Living in the clouds... ilterally

Where do I begin? Gosh, I feel like so much has been going on since I last posted... Allen's up in Mussoorie now and is beginning to write his thesis (I know!). We're planning our fall, despite our intermittent internet access (where will we live? how will we buy a car? what do we do about Brooklyn?). And we're enjoying the mountains and the variable weather we get ... weather that is not above 100 degrees, thankfully.

I thought I would share some of the photos I've taken of living up in the clouds. I wish I was better at taking pictures of the Himalayas - they really are unbelievably big and my pictures do them poor justice.

The Smörgåsbord Post: Card Games, Monkey Attacks, HHDL, Homelessness, Extreme Cold, and Skin Freakouts

So, this is going to be a really weird post. I recognize that and am apologizing to you in advance.... it has just been a REALLY weird couple weeks back in India.

We told you already about all the fun we had visiting family this holiday season: weddings, winter-wonderlands, you name it!

We finally landed in Delhi, exhausted, but incredibly excited to spend the next week with our friend's Hamsa and Danika. We all made fast friends last year bonding while we waited for 3 hours at the Banaras FRRO office* ... the big pay off in this relationship though, is that they are a card-game playing family too! We've finally found another couple to play bridge and pinochle** with! We made good use of our time in Delhi to have a couple of marathon card playing sessions. You can see our set up below; we're all ringed around the coffee table, we've got two blowers(ie, glorified hair dryers) to raise the temperature, and we've sealed off half of the living room with blankets (to increase the efficacy of the fancy hair dryers).***

My, what a nice hand you have Allen

We had other adventures too...

Danika and I went to see His Holiness the Dali Lama speak. He was wonderful. His giggling is infectious. He taught on the different levels of happiness - and the strongest message I took away from his lecture was: doing good for others, in the long run, makes us all happier, so we would do well to focus more on others than just ourselves. Not a bad take away, given we were nearly trampled on the way into the auditorium and almost froze from exposure b/c the space was in no way weather-proof. I wonder if there was another lesson in there...

The boys, on the other hand, were attacked by a very protective mommy monkey. She and her baby have been hanging around the balcony of the flat for a while ... But one day when the boys were home doing laundry she came after them. I've embedded below the video Hamsa took of the monkey attacking the window. You can hear the boys trying to make noise against the window to scare her away - but that only seems to antagonize her more.

Intense, no? None of us have ever seen a monkey be so aggressive. We wondered if it was because she seemed to be alone. Usually, you see these types of monkeys in large family packs (males, females, babies...), but maybe since she's by herself she feels overly protective of her newborn... although, really, the baby seemed to be way less scared of us than we were of it.

Adventures aside, after a full week in Delhi, I was feeling a tremendous amount of "country-displacement" vertigo; one minute I was in the United States, the next I was in India. Living in Delhi is no cake walk, and I don't want to paint it as such (what with the increased incidence of asthma, insane traffic, perpetual construction, and weather extremes... just to name a few). But I sometimes forget that in Delhi one has access to a whole host of creature comforts that we had all but given up on in Uttar Pradesh. So, especially when we were visiting friends with 24/7 electricity and blowers and decent wine (what?!) and access to cheese and good Thai food (double what?!) and can BAKE (triple what!?) cherry strudel in their toaster ovens (where the hell am I!?).... well, let's just say it gets complicated. Spending time with our friends in Delhi was like being in a warm cocoony blanket of things-I-miss-from-home that I seriously had difficulty leaving.

But leave we eventually did for our apartment in Banaras. Oh wait, that's right, no we didn't. There was some confusion from our hosts about what date we were returning to Banaras - so we had to stay in a hotel in their non-AC room (read: with an air vent to the outside) for two FREEZING and surprisingly mosquito-filled evenings. Complain, complain, I know... But it just got us started off on the wrong foot, if you know what I mean. It took us longer to regroup in Banaras than we had been expecting.

