To sum India (and the experience I had there) up in a few paragraphs would be irresponsible at best. The whole thing is so surreal to think back over even now, and I almost forgot what my day to day life back in the states was like. I got to see some amazing sites, meet some wonderful people, and really see how people in other parts of the world live. The amount of poverty we saw and just the sharp difference between the have and have nots made me somewhat ashamed of how selfish and materialistic the majority of people in the US (including myself at times) are.

I gave our driver a pretty significant amount of money when we left and in some small way, it made me feel like I was helping. Sure, there are millions and millions of other people there that need help, but the money I gave him will hopefully be enough to make a significant difference not only his life, but the life of his wife, baby, and parents. It still pains me though to know that there are so many people there (and all around the world) that do need help, and have no way of getting it. It is ridiculous that we are trying to decide on which new iPod to buy or if we can afford that new Lexus when there are so many people out there that could live a full year off that iPod money, or a whole village that could have food and water the rest of their lives for the price of that Lexus. Now that I am home, it is the time when I see if I am all talk and let myself slip back into my comfortable life, or really work to do something and support people that are trying to help fight poverty throughout the world.

Despite these comments about poverty, the Indian people are headed towards a whole new way of life, and it was pretty amazing to be in the middle of it, watching it happen. The government and people are heavily supporting education and you can see so many of the youth getting advanced degrees and looking for professional jobs. The city we were working in was all dirt 6-7 years ago, but is already full of high-rises, a subway under construction, major highways being built and you can see progress all around you. While some people have strong objections to outsourcing and offhsoring because of what hey fear it will do the American economy, after this trip I support it more than ever and feel that I can make a pretty strong case for it, should you care to discuss.

And lastly…it feels so good to be home! No more: worrying about if the food is safe to eat at a restaurant, smelling like the curry used in all the dishes at our hotel, trying to find something to watch on TV out of the 3 channels not in Hindi, having to find someone that could translate for me in certain situations, brushing my teeth with bottled water, basically holding by breath in the shower so I don’t drink water, worrying about my wife, missing my wife, eating protein bars for dinner, working until 3am, freaking out when being driven down the road, getting asked to have my picture taken with locals, working out in a gym that was 95 degrees, enduring the 115 degree heat, and no more having to worry about what time it is on the East Coast when calling home.

It’s good to be back!

Today some people from our host company took us to a Ruby Tuesdays so we could enjoy some American food. I know it seems silly to come all the way across the world and then eat at a restaurant that I have two of within 5 miles of my house, but we were really just looking for the old familiar food at this point. It has truly been a challenge trying to find what to eat every day and I went a number of days without really having dinner because it was such a hassle to find something we could order. I want to go home and eat a huge salad, some tuna, grilled chicken, fruit, vegetables (believe it or not), orange juice, cereal, yogurt, etc, etc.

Tonight while we were out, we ran into one of the many children on the street begging. What was interesting about this encounter is that our Indian fiends with us actually gave the child some money hoping that he would then leave us (the foreigners) alone. However, all the kid did was beg even more and eventually got frustrated and hit the side of our car. It was a pointless gesture and resulted in him getting chewed out by our friend Sandeep, but the frustration from this kid caught me off guard. The sad part is most of the kids are merely working for a sort of mob that puts kids on the street to beg and then takes all the money they make.

Tonight was also the first time we have been in Delhi really late at night (we normally work the the suburb known as Gurgaon). What I noticed was how many people were laying down to sleep on any and every surface they could find - the side of busy streets, medians, parks, benches - literally hundreds and hundreds of people just laying down and sleeping anywhere there was a free patch of dirt. It takes homeless to a whole new level and made it evident just how many of the 1.3 billion people here in India live in poverty.

This week has flown by, and the arrival of two colleagues from back home this past weekend certainly helped with that. Dolores has been great to travel with and her general outgoing nature has helped to counter my fairly reserved demeanor, but I think just seeing some familiar faces from home helped to brighten our spirits this week. We also managed to hang out with them some last night despite it being after 1am when we got home from work. At least now I can say have stayed up through an Indian sunrise.

