new york city/new jersey/pennsylvania

This time last year, Micah and I had just arrived in Dubai. It's really strange to think that it's been a year already. Sadly this year has not been nearly so interesting yet. As the title implies though, I have done a bit of traveling. I took a 5 day trip to the US to celebrate NYE, watch Bollywood, and visit Erica. Woooo!

On New Year's Eve I was supposed to fly direct from Halifax to Laguardia in NYC, but it turned into a huge ridiculous adventure and I almost didn't get there. It was due to a series of flukes that it all worked out - the whole day was insane. I got to the airport at 8am for an 11:30am flight, because that was the only time my sister had to drop me off at the airport before work. So when I got there, I looked at the departures screen and saw that the Continental flight to Newark had just canceled. That was originally the flight I was going to take, but I decided to go to Laguardia instead via United/Air Canada. Lucky. So I went to the bathroom for a few minutes to put my makeup on. When I came out, maybe 10-15 minutes later, I looked at the departures screen again and saw that MY flight had just canceled too. I almost cried right there, but then I figured I might as well attempt to be productive first and cry later.

So I went up to the Air Canada counter and asked what I should do about my canceled flight. Well, the Air Canada people didn't know what I was talking about - apparently I noticed the flight had canceled even before they did and was the first person to the counter to ask about it. So the very nice Air Canada woman told me to hold on, while she looked into it - turned out "weather" in the NYC area was to blame. Since I was the only one at the counter, she tried to find me a new route to NYC. Because it was New Year's Eve, everything was totally full. But she found me the last seat on a plane to Ottawa, and from there to Montreal, and then from there to Laguardia, which would in theory get me to NYC about 7 hours later than originally planned. But I had no other options, so I took it. Before she finished booking me, other people started to come up to the counter to ask about their flights, but everyone was turned away and given a number to call because they don't do re-bookings at the airport. So it is a MIRACLE that I got re-booked when I did.

So at this point, I phone Erica. She tells me it's clear and sunny in NYC. What?! Apparently the problem was actually strong winds, and the tiny planes that go back and forth from Halifax to NYC are too small to handle that wind. I found one more flight to NYC from Halifax that hadn't canceled, on American Airlines. Apparently there were a few seats left and they were letting canceled Air Canada passengers onto their plane. I went back to the Air Canada woman to look into it. She called and there was one seat left on the AA plane. I was debating whether or not to take it (what if it canceled too?) when the seat went to someone else and I lost my chance at it. So, no decision to make. I was going to Montreal to hope for the best. Everyone was telling me just to get out of Halifax and hope for the best in Montreal - Halifax was due for a huge blizzard in a few hours time and if I didn't get out of Halifax that afternoon, I wouldn't be going anywhere for days.

So, I got the plane to Ottawa, then transferred and went on to Montreal. When I got there, my plane to NYC hadn't been canceled! So it was extremely lucky. On the flight to Laguardia, I ended up sitting next to a woman who had come from Ottawa, because her direct flight from Ottawa had canceled too and she'd been rerouted the same way I was. We started talking, and it turned out that she was supposed to be meeting a friend at Laguardia, but that friend had been on my exact plane out of Halifax that had canceled, and she had gotten stuck there! She had actually gotten a seat on the AA plane that was supposed to go... but then at the last second, the people in charge at AA said that Air Canada had no right to transfer their passengers onto the AA flight, and they booted everyone off! So she didn't make it to NYC. I am SO unbelievably lucky that I went via Montreal and didn't try to take the AA flight! When we finally landed at Laguardia, the turbulence was insane. The plane was just being thrown all over the place. Although I am normally freaked out by such things, I was just so happy to be getting there that I didn't care at all. When we landed, everyone applauded.

So FINALLY I arrived. Erica picked me up, we met some of her friends at the Millennium Hilton (right next to the WTC site) and got ready to go out. I got to have a shower after my long day of being at airports, so I was pretty happy. We went to a rooftop NYE party at a different hotel. When midnight struck, Erica and I were lost somewhere in the crowd between the bar and the table where our friends were, because we took too long to order drinks and didn't make it back to the table until about 10 seconds too late. Oops, haha. (Group photo, and view from the roof.)

