Hey all!

Well, I am back from my business trip to India. Talk about an adventure! My manager David and I went to visit the wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America there.

We left on Thursday, July 13 at 4:30 in the afternoon. We had talked to tons of people to figure out the best flights and most people recommended flying directly to Frankfurt and then on to India. So that’s what we did. We had an uneventful 8 hour and 30 min flight to Frankfurt, a seven hour lay-over (spent in the business lounge and eating German sausages in the only airport restaurant we could find), and hopped on another 8 hour and 30 min flight to Delhi.

We arrived in the Delhi airport at 1am in the morning on Saturday. I will let you all do the math on travel time and time zones! Besides it being dark out, you would never guess that it was night time. The airport was bustling! So many people coming and going. It didn’t take long to get through customs nor to get our bags. But then it was the time I had been dreading and having nightmares about for a week prior to the trip. Would someone be there from the either the Bank or the hotel to pick us up?

We headed toward the exit and basically walked the “red carpet” while people jumping and talking on both sides of us. There were taxi drivers, people waiting for their families, a host of hotel drivers and finally a sign about 3/4 of the way down that said “Amanda Kohout.” I was so relieved!

The Bank also has security folks positioned at the airport to help collect people. Two security people came over and escorted us out with our driver. With a “Good Evening, Ma’am and Sir,” they took our bags and we were on our way. As soon as we stepped out the airport, it was like we crossed over into a different dimension. There was extreme heat hitting our bodies, tons of people standing and walking, and constant honking horns.

Our first experience driving to our hotel was an interesting one. No only did all of the cars constantly honk, no one uses the lanes on the road and the road signs were terrible to non-existent. We were hurtling towards our hotel on the wrong side of the road, around cargo trucks that are only allowed to drive at night, and speeding past dilapidated store fronts that said the names of American companies like Motorola and Nike. I wasn’t that worried about my safety, but I was again surprised by the number of vehicles on the road for the middle of the night. It was like rush hour traffic. I asked the security guard if this was normal and he assured me that the traffic was like this all of the time. I had no doubt that I would get to experience all the kinds of driving over the next week.

It was about a 30 min drive to the hotel. We were staying at the Hilton Trident in a suburb of Delhi called Gurgaon. The place was gorgeous! It was hidden behind a wall of concrete and grass. We headed down the path to the hotel past a reflecting pool and through two humongous doors accented on either side with Asian chopsticks and snake-like pulls. The receptionists greeted us and registered us for our stay. We exchanged money into rupees so we would be ready for the rest of our trip. I was escorted to my room with one of the hotel staff. We walked through an outdoor open air area and then into the section with rooms. The room was so beautiful. It had two twin beds, a small couch, a small coffee table with 2 beautifully arranged mangoes on it, a desk, TV and bathroom. Outside the window was a reflecting pool that came right up to my window. It was like I was floating away.

I was both tired from the flight but also energized by the experience so far and the fact that it was actually daytime in the States. I fiddled with my electrical adapter to try and get my powerless PC running again but couldn’t figure it out. Finally, I just ended up taking a shower, reading a book, and going to bed.

As a side note, I wanted to get in the spirit of India so I had made a trip to the library and checked out about 5 different fiction books written and about Indians and how they live. The one that I was reading at 3am was Serving Up Crazy with Curry.

I made a wake-up call for 10am and slept very soundly. I was still dead tired at 10am and slept until 11:15 and finally pulled myself out of the bed. I showered and dressed and at 11:30 figured that it was safe to call David to see if he wanted to have some lunch. We had afternoon plans at 1pm for sightseeing around Delhi so we met at noon at the restaurant called Cilantro in the hotel. I didn’t really know what I wanted to eat. I am not a huge Indian food fan but I didn’t want something too American like pizza because it probably wouldn’t taste the same and I would be disappointed. In the end, we both ended up having Indian fare. I had vegetarian biryani and David had some Indian chicken wrap. It was pretty good and I was ready for an afternoon of sightseeing.

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