Tons of delays so far. We’ve been kicking back in Chicago for the last few hours while our plane gets deiced. Earlier in San Francisco we stood in line for two and a half hours waiting to get our flight rerouted. Snow in Chicago has been making things a little rough so far, but we are relaxing with an expensive airport beer.
I really wanted my first journal entry to be about something a little more interesting than just hanging out in airports, but a whole lot, lot, lot of nothing has been going on, so I’ll just say that morale is high despite delays as we, Kevin and Matt, embark once again on a world adventure, this time to India. We'll land in Delhi and then catch a connecting flight down to Mumbai, previously known as Bombay until its name was changed in 1995. Overall this trip was supposed to include about 24 hours of total travel time, but it is going up by the hour as snow keeps us from being in the actual air. We will eventually land in Bombay where we’ll sleep for about six hours, then head immediately to the train station for a 7 hour train ride up to a city called Baroda for a kite festival with one of Kevin’s coworkers friends. What the kite festival is exactly we’ll have to find out, but Kevin’s friend says it is supposed to be pretty epic. We’re up for anything. From there we’ll head back to Bombay to tour around the town for three days or so and then head eight hours north by train to Ahmedabad, catch a car there and then keep going up to Udaipur which is in Rajasthan and is supposed to be a beautiful old city build around a historic palace and lake. After a few days in Udaipur we’ll take a car to a town called Jodhpur which we will pretty much just use as a pit stop for the night before heading deep into the sand duned Thar Desert and a town called Jaisalmer, also built around a very old fort. From Jaisalmer we move by 24 hour overnight train to the town of Agra, home of the legendary and majestic Taj Mahal. From the Taj we ride six more hours up to Delhi were we plan to relax and take in the local sights.
From the research that I have done, it seems that India is not an easy country to travel in. With the congestion, late trains, masses of people and sometimes third-world infrastructure, travel in India can be brutal. I have planned train trips and booked hotels ahead of time, unlike on past trips were we just let things unfold as they came. Here in India advanced itineraries are apparently a must if you don’t want to spend days waiting for train seats to open. We’re currently not even out of the US yet and so far events are supporting those rumors. Despite all of this, Kevin and I are still positive. We know that life changing experience and adventure lies ahead that merits the struggle. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it in the end.
I really wanted my first journal entry to be about something a little more interesting than just hanging out in airports, but a whole lot, lot, lot of nothing has been going on, so I’ll just say that morale is high despite delays as we, Kevin and Matt, embark once again on a world adventure, this time to India. We'll land in Delhi and then catch a connecting flight down to Mumbai, previously known as Bombay until its name was changed in 1995. Overall this trip was supposed to include about 24 hours of total travel time, but it is going up by the hour as snow keeps us from being in the actual air. We will eventually land in Bombay where we’ll sleep for about six hours, then head immediately to the train station for a 7 hour train ride up to a city called Baroda for a kite festival with one of Kevin’s coworkers friends. What the kite festival is exactly we’ll have to find out, but Kevin’s friend says it is supposed to be pretty epic. We’re up for anything. From there we’ll head back to Bombay to tour around the town for three days or so and then head eight hours north by train to Ahmedabad, catch a car there and then keep going up to Udaipur which is in Rajasthan and is supposed to be a beautiful old city build around a historic palace and lake. After a few days in Udaipur we’ll take a car to a town called Jodhpur which we will pretty much just use as a pit stop for the night before heading deep into the sand duned Thar Desert and a town called Jaisalmer, also built around a very old fort. From Jaisalmer we move by 24 hour overnight train to the town of Agra, home of the legendary and majestic Taj Mahal. From the Taj we ride six more hours up to Delhi were we plan to relax and take in the local sights.
From the research that I have done, it seems that India is not an easy country to travel in. With the congestion, late trains, masses of people and sometimes third-world infrastructure, travel in India can be brutal. I have planned train trips and booked hotels ahead of time, unlike on past trips were we just let things unfold as they came. Here in India advanced itineraries are apparently a must if you don’t want to spend days waiting for train seats to open. We’re currently not even out of the US yet and so far events are supporting those rumors. Despite all of this, Kevin and I are still positive. We know that life changing experience and adventure lies ahead that merits the struggle. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it in the end.
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