Traveling to Mumbai, India

[Ksandra]

Your in laws are doing it right. Grew up in the Philippines myself and having a bidet + TP is like a necessity. We had to buy ours from amazon since non of the local hardware stores carry bidets lol.

Ya I love it lol. I am actually kinda surprised how they never got popular in the US considering how obsessed we are with sanitation.

[Scorp]

Don't give money to people in the street, there are professional beggars and the cash won't go to the people you think you're helping. You'll also get mobbed if you start handing out cash. There are plenty of organizations and charities that you can donate to from here if you are so inclined.

[Draylo]

God, I'm glad I live in the U.S.

[Roranora]

I'm going to Kampala, Uganda in a few weeks -- that will be my new place of work for the next 12-15 months. (not all one trip, commuting back and forth) Got/getting all the vaccines, etc. (last shot Nov 8th) My anti-malaria med is a daily pill.

i've now learned to bring toilet paper, shitty sunglasses, sunscreen, bug spray

doubt i'll lose my shoes in east africa

[Salodin]

Why shitty sunglasses?

[The Stig]

Good ones would only be wasted/lost/stolen ... right?

[Acevalefor]

Don't give money to people in the street, there are professional beggars and the cash won't go to the people you think you're helping. You'll also get mobbed if you start handing out cash. There are plenty of organizations and charities that you can donate to from here if you are so inclined.

I am not a generous person like that. There will be no problems.

After all of the input from you guys(gals too?) I am convinced that this trip is not happening on the timeline that my company thinks it is. There is not enough time between when I applied for my expedited visa and when we are supposed to leave. I won't have the visa by then.

They also have not confirmed the flights or the hotel we will be staying at. All around it looks like very poor planning is happening higher up in the company where all this was supposed to be taken care of. I found out when they wanted me to leave this last Monday. That's only 12 days. 12 days is not enough time to prepare for an international trip.....

[Brill Weave]

You gonna get Lupus and die son.

[The Stig]

Shall we help Nirokun! then? We only gave her 1 bit of advice lol, which wasn't too helpful ; if a mob can rename this topic that'll be handy

[Roranora]

Good ones would only be wasted/lost/stolen ... right?

pretty much; not like super super shitty, but not ones i'll be bummed if i lost

[Roranora]

12 days is not enough time to prepare for an international trip.....

so true.. i'm going on like 50 days currently and still clearances to obtain. just one example -- my medical exam was a no-go without a separate cardiologist approval. stupid heart murmur

i've also had like 11 shots; last one, and part 3 of 3 for my Hep A/B Twinrix, is next week

[Seraph]

OK, two things I can comment on:

As for the 'left hand/right hand' thing. Most of the people I have encountered (work people) there use toilet paper, but always wipe with their left hand. No matter what they are using though, they still always use their left hand. The reason for this is because they literally eat with their right hand. It was very rare to see utensils of any kind, so it is considered taboo to 'eat with your shit hand'. Watching the skill they use tearing bread one handed was impressive. Where I work, for the unskilled westerners, they always had plastic utensils available, and I do know a guy who just took his own chopsticks everywhere. That works too.

As for handouts in the street, you all seem concerned with the professional beggars and the swarms of people mobbing you. The really soul crushing shit is when you give a legitimately injured/disabled child money/food/whatever in the street, and fellow beggars see it, and proceed to severely attack and mug them for the money. Cue up the Professor Farnsworth pic.

[Acevalefor]

Pics of a great, and in many ways humbling trip!


This is the company that I was installing equipment at.


The security checkpoint.


Inside the gates. The equipment was installed on the third floor of the furthest building on the right.


The corrugated folding lines.


The corrugated pallet assembler.


View from the third floor. This place was in the middle of the country with nothing but small villages around it. The land used to be a wildlife sanctuary.


This is the engineering team that helped with the install and will be operating the equipment. Bet you can't tell which one is me huh?


The management team and one of the company owners took me out on Thanksgiving for an Indian style celebration. The guy to my right in the picture is the owner. He is younger than I am...


This picture doesn't do justice to the conditions on the streets, but it's the only picture I have of my drive from the hotel to the plant. The streets are filled with trash and they burn all of their garbage right on the sidewalks.

The entire experience was a good experience and it opened my eyes to the reality of 3rd world living in a heavily crowded place. I was in a Union Territory so there was very little government involvement and the police were useless. It truly was organized chaos.

[Brill Weave]

Glad to see you made it back buddy. How did the food treat you lol.

[Acevalefor]

Glad to see you made it back buddy. How did the food treat you lol.

The food was great. I had no problems with either water or food at all while I was there. I had a little trouble with a hangover and too much barley that made for an interesting day when the nearest restroom was 3 stories down and across the breezeway to the other building. I did learn about paneer. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen done with a dairy product. You can prepare it in about a million different ways and use it as a meat substitute in just about any meal. Also, Chicken Tikka is my new favorite meal. Especially when served with Ciabati(sp?) which is their version of bread/tortilla. I am told that each state/territory in India has their own foods that vary wildly from place to place.

[Tyrath]

Chapati lol. You should try Naan if you like that.

[Kerberoz]

fuckhuge raw photos

http://www.irfanview.com/

You're welcome!

[Mizango]

Elites

[Rhyis.]

Prepare yourself for the overwhelming smell of shit.

[Acevalefor]

http://www.irfanview.com/

You're welcome!

Sorry, I forget that not everyone resizes the images on message boards. I use TTI and the built-in image resize tool in firefox. The pictures fit nicely into the 1600x1200 monitor I have. I will resize later when I am at home.