ARRIVING IN INDIA

The flight from London to India was 10 hours. We each had our little cubbies on British Airways. This time some olf the crew were Indian. All the messages were spoken in English and Hindi, and another Indian dialect. The food choices were very exotic, some were Indian dishes with curry and spices. They smelled very good but I did not want to be on board for 10 hrs. and eat something that did'mt agree. I had chicken with mushroom rozoto. Starter was grilled scallops and salad with olive oil and chile vinegar. I did not like it. Rozota is kind of a rice pasta with a scrumptous muschroom sauce. All kinds of rolls and breads. Lemon sorbet and chocolates and then rich chocolate kind of a mousse. This whole event takes about 2 hours. In between they are serving berverages-water, wine and chanpaigne or pop. They bring a hot towel before and after with a hint of lemon water to freshen up. Very fun and killed a good deal of time. Just 8 hours to go. We had a car and driver from the hotel, silver mercedes and the driver wore long tails, much better than the bus ride to the hotel from air port coming in. Video screen tips every which way so you can see sitting up or laying down. The selection of movies was very good, several family oriented. The thing I enjoyed most however, was the moving map so that I could follow along as we went. For you geography buffs get out your maps or go on line if interested. It was displayed in several languages and it was very interesting to see what some of the cities were named on that language. One the Arabic maps many of the cities, like Tel Avive were not shown at all.. So here goes:about 5,800 miles from London: flew over or near: Vienna Istanbul, Bucharest, Constanta and across the Black Sea. North of Ankara, over Islamabad, i could see Damascus and Behruit(every lang. had Behruit) We flew over severl mt. ranges and there were light up the sky lightening and thunder storms and slightly rough(we were at 35,000, so we did'get bumped too much. We flew over the Zagross mts. nearTehran and Kewait, Abudabe and Dubai. Passsst Karachi anlong the NW curve of India to Mombai(Bombay) and Indori. Flew over the Gulf of Omen and Gulf of Khambhas over Lake Namak(which appeared to be a large valley not water) over Pine and Lahire, Pakislam, and Almaty, Sukkora, and Dahmada and then Bangalore. I made my bed and slept quite a bit then breakfast. Smoothies and fresh juice, sweet rolls and fresh fruit, all kinds of muffins and breads and jelllies and jams. Very tastey. Andy told me to be sure and use the restroom before getting off the plane. Now I know why. It was 4 am. when we landed at the new airport. Before you would land on tarmak, walk down flight of stairs, get on a bus and ride to terminal. We walked down gangway. Great. There were maybe 2o people to help with luggage. We engaged one and went throu;gh immigration(we had to fill out landing card with info. so they can keep track of us while in country) We waited for luggage on elevators. All of the people push the luggage cart right up to the converyor and had no room to walk up to get luggage. 2 workers had to lift Andy's biggest bags. Then he led us to customs. We had nothing to declare, but suddenly we were pushed to customs agent. They had put a chalk mark on one of Andy's bags that had a computer in it. There were fierce looking soldiers with machine guns and rifles. Andy had to explain that he was working here and needed the computer for work. We both had to sign other forms, all the while, they were giving us the bad eye. Then when we went out to meet the people picking us up an armed guard followed us. We read that there is a big crackdown in US on computers brought in and the guards in us can confiscate them as well. At last friendly faces. Two men Anju and Archy picked us up. Prononced Anooj. I was greeted with a dozen longstemmed peach colored roses a sign of honor and welcome. Very, very special to me The ride is about 40 min at 4am and 1-2 hrs during any other time. The greeted Andy with a kiss on each cheek and shook hands with me. What a highway, pot holes so big that the whole front end would fall in to the wheel wells. You just weave around them. The city was quiet as we drove in, very strange looking bldgs. Every possible inch of land was filled with shops and stores or business and housing. We saw many beggars on the roadside and people selling all kinds of stuff run up to the car, the order is no eye contact and they will run away. There were areas where garbage was in the streets and people were digging through it, finding food and stuff to sell. There was a water buffalo walking along the side of the road grazing before everything gets busy. We finally arrived at the house. Gated community well on block anyway. It is surrounded by appartments and to our standards