Let the Rain Begin!

Post zzz's on the long long plane ride
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So the flight here was brutal. Ok so that’s a false statement. The flight to the UK was fine, but then our eight hour flight to Mumbai turned into 13. Why, you ask? Well, we got to Mumbai, and there was a rain storm so bad that we circled the airport for 45 minutes waiting for the runway visibility to clear, but in the meantime the airport closed and the city shut down (no power, no trains, etc) and our plane was running out of fuel (not to mention half of the passengers were getting sick from the turbulance for the past 45 minutes, luckily I like turbulance) So we flew an hour north to Ahmadabad which is a tiny domestic airport not capable of holding as many passangers as we had on the plane, so we sat on the runway with the engines off and no circulating air for 2 and a 1/2 hours!  I felt a bit like a dog trapped in a car in the summer time, thats the best and only way to explain it.  Me...I thought well hey, the best way to get through this miserable situation is to sleep through as much of it as possible.  So I slept for the first hour, but when its that hot and you cant breathe anything but stale air, you realize sleeping isnt going to work out that well...so as the plane was running out of drinks (no food left either) I was getting as much mineral water as I could get my hands on!  Then the captain comes on and tells us we just have to stay on the plane and it might be a while..we might even have to sleep in it!

There are no doors and people just hang out of the trains.
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Kate and I start to feel a little claustrophobic (this plane was easily the smallest area per passanger I have ever been on, I think it was an older plane).  We flipped out for a few minutes, then the zen master man from New Zealand (a guy who does yoga for a living) turns around and starts talking to us.  Im not quite sure exactly what he was saying to us, but he told us we needed to look at this situation as an observer, not a participant, and treat it as a butterfly would landing on a flower?!  Alright.  But it actually worked a little, when you realized that we were going to be fine, and look at it as everyone elses problem and not your own, you can tell yourself, "hey, I'm fine."   Finally...the captain came on the intercom and tells us we have special permission to land, so we flew our hour back and made it to Mumbai!  Rock on!  It took us some time to get to our guest house at Mumbai University, but we made it and slept like rocks!  And by slept like rocks I mean slept ON rocks...not much cushion on their 1 inch metal framed beds.  Not that bad tho.  I can sleep on anything!

Jumping of a Moving Train!

Our kitchen where Ashok, Vishal or Naresh make us pretty tasty Inidan veg dishes. Better than Panvel!
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Ok, so today...we did a ton.  There was a guy who has been here for a full program (four weeks) already and knew the ropes, so he showed us around, dragged us through the POURING rain to some mosque (I guess, I have some more learning to do, I dont know which one yet) that you had to walk to over this land bridge that waves were just crashing right over, so we decided not to walk out to it, but it looked cool.

Then we walked in an absolute down pour past a ton of homeless people, unless you count a tarp tied to a wall and then drapped down to the pavement a home.  Little children totally naked were running around asking us for money and young girls holding half naked babies would bombard us on the trains.  It was a bit nuts, but this is Mumbai!  Then we decided to hit up a temple.  We had to take off our shoes and walk up barefoot, yes in the streets, and then you buy these offerings for like a dollar, and bring it up to the alter, and they change it out for an already blessed offering and you bring it out and put it against this pole.  Then you hold a coin up to a wall and if it sticks, you have good fortune!  I decided I didnt want to know my fortune, so I did not stick coins on walls, but there seems to be an art to making it stick.  Some people had it down to a T!

My man, the rickshaw driver
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Next, we decided to get some lunch near a beach in a nicer area, so we had to take a train.  There were five of us at this point, Sam, Ross, Susan, Vanessa, and I (Kate missed out on this one, the spicey breakfast didnt like her this morning).  There is a women's only car, and we thought we figured out how to find it without waiting for it to come and chasing it down by these green stripes, but apparently we were wrong because is was a dudes car, but we decided to get on anyway, cause we had some dudes.  So the train starts to go and we all decide to get on at the last minute, so everyone makes it but Susan.  The boys see her not make it and hop off, so now its Vanessa and I left on, so I yell we will meet you at the next stop! And Sam (the one who knows the area) says No!  to be followed by the name of the stop to get off at, but before he could, Vanessa jumps off!  Holy crap I have no idea where I am going and no one on this train!  So yup...reflects kick me right off after her.  Her and I landed on our feet, but the momentum of the train through us straight to the ground sideways, and we both have a few small cuts on our ankles and knees, but we are tough kids!  And now I can say I have jumped off a moving train in India!  Damn.  You know what tho, I really never thought that being an athlete (being able to initially catch that train) would be a bad thing.   But apparently, not everyone can catch a moving train!  Lesson learned.

Waitin for the train, not gonna miss this one.
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For lunch, which was actually around 4, we went to a hookah bar like restaurant with pretty normal food.  I got tomato basil motzarella with a salsa dip.  Nice.  And I avoided the water.  I will have some as soon as I get home! As for other mode of transportation, we took rikshaws (three wheels motor bikes that are cheaper than taxis) and trains everywhere.  Oh, and there is no stopping for pedestrians here, just run for it EEK.  And there are no traffic rules, just have a good horn, good breaks, and good luck!  But honestly, that makes them very aware and awesome drivers!  And it really is so cheap to take transportation.  A 20 minute rickshaw will cost only about a dollar.  Lovin that!

Fact of the day: 1hour of internet costs 50 cents.

Lesson of the day: Don't jump off moving trains.  Even when they look like they are moving slow, they are not.

Cool thing of the day: Elephant on the street carrying people on his back.

Words from the tummy (I wont get too graphic I promise, I just thought it might be fun for you to all hear what he has to say):  "What were you thinking this moring, that bread and spice dip was not a morning food!  Lets just stick to the bread from now on.  Tell you what....whenever you eat something I dont like, I will let you know.  I wont be too rude about it unless you are.  Do we have a deal?" (Yes).