I returned from my trip to India yesterday and I must admit, my next couple of blogs will probably focus around my various travel adventures. It was an unforgettable experience for me. I departed on Air India’s inaugural direct flight from JFK to Mumbai on August 1. It was a press trip that consisted of myself and four other journalists. Our arrival in Mumbai was late at night on August 2. We checked into the Grand Hyatt Mumbai and tried to rest (even though our bodies, on U.S. time, thought it was the middle of the afternoon) to prepare for a two days chock full of sightseeing in the Indian city formerly known as Bombay. There were certain things that struck me as soon as I exited the Mumbai International Airport. The first was the rain – we had arrived in India smack in the middle of the monsoon season. The powers of the rains there, which I experienced firsthand over the following two days, is extensive – it affects everything about the way the city runs. Simply because of the terrible rain, traffic reaches new levels of congestion and we were subject to three hours of traffic crossing from the middle of the city to an opposite end on Friday. The second thing that hit me upon departure from the airport was the heat. Despite the rain, you can feel the heat and humidity envelope you the moment you step outside. It is thick and sticks to you. In fact, it was so humid that, while visiting the second city on my trip, Kovalam, in the state of Kerala, I had difficulty taking pictures outside because my digital camera kept fogging up. And, of course, the third thing you notice as soon as you set foot in the city, is the people. We landed at 11:00 p.m. in India and there were still throngs of people everywhere. You had to push through people in the airport, on the street, just about everywhere. In a city of 18 million, the city really never does sleep. During my trip, I saw two very different sides of India – the hustle, bustle and other characteristics of city life in Mumbai and the beautiful and lush life in the southern coastal town of Kovalam. Both were quite unique in their own ways. The one comment I heard over and over from people I met on my trip was that one week was hardly enough time in which to experience India and that with my two destinations, I was hardly seeing the true beauty of the country. Neither, I was told, would give me a true grasp of what India is all about. –Kimberly Krol, Circulation and Public Relations Executive