This is probably going to be the longest blog post in my life, but if you aren't familiar with the events leading up to our India trip it's worth a read. If you know some aspects, but not others, I've separated it into 3 areas. 'Finding out we're going', 'The visa debacle', and 'Getting where we're supposed to be'. If you happen to be so lucky and know everything, or don't care, pictures are at the bottom!
FINDING OUT WE'RE GOING...
I don't even know where to start in talking about this India trip. For as smooth sailing as the one we had two years ago was, this one has been the complete opposite. It all started back in March when we finally decided/found out that in fact, yes, we would be headed to India again as a family. The initial reaction of everyone was different, but Brayden, being the oldest gave us the most grief. You have to realize, at 15, friends, and doing nothing but sleeping in and hanging out with them is of the ultimate importance. I, on the other hand, realized, that taking him with us alleviated me of my "taxi mom" duties and also arguments about why he can't sleep in until noon every day and stay up all hours of the night.
Conor, at age 13 decided he'd follow suit with Brayden and be grumpy, but never has brought up his lack of excitement on his own. Instead, he would add little comments when we were talking about the trip, trying to sound uninterested or bored. I think he's actually excited to be here, but that wouldn't be "cool" to want to be gone from home for 8 weeks. I think secretly he's actually excited.
Davis and Dallan had similar reactions, although Dallan (now age 8) did express his concerns about being pinched on the cheeks. That was his least favorite memory from two years ago. Davis (now age 11), is just plain excited to be traveling...he must be my kid!
Initially, I was so excited to return to visit. Visiting here for the past two summers, you can imagine how many good friends we've met and gotten to know, and to be able to continue those friendships is so fun and important! We booked our flights on Wednesday, March 5th, 2014. Exactly 4 days later we realized that we are expecting our 5th child. Wait...WHAT? Sooo many thoughts were going through my head at that time, not one of them focused on our India trip. A serious conundrum...How in the world is this possible? Based on my medical history could I actually even be pregnant when it came time to travel? I was convinced at my first doctors appointment that when the time came, there would in fact, be no pregnancy. I was able to get in to see my doctor the day after we found out, and as we both sat there in shock (the doctor and I), I asked him about our India trip. He assured me that the weeks we would be gone would be just fine to travel. I thought for sure he meant I could travel because I most likely wouldn't be pregnant when it came time to come anyway. I was 7 weeks along.
4 weeks later at my next appointment, I was surprised to still be pregnant, and although no concerns were expressed, I got the feeling he was a little surprised too. Because of the high"er"-risk of my pregnancy, I am able to have ultrasounds monthly and sure enough, things looked as alien as can be in an 11-week old.
I know this blog is supposed to be about our travels and whatnot, however, the focus quickly shifted to a pregnancy travel blog. At my 15 week appointment I thought for sure we'd be able to tell the gender of the baby, but the ultrasound tech was not going to give me anything! I had to wait four more weeks...
Finally, the Monday before heading out to India, we found out that indeed we are having a girl. After 4 boys, mostly self-sufficient, we will be staring over with a new little blessing of pink and bows.
Except, wait, now I've gotten ahead of the getting ready to come out here story...
THE VISA DEBACLE
By the end of April we had realized that we needed to get our Indian visas soon. So between Ryan traveling back and forth to Utah, and when he and I both had time to sit down for multiple hours, we finally sat down and got our visa applications ready. After looking over each application, we realized that some aspect of each application has wrong information on it, Brayden's passport number was off, Conor was checked off as "female", Dallan's birthday was wrong...something on every form. So, we had to start over. This was our second time going through this application process, so we knew the paperwork was time consuming. After finally getting things filled out properly, birth certificates copies, papers notarized, etc, etc, it was the beginning of May. We knew it was super fast getting visas in the past, and since that is all we had to go on, we still were not worried about a time crunch...until we got a phone call the second week of May from the 3rd party company we used to check out all our information. It was as if a bomb dropped...
