Trains, Planes, and Automobiles.

Everyone we've met in Nepal has been extremely helpful, with the exception of our driver. We booked seats in a jeep(along with 10 other people, but we rode shotgun) from Kathmandu to the Indian Frontier. We went on tiny one-lane(one and a half maybe) roads through the mountains, and saw some beautiful countryside. We stopped in a nothing town about 25 miles from the border, and the driver, who didn't really speak any English just unloaded everyone's bags and took off without a word to anyone that I could see. Apparently a general strike had been called all across the lowland provinces(apparently some rather tense negotiations are taking place regarding the new constitution, prime minister, etc.). No motorized traffic would be allowed on the roads. Luckily one of our fellow travellers spoke a bit of English and attempted to explain it to us. She also hired a horse cart to take the three of us across the border. The only motor traffic we saw were a number of ambulances headed the other way. "Is it dangerous?" we asked. She said "Oh yes." and laughed. Actually we didn't see any strikers and our driver took a secret back route to avoid roadblocks. When we eventually found the immigration official in India he thought the whole thing was quite humourous. He also informed Sharada and me that by the time we got back, we would probably be married. "Travel 5-10 years, then you married. This is not allowed in my country." This sounded rather menacing given that it really was his country to let us in or not. He extracted a $2 bribe, possibly on accident.

The hotel on the border was fetid and Sharada received a mind boggling number of mosquito bites, which at least turned out not to be harbingers of dengue fever or leprosy. She also discovered someone had gone through her bag while on the roof of the jeep and removed some money, some clothes and her phone. It's been a rough few weeks for her. She must have looked crosseyed at a cow or turned away Lord Vishnu disguised as a beggar.

One short 20 hour train ride later we were in Calcutta(Kolkatta), which was not at all how Mother Theresa had lead me to believe. I'm sure there are some desperately poor people there, and it's rather dirty, but this is India. Compared to Dehli it sparkles. No doubt the British had something to do with this, but they've not kept up with the cleaning. It feels rather like a European city that has suffered a sudden loss of economic activity and civic government(although people do stop at stop lights almost all the time--imagine). We spent most of the time looking at gardens and totally out of place british building and eating Bengali food. On to Madras, well actually Mamallapuram(that's the shorter, modern name) instead. We got in to Madras so early that we had nothing to do but go to the bus station, so we basically
skipped the 4th largest city in India. India is better in small doses, I think. We're on the beach and there's a lot of palm trees and stucco and stray dogs and it feels a bit like Mexico, but with more giant stone monoliths of Shiva and Vishnu.

Photos

Finally I may have a chance for some photos.

Obligatory Taj Mahal photo.

I think there may be something behind me.

Fun at Fatehpur.

Benares by night.

Sharada spots a rhino at Chitwan

Elephants in the mist.

Himalaya off the right wing. Everest is the one you can't see behind the clouds.

Cotton candy vendor at Katmandu's Durbar square.

Explosion of prayer flags at Swayambhunath.

Countryside near Kathmandu.

I'm at the TAJ! And everywhere.

I guess it's been quite a while since I posted anything. I'm sure there is a reason for this. Sadly I'm not equipped to post pictures just now. The city of Agra is probably the craziest in terms of traffic and touts and beggars so far, also really dirty and polluted. The Taj Mahal is theoretically surround by a "no pollution zone" where motorized traffic and so forth are not allowed, but the brick walls surrounding the zone are not high enough to keep out monkeys, let alone smog. It is quite an amazing building, but it is quite raucous for a masoleum. I would estimate that there were between 2000 and 5000 people there while we were visiting, mostly Indians(who get in for 10% the price we paid). The gardens are nice though, and most people don't stray into them. We also saw Fateh Sikri, an abandoned Mughal capital, which I thought was fantastic(pictures later).

We moved on to Varanasi which has a reputation for being hectic, but we were all feeling a bit rundown and didn't venture out too much, so it seemed very peaceful. Some at the next table at lunch remarked that it's "very holy--in a religious sense" which I suppose is true. On the river just below our hotel they cremate people in large pyres. This is supposed to guarantee a particularly auspicious rebirth. We took a boat trip down the river at night and saw some interesting Hindu ceremonies, the light was beautiful and we were mobbed by mayflies, which made me think maybe I need to arrange an auspiciuos rebirth. The river is very sacred and many people come to bathe in it here. Apparently the priests have to drink the water everyday, and since it's already run through over 1000 miles of Indian countryside, they are sick most of the time.

