All of March, I was super excited for this trip. I would spend 6 days in the Land of Kings with my father, brother, and the lovely Julia Susuni. My mother unfortunately was not able to make it. All month, plans had been changing constantly. First Julia was supposed to come earlier than my dad and Chris, then my dad decided to come a few days earlier so he could fly to Bangalore for business, then my brother decided to come a day earlier.... Anyways, finally the plans got set. Dad would arrive on Wednesday, March 9th, fly to Bangalore for business on the 10th, and come back to Mumbai on the 11th. Chris and Julia were each flying into Newark from their respective college towns and then taking the same flight to Mumbai together, also arriving on the 11th at night. Then, one day in Mumbai, 6 days in Rajasthan, one day in Mumbai, and they would all leave together late that night (the 19th), heading back to the US of A. That was the plan. I had been planning it out for a few weeks. My biggest problem with planning was this: There are so many places I want to take them to eat in Mumbai, but we will only have 7 meals together in Mumbai. What am I going to do? Sighhhh life is so tough..... In fact, food honestly was a big concern to me, especially in Rajasthan. I have been raving about the food since I have been here, so I want to make sure that we eat at good places, but I don't know Rajasthan. That means I have to leave it up to the tour guide to take us to delicious restaurants/food stands, but there is always the chance that he will take us to touristy restaurants just like my previous weekend in Delhi/Agra.... I ended up calling up my travel agent (same one as before) 4 times to tell him to that he should inform our tour guides to take us to restaurants where the locals eat. Not touristy places. Do you think that worked? I guess you will just have to wait and see! =)
My dad arrived arrived around 11:00 PM Wednesday night. One of Rajiv's friends, Sanjay, drove me to the airport to pick him up. Within 15 mins of arriving, we saw him emerging from the airport. Visitor 1 of 3: Collected. I helped him with his bags, headed over to Sanjay's car, and then, as tradition dictates, went out for pav bhaji. My dad liked it. Obviously. Who doesn't? That made me feel very relieved. I knew that Chris and Julia would like the food, and I was pretty sure that my dad would like it, but this was a very good sign. I got up to pay for the three of us, but Sanjay told me, "Your money is no good here!" and insisted on paying. My dad was completely confused. It was nice enough of him to pick him up at the airport, but to pay for food too? That's crazy! I simply laughed and told him, "This is India, Dad."
The next morning, Dad and I went out for a nice long walk before breakfast. I took him around Five Gardens, gave him a tour of some local universities, got some coconuts (another tradition), and then we finally made our way to Anand Bhavan for breakfast. God I love that place. For breakfast, we had idli sambar and mysore dosa. I loved it. My dad.... "It's different." Haha he liked it, but wasn't used to rice and spicy food for breakfast, which totally makes sense. It does take some getting used to. Not exactly the same thing as a bagel haha. While we were at breakfast, the owner of the restaurant came over, sat down at our table, and started showing me a scrapbook of the India-Pakistan War of 1965. There were pictures and newspaper clippings, and he was explaining everything to me in broken English. Very interesting. Again, took my dad by surprise. It is not every day that the restaurant owner sits down at your table to show you a scrapbook lol.
After breakfast, we headed off to the market. First stop- jewelry store. My dad was interesting in seeing what Indian jewelry is like. It was... much more intense than he expected. The necklaces and earrings that we saw were very big and had a lot going on. There wasn't much "simple" jewelry in that store. We soon left and continued walking through the market. We ran into my favorite man in the market (still don't know his actual name) and had a nice little conversation with him. He asked my dad what he thought of India, what weather was like in America, if he liked Obama, and if we were still in a recession. Lol funny guy. We continued walking, stopping every now and then to say hi or shake someone's hand. I showed him the train station, a shoe store (got him a nice pair of sandals), and after a little while, we headed back home. Later that day, he flew off to Bangalore for business. And now we fast forward.