"Hi, this is Travisa. We've received your documents for your Indian visas, but we regret to inform you the Indian consulate in between processing companies right now and will not be taking any applications until May 21st. And companies like ours, 3rd party companies will not be able to apply until May 27th. I noticed that you requested your passports back by June 1st with a travel date of June 6th, but with the change of companies it will be impossible to get to you your passports by your travel date."
"What are our options?"
"The best option you have right now is to hand deliver the applications to the San Francisco office on May 21st. That is, if they are up and running by then. Sorry for the inconvenience."
That was one of many back and forth phone conversations that took place about our visa applications. After much deliberation, and verifying to make sure the offices were in fact open, on May 22nd I took off (with a brave friend willing to keep me company) to San Francisco. We drove. Why? Because I just wasn't sure what was going to happen, and based on the events that followed, it's a good thing we did.
Thursday, May 22nd: long drive to San Francisco
Friday, May 23rd: got in line at the visa processing office. There were about 40 people in front of us. As we started chatting with those around us, this was their 3rd day in line because the computers hadn't been up and running, or they were lagging, or they'd just reset in the middle of processing and you'd have to start all over again. This is going to be FUN! By 9:00 in the morning the office had determined to separate the groups into two groups..."appointments" and "walk-in's". The funny thing is that we tried for several days to make an appointment, but couldn't because the website was down. By 9:10, the visa processing office was only going to accept appointments. No walk-in's would be seen. But you could put your name on a list and come back Tuesday, May 27th...after Memorial Day. Since I'm such a calm person, I proceeded to freak out and call Ryan on the phone. He told me to hold tight and that he'd call me back. After being on hold for close to an hour, he called me back to let me know what I needed to do. Evidently he finally was able to talk to the office manager and he wanted me to come knock on the door (oh, did I forget to tell you they locked the doors because people are CRAZY!) and ask for himself by name. At 10:30 ish, I proceeded to do as told. I was let into the building after a couple of minutes, met with Rajesh, the office manager, who took all my paperwork and passport information and told me he would input the information in himself. He asked me to give him until 1:00, come back, ask for him again and we would settle the payment. I was floored! How did I get around waiting in line for hours? How was I even able to been seen by someone, and the manager, nonetheless! But yet, it was only the beginning. At 1:00 we returned to the office, only to see more angry people, different angry people. I knocked on the door only to be told to come back at 5:00. So we did. By 5:00 I was starting to see the pattern. The lack of organization and chaos was rampant! At one point the fire marshal had come because the office had passed fire code occupants. The poilce had come out because there was too much mayhem on the streets. Media had shown up at some point snapping pictures of the lack of organization. When we returned at 5:00 there was a completely different group of people there. Some to pick up visas, some to still try and get their visas processed, but we still were not allowed in the building. We waited and waited. I wasn't going to leave. By 6:00, the office let us know they would only be seeing people until 6:30, but they hadn't let anyone in the building in the hour we were standing outside. At 6:15, the office let us know they would be seeing everyone tonight and they would stay open until the last person left...we left at 9:15, and still no applications were processed. At 9:00 I was able to track down the manager and express my concerns about my application. He gave me his personal (so I thought) cell phone number and told me to call him back at 11:30 the next morning. The office would be open on Saturday, but only to those trying to get visa applications processed the previous 3 days. This is why I didn't book a flight.
Saturday, May 24th: I called Rajesh at 11:30, but he didn't answer. I talked to Ricky (the other manager), who wouldn't let me talk to Rajesh. Ricky told me to give them an hour, so they could "finish up" my applications. I gave them an hour, but wasn't going to give more than that. The clock was ticking to get these visas processed and I knew it. At 1:00 I went to the office, ready to be done. When I showed up (after they let us in the locked door), I got the "oh, crap she's here, we better get these done" look. 1:00 on Saturday is when they STARTED processing our visa applications. But I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't "coming back"...I wasn't leaving until I had paid for the applications and my receipts were in hand. At 3:15 I was told the applications were processed. I asked if we could get them expedited...no. I begged them to Fed-Ex them to us...no. When our passports are done in 3-5 business days I would have to come back!
