India Victorious

We are returned from India - daunted, exhausted and muddle headed. India chewed us up and spit us out. Or, more aptly in view of the state of our gastro-intestinal systems, India chewed us up and shat us out. The day after my first post marveling at India I came down with Dehli belly. It stayed with me the rest of the trip in varying degrees of acuteness. No one in our tour group was spared. We were a perfect 20 for 20. It became a custom - every morning at breakfast we would get together and talk shit. It became standard practice to get on the bus with at least one barf bag. By the end we looked like a bunch of walking wounded, dazed and confused. The last 9 days in the country was like aversion therapy for Indian food. By the end, I was seeking out the pasta in cream sauce at every buffet.

I am still struggling with the stomach today, 5 days after returning to the U.S. Carol held off until the last days of the trip before succumbing and has spent nearly every minute in America in bed or in the bathroom, rousing herself long enough to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant in New York with the assistance of several doses of Immodium.

So after all this, was India worth it? Well, I still stand by my first post. This trip was a superlative, literally. Name a thing and India had the most of it, or the worst, or the best, or the least. Most difficult, least hygienic, worst roads, most colorful, best forts, best tour guides, dustiest, most beautiful women, most handsome men. How could anyone pass up the chance to see and experience all this because of a little intestinal discomfort.

But our appetite for India is sated. There will be no return trip. Hopefully, my appetite for Indian food will eventually return. In the coming weeks, as I sort and organize my photos, I'll tell you about the trip in detail. I only hope I can do justice to this most amazing place.

Incredible India

Wonderful, incredible India. This is day 8 in this country; what to write about first? The unbelievably vivid colors, smells and sounds? The din of the Diwali crackers? The women walking down a dusty road in brilliant red, or yellow, or gold, blue, orange (name a color) saris, one with a pallet of cow patties balanced on her head. Another balancing a giant bundle of 15 foot long reeds. How about the home made trucks ubiquitous in the villages, sporting no cabs - just a seat, steering wheel and motor.

Maybe Varanasi and the deeply spiritual buzz I developed as our guide, a devote Hindu, walked us through the myriad of rites associated with this oldest of the world's religions. Or watching devotees bathe themselves in their holy river, a place most of us would not dare to dip our big toe. Or the Indian family who opened their home and kitchen to us. Or the strangers who befriended us on our miserable overnight train ride.

What about the stark uncompromising vitality teeming in the streets around me. I have never been in a place so alive. The material poverty is palpable there is no apparent poverty of the soul. Every sight here exceeds the last. Every meal even more delicious than the one we had yesterday. Each day has been an eye-catching exciting adventure.

And yesterday I saw the Taj Mahal, determined to disdain it as a decadent tourist escape but finally surrendering to the lump growing in my throat as the magnificence of this indescribable jewel grew larger as I neared the cool translucent marble. My soul is uplifted, my spirit soars, my mood becomes tranquil and I leave content that there was once a man with the audacity to create such beauty on such a grand scale.

Nine more days In India. Details when I get home.

Off to India

Sorry to leave everybody hanging about our first full day in New York on October 11. I got too busy to finish part two. Well, OK, I was playing a computer game. But now my focus has shifted so you'll just have to wait. We're off top India in a half hour for a three week tour of the Northern parts. We'll visit Dehli, Varanasi, Jodhpur, Jaipur and a couple other "-purs". We'll go on a couple of Ganges River cruises, stay in fancy tents hunting for tigers, ride camels on a nature trek and view the Taj Mahal. And I'll tell you all about it when we return on November 28. Signing out till then.

Phil & Carol