Riding a camel in the Thar Dessert.

The video is more about the audio than the video. This was recorded in the Thar dessert while on my overnight camel safari. My camel safari guide is the one singing.

I made it.

I arrived to the Varanasi airport on January 4th at 2:00pm for a 3:30pm departure, however my flight to Delhi was delayed and my flight did not depart until 5:30pm. I finally arrived in Delhi around 7:30pm and took a taxi from the domestic airport to the international airport for my journey back to the United States. My flight out of Delhi was delayed about an hour and I departed Delhi 12:30am, December 5th. I arrived 16 hours later in New Jersey at 5:30am, December 5th. In Jersey I had to go through customs and had to re-check my baggage for my final flight to San Francisco which was on-time, but I almost didn’t make the connection since after getting out of customs I had about 20 minutes before my plane departed and the securtity line was long. The final flight was a long 7 hours. My total time spent in an airplane on my journey home was 24 hours, which is a new record for me and I don’t plan on trying to break it anytime soon.

In San Francisco I am taking in the fresh air, drinking water from the tap, and enjoying fabric softener like never before.

On New Years eve I was not feeling very well. Both from a head cold and lower back pain. I tried to hold out but ended up in bed at 11:00pm. As Varanasi rolled into the new year there were lots of fireworks exploding in the sky from every direction and intense booms from what sounded like dynamite explosions. The explosions lasted for about an hour. In addition thumping music continued until 2:00am from a party the hotel was hosting directly below my room. I did my best to fall asleep with my head between pillows but could not get to sleep until the loud music ceased.

The next day I did not roll out of bed until around 11:00am which was the latest I have slept in this entire trip. However, I did wake  up feeling much better. I finally started  my day taking pictures in the street and along the ghats at around 3:30pm and continued until there wasn’t any light left. I had dinner with some Americans who I had met on the airplane ride from Delhi to Varanasi and we had a good dinner together exchanging traveling stories.

This morning I started my day at 5:30am to take a boat ride on the Ganges river along the same stretch that I have been walking. The boat ride started at 6:00am and the view from the water was great. The boat ride started 30 minutes before sunrise and it was a very unique experience to be on the Ganges at twilight and see and hear the city awake from the river. I was expecting to see more people bathing at the ghats but I assume because of the time of year and the cold weather was the reason there were more tourists in boats then there were natives on the ghats. The boat ride lasted until about 8:00am. Upon my return to the hotel I had some breakfast and then went out exploring the city some more without my camera this time so that I could simply be in the moment.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Varanasi and I am not sure what i will do but most likely it will be another day exploring and taking lots of photographs. This city is a photographers paradise. I think I might take another boat ride on the Ganges tomorrow night to get the contrast of an evening ride to that of a morning ride.

This has been an amazing trip that I don’t expect to fully digest for weeks to come. I am both sad to be leaving India and very much looking forward to coming home. The pollution is intense and it causes my eyes, and nose to burn. I honestly expect to get relief from the recycled air on the airplane ride home. I never thought I would be saying that.

My next post will be from San Francisco.