The day was March 11th. A Friday. The time was 6:15 AM. I woke up in excitement. This would be the day. The day that the real vacation began. In only 17 hours, all three people would be here. So. Pumped. I decided to check my email, and had a few emails from Julia entitled "New Flight Information". Checked my calendar. No, it was not April Fool's Day. These must be legit. Opened them anddddd.... Her connecting flight from DC to Newark was delayed by 3 hours, causing her to miss her flight to India. Rescheduled for the next day. She had spent all night trying to get a hold of my mom so she could tell my brother that she could not make the flight. Complete mess. Anyways, my brother got the message shortly before he boarded the plane to India, so that was good. In fact, Chris' connecting flight to Newark was also delayed., but he fortunately had enough layover time to still make his Newark-Mumbai flight. Anyways.... I was pretty bummed out. Not only was she arriving a day late, but now it made my choice of meals in Mumbai even trickier.
Back to my current day. Had to pick up my dad from the airport. Fortunately, we had a car and driver. Unfortunately, I found out halfway through the day that his parents just found a bride for him, so he left to go home and get married, leaving us driverless. Onto Plan B. I called up my dad, told him to take a prepaid taxi to Five Gardens (I knew the he would recognize the area since we had walked around the gardens a few times), and told him that I would pick him up there. I also told him to call me when he got off the plane/into the taxi to let me know when to meet him in Five Gardens. When I didn't get a call for an hour-ish after I expected to get one, I decided to call him back. Turns out, he just didn't know how to call my phone (international dialing can be tricky). He was in the taxi and should be there in a half hour. Awesome. Went to Five Gardens in a half hour, called him up, and he said that he was having trouble getting there. The driver had no idea where Five Gardens was lol. After another 15 minutes on the phone, I finally met found him. Visitor 1 of 3: Collected (again). When he got out of the taxi, the driver was asking for more money. Which is absurd, since it is a prepaid taxi. He wanted double the money. Nice try, dude. After talking to my dad, I discovered that this taxi driver also tried to kick my dad out of the taxi in the slums. Thank god he didn't get out. That would have been bad. However, all was good, and we were off to dinner. Gypsy Chinese.
The food was, of course, amazing. They break a few rules on my Touristy Restaurant Checklist, but the food is really good. Chinese food with an Indian twist. Tastes much better than Chinese food in New Jersey. Tastes... Healthier. Fresher. Not very Indian, but good quality food. Over dinner, we talked about his business trip to Bangalore. Story time!! When he was in Bangalore, his bathroom light wasn't working. After fiddling with it for a little bit, trying to get it to work, the whole light panel fell off. It was 11:30 at night. He called the front desk to let them know, and within a few minutes, someone was there to see what was wrong/if they could fix it. And then the manager of the hotel came up to see if he wanted anything. "Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed? Would you like a new room? Would you like some coffee? Tea? Would you like a wakeup call in the morning? 7:00 sound good? Would you like some tea 5 minutes later too?" The light was fixed within a half hour, he got a wake up call at 7:00, and at 7:05 there was a knock on his door. Tea. He was amazed at the service. "They must really want people to come back!" No Dad, it has nothing to do with keeping customers. That is called Indian hospitality.
After dinner, I dropped my dad back at my apartment so that he could use my computer, and I headed out with Rajiv to pick up my brother. Within a half hour of arriving at the airport, we found Chris. Visitor 2 of 3: Collected. The look on his face when he looked around at the palm trees was priceless. I could tell that this all seemed like a dream to him. He couldn't believe that he was actually here in India with me. Crazy. When we got home, we dropped off his bags, picked up my dad, and the four of us headed off to dinner. What did we have? You guessed it. Pav bhaji. Walked to a new place that I had not tried yet. I was somewhat scared, because I was not positive that it was good food. I assumed it was, but I had not had it myself. Turns out, it was fantastic. He loved it. In fact, it was one of his favorite meals the whole trip. Chris absolutely loved the rolls. Not gonna lie, they were pretty darn good. After our short meal, we headed back home, chatted until 3 AM, and then headed off to bed.
