Half Way Around the World

First off a big thanks to Bill for driving us to the airport in San Francisco at 4 am! We made our flight with plenty of time to spare and settled in for 21 hours to go half way around the globe. We grabbed beer and pizza in Chicago and snuggled in for our flight to Delhi. It turns out wine is not free on international flights but it does make tic tac toe more interesting :) We felt well prepared with a history of India, inflatable pillows, support hoes (sp?) and three seats to stretch out in. The flight was painless and we landed in Delhi on Indian Independence Day at around five in the evening.

I have never felt so foreign. Its hard to say what about landing in India struck such a clear note of difference from touching down in Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong or San Jose. Perhaps it is the wildly curving Sanskrit letters everywhere, the expected but oh-so-unexpected cows in the street or the multitude of colors in the saris and salwar kurtas that the women draped over themselves.

We stared out the window of the cab while the soft-spoken tour guide ran through our itinerary which stretches from the hills of Kathmandu to the jungles of Periyar. It is so enchanting and dizzying and invigorating to be here!

We have arrived.