Off to India

 Time for another photo trip, this time with photographer Ira Block and Jock Montgomery.  We’re touring northern India with a final stop in Varanasi for the Diwali Festival.  

I had a direct flight from JFK to New Delhi which was right at 14 hours.  It’s a long flight but well worth the time to get to such an interesting country.

I would like to say I slept 8 hours on arrival but that just didn’t happen.  I was up before sunrise but in an attempt to switch to a new time I stayed up and organized a little.  Breakfast is always interesting in a large, international hotel such as The Claridges because you pick into breakfast foods from around the world.  Along with American eggs dishes, the buffet offered baked beans (England), noodles and steamed buns (Asia), and beautiful pastries.  

A friend and I thought we would go for a nice walk around the hotel area.  We learned our first lesson - don’t talk to all the tuk tuk drivers that come out of the woodwork wanting to show you their city of a $1.  Being from Oklahoma I’m used to talking to people when they talk to me.  Big mistake!  We decided just to return to the hotel and relax since neither of us had gotten a full night’s sleep.

The hotel spa looked wonderful so I booked a massage and facial for the afternoon.  It was probably the best massage I’ve ever had!!!  The masseuse was vigorous to say the least.  I now have to live with slightly oily skin since I was instructed to not take a shower until the morning.  Anything to be this relaxed after a long day of traveling.

The hotel offered a variety of restaurants so several of us tried the Thai.  It was a little on the spicy side but delicious.  We’ll have the opportunity to try two more in the coming days.  We were already to get a good night’s sleep and hopefully wake up refreshed.

Tomorrow: Old Delhi


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