. Again, hasn’t happened. And now, I know that it won’t happen unless I make a concerted effort, and part of that is to be able to communicate!

Through the Alliance Francaise here in Mumbai, I am taking private tutoring lessons twice a week until I leave. I had my first lesson today, and it was an interesting experience. I was hesitant in some areas, but other things (words, spellings, phrases) just came back to me out of nowhere. It makes me feel good to know that it’s all back in my brain somewhere, now it’s just like a scavenger hunt to find all the pieces. My teacher is my age, and got her Masters in French Literature, a path I could have very well taken if I had chosen the academic route.

We started with introductions (formal and informal), and how to describe where you are from, what you do, etc. Then we covered the basics of days of the week and numbers along with other “French 1” topics. So, I am more or less starting from the beginning, but will fastrack through it. It’s nice to have individual lessons, because we can go at my own pace, and I practically spend the entire time speaking.

Anyway, I have plans to continue lessons, classes, and involvement in the Alliance Francaise when I am back in the US and when I am staffed around the country (or the world!). This will take awhile, but I’m looking forward to relearning the language and creating opportunities for myself to practice it.

Another Sunday Brunch

I stayed in on Saturday night, mostly out of exhaustion. It was much needed, as I was asleep by 11:30pm and didn’t wake up until 10.5 hours later. This is nothing compared to the marathon 12 and 14 hour sleeps I remember getting on weekends in high school, exhausted by my sports and studies, but I still really enjoy those nights and mornings where sleep is the only item on the agenda, although nowadays that’s maybe once a month at most.

On Sunday, Sean and I met up for brunch with a contact of his through his cousin. We ate at the Oberoi Hotel on Marine Drive, and met an interesting group of expats from Switzerland, Brazil, and Italy. After a decadent 3 hour brunch, involving sushi, oyster shots, blueberry pancakes, tenderloin, and a variety of salads, on top of bloody marys and champagne, we ended up going to the Breach Candy Club, sort of like a country club for expats. It’s right on the water, and (for India) is really nice. There we met even more expats, and had a good time sharing stores about our experiences here.

A Wednesday night out

This Wednesday, I went with a group of friends to a club on a school night - and it certainly felt that way. The under-18 factor was pretty high, but oh well. It was a VH1-sponsored hip hop night at Enigma at the JW Marriott. This was the club I went to my first week in Mumbai, so I was curious to go again now that I've lived here 4 months.

The music was actually really good until around 2am. We stayed until 2:30, having danced ourselves out and realizing that we all had to work the next day. It was a nice way to break up the week, and surprisingly I wasn't too tired today.

Work is moving along well, and in two weeks I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with friends in London!

Monkey Menace

By popular demand, the Monkey Menace picture has been posted. You can see it on my photo sight. Many more pictures are to be posted as well, once I can get a proper internet connection.

Yummy weekend dining

This weekend, there wasn’t much on the agenda, having just come back from the Taj trip, and then spending Friday and Saturday at work. Saturday night, John flew out for a trip to Vietnam (but then rerouted himself to Thailand because of bird flu outbreaks there—it would be horrible if the UK wouldn’t let him back into London because he had traveled in Vietnam). Before John’s flight, a small group of us went to the ITC Sheraton in Mumbai to eat at Pan-Asian for absolutely perfect meal: excellent French wine from Burgundy, fresh sushi, and teppanyaki with deliciously marinated beef and veggies. After John headed out to the airport, my friend Minal and I checked out Flame, a new lounge bar/restaurant at Le Meridien hotel across the road.

Flame is an outdoor poolside shisha and wine bar. The decorations include lots of pillar candles, billowly white curtains, and mellow lounge music. Very romantic! but being just two girls out on the town, we appreciated it for the opportunity to have another glass of wine and chat about work, travel, and boys. : )

On Sunday, a group of us went to the JW Marriott for brunch. It was an excellent selection of salads, desserts, and made to order eggs, sandwiches, dosas, etc. The Marriott is at Juhu beach, and the buffet area is an extension of the lobby with the back wall of the hotel being solid glass overlooking the pool/gardens, and the ocean behind it. The infiniti pool looks like it disappears into the ocean. I had been to the JW several times before, but never in the daytime. We sat there for several hours, letting food settle before we got up for more.

So, a satisfying dining experience this weekend definitely made me happy. Now I’m just getting ready to start a busy 6-day work week ahead of me. No travel plans for the next couple of weeks until Thanksgiving, when I fly to London, which I’m relly looking forward to.

Taj Trip

I took advantage of the Diwali holiday and several days off work to see the Taj Mahal. We went through a tour agency from Delhi who set up our hotels, a driver for 4 days, a car, an itinerary, and local tour guides in each city. Par for the course, not everything went as planned or as expected, but we just adapted to it day by day.

The first hotel in Delhi was horrible, more of the kind of place you stay when you are backpacking through Europe, except based on the price we were paying, we thought this place would have been decent. Oh well, the next morning we were up early and off to Jaipur anyhow. Even though we spent a lot of time on the road throughout the trip, the roads were smooth, the minivan was comfortable, and it was nice to see a different side of India. In the rural areas and towns, the same type of poverty you see in the cities is more palpable, I think because there is less cramped juxtaposition between cars, pollution, random animals in the road, sewage, and beggars. I have no idea if life in these villages is actually any better for its inhabitants compared to life in cities life Mumbai, but some of the same sights somehow didn’t seem to bother me as much.

The drive to Jaipur took about 4 hours, and on the way we spotted several camel carts. I can’t imagine that it’s the most efficient way to transport sticks and such, but hey, there they were along the highway. We starting the afternoon visiting the Amber Fort, and we opted to ride elephants up to the top of the fort instead of walking. It was a pretty cool first tour experience. And our hotel in Jaipur was much nicer than the first place, which made all of us happy. Although the “Monkey Menace” sign on the balcony doors cautioning you to double lock it was a bit odd! We did in fact see a monkey in the courtyard the next morning, so I suppose there is a valid reason for the signs.

In Jaipur we also went to an outdoor observatory that had massive sundials and other measurement equipment. It was much more interesting than the Palace we went to afterwards. In the evening, we wandering through the streets, saying Happy Diwali to people when then looked at us oddly, either because a: we weren’t Indian, or (most likely) b: because Sean was wearing this ridiculous turban-type hat he bought earlier that day. The comical value of that hat throughout the trip was well worth the few hundred rupees for it ($5 USD).