We ended up crashing at the Hilton afterwards. Pictures from the window, because the view from the room was crazy, but somewhat depressing.

Anyway, on New Year's Day, Erica and I drove to a movie theatre in New Jersey and watched two new Bollywood films back to back. Ghajini and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which are both huge hits in India and we've been just dying to see them. They were both fantastic so it turned out to be the best double feature ever, haha. Ghajini has actually broken all records to become the highest grossing Hindi film of all time. I wish I could be in India while all the hype was going on about it. I feel like I'm missing out being here where nobody knows what it is. Arghhh.

After the movies, we drove back to Erica's house in Pennsylvania, and I hung out there for a few days before flying back to Halifax (totally hassle-free) on the Monday. And now, here I am, back home and back at work. Adventures are over. (In a way, that's good, I don't need another adventure like the flight cancellation saga... I will NEVER fly somewhere the same day I need to be there again.) Actually this blog entry was largely pointless and consisted mostly of my airplane issues, but it's been awhile. Will update again next time I travel. It won't be too long - I'm always going somewhere. :)

two months later

I haven't gone anywhere so I haven't written. The last two months have been busy, but nothing worth writing about here. No updates yet on what I am doing next. I'll get back to that later.

Halifax is gross and cold. I still miss India. Things have been crazy over there recently. The Mumbai attacks were horrible, and I was pretty upset watching all of it on TV. (If you are somehow oblivious to international news and missed it completely, google it and read about the terrorist attacks and hotel sieges on Nov 26.) I think I sat in front of the TV and cried for 8 hours the first night it was happening. Those terrorists attacked so many places I've been and know really well. In the past year I've spent at least a month in Mumbai, and I'm pretty familiar with it, especially the areas that happened to be under attack, since they were common tourist areas. It was totally surreal to see these places that are so vivid in my memory on TV, with all of that going on. It's all so horribly sick and depressing. The images of the train station, the Taj on fire, and the cafe were the most unbelievable for me.

Especially Leopold's Cafe. When I went to Mumbai in March that place was right next to my hotel and I went there every day at least once. I was there so often I made friends with one of the staff there, Thomson, and he was trying to help me get into a Bollywood film. I've even mentioned him in my blog once or twice. We used to talk every day, and in September when I went back to the cafe he remembered me from March. I went there for dinner a few times, and Erica and I had drinks there one night. Thomson and I had a running joke that I was supposed to be finding him a woman. Anyway, seeing this cafe on TV with blood everywhere and bullet holes was more than a bit disturbing. I can't imagine that it's the same place. Apparently the attacks were originally scheduled for Sept. 27 and then got pushed back. It's conceivable that Erica and I could actually have been there when it happened, which is scary, but I don't really think about it too much. I am just so sad for everyone who was there. And I have no idea if Thomson was there when it happened, or whether or not he's okay. I suppose I could call and ask, but I don't think I'd want to know if the answer was bad. I'll go and see next time I am in Mumbai.

Alright, enough horror, it's Christmas Eve. I am feeling extremely indifferent to Christmas this year. I am not sure how it even got to be December. It feels like it should still be August. On the positive side of things, I've now maintained a blog (well, sort of) for an entire year.

All I want for Christmas is for this movie to release in Halifax:



Otherwise, the travel blog will get interesting as I'll have to travel some place to go and see it.

Happy Christmas, New Year's, whatever else, etc. etc. :)

canada is cold. i miss india.

