Mexico - Flying Halfway Across The Globe

Hello there!

After a short break and consolidating my first edition of my Travel Diaries, which included my travel posts to 14 different countries, here's kickstarting my second edition of Travel Diaries! For those who are keen to read my the first edition, you can find them here.

I am actually quite excited to start this new country and new series of posts, because it's something that I wanted to do for quite some time, but I needed some time to tidy up my photos and organise my storytelling and places. And this new country is Mexico!

Back in 2009, I had the opportunity to go for a summer exchange programme to spend 7 weeks studying in an university in Queretaro, a small city in Mexico and that was one of my more memorable parts of my life! Going halfway across the globe from Asia, I didn't know much about Mexico so I went there with my eyes wide open, and ready to embrace the different cultures and experiences.

A few months before the actual trip, if you are old enough to recall, there was the H1N1 virus which was quite prevalent in the world, including Mexico, and the trip was almost cancelled. Eventually, the programme was postponed, and the situation got better and travel restrictions were lifted. Even so, many participants of the programme decided not to go ahead for personal reasons. Because this trip was such a rare opportunity, I made the decision to go ahead.

So let the adventures begin!

We kickstart the trip with a flight itinerary that lasted more than a day! I flew from Singapore to Tokyo, Japan, and then from there, we flew to Houston, USA, and then from here, we flew to Queretaro, Mexico. The flight duration and the hours spent in transit meant the total duration was more than a day. However, because of the time difference, I flew on the same day based on Singapore time, and landed on the same night based on Queretaro time (even though it's many hours into the next day in Singapore already).

Mexico is a big country and I was lucky to have a window seat on my flight from Houston to Queretaro, and I was amazed to see the sights from my little window.

The terrain of Mexico was so interesting and it brought all the knowledge from my Geography class and textbook to life. There was this area where the mountains and valleys were so beautiful, and I would say the real scenery looks way better than the photos captured on camera.

And finally, we reached Queretaro, Mexico! Here's the airport control tower. There were only a few flights everyday for this airport, it's a simple airport. And fortunately, my luggage made it safely through after all the plane switching and multiple flights.

We were given the option to stay within university hostels or homestay, and I chose the latter, which was to stay with a local Mexican family. So the host mum, who was waiting for my arrival, brought me back to the house and here's a look at my simple room.