Around 10 AM the next morning, we headed out. Where? You guessed it. Coconut Corner. Did Chris like it? He loved it. In fact, after having his coconut, he said that he didn't want to leave India. Yea, they are that good. The original plan was to go out to breakfast that morning, but since we got a late move on that morning, we decided to wait and just have a big lunch. My brother wanted some sandals, so I decided to him to a sandal store. Took him to the same place that I took my dad the other day, but he didn't find anything that he liked. So we headed off to another shoe store. Fortunately, there were 3 more about 10 minutes away. On the way, we passed my favorite sweet store. Both of them very pretty hungry, so I figured this might hold them off for a while. Unfortunately, the owner was not there. However, we were still fed ridiculous amounts of food, simply because they wanted my brother and father to try their sweets and snacks. A few minutes and many snacks later, we headed back out to the sandal store. Sure enough, he found some sandals he liked. On the way to our lunch place, we passed some beggars. With whips. My dad and brother were... surprised. It is a pretty crazy sight.
Next culture shock- lunch. We went to a restaurant where you could either choose limited amounts of food, or unlimited. We chose unlimited. $2 a person. So we sat down, they laid out banana leaves for us (those were our plates), and multiple servers came around and plopped some food down on our leaves. Whenever you finished a food on your leaf, the server would come around and ask if you wanted more. Of course, this meal was eaten all with our hands. Rather, hand. I loved it. Chris loved it. Dad... liked the Chinese food much better lol. I brought my camera out with me specifically to take pictures of this meal, but when I saw the food in front of me I got super excited and completely forgot to take pictures. Sorry guys. =(
After lunch, we decided to head home to relax for a few hours. On the way back, I had to stop by one store to recharge my USB modem (internet). While I was inside, my dad and brother decided to sit outside and talk. A few minutes later, I emerged from the store and saw a bunch of little kids surrounding my dad and brother, asking for money. I quickly told my dad and brother to come along with me, and we began walking away. However, as we started walking away from the kids, they started grabbing our arms, still asking for money. After a block, they were still following us, so turned around and yelled at them. I feel bad yelling at such small kids, but it is the only way I have found to get them to stop. Ah well.
After a few hours of rest at home, we headed back out, this time with Elaine. Where to? Street food. First, we went to my favorite sandwich man. He makes really good, really small veggie toast sandwiches. It is very impressive how he makes them. His hands move so fast, slicing cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers so thin. Dude's got talent. My dad did not want one, but the rest of us got it. Chris... Loved it. Seeing a pattern here? Next, we went down the street to get my dad some wada pav, which is kind of like a potato knish sandwich. He liked it. Success! Next stop... Dabeli, my personal favorite. I have no idea what it is, but it is extremely delicious. It is another small sandwich with some sort of filling, but I am not sure what the filling is. All I know is that it is delicious. At this point, everyone was pretty full, but I decided to take them to my favorite sweet shop anyways, just so they could meet the owner. When we got there, we did not get the warm welcome I expected. He yelled at me. "Where have you been!?!? I thought you left for America without telling me!! It has been 2 weeks since you have last been here!!! Don't do that to me!!" Lolol what a great guy. He gave about 10 different sweets to my dad and brother, and was going to keep going, but my dad pulled me aside and told me, "Sean, you need to buy something right now. I feel bad. I don't want to keep taking his food." The idea of Indian hospitality was starting to sink in, but it still hadn't quite hit him yet. In fact, one thing the owner said when he was yelling at me was that he did not want me to come only when I wanted to buy something, he wanted me to come just so he could talk to me. Moreover, the owner invited us over his house for dinner, right then and there. He wanted us to leave and go back to his house with him. And if tonight didn't work, then he wanted to have us over when we got back from Rajasthan. Crazy nice.
After a solid 20 minutes of talking and eating, I bought two boxes of sweets and some water, and then we headed off across the street to get my brother some hand churned ice cream. Guess what? He loved it. At this point in time, I checked my watch, realized that I had to get going, and walked them all back to my apartment. They decided to hang out with Elaine while I went to the airport with Rajiv to pick up Julia. We hopped in a taxi, arrived at the airport in 20 minutes, and after being there for 5 minutes, Julia emerged from the airport. Visitor 3 of 3: Collected. We headed back to the apartment, but Julia was not hungry, so we did not stop for pav bhaji. Tradition broken. =( After a few hours of talking and hanging out with all three of them and Elaine, we all decided to head off to bed. The first challenge of the trip was done. They all arrived, safe and sound. Now the next challenge was to make sure they had a good time and did not get sick.
