Day 5 uh oh My Stomach Is Hurting!!

Feb 23, 2011

woke up feeling pretty exhausted!

We did our usual tea and crumpets in the morning.. Prepared for our usual morning walk and we were off!


Another lovely walk.. today we met our dads close friend and local physician Dr. Pahdwani. She is a very nice woman.. although I think we might of caught her on the early side which was okay because I was very groggy lol.

During the afternoon we all started feeling a tad un-easy..
and we decided to just relax and calm our stomachs


Later in the evening we met up with our neighbor uncle Hurri.

Hurri and his wife had us over to chat and eat appetizers (we brought her fine chocolate and she served us delicious indian appetizers sounds like a good deal to me!)



despite the deliciuous apetizers we all still felt a bit ill and decided to call it an early night...
Having just soup and toast for an early..

afterward my dad proposed we go take a walk to the local sindh society park to sooth our stomachs.
Once we got there we sat on the bench together..listened to the children swing on swings..made us feel much better!

When we got back home we all felt great! My dad hit the cure on the nose... we enjoyed the rest of the night relaxing on the balcony watching hilarious youtube videos... just kicking back!

Day 4 Exploring The Sindh Society!

Feb 22, 2011



Today we got up nice and early had our usual tea with crackers and got ready to do our morning walk...if not explore everything!!

 

As we left for our walk just around the corner we saw a woman digging through rubble of what seemed to be a house under construction... kind of an interesting site in such a high class neighborhood.

Along our walk our dad showed us the Sindh Society clubhouse... (very nice...billiards table, theatre on the outside..very clean pool in the back and a second building to the left of it...)
people at community clubhouse got pissed off at us for taking pics though.

The walk was very beautiful ...all the green...and even though we made enemies at the club house we made a friend! some crazy lady while walking- she apparently knew my dad (he didn't know her)...and she was rambling about her and her husband going to the u.s. (?) ...crazy but a nice lady nontheless.

 As we kept walking we the school in the Sindh society..it was once meant for the very rich children ..but as the rich started finding better schools...the poorer children were allowed into the school...now the school has a great diversity despite money status!.

Here's a pic of the kids doing pledge and later playing simon says!

On our way back to my dad's house we saw  a shrine on the side of the road...a mini temple!
 

Once back at the house we took the rest of the afternoon to relax...off the balcony we heard some yelling..turned out to be a man selling vegetables on the road - a norm in India.

 



Uncle Shopra gave us some delicious bannas later that day as we left for our evening walk. The Banannas tasted almost like blueberries!! Possibly the best bananas I've ever had...I can't wait to eat more Indian fruit! (except the ones that will get me sick of course).

Day 3 First Day In Pune !!

Feb 21, 2011

The first day in Pune my sister and I woke up late in the afternoon...I woke up first around 12ish and being her new roommate I woke her up as-well :)

Upon waking up our dad came in and asked how our sleep was... knowing our crazy mother he told us that
we need to get the cheese out of our luggage! (yes my mother stuffed cheese into my sisters bag)...

For the next few hours we spent our time looking and sorting our luggage pulling out all food proudcts.. cheese,chips,twizzlers,chocolates,vodka,nutritional bars...


Upon sorting our bags we also found our mother packed tons of toothbrushes for the poor!

Once we finished packing..our dad surprised us by letting us know he scheduled a massage appointment for us...

the massage was a full body and very helpful...especially after such a loooonnnngggg and enduring flight + ride over.

while my sister and I were getting a home called massage (very awesome and only $7!!!) my dad had called a man over to set up the wireless internet for me..so I can use my laptop (I would of died without it..)... The man spent maybe 1 hour to set up the connection and his entire charge was a grand total of $6!! Gotta love India!!

after the massage and tech business our dad took us out for a stroll to check out the Sindh Society (the neighborhood) ... As we left we ran into my dad's landlord and friend uncle Shopra..we also met his wife..who both live below us. They are very welcoming and nice which gives a great start to our perception of Indian people. Once we made acquittance with uncle Shopra we made our way out of the gate... at first glance of the Sindh Society there was an abundance of plants and overall idyllic beauty.

Before leaving we met my dad's close friend uncle Hurri. An older humble man.


our beautiful walk was followed by closing the day with relaxing and settling in...my dad's maid even made us a special Indian dinner which consisted of a chicken curry.


A nice first day in Pune...Now just to figure out how to lock the broken bathroom door and brush my teeth without the use of tap water!!

Day 2 Arriving In Mumbai !!

Day 2 Arriving In Mumbai !!

