Once we arrived in Mumbai, culture shock consumed us as we attempted to contact our hotel for a shuttle. To wait, we stood in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by hundreds of people there to pick up passengers; some held hotel signs, others were just there coaxing people into taxis or their versions of taxis. At one point, all of the people swarmed to our right and when we asked the guy next to us what was happening, he told us that it was a Bollywood actor coming through the airport. If we had gotten back on the plane at this point, our experience of India would have been complete. But we didn't. We finally connected with our shuttle which transported us to the hotel. The area we drove through looked like scenes from Slumdog Millionaire; piles of trash and ramshackle stores lined the streets with children sleeping in piles on street corners. This was also our first experience of driving in this part of the world which resembles nothing like we know it in America; no lane divisions, no stop signs or lights, no...laws of any kind. We ended up staying only a few hours in our hotel room before another shuttle picked us up for our flight to Kathmandu by way of Delhi. The rest of the day was spent in baggage scanning, security lines, and various airplanes and airport shuttles before we finally arrived in Nepal Sunday afternoon. Finally.