And just to spice things up, my hands, face and neck are covered in eczema. I had been having trouble with my hands before we left for the States. I assumed it was just some crazy allergy I had, so in advance of returning I was taking Zyrtec as a preventative measure. Lot of good that did (click to enlarge the photos for the full affect)

I'm personally at a real loss for what to do next. I think it is heat rash around my neck and face because of the extreme of the cold outside of the warm blankets we use at night - seriously, I'm not joking. My hands... no clue. An allergy of some sort, I'm guessing - but the speed and violence of the attack, despite having taken preventative meds, is a little baffling. If extremes of temperatures really is my problem, then there isn't anything I can do about it. Inside the house (day and night) temperatures are hovering around, my best guess is, 45 degrees ... outside, with the sun beating down on you it is closer to 70 degrees ... but by the time the sun goes down...

There is no good way to stay a comfortable temperature. Couple that with my face and neck burning with itch and my hands so .... what is the word ... sensitive that they sting anytime I use them.... well, I'm not really a happy camper at the moment, to put it mildly.

So it has been REALLY REALLY strange for us coming back "home" ... I commend any of you readers who have made it to the end of this post because ... this is just weird what has been happening lately.

Hopefully, I'll have happier stories to share after the kite festival this weekend!

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* Foreigners Regional Registration Office. Registration is required for most long-stay visas, like research visas.

** One day I hope to be able to spell this game's name without having to always look it up.

*** I'm sure to have mentioned how insanely cold it gets in North India during the winter time. Frequently it is warmer outside, in the sun, than it is indoors.

The Blizzard of 2010

This was the sight that greeted us this morning at my folks place. We expect we got a little over 2 feet, at least.

The backyard

The snow drift by the neighbor's house

My family put up a valiant effort to liberate us (and the cars) ... but frankly, when no one from the city has come to clear the street, I'm not sure we'll be able to get out even with the clean driveway. Are snow plowed streets another victim of budget cuts?

But who cares right? We're warm inside* and have plenty of food (thanks to our milk and bread run during the beginning of the storm) ... we're all on vacation anyway right? So let's hear it for puzzles, games of cards, and Wii battles!

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* I would just like to point out to our friends back in India, that yes, Allen is wearing a T-shirt indoors despite all the snow outside ... Gosh we love central heating and insulation!

A Perfect Sh*t Storm

So, I think the technical term for what our vacation has been so far is "clusterf*ck"

Our travel agency jerked us around on the permits; we wasted time in one town (Kalimpong); missed sights in others (Tsomgo Lake); shortened our stays in Pelling because of the
"transport" strike; only to get to Darjeeling and have two days with absolutely nothing to do because it was actually a general strike; to add insult to injury, even the weather isn't cooperating - the rainy season, which usually starts in June/July has come early, so besides being wet most of the time and having the mountains cruely hide behind clouds, we're contending with mosquitos the size of my index finger and leeches crawling up shower drains. UGH!

Some of you may have noticed that I'm ALSO writing to you before our trek was suppose to end on Friday evening ... How to put into words the utter frustration of the past three days.

By Monday morning we still hadn't received any word from Trek Mate, the company we were using for the trek that was suppose to leave that morning.... so Allen went up to their offices and sat there until they opened at 10am. When they opened the office they apologized for not getting in contact with us (because apparently no one is allowed to answer a cell phone during a general strike... eh, right?), but that we could grab the gear they said the would provide us with (parkas and sleeping bags) and we could be on our way. Allen said that we had no way to carry them - so they gave him an oversized (made for someone 20kilos larger, we later found out) camping bag. Allen asked is there was anything else we would need since we hadn't brought any serious gear b/c our primary goal on this trip wasn't treking. He said that we would only need t-shirts during the day b/c it got hot, the parkas were for the night when it got cold, but besides that we should be fine.

HA!!!! The guide then picked us up at the hotel and (because he was a subcontractor and wasn't there when Allen had spoken with the office manager) seemed a little surprised by us only having sneakers and light rain jackets beside the Trek Mate gear.