(Why was everything so discombobulated? Evidently when the previous visa processing company knew their contract by the Indian consulate was not going to be renewed they either stopped processing applications, or had them processed, and threw them in boxes without any sort of organization. When the new company opened, they had over 70 boxes with passports and or visa applications and no rhyme or reason to them. We met people whose passports were completely lost...multiple people. I think even with all the crazy of heading back and forth to San Francisco, twice, I'm still glad not one of our passports were lost.)
By Thursday, May 29th, we (Ryan and I this time) were headed back to San Francisco to pick up passports. On Friday, May 30th, we were in and out of the visa office within 20 minutes.)
But wait, we're still not there!
GETTING WHERE WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE
By the time we finally got visas, we had one week to spare before heading out. Everything was finalized, house was in order, bills, etc, etc. One night as I was checking our itinerary, I noticed we did not have any seat assignments for the first leg of our trip, from Boise to Portland. I thought that was strange since I knew I had already done this. I proceeded to make seat assignments and when the screen refreshed with the assignments, I noticed that our initial flight time out of Boise that was supposed to be 10:00 am has now refreshed itself to 6:00 am. Are you kidding? a) what flight are we on, b) why was I not notified, and c) 6:00 am? Just what we wanted to do was interrupt our sleep before traveling on a plane for 35ish hours, add a 4 hour layover in Portland (at 6:00 am) AND get a family of 6 out the door by 4:00 am. We called to verify and indeed we had been moved to the earlier flight because the 10:00 flight was no longer being serviced. Ugh.
So, 7 hours at Portland it was! You know you've been at an airport for a long time when you can eat both breakfast and lunch there.
Finally off to Amsterdam! After a long 10 hour flight we made it to Amsterdam, walked 20 minutes to our connecting flight, sat down , got out a snack, only for Dallan to ask, "Where's my ipod?" After looking through all the bags, and deciding it definitely wasn't with us, we came to the conclusion that the ipod was left on the plane. Ugh again. The best part was the way you go through security check and enter the gate you're leaving from, you're behind a glass wall and basically not allowed to leave the area. Ryan got a hold of the main security guy, who called down to the terminal we flew into, and someone finally found the ipod, except we had all started boarding. Now he needed to find someone else that could bring it to where we were boarding. The other boys and I had found our seats and as the plane continued to fill up. Ryan and Dallan finally came on about 5 minutes before the doors were shut! But we were on our way with all the kids and all the devices...Mumbai, here we come! (Where we would have a 9 hour layover!)
By the time we got into Mumbai on Saturday, June 7th, it was about 11:30 pm. At this point we'd been traveling for about 31 hours. We knew it would take awhile to collect our luggage and transfer to the domestic airport, but we'd done it before and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:55 the next morning, so we knew we had plenty of time. We waited and waited in line to get our boarding passes, only to find out the flight had been cancelled. The airline we were using has completely stopped flying to the city where we booked our flights to. Ryan went around and around with the manager of the airline company and after about 3 1/2 hours we had two options: 1) they could fly us as far as Hyderabad, but then we'd need to find our own way to Vizag (still an 8 hour drive...with 6 people...in India...and 14 bags of luggage. Option 1 didn't seem very feesable.) Option 2: get a refund from the airline company and book another flight. Evidently, the airline had tried to contact us via text message about a month ago, letting us know there was no more service to Vizag. What they didn't know is that they were trying to send a text message to a land line (Ryan's office number because that was the cc contact information given to them). Obviously, no one got the memo. :( We opted to take the refund and get a hotel for the night. We were exhausted.
