Saturday heading to India

Since it was Saturday we got to sleep in a bit at our hotel. I am not all that great at sleeping in anymore so I was still up around 8am. I used the morning to chat with the family and pack up for the trip to India. We met for lunch and walked to a local mall with a pizza place. Pizza was just what the doctor ordered. It wasn't as good as Mary's but it was really pretty good all things considered. Our flight to India didn't leave until 8pm so me and another guy decided to go and visit the Singapore Museum. It was mostly about the history of Singapore and the tour was really well done. It was self guided but they provided a pretty nifty little box with headphones that played a recording for each area you visited and it also had a little video screen to give you more information about the different things that we saw. We all met back at the hotel to catch a van to the airport.

When we entered Singapore they gave us a little form to fill out on the plane. The form had all the basic information about you and where you were staying but it also had a startling section where you had to sign acknowledging that if you were caught with drugs you would be put to death. They collected it when we went through customs. Why am I telling you this? Well, when they took the form they tore off a small section and gave it to you as if it were a receipt. I didn't really get the impression the receipt had any importance. So after we checked in at the airport to leave today you had to go through another immigration area to get to the international terminal. And surprise, they wanted that little receipt. I didn't have mine and I am pretty sure I threw it away at the hotel. A moment of panic definitely set in when I was turned away and sent to another counter. Fortunately ,it turned out that it wasn't really a big deal. I just had to fill out another form and they checked to confirm when and how I entered the country. There was about 5 minutes though where I had to keep from having a little panic attack. We got onto the plane for the 5 hour flight to Mumbai without any problem.

Once again business class was awesome. Lots of food, little cloth tablecloths for our tray table, real silverware and a whole selection of movies and TV shows to watch. When we arrived in India the first thing I noticed when exiting the plane was that the airport felt a little old and well used. I went through a variety of unusual and not so good odors on the way to pass through customs. They seem very fond of incense here. Going through customs is kind of like going through a police checkpoint. Even though you know you don't have anything you shouldn't have and you know you haven't done anything wrong you still feel a little nervous while they are reviewing your passport and travel documents. I made it through without a problem. The airport was pretty crowded and from the minute I left the plane until I was safely inside my hotel room it felt like organized chaos. The hotel had arranged for a driver and a van to pick us up from the airport and to take us to the hotel. We were supposed to look for one of those guys you see at every airport holding a sign with our name on it. After we collected our bags we made our way to the door to exit the airport. When we hit the door there was a VERY crazy scene with a huge crowd of people all holding up signs with different names on them. I bet there were 100 signs within the large crowd of people. It seemed like everyone was talking at once too. We finally found the sign with our name on it and made our way around the crowd to meet the driver. As we headed to the van there were 2 other guys that seemed to appear out of nowhere. They kept trying to take my suitcase out of my hand and I couldn't understand what they were saying. The guy realized my apprehension and offered some sort of identification. After he asked several times I finally relented and let him take one of my bags. I still wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do so I stayed really close to him. He followed us to the car without incident and I think he must have worked for the airport. He definitely wanted a tip so I am guessing that is why he was so insistent on helping. We all piled into the car but the chaos didn't stop there. The hotel was very close to the airport but it seemed like there was a traffic jam the entire way. Indian drivers seem rather fond of honking because every other car was honking. It was dark but I could see that sides of the road were filled with what looked like cheap homemade houses. I also saw big group of people just sitting on the ground, I am guessing they were homeless. Our hotel seemed like an oasis. It has big iron gates you drive through which I presume is to keep the less fortunate out. It will be interesting to see what everything looks like in the daylight. We have hired a driver, a tour guide and a van to show us around Mumbai tomorrow. Hopefully they will speak a little better english than our driver tonight because we could hardly understand him. I need to get some sleep but I am sure I will have lots of pictures and stuff to write about tomorrow night.