We went on an overnight "field trip" to Nasik (or Nashik depending on which spelling you believe) for corporate visits. We left Thursday evening at around 5:30... aka 6 pm and hit the road... if you can call it a road.
The road to Nasik is a glorified compacted dirt road, where they don't bother to paint a middle line, knowing it will continuously be abused. The road is narrowed and filled with "Goods Carriers" attempting to pass each other to be one truck-length ahead to their destination. The bus was severely lacking... mainly in shock absorbers, so the trip was loooong and bumpy!
We made two quick pit stops... one that took much longer than anticipated, but it was nice because I saw a nice patch of green grass... I'm not sure how green it actually was on its own standing though because it was heavily lit with green tinted lights... tricky.
I listened to my iPod for a majority of the time, and also got two hours into a book on tape I am listening to thanks to the free download from iTunes. It's Brad Meltzer's "The Millionaires" and it's pretty good... although I don't know how keen I am on books on tape, but it was free. It's weird because I am usually a fast reader, especially with a suspenseful read... so there were quite a few times I wanted the narrator to read a bit faster!!
We finally arrived to the Mahindra Guest House at... I don't even remember... midnight? It was actually really decent accommodations, we had double occupancy rooms in adjoining villas. I would've much preferred those accommodations for the last four and a half months rather than the prison-like cockroach infested digs I currently hang my hat in! I roomed with Mitika which was a nice change of pace, and we sat up for a while with the boys playing Rummy, and then wound up eating a midnight snack (they had some traditional Indian dishes... I had a few nibbles of Nan). I didn't sleep well though, surprise surprise, and wound up not really falling asleep soundly for the night until about 5 am... makes for a rough 9 am wake-up.
We had a 9:30 am sharp departure (aka 10 pm) and headed for the Mahindra Mahindra automobile manufacturing plant. We are never able to go straight to our destination... as is typical Indian custom, we stop and ask for directions at least 5 times per desired destination. India needs to invest some stock in GoogleMaps!
Our visit at Mahindra Mahindra was pretty cool... among the products they manufacture is the Scorpio SUV, a Bolero SUV, and the Logan through a Joint Venture with Renault. We had a quick Q&A session and then toured through the entire factory... I've never had to dodge so many new cars while walking through the factory. It was really neat though because they have 4.2 kilometers of conveyor belts that take the cars from the "press shop" to "painting" "assembling" and then final assembly. I've never seen a car made... so it was pretty nifty and a good behind the scenes look. That is the nice thing about the Mumbai-trek versus the Paris-trek of this program, we get to go on a plethora of corporate visits, and while they become repetitive and exhausting... we have gained insight into an incredible amount of industries and been able to see how a lot of everyday items are produced.
After Mahindra, we stopped for lunch at a rest stop... that had more flies hovering around our table than anyone should have to experience!!! I ordered my food first... Butter Nan to be safe... and it came last of the 15 that ordered. Gotta love Indian efficiency.
We left the restaurant and hit the road for Sula's winery. We had a tour of the winery... which pretty much just involved walking through the room where they "age" their fine wine for a whopping 5-11 months... that's some fine wine they're making. Ha. After seeing the vineyards... and their manufacturing facilities... and the fact that many of the silo-like structures the wine was stored in were partially opened and they allowed us to walk around freely and stick our faces in them... I skipped the tasting haha. I'm glad I did too... because rumor is, it was pretty bad wine.
So instead I sat out in the terrace (Nasik actually has semi-clean air) and enjoyed the view with Bhuvan and Mitika who also did not partake in the tasting. After much waiting, everyone was finally ready to go and loaded up on the bus. It was an even longer bus ride back and I wasn't very successful in napping. We stopped for a quick dinner... that lasted more than an hour... and then Mark convinced me to let him borrow a DVD... only if I could watch a movie with him though. We watched the first part of "The Devil Wears Prada" and as much as everyone else poked fun at him in the bus for watching it... we had to put English subtitles on so everyone in the surrounding seats could keep up without the benefit of sound.
We finally made it back to the hostel at ... 1 or so. And I made it to sleep at ... who knows... but it was late.
Not quite sure the 12-14 hours or so of travel time within the 30 hours we were away from Bombay made the trip worth it. But, it's the last time I leave Bombay until a week from this Wednesday when I head to the airport... FINALLY :-) :-) :-) :-)
Now it's just a matter of surviving a few last days with final projects and exams... and surviving on the last few protein bars, no sleep, and an itchy rash (which I am convinced is my body being allergic to India)... ahh, gotta love character building.
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