The next unforeseen issue was that it was now Sunday, at 3:30 in the morning and there were no taxis that were running. Our only choice was to walk to the closest hotel...luckily the hotel is nice, but with 6 people it becomes expensive! After finally checking in and getting settled by 4:30, we only needed to wait 2 hours before we could eat breakfast! But first, we needed plane tickets to get out of Mumbai. The earliest flight out we could book for our family was Wednesday, June 11th. That's right, we're still in Mumbai! We haven't made it to where we need to go...yet. For those that know we spent a few days in Mumbai last year, know that we love this city. There's tons to do! I do have to say, though, trying to keep kids occupied, in a hotel where the pool isn't working, and having to take a taxi everywhere we go, gets really expensive! However, here we are, trying to make the best of it.
So, what have we done? First, we're still trying to adjust to the time change. Sunday we all fell asleep at about 7:30 am and woke up by 7:30 pm. At 2:00 am Monday we decided we were hungry, so we ate dinner...and dessert, went back to the room and hung out until we were hungry enough to eat breakfast. Monday about 11:00, the kids (or should I say Ryan) was able to find the only 1/2 pipe Mumbai has to offer...in a 'Quicksilver' store, in the mall, in the air conditioning. Oh, did I mention they all brought skateboards? (That'll be another blog post, I'm sure.) After that we headed to the 'Hard Rock Cafe' where Brayden was allowed to play on the drums to a few songs that were playing. He had a blast, and how awesome for him to say he played on the drums at the 'Hard Rock'? Anyway, we're trying to make the best of the crazy situation we've been put in. I've always said, "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!" and we're not dead yet! (Although I do have to update and tell you that the Hyderabad airport where the airline wanted to fly us to had a huge protest because of some parents that had lost high school aged children in a flood - it's a crazy story, so I'm glad we didn't end up there either).
***Here's another update for those interested...the baby is still kicking and doing fine!***
Here's a few pictures from the trip so far!
"Thumbs up" on the hotel omelettes.
"Thumbs up" on the pancakes, too.
A rare "thumbs up" for Conor with food...probably because of the bacon!
1/2 pipe inside the Quicksilver store in the mall
Ryan helping Dallan keep his balance.
Davis getting ready to drop in.
Conor keeping his balance!
New Indian skateboarding friends!
Everyone with the half pipe.
Gateway of India
'Hard Rock Cafe' where Brayden played on the drums...Ryan took video, will post later.
FINDING OUT WE'RE GOING...
I don't even know where to start in talking about this India trip. For as smooth sailing as the one we had two years ago was, this one has been the complete opposite. It all started back in March when we finally decided/found out that in fact, yes, we would be headed to India again as a family. The initial reaction of everyone was different, but Brayden, being the oldest gave us the most grief. You have to realize, at 15, friends, and doing nothing but sleeping in and hanging out with them is of the ultimate importance. I, on the other hand, realized, that taking him with us alleviated me of my "taxi mom" duties and also arguments about why he can't sleep in until noon every day and stay up all hours of the night.
Conor, at age 13 decided he'd follow suit with Brayden and be grumpy, but never has brought up his lack of excitement on his own. Instead, he would add little comments when we were talking about the trip, trying to sound uninterested or bored. I think he's actually excited to be here, but that wouldn't be "cool" to want to be gone from home for 8 weeks. I think secretly he's actually excited.
Davis and Dallan had similar reactions, although Dallan (now age 8) did express his concerns about being pinched on the cheeks. That was his least favorite memory from two years ago. Davis (now age 11), is just plain excited to be traveling...he must be my kid!