The next day we spent another 4-5 hours on the road going to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. I can’t believe that at one point during my stay here I was actually considering NOT going to the Taj Mahal. I don’t know about it being a wonder of the world, but it was impressive. Because the white marble is being ruined by acid rain and other environmental pollution, you can’t drive automobiles within a 4 square km area of the Taj. So from the car park, you can opt for a battery-operated autorickshaw, or… a camel cart! We definitely took the camel option, and everyone was enjoying it until Sean decided he wanted to ride the camel itself. He soon realized that riding camels is not at all comfortable, poor guy.

We took the requisite photos in front of the Taj and the long fountain pool, and, at the suggestion of our tour guide, took a few silly shots playing with the depth perception. These photos are probably why Westerners shouldn’t travel J although I can’t blame it on being American, seeing as how we had a multinational group all participating. You can’t wear your shoes in the Taj either, so they provide you with elastic hospital booties to shuffle around in.

The inlay work of semi-precious stones on the Taj is also impressive, especially once we learned how the work is actually done. Very painstaking, and (if you are a tourist wanting to buy tables, coasters, boxes with the same type of work) very expensive.

The next day we traveled another 4 hours or so back to Delhi. Having unsuccessfully tried to change our hotel and/or get reimbursed for the advance payment on the place we were supposed to stay our last night (the same hotel we started out with), we used hotel points to stay in the ITC Maurya Sheraton in Delhi. It was amazing. We even had our own butler! We all just needed some time to relax, so the afternoon, evening, and most of the next day were spent enjoying the hotel amenities. We finally ventured out around 3pm on our last day to do some Delhi sightseeing.

Unenthused about the Parliament building, the President’s house, and other governmental sights, we went to the Lotus Temple, a modern looking building that resembles a closed Lotus flower. It’s a temple for the Ba’hai faith, and even though the inside wasn’t that interesting, we were glad we went. Next, we visited a Krishna temple, Iskcon, which was really interesting. It was during afternoon prayers, and the gods/idols are much more colorful and lit up than anything you see in Christian churches. Done with tourism, we headed back to the ITC Sheraton to relax and shop until our late evening flight.

Even though most of our guides were making up lots of the “facts”, and were just trying to con us into buying expensive things from stores owned by their cousins, and even though our driver changed almost daily and didn’t seem to know our itinerary, and despite the nasty first hotel, in retrospect, it was a really good trip! : ) We had an adventure, as always, and we ticked the box on seeing the Taj.

Taj stories to come!

I'm back from my Taj Mahal trip safe and sound, but I won't be able to create a detailed blog entry for a few days. I have posted most of the pics off my camera, but I'm going to consolidate the best ones from all of our cameras, and re-edit and re-post this weekend as well. Check back after the weekend!

Who's the BOSS?

Wow, time has flown this week. Long hours, a few decent meals, that’s about it, except for Thursday night when we crashed a Hugo Boss fashion show! It was one of our best nights out yet!

Sean scored two invite-only tickets from the Hugo Boss store while shopping on Thursday to replace some lost clothes (misplaced luggage by the airline, for the second time). John and I tagged along (self-invited) and were able to get in without too much trouble. It was held at the Grand Hyatt, our previous home, so it was a bit nostalgic being back at the hotel. : )

It was a fairly high-profile event, with a few Bollywood people, another fashion designer, etc, although of course I didn’t know who was who. Free champange was flowing the whole night, and the fashion show itself only had a few hundred in attendance. The show was delayed (by an hour), so we amused ourselves by talking about everyone else in the room, with the aid of the champagne.

The show itself was pretty cool. About 12 male models for the Hugo Boss fall fashion line. Even if we didn’t like the clothes, at least they were wearable (unlike some of the women’s clothes you see on the runways). As soon as the show was over, a sliding wall opened up to reveal another room that was set up to look like a bar/lounge, with low leather seats and couches, hanging chandeliers, a full bar, and a stage/DJ booth. Once everyone got the hint and assembled into the new room, another show started with these two guys that look like they came out of the Matrix movie doing crazy acrobatics a la Cirque du Soleil. Really cool, and sort of bizarre.

Then the music and dancing started, and we spent the next several hours schmoozing with the male models and various (probably) semi-important people. I was interviewed by the Sony Entertainment channel, but hope to god it never airs (I’m sure I sounded like a complete idiot), and John met some guy who used to date Ashwirya Rai, the premier Bollywood actress. The most fun was drinking and dancing with the male models. They were really cool guys from all over the world, Vancouver, Brazil, etc. I have a few awesome shots of Jon posing with them doing “Blue Steel” and “Magnum” as well as the head of Hugo Boss dancing with the Marketing Manager for Asia that Sean met earlier that day.

It was such a fun night because it was so unexpected, and it was a much needed “night out” even though it meant we kept it fairly low key on Friday night. Tonight we are planning on going to a Halloween party put on by a local friend, but I don’t exactly have a costume, so I’m not sure how that’s going to go.

Next week is the Diwali Festival week. Each day has a different meaning, but I haven’t kept track of which is which. I’m going to Delhi, Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur. Even though we leave tomorrow, we are still working out last minute details with the tour agency (ug), but we’ll sort it all out.

Curry and Rice

Last night was Friday night, and we didn't get back to the hotel from work until 9:30pm. After a shower, and a granola bar and two apples for dinner, I worked until 1am, and here I am this morning at work on a Saturday. Sigh.

It's finding amusement like this that makes it all worth while:
http://viknluda.com/foe/video/

Thanks for the encouragement!

It’s nice to know that people are reading my blog on a regular basis; at least I feel more connected to everyone even though I am so busy, so far away, and have the time change that makes phone calls difficult. Thank you to those of you who sent emails of encouragement in the last 24 hours. I just received them all this morning when I arrived to work, and it helps a lot. : )

Last night, instead of working back at the hotel as I had planned (or really should have done to meet my deadlines), I went out to dinner with some of my coworkers. We had the usual experience of the driver getting lost and not being able to find the place because there are no street signs here. But, once we found it and sat down (about an hour after leaving the hotel to go maybe a few kilometers), things were looking up. They had these really nice hookas with various flavors (apple, lemon, strawberry, etc) that you can have before your meal, and the food was excellent as well. It was an outdoor restaurant, so it was pretty darn hot, but it was so nice to not be in the office, have some decent food (albeit it Indian), and have a few laughs with coworkers. The past few days after coming back to Dubai I had pretty much been a robot on autopilot, and last night was a helpful reset. But today, back at the office, it starts all over again! Here I go, wind me up…

Not the best week

Since some of you have asked, no, I did not take any pictures in Dubai. This was for a few reasons. Mostly, we were just at malls. Also, it was such a short trip. And thirdly, I just wasn't inspired. Everything has been so stressful lately, even my weekends. Work is busy, the commute is still horrible and we have logistical troubles on a daily basis. Basically, what is there to take pictures of? There are some days I just don't want recorded or remembered, like today for example. I'm trying to bury myself in work on the premise that I can *maybe* make my deadlines if I work my butt off and start doing the ridiculous hours I started off doing at the beginning of the project, and also in the hopes that these days and weeks go by faster.

