India... "I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore".

Enjoying a Tuborg by the pool in Mumbai

I've now been to 2 cities in India, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and New Delhi.  If you've never been to India, there's no possible way for me to describe in words that could accurately convey the experience.  But I'll give it a shot.


The initial assault to the senses is the insanely filthy air quality.  There is so much pollution that as soon as we step off the airplane, I immediately feel congested and a little short of breath.  I believe that the poor air quality is a result of the continuous burning of firewood, animal waste and dead bodies.  I'm fairly sure I don't want to know what kind of health issues this may be causing me.


The next thing we have to deal with is the totally inefficient method of getting through customs and immigration.  They have so many people in this country that they will assign any mundane job they can to everyone in order to appear productive.  The opposite ends up being the result due to the "red tape" at each phase of the process.  In Mumbai they literally had someone assigned to take our paperwork from one podium to the next.  That's all they did... just carried our papers 100 feet to the next person with a rubber stamp.  In addition to the inefficient process, the actual procedures change every time you go there.  Once we had to surrender our passports and didn't get them back until we left.  The next time we kept our passports but were required to each pay a $40 fee for a "visa"... (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).    Funny how we never actually received a visa.  The next time we were allowed through with no surrendering of anything.  We did have to listen to one of the customs officers scold us, saying that we arrived too early and next time we'll have to wait for the shift change.  We had arrived at our scheduled time but that was apparently irrelevant.  


Once out of the airport and into the hotel car, the fun begins.  There are stripes painted on most of the roads just like in any civilized country but in India they are purely for decoration.  At any point in time during our ride to the hotel I could've reached out of the window and touched another vehicle.  A friend of mine described it best when he compared it to an ant colony.  The cars, motorcycles (usually with 3 or 4 people on them), and the Tuk Tuks all just cram together and somehow eventually get where they're going.  One thing you don't see is a vehicle that doesn't have some body damage somewhere on it.  It is definitely a sight to see.

Typical traffic

Once at the hotel, which is very nice, there is everything you need, for a price.  The food and drinks are very expensive except for the breakfast which is included, and very good.  If you decide to venture out from the hotel you need to be prepared for the stench of abject poverty.  The level of sanitation is horrific.  I personally had to sidestep a pile of human feces on the sidewalk and to see someone just stop and urinate on the sidewalk is very common.  Needless to say you don't want to trip and fall.

Visiting the market

The food is the next item.  I haven't had any issues to this point with getting sick from the food but I'm always pretty careful not to eat food from the street vendors.  I know of guys who have and do but I also know guys who have been pretty sick from eating there as well. 


In summation... I'm not a big fan of India.  I do realize that I've only been exposed to the "big city" and I could've just as easily been talking about New York or Chicago.  There may be some fantastic places to see in India and since I'll probably be back there regularly in the near future I may get a chance to see them.  Until that time, I'm going to continue to consider India as a place that if I never see again I wouldn't be too upset.

A Kingfisher at the mall in New Delhi

A la sature!

The Important Things in Life

Just before leaving for my last trip, I was asked by a good friend if I wanted to go out fishing on Alder Lake.  It was forecast to be a beautiful day and so I gladly agreed.


We spent the majority of the day telling stories and enjoying the sunshine.  We ended up not catching any fish but neither one of us really cared.

Cheers!

Kuwait a minute here!

A "Budweiser NA" at the "Ayam Zaman" restaurant in the hotel in Kuwait.

Recently I was presented with an "opportunity" to go to Kuwait.  Actually, it was more of a matter of being told I was going there to fly an airplane out of there the next day.  I decided to view this as a chance to see another new city I hadn't seen before instead of dreading the inevitable bureaucratic BS that is always associated with entering and leaving any city in the middle east.  So after parking our airplane in Bahrain, myself and the rest of our crew took a commercial flight to Kuwait City on a Gulf Air A320.  It was a fairly painless hour-long flight and before I knew it I was in yet another dirty city located somewhere in a desert.  


Once out of the airport, the fairly quick van ride to the hotel was good.  It gave me a chance to see some of the buildings of the city.  I must say that it was fairly a unimpressive experience.  At least with Bahrain, (and from what I've seen on TV), Dubai, there are quite a few buildings with very interesting architecture and are pleasing to the eye.  Now, maybe I just didn't get to where the cool stuff was but I found that Kuwait was very depressing.


The Crowne Plaza in Kuwait on the other hand, was fantastic.  It is most likely in my top 3 or so hotels I've ever stayed at in terms of pure opulence.  It is very nice to say the least.  During our brief stay, we met for dinner at one of the 4 or so restaurants in the hotel.  It featured very good food and had a pleasant environment.  We chose a spot in the "no-smoking" section which of course I found funny in that there were tables not 15 feet away with many people smoking mu'assel in the big ornate, hookah pipes.  I've always thought that having a no-smoking section in an open air restaurant is like having a "no-peeing" section in a swimming pool.  But I digress...

Taken in the main lobby at the Crowne Plaza.

During our meal, we decided that after our long day we should have a beer.  Of course being in Kuwait where alcohol is banned, we were left with only one "beer" option... Non-Alcoholic.  So we each got a "Budweiser- NA" and to a man decided that it was one of the worst tasting beverages we'd ever consumed.  In addition to the horrible taste, it was fairly expensive as well which made the experience just that much more like a jab in the gut with a stick.  


Overall, the experience is one I won't mark down as "great"... however, it was definitely interesting to see, feel and smell a country where the vast majority of Americans will never go.