Day 26 : Hello....India

Day 26: I am on my way to India. I had a lay over in Bangkok, which I took the opportunity to have some sushi as I did not know how the sushi would be India. I bordered my flight from Bangkok to Mumbai. I ended up sitting next to a gentlemen who was Parsis (descendants from Iran, who came to India in th 10th century), who I mistaken for a Spanish or Italian as his english was perfect and he had more of a light olive complexion. I came to find out that he was schooled in England most of his life. Parsis he told me follow the religion Zoroastrianism, which is the concept of dualism whereby good and evil are locked in continuous battle. A pleasant afterlife depends on one's deeds and thoughts during earthly existence. Zorioastrianism was eclipsed in Persia (Iran) by the rise of Islam in the 7th century and some of the followers fled to India in the 10th century. There are about 90,000 Parsis in India many of them first settled in Gujurat as farmers, but later moved into commerce and moved to Mumbai...FYI...Fred Mercury lead singer of the band Queen was a Parsis.

The ride to India was rather smooth except for the bumpness when we flew over central India, my Parsis friend told me that it was due to the extreme heat, I thought boy I better get ready for this heat. I arrived in Mumbai (largest city in India and the capital of the state of Maharashtra) airport, we took a bus from the plane to terminal, my Parsis friend told me that this was very common for Mumbai airport. When I got to the terminal I realized how modern it had become, since the last time I was in India, which was 10 years ago. The chairs were pretty modern and the airport was cleaner than what I remembered. I had a 2 hour lay over, I sat down still trying to get use to my new surroundings, I tried to spot other Westerns as I was still getting used to the fact that I was surrounded by all these Indian people, funny I thought I look like these people, but I feel more comfortable with other Westerns as that is the surroundings I am use to being around. I boarded my flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad (one of the largest cities in the state of Gujurat). I arrived in Ahmedabad and was greeted by my cousins, who hired a car to drive me to the town my family is from which is about 2 hours away from Ahmedbad a place called Patan. As we were driving I realized how modern the roads had become and all the gas stations and hotels along the way. They even had a water amusement park that I spotted.