'India Bandh!' and my last day in India

This blog is actually one day late. I am in Doha now and chilling in my dorm. However, I still need to talk about my last day in Delhi.

We started the day off at around 8 and were all set and ready to go to the market place, Chandi Chowk, to do some last minute shopping before we head to the airport. We had also planned to go see Jama Masjid and the Red Fort.

However, as you know, sometimes you just plan for things and what happens is something completely different, thats how this day was. Dad switched on the TV before leaving and saw that there were protests all over the country and people were going crazy on the streets. They were protesting against the rise in fuel prices and other commodities. All the big opposition leaders were on the streets in different big cities in India and were telling the shops and all the businesses to shut down for one day. They named it India "Bandh" or shut down in english.

Few minutes after we watched all this, I looked out of the window in our hotel and saw that the protesters had reached our area! Honestly, at that moment, I was more excited about watching the protests then pissed at the fact that our plans had been changed. However, what happened was that we went down and stood on the side street watching what was going on. Dad got bored after some time and went into the hotel. I had my camera with me and I took many videos and pictures. By then, I had completely forgotten that we had other plans and I focused on getting the most out of this insane experience. I am currently finding difficulties uploading the videos so here is a picture I took. You can look at the album at the end of this blog and see all the pictures. I will try to work on getting the video uploaded soon.

After standing outside for about an hour, I went in and decided with dad that we were going to get the first taxi to the hotel since we might not be able to get a taxi if we waited any longer. Now this was around 1pm and our flight was at 7!

We checked out of the hotel, grabbed a taxi, and were in the airport by around 2. Now to waste time, dad was online on his laptop, and I was busy reading my book. The take off time came and I said good bye to dad, since he was going back to Oman and I was coming to Qatar. I boarded my plane and said good bye to India.

The plane ride was nice. I unfortunately did not get to ride on first class this time, but the economy seats were not bad. On the plane, I watched " Wake Up Sid" which is honestly one of the best indian movies I have seen. I actually did not complete the movie by the time I had reached Doha, so I asked a friend to give me the link to watch it online. It amazing people, go watch it if you didn't.

With this, I am going to end my posts about India. My last few words about India would be that its really an amazing country. If you are young and willing to travel and take some risks, India is perfect for you. The best thing I loved about the country is how friendly the people are. They are always willing to help and show you around. The country is dirty for sure, but I personally feel that this gives it a special flavor!

I really hope that you all enjoyed reading my posts about India. I will be stopping this blog temporarily until I find another place to travel to. I am sure it wont be for long, since I already have some travel plans in my head. Lets hope everything goes well. Please leave a comment if you have reached this far and let me know which country you think I should put on my "countries I have to visit before I am 30 " list!.

If you want to see all the pictures I took from India, you can click below!

India Trip July 2010