Catch Up

On the 25th dawn found me sitting at the centerline of the reflecting pool watching the first rays of sunlight play across the Taj Mahal. That's a birthday present I won't forget. Pictures just can't do it justice, but I took lots of them anyway.

After visiting the Taj, our group headed back to Delhi. It was a fun ride. Jamie, Georgia and Gerry sang happy birthday to me, ala Marilyn Monroe, which was great! They did it three times because I was trying to video them doing it and kept screwing it up! Ayway, thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.

That night, Rod and company surprised me at dinner with a nice birthday cake! The hotel staff served it with the candles on the side- unlit, LOL. I don't think they're privy to that particular aspect of American culture. We all had a good laugh.

The next evening, my friends in the tour group went and flew off to the good ol' US of A and left me here to fend for myself. It won't be the same, but thats ok. I will miss them and the fun we had. Good bye, guys!

While travelling with the group, I worked out an itinerary with the group's travel agent, Dilip. He's a great guy and worked hard to put things together for me. He lined up all my hotels, and secured all the train and plane tickets that I'll need. And at each train station, he'll have a car and driver waiting to whisk me away. I feel like royalty!

So, after the group left, I checked into a Delhi hotel for the night and next morning took the train to Jhansi, where I was met by the local travel agent and my driver. Off to Orcha, a nice quiet town with some temples and a big fort. Spent the night there and in the morning, drove to Khajuraho, which has one of the largest and most famous temple complexes in the world. They were amazing! Each are several stories tall with thousands of delicately carved statuettes all over them. Some of the carvings are "torn from the pages" of the Kama Sutra. Pictures to follow.

In the morning, uh correction: before dawn, I was met by my driver and local agent in an open jeep and taken to the Panna Tiger Reserve national park. Sort of a drive-thru jungle. You wouldn't want to walk through it as you'd be toward the lower end of the food chain. I didn't really expect to see a tiger, and didn't, but it was well worth it as we saw lotsa other animals. We arrived at the reserve just at sunrise and picked up a government guide, Ram, who had the eyes of an eagle. This guy could spot even the most well camoflaged animals and boy, did he know his critters! Thanks to Ram, I saw Antelope, a wild boar, summer deer (tiger fast-food), spotted deer, lots of lemurs, a red wild dog (which was stalking a big buck at the time) and Golden Silk Spiders, which are the size of your hand! We also saw some exotic birds including many parrots. And one big-ass crocodile gliding down the river, which he said was rare to see!

That afternoon, we made the five-hour drive back to Jhansi to catch the overnight train to Varanassi. And I'm still here to talk about it. Imagine, if you will, passing every known conveyance, in and out of traffic on a two lane road, dodging buffalo, bicycles, pedestrians and god knows what else every 45 seconds for 5 hours. My particular favorite is a manouver I lovingly call The Indian Double-Pass. This involves overtaking a vehicle, which itself is overtaking another vehicle, on a two lane road with no discernable shoulders. Extra spice is added when the front of a huge truck is growing noticably larger in your windshield.

But, when night falls, that's when the real fun starts. Oh yeah. You see, Indians apparently wish to conserve their headlights and don't turn them on unnecessarily, like when it gets dark. And if they do use them, it highbeams only, baby. And of course, the pedestrians, bicycles and village livestock don't wear any sort of running lights. Its quite the thrill to be passing and find something immediately in front of you in the dark. And seat belts are hard to find, not that they would be much help, but it would make it easier to recover the bodies.

All that being said, Indian drivers are undisputed masters of depth perception and timing. They routinely pull off manouvers that I wouldn't even dream of trying, and they do it with panache, all the while displaying a calm, passive demeanor.

The secret to road travel, I've learned, is to sit behind the driver, so you can't see out of the windshield and let the man do what he's good at and not think about the consequences, if he isn't.