What a joke. Looking back - these were all moments for someone to speak up, say "hmmm... doesn't look like you guys have all the necessary equipment - maybe we should get you rented shoes?"

But we were starting out later than scheduled because we only spoke with the office after they opened at 10am (originally they were supposed to pick us up after breakfast, around 8am).... we didn't leave town until closer to 12:30pm. Everyone assured us we would be fine and rushed us out the hotel, with what - in hindsight - seemed like a light load even for a camping trip. We thought we would be OK because there were huts we would be staying at along the way ... and because we NAIVELY put our trust in this company. Let me explain.

This wasn't a trail we were climbing up - this was little more than a road of rocks ... uneven rocks ... rocks that are slippery when went (like during the rainy season) ... rocks that are challenging to climb at the best of times ... but are miserable to climb when you've got on a heavy pack of useless crap and improper footwear. The sleeping bags were useless because every hut (better to think of as hostel) we stayed at had beds and plenty of blankets ... and the parkas were useless because who wears a down jacket in the rain!

UGH! Add to that the guide - who despite being friendly - was keeping up a faster pace than even he had anticipated - we always seemed to miraculously make it to our stopping points ahead of schedule. It was like we were racing the other people on the hill to get to the stops faster.

It is easy to see now, in the comfort of this internet cafe, off the mountain (and away from the debilitating effects of altitude sickness), to see where things all went wrong ... but at the time, we felt so rushed, so much pressure to just go, and frankly, excitement at where we were ... that we couldn't forsee what would inevitably happened*.

By the third day of our trek... after 22km walk and close to 3000m above sea level ... my left knee just gave out. There was no accident (thankfully), but I knew shortly after 9am yesterday morning that I couldn't keep going up the hill without risking more serious damage to my knee. It was a really hard decision to make. I felt like I was letting Allen and the guide down; like I had gone so far (we were only 4 steep km from the top, Sandakpur) only to give up near the end. But really I didn't have a choice.

So we made that decision to turn back at around 9am ... it took until 4pm to find transport to get down the hill... and another 4 hours to get back to town. Thank goodness I hadn't broken something ... or, heaven forbid, needed emergency medical services! We were totally floored at how there seemed to be absolutely no procedures in place to deal with an injured trekker. I can't imagine I'm the first person to get hurt and need to go home - but damn, at times it certainly felt like it. You would think after years and years of these various trekking companies working on this trail ... or hell, even these little villages that dot the path ... that at some point or another they would have developed a system of mutual support to get people off the mountain. But no.

We begged any passing cars (because a lot of Indian tourists forgoe walking up the mountain and just drive to the top instead) if they could take us ... many were too full of luggage ... one was plenty empty and the passangers had even said OK, but the driver decided it wasn't worth his time to wait so he left without us.

(sigh)

So we got back to our hotel after 4 motion-sickness-inducing hours in a jeep and car ... thankfully there was room in the inn for us (ha) ... but it had been a very very long day.

We're angry at ourselves for not being more prepared - but we're more angry with the "guides" we hired for not properly warning us of what we were getting into. Yeah, foreigners have to hire guides (because you cross into and out of the Nepali border), but ... shouldn't these guys know by now how to get people up the mountain safely?

Ugh. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.... this whole trip is starting to feel like "if we had known then we would have...."
Which begs the question of what is the point of hiring travel agencies and guides if not to make sure you know what you're gettin into!?

Glad I got that off my chest - sorry for the extended pity party. Hopefully when we get to Delhi and London, I'll give you a better perspective (ie, pictures) of what we've seen and done up here. I promise to keep those future posts thematic, so you don't have to suffer through the chronology of our clusterf*ck of a vacation again.
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* Sounds a lot like "Into Thin Air," no?

UPDATE: (06/17/10)

Here was our itinerary. We were suppose to make it to Sandakpu, but only got as far as Kali puri

This was what we were walking on.

