liketoobike

PHOENIX - MONTH 8

2011-11-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while, this is my thanksgiving morning ride, out on Wild Horse Pass Rd about 4 miles south of home. It's getting more and more difficult to make the time to blog, or keep up with facebook, and linked in, and emails and work. So I'll shoot for once a month just to keep a little idea of what's going on. We're renting in Ahwatukee, around 48th & Ray Rd, until next August. Starting to look for a home to buy, hopefully in one of the historic districts around downtown. Yes it will be a longer commute a little for me, but that's the place to be, this car-dependent drive 20 or 30 miles all the time is not for us. I can hear the highway as I got to bed and get up in the morning... a roaring, neverending monster. Found a nice little place that we looked at last April, and which sold about that time, now it's up for auction so we're going to maybe take a shot at it. Tiny little place 1100 sf counting the garage made into a 2/1! But it has a pool and a nice yard, built in 1925 it looks to have some character on the inside and the neighborhood looks to be the kind of people we'd like to live around, only 2 city blocks to the light rail, near the art museum, heard museum, and main city library. TTYL, shoot me a note if you're keeping up and haven't touched base for a while. Oh, the job is going great, I really like it and we are building a great team, having fun working together so that makes it easier to hop out of bed at 5:30am and jump onto the bike. Long as I can get that 30 mins of my time each way (or more) I'm going to be happy!

Big adventure starts tomorrow

2011-07-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow after work I fly back to Orlando for a packed week of moving. Get in around midnight, pick up the truck 8am then go go go til the movers show up Monday morning. Hope to get a little time to watch the time trial 2nd to last day of the tour de france Saturday morning. Then we're on the road, me, Ruth, and Bear, with the truck and car in tow, one night in Florida, next one around Houston, then one way the heck out west texas around columbus to el paso somewhere, then we should get in to Phoenix late Thursday night. Movers unloading Friday morning at the new house in Ahwatukee. Believe it or not this is my best riding year to date ever, over 2200 miles so far and will make 300 for July in spite of missing 14 days in Orlando and the trip. Really looking forward to getting this done and it's the last trip back to Orlando! Wierd as that seems. House hasn't sold, but the realtor is going to lease and manage it for us until next year or the year after. We're going to rent out here anyway, the market here is still going down for another year or two. Got pack, see you around!

Last lonely Sunday in the one bedroom apartment!

2011-07-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

This pic is in front of the Tempe Arts Center along Tempe Beach Lake Park. Right behind me is the nice pedestrian/bike bridge going across the Rio Solado river, which is dammed right there to make the lake you see. That's downtown Tempe ahead, the mountain is the one looking over sun devil stadium, they always show that on the football games, ASU is the heart of downtown Tempe, it's a big school and plenty going on there!
So it really is my last Sunday night eating dinner alone and it kind of snuck up on me! So I celebrated early with nachos, beer, and coconut crème pie, but as I look at what needs to be cleared from the Frig by Friday morning, I decided to stir fry the remaining veggies in the wok and have some golden quinoa to go with it, so dinner and a few lunches from that this week. I got out earlier this morning and rode to the rail station to go downtown to the library. It was packed with people (filling up the bike car with no bikes, but they moved when I not so subtly barged in with "excuse me") the bike rakes are vertical so you have to swing it up into them and it looks like mayhem is about to happen... hey, what do you want for sitting in the bike car? As usual they ask about the bike, the s&s couplings, is it a breakdown bike, is it a custom and I tell them about my life-change from car driver to bike commuter. The kids are especially impressed about taking it to France and Canada and the freedome of riding all over the place exporing new places. They are from Utah, just down for the weekend/ballgame, and they get off at the ballpark, just a couple more stops to the library… which doesn’t open til 1:00 on Sunday! Ugh, where to hang for 2 hours, with a little errand list to go.

So I had the wind and decided to take it easy and ride out to Thomas Rd & 36th where there’s a wal-mart, home depot, and Walgreens, then go to Fry’s grocery if I couldn’t get NA beer at Wal-Mart. They had it, although it’s Busch and is no where near Old Milwaukee NA for taste, they also had the moving boxes I would have gotten at Home Depot next door, but with about 30 day-laborers hanging around in the lot I definitely did not want to leave my bike out there with the beaters they all have, not one with a computer, light, or panniers... I should be more trusting maybe.... but... maybe someday I'll learn to be, today is not it. So all loaded up with the moving boxes strapped on and all else in the large panniers I brought, I pedaled the 5 miles home, with 14 in for the early session and the sun straight overhead, plenty hot, made me feel the sunscreen I forgot (for the first time here) on the back of the legs. After lunch and a little rest, I got back to the library at 3, heat of the day starting. Riding the train back home, with 6 westerns and a movie making the bags heavy, the early leavers from the ballpark were jumping back on, Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers 4-1, pitcher hit a home run for the Dbacks.

