The week after next, Mark and two colleagues are going to a conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Sam and I are coming along! So are the husband and kids of one of the other attendees. It's pretty exciting, and will be our first trip out of India since arriving in November. The only firm item on my agenda is to capture a small yeti, other than that I'm flexible. :)
Seriously, we are thrilled at the chance to explore the city, maybe take in some Mt. Everest-related sites, feel cooler temperatures (40 F at night, wow!), and hopefully push Sam around in one of the strollers that's mothballed in stroller-unfriendly Chennai.
When we found out that we were going, I thought that Cat Stevens' song Kathmandu was playing in my head, but it was really Bob Seeger's Kathmandu. I like Cat's better, but Bob's works pretty well as a way to sing the title of this post.
I promise to take lots of photos, and to blog.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, February 20, 2009
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Home? Ennai!!!
The title of this post is what Sam says at least once most days, now that we are in our new home. At first I think he was asking to go home (to Falls Church), but now it's just for confirmation that this is home.
Surprise, surprise, we had more issues with our baggage on the flight from Delhi to Chennai. There was much conversation, several phone calls, boarding passes produced to prove that we had arrived on an international flight, more fees, and on and on. At one point, Mark was taken away to some office somewhere (I later found out that it was to pay the fees), and I found myself alone with a toddler in a strange airport, in a new country, without passports, boarding passes, a working cellphone, or local currency. Not letting that happen again, let me tell you.
You have to look at electronic signs to see what gate your flight's at in Delhi (and they change all the time, and announcements are difficult to hear), like at a train station. The flight involved taking a bus out to the tarmac and going up portable stairs to the plane. It's been a long time since I've gotten to do that! People were very helpful with, if slightly suspicious of, all of our carry-on baggage. Sam fell asleep at the airport and didn't wake up for the whole flight. Which was good, because (unannounced to us), our flight had been combined with one to Bangalore, and was now twice as long. Hmm. We just hoped that our sponsors, Kristin and Tony, would find out about this and not be waiting at the airport for 2 extra hours.
Kristin had found out, and didn't mind the wait, although Tony had gone back to work. She also said how sorry she was that we would be in temporary housing for a few days, referring to an email that we hadn't actually gotten. :) Luckily, the temp apartment was perfectly adequate, stocked with food and toys by Kristin, and complete with a crib for Sam. That's right, we lugged around the Pack N Play for a week, when everywhere we stayed (except for Chase's) had a crib available. Note to self...
We took a quick visit to the Consulate to check it out and introduce ourselves, then on to our temporary digs and a lesson in water purifiers and mosquito nets. Poor Mark, he's allergic to the bug bites but is like catnip to mosquitoes; Sam and I got one bite each to Mark's 13. The weekend was a blur of hanging out, eating out at a variety of vegetarian restaurants (green dot on the menu = don't have to ask about ingredients), and meeting new friends/co-workers, including Matt and Jill. Jill went to Israel with a bunch of my summer camp buddies, and we had a fun time playing Jewish Geography.
First impressions of Chennai: it is much greener and nicer than what we saw of Delhi, not to mention largely free of smoke (there's an ocean nearby; it's the same reason West L.A. is less smoggy than the Valley). We've seen cows and oxcarts and people living under tarps right next to huge mansions (it turned out to be housing for the construction workers), families of five all balanced on one motorcycle (with mom riding sidesaddle), and women in gorgeous saris walking around barefoot.
On Saturday morning we went to the Consul General's residence, where an Auto Rickshaw, festively decorated, had been set up for anyone wanting to take holiday photos. Sam quickly fell in love with the "truck," wanted to drive it, and protested loudly when taken out of it.
Surprise, surprise, we had more issues with our baggage on the flight from Delhi to Chennai. There was much conversation, several phone calls, boarding passes produced to prove that we had arrived on an international flight, more fees, and on and on. At one point, Mark was taken away to some office somewhere (I later found out that it was to pay the fees), and I found myself alone with a toddler in a strange airport, in a new country, without passports, boarding passes, a working cellphone, or local currency. Not letting that happen again, let me tell you.
You have to look at electronic signs to see what gate your flight's at in Delhi (and they change all the time, and announcements are difficult to hear), like at a train station. The flight involved taking a bus out to the tarmac and going up portable stairs to the plane. It's been a long time since I've gotten to do that! People were very helpful with, if slightly suspicious of, all of our carry-on baggage. Sam fell asleep at the airport and didn't wake up for the whole flight. Which was good, because (unannounced to us), our flight had been combined with one to Bangalore, and was now twice as long. Hmm. We just hoped that our sponsors, Kristin and Tony, would find out about this and not be waiting at the airport for 2 extra hours.
