Jan 26 Day 1

Our trip has begun. After an interminably long plane ride, (L. A. to Newark-5 hours and Newark to Mumbai 14) we arrived in the Mumbai airport. It is being refurbished so looks like every other airport under construction in the world. Long hallways of pardon our dust signs and being able to see the air-conditioning ducts in the ceiling. The best part of the whole trip was that it was over and we hadn’t had any problems.

The conference was supposed to arrange for transportation to the hotel – but after the experience in Slovakia, Chuck was waiting to see before he would believe. Incredibly there were several guys with signs and hotel sheets. We had met Carl and Deena at the Newark airport (Deena was one of the Hefei 8), and shared a cab to the hotel. When we left the airport building, we realized why the weather report for Mumbai had always said “Smoke”. They were not describing haze or smog – it really is smoky here.

We have a normal looking hotel room except that it has marble floors, desk & bathroom counter:

They were having a WEDDING in the garden. One of my favorite things!! So here are the 1^st

wedding pictures from this trip:

The decorated car:

The backdrop on the stage. I think that they were taking some of the formal photos – I never did get a clear view of the bride.

Some of the guests. The sari’s were beautiful.

We fell into bed and slept till 5.