(sigh) ... Look at how excited Allen looked on our first day... little did he know what he had in store over the next couple of days

Lovely Lachung

OK - enough of the pity party. The netbook is still on the fritz, but that doesn't mean I can't fill you in on some of the adventures we've had since my last post.

Thankfully, two days ago we pawned off to a different local travel agency, Macropolo World Travels, for an excursion up to Lachung and Yumthang valley near the border with Tibet.
We were really impressed with the organization of this excursion. Not only where everyone we interacted with professional but they also seemed genuinely proud of what they were showing us, whether it was breathtaking mountain views or how to drink local millet beer (more on that later).

We had a government-required guide (someone to ask questions!) and driver, who took us up 6 hours in the rain to Lachung. During the drive the surrounding mountains were just bathed in fog and there were times when visibility on the road was just a couple of feet. This was prime landslide territory* so there were many occasions where we were just driving through mud, rock, and sometimes small waterfalls.

Unfortunately, the rain held up all through the night and into the next day. Visiting the Yumthang valley was eerie because the clouds were right on top of us at times. It was cool, but mildly disappointing because we knew we were missing this (click for link)

The day was not a wash out by any means though... our guide, Ajay, was extremely personable and when he found out we were interested to learn more about local culture/customs he was happy to show us. We had butter tea - tea brewed with butter instead of milk, so it needs to be churned to keep the butter and water from separating. Best to think of it as a sort of creamy broth rather than tea though... We had local millet beer - literally, fermented millet in a large mug that you pour hot water on but you drink with a straw. Little like drinking mate with the opposite effect. Taste would probably be closest to a sort of pungent sake with a slight hit of bubbles. Pretty freaking cool.

And we were invited to sit in the kitchen while the cook cooked for the whole hotel, just because they heard I was interested in learning how different cooking is in India. The kitchen was a whole new world of fun - there were like 10 guys hanging out in this fairly large kitchen: one head cook, about 4-5 helpers, and another 4-5 hangers on. I was pretty pleased to see that style-wise the cooking was really similar to what I had already seen with Prem --- just all the pots and pans were way bigger.

And then it was time to head on back to Gangtok -- but lo! The sky had completely opened up for us ... and holy crap! The mountains were right in front of our hotel! Like, right there! And we had had no idea!! All the drive back was like a whaling expedition - with our guide pointing out "hot spots" where our prey was likely to poke out its head. It was awesome! Just whet our appetite for Pelling, where we hope to see Kanchenjanga and Darjeeling for our trek.

What a change a couple of days make. We were sad to leave Lachung and our guides. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. We're being told that there is a strike by drivers being threatened in Darjeeling and so we're pushing our itinerary up, skipping Tsonmgo Lake entirely, and rushing to Darjeeling as soon as possible... that way if the strike does happen, at least we'll already be there.

(shrug)

We'll see. But we're excited nonetheless.
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* During the rainy seasons (June and July) they have to shut down the roads entirely because of the danger of flooding and rock slides.

Photo essay: Mussoorie, My Magical Mountain (M)adventure*

So, what was it like to be in the foothills of of the Himalayas for a couple of days...?

Pretty steep.... but I'm getting ahead of myself...

It was breath taking at first blush...

... and pretty much stayed that way for the whole trip. Up and down the mountain we went and ... it was just AMAZING to be using my legs again ... to be walking around and getting exercise** ... to be a human billy-goat for a couple of days.

But it wasn't just the novelty of visiting a town, literally, carved into the mountain that made this retreat so perfect ... it was the chance to reconnect with nature that tipped the scale for me. (Can you find the cow in the picture below?)

The breeze!! The breeze through the trees!! Real live, wonderful, life-giving, shade-providing, wonderfully great and beautiful TREES!! Oh, how I have missed you!!!!! Meg and I would just walk for hours along "main" roads that were just engulfed in the forest; there was no traffic, there was no garbage, there was no honking, there were hardly any people... it was so peaceful. Throw in the ice-cooled mountain breeze ... and seriously, after 114 degree weather in Lucknow ... Mussoorie was heaven sent.

