i made it!

so i have been in India for 2 days now and its been a whirlwind. luckily for me the internet situation isnt as bad as i had imagined hence why im able to type up this post.

first we landed in New Delhi, where we spent only the night, caught a flight early in the morning to Varanasi, and here i am at the airport in varanasi! we took a car to bhadohi and looked at about 10 different factories, now im sitting in an old palace (yeah, a king and queen used to live here) and i get to sleep in til 9 tomorrow, so soon ill be popping a melatonin and getting as much sleep as i can.

new delhi was a great place to start off at. we stayed at the imperial hotel, which looked like a historic british opera house, peppered with a lot of art deco accents which im sure my father would have adored. because we were only there for the night and left early in the morning i didnt get much of a chance to explore the grounds and the gardens but in the dark it looked quite pretty. we ate at a restaurant there that was claimed, by conde nast traveller, to be one of the top 10 restaurants to eat at in the world. im doing india in style, what can i say. almost took a pet monkey home with me.

obligatory mirror photo in my bathroom at the imperial. sleep deprived, obviously.

varanasi and bhadohi is a different story. it really is what you would picture decrepit india to look like; theres wild dogs, water buffalo, goats, cattle, the people that live there build little pyramids of cow poopie to dry in the sun so they can burn it for heat at night. i dont understand how anyone can drive around out here, sitting in the backseat has been giving me an aneurysm.

shiny lurex sweater vests seem to be all the rage.

so then we visited some factories!

so much yarn

needless to say it’s been quite the culture shock. hopefully i can update more in the course of my trip. ive been able to document pretty much everything i can, except im in a car for the most part, and only really seeing outside the hotels at night. i think either tomorrow or the next day i will be able to take a tour over the ganges river and do at least some touristy things. but ill call it a night for now. until tomorrow, goodnight!