I will be writing a series on my recent travel to India. I made a short diary everyday during the travel and I will be copying these to this blog (with some modifications). So here it is….
From Cologne, G. and I made an early trip to Dusseldorf airport to take our flight to India via Istanbul. Upon arrival to Istanbul, we wanted to go out the city and roam around even just for 2 hours while waiting for our connecting flight to New Delhi. Unfortunately, Philippine passport holders needed a consulate visa. Too bad! We were stuck in the airport for 6 hours, but it turned out not too bad, I guess. G. and I chatted away and just enjoyed each other’s company, not even noticing the time passing by until we needed to board for our flight. On the flight, we were preoccupied with what I call an on-board entertainment thanks to our individual TV system. I opted for 2 english movies Never Let Me Go, a depressing sad science fiction movie, and My Life in Ruins, a light romantic comedy. And then it was time to land. We actually made it through to India! We both were super excited upon touch down at 3 AM of May 28th, and walk through to the immigration gate. On the way, we saw a singage that says “Welcome to India.” Upon seeing it, we both uttered “Welcome to India” loudly, looked at each other, then laughed. I noticed people turned toward us with a curious look, and we didn’t even care to bother. Oh yes, we were so tourist!
While waiting in line at the immigration gate, G. spotted our travel buddies coming from Poland and we were introduced. After passing through the immigration, we impatiently waited for our luggages on the conveyor belt, exchanged some money for Rupees, and out we went to the arrivals. We were picked up by our driver from the travel agent and checked in to our hotel at about 6 AM. We decided to have some time to rest and sleep before going for the tour at 10 AM but G. and I overslept so we had started a bit late.
In Delhi, we roamed. Everything is quite different from Europe, but somehow similar to the Philippines in some ways. However, I’ve learned that they are right hand drive which was a bit odd for me during the first few days of driving.
We first visited a Muslim mosque. And learned that the devotees need to clean up and wash using this water before going in the house of God.
We also visited the Delhi Gate and the nearby parks around.
And the Presidential Palace too.
I also sampled some of India’s famed food like samosa and a variety of Indian breads like paratha and chapati.
Captured 