As much as I try to tell myself about what an "opportunity" I have, I'm just mentally done with it, but I physically have two more months to go. I look forward to my trip to the Taj Mahal in a few weeks, and mostly for my trip to London for Thanksgiving, but other than that, I am already planning for Christmas and New Years and some much needed time off. I'm just plain burned out, and I feel like my life stopped somewhere around last July and I'm stuck in a time warp in a backwards country and I can't escape. I eat just so I don't get hunger headaches, I sleep to avoid being awake and conscious of my situation, and I work because, well, that's my job.

Dubai

My impressions of Dubai are greatly influenced by the fact that I’ve been living in a dirty, smelly city with poor infrastructure and terrible logistics for the past 3 months. But, also having grown up in Irvine, a planned community that is meticulously maintained, it takes a lot to impress me. Having said that, Dubai is immaculate. It’s clean, well laid out, there are all the major international brands at your fingertips, and the buildings are beautiful. It’s growing like crazy, so there is construction at every corner, but it’s not disruptive. Even the hotel we stayed at, which is the lowest level in the Starwood property ladder, was cleaner and had more comfortable beds than any of the “five star” hotels we’ve been staying at in India. Just like when I was in the Maldives, I’m asking myself, do I really have to go back [to India]?

The Dubai trip almost didn’t happen because of our laziness in booking the trip, and round trip prices around the $600 USD mark. We finally booked on Air Arabia for half the price, an airline I’ve never heard of before, but they are cheeky enough to have South Park-imitation Arab cartoon characters on their web site, so they must be all right – or it’s a hoax. http://www.airarabia.com. The only odd thing about the flight was the Muslim prayer blasting through the speakers before take off in a deep voice that sounded like it was in a cave.

We left Mumbai without a problem, and upon arrival in Sharjah, an adjacent city to Dubai, we were whooshed through the immigration process, complete with retina scan. I’m not sure what they’ll do with this information, but I wanted to get in the country, so I didn’t argue. The cab ride to the hotel was a mere 20 minutes on smooth roads (and on the RIGHT side of the road). We stayed at a hotel where I have plenty of points to redeem for free nights, and as it turns out, it’s in one of the best locations possible for the mission of our trip—shopping!

The irony of this trip is that I am traveling with two guys who are more excited about shopping than I am. Admittedly, their mission is to buy loads of electronics, since we heard that Dubai has cheaper prices than almost anywhere else, and there is no sales tax. Saturday we walked down the road in one direction to a large indoor mall called the BurJaman. This mall is complete with Banana Republic, Zara, Versace, Kenneth Cole, you name it! It’s similar to, but nicer than, the South Coast Plaza Mall where I grew up in Orange County, and that’s a nice mall—when I was growing up, tour busses would show up to South Coast and dump out loads of overseas shoppers.

The first challenge of the day was finding breakfast…during Ramadan. For any of you who aren’t familiar with it, Ramadan is the Muslim holiday where they fast for one month around October between sunrise and sunset. This a complete fast—no water, nothing. Obviously, not everyone in Dubai is Muslim, but it’s the reigning religion and culture, so its rules are followed.

At first, we thought all the restaurants were closed, until we found a Subway that had just opened. So we ordered our breakfast sandwiches to find out that we can’t eat the food in the food court, or anywhere else in the mall, or in public at all. Basically, we are expected to only eat in our hotel or in a private car. Hm. So we eat outside the mall behind a pillar, at this point oblivious to the fact that we could get in trouble by the police. Later on in the day for a snack, we scored cookies at a Mrs. Field’s and we snuck down to the basement parking garage and gobbled it down crouching behind a car. When Sean’s phone beeped because he received a text message, he actually jumped. We all felt like we were doing something bad, when all we wanted to do was eat! And most of you know how grumpy I get if I don’t eat at regular intervals…

We spent several hours shopping before getting some take out sushi and cabbing it back to the hotel to eat our lunch in peace and privacy. The only reason we really left was because the shops were closing mid-afternoon (Ramadan again). BUT, we were told about another mall that, when complete, will be the largest mall in the entire world. It’s called the mall of the Emirates, and it rocks! It doesn’t close at all between 10am and midnight because it’s geared to tourists (unlike the other malls that close during certain prayer times), and the part of it that’s open has only been in operation since my birthday at the end of September (of THIS year). It’s brand spanking new, and it even has an indoor ski slope!

We spent several more hours of shopping bliss here. I discovered so many stores (many of them UK brands) that I wasn’t aware of, but there were even surprising American stores that I wouldn’t think of as international brands, such as Forever 21. I controlled myself and my credit cards, but it was so nice to have such a selection of well-styled, excellent quality clothes and products in a clean environment at your fingertips (all of which India lacks, in my opinion). I escaped the afternoon with just a pair of flip-flops, some costume jewelry, two purses, a shawl, a top, and skirt. Ok, writing this out makes it sound like a fair amount, but compared to what I tried on…I was well-behaved.

By 7pm, I was exhausted and ready to stop spending, so I came back to the hotel to rest, and the boys took off to complete their retail therapy with what was supposed to be an electronics shopping spree. Disappointingly, the prices in Dubai were not as low as they expected, so they didn’t buy everything on their list. John bought me a belated birthday present however – an amazing set of small travel computer/mp3 speakers, complete with a light and portable subwoofer. Exactly what I had been looking for at home, but couldn’t find anything with the right combination of quality, lightness, and price. They are perfect!

Saturday night we got dressed to impress and headed out to a club. Most clubs are closed during Ramadan, but we were told that wasn’t the case for the 5 star hotels. This made sense to us, because we’ve experienced a similar situation in India on “dry” days where alcohol is only served in five stars, and only to non-Indian residents. However, Dubai was more strict on this rule, and no clubs were open. We ended up eating a late dinner at a “Mexican” restaurant at 1am of lamb kebabs a few coronas, and that was our big night out – bummer.

Sunday was more of the same—scavenging for food, last minute shopping—and then heading to the airport for our flight in the afternoon. Our flight was not only delayed leaving Sharjah, but then we were rerouted to another airport relatively close to Mumbai because Mumbai airport had such heavy traffic that we couldn’t land for a few hours. Apparently, it was raining really hard in Hydrabad, so those flights were rerouted to Mumbai all day, causing delays. We landed in Ahmedabad and sat in the plane on the tarmac for 2 hours before taking off again and landing in Mumbai at 1am, 4 hours past our original planned arrival.

