Back from India -- what a great trip

I’m now back from India, arrived the night of April 16 traveling from Delhi to Frankfurt to Vancouver to Seattle. It was a long trip since I had not slept since Friday morning Delhi time, had a party at Hanumant’s house Friday night, and left Delhi at 2:30am Saturday morning.

India was wonderful, it has opened my eyes to a place I really want to go back and explore more. There is so much to see and I only scratched the surface. There is Delhi for the culture and old forts, Jammu and Kashmir and East India’s Sikkim with the incredible mountains, Rajasthan with the palaces and camels, Himachal Pradesh with Shimla, Manali and McLeod Ganj (home of the Dali Lama), Uttar Pradesh with the famous Taj Mahal, Mumbai which is the finance capital and home to Bollywood, and the backwaters of Kerala, just to name a few.

There is Kingfisher beer (Strong is the best), the markets, mutton, chicken tikka, tandoori, roti, chemists, train travel, driving, auto rickshaw’s, cricket, Metro, ancient history, Go Airlines travel magazines, incredible ice cream and so much more.

Initially I thought India was like the US with many different places to see, but I soon realized that India is so different because when you travel not only are the places different so is the food, culture, language, and religion.

The people are so friendly, I felt welcome in each and every place I traveled. I was adopted by my friend Hanumant’s parents and felt like I was part of the family during my trip. This included getting home at 3:30am one night and having to ring the bell to get in to the house, it was mentioned at breakfast the next morning, I’m no longer grounded J.

My Indian Parents, I will see them this summer

I visited Hanumant’s high school friends and relatives who welcomed me into their homes with open arms with food and drink, sometimes lots of drink. Thank you to all of them for their kindness and hospitality I hope I can be as good of a host when they come to visit the US.

And of course I have to thank Hanumant, it was one night having dinner at his house in Issaquah where he said “come to India with me”. I’m so happy I took him up on his offer.

I will be going back to India.