Feb 20, 2011

"Finally off that damn plane!" I said to my sister as we both tiredly walked into the Mumbai airport. Being fully clothethed along with having my very warm jacket on from the flight I had the job of carrying all the bags while walking our way to baggage claim. With my luck the airport had no ventilation and I felt I was about to pass out from how hot I was getting (and tired). As we passed through the airport people couldn't stop staring at my super American sister and I in our brand name clothing and very fair skin compared to the cultured Indians who were roaming amongst the airport. Once we finally made it past a security check point we were on our way to baggage.. at baggage claim we waited and waited.. We were also approached by people who pose as workers just to make money ...I think an older lady may have mistaken me as one of these workers because she asked for my help with her bag lol.  As we waited and waited we grew tired...I also began feeling a bit on edge as the thought of the airline loosing our bags kept popping into my mind. Finally after looking at tons of luggage.. we finally saw our bags! The last two bags through!! We loaded up and pushed our way to the exit where we spotted our dad smiling and waving at us!

The first look outside the airport was quite interesting...lots of people.. very colorful.. very cultured! very nice weather (almost perfect) .. and also veery hectic .. as you can already hear the sounds of car horns honking and people aggressively speaking to one another. As we looked around we were approached by a man who my dad told me to follow with the luggage cart... the man moved quickly with a few other men..I pushed and weaved my way through crowds of people to keep pace with him as somewhere he was mentioned to be our driver and not to lose him! Finally we caught up with the men in a crowded parking garage where he tried speaking to my sister and I in Hindi.

Not knowing what to say we both looked dumbfounded and waited for my dad. The man loaded all of our bags as we waited and had us sit in the back of the very small bus (just me, my sister, my dad, and another passenger). As my sister and I waited in the bus my dad waited outside to have a smoke and speak with someone. While sitting another man hopped in and started the bus...locking the doors and begginng to back out... Here Monika started to think we were about to be kidnapped lol. Pounding on the window she finally alerted my dad who calmly put out his cigarette and joined us in the bus. Off to Pune we were!

As we entered the main road of india.. we waited at a very busy stop light.. many people walked by..even a herd of cows walked by!! The sounds of many cars honking their horns and the sounds of busy travelers trying to get to their destination filled the air.

2 hours later in the drive we finally got to take a step onto a non airline India land! We stopped at what looked like some sort of trendy rest stop..it's here where my dad took my sister and I to go buy some Indian snacks and use the restroom.. We bought some Indian chocolate fudge and also purchased some sort of sesame seed round ball cluster.. walking in and out of the bus..I think we may of almost been struck by oncoming cars atleast 2-3 times just in that one little and very busy rest stop!

The rest of the ride was quiet.. I tried again to grab some sleep by using my sisters pillow (which she packed in her carry on...my mother stuffed mine in check in unfortunately).. on my knee and putting my head down..(no success)... I also couldn't catch any sleep due to the fact I kept thinking we were going to get into an accident! On a scale of 1-10 I rate how wild Indians are with driving at an 11 ... I can't believe how insane the driving system was..it's a shock to me that we didn't see atleast - 5-10 accidents on that four hour drive to my dads house in Pune.

Once we arrived in Pune..I was dead tired! I could barely stand let alone lift all the bags into my dads house... My sister was also tired from jet lag...My dad paid the driver..giving him a nice tip. Looking around my dads neighborhood it had such a different feel than any American neighborhood. Even though it was dark out..there was so much scenery and it was very green...and this was just one section of the neighborhood. Unfortunately I was too damn tired to admire the beauty and I just wanted sleep... we entered the house ..unpacked ...learned how to turn on and off the lights lol and went to bed.

Day 1 Catching The Flight!

Day 1: Catching The Flight.

Feb 19, 2011


Flightday which started abruptly at 6am -  I was loudly awakened by my mother yelling at me to not forget the toilet paper because they use leaves in India! A night of no sleep (due to excitement - which is odd because we were about to embark on a 21 hour journey lol) ... as I dragged my tiresome body out of bed..I began to get ready so we could meet my sister (also traveling with me) and her boyfriend (our driver to the airport). Finishing putting on my clothes (which I laid out the night before for caution of missing the plane or over sleeping) my mom yelling at me to stop taking my sweet ass time.. I took one last check around the house for items, grabbed my bags and left for my sisters apartment.

