If you wish to see an interactive map of our trip, click here.

In April, we made plans to go to India to attend the wedding of Saumya Ramanathan and Hemant Badgandi -- both of whom work/have worked in Stacy’s lab. We would need to be in Chennai for the wedding and then 6 days later, be in Mumbai for the reception. David made plans for us to visit several temples and ancient buildings during the free time that we had.

On Friday, Stacy flew from Boston to Phoenix and then spent the evening unpacking and repacking. On Saturday morning, we took the bus to the Tucson airport and had uneventful flights to Denver, Newark, and the VERY long flight to Mumbai. We arrived in Mumbai fairly late in the evening but there was a man from the Holiday Inn waiting with a “David Elliott” sign for us once we exited the airport.

Day 1   We spent the night at the very generic Holiday Inn and then went to the Mumbai airport for domestic flights in order to fly to Chennai. They segregate men and women to pass through security, the metal detector and then get wanded even if you don’t set off the detector. The men were all business men - they knew what they were doing. The women took forever! David’s much longer line went faster. When we arrived in Chennai, Saumya’s brother (Karthik) and mother (Meena) were at the exit waiting for us. On the drive to Saumya’s parent’s house we picked up the henna guy on the side of the road.

Before we get too far into this report, let us say how much we appreciate Saumya’s family for taking care of us for much of the trip and helping us with the rest of the trip.  They were wonderful and made the trip much more pleasant.

Once we arrived, we were immediately presented with food. This was to be a recurring theme. Then, the henna guy starting painting Saumya’s palms, hands, arms, tops of her feet, and lower legs. Stacy, Meena and Saumya’s sister-in-law (Lekshmi) all got their palms and wrists decorated with a stripe down the back of the hand. Traditionally, it is the women who are decorated, but Saumya’s father (Ramanathan) asked to be included and David also got a stripe on his palm. Once the henna is applied, you have to wait a certain amount of time to let it dry and not touch anything. Therefore, you might have to be fed while waiting. Once the henna is dry, a mixture of sugar and lemon juice is applied. Then, you wait several hours for the reaction to occur - it is a Michaels Addition of a chemical in the leaves to the keratin proteins in your skin.

While waiting we went up to the roof deck on Saumya’s parents building. We admired the view and Lakshmi pointed out things we had seen on the drive from the airport. The building was south of central Chennai and very close to the Indian Ocean. We would be staying in the apartment across the hall whose tenants had recently moved out, so it was empty.

I lasted 2.5 hours before washing off the henna. Saumya bravely lasted for 5. It had a smell that I couldn’t place at first, but then I realized it was the smell of silage on the farm in Wales. [OK, it’s Irish, not Welsh] It lingered even after it was removed. The skin left behind was fairly dark. I was told don’t use soap for about a day to keep the dye longer. At this point I should interject the comment that toilet paper was a rarity. Hemant stated that some Indian people “think toilet paper is unclean”. So envision going to the bathroom, no toilet paper, and not using soap for the next 24 hours. Something was gonna give.

David and I walked to the beach and it started to rain, so we headed back, and then it started to rain heavily. We did have umbrellas, but the roads start getting muddy and full of puddles quite quickly. We had dinner with Saumya’s family that evening and moved in next door.

Day 2   We took a trip to Mahabalipuram (formerly Mamallapuram), south of Chennai. This area has temples and structures from the Pallavas. Built between 6-8th century B.C. There were inscriptions in Pallava Grantha. The Shore temple, Five Rathas,Varah Cave temple, a large bas-relief and various other temples all over a large piece of rock in the center of town. All fantastic examples of the Indian rock-cut architecture.

On the drive back up to Chennai we stopped at a small park and visited the Tigers’ Cave (Yali Mandapam) and Atiranachanda Mandapam.

Also, we had planned to stop at a heritage village that had buildings from different cultures and some arts & crafts. However, the gate had a sign “Tuesday Holiday”.