Worst travel blog EVER. I know. I KNOW. It started out well, then fell off terribly in the last couple of weeks. Erica and I got so busy, there was just never any time to sit around in the internet cafe and talk about all the things we were doing. But to be truthful, there wasn't much to write about. We were out enjoying Mumbai, but most of our time was spent riding in taxis or in coffee shops. Tourism was minimal. I think two weeks passed where I didn't take any photos at all. To make up for that, Erica and I are posting our travel videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/glitterspoonprod

Erica also has a blog, and is slowly but surely posting some backlogged updates from the trip here: http://ericareddywrites.blogspot.com/

Our last few days in Mumbai were quite low-key. Erica came back from Hyderabad on Sunday morning, and that basically just left us with one day to do some last minute shopping before flying home. Which we did, but not until after we spent 2 hours stuck at the airport with all our luggage and nowhere to go, because the airport was renovating and didn't have anywhere to leave luggage for the day, and the Continental desk was closed until evening. In the end, we hired a taxi for 6 hours, so that we could drive around wherever, and leave all our bags in the car when we wanted to go somewhere. By some wonderful miracle, I found the loveliest taxi driver ever, who drove us around all afternoon (and by some miracle even charged us a fair price) and guarded our stuff while we shopped.

We took the opportunity to drive past Shah Rukh Khan's house, which was dorky but fun. We did some shopping, then I tried to go to McDonald's to get one last Paneer Salsa Wrap, which is the best item on a McDonald's menu to ever exist in the history of McDonald's, but they were sold out! It was devastating. I have withdrawal. I need to go back to India just for the McDonald's. How sad is that?

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from our last day in Mumbai.

1. The taxi driver wonders why the hell we have so much luggage. (Note: He isn't the aforementioned nice driver.)
2. Good times in the taxi.
3. Shah Rukh Khan's house. Ooooooh.
4. Random steamroller.
5. Crazy sky in Mumbai.
6. Forgot to post this one awhile back. A cafe had poutine on the menu! A nice idea, but wasn't so great in practice. I ordered it for the novelty but trust me - it wasn't anywhere near poutine! Also... foo tayn?! What the hell?!

The flight home was decent, but sad. It was really depressing getting off the plane and having it be cold out. I miss India. But, I have a funny feeling I'll be back there at some point again. I said that last time I left, and it happened. So, I'm staying optimistic.

The future now is... strange. And uncertain. I have decided not to go to Korea. Basically, the longer I spent in India, the more I realized that I really didn't want to be in Korea. I think ideally I'd like to just live in India, but obviously that's not an immediate possibility. Even so, I don't even want to be in Korea for a year. I just don't think it's where I am supposed to be right now. So I am back in Halifax, indefinitely. Which won't be for too long - I have a few ideas in my head, and I am going to figure out the right direction soon. Wow, what a vague and pointless paragraph.

I shall keep updating my blog with random stories of India as they come to me, and photos when Erica sends them to me. I leave you now with the theme song of our trip, which we probably heard about a million times in 4 weeks. With a suitably Bolly-esque video to match!

thane

I am officially sucking at the travel-blogging thing. I have just been too busy and had too infrequent access to the internet to maintain this properly. Also, I haven't been doing anything new or touristy that would be good to write about. Erica and I have been very very busy, but this trip has turned into more of a business trip than a pleasure trip, so we've been working. I don't think either of us has taken a picture in 2 weeks.

At the moment I'm in an internet cafe in Thane, which is just outside of Mumbai, where we're staying. Erica is in Hyderabad for the day, I am just waiting for her to get back tonight, then we'll probably go out one last time in Mumbai - we fly back home tomorrow night. Originally we were supposed to come back last Monday, but we pushed our flight back. A bunch of funny things have happened which I will write about, but it'll have to be once I get home, because this keyboard is kind of stiff and hard to type on for extended periods of time.

I don't know what the hell is going on with the weather right now, but the sky outside is a weird hazy yellow-orange-peach color. Not like a sunset, it's all over. So kind of ominous and scary looking. I am going to get some dinner and go hide inside.

hyderabad

Presently we're in Hyderabad with Erica's sister-in-law. It's a quick trip, I haven't had much time to see any of the city. Back to Bombay possibly tonight, but most likely tomorrow morning. Everything has been a bit crazy. Many stories but no time to tell them. More later.