Kristin had found out, and didn't mind the wait, although Tony had gone back to work. She also said how sorry she was that we would be in temporary housing for a few days, referring to an email that we hadn't actually gotten. :) Luckily, the temp apartment was perfectly adequate, stocked with food and toys by Kristin, and complete with a crib for Sam. That's right, we lugged around the Pack N Play for a week, when everywhere we stayed (except for Chase's) had a crib available. Note to self...
We took a quick visit to the Consulate to check it out and introduce ourselves, then on to our temporary digs and a lesson in water purifiers and mosquito nets. Poor Mark, he's allergic to the bug bites but is like catnip to mosquitoes; Sam and I got one bite each to Mark's 13. The weekend was a blur of hanging out, eating out at a variety of vegetarian restaurants (green dot on the menu = don't have to ask about ingredients), and meeting new friends/co-workers, including Matt and Jill. Jill went to Israel with a bunch of my summer camp buddies, and we had a fun time playing Jewish Geography.
First impressions of Chennai: it is much greener and nicer than what we saw of Delhi, not to mention largely free of smoke (there's an ocean nearby; it's the same reason West L.A. is less smoggy than the Valley). We've seen cows and oxcarts and people living under tarps right next to huge mansions (it turned out to be housing for the construction workers), families of five all balanced on one motorcycle (with mom riding sidesaddle), and women in gorgeous saris walking around barefoot.
On Saturday morning we went to the Consul General's residence, where an Auto Rickshaw, festively decorated, had been set up for anyone wanting to take holiday photos. Sam quickly fell in love with the "truck," wanted to drive it, and protested loudly when taken out of it.
Yeah, that's the shot for the card. We found out that there are two other boys, Alexander and Jackson, born within a week of Sam. That'll be some birthday party come June! There are tons of other kids in the Consular Community close to Sam's age, and we had a brunch playdate set up within an hour of arriving at the CG's. :) At that playdate the next day, with Kris and Richard, we discovered that they had lived in L.A. and were fellow devotees of places like The Apple Pan.
I don't want to overgeneralize about FS people, but in our limited experience, they sure are friendly and helpful! We were toted around, fed, entertained, lent/given anything we needed until our shipments arrive, and on and on. The result of this generosity was that by Tuesday, we had moved into our permanent housing with our own working Indian cellphones, working internet, a high chair and toys for Sam, a temporary car and driver, food, and playdates for me and Sam while Mark worked. It was awesome.
Oh, and while we were at the temporary apartment? Sam and I saw a monkey. For real. Running along the top of the fence like a possum, with crows dive-bombing it and a local dog barking his head off. I couldn't get to my camera fast enough, but we were thrilled, and for days afterwards Sam would say "Muntey!" to any and everyone.
In the next post: our fabulous house and what makes it weirdly Indian. Hint- it has to do with water...
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Welcome to Delhi. Smoke?
After a relaxed morning in the hotel, we found that leaving Frankfurt was going to be more stressful than we thought it would be! It started out fine... a helpful porter took all of our bags down to Lufthansa check-in, and we had plenty of time before our flight. But then the charmingly perplexed ladies behind the counter told us that for baggage allowance, India goes by a complex formula of "total weight," (much less than the American baggage allowance) not number of bags per passenger, and we would have to pay some fees. So what was the damage? €2,900.00. Around $4,000.00!!!!
Not. Going. To. Happen.
After much discussion and many, many phone calls, it was determined that we would still have to pay a little extra. A little, as in €750.00, or around $990.00. Still a lot of money, but at least it didn't leave me about to faint as the earlier figure had. Note to self: never travel with the maximum allowance of bags, ever again.
But we thanked the women for being so helpful (they really were), and went on to our flight. It was fine, with excellent vegetarian food available. Sam wasn't thrilled to be on a plane again, but he was mostly OK, and there were plenty of other kids on the flight to camouflage his fussiness. We arrived in Delhi at 1 AM local time, and after some misunderstandings managed to find all of our bags and the driver who had been sent for us (we were waiting inside, he was outside, etc.) .
Our first impression of New Delhi? It smells like fireworks, even inside. We assumed that this was a holdover from Diwali, but it turns out that it smells like that a lot, because of the fuel that's burned by so many people (dried-out cow dung). Let me clarify that it doesn't smell like dung, just like burning. After some time living there you apparently acclimate to the scent, but the whole time we were in Delhi it felt like Wildfire Season in Southern California, complete with the smokey pseudo-twilight.
