Trip to India

So, you all know I recently went to India...a little insight into the trip.

First, it was crazy. Culture over there is completely different than one would expect. I never felt unsafe or in harm's way, but I did get a lot of stares, along with one of my colleagues, Lisa Gutshall, because of our blond hair. It may have had something to do with her being 5'10" and having crazy blond hair, but still.

The amount of poverty was both amazing and sad. Just outside of our hotel, thousands of people slept on the street, where the low dropper to approximately 90 at nite. It was crazy. All kinds of beggars and others ran to your car to peddle the latest phone chargers, flowers, pirated DVDs, et cetera. It was nuts.

The people were extremely friendly while we were there, which was great considering I was afraid I was going to die every day on the way to work. It was a 5 km [or 3 mile] ride every day to work, which took 45 minutes on a good day and 1-1.25 hrs on a bad day. No one observes any kind of travel etiquette or laws. Stopped behind a bus? Why not drive into oncoming traffic and weave in and out of cars. We almost took a four year old kid's foot off as we rubbed up against a rickshaw. The first time it was scary, and after a while, you kind of just got used to it.

The weekend trips were fun. The above picture is from our weekend at Kerala, which is in the Backwaters in the southern tip of India where the Arabian Sea meets the Indian Ocean. I am trying to figure out a way to post all of my pics from the trip. The second weekend, we went to a resort called Goa, which was along the western coast about an hour south of where we were working in Mumbai. It was good, as both weekends were pretty relaxing.

All in all, I am extremely glad I went. I don't plan on going on vacation anytime soon to India, but it was definitely worth the experience [especially flying through Kabul, Afghanistan on the way home, which was slightly unnerving]. Next up...Europe [Brno, Czech Republic, which is about three hours SE of Prague, and then an extra week with Steph in London and Paris...if anyone has Europe recommendations for those cities, we would be glad to hear them!].

Matt