Now it’s crunch time, the move is happening starting 2 pm Friday when I zoom out of here. Still, despite 2 trips to florida and missing 14 days of riding, I already have 230 miles for the month, should make my always 300 a month (10 a day) goal with regular rides to work the next 4 days and then I’ll have 2 weekend days after we move in the 29th to finish it in style. This could be my best year ever, 2300 already even with all the turmoil of moving, guests, trips back, and the like.

May not get a chance to post again before the end of the month but thanks for reading along!

July already!

2011-07-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since I last posted. We DID find a place to rent for a year, in Ahwatukee, about 7 miles south from work on a bus line the gets me pretty close, and also it's close enough to bike. I'm getting acclimated to the heat, it's only 100 today with now clouds but low humidity and I rode 20 miles and wanted to do more, but that little voice in my 55 yr old head said "get out of the sun and rest before you overdo it"! So that's what I'm doing now. Nice little lunch of salad, wheat pasta, old milwaukee NA, and sara lee strawberry cheese cake now it's nap time then maybe go out for another little ride when the sun goes down a little.

I have purchased my ticket back to Orlando, the last trip! I snuck in for the weekend of the 4th that was nice, it's just too hard to be away from my little sweetie so long, now it's only 2 more weeks we'll have our Saturday nights together again. We usually go out to dinner or lunch each day and make one outing. While in Orlando we went to Ethos for dinner Saturday night, and took a pita pit sandwich out to Baldwin Park to the connector between lakes Susanah and Baldwin, one of our favorite spots sitting there on the bench watching the birds and the clouds.

I've also purchased Marian and Graces tickets to leave Orlando the 25th. I come in the 22nd midnight and rent a truck in the morning. Monday we'll have a move crew to load up and me and Ruth are driving the truck, towing the car, and taking the pets with us for a 4 day adventure filled trip over the 2100 miles or whatever it ends up being. Rented from Penske I used to use them commercially they had good gear, pray we don't have a breakdown. Setting up movers here for the 29th to move into our new place and I'll have to move out of the apartment the 31st. Marian and Grace will stay here the 25th-29th. Lots of orchestration hope everything works out!

We had a crazy dust storm Tuesday night... you can look up pics on you tube it was like a white-out blizzard you couldn't see and you couldn't breath. In the morning it looked like a 1/4 inch of dirt on top of everything and it took about 2 days for the air to clear up. It's still filthy here.

the bike trail through Papago Park, right in the city but you think you are out in the desert.
Job is going well, miss my ole friends at Glatting AECOM and was sad to hear of Ken Kauffman's passing, he was only 53 and such a nice person. Haven't heard from too many others but Pegge, Bruce, and Carol and a few folks are connected on facebook, which I am even worse about keeping up with than blogging. I try to look at it once a week but my daughters and everyone else posts so many things I never know how much I've missed! I like it when people send private messages that way I can catch up without feeling like the whole world is in all my business.

Talk to you soon, oh i've passed 2000 miles for the year headed for 4,000 will be in my top 3 of the past 7 I kept track. Can't wait to get my camping gear here and check out that ponderosa pine forest and mountains for a bike camping tour!

The path home through Papago park is an awesome way to get back from the grocery store

A big cup of ice water will be totally gone in 2 mins when it's 110

After the dust storm... filthy!

Missing home

2011-06-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well it was a pretty lonely fathers day out here, the girls all called but i was still alone for dinner and missing Florida. So I'm posting some pics of my favorite places and wishing for cool water to escape the heat. It's 109 now, and the bike riding is good going in at 7:00am it's only in the low 80s. Coming home, the pavement is 150 plus, so everything is hot to the touch and add in the hot car exhaust it's a challenge. I've gotten a long sleeve sun shirt to ride with, and that helps keep the sun off. No cloud cover, ever! The sun is blazing hot and dry heat or not, 110 is 110, you broil under the intense sun. I've purchased insulate bottles the past week and can keep water cool almost an hour, though it's always gone by that time. Jump the bus when I start feeling overheated, it's great that they have such good transit here.

Looking forward to going home for 4th of July weekend, after that only 3 weeks til the big move. Looking at houses to rent sunday in the ahwatukee area, that's where the best high schools are. Not much luck selling the house, lots of lookers but no offer afters 35 days. We just dropped the price and if it doesn't sell in July we'll rent it out for a year or two. Ruth is going to ride out with me and the pets, towing the car about July 26 (my birthday) to 29th. We should move in that weekend. Ahwatukee is only 5-9 miles to my job with a bus a good bit of the way so that should work out and enable me to keep riding every day.

