Okay, now a few from July/August and that will have to satisfy until I start posting the new stuff in a matter of days, internet willing....

July 4 Sunday Happy Fourth of July everyone back at home. No fireworks here in India. The day was spent cooped up in an upper bunk of a sleeper train completing a 32 hour train ride across the bulk of India. We arrived in Mumbai at 9:20pm to discover that Gabe did not have the address of our hotel written down anywhere and the prospect of finding open internet cafes was dim. We walked out of the railway station to get away from the most bothersome taxi drivers and eventually found one that was convinced he knew where the hotel was. That turned out to be a complete fabrication. Almost immediately he began pulling over to the sides of the street and calling to other cabbies and anyone who would listen for help finding the place. Of course no one seems to have any idea, but they all know other places they can take you for a great deal. Since it was partly our fault for not having the address/phone number (well, Gabe's anyway) we spent a great deal of time trying to get them to understand if they found us an internet cafe we could get the address. We were unable to get this across no matter what we tried. After a while, with our cabbie getting increasingly testy (he had agreed to a flat rate and I'm glad we had negotiated that before getting it), we found someone who spoke enough English to work something out. He did not know where the hotel was, but sent us to a cafe, Leopold Cafe, where many foreigners hang out and where there was a good chance to get an internet connection. Then we could work on the solution to our problem.

July 8 Thursday Today was rough day. Some might use the phrase 'soul searching', although that doesn't quite seem to fit for me. This theme does come up in my thought process with relative frequency, for whatever that is worth. Mumbai has been trying overall and India on a whole has maybe lived down to my lower expectations. Another rainy day began early with us meeting Terence, our guide/headache of the past few days. His claim to be able to get us into a Bollywood shoot was, of course, vaporware and we were pretty much ready to sever our contact with him, but he insisted on helping us get our tickets to our next destination and that was worth something. Before addressing that we made sure we were cleared at the hotel and they would watch our luggage until early afternoon. We took a bus to the Victoria Terminus and checked on train prices, which as we knew, were quite high. Then we walked around the building to where all the bus ticket vendors were located. Of course, we immediately run into some 'obstacles': there seem to be no buses with reclining seats or air conditioning headed to Rajastan state. So our choices are non A/C seats (stiff back none reclining) or sleeper (which is a bed, so you are lying down the entire 16 plus hours). We elected to go with the sleeper option, which was half the price of the train ticket and a method of transport we have not yet experienced. So Udaipur, here we come. With that squared away, we had a late breakfast of uttapams, dosas, vegetable cutlets, and various other things. And we paid for Terence's food as well. Then we walked a looooonnnnnggggg way to a bus that took us to the home where Gandhi lived for about 17 years and from which many of his campaigns for Indian freedom originated. It is a small simple place and now houses a decent sized library of his documents and those about him. The exhibits include letters to US presidents, Hitler, and Leo Tolstoy. It was special to me to spend the time carefully going through the exhibits, as Gandhi is one of my heroes. He spent a life time living by principles and a moral code that are worthy of emulation.

With our time nearly gone we hurried back to Volga II, dismissed Terence, grabbed our baggage, bought some water for the bus ride, and after about 10 cabbies, we found one that would actually use the meter to take us to the bus depot. All the other cabbies wanted to rip us off, usually to the tune of triple the true rate. Even the cabbie we took changed rates on us once we arrived. He suddenly wanted the meter rate, plus 35 rupees 'luggage fee'. We told him flat out that we were not paying any add on fee and had him show us the rate card, which is what we used to pay him the fair price for our trip. The bus was right there and we made a pile of our bags. We had decided we would put our Pac Saf mesh on our big packs, since we had had so many warnings about things disappearing. So we were both in the process of doing that, when a young guy started helping me with mine. I told him I did not need help, but he just kept involving himself. It was annoying because he just made it take longer, since he doesn't know how it gets attached and just got in the way. Anyway, I got the Pac Saf on, the guy said thank you, I thanked him rather tersely and then he was gone. Gabe got his on and we loaded them both into the back of the bus, then I realized my small backpack was not in the remaining pile of bags and I panicked. My computer as well as my backup hard drive were both in the backpack, plus my passport. That guy was the only person we thought had been near the luggage and Gabe took off down the street where he had headed. I was angry and full of adrenaline. It had only taken a few seconds of distraction and the bag was gone. And that it happened while we were securing other bags from theft.