Initially, I was so excited to return to visit. Visiting here for the past two summers, you can imagine how many good friends we've met and gotten to know, and to be able to continue those friendships is so fun and important! We booked our flights on Wednesday, March 5th, 2014. Exactly 4 days later we realized that we are expecting our 5th child. Wait...WHAT? Sooo many thoughts were going through my head at that time, not one of them focused on our India trip. A serious conundrum...How in the world is this possible? Based on my medical history could I actually even be pregnant when it came time to travel? I was convinced at my first doctors appointment that when the time came, there would in fact, be no pregnancy. I was able to get in to see my doctor the day after we found out, and as we both sat there in shock (the doctor and I), I asked him about our India trip. He assured me that the weeks we would be gone would be just fine to travel. I thought for sure he meant I could travel because I most likely wouldn't be pregnant when it came time to come anyway. I was 7 weeks along.
4 weeks later at my next appointment, I was surprised to still be pregnant, and although no concerns were expressed, I got the feeling he was a little surprised too. Because of the high"er"-risk of my pregnancy, I am able to have ultrasounds monthly and sure enough, things looked as alien as can be in an 11-week old.
I know this blog is supposed to be about our travels and whatnot, however, the focus quickly shifted to a pregnancy travel blog. At my 15 week appointment I thought for sure we'd be able to tell the gender of the baby, but the ultrasound tech was not going to give me anything! I had to wait four more weeks...
Finally, the Monday before heading out to India, we found out that indeed we are having a girl. After 4 boys, mostly self-sufficient, we will be staring over with a new little blessing of pink and bows.
Except, wait, now I've gotten ahead of the getting ready to come out here story...
THE VISA DEBACLE
By the end of April we had realized that we needed to get our Indian visas soon. So between Ryan traveling back and forth to Utah, and when he and I both had time to sit down for multiple hours, we finally sat down and got our visa applications ready. After looking over each application, we realized that some aspect of each application has wrong information on it, Brayden's passport number was off, Conor was checked off as "female", Dallan's birthday was wrong...something on every form. So, we had to start over. This was our second time going through this application process, so we knew the paperwork was time consuming. After finally getting things filled out properly, birth certificates copies, papers notarized, etc, etc, it was the beginning of May. We knew it was super fast getting visas in the past, and since that is all we had to go on, we still were not worried about a time crunch...until we got a phone call the second week of May from the 3rd party company we used to check out all our information. It was as if a bomb dropped...
"Hi, this is Travisa. We've received your documents for your Indian visas, but we regret to inform you the Indian consulate in between processing companies right now and will not be taking any applications until May 21st. And companies like ours, 3rd party companies will not be able to apply until May 27th. I noticed that you requested your passports back by June 1st with a travel date of June 6th, but with the change of companies it will be impossible to get to you your passports by your travel date."
"What are our options?"
"The best option you have right now is to hand deliver the applications to the San Francisco office on May 21st. That is, if they are up and running by then. Sorry for the inconvenience."
That was one of many back and forth phone conversations that took place about our visa applications. After much deliberation, and verifying to make sure the offices were in fact open, on May 22nd I took off (with a brave friend willing to keep me company) to San Francisco. We drove. Why? Because I just wasn't sure what was going to happen, and based on the events that followed, it's a good thing we did.