The plane passengers were amusing to watch. Either out of ignorance or lack of respect for rules and regulations, passengers would get up while the plane was still on the runway, or try to go to the bathroom just before we landed, or my favorite, the guy who was smoking in the lavatory and got caught – twice! The stewardesses were much nicer than the ones I’m used to in the states where they act like they own the plane. These people were just told “not to” and that was it. By the time we landed, and got through immigration (and were given the wrong forms on the plan, causing us more delays in filling out the right ones), baggage claim, customs, and getting the taxi back to the hotel, it was past 2:30am. It was a lot of travel time for such a quick weekend trip, but well worth the experience and the shopping.

I would definitely go back to Dubai if I am in this part of the world again. Not just for shopping, but to do some of the other touristy things – desert safari day trips, watching a camel race (they have a proper camel racing track and arena!), and maybe eating something more traditional to the area, not the American fast food I was stuck with this time. But next time, I’ll make sure it’s not during Ramadan.

Mid-week holiday

Since I was over the worst of my cold, I went out to dinner with coworkers on Tuesday night. We went to a place called Out of the Blue. The menu was so varied, that I’m not sure exactly what kind of cuisine it was supposed to be, except that it was mostly continental, I suppose you could say. The part of the restaurant we sat in was like a covered tent, and although there were fans, there was no air conditioning, and I felt like I was melting away. My green Thai curry was excellent, once it cooled down and stopped sizzling and smoking. But by the end of dinner I wasn’t feeling well because of the heat, so we continued the evening with drinks at Olive, just down the road. Olive has A/C, and a live DJ. It’s a good crowd, good ambience, and excellent bartenders, who met our demands for brain hemorrhages, blue kamikazes, and B-52 shots.

Wednesday was a day off for an Indian holiday (the last day of Navratri). The day itself is called Dussera, which according to one web site, “marks the day on which Lord Rama, a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, liberated his wife Sita who had been abducted by Ravana, the king of Lanka. This festival, celebrated throughout India, culminates with the setting fire to an effigy of Ravana, thus signifying the end of evil”. All I really picked up on was it’s a day off, and there’s fire (cool!).

The Aussie, the Kiwi, and I spent the day with a friend from Mumbai. She’s the Aussie’s friend from when she went to Uni in Melbourne. She took us to an excellent café for lunch, where I enjoyed goat cheese crostinis, a café latte, and a tropical fruit lassi. (Mm, yum – much better than the masala dosa I had for lunch today,…again). Then we went for shopping in Colaba at the outdoor vendors, although I wasn’t in the mood and didn’t find much. We ended the day with dinner and drinks at the Dome, an outdoor lounge bar on the top of the Intercontinental on Marine Drive. It has a beautiful view of the water and coastline, and the ambience was surprisingly chic, with large white coaches and arm chairs, candles on the tables, and a glass railing.

We made friends with a Swiss man (he’s been living in India for 4 years, and we think he’s the Swiss consulate or something) who was there testing out the menu and chef for an event he’s hosting at the end of Diwali. They were making cheese racqlette, which is like cheese fondue on a plate. I had never heard of it before, but it was yummy! He and the chef came over to our table periodically to give us samples and chat for a bit. It was really nice, and unexpected, of them.

During the drive home, we passed so many celebratory groups just dancing in the streets, with trucks decorated, and people playing drums and music. I didn’t see as much fire as I was hoping for, but there were plenty of firecrackers and even some fireworks. Some were so loud I though they were gunshots. Overall, it was a really nice day off, and it was particularly nice to be shown around by a local.

I’m back at work today and tomorrow, before I leave for my weekend trip to Dubai on Friday night. It’ll be a quick two-night trip, with shopping and going out being the main activities on the agenda. Next week I actually plan on working the full 6 days in a row, which I haven’t actually had to do since the last week in August, either because of Indian holidays, or planned weekend trips here and there.

New digs

I'm generally very happy with the new hotel so far. Despite the fact that our rooms weren't ready when we got there, and they tried to put me in a smoking, twin-bed room, everything else is fabulous. While I was waiting for my preferred room to become available, I lay out by the pool for about an hour (it's been sunny since I've been back! although very, very hot). When I closed my eyes as I lay there sweating on the lounge chair, if I went to my "happy place" I could *almost* pretend I was in the Maldives...almost.

When I left the pool to wander around inside the hotel, I came across the health spa/gym, took a tour, and decided to get a massage on the spot when I saw how cheap the prices were. My one hour massage was only $30 after tax and tip. That's at least 1/3 the cost of the equivalent in the States, and I don't have to leave the hotel. This very well might become a regular activity for me.

I finally was able to get the room I wanted (more or less, it's by the elevators - boo) around 5pm, and I spent the next hour unpacking my three (yes, three) suitcases. This hotel has more of a colonial style than the modern style of the Grand Hyatt, which means that the bathrooms are sort of girly, with a separate vanity area and everything. I think it's great! After getting all "moved in" I had dinner with a few coworkers at the restaurant downstairs. We all commiserated about gaining weight on the project so far, and made a pact to go to the gym regularly and eat healthier (and drink less), at least Monday-Friday. I'm exempt from going to the gym for now though, since I've come down with a bad cold since Sunday morning.

It's Monday morning at the moment, and I'm staying home for the day. I hate being sick, but I'd rather have the run of the mill cold than some of the other ailments my coworkers have experienced, such as salmonella poisoning. If I were in a more normal situation, I would have gone to the office for at least a little while, but here it’s just too complicated and exhausting—having to share drivers and sit through an hour-plus bumpy commute each way, plus at the client site, there’s no where to relax if I just needed to rest for awhile. So, today I will sleep, drink lots of water, and hope to get better soon.

Shifting

We are moving (or as the Indians say “shifting”) hotels this weekend to one where we will (hopefully) be at for the rest of the project. We’ll be at the Taj Lands End, which is in a good location for going out to dinner and bars/clubs in the Bandra area of Mumbai. It’s also on the water, but last night when I was there to meet up with some people for dinner, that wasn’t a good thing. With the heat, there was an awful seaweed/fish/sea-something stench.

