This morning I decided to do my first run in Mumbai. Boy, did I get my butt kicked!

The park across the street from my dad’s apartment is a beautiful setting for a run. Palm trees and numerous exotic plants and tropical flowers and foliage are all around. I walked the path one time around with my GPS watch (which had to be mighty confused!) and found that the path is about a quarter mile around, depending on where on the path you walk/run. I asked my dad if there was any running etiquette in the park — should I stay to the right or the left, what direction I should run. His response was that the runners and the walkers in the park follow the same rules as Mumbai traffic. I said, “So I should stay to the left?” and he said, “No, that means you can go where ever you want to, there are no rules.” The majority of people were walking clockwise so I followed the flow of traffic. Running that direction, I have a slow but long incline and a short, steep decline. I could reverse it and I’d still have an hill that is a pain in the rear!

My dad caught a shot of me while I was running in the park this morning.

And here I am, sweaty and horribly red-faced after my run!

It was very warm (close to 90) and very humid. I managed 2.25 miles, but I readily admit, I had to run some and walk some. Maybe as I’m here longer I will be able to adjust to the heat and humidity and run more and walk less! But I haven’t run since Tuesday and it felt good. It’s also the last day this month I will get to run. I set a goal for myself to run 50 miles this month. After this morning’s run, I finished with 40.29 miles (I believe). So close!

We went out around lunch time for a walk to some shops in the area. I stopped at The Culture Shop which has all sorts of beautiful Indian items to buy. I love looking around there. Except the salespeople follow you around like criminals. I hate that, even in the U.S.

We walked through the galleria as well, which is an open air market. It’s fun to just walk around and look at everything and see all the people. I absolutely love the clothes that Indian women wear, so I enjoy seeing them walk around. I wish I were a more normal size so I could buy some of the clothes I see for sale here. But at some point we will be going to the mall and there is a store there that sells women’t clothes in my size, so I just have to be patient!

After lunch at Pizza Express, we stopped at a street vendor to pick up some fruits and vegetables. The thing we look for is produce you can peel, so we grabbed a pineapple and some bananas. The pineapple is different from what we have at home. This one was smaller and had light green spiky leaves. And it tasted divine. It actually has a coconut flavor to it. And lucky me — it’s mango season right now! So Dad is going to get some mangoes at the Reliance store when he goes to work Monday.

So far it has been a low-key day, which is fine with me. One of the things I really enjoyed about my last visit was how being here for an extended period of time lets you assimilate a little more rather than being just a visitor.