We then showered and changed for the first of the first day of the wedding festivities (the engagement)

Day 3  We chose to walk to the wedding on day 2 because Saumya’s family was driving there at some insanely early hour. There was breakfast, a few ceremonies inside, a costume change for the bride and then some ceremonies outside. During this time, Saumya’s friend was helping Stacy change into her sari. Unlike most of the guests, Stacy had very little bling with her outfit. There was yet another costume change for Saumya and then the inside ceremony with the fire began. Guests didn’t have to stay in one place. There were video people showing footage on large TVs. You could be upstairs eating or talking to people way in the back and still see the ceremonies on stage. They also had footage of people eating - I guess for the bride and groom to watch.

Day 4  David and I went to the train station in Chennai and travelled to Hospet to see the ruins at Hampi. We travelled from Chennai to Bangalore on a train that seemed like Amtrak. Sort of put the seats back, way too much A/C, luggage above your head. The one thing that was unique to Indian train travel were the guys (always guys) walking up and down the cars selling their wares. Tea, bags of chips, bottled water, and even hot food. We think the guys with hot food got new food at every stop because it appeared to be steaming hot every time they walked by. The signs were in several languages including English. My favorite were the directions to ‘entrain’ and ‘detrain’. In Bangalore, we switched trains to our First Class A/C sleep train. This was unlike anything I’d ever done before. A little compartment held 4 people and had upper and lower beds on each side and had a locking door. We didn’t acquire “roommates” until the stop after Bangalore and they left the train at the stop prior to Hospet, so we got to settle in and pack up in privacy.

Day 5  David had arranged that the hotel in Hampi would send a driver to pick us up from the Hospet train station. There were LOTS of drivers waiting at the Hospet train station, and David and I were some of the only white people on that train. But, a guy eventually came running up holding a sign ‘David Elliott’ and we met Vikram. It was our first autorickshaw ride in India, 15 km Hospet to Hampi. Arriving in Hampi, we checked into our hotel and arranged for a guide to start giving us a tour in about 45 min. We got ”the new guy” as a guide. He kept taking pictures of the temples and buildings with his cell phone camera. At one point, he apologized and said his wife had never been to Hampi. We had lunch and then more touring. There is way too much in Hampi to do in one day, but we saw a lot of temples, baths, palaces, pavilions, etc. We tried to go to the museum but when we arrived, there was a sign “Friday Holiday”.  We then did a little walking around on our own and then ate dinner.

Day 6   Vikram drove us back to the Hospet train station bright and early in the morning. We took a brief train ride from Hospet to Hubli, In Hubli, we ate lunch, found an internet cafe and bought food for the train at a bakery. We also found a way to leave our luggage so we didn’t need to carry it everywhere. It is brought to the “cloak room” and a man fills out forms with carbons. He tells you to put your luggage in this room where a sign in 3 languages states: ‘There are rats in here. Do not store edibles.’ After exploring Hubli, we caught the overnight train to Mumbai. This was a 3 tier A/C sleeper. David will tell you the most important difference between this and First Class is that the beds are shorter than him and his feet hung off the end (which permitted the door to hit him every time someone entered or left the carriage). Stacy will tell you that the most important difference is that the guys selling stuff were not sealed off by a door.

Day 7  We arrived in Mumbai to find out they had been under a deluge for days. Records were set the day before we arrived. The place we stayed was Dream Residencies. It was unfortunately difficult for taxis and autorickshaws to find. Our room was fine, but after 2 days it developed one serious problem -- a slow leak in the ceiling and the ubiquitous bucket in the bathroom seemed to have a crack in it. We went down to the desk to ask for a restaurant recommendation. The owner said “Follow me” and lead us into the door for the bathroom! We then went out the other door into the bathroom and into the restaurant. It had good food and David discovered a new beer that he liked. This was actually the first soft and squishy bed of the whole trip, good for Stacy, bad for David’s back. My henna began sloughing off while bathing.

Day 8   Wanting to do something besides hang around our hotel, we got a hired car and were driven down to South Mumbai. Hemant had warned us in the morning that the trains were not running because of the rains. We tried to go to the formerly Prince of Wales Museum (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya), but there was a sign at the front entrance “Monday Holiday”. At this point, I am thinking that every building in India has 7 signs “Sunday holiday”, “Monday holiday”, etc. Also after working in the morning, our cell phone could no longer send text messages or make calls or receive calls, only receive texts. This was not ideal in trying to set up travel plans for our trip to Aurangabad after the reception. We randomly found a cafe that Hemant had recommended and had some food here, but decided that everything we might consider doing was closed: the museums, the Elephanta Caves. That evening we had dinner with Hemant’s and Saumya’s families.