Mussoorie had other charms. Like pesto pasta (sauce)***

... and homemade Gouda cheese...

... and new favorite places to eat (with a slogan like that how can you possibly say no?)...

... and new toys...

... and new favorite games to play**** ...

... and throw-backs to the British Raj...

... and - no joke - some pretty enormous monkeys***** running around.

... oh, and have I mentioned all the trees yet?

(sigh)

Eventually, our time in Mussoorie came to an end... and my adventures getting to Benguluru (Bangalore) were just beginning. I took an overnight train from Dehra Dun (the station closest to Mussoorie) to Delhi. I arrived in Delhi at the crack of dawn and caught a cab to the Delhi airport. I then hung around the airport for a couple of hours while I waited for my morning flight. Trains, Planes and Automobiles, all in less than a 24 hour period ... not too shabby.

But more on what I saw when I got to Benguluru in the next post.

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*I'm a sucker for alliteration, sue me.

** To be honest, by the end of the trip, I was really feeling all the exercise we were getting. Mixed blessing, I guess.

*** For those of you who know of my love of pesto you can appreciate how big of a deal this is.

**** The rules are, find the weirdest "foreign" phrases you can find in the discounted-reject-T-shirts-pile ... that go beyond ironic hipster.

***** To be fair, the Langur monkeys - pictured - weren't nearly as scary (or agressive) as the Rhesus monkeys)

Not-so-subtle reminders that being on vacation means being unwired

Disaster has struck in the mountains of Mussoorie! Our little baby netbook is on the fritz so I can't download/upload all the pictures and video I'm taking ... I can't access the internet any place other than in this little rinky cafe ... and I'm afraid Allen's Urdu project might be lost if we don't get it fixed --- eek!

Not a huge disaster admittedly, but decidedly annoying nonetheless. So if you don't hear from my (or this blog for a while) it is because I am conserving all my best stories for when I can actually show you what I'm talking about.

But for now, really believe me that Meg and I have been getting one hell of a work out hauling ourselves up and down the mountain everyday ... on 70+ degree inclines (!) ... uphill both way (!!) ... I'm serious !!!

Other than that, we're loving being surrounded by the pine forest, with a chilly wind blowing on our faces .... ahhhh .... nature.... green public space ... peace and quite ... How very unlike Lucknow (or Varanasi for that matter) you are Mussoorie!

Mountains of Mussoorie

Internet is a bit wonky here - but wanted to a dispatch of my first day here in Mussoorie. I'm up in the foothills of the Himalayas with my friend Megan to look at the language school in Landor (next to Mussoorie).... and it is wonderful - such a difference from Lucknow right now. I'd say the temperature is about 4o degrees cooler, there is no hot wind, there is moisture in the air, we're surrounded by old growth forest on our walks up and down the mountains, and it is so quite - no hustle and bustle like the city - that you can hear the wind blowing through the trees.

I'm in heaven.

I wish I could up load photos and videos of this place, which I'm affectionately calling my Indian Switzerland, but the internet isn't having it (the force is not strong with this one). But hopefully sometime soon I'll show you the rolling mountains, the dense woods, the butterflies, and the terrifying drives up the winding paths.

Next Week's Weather Forecast

I read recently that New York City reached a record (for this time of year) 91 degrees the other day. Thought I would counter with what our forecast is for next week.... just to put things in perspective.

A hot wind blows...

I'm saddened that this blog doesn't allow me to share all of the sensory experiences of India with you first hand... I do my best to give you a sense of the visual and aural with my various videos, but even those lack a certain ... what would you call it? ... engulfing force that the combined sight, sound, smell, touch/heat of India just can't be described by words alone...

... but I'll still give it a try.

I've probably mentioned before that weather here kinda plateaus instead of changing gradually. It is like someone flips a switch and the weather goes into it's next mode. For example, around Republic Day (Jan 26), the flip was switched to "spring": bright sun-shiny days with a chilly breeze in the air.

