After our long journey (LA to London, over 9 hours, 6 hour layover in London, London to Mumbai 8 hours) we were happy to set our feet on solid ground. Immigration was easier than expected as the immigration officer just looked at our passport photos, scrutinized our faces to make sure we were the people on the passport and then waved us through with no words spoken. In India, only passengers are allowed into the terminals, so after collecting all our luggage on a cart, we exited the terminal and began scanning all the faces waiting for other passengers. Then we spotted our Heal Your Life teachers and organizers, Shashank Gupta and Sneha Shah. Big hugs all around and great excitement to be together after months of emails! Once at their car, it took a bit to get all the luggage squeezed in. After all, we were going to be in India for 5 weeks with temperatures from warm in Mumbai to cool in Delhi, plus a wedding to attend, so we had a lot of luggage.
We began driving from the airport in north Mumbai to our hotel in south Mumbai. Rick and I had watched a few youtube videos with “crazy traffic in India,” but we still weren’t prepared for how crazy it really is! Although he’s driven in many countries outside the US, Rick decided there was no way he’d ever drive in India. Leave it to the experts! About 45 minutes into the journey Sneha asked if we’d like some coconut water. It sounded refreshing so we said yes. Shashank pulled over to the curb, with traffic continuing to zip by, and the next thing we knew they handed up actual coconuts with the tops taken off and a straw in them! It tasted great, but we had to laugh – since we don’t have coconut stands like that in the US, we had expected a little plastic container with coconut water like we buy in the grocery store! In India there are coconut stands in many places. You choose one and the vendor chops off the top, plops in a straw, and there’s your coconut water. Yum!