Tomorrow we pack our bags, go to work for a half day or so, and then head to the airport. I am looking forward to the flight home and just relaxing knowing the next place I will be will be my own house and my own bed. I still have all the pictures from the Taj Mahal to put online as well as some taken this week and what I am sure will be taken on the way home. Be sure and check back in the next couple days because I will make another final post or two and get all those pictures online before locking this site down to preserve it in Internet land.

I have had some really cool conversations with some new friends I have met here. Some of the people I am working with have been in the US a number of times and have a really good perspective on India culture versus culture in US and other parts of the world. One thing i see India doing right is they have made a strong investment in the education of their people. You will regularly run into people here that have their Masters or are working towards it and the thought of extra school seems to come a a given to those here that can afford it. Sure there is a lot of poverty in the country, but there is also a lot of good happening. It isn’t surprising to me that we are seeing a lot of work coming here with so much being invested in the education of the young people. The US better step up.

I had more to say, but it is now 4 hours since I typed the rest of that post and about 5:30am. Talk to you tomorrow.

Friday, we took the short trip to Delhi to pay in advance for the ride to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) the next day. Once we got that taken care of at the swanky Sheraton in Delhi, our host took us to a shopping emporium run by the Indian government. He assured us that this way we would get the most fair prices and wouldn’t be haggled for purchases like we would in an open market. He was right, but I will also like to experience the open market, so we will check that out before we go. Once we got some shopping done, we went over to McDonalds, where I thought I would get a little taste of home (although I haven’t eaten at McDonalds in years), but man was I wrong. First off, the place was crazy crowded and had 4-5 security guards throughout the small seating area. Then I looked at the menu, and my hopes of a “normal” lunch sank. The menu featured several “chicken” sandwhiches and a “veggie surprise”, but from the pictures nothing looked very good. I decided to go with the “grilled chicken”, which ended up being some weird kind fo chicken curry patty and was really pretty horrible. It at least felt safe to eat though, so I went for it and tried to eat a lot fo fries to fill me up. The first day we got here we met another American and that is the one piece of advice he gaves us - the fries at McDonalds are good, just like home. He was right. Things were going well at the office Friday, so we were able to leave a little early (ie 11pm) and try and get back to the hotel for some sleep.

Ever since I got here, I have been having to take Lunesta to sleep at night. When I don’t take it, I toss and turn all night and wake up every time the power goes off because that also means the AC shuts off and it gets warm in the room. Well, since I knew I had to be up for a bus at 4am I didn’t want to take any sleep aid and as a result I ended up sleeping a total of about an hour. Four AM Saturday rolls around and it is time to get ready for the trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal. We have our driver take us to Delhi where we catch our charter bus and begin the trek. Even the drive to Agra was incredible because we got to see what small towns in norther India are like. Some of the the towns were incredibly busy despite being in the middle of nowhere, and it really was a glimpse at a completely different way of life. It felt odd sitting on this big bus and looking out at the local towns and people who were waving and reacting to the tourist rolling through. I felt like I was experiencing this whole thing from a safe little bubble and made me want to be out on the street walking through so I could really EXPERIENCE it and not just SEE it. That drive made me understand why people want to backpack through foreign countries and just kind of wing it as they travel across the world. I am not saying I would ever be brave enough to take off and do something like that, but this trip showed me why it is much more real to experience things that way then in the comfort zone of the tourist way of seeing things.

