made it...

I have the worst travel luck. The flight from Ottawa to Newwark was an hour late because the plane came in late. Then, upon arriving in NJ airspace, they put us in a holding patern for another hour or so because there were too many planes in the sky. By the time we landed, the Mumbai flight had left 20 minutes before. So Continental put us (many missed connections) in a hotel for the night and invited us back to try our luck the next day. I finally got off the ground Saturday night at 8:30 and landed in Mumbai Sunday night at 8:40. The flight was only 2/3 full so I got a good seat and had no one next to me. I read a few hundred pages of my book, "Shantaram." I highly recommend it. I didn't sleep a lot in hopes of staving off jet lag. I made it through customs and immigration without a hitch upon arrival and got a taxi to my guesthouse. The drivers here are fricken CRAZY! Road rules, lines, lanes and markings are purely a suggestion, and not a very stern one, at that. I have never heard such a cacophony of car horns. Pedestrians, taxis, scooters, bikes, rickshaws... everywhere! I truly feel like an adventurer on this trip. Mumbai is nothing like anywhere I've been before. So I got put up in my hotel and went to sleep at about 2am... woke up at 5:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. So much for my anti-jet lag plan. I walked out to the street at about 6:30 and drew for a bit. Children were fascinated by me. "What country?" they would post in front of me and ask. They loved to watch me draw. The parents gave me sterner looks, though. I feel like something of an intruder sometimes. Very strange, indeed. Right now I'm on my way to the workshop for the first time. I'm not the only one 2 days late. Makes me feel better. I've already played some harp and had my neighbor come over and ask about it. Fun times. I look forward to the next 2 weeks. Ok, gotta run. Will check in when I can. More later.