SURREAL JOURNEY Pt 1

Overwhelming... Surreal it is... So many indescribable words to explain my feelings about my journey to India. Let's see, how and where do I start?

My arrival to New Delhi Airport was at night about 10pm. Seated at the window seat, I looked out at the parading lights of New Delhi and strangely the one recognizable icon that greeted me was not Indian at all but an American invasion, The (infamous)Golden Arches of McDonald's.

A Marbled airport, how interesting. It also has shown it's age and worn down. A cold night and finally, I found my name on a placard and the taxi driver, pudgy and excited to get my travelling bag to the car. We found ourselves in a comedy of communication. He barely speaks English and I, on the other hand only know Hindi from songs(though I could sing them but totally have no idea what they meant!), had a blast of a time trying to tell him where I am supposed to go. I thought the taxi driver would have known from the company. Mmmm... Oh! Traffic law is as close to lawless with the exception that noise pollution is at the height on the roads. Indian drivers are obsessed over their car horns... They have AIR HORNS also!!

It took a few more comedy of miscommunication before he finally got me to my hotel. The best part is I got conned 100 Rupee from him which I should not have paid because it was taken care by the organiser. The hotel was small but cosy. I HAD THE ROOM ALL TO MYSELF!!! CNN had no sound.... DARN!!! All the other 70+ channels were OK... Mmmm....

I got up early and met up with the other participants, Sherman Ong and Victric from Singapore for breakfast. The bus was 10 minutes late. As I approach the bus, there were two families of wild boars roaming past me. Fascinating!!!

The bus ride to Neemrana Fort Palace took 2 hours of hell on my back and my buttocks as the road was quite bumpy. We should be thankful that our speed limit on our highways are between 90 km/h to 110 km/h. The speed limit on the major highways in India is between 50 km/h to 90 km/h. On the way, I got to see donkeys, camels, thousands of poor people living in tents...