Once we got to Agra, we made several stops including a famous tomb of one of the great Indian Mongols, the Red Fort, and lastly the Taj Mahal. Each of these buildings had their own things that made them amazing, and just the fact that some of the structures we looked at were built 1,000 years ago was mind-blowing. Since America is such a young country, we don’t have anything that was built this long ago still standing and to us, a building is old if it is was built a couple hundred years ago. To see a 1,000 year old building (and then the graffiti scratched into it - the modern world seeping in) was worth the trip in itself. Once we finally made it to the Taj Mahal, we were ready to see what everyone had been talking about it. The easy was to describe it is “amazing” - it is just one of those things you have to see to understand. At it’s most basic level, the Taj Mahal is just a building - a very beautiful, perfectly built, amazing building - but still, a building. Much like the pyramids, the thing that makes it even more amazing is the story behind it and how perfect it is despite being built at a time when there were no modern tools to help with construction. Some 20,000 people worked to build the Taj Mahal, and the mogul who commissioned it had the hands chopped off of the skilled workers so that they could never build another one like it. The symmetry of the structure itself along with the multiple buildings around it is absolutely perfect, and you can do a line of site from one point on the back of the inner tomb that goes straight to the middle of the entry gate of the Taj, probably 100 yards away. Simply amazing.

After the long day in the intense heat walking around Agra, we got back on our bus and headed home. Due to traffic we encountered and some rain, the trip back to Delhi took a long six hours and we were all pretty beat when we got back to the hotel after 1am. Today I think we are going back to Delhi to check out some more things and show some of our colleagues from home around since they arrived this weekend. I kinda feel like an old pro on this whole working in India thing at this point.

Here are some observations and general comments from the last couple days:

I have found that there is an odd assortment of things placed in urinals here in India. In several places I have encountered moth balls, but in some of the swanky hotels, I have seen ice cubes. While I can make a reasonable guess about the reasoning of the moth balls, the use of ice confuses me.

While driving Friday, we saw our first wreck. A rickshaw had run into a car and we then saw the car driver walk up to the rickshaw guy and punch him in the face. It was very surprising to see and was the first of any kind of violence we have seen.

There is a lot of construction here, which is no surprise, but what is surprising is that a lot of times the buildings just being built already look worn. I am not sure if it is the construction materials they are using or just me being used to seeing really clean, steel support and concrete slab buildings, but it seems like a lot of the buildings here are old, despite being very new. Also, there are several areas in town where a whole building will be collapsed upon itself. It could be the result of an earthquake, but it looks more like the structure and foundation of the building just gave out.

One observation from looking at all the shops on the side of the road and even the old buildings in Agra like Red Fort, was that the swastika is heavily used here. I knew Hitler took the symbol from the Hindu people and began using it, but I had forgotten or not thought about the fact that it is still an important symbol to Hindu people. Several of the buildings had them carved into the marble structure and you sometimes see them on the back of cars or store fronts.

While driving to Agra, we saw lots of great things. I saw a kid with a homemade bow and arrow, both of which were bent sticks and would certainly not have flown straight. We saw perfectly built straw and sod huts that whole groups of people were living in, we saw wild monkeys, a snake charmer, and cows, horses, donkeys, oxen, camels, and even an elephant - all being used to pull carts full of things. We saw a major Indian oil refinery and the 15 foot high eternal flame of burned oil. We saw probably 100 different brick kilns where they were making new bricks and breaking down old ones to remold and bake. And sadly we saw the real poverty of this region with many many people living in the dirt in fields, relieving themselves squatted in fields and on the side of the road, people sleeping naked on the side of the road, beggars, etc. All things that pulled on the heart strings and made me think how lucky I am to have been born into the family I was and the country I am able to live in. These people didn’t choose to live in poverty.

To end on a positive note, I still have some work to do next week, but I am starting to feel like I really made the most of my time here. I have seen so much and been able to view a place completely unlike my own. This is definitely the kind of experience that stays with you forever.

Oh, and more pictus hopefully will go online tonight including the Taj Mahal, etc.

Work, work, work, that is all I have been doing. This makes the 4th straight day of straight from hotel to work to bed, I am ready for the weekend! Saturday we have a tripped planned to see the Taj Mahal and some other sites in Agra and then Sunday I think we will try and see some things in Delhi. That is when the real pictures will come.

