Namaste

This will probably not be a long posting, mainly because I'm exhausted, but I wanted to take advantage of the quality wifi (although for the princely sum of 550 rupees a day) from the Hotel Sea Palace and a rare lucid moment for me today to post that I had made it safely to Mumbai. I'm operating on around four hours sleep - coming off about four hours sleep the night before I left - but I'm soldiering one (I'm a big believer in grinding it out the first day of a trip so that you can get back on schedule). The flights were uneventful, although the American Airlines flight from JFK to Brussels was on the oldest and smallest plane I've ever flown across the Atlantic. The food and amenities were, per an American airlines, dreadful - bland food and only a couple movie screens with no choices (my first of two movies was The Tooth Fairy, starring the Rock and, for some reason, Ashley Judd - I sort of watched it with the sound off, and thankfully slept through the second "feature", whatever that was). In Brussels I switched to Jet Airways from India so the plane was new, the service and food fantastic, and each seat had a personal video screen with a movie library (I ended up sleeping most of the way, but did catch the classic The Third Man - I always forget how amazing that film is). I did manage to score an exit row for the JFK/Brussels leg through my usual conniving, but not so for the Brussels/Mumbai leg (although the seats were much bigger so it was not much of an issue). My flight was around a half-hour later getting into Mumbai, which isn't bad. My dad and sister Annie were supposed to get in around an hour later, but their flight was around two hours late, which made for a very late night. We didn't make it to the Hotel Sea Palace until after 3:00 in the morning (and the time difference between Burlington and Mumbai is 9 1/2 hours - it's always the half hour that throws off my calculations). Luckily, the driver that my excellent friend John organized was there waiting, and patiently continued to wait, and everything was fine. I'm in one large room, with a spectacular view of the windswept bay (it's monsoon season) and dad and Annie are down the hall. I tried to go to bed as soon as possible, but they were up after ordering Cokes and chicken sandwiches. One of the last things I remember them saying was to order ice with their Cokes, which I always warn people against in India - hopefully their tummies are OK today. It's a little after 11:00 a.m. and I just let them sleep. I didn't want to miss breakfast so I snuck down to eat early, and met a nice couple from Tuscon who are finishing up four weeks in India - she's from Pune originally and were heading back home. I should also take advantage of this wifi and arrange my hotel in Brussels. I'm thinking of just getting a room in Brussels for three days, but taking a train over to Bruges one day and then another train over to Luxembourg another day. I found a couple really inexpensive options for downtown Brussels, which would allow me to be centrally located, dump my stuff, and travel light for three days - and still grab a hotel room in Bruges for an overnight stay if the place blows me away (although sleeping without the blessed CPAP would make for a rough night). When I talked to John last night from the airport he said he'd swing by this afternoon - can't wait to see him again. Anyway, namaste!