The Day Has Come

Just one more - though very short - night and I'll be off to Tanzania for my biggest adventure yet. Taxi to the Bristol Bus Station is booked for 3am... ouch. I'll board a KLM plane to Amsterdam around 6am, meet the other eight hikers plus our guide in Amsterdam and then spend another 8.5 hours on the plane to Kilimanjaro Airport. My third long haul flight within one month, arg. Cannot say I'm looking forward to it. But that's the only thing I'm not looking forward to, haha.

I hope my eight brothers (and sisters) in arms are nice and fun since we're going to spend a great deal of time together and may need to motivate and help each other on our way to the top of the highest mountain of Africa. Am I ready for it? I don't know.
Packing for a hiking trip is such a routine that it didn't take long for me. It's just a few extra layers that add to my usual gear list. And a different bag instead of my trusted Deuter backpack. The bag my organizer provided is actually pretty cool and offers enough space. I packed it so that I only need to take a few things out when we're setting off. I will hand it over to the porters and have to take care not to exceed the maximum of 15 kilos that they are allowed to carry.

Daypack and the cool Jagged Globe bag from my organizer

About a year ago I decided to do this trip. Now that the day has finally come there's only two things that I really worry about. The snow on Amsterdam airport that could delay my flight is one of them. According to the KLM website both of my flights will be serviced as scheduled while many others are cancelled. I just hope that all will go according to plan.
The other thing is altitude sickness. The great unknown for me. How will my body take it? Will I wake up in the middle of the night with fear of suffocating? Will it just be a little headache? The fact that my organizer takes a day longer to the top of Kilimanjaro and their resulting high success rate give me a bit of comfort.

This may well be the last blog post until I'm back. I will have wifi in our hotel in Moshi but don't know if I have the time and energy to post before or after my trip. I will be back on January 5th and will certainly post some pictures and tell you how it all went. My musings will hopefully include a selfie from the fu...ing highest mountain of Africa! :)

Bye Bye Mumbai

Two more long days in the office and my Mumbai adventures was over. Time went by too fast and I had too little time to really experience Mumbai/India.

At least I had a rather relaxed last day in the office. My colleague Sushil took me out for lunch to an area called Thane which is a good deal away from the office. We took a motor riksha, since this was one of things I hadn't done yet and it was good fun and probably the best way to beat traffic if you're not on a motor bike. Those guys are pretty reckless and take any gap between cars possible. There is no seatbelt, no aircon and it's loud and windy since there are no windows. Loved it!

In Thane we got off at a large shopping area with countless small and big shops lined along the street. Went into a sweets shop first. Indians love sugar and the collection of sweets was quite overwhelming. I tried a few and we had both a piece of something that reminded me remotely of cheesecake, but it was lighter and had a nice mango cinnamon aroma.

Next was one of the oldest Hotels in Mumbai where we had lunch. I let him choose food as we sat down in the barely lit but air-conditioned back room. Very tasty indeed. Went back on a motor riksha again and again I regretted not having more time. I longed to just stroll along the street having a look into those shops not really in need for something but simply mingling with the crowd and browsing. This really felt like India proper. I also had halfway mastered the way of crossing a busy road so I actually felt quite comfortable although I was again the only Westener again, haha.

Bought some spices from the supermarket in our office building and a large pack of that Indian tea that I learned to love so much. Got instructions how to brew it from a colleague and left the office at 7:30pm after saying goodbye to everyone.

My colleagues are really a very nice bunch and I wished I understood a bit of Hindi to be able to participate more in their conversations. From Sushil I learned that there are more than 200 different languages in India and that's not really counting dialects in. Wow. So it is quite likely that two Indians from different regions wouldn't understand each other unless the both speak Hindi.

Sitting at the airport as I'm writing this I'm recapturing the last 9 days in my mind. India. Wow. I always wanted to go but didn't really persue the idea and the chance to go on a business trip was a fantastic chance to get exposed to this alien culture in a very smooth way. I wasn't thrown in straight away but had the chance to adjust and take it in bit by bit from behind the glass. It's a little like walking through a glass tube in an aquarium with water and fish all around you.

But I really wanted to be on the other side of the glass and swim with the fish. That's the only way to really get the feel and vibe. After the first shock of the dust, dirt and crumbling infrastructure and the realization that this wasn't a rough area but simply normal, I wanted to go out and walk amongst people. As a single female Westener this was simply not possible.

