In attempting to explain the journey to others, I often cite the number of hours I will be in a plane. And - don’t get me wrong - that in itself is impressive, but it does not capture the totality of my travel expereince. I began this journey on Monday morning and will not reach my final destination until Friday morning.
How does this work? Well, I started the journey to the airport on Monday at 10:30AM. My flight from LAX to Frankfurt left around 3PM. It is an 11 hour flight and I had a 3-hour layover in Frankfurt. Enough time to get a great cheese sandwich, walk through various terminals and prepare for the next flight. My flight from Frankfurt to Mumbai was 8 hours and 25 minutes, which landed me in Mumbai - with the 12.5 hour time difference) at about 1:30AM on Wednesday morning. I spent Wednesday sleeping and adjusting and tonight I will catch the overnight train to Amravati. It is about 12 hours from Mumbai to Amravati, then another 1-2 hour drive and it will be Friday morning when I get to Bahiram!
I am grateful to be older and wiser now, and having made this trip several times, I know to take a “rest day” in Mumbai before I continue the trip. I could “power through” but it is not worth it in the long run. My body needs time to adjust.