Well, within minutes of Gabe heading down the street where the guy had gone, a small crowd was gathering outside the travel agent where we had purchased our tickets. And they seemed rather agitated themselves. Suddenly from the midst of the group appeared my bag. I quickly ran over and grabbed it. Nothing was missing when I looked through the compartments and as annoying as it was that they began asking for a 'reward' for the guy that had the bag, I gave him 60 rupees. I sent a quick thank you prayer to God and then scanned the street for Gabe. He made it back, just as they were ushering me onto the bus in preparation to leave. I told him the story and he told me of his looking down alley's and places to see if the bag had been dumped. So what had been a near disaster, became not so much of one. Just a warning to us both about how fast it can happen. As we began driving out of Mumbai we passed a series of billboards and that in conjunction with the other events of the day had me thinking long and hard. The billboards, which I am sorely sorry I did not get a picture of, were for an under construction housing project by a joint group of Indian developers. The image was of twin suns setting on a body of water with the tagline “Ultra luxury living that will force others to look up to you. For the privileged few.” As far as the eye can see around these billboards were the slums of Mumbai, shanties like you see in most any country with a large population of poor people. How is it that we as humans can be so oblivious or intentionally callous to the rest of humanity? How can someone justify an “ultra luxury” lifestyle while others live in such poverty? Another example from yesterday was a Four Seasons Hotel directly across the street from a slum that has one bathroom for each 9000 residents. How can we convince ourselves we are deserving of so much at the expense of others? How do the people living in the shadows of these premium accommodations see the whole thing? Is that why as a white person walking down the street I am seen as a money machine? How does someone honor Gandhi as the Father of free India, and mistreat their own countrymen? It boggles my mind and I get to a point where I wonder why God would choose to save any of us. And I have to remind myself that despite what is happening in the world, He does have a plan and ultimate control and though I will not understand it until I can ask Him about it directly, He loves me and everyone else on this big world. I can be responsible and try to improve the world around me. Maybe that does not accomplish much, but it is worth doing anyway.

July 9 Friday I woke up several times in the early morning and the 16 hour mark passed by. We needed another 2 and a half hours to eventually reach Udaipur. After unloading our bags and taking a bathroom break, we had competing cabbies wanting to take us everywhere and anywhere. This time we had a written list of several places to stay and after selecting a driver, had him take us to Anjani, which was supposed to have internet access. I waited with the tuk tuk while Gabe went to check on the actualities of the rooms. A guy stopped at the tuk tuk and gave me a card for another place. When Gabe got back he said the rooms were enormous, but also much more expensive, plus the internet was nearby, but not included. Next he checked out the place I got the card from, but those rooms were not very good. We asked for a place with internet access and they gave us the name of Hotel Minerwa. Our driver took us to a different place, using the amazing logic all cabbies seem to possess. We made him bring us to the Minerwa, and Gabe went in to check it out. A smiling Gabe emerged soon after, saying we definitely wanted to stay here. The price was great and the room is large compared to our places in Mumbai and Kolkata (but it is still half the size of the rooms at Anjani, which is crazy). We got registered and installed in room 304 then went to the roof top restaurant for breakfast. We both had curd with bananas and honey, and I had a masala omelette while Gabe had a tomato omelette and chai. Really good food and quite cheap. We talked with the waiter and got a lot of good info on the city. The hotel (and actually many of the hotels here) have a nearly nightly showing of the James Bond film, Octopussy, since it was partially filmed in Udaipur. He gave us the internet password, but we could not get it to work. They said it would be working later in the day. Regardless, this is already so much nicer and beautiful than the India we have experienced to this point and I am glad for it.

