Settling In

I left the Minneapolis air port August 29 around 4:05pm. It was about 45 minutes to Chicago and from there 14 hours to New Delhi. We arrived in New Delhi on the 30th around 8:30pm. My first impression when leaving the air port was that the air had a sort of sulfuric smell to it. There was construction all over Delhi for the preparation of the common wealth games, which is supposedly the biggest global event to ever come to India. We stayed in a YWCA hostel the first two nights. Our first opportunity to get out was to go the Sikh temple next to the hostel. We were sent over there without any knowledge of what to do but they were very hospitable to foreigners and showed us what to do. That day we also got a tour of Delhi.

Wednesday, Sept. 4th we left Delhi on a six hour ride to Jaipur.  My eyes were glued out the window almost the entire way. There was what I thought was a lot of corn fields that looked a hint like cat tails, which I later found out was all wheat fields. There was a lot of development along the state highway. Construction of giant apartment complexes seemed to be sprouting up out of flat fields. For lunch we stopped at an Indian MacDonalds. I had a Mc Veggie and fries. The Mc Veggie was really good and so were the fries but a bit on the salty side.

Entering Jaipur was amazing. We entered though Pink city which is the old city and it is surrounded by walls and fort on the mountain side, which I forgot the name of. Most of the year Jaipur is very dry but we are at the end of the rainy season. As we entered the city we could see an amazing look palace out on a lake. Another highlight coming into the city was seeing a man riding a elephant that was running down the road.

I will try to keep you all posted on my adventure.Until next time, namaste!