...and then I was home again

After 30 hours of travel getting back from Delhi (20 hours of flying & 10 hours in airports before and between flights), I finally made it home last night.

I was in serious beef withdrawal since none is served anywhere in India, so as soon as I touched down at JFK I made my way to the Wendy's in the food court for a burger. And then once I got home last night, I ran up to curbside carryout at Chilis and got myself a big juicy steak :-) After that I proceeded to sleep for 15 hours straight, then just sat for another few hours enjoying the silence (i.e. lack of incessant horn honking) and reflected on the trip as I sorted through all the photos.

I am thrilled to report I did not get sick - at all, in any way - while in India. And believe me, I was prepared for it! I took with me an arsenal of anti-diareah medicine, antibiotic ointments, decongestants - you name it. But in the end, needed none of it. My stomach never even got upset so no need for the Tums either! Others in the group were not so lucky. On the 2nd to last day at least 5 people were hit with something and were pretty miserable on the bus and on the long plane rides home.

I do have to admit I was extremely careful. I brought my own bars of antibacterial bar soap for showering in each hotel, brushed my teeth with bottled water and gargled with listerine after each brushing, used bottle water to wash my fingers before putting in and taking out my contacts, brought swimmer's ear (alcohol) to put in my ears after every shower to make sure any water left in them was dried out, sprayed myself down with a strong bug repellant every morning and used Purel constantly. I also brought chlorox wipes and wiped down the bathrooms in each hotel, tv remotes, phones, etc. And I didn't eat anything uncooked - no fruits, salads, vegetables or creamy deserts. Plus, I was on (and will continue to be on for the next 4 weeks) antibiotics - Doxycycline, which was prescribed as my anti-malarial regimine, but is also useful against a few other bacterial infections one might get.

The fast paced nature of this trip prevented me from posting nearly as much as I wanted while I was in India. There is so much more I want to share about what I observed and experienced that I will be continuing to post here on this blog over the next week, so please check back regularly for updates.

Since I use my blogs as a travelogue of my trips, I will be posting about things on the day they actually happened, so you'll need to scroll down and look for new additions mixed amongst the older posts. I will notate them with "NEW" in the titles to make them easier to spot.

In the meantime, I now have almost all of the photos posted, so feel free to click here and take a look. (Captions to come soon - if there is something you are curious about before I add the captions just ask!)

What an amazing adventure...