Upon arriving to my to my sisters apartment my frantic mothers mood began to get worse by the minute. I was afraid she was gonna fall over due to how many circles she was running in lol. Entering my sisters apartment my mom quickly began to cook french toast for my sister's boyfriend and I. I got the job of lugging my heavy carry on bag up to the apartment so my mother could also help my sister shuffle around items. As usual they weren't prepared to leave yet... My sister just barely starting to straighten her hair. As my mother finished cooking Jorge (my sister's boyfriend) and I a lively french toast she quickly turned her frantic attention to my sister. A few minutes later all hell broke loose! Yelling - screaming - tears - frustration would be the next few hours prior to boarding the flight at 12pm. As my mom and sister began arguing with one another on what to pack and deciding whether or not the bags are too heavy. Jorge began to shoot me some odds looks of uncomfort lol. Beging a veteran of the ole mom & sister confrontation I was easily able to remain calm and zone it out. Jorge on the other hand was growing uneasy and I quickly remembered my mom knew of some good sandwiches which I told Jorge we should go pick up. Jorge quickly agreed to the idea of leaving my mom and sister to argue over the bags and we headed off to Safeway. While Out I joked to Jorge we are going to come back to my mom and sister on their knees shuffling and tossing things out of my sisters check in bag... low and behold to our surprise we walked right into that lol. realizing it was already 10:30am we quickly sealed up the HEAVY bags - grabbed the sandwhiches - toilet paper and off we went to the airport.

The drive to the airport was quiet as I think my mom and sister just may of exhausted their arguing session (I was terribly wrong). My mother being concerned told Jorge to slow down and bit and flared up another arguement session with my sister..it was this "delightful" noise I got to hear prior arriving to the airport.

11am arriving to the airport .. we grabbed all the bags and ran for the bag check in...while lifting the bags from his truck Jorge noticed that they seemed a bit (alot!) over 50lbs. We decided to double check the bags via the self check in bag machine...and thus the "item shuffle" began! Worried we'd be late for the flight my sister began pushing my mom because of that..My mom trying to send every last item was freaking out because the bags were over and Jorge trying to remain calm cooly smiled as my mom,sister, and me all ran back and fourth between a waiting bench and the check in line fixing our bags and re-weighing to make sure we were on the dot! Soon (not soon) enough we had an extra bag which we brought for this situation completely packed full of useless items we didn't need in India. Reaching the counter we lucked out as my mom made friends with the check in lady finding they both spoke telgalo. This worked in our advantage because my sisters bag was still a bit overweight as mine was perfect.


Once we were all packed up we ran toward security as we know that usually takes quite a while! Thankfully we didn't get searched or held up for anything .. (you never know when the wrong items like liquids might slip into your carry ons).


After a very stressful morning we finally boarded the flight for NEWARK ... a long 6 hour flight which will then reboard us for a 15 hour flight straight to INDIA. Then a 4 hour bus ride from Mumbai airport to Pune.

While flying to NEWARK my sister and I began to chat with the man next to us.... a Physcian named Delip Petal.. an experienced Indian visitor who shared with us tips on places to see  in Pune and things to not do when we're in India...His list consisted of this:

Don't drink the water!
Don't have milk product!
Don't eat cold food (raw)!
Don't eat out.

Delip was a very interesting fellow and helped make the what would of been a very boring long flight to NEWARK go by very quickly.


Once in NEWARK my sister Monika and I both we're feeling exhausted and very confused as we had never been to that airport before. thankfully we landed in the same terminal because we had barely 20 minutes to catch the most important flight! The 15 hours to India!

Rushing to find our gate we asked are way around getting various answers..but thankfully we finally spotted our gate (The one of 95% of the passengers being Indians).

 
Patiently we waited to board the flight as we listened to the heavy accented Indian flight announcer make unusual over the air announcements. ...Monika began reading her new tourist book on India where the first page reads a quote of "Indians are poor but India is not a poor country". I began chowing down some of my delicious sandwhich that had been sitting out for 6 -7 hr by then.

Boarding the flight we were greeted by what struck us as a homosexual flight attendant saying "namaste" ..an interesting start to our 15 hour flight it was..

Snugly fit into the seats my sister took window..I got stuck with middle..and the stranger who said maybe 3-4 words to us the entire time got isle. Throughout the flight we were given some "scrumptious" airline food.. and to make matters worse it came in the form of Indian airline food... not amazing..not terrible.. definitely not my favorite. Because I couldn't seem to find any comfortable position at all on the damn plane, along with the man snooring like crazy behind us.. I decided to stay awake the entire flight and watch movie + use my phone... unfortunately with that..60-70% of the flight the man sitting next to us in the isle was asleep and we couldn't get out...so there went my phone option...I ended up watching some of the worst movies ever..these included: the social network, due date, and some other terrible movie. As the movies passed I decided to start watching the provided airline shows... I finally learned why I hate American television and why i don't watch tv...upon  the last few hours of the strenuous flight I finally decided to see if I could possibly grab at least a wink of sleep. I lifted my knee up and put a pillow in between...the idea actually worked for 15-20 mins! Unfortunately it was shot down because just as I started to drift into a good sleep on my knee the child next to our row started crying!! All in all the flight wasn't the best for me...not to mention it smelled terrible on there. but it seemed Monika atleast got to sleep and watch a nice Indian movie..