Travel Along With Me

The afternoon of Nov. 21, 2007, the kids, Tilak and I drove from our home in Stuarts Draft, VA to our friends Peter and Sara’s house in Nellysford. We left our car at their home and Peter drove us to the airport in Charlottesville, VA where we were renting a car to drive to Washington DC, Dulles Airport. As Peter dropped us at the door of the airport this whole India trip began to feel “real” to me finally. We had been planning this trip for over a year and I had done a lot of reading about the Indian culture and what I would be seeing there, but the time was finally here that I would actually be living in this culture that I had been reading about.We had packed light. Each of us carried a back pack only. We had the clothes on our backs and 2 changes of clothes in each our bags. Two extra compressed pillows. A compressed extra large downing sleeping bag. Two small blankets. A wool blanket and 2 sheets. Other than that, we brought the usual medicines and toiletries (anti-malaria, abx, immodium, Tylenol, prescriptions, first aid kit, toilet paper, shampoo). We brought a few snack foods (later we learned that we should have packed one of the backpacks full of American food for the kids). The kids each brought some school work and a toy. Tilak kept with him at all times our passports and money.

So after we hugged and thanked Peter we got our rental car and drove to Dulles Airport. We got to the airport 3 hours before our plane was to leave. We stood in the usual lines for security. When we got to our gate we had about a half hour to lounge around until the plane loaded. We were flying with Air France (now known as my favorite airline ever!!). The flight was a little over 6 hours to Paris. I was very comfortable. We rode coach class seats, though each of us had our own T.V.’s in front of us (on the back of the seat in front of us). We were handed out complimentary head phones, eye pillows, ear plugs and hand wipes. We were also offered great complimentary wine and food. Each person had their own blanket and pillow in their seat waiting for them and the back of the seats had comfortable head rests and we each had feet rests. When the kids needed to walk around, the plane was big enough to walk around the cabin and stand near the exits where there was some stretching room. Anyway, I was lovin’ it!

We landed in Paris right on time. The Paris airport was nice. There was a lot of modern furniture to lounge on. Some looked like large leather hands that cradled you. They allowed you to lay down and take naps. The kids liked the moving floors that assisted you with your luggage so that you don’t have to lug them as far. There were all kinds of stores there. I picked up a Paris tourist spoon in one of the stores for my friend at work who collects them. There were many French wine stores. There were clothing stores and there were all kinds of perfume stores. One of the perfume stores that I went into had a salesman talking to a snooty American woman. The woman was asking the man where the coffee was kept in the store. He looked puzzled and said, “We do not sale coffee here m’am.” She smiled and said, “No, the coffee is not for me to buy. It is for me to smell in between me smelling these perfumes so that my nose clears the scent of each perfume. That is how we do it in America.” The man looked at her and said, “Well m’am, you are not in America. You are in France.” I thought that was hilarious. We found plenty of computers there to write to our family and friends and let them know that we were in Paris and heading to India next. The kids’ teachers gave instructions on what their homework was to be while we were gone. One of their assignments was to keep a journal, so they began writing in their journals and doing other school work while we waited to board our next plane.

We continued to fly with Air France and the next plane was a double-decker. The kids and I had never been on such a huge plane – it was fascinating. Again, we were very comfortable and had what we needed to pass the time. This flight to Delhi was seven and a half hours. I think that the length of time was making the gentleman in front of us cranky. He stood up on his way to the bathroom and in a hateful manner asked me to keep Kali’s feet off of the back of his seat. He said it was ridiculous how much she was pushing on it. I apologized and said that I hadn’t noticed it and would talk to her and watch it better. Then I was obsessing about where her feet were at all times. She did well at keeping them to herself and off of his seat. After awhile she decided she needed to get up for awhile and when she uncrossed her legs she did pump the gentleman’s seat and it was as if he was just waiting for her to bump it because he right away turned around and said “She is kicking my seat again and this is ridiculous!” I explained that she was trying to get up out of her seat to walk around for awhile and that she was not intentionally trying to kick his seat. He just turned around. I was frustrated. When Kali returned to the seat the gentleman got out of his seat and went to the back of the plane. A couple minutes later a flight attendant came to me and said that the gentleman in front of me was complaining that my daughter was kicking his seat and would I please talk to her. He returned to his seat at that time. I shook my head yes to the flight attendant and immediately turned to the man and told him “you had better quit!” This made him mad. He said “What?” (in an arrogant, condescending kind of way). I said, “my daughter has not been kicking your seat anymore. I don’t know what you are feeling unless it is turbulence and you better not say another word about it in front of her. It upsets her and this is crazy!” My claws were out and my adrenaline was pumping. I never heard another word from him, but I stewed over it for a long while.

As we began our descent into Delhi we were all very excited! It was one o’clock in the morning, India time, when we touched down. Right before we touched down, Texil wanted to know “what smells like poop?” I had noticed a strange smell as well but did not think much about it. When the cabin door opened and the strange smell became even stronger I realized it was the polluted air we were smelling. That was my first sign that this was going to be quite a different world.

