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Published: March 20th 2009
Well, here is the first of many long-winded blog entries. Grab yourself a coffee, tea, or beer, and enjoy the ride...
Our exciting journey started at about 3:30AM on Monday morning. Our plane left at 5:35AM, and we both wanted to be there at about 4:15AM. I was completely packed the night before, and managed to get into bed at about 11:00PM. Sarah, on the other hand, had some unforeseen obstacles that caused her to stay up all night, maybe getting about 30 minutes of sleep.
We were both slightly wired from the idea of what was just about to happen, but our bodies just couldn't keep up with our psyche. The first plane to Minneapolis wasn't too bad, but really, how good can a flight at 5:35AM really be?
We arrived in Minneapolis at 9:00AM. It was here that I realized I had screwed up my laptop the night before, trying to "tweak" it. Trying to repair my computer took up about 3 solid hours of the 7 hour lay over. . .
Sarah previously told me that she has never been able to sleep on a plane before, to which I responded, "have you ever been on a 8 hour flight?" Well, this was the first 8 hour flight I didn't even sleep on. The seats were incredibly uncomfortable, no leg room, and crying babies. Both of us were starting to become slightly delirious, more so Sarah, because we had barely any sleep.
The on-board movie selection was pretty bad as well. However, they did have Slumdog Millionaire. We obviously watched this in anticipation of our upcoming destination. We highly recommend this to everyone. It made us both excited, yet slightly scared at the same time.
We landed in Amsterdam at about 7:00AM local time, not having a clue as to how long we had been up for, or even what day it was. It was the most relieving feeling in the world, walking off the plane into the beautifully Dutch airport. As we were walking through the airport, we could hear Dutch chatter from everyone, and it was simply beautiful. Everything and everyone in Amsterdam is beautiful. We love it!
We even found a quiet room with reclined chairs for people to sleep on. We were so excited to get a couple hours of shut-eye. There was, however, a man whose snoring sounded like a dying engine. I decided I'd put in my earbuds to kill the sound, and try to get some sleep. The second I started to fade away into a much needed dream land, Sarah pokes me and says "let's move, I'm ready to kill that man."
I felt my stress levels go through the roof in a matter of seconds, however, I managed to convince her to try the earbuds as well. Success! We slept for about 2 hours here, then headed to our gate to catch our flight into the bleak unknown.
Our first thoughts on the KLM flight were that there were no TV's on the chairs in front of us. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Both of us slept for nearly the whole 7 hours. (Phewf!)
Now, here is where the anxiety really kicked in. We're flying over Delhi, it's pitch black, and we're both hoping that our driver is actually waiting at the airport for us. We had read several horror stories of hotel drivers not showing up. This was not the case for us; we were greeted by a very short, cheery Nepalese man.
Oh, we forgot to mention this... Everyone talks about how India stinks from the moment you step off the plane... However, the moment we stepped off the plane, we could smell incense! It was beautiful! We later found out that your sense of smell will be battered with incense, spices, urine, sh**, cows, urine, exhaust, urine, and even a little urine. Oh, and did we mention that the smell of urine sometimes creeps into the mixture?
Anyway, we get to our hotel, get our room, and hit the sack. It was after 2:30AM when we finally got to bed. From sleeping on the plane, we didn't need a heck of a lot of sleep that night. We got up early the next day and had no jet-lag at all.
Day 1 in Delhi... Neither of us knew what to expect when we decided to come to this country. We knew it would be crazy, but had no clue how crazy it would actually be. Fortunately, most people speak enough english for us to be able to communicate the necessities. I have to do most of the talking since the men here don't acknowledge women. It gets to me a little, since i'm the one that has to struggle with the language barrier, but Sarah absolutely loves it.
We had planned on having a relatively quiet first day in Delhi. We wanted to wander the streets to get a feel of everything. We had asked for a cab driver to take us to Connaught place where we would go to a bank and a student-travel centre. However, somehow, he managed to convince us into doing a whole day of sightseeing. We agreed to the price of Rs800, which is roughly $17. We later found out that this is a pretty steep price, but it's worth the saved hassle.
We won't go into too much detail about the individual sights, but we'll give you a rough overview. We saw the Jantar Mantar, Laxmi Narayan temple (amazing), Qtab Minar, Indira Gandhi memorial, India Gate, Parliament Buildings, the Lotus Temple, and a few textile shops from which the driver receives a nice commission.
Funny story about the parliament buildings... After we took some pictures here, we hopped back in the car to go to the India Gate, which is just down the road. As soon as we get there, I realize I don't have my hat on me. I frantically search the car, my bag, and the road around the car... no luck. Both Sarah and I come to believe I left it at the temple. So, we drive back to the temple, search the grounds... no luck.
We're now thinking that maybe it fell out of the car when we took pictures of the Parliament buildings. So, we ask the driver to go back to take a quick look. As soon as we pull up, I see it sitting on the road... My hat, sitting on the road, in the craziest city in the world. I couldn't believe how lucky I had been! I told Sarah that I have this incredibly protective guardian angel, my mom, who stood by the hat making sure nobody would take it, knowing full well I'd be back....
Random thought: We have had many Indian tourist come up to us asking for a picture. At first, we thought they were asking us to take a picture of them with their camera. This was not the case at all; they wanted a photo with us in it. It was quite strange, and it made us feel like complete celebrities. Either they don't see many white people where they're from, or they're mocking us. Either way, it was a good time.
We got home from our full day of sightseeing and were exhausted. We also forgot the mention, the temperature was around 33 degrees. . . I bet you feel sorry for us! We were walking around outside all day, so the heat definitely got to us. We crashed in bed the moment we got into our room, ate dinner, then went to bed... at around 8:00PM. Party!!
Day 2: We were up around 5:00AM, both struggling to fall back asleep, and both thinking the other was still asleep. This day was a little less eventful, except for the amazing tomb we saw called Humayun's Tomb. The Taj Mahal was designed after this building. It was stunning. We took many pictures, and we will definitely post some in the coming days. After this, we went to the National Museum but were very disappointed. It was not easy to navigate, many lights were burnt out, and many of the exhibit cases were completely empty... typical Indian-style.
We then went to another tomb which paled in comparison to Humayun's. We went to another textile place, bought some incense out of pity and pressure (weak... I know, but you don't understand how pushy they are), then headed back to the hotel. We got home at around 5:15PM, ordered some dinner, then tried to stay awake until 9:00PM. We were not successful. We fell asleep at around 8 again, but we actually went to bed at around... 8:30PM.
That brings us to today. We were up at around 5:00AM again, had some breakfast, and are now typing this. We hope you've enjoyed this entry, as there will be many more to come!
We love and miss you all!
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Lisa
non-member comment
glad to hear you made it safe.
Hey! I enjoyed reading about your travels so far. . . keep them coming. Sarah, I cracked up about the comment of wanting to kill the guy that was snoring loudly, so 'you' . . . haha.