Today we both commented that our entry to india was so smooth and uneventful, it felt eerie.
But I'll back up.
First we followed a blizzard to new york and spent a day in a freeeeeeezing NYC! But perfect excuse for a broadway matinee.
Our 14 hr flight to Mumbai got us in a bit early and much to our surprise, breezed thru immigration and customs without so much as a glance in our direction.
What we expected as chaos turned into a quiet but long wait for our luggage and both pieces arrived...in tact! Which is always a victory in my mind!
We even prepaid for a taxi, lined up in a quiet cue waiting for a customers voucher (vs the haggling and bombardment we are used to getting at other airports around the world)
Our driver got us to our hotel without straying/getting lost which is another victory! And to top the night off we were shown to our hotel room straight away which was exactly as we had reserved. The final victory in a very long journey.
Today has been an excellent day of wandering thru a fish market first thing in the am when we were attempting to find sonewhere to buy a SIM card for our phones ! Finding a posh organic coffee shop for lunch where we convinced the poor young bloke we were French. Wandering thru street stall markets and poshy artisan shops. And seeing the amazing but seriously out of place english architecture from the old british empire.
I loved the brightly coloured women in saris, the warm sun and the hot chai. I might change my story in a few weeks but today.... it wasnt nearly as overwhelming as I thought it would be. The streets are surprisingly clean , the people are generally polite, the traffice seems perfectly tolerable (even crossing the big roads on foot!) And the smells really havent been that bad.
So all in all we're still a bit weary but in good spirits from our first day.