When we walked into the airport I was surprised for some reason at how run down it was. The walls were made of cement with cracks down them. The floors were cement in some places and tile in other. We were corralled in a line, shoulder to shoulder to wait while our passports were checked. As we were in line I looked around more to see that the floors were wet – I could not tell what is was from. The security guards there in the airport wore machine guns as part of their uniforms. I noticed two staff members there did not wear shoes or socks. There were people from all over the world in there. Texil and Kali were both overwhelmed by the pollution. They were exhausted and in a whole new world and Kali began to cry.

After we got through the long lines for passport checks and “customs” we headed over to the money exchange booth. The gentlemen there were friendly and helpful. We then made our way to the exit. I immediately saw Tilak turn to a very assertive and protective man – it helped to make me feel more secure in this new place we had come to where everything was so unfamiliar. Tilak warned me that it would be crazy with people wanting to be our taxi driver, bag carrier, direction giver, tour guide, etc. He was right. When we walked out of the airport there were chain fences up to keep the people away up to a certain point then you were left to the wolves. The people were calling to you offering their services and wanting you to look their way. Luckily Tilak had arranged for a taxi driver to pick us up from the airport and bring us to our hotel. It was a matter now of finding that person. Many of the taxi drivers held up the last names of the persons they were there to pick up. We quickly tried to find our names amongst all the signs. After a short time Tilak and Texil spotted our driver and he took our bags from Tilak and began leading us through the crowd to his taxi. We had quick introductions. Our driver’s name was Joshi. Tilak then remembered that we had left Kali’s bag by the money exchange counter in the airport. From his past experience in India he wasn’t sure if he could trust the taxi driver with our other bags while we went after Kali’s so the kids and I stayed with the taxi driver while Tilak went into the airport. He quickly returned with her bag – I was relieved it was still there. We again began our trip through the crowd toward our driver’s taxi.

As we were following our taxi driver I was filled with so many emotions as a took in all I was seeing around me. I was elated to have the privilege to experience a culture so different from my own and I was also terrified to be in a culture so different than my own. The pollution was SO THICK. It was dark outside but you could still see the haze from the airport lighting. The smell was strong of trash and urine. Litter everywhere. There were several homeless on the ground sleeping, covered in burlap sacks or old blankets – this immediately made me choke back tears and Texil too. Everyone was dressed in Indian attire. There were horns blaring everywhere from the enormous amount of traffic. The road we were walking on was dirt. There were some cows grazing in the garbage on the ground. The parking lot was full of broken concrete dividers and the cars were parked so close together that I am not sure how they managed to get into their cars when they parked. The driver found his car. It was a small, very compact white car. He loaded our luggage and opened our doors for us. The driver’s seat is on the right side of the car in India and they drive on the left. This felt very weird.

We made our way through the parking lot traffic only to meet more traffic on the roads. Tilak said that the traffic that night seemed to be much less than he remembered from his trip to Delhi 6 years prior. The taxi driver agreed that the traffic was light that night compared to usual. I am glad it was not the “usual” that night. Everyone seemed to function in some sort of organized chaos. No one stayed in their own lane. It seemed that everyone wanted to be in front of the car in front of them. My eyes were wide and I kept my face close to the window of the passenger side of the car while we drove so that I could see everything. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the hotel. Both of the kids fell asleep in the car. Tilak chit chatted with the driver and I just stared out the window.

The name of the hotel was Hotel Florence. The hotel was a small, multilevel hotel. It had a beautiful wood and glass door in the entry way and a beautiful chandelier in the lobby. Joshi carried Kali into the lobby and put her in my lap for me and then assisted Tilak in getting our luggage. The furniture was plain and the lobby was small. Overall it was nice compared to the businesses in that area. I felt it was oddly placed. Once in the hotel there were five men at the check-in desk with Tilak. One man was the owner, one was the taxi driver, one was the door greeter and the other two were bag carriers/assistants. I found that somewhat intimidating but later learned this was the norm. We paid the owner for our room and for the taxi ride. Tilak then gave Joshi a tip and thanked him for his service and good driving. Joshi left. Tilak asked the hotel owner to give us smaller change but he claimed he did not have any – another thing I would learn to be common. No one ever seems to have change in India. We were then escorted up the elevator to our room.

The room had a large king size bed. There was not a box spring and mattress, but rather a wood platform with a thick foam covering that the sheets were placed on. To turn the lights on in the room you put the room key into a holder on the wall and it would allow the lights to turn on. Tilak wanted to break us into the Indian culture slowly and so he made sure our room had a toilet and shower. There was a desk and a small refrigerator full of snacks that you had to pay for separately should you eat them while you were there. We immediately tucked the kids into bed and got ourselves ready for bed. We talked some about our thoughts of what we’d seen so far and went to sleep.