After traveling almost the entire western edge of India in 4 weeks, it was time to head back. Rather than buy a plane ticket to Delhi, we opted for the slightly cheaper train option. This, along with our travels from Delhi to Mussoorie, turned out to be a 4 day adventure, thus worthy of a blog post.
The first leg of the journey was supposed to be a 46-hour train ride to Delhi. We prepared well for living in small quarters for 3 days and 2 nights...lots of snacks, good books, charged ipods, card games, a schedule of train stops so that we could stretch our legs for 5 minutes once or twice a day, and, most importantly, an entire watermelon. Naturally. Overall, the ride was great. It was nice to have down time to read and think. And, the watermelon was a joyful treat. I was in good spirits until Hour 48 (remember how it was a 46-hour ride?). Well, soon enough, it was Hour 52 and we were still on the train. Shortly, we got off the train with sea-legs and very hungry bellies. We found our hotel in Delhi, ate ravenously, and went to bed. I was disappointed because if we had gotten in at the scheduled time we would have had time to do some things in Delhi. The next morning we hopped on a 7am train back to Mussoorie and were back in our house by 5pm.
A few fun facts from the trip:
-Each of our major destinations was in a different state, totaling 7 states in total.
-We spent 10 hours in taxis, 31 on buses, and a whopping 104.5 hours on trains. That's over 6 days of being transported.
-Almost every destination had a different predominant language: Tibetan in Dharamsala, Punjabi in Amritsar, Konkani in Goa, Malayalam in Kerala, and Hindi everywhere else.
Now, I'm back in Mussoorie. It feels great to be back in the quiet hills where the weather is cool and sunny. Knowing we'd be exhausted from our travels, we chose to come back a week before our staff meetings begin. It's been so relaxing to be home and get putsy things like laundry, organizing, emailing, blogging, and grocery shopping done before the rush of the semester hits. Next week we have staff meetings and then students arrive. I'm gearing up for my new job as the High School art teacher, so have a lot to prepare before the first day of school. Overall, life is good, time is flying, and soon enough my family will be visiting!
Cutting the watermelon with a leatherman on my top bunk.
We ate the juicy watermelon near the door so we could spit the seeds out (and hopefully plant watermelons across India!).
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