India…sounds, sights and yes even the smells are nothing like any place else in the world. For those of you that joined our girls trip 2 years ago via this blog, you may remember the beauty of the Taj Mahal, the insaneness of Varanasi and the vibrancy of Jaipur.   As with the last trip, the first 3 weeks are for work and the last week is doing some fun with Ken and my sister Karen joining me. I hope you will enjoy the trip through my blog and pictures.

This trip was supposed to happen last month, but a little thing like a broken ankle caused a bit of delay. For those of you that didn't know, it happened on December 30th.  and I wasn’t doing anything interesting…just jogging to get the newspaper. My left ankle rolled and I rolled on top of it…it was not a great way to start the New Year.   After 7 weeks on crutches or a knee scooter, I was able to walk in a big 'ole boot and finally two weeks ago in normal shoes. As you can imagine, traveling was not easy even for short domestic trips, so India was not in the realm of possibility.   Once I was cleared to ditch the crutches, scooter and boot, I could finally plan this trip.

I am lucky enough to work for a company that prioritizes learning and invests accordingly. The next 3 weeks will be spent working with 12 of our best and brightest in Bangalore while they learn about HR systems and processes. Once I got the dates finalized, it didn’t take long before Karen decided she had the miles and time to join me, which was awesome! I contacted my great travel agent, Mallika whom I used for the last trip and she put together a wonderful itinerary of Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and what will hopefully be the highlight…a Tiger safari. So cool! Once Ken started to hear about what we are doing, he decided to join, which made me so excited to share this trip with both of them.

I started with a complimentary town car from the ferry to SeaTac courtesy of Emirates. If you are booked in Business or First Class, you get a free ride to/from the airport, which is a great perk.   I quickly checked a bigger than normal bag (3 weeks is a long time!) and went to the S Satellite, an area of the Seattle airport I have rarely experienced. Grabbed a coffee in the Club at SEA before boarding the Boeing 777 for my 14-hour flight.

Emirates is ranked #2 in the world for service (behind Singapore Airlines) and it was indeed nice. Excellent food, with interesting choices (mezza plate with hummus, baba ghanouj and moutabal) and a Morning Martini (gin, marmalade and orange liquor…..YUM).   With 14 hours ahead of me I watched Captain Fantastic (definitely recommend) and then binge watched 3 Bridget Jones movies (fun and mindless, plus weird seeing Renee Zelwegger after plastic surgery).   

I did some power walking in the DubaiAirport and relaxed for a bit in the Emirates Business Lounge before heading to the flight to Bengaluru, which was only 3 hours. Between sleeping and watching the last season of Veep, before I knew it we were landing.

As with most Asian countries, I made it through passport control, picked up my bag and walked through customs in about 20 minutes. Vast improvement from most of our US airports. My Emirates driver was waiting with his Mercedes and we left the extremely modern airport via an equally modern freeway.

After an hour and moderate traffic to go the 20km’s, we arrived at the ITC Gardenia. I was welcomed with the typical Indian graciousness and shown to my room, which was pretty amazing. I enjoyed a vegi stirfry in the outdoor cafe with a young lady singing at the piano. Now, I am writing this while sitting in a massage chair that is kneading every part of my body….so cool to have it in my room!

It is now 11pm and I am hopeful that with some chemical assistance, I can get a good night sleep.