A couple of weeks ago the flip was switched to "summer" (not to be confused with "monsoon"), which added a hot dry wind to the bright sun-shiny days ... making you feel like you are literally baking in an oven.

You know what I'm talking about, when you're checking on a pie or maybe a mexican lasagna you got in the oven ... and that scorching dry heat wafts into your face .... yeah, that's what I'm talking about... now imagine that feeling every time the wind blows. Allen thinks that walking down the street sometimes you feel as if you are walking towards a giant hair dryer. The breeze doesn't help at all. In India they have a special term for this Hot Wind - they call it "Loo".

It is sort of counter-intuitive, right ... usually in the dog.-days of summer you beg for a breeze to lick your sweat and cool you down. Here it is a whole different story.

When all is said and done I'm guessing Allen and I are averaging about 3 - 4 liters a day of water just to stay hydrated in this weather (the temperatures are currently averaging around the low 100s).

I guess we should be thankful though that this isn't monsoon weather (humid, sticky, and in the 110s degrees).

Where did Lucknow go?

This was the view out of our window this morning - where did Lucknow go in all this fog/smog!!! So we broke down and got a space heater (ahhhh....) and these 30 rupee hats (all Allen's idea, can you guess why?)

Part 3 of Operation Travel around for 3 Weeks: Completed

Gosh was it great getting to see Mom and Dad for two weeks over New Year's. We laughed a lot (as Candelores are apt to do when we get together), we talked about politics and economics (ie, Dad's colorful theories), and dealt with the stresses of living in India - together.

We had fun to be sure - but I think it was those challenging moments that meant the most to me and Allen ... dodging traffic from every direction ("Look! The cow is crossing, let's go with it!"), avoiding open sewers both large and small ("Wow! That's big enough for a grown man to fall through"), bypassing construction that was endemic to Delhi ("There is just a crater in the ground with no signs or any way of diverting pedestrian traffic!"), taking in the sights ("Look at all this garbage!"), eating local fare ("Mirch nahin!" meaning no hot chillies)... Mom and Dad got a good taste of what our life is like, the good and the bad (though we tried so desperately to keep it mostly good) ... they got a view into our lives that I think gets watered down through the blog: but when you're here face-to-face with India the experience is nothing if not intense.

We started in Delhi, where the infamous "fog" had overrun the city*

... not to mention all the construction for the 2010 Commonwealth Games**

Thankfully, a friend of my father's was able to put us up and show us around some of the sights (visiting a new place is always so much more enjoyable when you have friends there, isn't it?)

India Gate

The museums and monuments we saw the next day with a guide. We had my parents on a pretty tight schedule with the touring, but interspersed touring with a day in each city for just "hanging out" ... mostly in case they needed to hide in their hotel room for some time (thankfully, being the tough Candelores that they are, they were just fine). In Delhi we saw:

Delhi's Red Fort

Chandi Chowk (so much more pleasant at 9am when none of the shops are open)

Jama Masjid (the largest and best known mosque in India)

Red Ghat (where Gandhi-ji was cremated)

Birla Mandir to Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth)

Baha'i Lotus Temple

We tried to make it to the Akshardam Temple (which from what we could tell sounded a lot like a religious Disney world - seriously, click on the wikipedia link I've added) but by the time we got there it was swamped and we were pooped. Oh well, we'll save it for next time.

A short plane ride to Udaipur had us in a wonderful old haveli

... overlooking the lake.

Touring on New Year's Eve took us to:

The Jagdish Temple

... the City Palace, and

The Crystal Hall (listed under Fateprakash Palace).

Then it was off to the Taj Lake Palace Hotel for the New Year's Eve Celebration.

Some of you may remember the AMAZING time we had when we stayed at the Taj over our honeymoon ... New Year's Eve was just as Magical! Excellent food from all over the world, service that made you feel like a princess, an atmosphere that made you feel like a queen .... (sigh, I want to live there) .... I must admit though that we giggled a lot about the non-Indian musical selection, which included such gems as this, which became a running joke for the rest of the trip.