Day 9   Finally got our laundry back (50 hours after the 24h service took it), finally got into direct contact with the travel agent about the trip to Aurangabad and finally gave up and bought a new SIM card for the cell phone. We knew we would need it in case of travel problems in Aurangabad. In the evening, we went to the reception. For the guests it was a lot like a wedding reception in the US. There were chairs to sit and talk with people. There were food stations to get all sorts of food. David and I were fascinated by the people making various types of bread (David has kicked himself several times for not taking movies of the process).

Day 10   We took the train to the part of Mumbai we had been driven before. Unfortunately, the boats were not going to Elephanta Caves. We went to the “Modern Art Museum” which turned out to be recently created art, not necessarily modern in style. We were eating lunch and Saumya said she and Hemant had arrived and could we meet up. We did and Hemant told us some of the history of Mumbai and we walked around several places. Then, we all took the train back to Mulund, the name of the suburb where we are staying. We stopped at a sort of fast food place across the street from the station and had street food. Very spicy (Saumya and Hemant thought it was very spicy – it was the only food we had in India that was hot). Later in the evening we packed and checked out (leaving some bags at the hotel). We went to Johnson & Johnson Gate to wait for the bus to Aurangabad on the side of the road. It was a sleeper bus (it had beds, not just seats that reclined) which is good because it was an overnight journey.

Day 11  We were dropped off on the side of the road. We had the name of the car driver Mr. Giri and his license plate number. Nowhere to be found. I called him but we had no language in common, so I handed the phone to a complete stranger and he helpfully said where I was standing. Turns out the driver was at the intersection but not where we could see him or him us. We checked into the hotel in Aurangabad, had some breakfast and headed out sightseeing. We visited Daulatabad Fort (this was the most impressive forttification David had ever seen, and he has seen many), Ellora Caves, Bibi-ka-Maqbara and Panchakki (Water Mill). Today was part of Eid-al-Fitar (sometimes 3 days) and the start of Ganesha Chaturthi, many people were spending their holiday at the tourist places.

Day 12   We had to check out of our rooms, but the hotel held our bags. We were driven to Ajanta Caves. We hired a porter who was not really a guide, but did tell us a few things and kept people away. It began to rain heavily once we finished visiting the caves but not before David was done taking pictures. We did not dry out on the way back so we sat in the hotel lobby very wet and then had dinner. We waited for the bus back to Mumbai in an actual bus station, with seats and a roof over our head. This bus was not a sleeper but the seats were able to lean back.

Day 13   We arrived in Mumbai and had no idea what our bus stop should be. The driver did not speak English. The driver shouted out words I could not place on a map. I thought that I had heard Thane. David took out his GPS and we found out that we were going from Thane away from Mulund, so we got off the bus at the next stop it made (under some underpass, we still do not know where). We took an autorickshaw ride from the one driver who seemed to completely understand where Dream Residences was.

We took the train to South Mumbai again and visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. It did not take all day as we had been expecting and it was pouring rain when we finished looking at everything. We decided to go back to Mulund.

Day 14   We took the train to South Mumbai again and attempted Elephanta Caves again. Weather was still cancelling all the boats. Apparently it had been like this for days. We had lunch and returned to the hotel and packed. We checked out and went to the airport about 5 hours in advance -- the suggestion of Saumya’s family. It didn’t take that long to get to the airport even with some traffic so we checked in REALLY early. Lufthansa kindly upgraded us to Business Class for the Mumbai to Frankfurt leg of the trip. Clearly Lufthansa is not British Airways.

Day 15   We spent a long time on airplanes. Some woman came up to us in the Frankfurt airport and wanted us to do a survey with her on our experience on arrival in the airport. We were able to go through Immigration and Customs quickly in Houston and got an earlier flight back to Tucson. When we arrived home the house was warm and dry. Very warm, but that was OK with me since the planes and airports had been chilly.

There are some QuickTime movies in with the pictures.  If you can not read the QuickTime files, then Get a Mac or go to the Apple QuickTime page.

When the QuickTime VR windows open, click in the window and while holding down the button, move the cursor around (have fun).