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 8, 2006 Today I saw a lot of things....I saw boys making Indian nan bread in large round ovens, sweating over them in the street, forking out round breads as quickly as I type a sentence. Cows munch hay next to people selling small items in the street. Boys ride ponies on main streets along with 3-wheeled taxi tuk-tuks and rickshaw bicyclists. A woman rode on the back of a motorbike taxi, sari flapping in the wind, holding onto a tiny baby in her lap. And a man, his legs the size of my arms, walked on the flat part between knee and foot, shuffling around in the dirt. And we think WE have problems. My heart just went out to him. Today the Spanish guys and I went sightseeing to several places, including the Red Fort, 2 mosques, and a temple. The most interesting place was a Hindu Temple called Akshar Dham Temple. One entire building was made of intricately carved marble in detailed designs, symbolizing Hindu deities and other gods. They honor the gods in the temple so much that they even thought to put fans on them!! The whole temple was made of marble, and the floor was large white squares of smooth marble, too. And the mangos are sooooo sweet and beautiful. I bought 2 kilos for $1....the ultimate fruit (well, right after raspberries)....so juicy and fresh and deep, deep orange color. I eat about 5 a day. Last night I ate tandoori chicken, butter chicken curry, and nan bread....excellent except I think I ate more of my own sweat than I did curry. By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted....the gallon of water and other drinks just didn't curb my fatigue. The Spanish guys came a ways toward developing their bargaining skills-- in the morning they didn't want to bargain for money pouches, saying they felt "bad" about bargaining because to them it's "such little amount of money," and by the end of the day, they were trying to get 10 rupees (25 cents) less for a rickshaw than I was!! I guess my passion for bargaining rubbed off on them a little. =) It's such a good thing. I'm sure after 2 months of bargaining for everything in India, I'll be sick of it and want a fixed price. But for now, I'm lovin' it. Plus, when you barain for things, both parties get a fair price. There is no attitude of "I'm above you and therefore feel pity and shame about the situation, so I'll pay whatever high price you squeeze out of me." When we do this, Indian people will think we are stupid tourists, and they will keep raising the prices well above what a person from India would pay for the same thing. I love it because if it's done well, it puts us all in the same boat--we smile while bargaining, and it creates a little respect between the bargainer and the seller. Nobody screws anybody out of money (or gets screwed out of money), and therefore it makes us all the same in our humanity. I definitely believe in it. Tomorrow (July 9), I leave on a train for Shimla, in the north. It's supposed to be cooler, and a beautiful trip, as I'll be heading into the Himalayas. I'll post again in a few days.