Journey to the Ends of the Earth

July 14-July 16

Okay, we are not so great about keeping promises, but here's the first of what we hope to be a few posts about our time in South Asia this summer. It's hard to believe we've been back for almost 2 months. We have no idea where time goes...But things are exciting and there's lots to share.

We thought it would be best to just post excerpts from each day that we were in country, so that it would be easy to read an overview or chronological account of our time. Don't worry, it won't be so bad. We were only on the ground in country for 6 days.

July 14
We depart SFO for Seoul. The flight was pretty uneventful. It was however the first time (Ana) I made the flight to Korea with my husband. Even though we only had 2 hours in the Incheon airport, it was still a nice taste of Korea on the way to the other side of the world. We ordered food from Burger King at the Food Court that used to have a Cinnabon. I remember always looking forward to leaving the country when I lived in Korea just for a chance to have a cinnabon (which was found nowhere else in Korea except at the Incheon Airport). It has now been replaced with good old Dunkin' Donuts.

We continued on to Bombay from Korea. When we arrived in India, we were picked up at the airport by someone from our hotel. We only had an 8 hour layover in Bombay, but it was in the middle of the night, which was why we decided to spend the night in a nearby hotel.

The hotel was really nice. We got to take a warm shower and rest in a comfortable room with air conditioning for the last time in the next 6 days. We woke in the morning, had team devotions and a typical Indian breakfast of curry and chapatis.

Sunday, July 16
We then left the hotel for the airport to catch the next to the last segment of our journey, our flight to Trivandrum or as some places spell it Thiruvananthapuram, the nearest airport to Colachel, our final destination.

MD and AR met us at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram. It was a relief to see a familiar face after such a LONG journey. It was also wonderful to meet the person we had been told so much about, MD.

The journey didn't end in Thiruvananthapuram. We then had to pile into the SUV and drive 2 hours to Colachel. The journey was not uneventful. We ran out of gas on the way and had our introduction to wild Indian driving. The scenes of Southern India were breathtaking.

We arrived at TSI and were greeted by MD's family and also other people on staff. They had beautiful leis for us. I don't know if they call it leis there, but they were a lot longer than your average lei. They also smelled 100 times more fragrant. Marigolds and tuberoses were a couple of the flowers they used. AaR was also there to greet us. Another familiar face. It's weird seeing someone on the other side of the world when you are only used to seeing them in a particular place or a particular setting. We were so grateful that we arrived safely and we wouldn't have to do another crazy 2 day journey for at least a few more days...

posted by Ana & Wilbur @ 9:34 PM