I'm at the Airport!

Today is a good day. After yesterday's fiasco with the camera (it did arrive and works great) I was ready to leave. I was truly worried about a cab ride to the airport. Delhi traffic is insane and if the driver was late, all bets were off. After not sleeping much last night (the same thing happened my last night in Thailand), I got up, took a shower and packed everything up. Lucky for me, BBC International is covering the entire Democratic National Convention, so I got to watch Michelle Obama's speech in full. She was good. Damned good.

Anyway, I went to the lobby to check out and sat waiting for my taxi and was pretty nervous. But who should walk up? Anand!!!! I breathed a deep sigh of relief and then jumped up and down clapping and smiling like a little girl. I knew everything would be OK and now I'd get one last ride with my friend.

He, as always, was amazing. Everytime we ran into traffic that was stopped dead, he turned the car around and drove us through neighborhoods, over sidewalks -- whatever it took. We arrived majorly early. It was so sad saying goodbye again. We've already been through this twice, not realizing that we'd see each other again. This time we knew it was it. As I was walking along the walkway toward the entrance, he drove along side me very slowly, waving as much as he could. I have to say, I was fighting back the tears. I'm so glad he asked to drive me this morning, eventhough it was his day off.

So I'm off to Kathmandu. I've been told by many travelers that it's so much easier than India -- much more like Thailand. I'm there until 9/13, so I can relax and recover. India was very difficult.

A few things to note: except for Delhi and Agra, I spent all of my time in Rajasthan. It is the poorest state in India. It has the lowest literacy rate and the lowest average income throughout this country of more than a billion people. Because of that, I saw some heartbreaking poverty. I've been in Central America, through some poor areas of Mexico and Belize. I've been in Eastern Europe just after the fall of communism. I thought I'd seen some pretty poor conditions, but this was worse. But don't get me wrong, Rajisthan is beautiful. Probably because the people are less educated, little changes. I only saw 4 Indian women in western clothes the entire time -- and they were tourists from other parts of India. (I'm not counting the security guard at the Taj Majal -- she was in uniform and was there to frisk the women who set off the metal detector.) The images we imagine of women walking in beautiful saris with pots on their heads is real. I saw it so many times a day that I couldn't even begin to count. Same with horse, donkey, buffalo, cow, camel and elephant pulled carts. And bad traffic. And men in turbans. I also saw thousands of people so devoted to their religion that they'd walk for days, some barefoot and some through the desert, to worship. I was offered food and tea so many times by people who I didn't even know and I spent the afternoon with Ranjee's family. There's many wonderful things about this country.

And speaking of Ranjee, there's something that I didn't write about before. I didn't want Mike to worry. Not Evans, Barber. While I spent two nights in towns less than 100km from the Pakistani border, Jaipur was really the dangerous spot. There was a bombing in the City Palace complex in May. This is the place with the stone observatory that Ranjee took me through. Ranjee was injured in the blast. He had some major injuries to his right leg and spent some time in the hospital. The blast was detonated by a cell phone, so in some places I was not allowed to take any electronics in with me. That included cameras, so there's some cool places I saw that I can't share with you. That's also why it took nearly an hour to get through the security line at the Taj Majal -- they had to thoroughly check each camera.

Knowing what I know now, I would have done India completely different. I'd not go alone, I would stay the hell out of Delhi, and I would call Anand and book him before ever getting to the country. I do have his cell number and he said that if any of my friends want to visit, I'm to call him directly and he will take care of you from beginning to end. The Taj, Jaipur and Jodhpur were my favorite places and I wish I had spent more time there.

So much for sentimentality, I'm off for new adventures. The Himalayas await.