That time I went to India – Part one.

It’s time I finally sat down and wrote about my time in Nepal and India! It has been well over a month now since I left India and arrived in London. I keep meaning to post about my adventure but it is such an overwhelming task with so many photos and memories to put together in a cohesive post! But now is the time so here is part one of the ‘That time I went to India’ series.

I guess part one should be really be titled ‘That time I went to Nepal’, because this was where the journey began. It all started with a very early morning flight departing from Auckland airport, my family was there in full force to farewell me (despite the early morning start) so there were definitely tears involved. It’s a strange feeling saying goodbye to people and leaving your home country not knowing when you will be back to see those people again.

I made it through security surprisingly fast which meant I had a lot of waiting on the other side, I could actually see my family standing above in the viewing/waiting room so there was a lot of awkward waving at each other. Then all of a sudden it was time to board my first long haul flight, alone! The flight was a mixture of excitement and nerves, I had no idea what I was getting myself in for and this was my first big trip away from home. But the moment the plane flew past the absolutely stunning Himalayas I knew I was beginning the journey of a lifetime.

Making my way off the plane and to my taxi was quite the journey in itself, let me just say Kathmandu airport is slightly confusing but there will most likely be plenty of other travellers around so if in doubt follow one of them, or even better ask someone. Once I made it out of the airport the time came for my first experience in a car on the mad roads of Nepal/India. It was exactly what I was expecting, only about 100 times crazier. Cars, trucks, buses, bikes, people, cows, dogs… all this and more trying to fight for a space on the roads. Which most of the time could barely fit one car let alone a car, a truck, a bus and a cow! Over my 6 weeks of travel I learnt to trust the drivers, usually they know what they’re doing and from what I picked up the drivers/people on the roads are mostly very respected and mindful of each other. I also learnt the best thing to do is not look, that way you can’t see if you’re heading straight for a speeding bus or cliff edge…

After making it to the hotel (and being very happy to have my feet firmly on the ground) the next challenge was coming – meeting the rest of my tour group. Never having travelled in ‘group travel’ before I had worked myself up somewhat about it. What would they be like… would I make any friends… would I be the only one on my own… would there even be anyone my age? As it turns out I had nothing to worry about, not sure if it was just luck but it turned out I just happened to be travelling with the greatest bunch of people! The first morning I met my travel roommate by chance over the beauty of wifi. We both happened to be down in the lobby attempting to get on the wifi (the bane of our life on this trip). Internet really does bring people together. After we got our fix of internet we decided to head out together and explore, we had a great day and saw a lot of Kathmandu – I even got to see my first monkey!

The next day we met the rest of the travelling group, and like I said before they were all great people! It’s amazing how quickly you can become friends when you are in a foreign country and get to spend 24/7 with each other. We spent the rest of our time in Kathmandu exploring, getting to know each other and eating – there was always a lot of eating involved. Kathmandu is a beautiful, vibrant city with so much history, culture and such lovely people. I had the most wonderful time there and it was a great place to start off my adventure and I definitely hope to go back one day.

I was planning on making this entire post about my whole time in Nepal but it is already far too long so I will break it up into two or three separate posts. I apologise for the ridiculous length of this post, I promise the next one will be slightly better!

xx