New Year's Day was set aside for shopping. Our motto (and a bit of advice for anyone planning to travel to India) is that shopping with the hired guide detracts from sight seeing (it eats hours of your day literally) ... so its almost always better to do it on your own particularly if you're just getting souvenirs for family and friends (as opposed to Kashmiri rugs).

The next day was suppose to be a short plane ride to Jaipur, but "fog" in Delhi delayed us by nearly four hours ... delays that originated in Delhi because of "fog" became a theme on our trip.

Fortunately the bulk of our touring was scheduled for the next day. We started with:

Hawa Mahal (an iconic symbol of Jaipur)

Then we took an Elephant ride ... (sigh, I love elephants)

... up to the Amber Fort.

From there we went to see the City Palace and

... the observatory. We didn't spend too much time outside because the weather wasn't cooperating with us. So, we saved our exploring adventure for the next day, when we wandered around the bazaars in the Old City of Jaipur.

Wasting no time, we got up bright and early the next day for a 6am train to Agra (which was delayed again because of "fog" - seeing a pattern,yet?)

We got to Agra much later than expected and were feeling pressured by our tour guide to go to see the Taj Mahal immediately. Allen and I reluctantly gave into their pressure (they were telling us stories about how the Taj might be closed the following day because officials from the Commonwealth games would be visiting) ... and went straight from lunch to the Taj. The sky wasn't perfectly clear - but it was clear enough. So we plopped ourselves there for the entire afternoon (literally).
Thank goodness we went to the Taj when we did because the next day the air was as thick as pea soup.

Our itinerary was tight: we were going to Fatehpur Sikri in the morning, Agra Fort after lunch, then taking a 8pm commuter train to Delhi. But looking at the sky gave us pause: there was no way our train was going to leave on time ... arriving in Delhi early the next morning was out of the question because Mom and Dad had a transatlantic flight the next day ... so in a dramatic change of plans we decided to drive the four hours to Delhi. Allen and I didn't relish this mode of travel (as I'll explain in a little bit), but we didn't think there was much of a choice.

Fatehpur skiri, being away from the city, had beautiful weather

... and the Agra Fort at sunset was stunning.

But we had to get going. We had at least 4 hours of hard driving in low visibility ahead of us. (sigh) There was a (read: many) good reason why we didn't want to drive my parents through Rajasthan. All the guides and booking agents were pressuring us to just hire a driver to take us to the various cities; it is cheaper, more convenient, and because of the weather this time of year it is just more reliable. But that doesn't change the fact that it is pretty damn scary for someone not accostomed to traffic over here. Mom and Dad were good sports about it though - Mom prayed for us throughout the drive and Dad helped keep the conversation going so we could concentrate on anything other than the road. This was by far the most harrowing part of their journey, although it seemed unavoidable, I'm just thankful at least that it came on their last day in India, so at least it didn't come as too much of a surprise.

Thankfully we made it to Delhi alive and in good time (our driver was driving like a bat out of hell because he was making the return trip to Agra that evening). We imposed upon the hospitality of our friends in Delhi for one last night and prepared for our flights the next morning: Mom and Dad back to the States and Allen and I back to Lucknow.

Saying goodbye was hard: but we are both so thankful that Mom and Dad were willing to make the trip in the first place... it meant so much to us to see familiar faces in this crazy place. It was grounding in a way, like "Yeah, this is real. We really live here and we're doing just fine."

Thank you again so much Mom and Dad for taking time out to visit us. Your company was such a pleasure and comfort to us. I hope that you enjoyed all the crazy adventures we took you on and that we didn't scare you too much. ;)

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*Gotta give credit where credit is due - Dad took exactly 2500 pictures on this trip between three camers (not including the camcorder) - that's 250 per day! So many of the pictures in this post are his. Great work Dad!

**Another aside, there is so much work left to be done it is amazing that they expect to finish by October of this year.