Arrival in India

It's official, I'm in India!! There is a little bit of culture shock right now, but not too bad - I prepared myself well before I got here.

Flight to India was pretty uneventful - I slept through most of it.

I was quite nervous about getting through immigration and customs, but it was simple.

When I got outside, there stood two Indian men smiling ear to ear as I made eye contact with them, holding a sign that read "Mr. Brian Burger" - these would be my drivers.

I didn't have the heart to correct them on my name, as I do everyone else. They were very nice and spoke very good english.

I was prepared for a rough ride to the hotel, but it started out fine, on what looked to be one of their major highways. There were 3 lanes on each side, with lines painted to separate them, but that's where the similarities to US highways end.

I had my nose buried in my blackberry reading all the emails about bike rides to the beach and snow cones that all you people in CA are enjoying. I wasn't paying any attention to what was going on with the car. Pretty soon we stopped and I heard "Have a great stay, Mr. Burger" - I freaked out because I wasn't paying attention and thought we were at the hotel already. I started shoving the phone back in my pocket, gathering my belongings, and taking off my seatbelt. Only to have the car roar off once again as I looked out the window at the man that had helped with my baggage. He was standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with what looked like a homeless man's shelter behind him. I quickly realized we were just dropping this man off - I have no idea if that's where he lives.

I decided at this point that it was best I pay attention to what was going on with the car. As it turns out, I should have continued reading my email.

The ride was definitely an experience. So, back to the differences between US and Indian roads. In the US, the big, red octagon-shaped signs wih the word "STOP" in the middle of them usually mean to do just that. Not in India. In India it means "Please blow through this intersection as fast as you possibly can whilst blowing your horn without regard to the cyclists, cars, and giant trucks heading through from the opposite direction". I guess that wouldn't fit on a sign, so they just went with "STOP".

We went through at least 3 of these signs in just this manner, but that was nothing compared to the man peeing on the side of the road for the whole world to see, the stray, malnourished dogs that roam the streets in search of a fresh pile of garbage to eat, and the hundreds of near (and when I say near, I mean within inches or less) collisions we had with pedestrians, motorcycles, bicycles, and trucks large enough to make our compact car MUCH more compact.

If all that wasn't enough, we were on the Indian equivalent of the 405 freeway, traveling at over 100 kph, and every couple of miles or so there would be these GIANT speed bumps. The driver would slam on the brakes and go over them as slowly as humanly possible, but we still bottomed out on a few of them.

I finally arrived at the hotel, and they were waiting for me and greeted me. I was shown to my room and since then have been settling in. I am heading to work in another hour or so (at 2:45 pm local time). I sure will be tired tonight.

Hopefully pictures to come soon.