The next morning, we got up early, took our showers, finished packing, and headed off to breakfast. On the way, we stopped for... Coconuts!!! Tradition 2- Not broken! =) Julia loved her coconut. Obviously. And then, off to Anand Bhavan. I ordered a few different things so everyone could try something different: idli sambar, set dosa, neer dosa, and sheera. Everyone liked everything, but I think that sheera and neer dosa were the favorites. Which does not surprise me, since they are all my favorites as well. And to top it off, we all had some coffee. Upon tasting it, Chris said, "Oh my god, this is the best coffee I have ever had." Not gonna lie, it is some damn good coffee.
And that is it. We headed back to the apartment, gathered our bags, and made our way to the airport. Goodbye, Mumbai. Hello, Rajasthan!
My dad arrived arrived around 11:00 PM Wednesday night. One of Rajiv's friends, Sanjay, drove me to the airport to pick him up. Within 15 mins of arriving, we saw him emerging from the airport. Visitor 1 of 3: Collected. I helped him with his bags, headed over to Sanjay's car, and then, as tradition dictates, went out for pav bhaji. My dad liked it. Obviously. Who doesn't? That made me feel very relieved. I knew that Chris and Julia would like the food, and I was pretty sure that my dad would like it, but this was a very good sign. I got up to pay for the three of us, but Sanjay told me, "Your money is no good here!" and insisted on paying. My dad was completely confused. It was nice enough of him to pick him up at the airport, but to pay for food too? That's crazy! I simply laughed and told him, "This is India, Dad."
The next morning, Dad and I went out for a nice long walk before breakfast. I took him around Five Gardens, gave him a tour of some local universities, got some coconuts (another tradition), and then we finally made our way to Anand Bhavan for breakfast. God I love that place. For breakfast, we had idli sambar and mysore dosa. I loved it. My dad.... "It's different." Haha he liked it, but wasn't used to rice and spicy food for breakfast, which totally makes sense. It does take some getting used to. Not exactly the same thing as a bagel haha. While we were at breakfast, the owner of the restaurant came over, sat down at our table, and started showing me a scrapbook of the India-Pakistan War of 1965. There were pictures and newspaper clippings, and he was explaining everything to me in broken English. Very interesting. Again, took my dad by surprise. It is not every day that the restaurant owner sits down at your table to show you a scrapbook lol.
After breakfast, we headed off to the market. First stop- jewelry store. My dad was interesting in seeing what Indian jewelry is like. It was... much more intense than he expected. The necklaces and earrings that we saw were very big and had a lot going on. There wasn't much "simple" jewelry in that store. We soon left and continued walking through the market. We ran into my favorite man in the market (still don't know his actual name) and had a nice little conversation with him. He asked my dad what he thought of India, what weather was like in America, if he liked Obama, and if we were still in a recession. Lol funny guy. We continued walking, stopping every now and then to say hi or shake someone's hand. I showed him the train station, a shoe store (got him a nice pair of sandals), and after a little while, we headed back home. Later that day, he flew off to Bangalore for business. And now we fast forward.
The day was March 11th. A Friday. The time was 6:15 AM. I woke up in excitement. This would be the day. The day that the real vacation began. In only 17 hours, all three people would be here. So. Pumped. I decided to check my email, and had a few emails from Julia entitled "New Flight Information". Checked my calendar. No, it was not April Fool's Day. These must be legit. Opened them anddddd.... Her connecting flight from DC to Newark was delayed by 3 hours, causing her to miss her flight to India. Rescheduled for the next day. She had spent all night trying to get a hold of my mom so she could tell my brother that she could not make the flight. Complete mess. Anyways, my brother got the message shortly before he boarded the plane to India, so that was good. In fact, Chris' connecting flight to Newark was also delayed., but he fortunately had enough layover time to still make his Newark-Mumbai flight. Anyways.... I was pretty bummed out. Not only was she arriving a day late, but now it made my choice of meals in Mumbai even trickier.
