This trip has been on my bucket list forever. In the last few years it was fueled by my friendship with my neighbors, Sarmilla and Shobo. Their stories of their life growing up there and continuing journeys home to family have made it come to life. Fortunately for me, my long-time Navy friend Cyndi, agreed to travel with me. I had been enjoying a visit to their Austin home last fall, comparing notes on our many travels and where we still wanted to go. India was on the list! Cyndi has numerous times traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel and they had a wonderful sounding trip to northern India with an additional trip into Bhutan. Who would not want to venture to the land of Gross National Happiness? We were in on both places. So, after a year of planning, obtaining visas, getting flights arranged, we’ll be off to the other side of the world. Hopefully you will enjoy following along as I attempt to relate the story of the places, people and events we encounter.

I’m first heading off to New York City, meeting Cyndi at JFK, staying overnight, then flying onward to New Delhi and onto Kolkata.

An uneventful direct flight got me to the city actually a bit early. Not a bad thing with the amount of walking and escalators it took just to find baggage claim and then the AirTran. Had to get to terminal 5 as we are staying at the TWA Hotel on the airport. It’s a flash back to 1962 and the heyday of TWA!

We had booked time to have cocktails in an old plane attached to the airport and then dinner afterwards in the hotel Paris Cafe. A great start to the journey.