running-grl

I have not blogged this trip thus far as my business trips to India have become routine, it seems. However, on this trip, something new has indeed happened (ie, illness), so I will tell this story, afterall.

I have been in India since Saturday night a week ago. Flying with two "India newbies" and peers at work. As usual, we took British Air, sleeper flight -- only this time I alone was automatically upgraded to First Class. I'm fairly certain it has to do with my frequent flier points.

At any rate, we arrived in Bangalore, went to the gym, and then rented a car on the first day to see the sites: High Court, Parliament, Lalbagh (yes, I got my photo taken *again* with a couple; Tara the Celebrity), Cauveri, and Bombay Store. No trip to Mysore this time, but we did see the Bangalore Palace (first time for me), which was not that special. The "king" (an honorary title only) who still lives there is doing a horrible job with restoration. My co-worker, M, was scolded by the gunned guard for taking a photo outside the palace. Someone was having a giant wedding there in the evening and it was all set up for that with white cloth covered chairs and buffet tables. How much does it cost to get married at the Bangalore Palace, I wonder.

We stayed in the Leela for the first 4 days while working in the Manyata office for our company, then flew to Mumbai to visit a vendor on Thursday. The M* folks picked us up in a magic bus: "Meeting on Wheels." It was quite nice, decked out with leather couches, a conference table, dual flat screen TVs and a DVD player.

That evening in Mumbai after a long day of meetings (and greeting some old friends in the ODC), I fell asleep in the magic bus on the way to the hotel. There were masses of people in the streets for a Shiva festival, and the bus had a hard time getting through. There is a famous temple near the hotel, so it took us a good couple of hours to drive just a small stretch of road. The Renaissance sits at the top of a minor hill and overlooks a lake, which was picturesque and lovely to photograph. We had a late (10PM?) business dinner with the senior management from M* and it was fun.

The next morning (Friday), we took off for the Delhi airport, terrified that we would not make our flight. We arrived in time to have a Diet Coke in the lounge, and then boarded with an old friend, S, who lives in Mumbai. We just missed S's wife, A, and I felt sad that I was not able to see her. She comes to the US less and less frequently nowadays.

At any rate, we spent the afternoon in Delhi seeing the usual sites: Embassy Road (T & M, I saw the Swedish embassy), India Gate, the Prime Minister's house, Hayaman's Tomb, and Mughal Gardens. I had not been to the gardens before and it was spectacular. I mean, really. I have never seen such a large elaborate set of gardens in my life. It was a vision of Eden.

One thing I did not enjoy so much in the gardens was getting seriously felt up by the guard lady. We were required to go through a security check to enter (akin to the ones at airports), and the guard stopped me and literally squeezed both of my boobs. A couple of times. There was no boob-squeezing of the Indian women, and I was wearing a "Favorite Stretch Tee" from the Gap, which pretty much bears all. Perhaps it was discrimination. Perhaps she actually thought I was hiding something somewhere behind my sub-A cup size bosom. Who knows.

At any rate, we went back to the hotel and met S for a "wine buffet" in the evening (which B and I paid for and gleefully participated in). It was basically all you can drink for $20USD. Unfortunately for me, I kept up with "the boys" and did not feel so well the following morning.

We drove off to Agra around 7AM, and all I had time to down was two meal replacement bars. We stopped at a roadside "hotel" (like a truckstop) and had pakoras and samosas for lunch with a couple of Diet Cokes. This is where my journey went wrong... But more on that later.

Once we were done and B and M had purchased some Indian handicrafts at the "hotel," we got back on the road for another 2 hours travel into Agra. After some time, our driver pulled over to the side of the road and parked, saying he needed to "pay taxes." Uh-huh. I know I always pay my "taxes" to some shady-looking dude sitting in a hut made of corrugated metal and bamboo limbs. Anyway, while we were waiting for him in the car, we were approached by a man with a giant pink snake who repeatedly shouted, "No bite! No bite! Nice snake!" Since I was behind the window looking at this enormous snake (which may have been a boa constrictor), I noticed that there was a thread tied around his mouth... No bite, indeed. Not until the thread breaks, anyway.

Once the pink snake guy mosied along, we witnessed two boys getting into a fist fight over who got to tie a lucky talisman to our car... The talisman is a string of chilies and limbs tied together on a small piece of rope, and I guess they were vying for the honor of tying it to the front grill. One kid whacked the other one so hard he laid down in the dirt and cried.

