May 4th Leaving Nepal for India to study Vaastu – Stage 3 of trip
5/4/1999 Tuesday – We were up at 5am Nepal time to begin the last leg of our travel study tour to Udaipur, India, via New Delhi for a day & night, to study Vaastu Shastra with Namish & Parul Patel. I was still quite sick from the bladder infection that began on the last part of the 8-day road trip on Friendship Hwy through Tibet. It was a tough journey to get to Kathmandu … we traveled by small bus over tough terrain, a new hotel/motel every night, very different accommodations than in America. Literally you had a hay/straw stuffed mattress with a blanket that may not have even been washed in a while and if you had running water, you were lucky. I had noooooo clean clothes, and now had to wake up to start a journey feeling under the weather at best with my last skirt and top on, and TMI, I was going commando. Funny enough I am a self-proclaimed worst traveler to begin with (I know, I know, that’s how much I love Feng Shui). I was willing to travel to crazy places and overcome my travel woes to study with these incredible masters in their fields and discover countries and cultures for a trip of a lifetime. Off we began at Royal Nepal Airlines in what felt like a cargo plane with big props on it, no A/C, and it was very loud. We were flying west over the Himalayas towards India, lets put it this way, there was no beverage service on this flight.
By now I have made friends I will forever remember in my heart, even if I can’t remember their names except for a few; ) We had said good-bye last night to all our classmates and travel friends who were leaving and only the last committed handful of study buddies remain. My friend Suzanne and some of the other ladies had gathered around me during this flight knowing I was struggling to keep it together until AFTER we landed. I was feeling faint and dizzy, picture it…8 days on Friendship Highway with not a lot to eat, mostly because the food was soooo different from what I was used to that I only ate hardboiled eggs and apples or bananas practically. I then ended up with a bladder infection, and now have to take a journey like no other to get to India. I digress, it was a comedy act of sorts reminding me of Lucy and Ethel, even though Suzanne was from Germany and had an accent, she was trying to help me by elevating my legs on the plane to stop me from fainting. The plane was so loud no one could hear me saying “don’t lift my legs too high” because I had no underwear on under my skirt!
We made it to Delhi, thank you Buddha, but me barely… Phew
We took a day tour of the city before night fall and had one night there before heading out the next morning to fly to Udaipur. Suzanne, a lovely woman with four children in her late 40’s, at the time, owns a spa in Hamburg and is into health and wellness. She had roomed with my mom for about 3 nights prior and was now my roommate for the rest of the trip. Delhi was a fascinating, big city and I will be back after the study tour ends in a few weeks to complete the last part of my journey as I began it…traveling by myself. I can’t wait to get to Udaipur tomorrow and finally get settled somewhere for at least a few nights in a row…we’ve changed hotels every night or 2 since Guilin and it’s been hard, no clean laundry, no sense of calm with this much moving around. I can finally unpack and not live out of a suitcase for a change, and I am SOOOOOO looking forward to the food and culture here. Well, gotta go meet the gang for dinner downstairs…until later.
Delhi, India: The Nation’s capital territory, north-central India. The city of Delhi consists of two components: Old Delhi, in the North, the historic city; and New Delhi, in the South. Since 1947, the capital of India, built in the first part of the 20th century as the capital of British India. One of the country’s largest urban cities, 2nd to Mumbai. -Excerpt from Britannica.com.