August 8 Sunday We woke up at 4 am to gauge the weather and it was actually raining. We went back to bed and got up closer to 7 to see that the clouds were breaking up. There was hope for pictures of the Annapurna range yet. It was still slightly drizzling, so we went over to Kangaroo and had breakfasts of fruit juice, brown toast with jam, fruit muesli with curd, tea and a croissant from the German bakery. Back to the hostel to check out of our room and put the bags in their storage for the day. We walked to the damside and all the way to the alternatively named Devi, Davis, or David Fall, where we planned to take a bus the remaining way up to the Shakti Stupa (World Peace Pagoda). Turns out that no bus actually goes to the Pagoda despite our having been informed otherwise, so we ended up walking the whole way up the mountain. We were drenched in sweat, the clouds refused to come off the higher peaks, and other clouds were threatening rain, but the walk and view were well worth it. It is somewhat sad to have been to the Himalayas and not have any pictures to show for it, but we really did see them on several occasions, when photography was just not really possible, in buses around the valley. As has been the case the last few days it has felt so much like Switzerland, with the way the mountains look, the houses all decorated, the friendly people, the smells of cows and grass, the sounds of chickens and goats, I really love it here.

The Peace Pagoda itself is rather impressive and if the clouds had cooperated it is the type of place you could sit all day and take pictures.

August 9 Monday Daybreak had us approaching the Nepalese border town of Sonauli and at 5:40 am we got dropped off in typical traveler fashion 6 kms from the actual border. Yay for convenience and practicality. A 50 rupee jeep ride got us to about 200 meters from the crossing. We walked to the immigration office on the Nepali side and got stamped out, walked across the no man's land to the Indian immigration office and within an hour were back in India with all our stamps in place. Then the hassles with taxis and rickshaws began as they all claimed we had a huge distance to cover to the bus station (we walked the one kilometer just over a week ago, so we know what it really is). Gabe discovered one mistake in that he did not change his money back to Indian rupees on the Nepali side. Similar to my extra Myanmar Kyat, it was much harder to change on the Indian side (that actually became a day long search for a place that would do the exchange and not flat out gouge on the transaction). We ran into a nearly full taxi landrover and again got a deal with rides to Gorakhpur for 100 rupees each. This is a double blessing because it cuts almost three hours off the travel time of the bus and at 100 rupees is barely more than the bus. Most people pay 200-250, but since they just want to pack the vehicle we have benefited in both directions. Our driver was in a hurry so we made good time and with a few short naps in our crammed seats in the back, we were suddenly in Gorakhpur by about 8:30 am. This time we got dropped off right at the train station which was great for us. We waded through the drivers trying to take us right back to Sonauli and while I guarded the mound of our bags, Gabe tried to track down train tickets to New Delhi. That was a whole story in itself and an hour and a half later

August 10 Tuesday We arrived in Delhi at 6 am and with the normal hassle of taxis got one to take us to Connaught Place (which is undergoing major renovation for the Commonwealth Games), where the rooms were either complete dumps or VERY expensive. That driver passed us on to another driver who said he would not charge us to help find a place to stay. That means he gets a commission on the room, but that can work both ways. After some really expensive options he did take us to Hotel Kumar Palace and we took a room. We dropped our bags in the room and after about five times of hotel staff knocking to see if we needed food/beer/laundry, we locked the door. We both took showers and then headed out to explore Delhi a bit and get some food. The metro system is supposed to be one of the more efficient ways of getting around the city and I have to agree after our time here. The subway is being greatly expanded and will be a nice system when completed (who knows when that might be), but we were able to use it very cheaply to get to a few places of interest. They are packed with people at all hours though. We actually ate at a cafe in the metro station, snacking on samosa, veg cutlets and other veg pastries, on top of some decent lassis.

August 11 Wednesday I arrived at the Indira Gandhi Int'l Airport about 12:30 and getting through customs/immigration including three separate scannings of my luggage and person I made it to the gate with fifteen minutes to spare. I was able to get the bags checked straight through to SFO, which is a blessing since I have the long German layover. The plane left 10 minutes late at 2:35 am. The flight was basically uneventful, we arrived in Frankfurt 10 minutes early due to favorable winds and I could listen to some decent inflight radio, but the movies were not ones I was interested in. With a seven hour layover in Frankfurt I was in no rush to get off the plane and was one of the very last. It was easy to find which terminal I needed to go to, but they had no info on which gate I would need to go to. My ticket indicated C13, but that is an isolated gate specifically for flights to/from Israel. So much for security fears and peace in the middle east. I chose to wait in a no man's land area until I could confirm which gate was mine before going through another round of baggage checks and scans.