The Path

India, a vast country situated in South Asia is home to over 1 billion people. Its culture has reached far beyond its borders by influencing the rest of Asia with Buddhism in one way or another. For 10 days I walked upon Indian soil, and saw what very few visitors to India ever experience.


Indian street

The long 12 hour flight via Beijing, China wasn’t enough to get me to where I was going. After arriving in Delhi at around 1AM, it was time for currency and cultural conversion. Sitting on a bus with five armed guards transferring from the international terminal to domestic was my first experience outside of the Delhi International Airport gates. The amount of assault rifle security was stunning, but I guess India has conflicts both domestically and with its bordering countries such as Pakistan.

After waiting for more than 5 hours, and mistakenly and embarrassingly entering the female security checkpoint. We boarded our 2 hour Spice Jet flight to Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, an Indian state in south India. Here we met up with the rest of the volunteers, making us a total of eighteen and also met our Indian contact working with the Association of Relief Volunteers, Ravi Kumar. From Hyderabad it was another 8 hour bus ride to the town of Gudivada where our “hotel” was. The hotel was definitely not luxury; however it did have air conditioning which can make almost any place in India an oasis. After nearly 2 days of airplanes, airports and buses, I was happy to crash on my stained sheets.


Hotel Air Conditioner