Gracie is visiting this weekend with her friend Mitchell. We are going to the Grand Canyon Saturday to hike a bit and goof around, it's about 225 miles from here and with 110+ heat, the high 85 at the rim will be welcome. It's at 7,000 feet elevation so should be cool early and late, lows get to the 40s still this time of year while we fry out here in the desert.

Oh Ahwatukee is right the other side of South Mountains from Phoenix, there's a big preserve with lots of mountain bike trails. I'm looking forward to getting my mountain bike out and getting back in the shape required to do some serious off road riding.

Please log in and comment if you want, I always like to hear from others.
geoff

June in Phoenix

2011-06-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

64th st n camelback mountain

rio salado bike path from tempe to my apt

catchin the light rail at priest dr n washington

papago park

I'm getting used to the weather here. It's different from Orlando. Both are hot, but in Orlando you bake, and the humidity and cloud cover make you sweat a lot more. The heat presses down on you, even in the shade. Here, you sear, like in a frying pan. The ground and everything gets so hot because there's never any clouds, it's just hot strong sun all the time. I ride home about 4-5pm, usually the heat of the day, and it's been around 100 lately (they tell me it will be 115 pretty soon). Everything is so bloomin hot, though there is a steady breeze all the time that helps, but the sun is sharp hot and you can only take so much. I rode 35 miles for about 3 hours Saturday looking around at Ahwatukee, that's the area on the other side of the South Mountains we're going to live in, because of the schools and it's less than 7 miles to my work location. Luckily I got in about 2:30 just as I was starting to get dizzy from the heat. Jumped in the pool and cooled off right away. Also made a trip up north to Indian School road to a place called Sprouts, a grocery w organic vegs and lots of bulk things. I started eating quinoa and like it better than rice or noodles, so I usually stir fry once a week and make enough for 3-4 servings, which I freeze. Living alone and cooking for one is not the most fun all the time, so that's what I do then nuke frozen leftovers for a couple days before I cook again. Make a big bowl of salad for 4 days and that makes for a quick start when I get home from work.

2 months already! But still about 46 days till we're all here in a new place. I enjoy the quiet and getting to bed early most nights, no tv, reading lots of books and getting movies from the excellent library downtown (that's another Saturday morning trip, and they have a big farmers market a block or two away). I likegoing downtown because it's on the rail and if it get's hot or I get all loaded up with bags I just hop the train it's only a mile from the apt. I've been to the Heard Museum of Native American Culture, it's really good, and the art museum looks pretty big, that should be a nice trip when I get around to it. Also the Pueblo Grande museum is near by it's on the site of a 800 yrs ago indian settlement, right next to Sky Harbor Airport, which is about a mile from here to the southwest. Try to be more regular, see you soon!

Sunny hot saturday in phoenix

2011-05-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

I had to work this morning for a while but then rode down to the train and got downtown to the library, great spot picked up some movies about a couple chinese bike cops i'm gonna watch in a minute. Otherwise had a nice lunch at Carly's downtown and rode 41 miles around town looking at houses and neighborhoods north of the biltmore area. Found a few we can afford. Lots of sun, didn't have sunscreen so my arms and legs got pretty good farmer tan. Riding pretty strong though. One of the houses is by phoenix mountain preserve which looks like some mountain bike trails right by the house. we'll see what happens with that but it's been good, lot of bike lanes and wide streets, cars are pretty good about sharing but like everywhere you have some dummies in big pickups that don't wanna, luckily there are sidewalks everywhere and when someone gets too close for comfort i either take the lane or jump on the sidewalk. Tomorrow I'll ride / train to the Heard museum of Native american culture. I've been reading lots of that history and time period 1850-1900 so look forward to the visit and they have a really good looking cafe with lots of veg treats. Got the Kona here for riding along the canals and off-road trails, but it's too heavy to carry up and down from the 3rd fl apartment so I'm using the Bilenky most every day, gonna need some tires soon but otherwise it's a joy and so much fun to ride. Guy on the train today was admiring the bike and so were the IT guys I talked to at work with the move. It's a sweetie if ever I need another one I think it'll be another Bilenky!

Phoenix #2

2011-05-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

So it's 6 weeks now and Phoenix is growing on me. Great cycling in Phoenix/Tempe, bike lanes everywhere, buses every 15 minutes on the main lines and the rail is speedy quick when you are tired or have a load of groceries. The mountain views are awesome and I finally got the Kona shipped out so I have a second bike for a backup. It is heavy to carry up to the 3rd fl so it's parked and the Bilenky is the main all rounder, but when I decide to go off road a little on one of the gravel paths along a canal or on a mountain trail it will be great. Luckily I rode it to work the other day when it RAINED! first rain since I been here and it was COLD! So the fenders came in handy and I took advantage and loaded up on groceries. I'll be posting a few pics and changing the bike links to local Phoenix. The library is great, a 5 story modern glass building with awesome views from the 5th fl and i have still yet to go to a museum, thinking the Pueblo Grande will be my first, it's only about a mile down the road by the airport and where they Hohokam indians had a settlement at least 800 yrs ago. Try to be more regular now that my work routine is down and I got steady internet access yesterday. Been talking to a lot of people about biking and busing and need to get a "biketalk" together and see if the wellness center at work will let me do it there. Be careful out there!

