Hi, Blogger Bob Here, The Husband...

Well we’re here in Mumbai (Bombay)! The 15 hour flight really wasn’t as bad as I though ti was going to be. A couple of Ambian really knocked me out and for a loop. I slept the first 10 hours of the flight. Lisa tells me I did wake up and ate the airline dinner., but I really have no recollection of it, but a few stains on my shirt convince me that I must have eaten it. We sat next to a nice guy who worked for Carnival Cruiselines and he was going to home to have surgery on his shoulder. Nice guy, he gave us a few tips.

1) Never encourage begging. If you give out a dollar, you’ll be swarmed by hundreds of other beggers

2) When your shopping/haggling. Start at ½ the cost and barter from there.\

3) Pick up a Taxi rate card which explains all the costs and distances for taxi rides.

We breezed through customs and were our the door of the Airport in about 10 minutes. We quickly noticed our name on a plaque and the driver whisked us into a waiting car. It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport. It was 10:00 PM and too dark to see much, but the driver did point out some mosques, restaurants and a Rolls Royce dealership, just in case. Indians drive on the left side of the road and it seemed pretty crazy. The driver assured us that “we haven’t seen anything yet” in regards to the traffic. Wait until the morning and evening. It’s CRAZZZZYYY!. More on that next post after we experience it. We have a 2:00 appt. at the Rotunda clinic, our first one. I’ve scheduled a consultation at a Laser Eye place later too. The cost is $900 for both eyes. Back in the states, the cost is about $5000.00. Lisa might get Lasik also. She has astigmatism, so they have to do an exam first. OK, we’re off to explore our first day in India. We’ll take lots of pictures and upload them.