So at about 3 AM we headed over to the airport Radisson, where we had a reservation. Um, yeah. We had a reservation for later that day, and we were essentially arriving in the middle of the previous night. Check-in wasn't until noon, and if we wanted to get a room for the few hours of sleep before Mark had to go to work, it would be another night's fee. Our other choices were to hang out in the lobby, or their 24 hour "NYC" restaurant.
Or, or... call our friends Martha and Iftah, who are posted to Delhi!!! For people woken up in the wee hours, they were amazingly gracious and told us to come right over. We stored most of our bags at the hotel and took our first Ambassador cab. In two days we went from toting a car seat all over New York to holding Sam on our laps in a car with no seat belts. Oy.
They fed us homemade schnitzel, made great sofa cushion beds for us, and tucked us in for the rest of the night. Mark went to work a few hours later, and Sam and I hung out with Martha and Iftah as their HHE (furniture) arrived. Sam fell in love with every mover and demanded to be picked up. Sadly, we were unable to visit the monkeys that live down the road, but we did see our first cows and oxcart. Once Mark got back from work we headed over to the hotel (finally!), which was very luxurious, with reasonably-priced room service. Did you know that if you order a glass of milk from room service in India it comes with a glass of sugar water? It does.
After Iftah finished teaching his karate class we met up at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel for a great dinner, and some fun photographs:
My kid loves a hat, especially an improvised one. We were beyond thankful for the warm welcome to India, and felt just about ready for our journey to Chennai the next morning. Also, we're really looking forward to seeing Martha and Iftah again, maybe for Chanukkah or Passover.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
After much discussion and many, many phone calls, it was determined that we would still have to pay a little extra. A little, as in €750.00, or around $990.00. Still a lot of money, but at least it didn't leave me about to faint as the earlier figure had. Note to self: never travel with the maximum allowance of bags, ever again.
But we thanked the women for being so helpful (they really were), and went on to our flight. It was fine, with excellent vegetarian food available. Sam wasn't thrilled to be on a plane again, but he was mostly OK, and there were plenty of other kids on the flight to camouflage his fussiness. We arrived in Delhi at 1 AM local time, and after some misunderstandings managed to find all of our bags and the driver who had been sent for us (we were waiting inside, he was outside, etc.) .
Our first impression of New Delhi? It smells like fireworks, even inside. We assumed that this was a holdover from Diwali, but it turns out that it smells like that a lot, because of the fuel that's burned by so many people (dried-out cow dung). Let me clarify that it doesn't smell like dung, just like burning. After some time living there you apparently acclimate to the scent, but the whole time we were in Delhi it felt like Wildfire Season in Southern California, complete with the smokey pseudo-twilight.
So at about 3 AM we headed over to the airport Radisson, where we had a reservation. Um, yeah. We had a reservation for later that day, and we were essentially arriving in the middle of the previous night. Check-in wasn't until noon, and if we wanted to get a room for the few hours of sleep before Mark had to go to work, it would be another night's fee. Our other choices were to hang out in the lobby, or their 24 hour "NYC" restaurant.
Or, or... call our friends Martha and Iftah, who are posted to Delhi!!! For people woken up in the wee hours, they were amazingly gracious and told us to come right over. We stored most of our bags at the hotel and took our first Ambassador cab. In two days we went from toting a car seat all over New York to holding Sam on our laps in a car with no seat belts. Oy.
They fed us homemade schnitzel, made great sofa cushion beds for us, and tucked us in for the rest of the night. Mark went to work a few hours later, and Sam and I hung out with Martha and Iftah as their HHE (furniture) arrived. Sam fell in love with every mover and demanded to be picked up. Sadly, we were unable to visit the monkeys that live down the road, but we did see our first cows and oxcart. Once Mark got back from work we headed over to the hotel (finally!), which was very luxurious, with reasonably-priced room service. Did you know that if you order a glass of milk from room service in India it comes with a glass of sugar water? It does.
After Iftah finished teaching his karate class we met up at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel for a great dinner, and some fun photographs:
My kid loves a hat, especially an improvised one. We were beyond thankful for the warm welcome to India, and felt just about ready for our journey to Chennai the next morning. Also, we're really looking forward to seeing Martha and Iftah again, maybe for Chanukkah or Passover.