Back to my current day. Had to pick up my dad from the airport. Fortunately, we had a car and driver. Unfortunately, I found out halfway through the day that his parents just found a bride for him, so he left to go home and get married, leaving us driverless. Onto Plan B. I called up my dad, told him to take a prepaid taxi to Five Gardens (I knew the he would recognize the area since we had walked around the gardens a few times), and told him that I would pick him up there. I also told him to call me when he got off the plane/into the taxi to let me know when to meet him in Five Gardens. When I didn't get a call for an hour-ish after I expected to get one, I decided to call him back. Turns out, he just didn't know how to call my phone (international dialing can be tricky). He was in the taxi and should be there in a half hour. Awesome. Went to Five Gardens in a half hour, called him up, and he said that he was having trouble getting there. The driver had no idea where Five Gardens was lol. After another 15 minutes on the phone, I finally met found him. Visitor 1 of 3: Collected (again). When he got out of the taxi, the driver was asking for more money. Which is absurd, since it is a prepaid taxi. He wanted double the money. Nice try, dude. After talking to my dad, I discovered that this taxi driver also tried to kick my dad out of the taxi in the slums. Thank god he didn't get out. That would have been bad. However, all was good, and we were off to dinner. Gypsy Chinese.
The food was, of course, amazing. They break a few rules on my Touristy Restaurant Checklist, but the food is really good. Chinese food with an Indian twist. Tastes much better than Chinese food in New Jersey. Tastes... Healthier. Fresher. Not very Indian, but good quality food. Over dinner, we talked about his business trip to Bangalore. Story time!! When he was in Bangalore, his bathroom light wasn't working. After fiddling with it for a little bit, trying to get it to work, the whole light panel fell off. It was 11:30 at night. He called the front desk to let them know, and within a few minutes, someone was there to see what was wrong/if they could fix it. And then the manager of the hotel came up to see if he wanted anything. "Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed? Would you like a new room? Would you like some coffee? Tea? Would you like a wakeup call in the morning? 7:00 sound good? Would you like some tea 5 minutes later too?" The light was fixed within a half hour, he got a wake up call at 7:00, and at 7:05 there was a knock on his door. Tea. He was amazed at the service. "They must really want people to come back!" No Dad, it has nothing to do with keeping customers. That is called Indian hospitality.
After dinner, I dropped my dad back at my apartment so that he could use my computer, and I headed out with Rajiv to pick up my brother. Within a half hour of arriving at the airport, we found Chris. Visitor 2 of 3: Collected. The look on his face when he looked around at the palm trees was priceless. I could tell that this all seemed like a dream to him. He couldn't believe that he was actually here in India with me. Crazy. When we got home, we dropped off his bags, picked up my dad, and the four of us headed off to dinner. What did we have? You guessed it. Pav bhaji. Walked to a new place that I had not tried yet. I was somewhat scared, because I was not positive that it was good food. I assumed it was, but I had not had it myself. Turns out, it was fantastic. He loved it. In fact, it was one of his favorite meals the whole trip. Chris absolutely loved the rolls. Not gonna lie, they were pretty darn good. After our short meal, we headed back home, chatted until 3 AM, and then headed off to bed.
Around 10 AM the next morning, we headed out. Where? You guessed it. Coconut Corner. Did Chris like it? He loved it. In fact, after having his coconut, he said that he didn't want to leave India. Yea, they are that good. The original plan was to go out to breakfast that morning, but since we got a late move on that morning, we decided to wait and just have a big lunch. My brother wanted some sandals, so I decided to him to a sandal store. Took him to the same place that I took my dad the other day, but he didn't find anything that he liked. So we headed off to another shoe store. Fortunately, there were 3 more about 10 minutes away. On the way, we passed my favorite sweet store. Both of them very pretty hungry, so I figured this might hold them off for a while. Unfortunately, the owner was not there. However, we were still fed ridiculous amounts of food, simply because they wanted my brother and father to try their sweets and snacks. A few minutes and many snacks later, we headed back out to the sandal store. Sure enough, he found some sandals he liked. On the way to our lunch place, we passed some beggars. With whips. My dad and brother were... surprised. It is a pretty crazy sight.