The Taj is still an hour away from the client, but pretty much everything is. I guess it’s fairer to say that the client is actually an hour away from everything else. The Taj should be nice, at least a lot nicer than the Intercontinental where we are currently staying, but has nowhere near as many perks as the Grand Hyatt we started off at (free cocktail hour, free internet for Platinum members, etc). This is a pretty boring post, but it’s pretty much what my life consists of at the moment: “where are we staying?” and “how are we getting there?” seem to be the questions du jour.

http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/TAJ%20LANDS%20END,MUMBAI/default.htm

Small victories

One of the things I’ve had a hard time getting used to here is walking on the wrong side of the pathway. Since everyone drives on the left side of the road, they naturally walk on the left side as well. That means that I’m always running into people. I’ve made an effort to consciously “walk left” but generally end up mentally chastising myself when I end up having to switch sides of the hallway. Today though, I NATURALLY walked left! And the funny thing is, in my head, I thought, dammit, I’m still screwing it up, when really, I probably thought that because of my recent trip home and being used to walking right. Anyway, this greatly amused me and made me proud to have adapted to yet another oddity in India.

It doesn't take much

I arrived at my hotel room last night to a pleasant surprise. Well, first let me preface this by saying that I arrived at my hotel tired, cranky, hungry, and physically sore from sitting on a plane for 19 of the past 24 hours. I also had to tell 4 or 5 bellhops that I wanted to keep my bags with me, despite their supposed customer service of trying to deliver the bags to my room.

I had already smuggled some extra items through customs, and I wasn't about to let my bags out of my sight until I had a chance to open them in my room and make sure that everything was "there". If this sounds paranoid, it's because one of my coworker's on his first flight to India had clothes and other items stolen from his bag. I didn't want to have to admit that the bags had ever left my sight other than when they were checked. ANYWAY.....Here's the good news:

I get up to the room, I open the closet, and lo and behold, there was....you guessed it--an ironing board! For those of you who have followed my blog from the beginning, you know how important this is to me. Even though I'm only in this particular hotel for one week before moving to yet another hotel, it still made me smile and made me feel like, that's right! I'M not the crazy one. It's NOT weird to have an ironing board and iron in your room, EVEN in India. Ok, now that I reread this, I do sound like a crazy person. And in a way, I am. India makes me absolutely crazy about certain odd topics, one of them being ironing boards.

Reverse commute

This beautiful week at home is coming to close. I head back to India this afternoon for 2.5 more months of work. It's the halfway point in the project for me, and at least now, I know what to expect, what to bring, what not to bring, and how to adapt to such a different and difficult environment. For those of you who I didn't get a chance to call or see (or see more than once), I apologize, but it's been a whirlwind week. I've had an amazing time, making me realize more than ever how wonderful the Bay Area is and how much I absolutely love living here.

When I get to Mumbai, we'll be doing a hotel shuffle for a few days, so that should be interesting. But otherwise, life in India will be back to "normal," if there is a normal there. I have several upcoming trips planned, including a weekend in Dubai, and going to London for Thanksgiving. I will continue to post, as always!

It's my birthday!

I've been having a wonderful time at home this week, and to top it all off, today is my birthday! I'm fairly well adjusted back to the West Coast time change, if being up before 7am on my vacation can be considered adjusted. Straight from the airport on Saturday afternoon, I drove to Ocean Beach and had lunch at the Beach Chalet; the rest of the day was spent trying to stay awake until at least 8pm (I almost made it). My parents flew up for the weekend from the OC, and we lived it up San Francisco style--breakfast at the Cliff House on Ocean Beach, lunch at Horizons in Sausalito, dinner downtown with my brother and his wife, and a full day of wine tasting in the Russian River Valley, where we stopped at 4 tasting rooms and enoyed a fabulous lunch at Zin restaurant in Healdsburg. Yesterday I treated myself to a morning at the salon, and an afternoon shopping spree downtown, ending the day with an excellent sushi dinner in the city. And all this before my actual birthday! Life is so good.

On the road again

I'm in the Frankfurt airport lounge, waiting for my connecting flight to San Francisco. I slept on and off the entire 8 hour flight here, which isn't exactly what I had planned on, but then again, when you board a flight at 3am, what do you expect? My connection here is pretty short, just about two hours, and then I board for another 11 hour flight direct to San Francisco!

Last night I went out for a few drinks and dinner with coworkers to Olive Restaurant, in Mumbai. I'd been there once before, but only for drinks. The food was amazing. I recognized the entire menu! (It was Western food). I had baked rigatoni with chicken in a gorgonzola cream sauce...mmmm. That made me really excited to be home. In SF, I have plans to go to a French restaurant, Sushi, and wine tasting in Napa, all things I've been missing while in India.

Next stop, San Francisco!

Coming Home!

No, the project wasn’t mercifully cancelled, but nevertheless, I am coming home this weekend for a one week vacation. Agenda: sleep (in my own bed!), cook (my own food!), do laundry (my way!), oh yeah, and see all my friends and family. : ) It’s also my birthday next Wednesday, so there will be celebrations all week. If any of you are in the SF Bay Area, send me an email and maybe we can catch up. I’m looking forward to this trip after two and a half months in India, and it will be nice to have a break from this roller coaster I’ve been on for the past few months. When I come back to the project, it will be the halfway point, so it’s time to start counting down!

I’m definitely able to handle living in India much better now, and now that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I am more excited about trying to accomplish certain things while I am here. Still need to get myself to the Taj Mahal, and buy a saree, and oh yeah, there’s my job too. All in all, things are looking up.

Street Creds

Yesterday I wore the Indian churidar and dupatta outfit I purchases last weekend, and I got a lot of (positive) attention. I got loads of compliments from my team members and client contacts here., although the two comments I appreciated the most were from my breakfast waiter and another woman who works on my floor.

After two months of living at the hotel, one of the breakfast waiters finally knows my order perfectly. As soon as I step into the restaurant, and before I sit down at one of my usual tables, he starts my English Breakfast tea with steamed milk and two fried eggs, well done, served on top of two pieces of white toast and a side of tomatoes and potatoes. Yesterday morning, when he served my food, he was smiling and said “Looking good, Miss Christie.” That was awesome.

At work, a woman on my floor who I’ve never spoken to before, came up to my cube to compliment me on my outfit and chat for a bit. She knew my name already (because I stick out, I think everyone knows who I am), and was really nice, and gave me advice on where to buy more clothes. She also complimented me on my matching shoes (sparkly flip flops – it’s so awesome to dress so casually and differently for work here). It felt really good that she complimented me and talked to me because no one else here has ever introduced themselves to me or chatted with me unless I work with them directly. It’s like, now I’m “in” J

This weekend, I’m off to Goa. It will most likely be raining, but who cares. It’s two days off work, somewhere different than Mumbai, and it should have good nightlife at least. Postings and pictures to follow…

You've Got Mail

The past two nights I’ve fallen asleep to and woken up during the night to what sounds like some sort of construction, mostly hammering. The first night, I couldn’t be bothered to complain, but after the second night I figured fine, I’ll give it a shot. I left a complaint at the front desk to investigate what the noise is and to get back to me if it will continue so that I may switch rooms. The friendly, but most likely incompetent, front desk employee wrote down my name, room number and complaint and said he’d leave a message for me after he found out what it is.

