Off to India!

Hello from about 30,000 feet above India! I'm about a half hour, we will land in Delhi for the commencement of my Contiki Eternal India tour and I could not be more excited. My trip here has been very smooth, which is all I can ask for after the blizzard of 2026 that unexpectedly blanketed New York with 2 feet of snow, causing airport closures on Monday and Tuesday. 

I started prepping for this trip last week, packing and getting my visa. The Indian visa cost $25, but is a huge pain to do. The website is very, very antiquated and most people go through a third party to get it done. I had time, so I figured I'd give it a shot and, if I needed to use a third party because the visa was denied, I would only be out $25. After submitting everything, I got a confirmation saying I was approved 2 days later. 

Packing went smooth as well. I decided that I was going to pack very light this trip, skipping a laptop and assuming I'm going to do laundry at least two times. This really gave me a lot of extra room in my suitcase for all of the medicines / preventative items I had to pack. We’ll see if I wind up needing it all, but beyond just the malaria medicine I also packed a bunch of different types of heartburn medicine, electrolytes, etc. I could fit everything in my backpack, but decided to buy a lightweight foldable Osprey backpack as well that I could use for my carry on and day bag while on tour. 

The one thing I realized almost too late was that the universal charger we all usually use doesn't work in India, so a last minute Amazon purchase saved me! I couldn't find it in Best Buy in NYC somehow. 

As far as my flight goes, I lucked into an insane points redemption for Air India business class on a 14 hour 30 minute flight direct from JFK to Delhi. It wasn't the Air Emirates experience (which I hope to have one day), but a lie flat bed came in clutch. It was also the first time I had a sliding door to my seat which was very cool. I slept for 2 hours to start and was afraid I wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep, but they served breakfast with about 6 hours to go in the flight. After I finished I dozed off for 5 hours which was awesome, because it's now 12:30 PM and I have enough sleep to keep me going as long as I need to tonight. 

Well, my plane just landed in India, country 57. I can't wait to meet up with my friends from my most recent safari and experience a brand new culture. These next two weeks are going to be yet another trip of a lifetime, where I'll be sure to make every moment matter.