Home Again

Just got back from a week in India. For those of you who check the blog on a daily basis - sorry for the inactivity but it was hard to find the time on this latest trip.  However, that is not to say we didn't have an action packed week.  It started out with Mason having to get his student visa finalized along with Cynthia and the boys visas extended.  I think we are all legal now as far as I can tell.  I flew to India on Saturday to join up with some colleagues from the US.  We had a full week consisting of customer visits, a trade show, and meetings with potential distributor partners.  We began our trip in Bangalore, flew to Mumbai on Wednesday and then to Chennai on Friday.  During the course of the week I was able to stroll along the coast of the Arabian Sea (Mumbai) after dinner one evening and one day later walk down to the shore of the Bay of Bengal (Chennai).  We had some time left late Friday afternoon and were able to tour the temples of Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu.  My flight departed from Chennai at 12:01am on Saturday to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia then connected with a flight to Shanghai.  I finally reached home on Saturday at 3pm which means that I had been in the same clothes and without sleep since 5:00am Friday morning!  I was so ready to just relax in the newly organized home that Cynthia had worked on for most of the week before I was told that we had to go with Mr. Dong to replace Cynthia's new ride which had been not-so-affectionately nick named "The Electric Hummer".  I was just coming off my own episode of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and really wasn't looking forward to yet another drive to the part of town to exchange trikes but off we went anyway.  By this time I was going on 34 hours with only a cat nap here and there on the planes.  When we arrived at the bike shop the owner was waiting for us as Cynthia and Mr. Dong had arranged the exchange the previous day.  Well nothing takes the amount of time that you would expect it to here in China.  By that I mean it always takes much longer.  While Cynthia and our driver pointed out every small detail of the new bike and the shop owner fixed each and everyone,  Landon and I took a stroll in the area where they really don't see alot of westerners.  Landon is a big hit and gets lots of stares and the occasional thumbs up.  By the time we got back to the shop Cynthia had befriended a two or three year old little boy and was exchanging pretend gunfire - she with a finger and he with a plastic AK-47.  It was quite the scene as they battled it out in the street with several amused onlookers.  Finally, the bike was finished after spray painting blemishes, fixing lights, wiring the batteries and the piece de resistance - chinese stickers including flames, flowers and phrases (in Chinese of course which we think say something like "Keep your distance from this one")  We again repeated the drive and follow method to get the trike home - this time with the shop owner as the driver.  We exchanged the bikes (trikes) at home and finally I could rest - after we went out to eat.  Needless to say, I slept very well Saturday night.