So tonight, I get back to my room, and voila, there is the blinking “you’ve got mail” light. I was pleasantly surprised, and I picked up the receiver to listen to the message, which is simply “Please call the hotel operator”. Ok, fine. I delete the message and call the hotel operator. The conversation goes like this:

Operator: Good evening ma’am. How may I direct your call?
Me: Hi. I had a voice mail message that instructed me to call the hotel operator?...
Operator: Yes, ma’am. Let me connect you to your voice mail.
Me: No, I already listened to my voice mail. The message was simply to call the operator.
Operator: Ok, ma’am. Let me check…..Ma’am, you don’t have any voice mails.
Me: Yes, I know, that’s because I deleted the message.
[Ok, I knew the conversation would go like this; I was just waiting to the point where she could actually do her job…]
Me: I had registered a noise complaint this morning. Perhaps there is a message for me regarding that?
Operator: Let me check ma’am….Yes, there is a message for you. [Ok, what part of “is there a message for me” earlier did she not understand?]
Operator: The message is from the engineering department. They are aware of your complaint, and if the noise continues, please let us know so we can switch your room.
Me: [Dejectedly] Ok, thank you. Good night [you idiot of a hotel employee]

May I point out the obvious? That they didn’t find out what the noise actually was, and although they are willing to accommodate me switching rooms (which I don’t even want to do), they still haven’t really solved the problem or really investigated it. This response is code for, “yes, you crazy American who makes up things like construction in the middle of the night which can’t possibly be occurring because I don’t know about it, and I’m the incompetent hotel employee who was never taught actual customer service; I was just told to smile and ask how I can help you, even though I can’t help myself out of a wet paper bag.” So typical, and still, after two months, so frustrating.

At the end of this month, it appears that our 12 person non-local team will be switching to another hotel, due to contract negotiations with our penny-pinching client and the hotel themselves (I think it’s how much alcohol we drink during the free club lounge happy hour when we make it back in time that’s breaking the hotel’s budget for our discounted rooms). Even though I am at least already used to this hotel, it will be interesting to see what another one is like, and if this famed wonderful Indian customer service is as terrible there as it is here. I just hope they don’t keep thieving my iron.

The IMAX Experience

Today, I spent yet another Sunday afternoon shopping. I was looking for a saree, but didn’t find any material I fell in love with. So, instead I finally bought a churidar and dupatta. It’s a set of loose drawstring pants, a long tunic top, and a scarf that you drape like a shawl over your chest and let the long parts hang down your back. It’s really comfortable, and even though the one I bought is fairly casual, I’m sure I can get away with wearing it to the office here. I plan on buying more, it’s just a matter of finding the right ones. Department stores here have smaller selections that I would expect, so shopping is not as simple as just walking into a Macy’s.

This evening, a group of five of us went to the IMAX Dome theater to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This was exciting for a few reasons: the movie was actually filmed on 70mm film for IMAX, so it’s not just a regular movie on the IMAX screen; also, the IMAX Dome theater in Mumbai is the largest in the world, apparently. It’s almost like watching a movie on a planetarium screen; and, it’s the first movie I’ve seen in a theater in India, although it’s not a Hindi film. That’s still on my to do list.

Before the movie starts, everyone stands up and they play a portion of the Indian national anthem. My Indian coworkers say that the rest of India doesn’t do this, but either way, I found it amusing – particularly when everyone is there to watch an American film. The movie itself was actually disappointing. I think the original was better, and Johnny Depp’s rendition of Willy Wonka was just, rather, bizarre. Oh yeah, one more reason to love the experience. Each ticket only cost 200 rupees. That’s less than $5. I *think* I remember paying under $5 for a matinee film once, when I was like 10.

If my postings are a bit scarce over the next few days, it’s because I have a deliverable deadline on Tuesday. I’ll be sleeping, eating, working—repeat. Next weekend I go to Goa though, and then the following weekend I come home for a week. I can’t believe it. I finally get to come home! The countdown begins…

Rain, rain, go away...

It's raining here in Mumbai...again, just like it was the day before, and the day before that. Funnily enough, I've only used my umbrella about 3 times, and I've never used my parka (mostly because it's never made it out of my hotel room). Being shuttled to and from the hotel and the client, there isn't too much need for one on a daily basis, but I usually have it with me, just in case.

I've recently realized that about the time I leave Mumbai and go back home at the end of the project, it will be the beginning of the rainy season in SF. So, I go from humid rain, to foggy/windy/cold rain - excellent. I hear rumors that it doesn't rain here in October and November, but I think those are on par with the rumors that summer is actually a good time to visit San Francisco. ;)

It also means I go from wearing flip-flops, lightweight pants, and cotton shirts to wearing lined wool pants, boots, and sweaters. I actually love wearing winter clothes, so I'm excited. Although I won't love having to dress up for work every day, compared to the casual dress code here. Yesterday I got away with wearing sparkly flip-flops, tan drawstring pants, and a cotton button up shirt. I also don't have to fuss with my hair here - there's no point with the humidity. Basically, I get ready in 20 minutes (shower and everything).

It's Saturday night at the moment, and we'll be leaving work soon (yes, I work on Saturdays here for any of you who may have missed that detail). We are DEFINITELY going out tonight to make the most of our one night a week where we don't have to be anywhere the next day. We'll see where the night takes us...

Taking Turns

It’s amazing that I haven’t swung at someone in fury while having to nudge my way out of an elevator, although today I came close. It absolutely infuriates me that everyone here tries to push onto the elevator before the people in the elevator have had a chance to exit. It’s one of my pet peeves in the States too, but there is rarely occasion to set it off. Here though, the crowd-pushing makes the polite BART lines at the SF Embarcadero station seem like some sort of wildly successful social experiment via brain chip implant.

The push-your-way-to-the-front method seems to be the primary way of functioning here: waiting in line for lunch at the cafeteria, trying to get on/off an elevator, … Oh wait, did I say waiting in line? I meant waiting in the huddle of people all flinging funny money (pre-purchased coupons) in the face of the cafeteria servers. I’ll admit that I sometimes benefit from this disorder. Since I stick out like, well, like a white person in India, I get their attention without much effort and they’ll take my order before other people who have been standing there longer. At home, I would insist that the other people be served first, but here, that just wouldn’t make sense. I’d probably never get lunch.

