Holy humidity, Batman!

July 10, 2014

During our second 8-hour flight, I woke up from a deep 4-hour sleep to peek out the window and watch the sunrise. It was such a delightful way to start my day!

Painted sky

And a few hours later, we arrived in Delhi - home to monkeys, rickshaws, and crazy traffic.

Welcome to Delhi

Almost landing

 Holy humidity, Batman! We walked out of the airport and BAM - it hit us like a wall. I thought Houston, Texas was bad, but apparently I found another place that rivals the humid south. Thankfully, we had a couple of drivers that met us at the airport and drove us to the YMCA, where we stayed for the evening. On the drive, we saw a couple of monkeys on the side of the road, a wild javelina, and absolutely crazy traffic.

Delhi YMCA Hostel room

Once at the YMCA hostel, half of group caught up on sleep, but Randy and Jason (father & son) joined us in exploring around the hotel on foot. After walking several blocks, we met a young local guy who showed us which areas to avoid due to safety concerns, and eventually led us on a wild goose chase to an air conditioned, high-priced market. It turned out that he was a spotter, who was most likely paid to take us over there. We rode the rickshaw back to our hostel and tried the markets within walking distance again.

Delhi street market

After spending all afternoon exploring Delhi on foot around our hostel, we headed back with sweat-soaked shirts, swollen hands and ankles, and heavy eyelids! After some curry and cold showers, we planned to lie down for a short nap before joining the group for dinner, but there wasn't time. Needless to say, we barely made it through dinner before passing out at about 7:30 pm. The next morning was an early one, as we still had one more flight and bus ride to our destination.

London Layover

July 9, 2014
Our first stop: London! With a 7-hour layover, we decided to explore, with a primary aim of finding Big Ben. So, after exchanging some money and storing our luggage, we hopped on The Tube and began our hot journey into the city.

Tired but determined explorers

Underground "The Tube"

 

 I'm not going to lie here...we were all exhausted! And our exhaustion was amplified by the sweat-inducing, hour-long ride to Picadilly Circus from the airport.

Jason saying, "What?"

Laura, Shar, and Karen on The Tube

From Picadilly Circus, we walked and walked..

Haven't seen these in a while!

...and finally happened upon Muriel's, where we stopped for fish and chips.

Fish & chips at Muriel's

With full bellies, we walked down to Trafalgar Square, where we caught a glimpse of Big Ben, beautiful statues, and lots of people.

The crew

Trafalgar Square

 After giving our legs a little exercise, we hopped back on the Underground to make our way back up to the airport for our next long 8-hour flight. Laura was lulled to sleep by the combination of a full belly, stuffy train car, and the constant warning, "Please mind the gap" on the Tube.

Laura lulled to sleep

Adventure to the Jewelled Land

Our most recent adventure was to Manipur, India, aka "the Jewelled Land." We left our kids in the loving hands of Nana and flew out of Seattle on the evening of July 8th with a group of 6 other friends from our church. Our last group member still hadn't received his visa by the time we left the gate, but we were hopeful he would join us soon.

Jason and Randy anxiously awaiting our flight

We're leaving on a jet plane

Fluffy land

By 6:45pm, we were on our way to our first stop: London!