Train-ing

The hardest part of our trip so far has been transportation between cities. We have relied almost exclusively on trains thus far. The first adventure was getting from Delhi to Sawai Modhopur. We tried to act tough at the Delhi train station as people in red jackets kept trying to grab our bags. Little did we know that they were licensed porters who are actually very helpful at making sure you are standing in the right place and getting on the right train. We could have used their help; though we didn't in Delhi. Instead, being the only westerners on the train platform we relied instead on walking up to wealthier looking Indians to ask if they spoke english and could point us the right way. Finally, one of them went over and asked a porter who ultimately directed us. Now we trust the porters. A tip of 10 rupees (~25 cents) per bag gets us just where we need to be.

The other lesson is on the different classes of trains. There is ordinary class, which looks just like the movies where there are people smashed in like cattle, first class, AC second class, AC third class, non AC sleeper, two tier compartments, three tier compartments...Regardless they are all packed with people. Though you think you have an assigned seat, there really aren't assigned seats...the faster you move, the better seat you get. We made the mistake of not stretching out on our assigned seats, so others would just crowd in and sit next to us. The smart people stretch out at the stops and act asleep so that no one will sit near them.

On one trip that lasted a mere hour, we paid about $1 for our train ticket and then someone from our hotel helped us bribe a conductor to sit in a first class cabin. We wound up paying about $20 for the first class bunk - all of which went straight into the pocket of the conductor. Erin asked for a receipt -- he looked at me and laughed.

On our trip from Bundi to Jaipur, we bought a ticket for an ordinary train, there was not first or second class. We wound up sitting in a pair of benches with 5 other men for the first part (3.5 hours) of the trip. It was quite crowded. On the second leg, we noticed a first class car on the train, so we just walked into a cabin and sat down. Figuring a twenty dollar bribe would be worth the seat for the next three hours. Turns out we got an honest conductor who sold us the seat for an additional $6. 7 hours on the train, 3.5 hours of which was first class cost a total of $7. I think we're starting to get the hang of it.

The trash in India is amazing as well. While it is a beautiful country, it is very polluted and there is trash everywhere. On the train you could see trash all over the tracks. While waiting between two cars to get off the train, we saw how much of the trash gets on the tracks. There was a stack of food trays near the door to the "dining" car loaded with used aluminum trays, napkins, and other trash. An attendant squatted next to the trays and proceeded to dump the contents of each tray through a crack between the cars, right onto the tracks. Similar in the bathroom on the trains where you look down the hole of the toilet and see the tracks moving by underneath. It all starts coming together....

Beautiful Bundi

Today we write from the small, beautiful, off the beaten track town of Bundi. We are staying at a great little hotel, about 12 rooms, right in the shadow of an amazing 400 year old palace of the Maharaja of Bundi. In fact the Maharaja lived in the palace until 1951.

We arrived last night and walked through the bustling, packed village and witnessed a wedding procession through the town. It was unlike anything we've seen. There was a parade of about 50 people led by a wagon blaring a combination of chants and techno/electronica. Following him was a man in a suit doing a crazy dance (reminded me of my uncle Tommy for some reason). After them was the groom riding a burrow. Following the burrow was the bride surrounded by about 30 other women. Wrapped around the whole procession were about 20 young boys carrying poles with two 4' long fluorescent lights each powered by a generator at the rear of the procession. Very different.

Today we got up early and walked to the top of the hill and the entrance to the palace. We were up too early, even Erin, and the palace wasn't open, but we were greeted by about 1,000 monkeys climbing up and over all the walls. After breakfast, we were able to go on a tour of the palace. It was amazing. Apparently it was made of a type of very hard stone that wasn't very carveable. So instead, the entire palace was painted with intricate murals. Most of the murals had weathered away, but there were still several places, such as in the Maharani sleeping area, and the Maharaja sleeping area, where they were still intact. Beautiful, intricate, almost 400 year old murals painted in amazing colors, gold, stained glass and mirrors. The entire palace sits on top of about a 500 foot hill and the views are breathtaking. When standing up top we looked over the town of blue-walled, flat-roofed buildings and could see monkeys running and jumping from roof to roof. The whole place reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie. Amazing.

Tomorrow we are off to Udaipur for about three days. We are getting lots of walking in today before a 7 hour train ride tomorrow.

We hope all are well and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving.

Ted and Erin

Tiger Safari

After three crazy days in Delhi, we decided to head for the hills to go on a Tiger safari in Ranthambore National Park. We are staying at a very cool former hunting lodge of the Maharaja of Jaipur. The national park used to be his private game reserve. We went on three different safaris and saw lots of spotted deer, somber deer, blue bulls (giant antelopes), paraketes, vultures, mongoose, crocodiles, a thousand year old fort on the top of a mountain, but no tigers. We did, however, see a million monkeys, one of which jumped on our truck and tried to steal our driver's hat. All in all well worth the $3 per safari fee.

We are leaving Sawai Modhopur today and heading for Bundi, which is supposed to be a cool town. We are working our way toward Jaisalmer where we will be going on a camel safari for a few days.

Now that we have time and space to relax a little, we've thought about all we learned in Delhi. Such as:
1. How to spell Delhi - D-O-O-K-I-E
2. If you ignore beggars long enough they lose interest and go away
3. Always keep your arms and legs inside an autorickshaw, less they be severed in tight traffic circles.
4. Expect your boogers to be brownish-black and to develop a never-ending cough
5. Too many people, not enough space - expect to constantly be pressed tight to the person in front of you.
6. The only place we've ever been where we love the suburbs. We stayed in Sunder Nagar, a quiet gated community that gave quiet and peace a whole new meaning.
7. Don't let Ted control money or negotiations.
8. Don't let Erin control a map or directions.
9. Thank god we randomly threw a bag of cough drops in the medical kit.

Well that's about all for now. We will try to keep this up to date, but internet access can be difficult. Please leave comments or drop us an email. When we get more time and a better computer, we will load up some pictures from our trip so far.

Ted and Erin

Delhi is crazy!!

Well, we have made it safely to Delhi including a couple of adventures already. The flights were uneventful, though very long. Once we made it to the Delhi airport, we were overwhelmed with the number of people holding signs for others as well as the taxi situation for getting to our hotel. We thought we had it licked when we paid for a prepaid cab and the very nice driver escorted us past the throngs of people, and five wandering bulls in the parking lot to our cab. He was very nice, until he told us he was lost and had to stop for directions to the hotel. Ted, of course, fell for it and went inside, though Erin knew we were about to get scammed. Sure enough, we were about to get scammed. Thankfully we escaped their elaborate set-up where they tried to make us believe we didn't really have reservations. Once we convinced them we wouldn't fall for their game (at least Erin convinced them), they actually drove us to our hotel, where they then got a tongue lashing from the doorman at our hotel who we told about their scam. Ever since, things have been crazy, but good. There are crazy autorickshaw drivers, billions of people, smog, dirt, poverty, heat...and we love every minute of it.

Tomorrow we are getting on the train and heading to Rathambhore National Park for a little relaxation. We'll talk to you more soon.

Ted and Erin

Getting ready!

Well, it's 6:15 am on day one of Erin and Ted's big adventure. We are packed and ready to go.

We will plan to update this blog on a fairly regular basis as we are traveling, so rather than inundate you with email that you may not want to read, you can come here to check out where we are and what we are doing.

Once we turn off the computer today, we will start our long, long, long trip to New Delhi. Today's agenda is to fly from Seattle to Vancouver to Toronto to New Delhi. I believe we land in New Delhi a mere 28 hours from the time we depart.

Wish us luck and have a great weekend.

Ted and Erin