very poor rambshackle houses. There were probably 100 or more dogs running loose as we drove, mostly the surrounding people feed them but they look very grizzly and mean. The house is surrounded by beautiful flowering trees and shrubs, very exotic looking. In the yard is a mango tree with large green fuit, pear shaped only bigger. The monkies come and eat them before they get ripe though. Will take pictures and display them as soon as Andy shows me how. There is a patio with benches in the shade and patios or porches on the house. The windows are leaded glass in very ornate designs. The stairs are beautifully polished red stone and then doors are very large and heavy wood. Bill the managing director lives upstairs. Niki and woman in her 60's and director of HR lives down stairs as do Andy and I. We each have our own bedroom with bathroom. When you enter you walk into a very lovely cool living room. 16x16 highly polished marble tiles, white walls, leather furniture oriental rugs in some of the rooms. There were orange curtains, silk and beige sheers that shut out the afternoon sun. On the rod iron curtain rods are long sandlewood wreaths, a symbol of wellcome. They have a very delicate smeel. There is cable tv. 90 channels, but only a few in English. It is totally crazy watching programs in foreign language and costume. There is a large dinning room with a heavy wood table and chairs, seats 12. A nice kitchen 2 refrigerators(one is on the back up generator, as electricity goes out at will. Everything was immaculate and clean. Floors and furniture shined and polished daily. Every room was very clean, the bedding is silk and two tone gold and embroidered. There are built in wood closests-four in each room. The kitchen has many cupboard. glass panels in the doors. A stove which I have not figured out yet a toaster looking thing and a microwave. Non of the appliances look quite like ours. There is a long hall and all the bedrooms are off that. There is a huge office with windows all around, big wooden chairs and oriental rugs on the floor. The windows look out on the porch and over the courtyard. That is where I am sitting today. There is a house behind us, the owner is a farmer and he has a farm outside of town. He misses the farm so he brings some animals here with him. One is a large, loud rooster that starts crowing about 2:30am. Some imus and do not know what else. Strange. In my room I can't hear anything, the walls are very thick and doors are heavy. I am very well pleased with accomidations. They only icky things is there are moth balls in every drain, kitchen, bathroom sinks and shower drains to keep coclroaches away. At Andy's office on the 3rd floor it is the same. I keep the bathroom door closed in my room, I hate the smelll. They told me I would not even notice in a few days. Took a nap then went out for lunch. The car and driver came and picked us up and took us to a Chinese place. What a riot. Andy said he would only take me safe places to eat and it was very nice. There were only a few things I did not recognize or eat. Then we went to the grocery store. People every inch, about 80million people in this city. Cars, buses and rickshaws driven by motorskooters. Andy said that you have to barter everytime you get in and until he knew what was fair to pay, he got stung. More just aiming the vehicles at the road, avoiding holes, people, bikes and people selling in traffic and it is not even rush hour yet. We went to the phone store to get my phone and I waited in the car with the driver, you just pull up on sidewalk or sideways on the street, wherever you can get your car off the road. I counted over 100 people going into that phone store in 10 min. Then on to the supermarket. We dropped Andy off at the main door, then we went to park. Because we were only getting a few things he wanted to park and wait. No way. Every 4 feet was a guy in a red shirt, blowing a whistle and motioning you up. Before we knew it we were winding up a long parking ramp. We were in the van and every curve of the ramp, he had to stop and back up and pull forward and back up and pull forward. The guy with the whistles blew louder right outside the window, We went up six floors to the roof. I was a little nervous that Andy would ever find us and the driver does not speak much English. There are guards looking over this roof from above as a safety precaution. The driver called Andy on his cell and he came up. He said you can hardly move around in the store and check out is nutty. Home again. There is bottled water in the house for drinking and city water for bathing. Don't swallow the water in the shower and brush teeth with bottled water. Everyone has been very nice, long trip, very tired so I will close for now. WE arrived at 4am Sun. 5:30pm your time. You are about 10 1/2 hours behind us.