The last visitor we had while waiting for our dirver to "pay taxes" was another snake charmer wearing a dirty turban and carrying a cobra in a basket, a flute tucked under his arm. No thanks, we all gestured.

Back on the road, we passed a truck carrying musicians and their instruments plus three transvestites. They were very flirty and wanted their photos taken from the back of the truck.

Once we entered Agra, our driver -- insubordinate by the way; I noticed he was not the usually subservient type -- pulled over on the side of the road once again and a strange man popped his head inside the van. "Hi, I am a city guide for Agra. May I join you?" To which B gladly said "Sure, come on in!" (like all good trusting Southerners) and to which I said, "No, no!" (like all suspicious and non-friendly Northerners) as the man hopped in and closed the door as our driver resumed driving towards the Taj Mahal. I turned to S and said "Um, do you know this guy?"

It took us a while to get him out of the car. He was a con man.

We finally made it to the Taj Mahal and S hired a guide for us on his own accord and we took the usual tour of the grounds and the tomb itself. Afterwards, we went to the Agra Fort (not to be confused with the Red Fort in Delhi, though both are forts that are red) and had another tour of the 16 (?) palaces within the same complex. Our guide bribed one of the guards to unlock a room not permissible to visitors, and it was covered wall and ceiling with millions of tiny mirrors placed into cut stone in the pattern of an Oriental carpet. The guide lit a candle and it looked like starlight spreading across the ceiling of the cavelike interior. It was truly beautiful.

I started feeling kind of tired and sore and was praying to get on home. We hopped back in the van, stopped for potato chips and soda, and began our long 5 hour drive back to Delhi proper. I fell asleep in the backseat, a little nauseas (from carsickness I thought), and was jolted awake when our vehicle fell into a gigantic crater in the middle of the road. There were no signs, no barricades, no nothing, and it was nighttime, so the driver did not see it. The entire front end of the car was stuck inside a hole while the rear end (where I was sitting) hovered up in the air off the ground. A true comedy of errors ensued when several people stopped to try to pull the car out with sheer physical strength. Finally, a mini-bus stopped and using some towing straps, pulled us out of the hole.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I was tired and weak and crawled right into bed. About 1/2 hour later, I started puking and did not stop for about 5 hours. I had food poisoning from the food at the roadside "hotel" where we had stopped for a lunch of pakoras and samosas. Lesson learned. I will *never* do that again. Here it is, three days later, and I am still sick. I finally cracked open my emergency "extreme" antibiotics from the travel clinic and am at long last starting to feel better.

At any rate, the following day, we went back to the Delhi airport and sat around during a 4 hour delay (on the plane, but at least in first class) for our 1 hour and 45 minute flight. (!) We made it back to Bangalore and into the Leela "Club" part of the hotel where they treat you like royalty, and I again crawled into the confine of my bed, surrounded by nice soft fluffy pillows and went to sleep for 13 hours.

Yesterday, we went to visit another vendor whose campus was like an oasis in the middle of the bustling city (a recording studio, movie theatre, two gyms, a swimming pool, six food courts, a clothing store, a massive billiards room, a library, a koi pond, and 14 office buildings all in this one vendor's campus). It was really impressive. At the end of our tour and our many discussions regarding a potential engagement with our company, we sat down to a catered white cloth meal of… Indian food. I wasn't sure I should be eating anything at all, but didn't want to be rude, so I had a few little pinches of paneer, potatoes, and roti. I moved my food around on my plate to make it look like I ate more, but they noticed and asked me didn't I like the food. I just said I was feeling a bit tired and wasn't entirely hungry. (Whew!)

Back to the primary F office in Bangalore that afternoon, our executive management from Boston had arrived and we strolled into our meeting with them about 10 minutes late (due to traffic). Again, I went back to the hotel and made a little nest of pillows and slept from 6:30PM to 5:00AM this morning. Tonight the business dinners with the execs begin.

So that's my trip in a nutshell -- or at least all the highlights so far. I hear there will be an airport strike starting tonight and that it will be on "indefinitely." This could mean we might get stuck here, which would not be good. But I have been stuck in India before, so it would not be the first time for me.