Eli edit: this started as a short “we’re here” post, but has gotten extensively longer. Mel’s done most of the writing up ’til this point, as I’ve been exhausted and catching up on months of lost sleep basically any second we weren’t doing something else.
Well, we woke up this morning at 3:30AM Paris time, caught a Noctilien (night bus) near our hotel. The Noctilien is a Paris-wide free night bus service, which (as far as we could tell) transported working stiffs and drunks around the city. A guy got on the bus with a half-full cup of some sort of party drink. He was utterly sloshed, and the driver yelled at him briefly, opened the side door, and said (as best I could make out) “Either you or the cup can go back in the street, or both, its your choice”. The guy tossed the cup and slumped into his seat. He would shout out the name of every stop in time with the automated announcer, which made everyone on the bus laugh. The bus didn’t exactly go where we needed it, but it dropped us about 2 blocks from Gare Du Nord.
We dragged our stuff to the station, and got totally confused about what RER B line train to take. The online schedule said one was leaving at 5:00, but we followed the signs and ended up at one leaving at 5:30, and arriving at CDG1 (DeGaulle airport) at 6:00… no good for a 7:00 plane flight. There was a young French woman there as well, and she kept looking at the schedule posted and wandering around, muttering to herself. After the third time she did it, I asked her if she was headed to CDG. She said yes, and she was confused. We were in the same boat, it seemed. I left her and Mel with the luggage and ran up to the main schedule board. Turns out, the train we needed was one another track, and had ZERO signs pointing that way, we just had to find track #36. I ran back down and informed the lovely ladies of the situation. We all ran to the correct train, and boarded just as the chime sounded and the doors slammed shut. We shared our ride with a couple from L.A. who were in Paris to party, and were headed to Dublin for more of the same. Bon Voyage!
Anyhow, we cleared security at CDG, and sat down at the SwissAir terminal. The flight to Zurich went off without a hitch, we even got to see the sunrise over the Swiss Alps. Quite a view. Zurich airport is a nice place. We were in Terminal E, which overlooks the runway. Again, the Alps in the background, and spotless Swiss efficiency with regard to luggage-loading and handling. Our flight from Zurich to Mumbai was long, but very much better than our Philly->Paris flight.
LX (Swiss Air) is a great airline. If you ever get the chance to fly with them, by all means do it. The difference between U.S. Airways and SwissAir was marked. First of all, the check-in woman greeted us with a warm smile and “Bonjour, hello.” Second, one of our checked bags was slightly (1KG) over the 20KG limit for free baggage. She didn’t give it a second glance. They had an entire rack of magazines for free, including The Economist, which I grabbed. They also don’t hesitate to feed you, give you a blanket or pillow. The piece of Swiss Chocolate at the end of every flight is a welcome touch too. They also give out the headphones for the seatback entertainment system, which played Tetris, Sudoku, and a bunch of other games. It also had first-run U.S. movies for free, and some TV shows. Needless to say, we were entertained the entire time
When we landed in Mumbai, the weather was 29 Degrees C (85 or so F), and “thick smoke and haze”. They aren’t kidding. We cleared customs and passport control, and exchanged $150 of US into over 6600 INR (rupees or Rs). The exchange rate is ~50 INR to $1. We paid for a cab ride (250Rs or about $5, it would have been 200Rs without Air Conditioning), and paid off the porters with our spare Euro change (about $8, which is a king’s sum). I had forgotten to do my homework on how much to tip, and the exchange rate is so out of whack… I left the cabbie another 250Rs, which was (now that I’ve done my homework) about 10-20x as much as I should have. Oh well, thats a cup of Starbucks coffee to me, and a week’s pay to him. Hopefully he’ll feed his family with it.
A short note about our cab ride. The cab was a small 4-door car with a rear-mounted engine. I’m not familiar with the make, which isn’t surprising considering where we are. Our large suitcases went on a roof rack, with just their own weight holding them down. We got in the back, and AWAY WE WENT. Dear god, I’ve seen the traffic in Mumbai on TV, and real life, at night, confused, with a cabbie that speaks about 15 words of English, in a loud, no-seatbelts car, with no clue where you are going makes it much more crazy and awe inspiring that no one gets run over (and they don’t).
Mumbai is, in a word: dirty.
I was prepared for it, but its still shocking. We got to the hotel, and things were much better. All marble/stone floors, solid wood furniture, a decent bathroom that’s surprisingly clean for what I was expecting. We got a 24h internet card at the ripoff price of 900Rs ($18), but whatever, I needed to do some research and didn’t want to mess around with a 2 hour card for 350Rs. We’ve ordered 4 bottles of sealed water, and are planning on using it for basically everything, washing our faces, drinking, brushing teeth, etc. The first thing I need to do tomorrow is exchange some of my 100 and 1000 Rs notes into 10’s and 5’s. These are much more appropriate to tipping and general use. We know that we’ll get ripped off wherever we go, but we can try and limit it as much as possible by using small bills. Mysteriously, no one has change for anything.
Mel has already noticed that basically no one will speak to her or engage her in any way. She can carry luggage past a porter and he won’t move, but as soon as I touch it, he’s at my elbow trying to help. Its going to be a big change for her, thats for sure.
Anyhow, its past 3AM Mumbai time, and we should be getting off to bed. We’ve been watching MTV-India, which is interesting, and confusing.
More when we get back from shopping for clothes tomorrow. Sorry, no pictures for now.
Oh, and as its now 4AM on Thursday here now, Happy Thanksgiving! No turkey for us.