Apart from the hotel I was mainly amongst Indians and stuck out like a beacon with my height and fair skin. It felt really weird and people were staring at me time and again with mild interest. I was a bit uncomfortable and not understanding a word of the language certainly played a part in just feeling alien. Being in business dress added to that. I think with like dusty hiking clothes and a backpack and hat it would've been at least a bit different.

Now I know a little bit of how people feel who go or are forced to go to a different country. That feeling of misplacement and the joy of meeting someone from your own culture. Still after a couple of days I got quite used to it and felt a bit more comfortable.

Friendliness

In general Indians are very very friendly and go out of their way to help you. I don't know if this applies to Indians a general, but at least this is how I have experienced it. Especially at the hotel, every single person who worked their greeted me, personnel at the restaurants there remembered me the next day and knew what I ordered before. I was called "Ma'am" which made me feel old an honoured at the same time, haha.

Maybe it was just the policy of the hotel, but people in the office were very helpful as well and mentioned more than once how sorry they were when something didn't go as planned.

On the other hand the concept of queueing is totally unknown in India. It's the complete opposite. People are jumping queues and push and shove in a way where even I (being used to public transport in Berlin) think like "Woah, mate! What's YOUR problem?"

Security

After the incident in Mumbai in 2006 security measure where implemented in all public places. The hotel x-rayed my bags every time I entered the main entrance. The was a sniffer dog searching the car trunk and I had to walk through a metal detector. Every time I was checked with a handheld metal detector as well. They are really cautious.

Even the supermarket down in the office building had a metal detector. On the other hand security guards are a bit lax since they didn't even bother when it beeped, haha. If I had had a bag they would've probably searched it.

The airport x-rays hand luggage upon entering and passport and boarding pass are meticulously checked several times and being stamped. Never seen this before.

Food

I survived Indian food without any digestive problems, yeah! I really enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel which offered a choice of Indian dishes as well. I left the bread but tested pretty much everything else they offered. Some of it was really spicy and very much like a curry. This morning I had Bhaji which was so spicy that I know a couple of people who wouldn't even eat it for lunch or dinner, haha. I loved it! For breakfast, haha.

Even the hotel buffet which I enjoyed a few times was better than any Indian restaurant I've been to in Europe. Best way to put it, is that spices where just richer. Even in the mild curries.

Would've loved to taste much more, but didn't have time.

I loved the Indian tea as well and enjoyed going with my colleagues down to some street shop to get a small cuppa in the afternoon. Really refreshing and veeery different from the "Chai Latte" we get in Europe. Bought a pack at the supermarket and will see if I can get close to that taste back in the UK.

Traffic

To be honest, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Any of those drivers would've been called absolutely crazy driving like that in the UK. There are hardly any traffic lights let alone lanes and everyone pretty much drives at will. A red light doesn't mean people are not crossing the road. On the other hand, I think this is what keeps the traffic flowing. Gaps are filled and there honking everywhere, not only to express impatience but also to tell lorries and other vehicles that you're behind/next to them.

Traffic is still heavy and therefore not really going fast. This way it's rather safe I think. Sitting behind the wheel myself would be a completely different story though.

Head Wiggling

Something I realized only after a few days is the head wiggling Indians do. I'm not really sure what it means and I think there are different meanings to it. I think in general it's just a gesture of listening closely to someone and acknowledging what that person says. Something on the lines of "Yeah, ok. I get it."

So my India adventure is over now and I genuinely enjoyed it. Again I can only say that I would've loved to have more time, but am glad that I could at least get a glimpse at this different culture. Would really like to come back and get a closer look and see some more, taste some more and feel some more.

Still, I'm looking forward to being back in the UK mostly for my quiet room, less buzz and traffic and a quiet walk through a park with the dog, haha.

Until we meet again, India!

Work, Work

Thursday and Friday came and went and I pretty much only went to work, had food at the hotel after and then went to bed. It really is a shame that I didn't see much of Mumbai and I was way to exhausted from those long days in the office on Saturday so I cancelled the trip to the Bird Sanctuary that I had intended with a colleague.
Instead I spent a very lazy day at the hotel. The intended lay in was disrupted by loud music from crappy speakers somewhere outside the windows so I went to the breakfast buffet and to the pool after to study a bit. It would've been really relaxing if hadn't been for the countless crows up in the palm trees who just wouldn't shut up for a second. Still I had a nice nap in between chapters, went to the gym, studied a bit more in my room and that was pretty much it. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

All alone (pool behind me)

Unfortunately, my colleague was busy on Sunday and I didn't want to wait for him so I went down to the front desk and asked for a guided tour in the early afternoon. Indeed there was a guide and at 2pm sharp I sat in a car with a driver and a guide who was about to show me the must-sees of south Mumbai.

