So Long, New Delhi

Hello!

It's Andrew again, I have wifi finally here in Abu Dhabi at the airport. We departed New Delhi on Thursday, March 26th at around 9PM and headed to Abu Dhabi, UAE. After a nearly 3 hour flight, we arrived and now have a 4 hour layover until we finally head home to Chicago. With the conclusion of our trip it is a good time to reflect back on our journey to India and recap the last few days.

Our last few days were really laid back and relaxing for the most part. We toured around Jaipur and got a good sense of the history of the city and some of the key landmarks. A really neat part was when we visited an elephant village where female Asiatic Elephants are looked after and bred throughout the year. It was really interesting to see these majestic animals interacting with us humans and being such gentle giants. On our last day we took a bicycle tour throughout the city to explore some of the hidden areas not accessible by bus. Besides nearly getting hit by a pack of motorcycles and cars on our first major intersection, it was a successful ride! The most interesting part was seeing all the animals throughout the ride. No joke, on this 90 minute ride, we saw dogs, pigs, monkeys, cows, bulls, birds and much more. India is literally just one big zoo!



It was a really neat experience to visit India because I had never been to the country and was eager to see how different the culture is compared to the United States. Being able to experience a new culture and way of life really opens up your eyes and allows you to be appreciative of all you have. While India is a fantastic country, it was very sad to see some of the living conditions of the people. To me, it just felt like more could be done to help the people out, but considering the country is home to over 1.2 billion, it has to be a challenge.




Another very interesting thing I noticed was how much garbage was present throughout the cities we visited. It seemed as though people just discarded their garbage wherever they pleased and this was evident when you looked down a river and instead of seeing water, you saw a flow of garbage. The landscape and scenery was breathtaking and it just made me wonder why there was so much garbage everywhere? Such a beautiful place shouldn't have that much, but that is just my opinion.

Overall, the trip was very nice and we had a great tour group, which is always a positive. Being able to explore the world and see new countries is something one should never take for granted. I'm thankful and grateful to have been able to visit India and explore the country a little bit. I'll never forget this trip and the people who made it so worthwhile.