I arrived in New Delhi in March of 2007. India was not necessarily a place I had always wanted to go to. I wanted to go somewhere and the opportunity came along to join a friend on a trip to India and I took it. After a very long flight I arrived and soon wondered where I was. At the time, India was unlike any place that I had traveled to. The stimulation was immediate from the brightness of color in the women’s garments, the difference in the architecture, the sound of prayer, the constant honking of horns in the streets, the common sight of wandering cows and monkeys, the smell of new foods, incense, and cow dung, and the experience of really tasting Indian food for the first time for every meal. It has been the most different place I have been to so far and I believe the one trip I was the most unprepared for. I am not sure how I could of prepared myself really for half the experience was the shock of a whole new world. I believe you can look at photos of a place and think you understand the differences but one of the greatest things about travel in my opinion is that you realize you could of never understood these differences until you have experienced them firsthand. I had a great tour guide named Anil who took us on a tour of New Delhi. I went to the Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb, and the Jama Masjid Mosque. My favorite would be the mosque. It was nice to go in and watch the people praying. There is something about people in prayer that is comforting. The religion does not matter because it is always interesting for me to watch. 

The Red Fort

At the Red Fort

I love this type of architecture

Walking in the streets of New Delhi

People praying at the Jama Masjid Mosque

In front of Humayun’s Tomb

Humayun’s Tomb

You can find more photos from this trip at www.ariagiovanni.com

In March of 2007, I went to India and Nepal visiting New Delhi, Khajuraho, Agra, Jaipur, Kathmandu, and Varanasi. In 11 days I took 10 flights, two-5 hour car drives, and was up three mornings before sunrise. When I arrived back home I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation. There was no time to spare and it had been a trip packed to the brim. It was the first trip that I had returned home from and asked myself if it had been worth it. I was tired and still on sensory overload for some time after returning and the jetlag was horrible this time around. After about a month of being back it started to soak in though and it has become the trip in which I have learned and gained the most from so far. I think my initial reaction was due to cramming so much into a small period of time and India being so vastly different from anything I had experienced before. I was overwhelmed from the start and add that to more sensory stimulation being piled on at a constant pace and my lack of sleep. In the end I could remember what I experienced but I had not moved through all the emotions yet. This all came about later but in the end I had a full grasp of India. The places I visited in India were not rich by any means but there again was that smile that people had that came from their hearts. It was interesting to learn and to experience firsthand how the Hindu religion plays a part in the people of India accepting their position in which they are born in and rejoicing in their life whatever it might be. Whether they were washing people’s clothes in the river, tending their fields by hand, rowing boats down the Ganges for hire, selling food in street side stands, or pedaling a rickshaw down the crowded streets…they all smiled a true uninhibited without force smile that lit up their faces and made theirs eyes sparkle. Something so simple is rarely seen nowadays. India was another world to me from the places of worship for different religions, the abundance of monkeys running wild, the colorful saris, watching bodies being burned and swept into the same river that clothes are washed and people bathe in, the crowded street bazaars, watching a water buffalo slaughtered on the sidewalk for food, the innumerable cows that roam the streets, and watching people do sun salutation in the river at dawn. India was full of color and spirituality that has surpassed any other place I have been.