Thursday, May 22nd: long drive to San Francisco
Friday, May 23rd: got in line at the visa processing office. There were about 40 people in front of us. As we started chatting with those around us, this was their 3rd day in line because the computers hadn't been up and running, or they were lagging, or they'd just reset in the middle of processing and you'd have to start all over again. This is going to be FUN! By 9:00 in the morning the office had determined to separate the groups into two groups..."appointments" and "walk-in's". The funny thing is that we tried for several days to make an appointment, but couldn't because the website was down. By 9:10, the visa processing office was only going to accept appointments. No walk-in's would be seen. But you could put your name on a list and come back Tuesday, May 27th...after Memorial Day. Since I'm such a calm person, I proceeded to freak out and call Ryan on the phone. He told me to hold tight and that he'd call me back. After being on hold for close to an hour, he called me back to let me know what I needed to do. Evidently he finally was able to talk to the office manager and he wanted me to come knock on the door (oh, did I forget to tell you they locked the doors because people are CRAZY!) and ask for himself by name. At 10:30 ish, I proceeded to do as told. I was let into the building after a couple of minutes, met with Rajesh, the office manager, who took all my paperwork and passport information and told me he would input the information in himself. He asked me to give him until 1:00, come back, ask for him again and we would settle the payment. I was floored! How did I get around waiting in line for hours? How was I even able to been seen by someone, and the manager, nonetheless! But yet, it was only the beginning. At 1:00 we returned to the office, only to see more angry people, different angry people. I knocked on the door only to be told to come back at 5:00. So we did. By 5:00 I was starting to see the pattern. The lack of organization and chaos was rampant! At one point the fire marshal had come because the office had passed fire code occupants. The poilce had come out because there was too much mayhem on the streets. Media had shown up at some point snapping pictures of the lack of organization. When we returned at 5:00 there was a completely different group of people there. Some to pick up visas, some to still try and get their visas processed, but we still were not allowed in the building. We waited and waited. I wasn't going to leave. By 6:00, the office let us know they would only be seeing people until 6:30, but they hadn't let anyone in the building in the hour we were standing outside. At 6:15, the office let us know they would be seeing everyone tonight and they would stay open until the last person left...we left at 9:15, and still no applications were processed. At 9:00 I was able to track down the manager and express my concerns about my application. He gave me his personal (so I thought) cell phone number and told me to call him back at 11:30 the next morning. The office would be open on Saturday, but only to those trying to get visa applications processed the previous 3 days. This is why I didn't book a flight.
Saturday, May 24th: I called Rajesh at 11:30, but he didn't answer. I talked to Ricky (the other manager), who wouldn't let me talk to Rajesh. Ricky told me to give them an hour, so they could "finish up" my applications. I gave them an hour, but wasn't going to give more than that. The clock was ticking to get these visas processed and I knew it. At 1:00 I went to the office, ready to be done. When I showed up (after they let us in the locked door), I got the "oh, crap she's here, we better get these done" look. 1:00 on Saturday is when they STARTED processing our visa applications. But I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't "coming back"...I wasn't leaving until I had paid for the applications and my receipts were in hand. At 3:15 I was told the applications were processed. I asked if we could get them expedited...no. I begged them to Fed-Ex them to us...no. When our passports are done in 3-5 business days I would have to come back!
(Why was everything so discombobulated? Evidently when the previous visa processing company knew their contract by the Indian consulate was not going to be renewed they either stopped processing applications, or had them processed, and threw them in boxes without any sort of organization. When the new company opened, they had over 70 boxes with passports and or visa applications and no rhyme or reason to them. We met people whose passports were completely lost...multiple people. I think even with all the crazy of heading back and forth to San Francisco, twice, I'm still glad not one of our passports were lost.)
By Thursday, May 29th, we (Ryan and I this time) were headed back to San Francisco to pick up passports. On Friday, May 30th, we were in and out of the visa office within 20 minutes.)
But wait, we're still not there!
GETTING WHERE WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE
By the time we finally got visas, we had one week to spare before heading out. Everything was finalized, house was in order, bills, etc, etc. One night as I was checking our itinerary, I noticed we did not have any seat assignments for the first leg of our trip, from Boise to Portland. I thought that was strange since I knew I had already done this. I proceeded to make seat assignments and when the screen refreshed with the assignments, I noticed that our initial flight time out of Boise that was supposed to be 10:00 am has now refreshed itself to 6:00 am. Are you kidding? a) what flight are we on, b) why was I not notified, and c) 6:00 am? Just what we wanted to do was interrupt our sleep before traveling on a plane for 35ish hours, add a 4 hour layover in Portland (at 6:00 am) AND get a family of 6 out the door by 4:00 am. We called to verify and indeed we had been moved to the earlier flight because the 10:00 flight was no longer being serviced. Ugh.
So, 7 hours at Portland it was! You know you've been at an airport for a long time when you can eat both breakfast and lunch there.