I am sad to say that Dolores had to go back to the hotel sick today. We had planned to go out for dinner tonight because we have ordered Pizza Hut the past two or three days in a row and wanted something different. Turns out I was stuck on multiple conference calls working and was unable to go so our host ordered us some sandwiches from the cafeteria. When I went in the room where the food was delivered, Dolores had already eaten hers. After looking and seeing that it was mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches (two things I don’t eat anyway, much less in India), I decided I wasn’t going to risk it. After taking an obligatory bite, I excused myself and went to my desk where I ate tuna and peanut butter crackers. I talked to Dolores when she got back to the hotel and she seemed to be feeling better, so hopefully tomorrow she will be good to go.

Aside from that one bad food experience, so far we have been OK. We have talked to some other people here from the US and are hoping to get a list of “safe” restaurants so we can eat something other than hotel food. I think I could recite the menu to you on command.

We have had some further developments with the locals. Dolores got a call from the guy at the hotel restaurant that wanted to go to the Taj Mahal with us and told her he had looked for us in the cafe for two days now. Turns out we are working the same schedule he is, so we never saw him. She had to tell him that we weren’t going to be able to take him with us because our host company was arranging the trip. I think he was pretty bummed about it. Dolores just keeps turning down the dates!

I also got a chance to talk with Sandeep some on the way home since I was by myself. He can’t speak much English but I did discover that he just had his two year anniversary and will be having his first kid in August. He also is the only one in his house that works and he takes care of his mom and dad too. I can’t imagine supporting a wife and kids in addition to your parents and maybe even your wife’s parents if she has no brothers. Sandeep seems like a very honorable man.

The question of the night is: Do they have casual Friday in India too? The work dress hasn’t been real formal anyway, so I might just role in with shorts tomorrow. Of course I am kidding, but it sure is tempting when I look at the weather and see the high tomorrow is once again over 110 degrees.

To answer one of the questions in the comments, we are working these hours right now to try and cover part of the work day here in India and part of the work day in the US. We are suppose to be working 3pm-12am, but we seem to get out later and later each night. Next week we will actually be working something like 5:30pm-3:30am to match East Coast time exactly. Should be interesting how my body adjusts to that for four days before returning home.

While I am answering questions, Abou it is interesting you bring up how they respect the employees personal time here because basically…they don’t. In fact, last night when some of the host company employees were leaving, they were making sure we knew we had their cell numbers and could call them at any hour - they were always available. I made a comment about how in the US, a lot of people don’t use their cell phones while at work, and in my old department it was even against policy to use them. However, people here will often be in meetings or standing there talking to you, get a call on their cell phone and answer it in the meeting (and remember, these meetings are 10 people in a tiny room all standing up), trying to move off to the side, but not necessarily even leaving the room. The employee last night had said that in India (at least at his company), they do not have personal time and he was hoping this was something that they would pick up from western culture!

OK, here if a good story for you to close out the post. Yesterday on our way to work, our driver Sandeep (who speaks very little English) out of the blue said, “Do you like me?”. We sat there confused for a second, not entirely sure what he was asking us and how our response would be taken. Sure, he had been a good driver, always there on time, nice enough to smile at, but we can’t really have a conversation with him. So eventually we decided on “yes” and went with that. Then he told us if we went to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) that he wanted to drive us. Ahh, ok. So he was trying to ask us if we were happy with his services and if we wanted to hire him for the trip. I can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He sat there at the office waiting for almost 12 hours yesterday for us to be done with work. Yes, I know it is his job, but I will help at least one person here right before I leave and reward him for being a good driver.

I did manage to take some pictures yesterday on the way to work. We still haven’t gotten away long enough to do any site-seeing, but hopefully this weekend we will get some of that in.

Well, our streak with the locals continued yesterday when on the way to work our driver asked if wanted to go see his village sometime while we were here. There is no telling where his village is, but it was nice of him to ask - although probably not the best idea (don’t worry Leigh, I’m being safe). Speaking of the driver, apparently our host company hires a driver service who assigns us a driver that is to take us wherever we want, whenever we want. It is always the same guy and when he drops us off at work, he just sits there the 9-10-11 hours we are working and waits for whenever we are ready to go home. The whole idea is just crazy to me and I feel bad for him just sitting around all day waiting for us to be ready to go home so he can go home. I can’t help but wonder if he gets paid by the day or for only the hours he is actually driving or what. It is nice knowing we have a number of a guy who can pick us up anytime we want, but our host company is keeping pretty tight tabs on us (for our own safety) and trying to make sure we don’t go anywhere without one of their representatives with us. Which of course we are not doing.