Monday, November 3, 2008
New York Stories
Got to New York safely, found a car service with an SUV that could take us and our ridiculous amount of baggage to Mark's grandma Chase's apartment, had some late-night diner food (delivered!) and great conversation with Chase. The next day was Halloween, and after Mark's morning at work we met up at Braden's apartment for a playgroup. Sam was actually the oldest baby for a change.
Braden's cutie, Fisher, was fittingly dressed as the Catch of the Day, while Sam went with a holiday-themed outfit rather than a costume this year.
Braden's cutie, Fisher, was fittingly dressed as the Catch of the Day, while Sam went with a holiday-themed outfit rather than a costume this year.
Later that night, thanks to a babysitter Braden arranged for us, we were able to see Equus with Chase. Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths were amazing, but that is one twisted play.
Side note: in the play, Daniel's character is so disturbed at one point that he doesn't talk, only sings commercial jingles, especially one for a Britsh candy bar called Milky Bar ("The Milky Bar Kid is strong and tough, and only the best is good enough..."). Once we arrived in Chennai, a local cable station was running ads for a showing of the most recent Harry Potter movie, with shots of a tortured-looking Daniel. The sponsor? Milky Bar. Ha!
It was a wonderful weekend with Chase, who has an apartment chock full of sculptures that are just the right height for a toddler to meet. Sam would run around saying "hi" to all of them. Luckily all of the ones at ground level were bronze or other suitably toddler-proof materials. We had no high chair, but we made do:
After meeting up for lunch with friends Jenny and Ross (last seen Scottish dancing at their Texas wedding), we went with Chase to the Natural History Museum. It was the first time that Sam really interacted with museum exhibits, naming the animals he knew, and it was a blast. Towards the end, you will see the famous "sack of potatoes" exhibit from the Anthropology hall.
New York is where a lot of Mark's college buddies have ended up, which afforded us the opportunity to join Jordana and David for brunch, along with their super-cute kiddos, Charlie, Zack, and baby Rosie. Kid-friendly apartment, lots of toys, bagels galore... Sam was in heaven.
Our final night in New York was spent unpacking, repacking, and weighing suitcases. We were not going to be overweight with our baggage again, not with three other flights to take! (The best laid plans... oy oy oy). The next morning Mark went to work at JFK and I went off to mail the excess belongings to our new home in India. We met up at JFK, easily checked in our right-weight bags, and headed out on Lufthansa to our "rest stop" in Frankfurt. Thanks to seat-back movies and Sesame Street on DVD, a fairly uneventful flight was had by all.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Labor Day Trip South Part 2: Georgia
After resting back at David's, the four hour drive to Kennesaw was a snap. The funny thing was how much it felt like "coming home" as soon as we crossed over into Georgia, and how excited we got about silly things like The Big Chicken, or the freeway off-ramp to the hospital where Sam was born.
And here they are now:
It was great to reconnect with Deanne and Wendy, and I just wish we could have spent more time with them. We chose Joe's for the play structure at the restaurant, but it was cranky baby nap time so no go. We did kick off the celebration of Mark's birthday with a shared root beer float before we left...
After lunch came more shopping (I needed a dress for Mark's upcoming ball, and to stock up on 6 months' worth of Publix store-brand boxed Macaroni and Cheese for India; it's kosher), then a nostalgia tour of Marietta. We drove by our old apartment, my school (looks fabulous with the construction finally finished), our dance studio, and Mark's bridge club.
There was still time for a rest before meeting up with Debbie and Gary for dinner at Rafferty's. We hadn't seen Gary since we left Georgia, or Debbie since January's trade show in Vegas. She and Mark worked together every day for a year in Cartersville, and when we saw her again the conversation picked up right where they left off. Sam was thrilled to hang out and to go exploring all over the restaurant, especially the stairs. It didn't hurt that a Cal game was playing on the TVs - Go Bears! Note that Sam and the birthday boy are wearing coordinating Hawaiian shirts.
The next morning, after another quick breakfast at Hilton, we hit the road for our epic journey back to Northern Virginia. Let's just summarize- long long long day of driving (670 miles in all), from 9:30 AM until midnight.
Highlights included driving past the turnoff to Pigeon Forge, TN, which southerners will recognize as the home of Dollywood! It was agreed that if we had a week to make this trip, Dollywood would have been a stop. As it was, we just waved and drove on, through the Great Smoky Mountains.
We certainly appreciated all of the rest stops along the way, most of which had fabulously clean bathrooms (a nice surprise!). One that we really needed was just over the border into Virginia, both a good milestone on the drive and a grassy area for Sam to run around on, plus there was a Virginia Welcome Center!
That dirt square is the "pet rest area," largely ignored, so it was important to watch our step.
