Getting there

Yesterday was the longest day of my life.

I woke up at 7:30. Guy was sleeping in my living room. We drank some coffee and ate some gluten-free toaster waffles and finished packing, and then set out to round up Heather and Charlotte and go to the airport. We checked in and went through security and as we were walking to the gate, saw Beth coming through another security checkpoint. We had lunch and cocktails at the airport bar and boarded. Elapsed time: 6 hrs.

We flew to Amsterdam, watching movies on my laptop on the way. We had a 2 1/2-hour stop in Amsterdam, too tired to do anything, even if there had been anything to do. By the time we got to the pre-boarding security interview, we could barely remember where we had started from. Elapsed time: 18 hrs.

We flew on to Mumbai. Luckily, the flight was less than half full, and I had a bottle of Ambien pills, so I slept for a few hours. At Mumbai, we took a bus from the international terminal that crossed the tarmac and wound its way through the airport buildings to the domestic terminal. There we waited a few more hours to board our last flight to Bangalore. Departure time: 3:15 a.m. IST. Elapsed time: 31 hrs. 15 min.

At Mumbai (and Bangalore) Airport, there are no jetways that connect the planes to the gates. Buses take the passengers from the gate to the bottom of the stairs. Here is the only picture I've taken so far, of my four traveling companions (from left, Heather, Guy, Beth, and Charlotte):

I'll take more, really. We reached Bangalore and met our driver. Then we had to wait about 20 minutes because his van wasn't big enough for all of us and our bags. The drive to the city was great. For one thing, lanes mean nothing here. I don't know why they even bother to paint the lines. I'll try to get some videos of city traffic. For now, just imagine Mario Kart without the banana peels and with a few pedestrians walking across the screen. We got to the guesthouse and checked in. Local time: 6:00 a.m. Elapsed time: 34 hrs.

I showered, sent an e-mail to Elisabeth and my family to let them know I arrived, and then walked to a nearby store to pick up a few things. I slept for a few hours, and then took an auto-rickshaw (definitely more on them to follow) to MSRI for our group’s first meeting. After the meeting, we tried to go to a nearby restaurant, but it was only about 5:30 and they didn’t open until 7. Knowing we wouldn’t last that long, we went back and ate at a café near the guesthouse and slept. Day over. Local time: 7:30 p.m. Elapsed time: 47 hrs. 30 min.