The drive to south Mumbai took about 40 mins but was pleasant. We talked a bit but I didn't really click with her. One of those people you meet and know after five minutes, that you're just way too different to really like each other. Still, she was very nice and our first stop was the very impressive central train station, built in 1888.

main train station

We stopped at quite a number of other sights, but didn't really have time to linger long which was a shame, but this way I got a good impression of what there is to see and ticked off quite a few sights. 

A place for laundry... lots of laundry

No time to sit here for a while

Jain temple

Didn't take pictures at the Hanging Gardens or the Ghandi museum but would've loved to stay longer at both. The Jain temple was quite interesting, but again not much time to just linger and take in all the details and get to know more about this to my European ears quite strange belief. 

Well, still I was back at the hotel after like 5 hours and I was tired and exhausted with a slight headache. Good that I did the tour, this way I have at least seen a tiny glimpse of what Mumbai has to offer.

Chinese in India

I skipped gym this morning as I was really tired and chose to doze another hour instead only to be awakened by some crows who whatever reason at my window. Huh.

Tried some more of the Indian breakfast and am now able to put names to the dishes. Chole is some mild chickpea curry thing. Those fried herbal breadballs are called Mangalore Bonda and I had a little bit of some kind of non-sweet rice pudding called Vel Pongal.

British-Indian breakfast

Had another busy day at the office but we were still able to pop out for tea. Although I was hungry, I didn't have a samosa as I was looking forward to the Chinese team dinner tonight. Still the tea was absolutely fabulous.

Today I had seen the first Westener outside the hotel as we had coffees for lunch and I saw another two at the Chinese restaurant we went to with the IT, BT and Administration teams. I really feel a bit alien around here, being the only one amongst the Indians and I can now imagine how it must be for non-Europeans coming to Europe. People stare at us when we're waiting in traffic in our car. Not in an unpleasant way, just mild interest. Still, I just wonder how we;re being picked out from those amount of cars around, hehe.

Team dinner at the Mainland China was really nice. Although my colleagues spoke Hindi most of the time they we're nice enough to speak a bit English sometime or translated so we could understand them. Food was brought pretty much all the time as everyone ordered different starters which we're just handed around. This was said to be the most traditional Chinese to be found. Appetizers and starters were indeed quite amazing.
The mains however were a disappointment. I ordered spicy duck in a hot pot, but it wasn't the hot pot of spicy boiling oil where you fry your meat in. It was simply a clay pot with some duck in a thick sauce in it. Hm. And no veg with it.

Team dinner

Was good fun anyway, lots of laughs. It was almost midnight when we were back at the hotel, so I just quickly wrote this text and transferred my photos to my laptop, but was just too tired to edit them.

More of Mumbai

This morning I indeed woke up when my alarm went off at 7:30am. I considered staying in bed for a minute, but decided to follow my plan to check out the gym before breakfast. Walking around in fitness tights and a tank top in a Conference Centre hotel feels very weird... especially standing next to business people in the elevator.

The gym was small, but had huge windows looking out over Powai lake, palm trees and the towers of Mumbai city behind. Have to take a picture tomorrow morning. It was quite busy, but I found a hybrid between a cross trainer and a stepper called "Summit Trainer". Perfect! So I enjoyed that marvellous view, thinking of my imminent trek up Kilimanjaro while I was sweating. Every one of the cardio machines had a small bottle of water and a fresh towel laid out. That's Indian service for you. It's really amazing.

The breakfast buffet was extensive and I was in such a good mood after a fabulous workout. I started off with some fresh fruit and something call "baked yoghurt" which tasted a bit like sweet greek yoghurt. Not too bad. Then had a bit of chicken sausage and some bacon to satisfy my need for some British cooked breakie and finished off with two Indian... err... things. One looked like a doughnut. It was fried and had a hole in the middle but inside it tasted a bit like soft bread with a good deal of herbs. Very tasty! The other thing looked like a red curry and was indeed a bit spicy but also mild compared to lunch/dinner curries. I will try more of the Indian food tomorrow morning and note the names of each.

The company driver picked us up at 10am. I was on time and enjoyed the warm sun and air thick with moisture. Looked out over the lake a bit and had a chat with our driver who hardly speaks English but there's always a way to communicate.

View from the hotel entrance

The front seat of the car gave me a better view this morning and I took some pictures but traffic was flowing and I hardly got some good shots.