Kennesaw is a small town north of Atlanta that has all of the malls where we used to shop. It was convenient for friends from Cobb County and Cartersville to get to, and has a very comfy Hilton Garden Inn with a not too far away Ruby Tuesday's for takeout (we said no cheese on the burgers, people!). Sadly, the pool at the hotel is not heated at all, and after sticking a toe in, Sam and Mark couldn't go through with the much-anticipated swim. This was made all the more disappointing since the pool at our apartment is not just closed for the season, but drained for construction.
Forget the pool; I have a hat, a pen, and the remote.
Sam was very pleased to discover, however, that the fancy chair in the room spun around. More chair rides, Mommy!
The next morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then did some shopping before meeting Wendy and Deanne for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. Wendy and Deanne were the other pregnant second grade teachers when I was expecting Sam (out of seven preggos all together at Murdock), with classrooms on either side of mine. Deanne's daughter Mary Ella is one month older and Wendy's son Brady is two months older than Sam. Here's a photo of the three babies the last time we were all together in July, 2007:
And here they are now:
It was great to reconnect with Deanne and Wendy, and I just wish we could have spent more time with them. We chose Joe's for the play structure at the restaurant, but it was cranky baby nap time so no go. We did kick off the celebration of Mark's birthday with a shared root beer float before we left...
After lunch came more shopping (I needed a dress for Mark's upcoming ball, and to stock up on 6 months' worth of Publix store-brand boxed Macaroni and Cheese for India; it's kosher), then a nostalgia tour of Marietta. We drove by our old apartment, my school (looks fabulous with the construction finally finished), our dance studio, and Mark's bridge club.
There was still time for a rest before meeting up with Debbie and Gary for dinner at Rafferty's. We hadn't seen Gary since we left Georgia, or Debbie since January's trade show in Vegas. She and Mark worked together every day for a year in Cartersville, and when we saw her again the conversation picked up right where they left off. Sam was thrilled to hang out and to go exploring all over the restaurant, especially the stairs. It didn't hurt that a Cal game was playing on the TVs - Go Bears! Note that Sam and the birthday boy are wearing coordinating Hawaiian shirts.
The next morning, after another quick breakfast at Hilton, we hit the road for our epic journey back to Northern Virginia. Let's just summarize- long long long day of driving (670 miles in all), from 9:30 AM until midnight.
Highlights included driving past the turnoff to Pigeon Forge, TN, which southerners will recognize as the home of Dollywood! It was agreed that if we had a week to make this trip, Dollywood would have been a stop. As it was, we just waved and drove on, through the Great Smoky Mountains.
We certainly appreciated all of the rest stops along the way, most of which had fabulously clean bathrooms (a nice surprise!). One that we really needed was just over the border into Virginia, both a good milestone on the drive and a grassy area for Sam to run around on, plus there was a Virginia Welcome Center!
That dirt square is the "pet rest area," largely ignored, so it was important to watch our step.
Twenty minutes out from home, Sam woke up in his car seat, hysterically crying as if to say, "I'm still in this darn thing?!" I drove that last 90 minute leg, and had similar feelings. :) The drive was brutal, but the trip was well worth it. We're trying to fill up on all things "home" before we go abroad...
Labor Day Trip South, Part 1: North Carolina
Having a three-day weekend and all, we decided to go visit old friends further south. This was a wonderful plan, except for the part where we drove... over 650 miles each way... with a toddler. We'll just consider it practice for the trip to India, mmkay? At least someone else will be flying the planes.
The way Sam travels best.
Friday night, leaving rainy Virginia after Mark's class ended, we drove down through Tennessee to North Carolina in the dark. It was very surreal; at one point the darkness just seemed more dark, and a bit hilly. Yeah, that would be the Blue Ridge Mountains. We had dinner in a small Virginia town (Sam likes succotash), stopped for raisin toast and coffee at an East Tennessee Waffle House, and arrived at David's house in Asheville at almost 4 AM (on less than a tank of gas - go Prius!). Sam decided that it was now morning and he wasn't sleeping any more, but we finally got him to go down, and we all slept for a few hours.
After a great bagel breakfast, David took us on a tour of lovely Asheville, including a really neat minor league baseball stadium (home of the Tourists), and a bird sanctuary that Sam loved. His favorite part? Collecting rocks.
Then lunch at a NY-style pizza place, and back to David's beautiful house (built in 1926) for a rest. It is easy to see why David is so happy in his new home, and we're really glad we got the chance to visit him in Asheville.
Mmmm... pizza!
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