Finally off to Amsterdam! After a long 10 hour flight we made it to Amsterdam, walked 20 minutes to our connecting flight, sat down , got out a snack, only for Dallan to ask, "Where's my ipod?" After looking through all the bags, and deciding it definitely wasn't with us, we came to the conclusion that the ipod was left on the plane. Ugh again. The best part was the way you go through security check and enter the gate you're leaving from, you're behind a glass wall and basically not allowed to leave the area. Ryan got a hold of the main security guy, who called down to the terminal we flew into, and someone finally found the ipod, except we had all started boarding. Now he needed to find someone else that could bring it to where we were boarding. The other boys and I had found our seats and as the plane continued to fill up. Ryan and Dallan finally came on about 5 minutes before the doors were shut! But we were on our way with all the kids and all the devices...Mumbai, here we come! (Where we would have a 9 hour layover!)
By the time we got into Mumbai on Saturday, June 7th, it was about 11:30 pm. At this point we'd been traveling for about 31 hours. We knew it would take awhile to collect our luggage and transfer to the domestic airport, but we'd done it before and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:55 the next morning, so we knew we had plenty of time. We waited and waited in line to get our boarding passes, only to find out the flight had been cancelled. The airline we were using has completely stopped flying to the city where we booked our flights to. Ryan went around and around with the manager of the airline company and after about 3 1/2 hours we had two options: 1) they could fly us as far as Hyderabad, but then we'd need to find our own way to Vizag (still an 8 hour drive...with 6 people...in India...and 14 bags of luggage. Option 1 didn't seem very feesable.) Option 2: get a refund from the airline company and book another flight. Evidently, the airline had tried to contact us via text message about a month ago, letting us know there was no more service to Vizag. What they didn't know is that they were trying to send a text message to a land line (Ryan's office number because that was the cc contact information given to them). Obviously, no one got the memo. :( We opted to take the refund and get a hotel for the night. We were exhausted.
The next unforeseen issue was that it was now Sunday, at 3:30 in the morning and there were no taxis that were running. Our only choice was to walk to the closest hotel...luckily the hotel is nice, but with 6 people it becomes expensive! After finally checking in and getting settled by 4:30, we only needed to wait 2 hours before we could eat breakfast! But first, we needed plane tickets to get out of Mumbai. The earliest flight out we could book for our family was Wednesday, June 11th. That's right, we're still in Mumbai! We haven't made it to where we need to go...yet. For those that know we spent a few days in Mumbai last year, know that we love this city. There's tons to do! I do have to say, though, trying to keep kids occupied, in a hotel where the pool isn't working, and having to take a taxi everywhere we go, gets really expensive! However, here we are, trying to make the best of it.
So, what have we done? First, we're still trying to adjust to the time change. Sunday we all fell asleep at about 7:30 am and woke up by 7:30 pm. At 2:00 am Monday we decided we were hungry, so we ate dinner...and dessert, went back to the room and hung out until we were hungry enough to eat breakfast. Monday about 11:00, the kids (or should I say Ryan) was able to find the only 1/2 pipe Mumbai has to offer...in a 'Quicksilver' store, in the mall, in the air conditioning. Oh, did I mention they all brought skateboards? (That'll be another blog post, I'm sure.) After that we headed to the 'Hard Rock Cafe' where Brayden was allowed to play on the drums to a few songs that were playing. He had a blast, and how awesome for him to say he played on the drums at the 'Hard Rock'? Anyway, we're trying to make the best of the crazy situation we've been put in. I've always said, "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!" and we're not dead yet! (Although I do have to update and tell you that the Hyderabad airport where the airline wanted to fly us to had a huge protest because of some parents that had lost high school aged children in a flood - it's a crazy story, so I'm glad we didn't end up there either).
***Here's another update for those interested...the baby is still kicking and doing fine!***
Here's a few pictures from the trip so far!
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