tales from the land of bollywood

I haven't been online in so long, I can't remember everything that has happened since my last post. We're still in Mumbai, enjoying the shopping and night life and the Bollywood stuff. I haven't been an extra in any films or anything - we are avoiding the creepy scouts this time around. We have had a few funny Bollywood encounters though. Erica saw Ram Gopal Varma (famous director) in the Hyderabad airport last week when she was en route to Delhi. We also saw Amitabh Bachchan's house, because it was down the street from the movie theatre where we went to see The Last Lear. Funny story... we were walking down the street at night looking for a taxi, and this creepy man wandered over to us. He was old and stumbling like he was drunk, and groaning a lot... it was like he was a zombie. Anyway, he walked right up to Erica, then just fell onto her. I was ahead of her and turned around because she had screamed, and saw her running away from this guy. He tried to follow us, or rather kind of lurch after us, and so we decided to run across the street. Then we look up, and we're actually right in front of Amitabh's house, and all his security guards (he had 5!) were watching us screaming and running. They didn't help us or anything. Thank you, Amitabh's security guards.

Then, that same night, we were driving in an auto-rickshaw to a bar, and we stopped at an intersection. Suddenly Erica grabs me, pulls me across her to look out her side of the rickshaw and points forward. At first I had no clue what I was looking at, then she says "It's Salman Khan!" He was on a motorcycle, two rickshaws ahead of us. I was like "No way, it's not him" but then he turned his head and I saw him in profile, and if it wasn't him then he has a twin. Not sure why he'd be on a bike and not in a private car, but hey. It wasn't just us who noticed him, too. All the rickshaws pulled up alongside him and the driver closest was nodding back to the other ones to confirm it. We tried to get our rickshaw driver to follow him, but he drove off so fast, and we didn't know how to say "Follow Salman Khan" in Hindi or Marathi. I made Erica's brother in law teach me to say it though, so if we ever wind up behind Salman in traffic again (or anyone else I want to follow, for that matter) we're all set. Haha.

We had a filmi day yesterday too. We met our friend Shikha's cousin Rajat, who is a director, and he brought us to a place called Filmistan, which is probably the busiest bunch of studios in Bombay, even busier than Film City. Also much more concentrated than Film City. He had a friend working on one of the sets there, so we got to sneak in and watch them shoot some scenes. Interestingly, the film was a collaboration between Bollywood and Hollywood, with a Hollywood director - Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch. The film's title isn't 100% confirmed as far as I could tell, but it's something like "Nagin: The Snake Woman" or Snake Goddess, or something to that effect. It appears to be about a very pretty Indian woman (Mallika Sherawat) who transforms into a giant snake and eats people. Seriously. We got to watch them shoot one scene where a guy freaks out because he is about to be eaten by the giant snake. He falls to the floor and screams in terror. Then we had to leave the set, because they were bringing in the giant snake and we weren't allowed to watch. (In case we leaked film secrets or something?) We saw the snake's head though, and it was hilarious. It's not a real snake, it's a ginormous fake snake that they built, like something from a horror B-movie. Jennifer Lynch herself wasn't particularly nice. We came on set quietly and stood out of the way, but she made a point to stand near Erica, and say loudly enough for her to hear "They can't come on this set just because they're Americans. It's bad enough I have to deal with the Indians." (Quote has been altered slightly to remove foul language.) How sweet, eh? Charming lady.

Anyway, after leaving her set, we decided to wander around and see what else we could find. We saw a sign that said Red Chillies on it, which is Shah Rukh Khan's production company, so we tried to go in onto the set, but the door guy wouldn't let us. Undeterred, we found an unguarded back entrance and snuck in that way. It was a freaking massively huge futuristic set that looked like a space station or something and glowed bright green. In the middle there was a small spaceship. Inside the spaceship, there was a man wearing a shiny costume. The spaceship was on cables so it hovered straight up and down, and there was lots of fake smoke underneath. We have NO idea what they were filming. Actually, they didn't shoot anything while we were in there, so we figure they were just getting the shot set up for later on. After about 10 minutes, we were noticed and questioned about what we were doing there. We convinced them to let us stay a bit longer, but then eventually we got kicked out before any actual shooting started. Still, it was a pretty crazy set.