I guess that really hits on something I noticed in general. People here seem to see someone doing a job (whether it be a driver or a waiter, or the guy who walks around the floor at our host company asking people if they need anything - drinks, snacks, etc) and have no problems asking them to do whatever it is they need. I don’t know if I am making much sense here, but basically even though it may be a waiters job to serve me, I wouldn’t ask them to do something that would be a big inconvenience for them. Like if the driver had just taken me to work and I forgot something at the hotel that wasn’t a necessity, I wouldn’t ask him to take me all the way back just to get it. However, the way people here view it, that is the drivers job and of course you should ask him, no question. Even when we were at the mall shopping, Dolores was buying something but didn’t have exact change. Well the person we were with told the merchant that we were only paying x dollars because we didn’t want to break a larger bill and didn’t have exact change. She didn’t ask, she told her, and then gave her the money and pretty much walked away. Very different from how the transaction would have happened in the US.

The last couple have days have involved our getting oriented with our work environment over here and starting to do the actual work we are here to do. I was pretty worn out the first day because I hadn’t slept much the night before and I forgot to take snacks with me. Despite trying to order some pizza while there and having it delivered wrong twice (first time it was loaded with spices, and the second time it had chicken on it - which the people helping us order thought we wouldn’t want so they sent it back before we ever saw it!!), I didn’t end up eating anything for about a 9 hour stretch after lunch. Bad idea. However, the next day we went prepared with some of the protein bars I brought with me over here and some toasted bread from the hotel along with some peanut butter. Having food is essential for a happy Scott.

While I obviously won’t go into specifics on the work itself in a public forum, I did have a couple observations about the work environment in general. One is that much like the hotel room, the power frequently goes out at the office. Of course the computers and network are all on generators and battery backups, but the lights themselves will go out and you will be sitting in the dark for a couple minutes before the power comes back on. They are very use to this here and think nothing of it, but I kinda liked working in the dark, so it made me smile every time it happened. Plus it just provided some well-needed distraction. The problem is the area has grown so fast that the infrastructure isn’t able to keep up with it. In fact, I can look outside my hotel room and see hastily posted power lines, some brand new office building going up, homeless merchants in their huts basically right under the construction, steer crossing the road, and a $300 a night hotel all on the same block. There is no segregation of poverty and wealth or business, it pretty much all runs together in towns like this one.

The second observation goes back to the different way they look at personal space here. We had several meetings yesterday and they were in a tiny room that was the size of a small office (and in fact was going to be someone’s office in the future I believe) and we just gathered around the phone standing up. We had probably 10 people in one meeting that we would have used a large conference room in Raleigh for so that everyone could sit around a big table and stare at each other. Although it was a little weird at first, it could be that meetings move faster and get better results because people aren’t lounging around in big chairs trying to stay awake. Instead they are in really close quarters where they have to stay engaged, and they are standing, so they tend to get right to the point. I am sure a workplace psychologist or designer has looked at this kind of thing before, I would be interested to see what some study results of this type of thing reveal.

I am going to try and take more pictures here in India, but I haven’t really wanted to draw attention to myself. In Amsterdam blonde hair, blue eyes and pale complexion don’t stand out, but in India I already stick out like a sore thumb, so adding a camera makes it even worse. In fact, last night I a saw a commercial for something I couldn’t understand and the ad was following around a ‘tourist’ in India who was represented by a middle-age man with balding blonde hair, a permanent exaggerated smile, a sun burn and you guessed it….a camera. Plus, since the work week started, the day has gone something like this…Get up at 11am, go run for an hour, eat lunch, go to work - work until 2-3am, go to bed. So we haven’t been to see anything or really experience much here in India yet, which we are hoping to change here in the next day or two.

