Going to India was no joke. Coming back is another story all together…
Getting there took me more than 24 hours. Most of it was on my flight from Seattle to Frankfurt, and my flight from Frankfurt to Delhi. Each leg was over 8 hours long between SEA -> FRK and FRK -> DLH.
I’m writing this as a reflection into my first foray into 3rd World travel; I did stay in the nicest hotel and was not really exposed to the 3rd world aspect as much as I thought.
The deal was, I was going to India for a wedding. A real Hindi wedding. 4 full days of food, drinks and dancing. Since I don’t really have permission to share the wedding photos, I’ll share with you what I can.
My first stop was in Frankfurt. Getting on the flight in Seattle I sat next to a guy as big as me which made it a slightly uncomfortable 10 hour sit and wait. Getting to Frankfurt, I got a Wurst plate. It was a late night snack for me (2am Seattle Time), but it was light out; I sat there completely unaware that I was eating a pile of sausages and drinking beer at 10am. The Wurst plate and 0.5L of beer went away quickly.
I can’t even remember what happened much at that point since my flight was not to leave until abotu 4am Seattle time. I remember almost falling asleep on the benchs.
This however is where India started; not in Delhi, but in Frankfurt. Since the flight was to Delhi, the plane was full of Indian people. It seems that line-up happened whether or not the numbers were called or not for the seats. I realised at this point that India is pretty aggressive.
After another grueling 8 hours of flight, I arrived in Delhi dazed. Upon arrival, I had to go through a gate with guards holding AK-47s. Classic. Upon arrival, my hunger took over and I had to eat something. I went to a coffee shop near by and bought Samosas with the little bit of American cash I had exchanged to Rupees at Sea-Tac.
It didn’t give me the runs. In fact, that was the first taste of India. I think its funny because it would be like having the first taste of America be MacDonald’s hamburger or in Japan’s case Lawson’s onigiri (meticulously packaged rice balls).
By the time I had arrived in Delhi, I had traveled for at least 23 hours so I was quite out of it. I definitely forgot to take some pictures of the Samosa.
My last stretch of flight from Delhi to Jaipur was nice and short. It was like Seattle to Walla Walla. Arriving in Jaipur was a relief to see some old faces.
To be continued….