purplelara

zurich to mumbai

“Only” 8 hours left to fly…

As we approached Zurich I peered out the window and saw huge mountains and tiny Swiss houses. No holes in either  though – weird.

We had a coffee and waited at our gate, joking about sitting in an European cafe in Switzerland, drinking cappuccinos…

I was delirious with happiness when I saw we had seats off to the side of the bulkhead – leg room, leg room. (It doesn’t take much to make me happy…) Jeff slept the entire flight, I slept about half of it. The flight wasn’t so bad, other than the strange family next to us – teenage son, in his UNDERWEAR and dad with his fly open. Appropriate.

Also, there was Wonky Eyed Staring Lady (of southern Sri Lanka). Every time I looked over at her, she was staring at me. Or maybe she was looking down the aisle with her good eye and I got the wonky one, I’m not sure but really, it was creepy. She had to twist around in her seat to get a good stare going and she did it constantly. When I woke up from my nap, the first thing I saw was The Wonky Eye. Staring at me. Christ. I’m sure I looked quite stunning after hours and hours of flying but really, bug off lady.

We landed in Mumbai around 10:30 pm local time, and were so excited to touch down – not only had we arrived, but the flying was done. Twenty hours flying and about 31 hours travel time, total, counting the time I was picked up at home to touching down in Mumbai.

Mumbai Airport was dingy and dirty and smelly, as expected. We got our luggage and walked out of the airport and it was AWESOME. A sea of little people, yelling and screaming, and it was warm and there were palm trees and it was full of AWESOME. We didn’t hold out much hope our driver would be there, but Jeff spotted my name on a sign (spelled correctly even).

The drive from the airport to our hotel took about 45 minutes and oh, what a drive. The slums are unbelievable. Everything you’ve heard and worse. I’ve seen run down slums before, but I couldn’t believe most of these are still standing. Some weren’t even “dwellings” but tents and boxes. People were sleeping in the streets everywhere.

Oh and the smell, the SMELL. Those of you who have been in Bangkok and have experienced Eau de Poo? Multiply it by 1000. We crossed over a river and it was BAD. Jeff and I looked at each other just started laughing. Paint peeling time. Literally made your eyes water. And I do know what literally means.

Our hotel was awesome. We drank Kingfisher beer from the mini-bar, I tried on my free shoes (free shoes!) and had a shower,  and finally hit the sack around 2:30 am, very, very tired but very, very excited to finally be in India.