Saying goodbye to India
Jaipur to Delhi travel day
Wednesday, January 17
Farewell to Jaipur
Time to leave India. We were so busy every day taking in new sights, sounds, tastes, and smells that the days just raced by and it was soon time to leave India. Did we have sensory overload? Possibly.
"The aftermath." Our window looked out over the scene of the previous evening's reception.
Mary's flight debacle had kept her up half the night and required more phone time first thing in the morning - the initial leg of her flights home from Delhi to Munich was cancelled. She got it all worked out because she's a traveler who understands airlines. But - oh man - what a hassle!
I had my own smaller airline issue when my second flight appeared to be canceled (whatever would I do stuck in Amsterdam? 😆) but the 3 related airline apps - Air France, KLM and Delta - conveyed conflicting information. I decided not to sweat it and just figure it out at the airport. Remember the pre-COVID days when airlines had their act together? Neither do I.
We had a chance to chat with Sarral and Emily at breakfast and said goodbye (or waved and nodded) to others in the wedding party.
Goodbye, family.
Goodbye, elephant.
(I mean, it's 6 hours to Delhi. Who knows?)
Our small crew was headed to an airport hotel in New Delhi.
It was nice to have Emily's friend A.L. on the bus, since he speaks Hindi and could talk to our driver about important things like rest stops and confirming our destination.
It took a while to get out of Jaipur. We had some time to contemplate the special nature of Indian traffic. Beep beep.
I watched a young boy flying a kite along the sidewalk while his mother and siblings sat by the side of the road. When we were in the cities, it was hard to know how to react to the many women and children who knocked on our car windows begging for money. Every society has its poverty, doesn't it? We had a lot to think about.
Once we emerged from the traffic, we enjoyed catching up on sibling talk, swapping stories from childhood and our college years.
Christopher (a Brown grad) told this joke:
Q: How many Harvard grads does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: One holds it up and the world revolves around them. 😆
Our driver expertly navigated the on and off traffic jams (it's really best not to watch the driving at all) with lots of trucks on the highway, and lots of road construction. At one point we saw a tower had apparently collapsed onto a truck.
Although we often traveled in open country between urban areas, we never really reached an area where the smog cleared. In Delhi they had told us that the haze was a seasonal thing, "about 20 days in January," and we definitely got those days.
We stopped at a bigger rest stop than any we'd seen so far, and amused ourselves shopping for souvenirs and gifts while the driver took a lunch break. We Rowader girls know how to shop. We also grabbed necessary lunch/snacks like ginger cookies, chewy mango candy (yum!), and pistachio ice cream.
It was a long travel day, but we made it to the modern hotel to take a break before everyone headed to the airport at different times with lots of hugs and goodbyes and plans to get together again soon.
The international flights started at around midnight for the Tallos. Mine was at 3 a.m., and Mary's was later the same day. Mary and I had one last buffet of all the Indian foods we'd been living on for 10 days or so. I'm now a big fan of paneer, and Mary loves dal with fresh naan.
Weddings are perfect occasions to reconnect with family. Mary and I were both so thankful to have the chance to go to India to witness such an incredible wedding and meet so many wonderful people, as well as connect with some of our family again. And new family members, too!
All our best wishes to Emily and Sarral in their life together. May it be long, happy and healthy!
- Christine
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