leaving on panjim express

i have purchased my train ticket for amritsar tomorrow at 11 am i leave. it takes 1-3 days to get there, so i don't think you will hear from me for a few days. i also have not been able to post any pictures, even though i've taken some.

so it ends..

ok. here's the rest of the story. i boarded emirates airline finally around 2pm. side note-dubai airport is the best airport and nicest people i have ever encountered and so is their airline. alitalia is the worst, and the least friendly, worst food ever. i do not reccommend alitalia because i heard workers in the airport saying "so what else is new" in response to my problems with them.

so i get seated in a very crowded 3 seat aisle, in the center is a 250 lb.sudanese man who thinks he's all that. now who on earth would seat such a big man in the middle like that? i would have given him mine, but i did not want to be sandwiched between 2 rico suaves. anyhow, he kept staring at me, touching me, making me sit on one side of my ass the entire 2.5 hour trip to bombay. might have been a prince in sudan, but he was no prince in my heart. totally uncomfortable. we arrive in bombay, i try to lose the sudanese and his fancy pal (i really think they thought i wanted their bodies) i wait an hour in immigration, and another hour for my luggage. no luggage. they turn off the machine. i let it go, take down numbers, and figure out what i need purchase. i slowly roam to the other side of the luggage machine only to find one small blue piece sitting on the floor waiting for me like a lost dog. yay! i scurry off to my pre paid taxi, get in the car only to find the driver is totally inexperienced, speaks no english, and has no clue where colaba is. i ask him "taj mahal hotel?" no response. "gateway of india?" what's that? i mean this is the most common place for tourists to stay in all of india, so it's strange he does not know. away we drive. and drive. and drive. and i KNOW we are going around in circles-i see 3 weddings-numerogically it's a 9, which is very auspicious, we see juhu beach, totally crowded, and chowpatty, which has a huge carnival all lit up. i know we are not in the right place, so i take over and direct the poor fool to our destination, dump out my luggage onto the ground and haul myself into my awaiting hotel room. as if nothing ever happened. 18 extra hours later, i sleep 18 hours. i am happy to be here and can't believe i survived such a journey with reletive ease and not much anger whatsoever. i can do anything. it can only get better from here.
i wake in the evening, get some goan cuisine, and check out the new animated hanuman movie at the inox. things are not so bad. not so bad after all.

...with love...from dubai

i write this post with love from dubai because i'm on my 3rd "wait." this is how it began. arrived at chicago airport 1pm friday, boarded at 4pm, sat on frozen plane till 8pm, thrown off and given a $10 food ticket (this buys a sandwich and a small water)and told to return to the gate at 9 because "we are having mechanical problems." i return, and sit till 11pm, we board at 1130, BIG applause at this point.
i fly to milan-takes about 8 or 9 hours, and have to re-book my flight from there to bombay, because i missed my connecting flight. SO i book to dubai, and wait 8 hours in the milan airport, with nothing to do but consume a bottle of italian wine and eat a plate of disgusting cold pasta and fall asleep on the marble floor, waking up in time to board the flight. takes 6 hours to get to the UAE (united arab emirates), and get a flight to bombay, which will give me another "wait" for 6 more hours. fortunately, this airport is very cool, but very expensive, i buy a "fly emirates" t-shirt from duty free, because i stink SO bad-i did not anticipate THIS kind of hell, so i did not pack an extra shirt and have been wearing a wool pashmina all this time to cover my tattoos and for warmth, but it keeps getting warmer with each flight, nor did i pack any deoderent, so i feel sorry for whoever has to sit next to me on my way to bombay. i guess it takes less than 2 hours to get there from here, and another couple hours in a taxi to the hotel, which puts me at about 7pm sunday evening.
you do the math.
i guess the big question on my mind at this point is whether my luggage has followed me around the world.
pray for me.

take a number, have a seat

so getting the visa for india is very much like being in india. first of all, you have to find your way to nbc towers, which is an island in itself, with parking lots that cost upwards of $25, so it's best to be dropped off or walk in from somewhere else. and you have to know the shape of the building in order to find it. tricky. you can apply for visa mon-fri 9-12:30 (excluding the dozens of muslim/hindu/christian holidays and gandhi's birthday) and pick it up between 3:30-5. so we arrived friday around 10. jeff took the day off work, cause there's no other way to do this. at least 150 people ahead of us, our "number" says 39, the digital sign says 02, and they are calling 116 (?) with the next number being 48! we do not know how high these numbers go before it is at zero again. very low rent, no speakers, just one quiet indian whispering numbers (i can't even listen to my new ipod nano) and have to sit on my coat on the floor because all the leather furniture is taken by snoozing indians-ONE person working while 300 india loving suckers sit and wait and wait and wait and wait....
we stayed almost 3 hours only to be told, "you must return next tuesday between 4-5. we are giving our staff the day off because they work so hard."

i come back when told, stand in a line to collect numbers, sit, sit, sit, half an hour later, the entire room gets in 3 lines-left for miscellaneous, right for visa, middle for i'm not sure. no numbers called, dude in front of me is 68, i am 29......he is from turkey, we strike up an amusing conversation about india, he is going to bangalore, chinese woman joins in, we all have a laughing party over all of this......and in an hour i am out the door swooning over our unbelievable chicago skyline and missing home already.
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3 time's a charm

this will be my 3rd trip to the indian subcontinent in 3 consecutive years. i waited 7 months after the first, and 9 after the second. let's see if i stick to the plan. these are the places i plan to visit. the north west!!!
arrive in bombay, fly to amritsar, punjab on the pakistan border to see the golden temple and hang with sikhs, watch the border guards do their competitive dance visit the rat temple, than to dharamsala-where all the exiled tibetans live, including the dali lahma, than to various places in rajasthan (udaipur, jodphur, jaipur, etc.) and through gujarat back to bombay. 3 weeks later, i go back to kerala and mysore for yoga, jeff goes home.
will be travelling on planes,trains,busses, autos,camels,and rickshaws.

stay tuned.....i will arrive on november 26th