I have to do something other than work so I have something interesting to tell you all about!

My wife will be the first to tell you that I am probably one of the worst people to take to a mall. I don’t like dragging around, and I don’t like having to fight through crowds. However, I was so glad to not be cooped up in a room and so excited about seeing the town and the people that I think I was pretty patient with the 130 different India stores we went in that had scarfs. Dolores managed to find something she liked in every store we went in (she claims she was buying for family and friends, but when we got back to the hotel, she tried to explain why she just had to keep this item and that item for herself) and to be fair, a lot of the items were really nice. While at the mall I did manage to find a thing or two for my wife and something that will hopefully make up for the fact that I will be missing my 5th wedding anniversary and our closing on a new house while I am in India…sometimes life has it’s own timeline that is out of your control.

While at the mall I accidentally did one of the no-nos that we were warned about and I had some ice in the form of a blended coffee drink. I didn’t think about it until afterwards and after a temporary panic about the stomach pains I was soon going to have, I decided to not worry about it and fortunately it didn’t seem to cause any problems. While the mall was tiring and crowded, it was interesting and different enough that I have been interested in going to see some of the other malls while here. So I came all the way to India to go to malls? Hey, we gotta find something to do other than work!

Last night while talking to my mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, I noticed the wind was whistling and looked outside. There was a pretty remarkable sand storm kicking up and at one point it got to where all the cars were pulled over and the whole sky was one big tan cloud - sand blowing everywhere. Pretty amazing to see from the comfort of my hotel window, I can’t imagine being out in it.

I also found out that the reason we saw so many of those old trucks on the way into the city the night we arrived is because cargo trucks are not allowed into Delhi in the day. There is so much traffic that the trucks have to wait until nighttime to enter the city. While that doesn’t seem like the most effective approach to traffic congestion, it is interesting and results in a pretty massive line-up at the border as it gets close to nighttime.

One final observation for the day…the first day we were here Dolores had breakfast in the hotel lobby by herself and when I saw her afterwards, she told me that the waiter had asked her out to the movies that night. We were both pretty surprised he was so forward with the offer and she said they hadn’t really talked that much during her meal other than her saying yes she was married when he asked. Well, the next night at dinner, a female waitress she had met at lunch, asked Dolores if she wanted to go shopping with her today. She proceeded to ask for Dolores to exchange phone numbers with her, and told her should would be in touch. So to make sure you are keeping track, we were here two days and Dolores got two invitations for activities (or as I like to tell her, “dates”) from the hotel staff. I was starting to feel a little left out when at dinner tonight, our male waiter began asking us how long we were in town. I told him two weeks, and he asked if we were going to have any free time while we were here. I said maybe some on the weekend and we were hoping to travel the 4-5 hours to see the Taj Mahal. Well sure enough, he came back after a little bit and asked if he could go with us. Whaahh??? I mean sure, I don’t know you, I think it is kinda weird you randomly ask a hotel guest if you can travel overnight on a 4-5 hour trip with them, but hey, maybe that is how it goes around here. So we have been here 3 days and every day we have gotten an invite to do something with one of the hotel wait staff. Do we look bored? Are people here just that friendly? Do you think the hotel cares that their staff is asking patrons this? You be the judge.

As a thank you, here are the first bacth of pictures. Jo Ann, we haven’t seen any camels, but I am sure I could get a picture of Dolores on one of the steers that keeps walking down the middle of the street.

Although I was born in Indonesia and flew internationally quite a bit as a kid, I haven’t flow on an international flight since those early years (outside of Aruba a couple times). Not only that, but I certainly have not flown business class/first class on such a flight. We took our seats and I was amzed at all the room we had, but still a bit shuffled since we had just rushed over. Well, in the process of storing my bags, I managed to knock the wine glass of the passenger beside me into his seat. Great!! I tried to clean it up, and the man was really nice about it, but I felt like crap the whole trip because this guy was having to sit in the wine I spilled in his seat - I did offer to switch seats, but he wouldn’t have it. Other than that experience, the flight was simply amazing. We were served a 3-course dinner and later breakfast, we got the little bag with socks, the world’s smallest toothpaste tube, eye mask, etc and each seat had their own video screen (between the two flights I think I watched about 6 movies). After what seemed like a quick 8 hours we arrived in Amsterdam.

