Wednesday, June 11, 2014

 We were finally able to leave Mumbai, but as always in India there’s a story to go alone with it. If you’ve ever flown internationally, you understand that every country has their own way of doing security checks. Whatever you may have experienced, I guarantee it is nowhere near the extent of the way it is in India.

First of all, international flights allow you 50lbs of checked luggage (or one bag) per passenger. That gave us roughly 300 lbs of luggage to check. Along with that you can have a carry on and a personal item. We each had a backpack or equivalent, and then 4 additional carry on items, one of which was a guitar in a case. So, yeah, we brought a ton of luggage. In all of that we brought roughly 150lbs of food, which is equal but not limited to freeze dried meats, cheeses and fruits, snacks, candy, spices, etc., etc. Anyway, checking in at the Mumbai airport, flying domestic is a whole other set of requirements. Each passenger gets a total of 15kg to check and 8kg to carry on. Oops! To our defense, when we traveled in 2012, with almost the exact amount of luggage, there were no requirements, or at least they were not enforced. I know we did not pay any luggage charge coming or going. Well, now those rules are enforced. 15kg equals about 33 lbs. So, we were just a few kgs over…like 10,500 rupees over (or $200). That was just with the checked luggage. We acted like we had no idea about the carry on weight limit and nobody said anything, so, we just took those with us.

Now to get through security…

Before you even get to security everyone has to put a tag on each bag they want checked. Kind of like a name tag you’d get in the states to identify the owner of the bag if it gets lost. The tags even have a spot for name, address, phone number and what not. So you stand in separate lines, women on one side, men through another and they scan your bags. I’m guessing they’re looking for the same things as they would anywhere…liquids, sharp objects, bombs, etc. After you let your bag out of your sight you proceed to walk through a metal detector.  After the metal detector you stand on a platform and they use a wand to make sure you have no metals on you that might not have been detected by the metal detector…see where this is going. After you are free and clear from that area, your boarding pass is stamped, twice. You may then proceed to collect your bags, but you must make sure each of the tags you put on gets a stamp as well. (We learned two years ago, that even if your bag gets through the security checkpoint you cannot board the plane without a stamped tag. Ugh.)

You may now proceed to your gate. We did. We waited and waited, checked the monitors, waited some more and then waited in the boarding area until it was time to board. As soon as they called out they were ready we were first in line. (Remember all that extra luggage we had, yeah, we wanted a spot for it.)

 “Boarding flight AI467!”

 What? “What about flight AI451?”

“Next gate over…”

Holy crap! (I think I might have dropped a swear word, in which Dallan proceeded to hear, and then Brayden made sure he knew that he heard it.) What if they’ve already boarded?  I never heard any announcement, not in English that I understand anyway. As we rushed over to the “other gate” my heart sunk and I thought for sure we’d be in Mumbai for several more days. When we got to the other counter, the ticket lady says to us, “yes, there was an announcement in English. I heard it 30 minutes ago.” OK, whatever, it’s just not the English I understand. At least the plane hadn’t left yet, but wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake of this whole trip!

Finally it’s time to board and as our tickets are scanned, every bag is checked to make sure it’s got a stamp. Even through all that chaos and crazy, the best part has to be when security checks your boarding pass, when DEBOARDING the plane at your destination. What is that about?

It’s now Thursday morning and regardless of the crazy it took us to get here, we’re here. And as always, we’re treated way to good. We’re in a different apartment this year, it’s more central to the stores I like to go to, but the biggest bonus is that it’s brand new! The kitchen is a great size, super clean and even has hot and cold running water. Not hot water like you’d think, but hot enough to take more than a lukewarm shower.

The downside, it’s brand new, so there’s nothing for storage, shelving, or a place to put anything. I’m sure that will change soon, but for now, it’s super clean (I’m sure that will change soon as well)!

We did have a cockroach debacle this morning. But the cockroaches were not from this place. All the furniture that is in this apartment was brought over from the other apartment, which is perfectly fine. One of the things we bought 2 years ago was a carom board. If you’ve never heard of carom it’s a game that sits on the ground (well ours does, anyway), and you have these chip things and you try to knock your opponents chips to certain areas…or something like that. Anyway, that was brought over with the rest of the stuff. When the boys took it out of the box, 6 huge cockroaches ran everywhere. Of course they freaked out because evidently I’m expecting my 5^th girl, but eventually they were all caught, killed and thrown away…not before we got pictures, though! J

                                                        6  DEAD Cockroaches!

                                       Awesome big kitchen with a ton of food we brought
                                       from home  *Note the #10 cans under the shelf.*

                                     Nice stainless steel sink...with hot and cold water! :)

                        Standing in the kitchen, looking out...Can you spot the refrigerator?

                              Big, spacious living room and Conor practicing the guitar!

                                           Nice big bedroom, with shiny clean floors!

We’re settling in nicely, however the biggest bummer is no internet at the apartment. I don’t know if they’ll put it in or not, but that’s the only thing that can make this place better.

I’m starting to feel VERY pregnant, even though I’m only 21 weeks along. I can feel my body needing extra time to get in order when I stand up, and I’m pretty sure I've already started waddling. Great. If you think walking the streets of Vizag being white, with four kids doesn't cause enough attention, walking through Vizag with four kids and a pregnant women is definitely cause for it!

And the heat this year. It wasn't this hot the last two years, not even close! (I even confirmed it with the locals that it's too hot for this time of year...I'm not just being a whanny-pants.) I’m seriously happy sitting in my a/c room with my feet up and sending Ryan to the office with all the boys. I’ll stay home and cook, be the barefoot and pregnant wife and be happy doing it.