Next culture shock- lunch. We went to a restaurant where you could either choose limited amounts of food, or unlimited. We chose unlimited. $2 a person. So we sat down, they laid out banana leaves for us (those were our plates), and multiple servers came around and plopped some food down on our leaves. Whenever you finished a food on your leaf, the server would come around and ask if you wanted more. Of course, this meal was eaten all with our hands. Rather, hand. I loved it. Chris loved it. Dad... liked the Chinese food much better lol. I brought my camera out with me specifically to take pictures of this meal, but when I saw the food in front of me I got super excited and completely forgot to take pictures. Sorry guys. =(
After lunch, we decided to head home to relax for a few hours. On the way back, I had to stop by one store to recharge my USB modem (internet). While I was inside, my dad and brother decided to sit outside and talk. A few minutes later, I emerged from the store and saw a bunch of little kids surrounding my dad and brother, asking for money. I quickly told my dad and brother to come along with me, and we began walking away. However, as we started walking away from the kids, they started grabbing our arms, still asking for money. After a block, they were still following us, so turned around and yelled at them. I feel bad yelling at such small kids, but it is the only way I have found to get them to stop. Ah well.
After a few hours of rest at home, we headed back out, this time with Elaine. Where to? Street food. First, we went to my favorite sandwich man. He makes really good, really small veggie toast sandwiches. It is very impressive how he makes them. His hands move so fast, slicing cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers so thin. Dude's got talent. My dad did not want one, but the rest of us got it. Chris... Loved it. Seeing a pattern here? Next, we went down the street to get my dad some wada pav, which is kind of like a potato knish sandwich. He liked it. Success! Next stop... Dabeli, my personal favorite. I have no idea what it is, but it is extremely delicious. It is another small sandwich with some sort of filling, but I am not sure what the filling is. All I know is that it is delicious. At this point, everyone was pretty full, but I decided to take them to my favorite sweet shop anyways, just so they could meet the owner. When we got there, we did not get the warm welcome I expected. He yelled at me. "Where have you been!?!? I thought you left for America without telling me!! It has been 2 weeks since you have last been here!!! Don't do that to me!!" Lolol what a great guy. He gave about 10 different sweets to my dad and brother, and was going to keep going, but my dad pulled me aside and told me, "Sean, you need to buy something right now. I feel bad. I don't want to keep taking his food." The idea of Indian hospitality was starting to sink in, but it still hadn't quite hit him yet. In fact, one thing the owner said when he was yelling at me was that he did not want me to come only when I wanted to buy something, he wanted me to come just so he could talk to me. Moreover, the owner invited us over his house for dinner, right then and there. He wanted us to leave and go back to his house with him. And if tonight didn't work, then he wanted to have us over when we got back from Rajasthan. Crazy nice.
After a solid 20 minutes of talking and eating, I bought two boxes of sweets and some water, and then we headed off across the street to get my brother some hand churned ice cream. Guess what? He loved it. At this point in time, I checked my watch, realized that I had to get going, and walked them all back to my apartment. They decided to hang out with Elaine while I went to the airport with Rajiv to pick up Julia. We hopped in a taxi, arrived at the airport in 20 minutes, and after being there for 5 minutes, Julia emerged from the airport. Visitor 3 of 3: Collected. We headed back to the apartment, but Julia was not hungry, so we did not stop for pav bhaji. Tradition broken. =( After a few hours of talking and hanging out with all three of them and Elaine, we all decided to head off to bed. The first challenge of the trip was done. They all arrived, safe and sound. Now the next challenge was to make sure they had a good time and did not get sick.
The next morning, we got up early, took our showers, finished packing, and headed off to breakfast. On the way, we stopped for... Coconuts!!! Tradition 2- Not broken! =) Julia loved her coconut. Obviously. And then, off to Anand Bhavan. I ordered a few different things so everyone could try something different: idli sambar, set dosa, neer dosa, and sheera. Everyone liked everything, but I think that sheera and neer dosa were the favorites. Which does not surprise me, since they are all my favorites as well. And to top it off, we all had some coffee. Upon tasting it, Chris said, "Oh my god, this is the best coffee I have ever had." Not gonna lie, it is some damn good coffee.
And that is it. We headed back to the apartment, gathered our bags, and made our way to the airport. Goodbye, Mumbai. Hello, Rajasthan!
