Like this:

The road is still ahead of me.

As I head out of my home in Ra’anana, Israel at 4:30 AM I start realizing what’s happening–”DAMN, I’m on my way to India!!” But waittt a minute, don’t get ahead of yourself, Tal, the road is still very very long…I must: head to my friends’ house, get a ride from her father to Nazareth, take a bus to Amman, Jordan, pass the border safely, take a taxi to the airport, fly to Qatar and eat something quick, and finally get on my final flight to Delhi….at 3 AM.

Before the whole journey began, people were giving me crooked looks about my plans, “Why are you complicating yourself too much when a direct flight with El Al is only 200 dollars more?” Well, I like to think it’s for the adventure, others might think it’s plain stupidity!

So the way went smoothly, I got to see the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the locals in Amman, the nice developing city. I sat next to two Muslims wearing full kafia clothing including the head gear which at first kind of made me uncomfortable especially because even a hello I didn’t receive back from them. I must say though, that all in all what we hear in the news and what we see on television is very different from the truth. At the airport in Qatar there were people of all backgrounds, I felt like I was finally a part of the Middle East, traveling in my own region of the world. Qatar from the air is one of the most amazing spectaculars I have seen so far. The city looks like part Las Vegas part the board game Hotels but all is real, which is just incredible!Once we landed and walked down the stairs to Qatar land, I couldn’t help myself but feel the urge to go see the city but once I realized that the sweltering heat was not coming off of the back of the engine and that actually it is god damn hot in that country, I was happy to know I only had a short layover!

Although I thought that the smell once I got on the plain to India was my first shock, I was truely shocked when I got into the Main Bazaar area in Delhi where the streets were not only filled with garbage and bad odors but also a sea of human bodies getting a good night’s rest.

WOW, welcome to the land of plenty.

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