Welcome To Delhi

My plan to post a few (or even one) update during my India excursion didn’t exactly (or remotely) come to pass. It’s not that I didn’t THINK about it on more than one occasion but I simply didn’t have time. Seriously. It was actually remarkable how little spare time there was to be had. Although, I guess it’s not all that remarkable considering our days were filled with documentary related activities (and a bit of sightseeing) and my evenings/nights were consumed by working on a second video project that suddenly needed to get done. No rest for the wicked.

Anyway, enough with the excuses. On with the India update.

Gage and I spent the bulk of my one spare day (August 14th) in Philadelphia gathering and sorting through the inventory of gear we had at our disposal and then determining what we actually needed to take with us. Considering how poorly I do at limiting the load while on the bike, I feel we managed to keep our gear kit compact. Well, somewhat compact anyway.

Our route from Philly to India was a 2-leg journey with the first leg ending at Heathrow Airport in London and the second leg ending in Delhi, India.

With the first leg of the journey being a seven hour flight, I originally thought I could at least type up one blog update but that plan fizzled as I found myself with some editing that I needed to start – and finish – sooner rather than later. In that regard, I was successful. That success was aided by the fact that I unexpectedly found myself (with Gage) sitting in Business Class for the first time in my life. I learned of this unexpected upgrade upon my arrival in Philly and, while I’m still not EXACTLY sure of the specifics, the unexpected Business Class seating was directly related to the fact that Gage and I were piggybacking on Jack’s (i.e., Gage’s husband) business trip. Anyway, to say that the spacious seating of those Business Class pods was very conducive to getting work done would be a significant understatement. While most (maybe even all) of the cabin slept through the flight, I worked the entire time. Admittedly, I was enjoying it more than I probably should have – novelty experiences are funny that way. The only downside was I didn’t get to make use of the bed into which my seat was able to transform. Yes, that’s DEFINITELY a First World problem.

We arrived in London around 7:00 AM local time and had a three hour layover before our nine hour flight to Delhi. Said layover also passed surprisingly quickly … spending it in the British Airways Business Class lounge likely helped with that. At this rate, this whole experience could ruin future air travel for me forever!

The bed that I wasn’t able to make use of during the flight to Heathrow was very much put to use on the way to Delhi. As a result, it was by far the easiest nine hour flight of my life. Being able to stretch out and sleep COMFORTABLY for close to seven hours helped with that. Obviously.

Our itinerary upon arriving in Delhi was certainly a fast paced one. We arrived in Delhi around 11:00 PM where Gage, Jack, and I and were promptly shuttled off to our hotel for the night. The following morning we embarked on one day of sightseeing in Delhi before flying off to Varanasi one day later for another day of sightseeing. From there it was back to Delhi where Jack continued on to his conference while Gage and I boarded yet another plane – this one bound for Bangalore.

Warning: There are a LOT of photos in the photo gallery.