After that, we sat down next to a building to figure out how to sneak in to a different set. We were just waiting around there when this American guy with full sleeve tattoos and a beard came up to us. We thought we were going to be in trouble for something, or told to move, but he just asked where we were from and said his name was Brian. He's one of the special effects guys on the giant snake film. We chatted with him for a minute, and we were asking him about the snake, and suddenly he was like, "Hey, come with me!" So we followed him, and he took us into this back room where they were keeping all the special effects stuff for the film! It was insane. There were giant snake heads and different parts of the snake. It's all really complicated stuff, it's built to move like a real snake. We saw one of the actress's costumes, which is a half-woman, half-snake suit with a 6 foot tail. And another costume that looked like some kind of alien creature. It was all wired up to move on it's own - Brian squeezed some handles and the face moved like it was real! I am sure Jennifer Lynch would have been livid if she knew we were behind the scenes with the snake, but that made it better somehow, haha. It was seriously really cool - Hollywood sci-fi special effects. Brian said the Red Chillies spaceship set looked like children made it. I still don't have particularly high hopes for Nagin, but it was fun to see behind the scenes anyway.

After all this, we wandered some more. There were a million dancers running around, and we could hear a song sequence being filmed, but the door guy wouldn't let us in, and we couldn't locate a back entrance. Aww. After that, we were starving, so we gave up on the film sets and left. We did see Mallika Sherawat for a few minutes, but we didn't talk to her or anything, because we didn't particularly care.

So that was our film experience thus far. Otherwise, we've been having fun going out in Bombay. Last time I was here I was alone, so I didn't go to any bars or anything. We went out Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to different bars, which is definitely a bizarre experience to have in India. They have these extremely posh bars, and once you step inside you've completely left behind anything third-worldly and might as well be in London or NYC or wherever. Saturday night we went to a nightclub called Enigma, which is inside the Marriott hotel, and was definitely the fanciest club I've ever been to in my entire life. It's hotel guests and couples-only to get in, but single ladies are also accepted, of course. The cover charge to get in was 12$ for each of us, but that was cheap. Couples paid about 60$ to get in. Being a single lady has advantages, apparently. Inside was packed - you could barely move anywhere! And the drink prices... oh my god... it was 20$ for a rum and coke!!! Fortunately, our entrance cover doubled as drink tickets so we could afford one, haha. It was insane. The music was really good though, a mix of Western stuff and Bollywood stuff. Erica and I had fun dancing, even though we had to fight off the occasional creep. One guy asked me, not kidding, if I was "single and ready to mingle". I was literally speechless that anyone would use that line. That guy wins hands-down for worst attempt at a pick-up EVER.

Anyway, I think we're done with the nightclub scene for now. It was fun once, but way too expensive to do a second time. I am not sure what we're doing for the next few days, but I think we're leaving for Hyderabad on Thursday morning. Will post photos once we remember to start taking them again. Oooops.

photo update from mumbai

Neither of us knows what it means to be prosected, but we're sure it can't be good. Ha. This sign was by a sidewalk in Delhi.

We have safely arrived in Mumbai and are staying with Erica's brother-in-law. Our flight was turbulent, due to heavy monsoon rains. And we had a hell of a time in the Delhi airport, mainly because we're both ridiculous. I tried to take 3 bottles of water through security because I forgot they were in my bag. Erica did the same thing. The security lady was like, "Ma'am, this is NOT allowed... now you have to drink it." So we had to stand there drinking to prove it wasn't poison or lighter fluid or something.

But we got here, and all is good. Have I mentioned that Bombay is weird? I always end up talking to the most random people here about the most ridiculous things. Today we were in McDonald's (I like the novelty of Indian McDonald's because they have a dozen different veg options) and some man started talking to us. He was a Christian preacher, and we got subjected to a half hour impromptu sermon on trusting and obeying God. He also wanted us to gather up 20 of our friends and move to India to open a school. Yeah right.

Anyway - photo update! Random Delhi adventures:

1. Me with Shah Rukh.
2. Erica with Aamir.
3. Us both with the India Gate.
4. We join the police force.
5. Random dog sleeping at India Gate (it's not dead, I swear).
6. News vans crowding around one of the bomb areas.
7. A gentleman selling "real leather" cowboy hats. Actually they were foam.
8. A handy bathroom sign.