Passage to India
First, I spent almost two days in New Delhi, where I was
treated to two days of city touring, including a delightful bicycle-rickshaw
ride through the old city. Then, I
boarded the Palace on Wheels for a week -long passage through the country’s
largest province, Rajasthan. First stop
was the Pink City, Jaipur, where we rode elephants up to the Amber Fort—an
absolute delight. Film to follow. Day
Two: We visited a national park, tiger preserve, but saw only monkeys, deer and
birds, later visiting a huge fort for a light and sound show. Day Three took us to the Lake City, Udaipur,
where we visited the site where some of the James Bond movie Octapussy was
filmed; we dinned in the five-star hotel , followed by a boat ride on a lovely
lake—I could spend a lot of time here.
Day four and a train ride later to Jaisalmer for its yellow sandstone
fort (intriguing as lots of folks lived within the fort walls) was followed up
by a camel ride on the sand dunes of Sam and then a cultural program at a
hotel. Day five, at Jodhpur, we visited
the walled city and its grand palaces.
Day six took us to Agra for the Taj Mahal and Agra fort; I was here 40+
years ago but it looked far more impressive this time. Day seven brought us back to Delhi and the
end of the trip. Breakfast was served in
a common area at the end of each salon/cabin, with dinner in one of two dinning
cars. Ah, the food. Sampled everything. And then there was the bar car, with very
expensive but necessary wine and Kingfisher beer. We were divided into three groups, and I
ended up in a group which turned out to be most congenial.
An Academic Passenger
on a Train
First, the media. Both
the Times of India and Hindustani papers were available periodically on the
train, and I saw local papers in the languages read on steps of houses. The Hindustani newspaper mixes “classifieds”
and news throughout, not a bad idea. And
I saw my best headline in a long time: “Five Wild Asses Drown in River.” Of course, they were four-legged, not two
legged, but it brought a smile to my face nonetheless. There’s one television on the train, a large
screen in the bar car, which generally had the BBC news running, though an
Australian fellow switched to CNN when I stopped by for a little change---it’s
Dish TV, same as I have at home. So far,
I’ve managed to see little more than a few minutes of the news, since we mostly
“talk” in the bar car.
Since access to the Internet costs $4 per hour and is accomplished
through a dial up, I used it only once, to get a hotel room at the end of the
trip. It was frustrating because I kept
getting kicked off. Wish I could say I
missed email, but it was rather pleasant to avoid messages. I did check in briefly and the number of screens
was daunting and took two hours to run through and clean out when I got back to
Delhi. I saw Internet “cafes” at almost
all our stops but didn’t have time to visit any of them given our minimal free
time off the train.
Finally, at a luxury hotel in Jaipur, I spotted my first
person playing a game on a cell phone, and he was a blond-headed “foreigner”
probably about 11 or 12 year old. Also
saw two folks pull out iPads in the bar car one afternoon and the Australian couple
in my saloon texted their son in Australia a couple times, so technology isn’t
missing, just not very visible. A
couple folks on the train have laptops but there’s minimal tech use, except for
an occasional cell phone used to reach someone elsewhere in Asia.
From the beginning, we were divided into “colors,” groups
which would share the same guides, the same bus to sites and the same schedule
for dinner. I was in the blue group. A British fellow said it reminded him of his
school days, where students were assigned similarly through their entire tenure
at school. I can’t think of a parallel
we follow, but it effectively led to quick “bonding.” I kept thinking of the ol’ small group
literature, but could only reference the “instrumental” group formation
lit. Our small group of 24 or so folks
included people from Uruguay, Canada, Thailand, Argentina, several people from
Australia and Great Britain, and one couple from Pennsylvania + me. We found some of the “other” folks less
friendly and engaging, but those I chatted with in our group were most accommodating. We shared and debated a couple stereotypes, considered
how the use of different English may have led to misimpressions, and marveled
at our “common” media culture (e.g., film stars). I can’t say we spent much time on “jobs” in
discussions, but with questions I discovered we included several retirees in their
early 60s or late 50s and a number of 30-somethings: an anesthesiologist from
Wales, married to a nurse, a practicing physician from Pennsylvania, also
married to a nurse, an IT fellow and his wife –both working for a bank and
celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, a retired British businessman
from Phillips and his wife, a horse trainer, a Sikk Indian importer-exporter
(with considerable wealth) living in Bangkok, a retired electrician and his
wife from the Australian “outback,” and an Indian lady born in Fiji and her
daughter, living in Australia. Virtually
everybody was well traveled, and another Australian couple close to my age had
been almost everywhere in the world and seemed to travel more than they stayed
home, he beginning life in Austria/Germany and she spending her childhood in
New Guinea. As a result, we had some
delightful conversations where travel was the common theme. One of the other groups included two American
families, each with children under age 10.
I asked the older girl what she liked the most on the trip and she said
“the food.” The little boys seemed to
enjoy playing in the sand, regardless of where they were. A separate group with National Geographic was
on its own most of the time. And so we
passed the days in India. If I’m
successful, I’ll try to post a couple photos from each city on the tour.
Next stop is Cambodia, and I’ll try to shorten the comments,
as I’ve been warned.
....but first, a video welcome like we received....
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