Heading in late means less traffic

Day in the office was busy as always. Lunch break at Pizza Express was a bit of a let down. This is seriously the first place where I don't find anything on the menu that I want to eat. Thought I had found something when I ordered some spicy chicken, peppers and chillies only to realize this was also put onto pizza dough. Urgh. Well, cheat day it was then. Hmpf.

Around 5pm the IT guys normally go out for a short break with tea and samosas and I trailed along. Don't want to just see the office, the car and the hotel. In retrospective I have to admit, it probably looked quite unusual: me the tall fair-skinned woman between five Indian guys all a head smaller than me. Haha.
We left the office building premises and just walked a few meters along the pavement to go to one of those crumbling huts. Ohoh. I heard the people from home as tiny voices in my head saying "Don't go near street food." But my colleagues were so nice and friendly! So I said I only want tea, but one asked me if I just want to have a bit of one of the samosas and if I like I can get myself one. Did that and it was indeed nice so I got one. I mean it's fried outside and cooked inside. What could possibly go wrong, huh?
The samosa came with a red sweet dip and a red very spicy one. Loved the green one and also try a tiny bit of fried pepper. The tea came afterwards in what looked like miniature cocktail glasses. I really like Indian tea, but this one made all the others taste weak. Such an aroma of ginger, cinnamon and honey. Yum!!! Can't wait to have it tomorrow at 5pm, haha.

Did some more work and left as late as 8:30pm for the hotel. Had some amazing kind of thin steak roll filled with parma ham, herbs and blue cheese at the Italian restaurant. Wow! I almost licked the plate clean. Outstanding!

View from restaurant terrace

Long day, so will go to bed when I'm finished with this. 11pm already and it's gym time tomorrow morning again. Good night.

Hello India

I always wanted to visit India but never really pursued that wish mostly I guess for lack of people to come along.
So the option of visiting our office in Mumbai was more than welcome when I started my new job about a year ago. My travels for March and August didn't happen but all of a sudden I had a week and a half to spend in Mumbai in December.
I didn't really have time to prepare, to look up things to do, to get an idea of what I shouldn't do.
Had to spend a couple of hours in the office on Saturday, headed over to my boyfriend's place for food and wine and left my house after only a few hours of sleep at 5am Sunday morning.

My boss picked me up at the office for the drive to Heathrow where we spent some time relaxing in one of the lounges. Since he's travelling a lot he's got some extras and I have to admit, sitting there away from the buzz, enjoying free coffee and food felt great!

Economy class extra or plus on the plane is certainly worth the money! The extra leg space was very welcome on my 9 hour flight and with the foot rest it almost felt like a proper tv chair, haha. Slept or dozed, got food, slept some more, watched two movies, dozed in between, more food, talk with my neighbour and before I knew it we landed in Mumbai. Wow.

Go to Asia: Check!

Nice new airport they have and immigration went smoothly. We waited for about an hour for our luggage though... at 1am local time.
Outside the airport our driver from the hotel waited for us along with like at least 100 others all lined up behind a metal railing and holding a sign with a passenger or hotel name. What a sight.  Had I turned on my phone before, I had certainly taken a photo of it.
While I was just as amused as I was overwhelmed my boss had spotted our driver within seconds.
The drive to our hotel wasn't long and we got some cool waterbottles for the road. What I could make out in the dark was pretty much the most rugged urban landscape I've ever seen. Dusty sand roads leading away from the main one that we were on, crumbling shacks and houses, lots of stray dogs, a person or two just sleeping on the pavement. Everything just looked like it had been neglected for decades.
We turned into a paved side road and all of a sudden we were like in another world. Palm trees lined the road fairy lights hanging in long strands down from them. Two security guards with a sniffer dog searched our vehicle before we pulled up in front of the hotel, our eyes fixed on a massive Christmas tree including huge wrapped presents underneath.

Our luggage was x-rayed and we passed a metal detector before we could check in. People were more than friendly and we even got a flower necklace. I unpacked in my room, happy to be on my own now, watched a bit tv as I wasn't really tired and turned off the lights around 3:30am.

I slept well, woke up a few times but had no trouble going back to sleep. When I looked at my watch it was 10:54am. AHHHHH!!! I was supposed to meet my boss for breakfast at 10:30. Our driver was due at 11:00. I had not heard my alarm clock. F%&*$!!! I don't know how, but I managed to get up, get dressed and 11:02 I was waiting for the elevator only to meet my boss there who was quite amused. 

