Ko goes to India and...: the arrival: from the great US of A to Mussoorie, India:

Last Monday, January 19th, I finished up my orientation/training at Colorado Springs and headed off to Denver airport, got on a flight to Chicago where I had a 6 hour layover, then hopped on a plane to Delhi, India, which is where the craziness started. Here’s a quick photo commentary of the journey:

10 pm: got off plane and crammed ourselves and luggage into taxis

10-11 pm: taxi ride to hotel (named Cottage Yes Please). There’s construction everywhere, and if roads are marked with lines, they’re ignored, so it doesn’t matter. I’m a bit confused by the traffic lights, we sometimes stop at red lights, other times we don’t. There’s lots of honking, cars and rickshaws weaving everywhere.

11 pm: get to our hotel. The area’s dirty and cramped, but the hotel seemed pretty nice relative to everything else.

11 pm - 6 am: We notice the bathroom’s a bit different, there’s a shower, toilet, bucket and sink all in one open space, but most importantly, there’s no toilet paper! Not to worry, somebody brings us some. I try to sleep, but it’s hard because I’m excited and I’m in India!

this is Harry, a fellow intern

the bathroom

6-6:30 am: hop on taxi and head to train station, am amazed at how traffic seems to be chaotic yet functional, and wonder if it’s common for dogs and little children to get run over.

6:30am-2pm: hop on train to Derhadun. Finally get to see India in the daylight. Some quick observations: cows (sacred) roaming freely, garbage everywhere, things are just different…

the train (one of the nicer ones, cheap cars have wooden planks for seats)

view from train

2-4pm: pile our luggage and climb into an SUV that takes us up a super steep and windy road to Mussoorie, where I’ll be living. We make a few random stops for who knows what. There’s lots of honking the horn, crazy driving, and us saying “look, wow, whoa, and awe”. We drive through Mussoorie’s bazaar (more on that some other day).