The Adventures of HBK and her boys: Saturday 10th of May

After sleeping 6 hrs, we got ready to go to the hospital at 10:15am. We would have loved to sleep longer, but the driver was waiting for us. Here's the view our our window - we could not see much last night.

Our driver's name is Pritam, which sounds to me like Preedom. He does not talk much...or at all. My goal is to getting him to talk to us or get him to smile once this week.

Today traffic was light - took about 15 mins to get to the hospital. In the short time, our wide eyes took in many sites. There are 22 million people in New Delhi, the capital of India. As point of reference New York City has +8 million. We are staying in the central circle heart of the city. There are MANY people. There is constant noise, primarily honking. Beep, beep beep, and beep Beep BEEP! In my head I tell myself each beep means "hello, I am here!" "Good to see you today" "right behind ya" "hey you are getting a little close!"

I did not capture many pictures because I think my brain was in shock. I'll try to take more tomorrow.

We arrived at the hospital. It is a historical building with beautiful grounds.

We met our work colleague, Sonal, in the ENT department, where they treat patients for ears, nose, and throat procedures.

She gave us a tour of the hospital. There are two entrances in the ENT: general ward and private ward (one has AC and the other does not. You pay more for your space). Saturday is the busiest day of the week! There were many patients waiting all over. As we walked into the waiting rooms, we could feel the stares. I wanted to take more pictures, but it felt awkward.

Sonal and Heather posing!

This is the library conference room - our work place for the next week!

After our hospital tour, we went to lunch with Sonal to her favorite Thai restaurant, Mamagoto, in Khan Market.

The food was so yummy and I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures. I ordered a drink - a green apple mojito without ice and it came with ice! Sonal assured me it was okay. So I jumped in on day 1! I have not gotten sick.

Dessert was a warm caramel cake!

Sonal brought us shopping at one of her favorite stores. The colors of fabric were beautiful. We tried on a few items to figure out our sizes.

Here's view from the store window of the street and parking lot:

We are so thankful for Sonal. She helped us find our driver in the parking lot. Check out how close the cars park.

We headed back to the hotel for a rest - were going to take 30 min naps, 1.5 hrs later we got up with the goal of getting some money. We asked for directions at the hotel front desk and ventured out.

Attempt #1: we could not find the bank. We walked to the right. Went back to the hotel and spoke with the security guard. He said to the left down the corridor.

Attempt #2: we walk into the Bank of India ATM cubby - there was a guard eating dinner next to the ATM. We tried multiple times to work the machine, understand the minimum and maximum withdrawal limits. After the 3rd time of getting error receipt, we left sweaty and discouraged. We headed back to the hotel to give up. We showed the security guard the receipts and he told us to go to HDMC bank and pointed the direction.

Attempt #3: we crossed traffic and went to the next block were happy to find a a better lit ATM room with 3 machines. This time it worked - Hallelujah! It feels better to have enough currency. We walked back to the hotel with a little extra pep in our step.