From Varanasi it's been a hard two days on local Indian busses, which stop every 1-5 km and take on more people. After about 20 km it seems impossible that more people can be taken on, but they are continually. The amount of baggage we're carrying did not make us any friends, because there is no stowage and we take up the same room as a family of 6. The bus on the Nepali side of the border was more roomy and could carry bags on the roof, but still became quite crowded. Our last bus was so crowded when we got on that we had to ride on the roof for about 30 km, which was an exciting experience. Finally, a short 38 hours after leaving Varanasi we arrived at our hotel in Chitwan National Park(Nepal). This is a journey of almost 250 miles, I reckon we made pretty good time.

Contrary to what we might have supposed it is quite hot here, and in fact the park is mostly Jungle. This morning we went on an elephant back Safari. We were hoping to see a tiger, but maybe we will have better luck tomorrow. We did see two rhinos, which was quite exciting. The jungle was beautiful in the early morning mist, but perhaps not ideal for wildlife viewing. The mahout(elephant driver) seemed determined to make his own way, and while the other elephants tread daintily along established trails, we crashed through the jungle crushing underbrush and occasionally whole tree up to 20 ft tall. Perhaps he was engaging in some kind of arcane silviculture or maybe he was just grumpy, but he would occasionally goad the elephant into thickets when there was a clear way ahead or cause it to trample and tear down trees which were not in our way. It was exciting to say the least. We still have this afternoon and tomorrow in the park, and I'm hoping we'll see a tiger, or at least some marsh muggers(related to crocodiles). After that, onto Kathmandu to complete our lightning tour of Nepal. I wish we had scheduled more time for Nepal, but we have tickets booked to head to Madras. Some day I shall have to come back when I have time to trek.

Udaipur

We've been moving around quite a bite lately, but we decided to take it easy with 3 1/2 days in Udaipur. The city is lovely, it has a hilly, Mediterranean feel to it, and it sits on a lake with two beautiful palaces in it the middle. The lake is higher than it has been in years, but unfortunately most of it is still not navigable and our hopes for leisurely boat rides have been dashed. However, the beautiful view from the cafe in our hotel is in on way compromised. Before Udaipur we had a day(almost) in Jodhpur, where there is a huge, apparently impregnable fort filled with an intricately latticed palace. You might recognize it from a number of films, including "The Fall" by Tarsim, where I saw and said, I'm going there. City that surrounds it is painted blue partly because of Brahmins and partly because of termites and mostly because it keeps things relatively cool. It was also my computer desktop in the months leading up to the trip, which I've tried to duplicate here. Jodhpur was actually the one place we sprang for the audio tour, so most of the antiquities and Historically Significant Sites have been somewhat bemusing. Anyone who is willing to answer our questions tends to have very limited responses to offer. Why is this city abandoned? Religion Troubles. Is that painting a hippo? It's very stylized. Why do they wear such outlandish moustaches? No reply. I must admit I am experiencing Cultural Heritage fatigue. Time to hop back on the train, and head out to Uttar Pradesh. I wish I had some pictures from our various bus rides through the country, because the scenery there has been some of the more interesting we've seen, but my tiny camera is simply not fast enough to capture the scenery as it whizzes by at what seems like 100 miles an hour and about 3 inches from our faces.

Thar!

We're touring around Rajasthan for a few weeks, which was not part of the initial plan. We've taken in a lot of temples and forts. The forts are mostly fantastic, the temples are mostly dull. I suppose that tells you something about Rajasthan, they worship power, or they used to. It's been hotter, but less hectic than Delhi, even though we've been moving on every two or three days. My favorite has probably been Jaisalmer where the fort still have an active village inside. The narrow streets remind me of Spain. Until a cow wanders by. From Jaisalmer we went on a Camel Safari into the Thar desert, which is really very hot and dry, and has fantastic Sand dunes, where we all spent the night under the stars. It was a great way to see the country side and a much different pace of life than even the sleepiest town we've been to. Riding a camel is an interesting experience, but ultimately quite painful and we all feel like we've lost a fight. In a few days we'll take the night train to Agra and then see some of Uttar and Madhya Pradesh before heading on to nepal. I'm afraid my time has run out.