I suppose I should mention that there are SOME situations where there are proper queues: at the department store, for example. Hm, no, wait, I’ve been in some department stores here where I’ve had to glare my way to the front counter. Ok, how about at the hotel lobby. Hm, well, the situation there is actually that there are so many unnecessary employees that there never is a need for an actual line. Ok, so maybe I can’t think of any, but I’m sure they exist….somewhere. Oh yeah, at the supermarket there was a line…I think.

It just goes against some of the core lessons from kindergarten—wait in line for your turn, share your toys, and don’t pick your nose in public. I know there’s nothing I can do about it – I can’t change the culture here, but nor can I seem to shake the value that such behavior is rude and impolite. I’ve been trying to keep my cool about this since I’ve gotten here, but it just drives me nuts. Sigh – something else to just “deal” with – which to me, means just another thing to try and block out.

India's shortbread

Most of the cookies and breads I have been eating in India are rather dry, but I’ve just discovered the Indian equivalent of shortbread. Before taking a bite of the cube that was handed to me, I smelled it, and recognized something…essentially the smell of butter. One bite into it and I experienced the same melt-in –your mouth taste of butter and sugar that you get when eating shortbread or other fat-laden cookies.

This Indian treat is called Mysore Pak and the ingredients are simply flour, sugar, and ghee in approximately a 1:2:2 ratio. It’s like eating a stick of butter….uh, in a good way, not in a bad way. It also reminds me of eating cookie dough before baking it, because it’s so moist, and it’s not actually baked. Instead, you warm the ghee over low heat, and add the flour until dissolved. Then you add the mixture to the sugar over another pot until blended together. The final step is to pour the mixture into a pan that is also coated with ghee. (buttered butter?) and when cool, cut into square and rectangular shapes. I’ve posted a picture on my India > Random Shots link.
I somehow think that a dessert this bad for you should at least have some chocolate in it.

Ganapati in Mumbai

Tomorrow is another Indian holiday, so I get a random Wednesday off (which makes up quite nicely for having to work on Labor Day). The festivities are essentially starting today though, as many people are taking the day off at work, or at many companies, don’t work at all. In light of the holiday spirit, this morning’s commute wasn’t as grim as the one I recounted a few days back. Today, there were kids playing in the street, flying kites and playing cricket, and most of the pedestrians running across the road to avoid our Qualis had an extra bounce in their step (although maybe that was because of how fast we were driving towards them : )

The holiday is Ganapati, a festival honoring the birth of Ganesh, one of the most popular Hindu gods. He has the head of an elephant (see the links below for some of the versions of the story why). Ganesh is particularly revered in Maharashtra, the region where Mumbai is, and the festival will continue for 10 days, though September 17. Apparently on Chowpatty Beach near Colaba, there is a huge Ganesh that comes out of the water (do they drag it? I don’t know), but it’s well known enough of an event that Lonely Planet remarks on it. However, the traffic is apparently so awful to try to get there, that unless we wanted to leave early in the morning and sit there all day, it’s not worth going to. I just hope the paper will have some good pictures of it the next day because I’m going to sleep in.

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/manorlh/hinduism/ganesh.html
http://thegreenman.net.au/chris/ganesh.htm
http://savanna.theshoppe.com/myths/ganesh.html

The Harsh Reality

I’ve shielded most of you from some of the unsavory details of life in India, but it’s time to give you all a taste. This morning’s commute was worse than normal for me. I was already in a grumpy mood, purposefully fueled by listening to angst-ridden music on my iPod such as Linkin Park and Evanescence. It was one of those days where I just felt so bombarded by images that I wish I didn’t have to see, which made me more angry for the loss of control of my comfort zone (typical culture shock, I know).

The usual images were there – the barely clothed children squatting and shitting on the side of the road just feet from our vehicle, and not far from where women are cooking breakfast on makeshift stoves over open fires in front of their tarp and stick homes. There was the usual road kill (in this case, a stray dog) that we skirted to avoid in our SUV. But this morning, I was just particularly bothered by the combination of everything – the naked man precariously perched on the concrete center divide of the road talking to himself, and waving his hands, and the beggar man hopping on his only leg looking for handouts with his only arm, and then the beggar child relentless tapping on my window for a handout. The kid didn’t go away until I banged on the window back so hard that it scared him, at least a little, because his face had been pressed up so close against the glass. I suppose I was a little harsh, but sometimes it’s what you have to do (uh, right?)

In small amounts, being exposed to the poverty here increases one’s awareness and empathy to the situation, but when you are exposed to it several hours a day, you begin to become desensitized a bit (enough to hit a kid whose leaning against your window), and it’s hard to know how to react. I want to be able to ignore it, and yet I want to somehow help. I want to remain sympathetic to the situations that so many people here face, and yet I can’t face being that depressed thinking about it all the time. These images assault your senses—they aren’t like the news images on TV where you can just change the channel. Or at least, growing up in a suburban bubble, I always had that choice.

For me, that’s what the New Orleans situation has been like. It’s awful to read about the stories of people stranded, and desperate, and without water and food, and afraid of rogue gangs with stolen guns (don’t get me started on why Walmart shouldn’t be selling guns in the first place) enough to bring me to tears while reading about it at my desk at work, but at least, I can log off and get back to my day at the office….that is, until I leave the office. I guess I’m just feeling stuck, on what to think, how to react, and what to DO.

the short version

The first day was spent laying out on the deck in front of the beach, and included a fabulous 2 hour nap that was one of the best naps of my life. Lunch was a pleasant surprise of continental food including steak, fresh grilled fish, steamed vegetables – all the food I’ve been missing in India. The restaurant is right on the water and “our table” which we had for most of our meals the rest of the week was just a few meters from the ocean. There are a few beach areas on the island, one just out our front steps, another by the pool/bar, and a third on the tip of the island where a sandbar extends out and the waves crash into each other.

In short, it was one of the best vacations I’ve had, and the daily activities included laying out on the beach, naps, massages, drinks, eating yummy food – repeat. I’ve decided to leave it at that, since, really, there’s no way to describe how nice of a break it was from my daily life here in Mumbai. The pictures don’t even do it justice, but check them out anyway…

Introduction to Paradise

Getting to the Maldives was similar to many of my other experiences in India, fraught with exasperation and wonderment at why things have to be so complicated. Between getting to Mumbai International airport and getting on the plane, I think I handed my boarding pass to at least 7 people. Just as many people asked me if I had bags to check – apparently just traveling with a backpack looks just as out of place as white people in India.

So anyway, after answering the same questions at various checkpoints and standing in multiple queues, we finally had our last luggage and body search just before settling in to our business class seats on the Sri Lankan plane to Colombo at 3:30am. When we arrived at the Sri Lankan airport at 6:30am,we were a bit delirious – a combination of exhaustion from being up all night, a sense of accomplishment for getting out of India, and utter excitement at the site of such a clean and orderly airport. It’s hard to explain to people who have never been somewhere like India to have as a comparison, but it was such a relief that in Sri Lanka, everything just seemed to work. The signs were clear, things were in their place, the airport was clean and well lit, and we both felt closer to being home than we have in the past month.

