Thursday, November 24, 2011

Traveling India Style

Do our bags look overweight?
We had a beautiful breakfast at the hotel in Delhi, then we drove to the airport where Sanjay (our Novato friend and partner in Destination Himalaya) had a nice man help us through with our luggage - the books we are donating to the school put us over weight so somehow he spoke those magical Hindi words and got us through!

Our plane was delayed an hour so we were late getting into Cochin.  FYI - the planes (Jet Airways) are NOT Air India! Just think bus and that will give you an idea.  You even have to pay for tea or coffee - water is free!  The landings were a little disconcerting to say the least...white knuckle for sure!  We landed in Cochi first then on to Cochin. We did have an epic moment when the steward (not many stewardesses on these flights) used Hollie's tray table to put all his props for telling us how the plane worked. He stood right in front of us, crotch view, and was swinging his props around, like the masks for your face and seat belts and they kept hitting us and when he would put them down they would fall on the floor between Hollie's legs. Hollie was sitting there pretending nothing was amiss, and I was peeing in my pants laughing so hard tears were flowing out of my eyes. I pretended I was reading something very funny, or very sad.... in my book, but my whole seat was shaking and the man next to me finally said "what's so funny?"  I tried to explain and then found that explaining made it worse...he just thought I was a crazy American! Oh, we also realized last night we left one bag at the airport - the one with the books...these books have been SO challenging, I will have to remember to repay Sanjay and Jane for that little gift - no wonder they didn't want to bring them!!  But, with one phone call to Ranuka they were located and she will bring them to us today. Amazing.   


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Day One! We arrive...finally

Day 1 = New Delhi...new outfit! 

Wow...........I N D I A.......the nicest people on earth! We just flew into Delhi (the planes are luxurious) and landed without a hitch (though it took freaking days to get here...) Raman and Safa (don't ask me to spell...) picked us up and brought us back to this hotel that is way more luxurious than we have ever experienced.......Cami and Luke - think 10 stars! We literally came up to our room, dumped our stuff, slammed down a latte and were on our way to brave the streets of Delhi! Safa is an amazing (though crazy, like you have to be) driver - reminds me of driving with Sanjay back home.....though he has to at least pretend to follow the rules of the road! I have to say all my reading and movie watching prepared me for what we saw, I found life in Delhi to be very REAL, colorful and people going about their business in whatever capacity they could - definitely survival of the fittest! How do children not get run over?? How does anyone survive the streets of Delhi??
Anyway, learning curve here is steep - tipping and $$ are tweaking my brain, I think I'm down to about 5% brain power at the moment - so I thank God for Sanjay's angles guiding us.  We shopped for Indian tops (Kurta and Kameize)
and they dressed me up in a Sari - just wait till I send that little gem of a picture - definitely the "situation of the day" - I am sooo not Sari worthy......
We drove and drove for what seemed like hours (because it was..) found a few outfits, saw some cows and monkeys and a LOT of people and cars and now we are home propping our eyelids open with toothpicks until dinner.  Off to Cochin tomorrow - a four hour flight and 1 1/2 hour drive - then we can rest.......not........too much to see here - this place is SO BEYOND AMAZING!!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Welcome!

The Northern California Wallenfels are starting up a blog to track our travels on a little excursion we are are all taking to India this winter. Cate (Mom) and Hollie (daugher, 18) are heading to Southern India (Kerala) to volunteer at schools teaching about life in the USA in November. Hollie is preparing a presentation with images of her life in the USA and facts that the kids (2nd to 6th grade) would find interesting and to learn about a part of the world that most them will never see. Mike (dad), Cami (daughter, 15), and Luke (11) are heading out in December to meet them along with our friends the Saxena family (Sanjay, Jane, Arjun, and Seth) who have organized this experience through Destination Himalaya .

More to come!
Mike