Since we had a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam, Dolores and I decided that we couldn’t just sit in the airport for that long, so we went and explored the city. The customs official convinced us that the the taxis were very expensive and we should just take the train into town. That would be great if we could read where exactly the trains were going. We braved it anyway, and ended up taking a train that led us way out into the middle of Amsterdam countryside. It was pretty and we saw lots of sheep, cattle, and other various grazing animals, but it wasn’t necesarily all we wanted to see in Amsterdam. I found someone on the train who spoke English and they set us in the right direction so we could catch a train into town. Along the way we stopped at a little coffe shop where I found a bathroom I had to put change in the door to use and a pre-packaged waffle (I love waffles) - two very different, but equally strange encounters.

Once we made it into town, we pretty much just walked around, enjoyed the architecure, the people watching, and the various trinkets in the store windows (sadly we were there too early for anything to be open really). I was pretty hungry and had been looking for some normal looking breakfast (ie. toast or eggs) and hapened upon a spot with “English Breakfast”. We sat down, I ordered bacon, eggs, and toast and then thought twice about it when I got the eggs and they weren’t scrambled as I had though they would be, but sunny side up and very udnercooked. I decided I would eat justt he egg whites and made due with that. While there, Dolores was impressed with the table of guys drinking 8 ounce classes of straight vodka for breakfast - I guess they were still going from the night before. Other than the architecture, the thing that struck me about the city was how many people used bikes. The train stations and other public transportation spots were crowded with thousands and thousands of bikes locked up or even just laying against the railings. Everywhere we went, bikes were all over the place. Probably because there didn’t seem to be a lot of room for cars - kinda like New York, but old school and…Dutch.

Impressions of Amsterdam: Lot’s of coffee/pot shops, really cool architecture, tons of grafitti, friendly people, lots of bikes, and overall cool culture.

The plane ride from Amsterdam to Delhi was much like the first flight, but less crowded and we had to fly around in the air for an extra hour because Delhi was having a dust storm. Seems to be a regular occurance here. When we arrived in India and went to get our luggage, I temporaily panacked as my box of food never showed up. I made my way to the counter and it had arrived ahead of me, so I got it and was happy knowing I had some back-up food if I got tired eating the same 3 things from the hotel menu.

First impression of India: crowded, hot, and dusty/dirty.

Dolores and I had a car from the hotel waiting for us at the airport, so once we finally found them, we were on our way. Now I know I was warned about the driving in India, but holly crap it is insnane! How do they not hit each other and run over all the pedestrians, bikes and COWS! that are going in every direction? Not only do people not drive in lanes, but if the quickest way to get somewhere is to go down the wrong side of the road into on-coming traffic - well then they do that too. I mean the cars come within inches of eachh other and never touch somehow. Add to that every person constantly honking their horns and you have traffic in India. The big trucks even have signs painted on the back saying “Horn Please” because if you don’t honk when you are beside them, then they don’t know you are there and will run over you. Speaing of the trucks, I hope to get some pictures of some - they look like Soviet era cargo trucks and have fancy royal looking strips of trim on the doors and inside the cabs along with neon lights, etc inside. Really cool looking. So we finally made it to the hotel and our rather plush hotel room- hardwood floors, big bathroom, nicely decorated, etc. - at least if I am going to be in a hotel for two weeks, it is a nice one.

Upon arrival I got some things setup with my computer and hit the bed. I managed to sleep for over 14 hours before waking up the next day to east “lunch”.

And the journey continues…

I will start out with two general comments: Please excuse spelling and punctuation errors - I am bad at both when typing something like this blog and the internet connection here in the hotel is spotty, so it takes too long to go back through and edit over and over. The second thing is to ask you all please participate and COMMENT! It is how I know you are here reading and is just more fun that way. Thanks.