After a short and uneventful layover, we were on our way to Male, the international airport of the Maldives. Male is the capital, which is on one island, and the airport is another island of its own just nearby. It’s the size of an airport runway, with about 50% extra space on either side for the terminal and air taxi “gates,” which are essentially numbered docks.

Enjoying the advantage of business class, we were off the plane first, and walked down the external stairs onto the tarmac just in front of the terminal. Stepping off the plane and into sunshine felt unbelievable. It was humid, but not overwhelming. There was a steady breeze, and the skies were clear blue. We looked at each other and said, we’re never leaving are we?

A short walk through the terminal, and we soon found our airport assistant sent by the travel agency, a young man named Ismail. He shook our hands, welcomed us with a smile, and helped us get to our sea plane transfer. Again, we were ecstatic that everything just went so smoothly. Our names were on the itinerary, our sea plane tickets were already printed, and we didn’t have to worry or argue about anything. The crankiness that has been building up the past several weeks just started to melt away.

We had to wait over an hour at the sea plane terminal because they were waiting for passengers from another incoming plane. No worries, we weren’t in a hurry. We started chatting with an Austrian woman who was meeting up with her boyfriend in the Maldives in between a stint teaching preschoolers in Sri Lanka. By her accounts, Sri Lanka isn’t much different than India, but she hadn’t shed her bitterness yet. She was so irritated that the sea plane was delayed, couldn’t understand why they told her one time when it actually wasn’t going to leave until later, and complained that she should have taken a speed boat instead. I completely understand how she felt, but was not in the mood to be in “India mode” so we mostly just commiserated with her a bit, but also tried to ignore her at the same time. Fortunately, she wasn’t on our sea plane, or going to our island!

The sea planes are really neat. They take off and land so quickly, and hold about 16 passengers. Our island was the first stop, and the flight took 15 minutes to go 50 km over beautiful ocean, coral reefs, and multiple islands. The official count of islands in the Maldives is 1192, and only about 200 are occupied. Some estimate that there are thousands of islands in total. Our island was called Helengeli. The water taxi landed and pulled up what amounted to a large raft a few kilometers from the island. There were 5 of us going to Helengeli, and we got off the plane onto the raft/dock, and then into the speed boat that met us there. Patrick was our introductory guide. When we got to the island, he walked us down the sand paths to the main reception and lounge area. We sat down, were handed a mango juice drink and after just chatting for a few minutes, he gave us an introduction to how things worked on the islands, where things are, etc. Turns out that this is only Patrick’s third day working at Helengeli, after quitting his corporate job in Switzerland (tempting…).

We were also given vouchers for 15 minute massages at the spa as a welcome gift – sweet! Everything was better than we could have imagined, and so amazingly relaxed. No worries, no hassle, things are taken care of. We headed off to our bungalow to change out of our inappropriate attire (e.g. long pants and shoes). The bungalow faces the beach, and has a front porch that enters into the single room. It’s spacious, clean, simple, and comfortable. The bathroom is outside, sounds weird I know, but it’s actually really neat. There are two outdoor showers, one uncovered, and one covered. It’s basically like a normal bathroom sans the back wall. Instead there is a low tile wall separating the bathroom from the back patio, which has a high wall around it.

First order of business is to change into swimsuits and take a tour around the island, and then start to soak up the sun….

Remote island – here I come!

Nothing much of note has happened recently. I thoroughly enjoyed my “long” weekend (2 days), and celebrated by napping a lot, getting a pedicure, a massage, and buying a diamond bracelet! Yes, even I, the budget-conscious rupee counter decided what the heck. Besides, I really really really like it. : ) (Jon, no comments from you please…)

This week is a short 4 days before I leave for the Maldives islands on Saturday morning. I’ll be there for 4 full days/nights on Helengeli island in the North Male Atoll. Here is the place I am staying: http://www.helengeli.net. There are only 50 bungalows on the island, so it certainly won’t feel crowded. The break from work and from India is much needed, and I am counting down the hours. I’m flying business class too, another perk to the experience, albeit on Sri Lankan airlines. I know, sounds sketchy, but it’s supposed to be fine.

I will be sure to post online (with pictures) when I get back, but it will be about one week from now. This will be one of those rare, but welcome, times when I will be completely disconnected - no internet, no phone. Just white sand and clear water. If you haven’t seen a post from me by next weekend, assume that I never made it back to the mainland…by choice.

Almost Famous

I don’t know many people who are into cricket in the States, but if any of you are, you may be impressed to know that we saw Steve Waugh, a legendary cricket player from Australia, at our hotel bar the last few nights, which means, yes, that we’ve been at the hotel bar the last few nights too! : ) The head bartender knows us very well by now, and takes good care of us. He was the one who tipped us off to the celebrity presence in the first place, and every time we come in he makes up some new concoction for us to try. Now the hotel is finally starting to feel like home, sad but true.

It will really be nice when the American Grill at the hotel finally gets some steak – it’s been unavailable since the monsoon flooding because of all the contamination. This Sunday night though, there is a buffet and all you can drink martinis for only $18. We’ll be there at 7pm sharp to see how many martinis we actually can drink. Good think Monday is a public holiday – it’s Independence Day in India on August 15, but by the sound of it, there’s not much fanfare, except for a parade in New Delhi. It’s mostly a day for people to just spend time with their families and friends. Having neither here in India, I’ll be hanging out at the hotel.

No garlic or onions?!

Apparently, there is a subset of Indian culture near Banaras (a holy city, the most sacred place on the 1,560 mile course of the sacred Ganga river) that eats only vegetarian food prepared without onions, garlic, or very many spices. This does seem odd, considering that mostly all I’ve eaten lately is garlic, onions, spices, lots of bread products, and the occasional vegetable or piece of fish.

The reason for this restriction is because spices have an affect on the body and mind (like a runny nose for example : ) , and in order to attain spiritual enlightenment, you should keep your senses under control. (I’m assuming they also don’t drink alcohol or participate in any other substance use, but the article didn’t say anything about that). It’s a similar reason for onion and garlic. They generate heat, and supposedly act as aphrodisiacs. Hm, I don’t know about that. Anyone who’s tried to kiss someone else after eating onions and garlic might disagree with that claim.

So if anyone’s interested, here’s the article where I found the information. I had heard about this from some coworkers so decided to investigate. http://www.uppercrustindia.com/6crust/six/banaras1.htm