Travel is Freedom! "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts." - Mark Twain

July 6, 2006 I have that sand-in-the-eye feeling, exhausted from having dragged myself out of a deep and beautiful sleep (with the help of my trusty travel alarm clock) to avoid further pangs of jetlag. It's 12:45 p.m., I arrived at my hotel at 9:00 this morning after being awake for 24 hours....I just HAD to sleep. I already like India. On the 7-hour flight from Munich, I chatted with Nelliny, a middle-aged woman who'd raised her family in Denmark....but who was still very Indian....despite her Western clothing and a mullet-like haircut. When she needed to, she'd talk across the airplane to her family, ask me to open small packets from the airline food, and ask me questions about my life that a Westerner would never ask: How much money do you make a year in teaching? You're not married?! You must be about 30, right?" I answered all of her questions, all of them except the age one... =) She was a very sweet and genuine person with a smile that beamed. As I was changing money at the airport in Delhi, 2 Spanish guys (whose luggage had been lost on the way from Madrid on British Airways) approached some of us in line, asking about typical taxi prices. I, of course, chimed in saying that they could share my taxi, as I'd booked one ahead---and this way, we'll ALL save money! They agreed. We got into a tiny white car amongst tns of tuk-tuk type 3-wheeled open-air taxis, and sped off. I was laughing within minutes, sitting in the front seat as our driver honked his horn incessantly for people to get out of his way, swerving in and out of traffic, coming within inches of running over pedestrians and scraping the edges of parallel cars. Several times, I brought my elbow in from hanging out the window, to save it from being hurt. In 3 lanes of traffic, there were crammed as many cars, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and buses as could possibly fit -- I doubt if another toothpick could have fit between them! All vehicles were crammed as far forward as they could, and then the light would change and all would start forward again. At one point, an older man pedestrian put up his hand as if to slow my driver down, but our driver just sped up and made the man run quickly out of the way! As we neared the area of the hotel, we were so close to everything in the street that I could have reached out and grabbed a mango (happy to see THOSE!) off of a man's cart. There were oxen pulling loads, men bicycling with heaps of filled burlap sacks on their rear fenders, young girls gathering water from outdoor taps, women in brightly-colored sari being pedaled down the street by rickshaw drivers. NOW, I feel like I'm in a foreign country, and I love it! The Spanish guys checked into the same hotel, in the end. I'm paying about $9 for a pretty nice room with private bath and a couple of extra chairs and a table. Nothing fancy, but better than the $3 rooms with no bath! Exhausted, I took a shower, trying my best not to get any water in my mouth, as the water on the floor of the bathroom rose to the tops of my feet. I brushed my teeth in bottled water, and laid down for a nap. The sweltering weather is not all that conducive to trapsing around Delhi today, as tired as I am. But I must go to see what is going on in the streets....