Outside the company driver greeted us and we marvelled at the unreal picture of that Christmas tree with palm trees next to it while we were breathing warm humid air.

Nothing like Christmas in Mumbai

In daylight last night's shacks had turned into all kinds of shops. Half of them sold all kinds of street food from fresh fruit to curry and the other half was now selling or repairing pretty much anything. Traffic wasn't too bad as rush hour was over, but it was still very busy. Scooters and light motorbikes are very popular. Pretty much half of them are Enfields, which is one of my favourite manufacturers so I was marvelling at those nice bikes. A handful of riders wore helmets, but that was the only "proper" clothing I could spot. Most go with flip flops, jeans and a t-shirt.

Traffic seems to work on a first-come-first-serve basis. There are no road markings, hardly any road signs and just a few traffic lights. On the 20 minute drive to the office we only passed two. There's a lot of honking everywhere, but I figured that's how it works, since people just realize where everyone is. 

A colleague later explained, that just get your provisional license for a motorbike form an agent for £15. Then you come back half a year later and get your full license. Just that. No theory (what would they teach you anyway) and no practical test. You are then entitled to ride any motorbike.

With four wheels is almost the same. Only you have a practical test where you drive on a quiet road shut off form public traffic. Now the way Indians drive made a lot of sense all of a sudden. Give a few million people a vehicle of their choice and just release them to the outside world.

I met my colleagues from the IT department and a few others in the office and was shown around. Caught a bit up with work and before I knew it we went out for lunch. The company driver took us a short way to a nice business district where buildings pretty much belonged to one family which likes Italian architecture. So imagine good old Roman style in beige sandstone with a good Indian touch. I really liked it.

Had coffee and a double-meat sandwich at Starbucks. Had a hard time choosing food, since it's all bread. But at least my double-meat sandwich had enough on it to leave the toast and still have a bit of food left.

Nice area for lunch

Back in the office I just had too much to do to get bored. We left around 8pm, had some dinner at the hotel and checked out where the gym was. Looks quite nice, will check it out tomorrow morning, if I hear my alarm clock this time, haha.

Columbus Who? - Two New Continents in One Month

Maybe not new to mankind but certainly new to me...I will set my foot onto two continents this month: Asia and Africa! 

I never had any intention to go to Africa, but then I made up my mind to climb Kilimanjaro about a year ago. Many people I have spoken to in the last months don't share my excitement and think this is boring and easy. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's easy. In technical terms it is, true. But many underestimate its height: 5895m. This is roughly five times higher than Ben Nevis.  

So imagine you climb Ben Nevis five days in a row. Add to that the lack of available oxygen which makes it all the harder. I have not yet experienced high altitude but I think that if we stick to the Ben Nevis picture you may double the weight of your backpack on each one of days three to five.
Doesn't sound easy to me. Does it to you? Put single figure temperatures and sleeping in tents onto that and you're far from declaring this a walk in the park.

I love challenges. That's why I picked Kili. It's hopefully just one of many more to come. Now that the organizer of the tour has sent over all documents and pretty much everything is set up I'm getting proper excited!
Got my vaccinations, meds, some peotein bars and powder, beef jerky is in the making and the order for missing gear with my favourite outdoor shop is being delivered today. Four season sleeping bag, some new water bottles, long-johns and winter gloves. New Thermarest sleeping mat is on its way too. I'm ready to go!!!!

But wait... instead of leaning back, relaxing, going through my pack list a few times fetching the last bits and bobs I'm going to India on a business trip for a week and a half. ARG!

Don't get me wrong, I always wanted to go to India. really. It's just slightly inconvenient now. I was supposed to go in March. That was postponed to August. Summer came and went and now all of a sudden I'm going. *tilt*

I'm flying out on Sunday Dec 7 and will be back late on Wednesday Dec 17. I have but ten days then to get ready for Kili before I fly down to Africa on Dec 27. Phew. 

Still, I'm looking forward to my time in Mumbai. Will work a lot during the first week, but I hope I can see a bit of that enormously big city (19.6 million inhabitants O.o).
One of my colleagues over there is free over the weekend and promised to show me around. There is the Karnala Bird Sanctuary - a nature reserve with a small hill - just 50km outside of Mumbai. Bet he regrets pointing me to their website. Now he has to take me there, hahaha.

If I can I will also try to see a bit of urban Mumbai. Being a single female European doesn't really encourage venturing around on my own, but taxis or even a driver for a whole day are ridiculously cheap, so I may do that while my colleague is recovering from our trek.

Stay tuned!