OK Hello from Phoenix

2011-04-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

I know I've been bad and lost for a while... what can I say, events overtook me. I was laid off, and got a job in Phoenix, and I've been here 3 weeks now tomorrow morning. 6 nights in a hotel, now 2 weeks in an apartment overlooking the Hohokam expressway and motel 6 parking lot, with the Papago rocks out the other window. bike culture is great here, many bike lanes and great transit with light rail and buses every 15 mins in Tempe. So heres a pic of the Papago rocks on my ride home from the grocery store... did 55 miles today all around, must have been 90 some but nothing like the florida humidity and the sun didn't feel as heavy. anyway, i'm commuting to work every day by bike and will update about once a week... loving it so far but they tell me in a month it will be too hot to ride when it's 100 at 5am and 120 in the afternoon!!!

Safety biketalk this Friday & great riding this weekend

2011-02-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

This Friday I'll have a short session on bike safety. Tips and lessons learned, and a quick review of my favorite safety gear. Noon at the racks and I'll have lunch there anyway.

Had a great weekend of riding and I realize it's the first time I've felt good since my 3 falls last summer. Made an effort to get out for at least an hour Saturday, and had a great time, got in 15 miles, and all of it was bumming around doing errands to "not the closest bank", the dollar store, barber shop, ran by the office, picked up some valentine things.

Felt real strong and did it again Sunday ending up with 26 miles, the weather was cool to start, but with light layers, I first peeled vest, then long sleeve jersey, then long pants and ended up with wicking undershirt and baggy shorts, perfect for the sunny 60 whatever degrees. Put on a short sleeve jersey for the afternoon 2nd ride because the 3 back pockets are very handy for phone, keys, money, cap, power bar, etc. Sunday the traffic on colonial and at the mall was crazy everyone getting last minute valentines shopping in. Not for me... when the traffic stops it's easy to cut across, and parking right near the front door is helpful (I bring a u-lock and cable lock and look for disabled parking near the doors, always lock to those poles now, it's visible and no other bikes around). Bags full from both trips I snuck it in for the big day.

Had a little problem with my rear derailer, not sure what's the deal (it's a campy chorus and I've been to all the bike shops before mostly they don't really deal with them much or say yeah you should probably replace it after 20,000 miles). One of the pulley wheels was not locked up but real hard to turn... I took them off and a little rivet piece fell down, and I couldn't discover what from! Cleaned off the pulley wheels and put it all back together it's working great though the shifting is a little slurred... probably should replace the cables. I looked up a replacement derailer on the web they start about $165-$250.. so nah I'll live with a sloppy shift for a while... more fun ridin than fixin anyway.

From the people I'm corresponding with in the Netherlands they say don't bring a bike they have plenty over there... but they all ride beaters that no one will steal for the most part. I'm takin the Bilenky and I'll ride Victor's around Lisse but for my daily 2-3 hour (vacation tradition, I get up early and ride til 10ish when the girls get up and about) touring about I'll have the nice bike to cover some distances. Hoping to take the train to France and see 1 or 2 Tour stages.

I'm not sweating doing a lot of updates lately so see you in a week or two!

Friday Jan 21 Biketalk

2011-01-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

Note this is the last email I’m going to send… future posting will be on the Orlando office sharepoint site and the liketoobike.blogspot.com site. You can check one of those or subscribe, this will allow people that “don’t want to get all those bike emails” to not get all them bike emails.

TODAY ! Noon at the racks, I am going to set up to talk about cheap gear for bike riding in wet and cold weather. I brought in a bunch of sample clothing so hopefully a couple people will show up and we can talk general bike stuff too. Since it was a rainy morning today I ended up wearing my cheap suit in, and on my recent holiday ride I got some great cold weather gear experience.

Geoff

Back in the saddle in the "cold"

2011-01-21T07:09:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays I did a couple days riding around Ft Meyers/Sanibel, Sarasota and St Pete. Couldn't get logistics together to take the train/bus so ended up taking a car and that is a mistake, spent more time in the car than anything... little interaction with others, I was even tempted to get DRIVE THROUGH FOOD! lesson learned, if you are going bike touring, don't take a car! Even though it was only mid 40's to 50ish and somewhat windy, you can see from the pics there were still some memorable sights and times. I only rode about 60 miles over the 3 days, but saw some beautiful places and recharged with great air, exercise, and rest.

Goin back on the road again!

2010-10-14T18:29:00.001-07:00

I cannot hardly wait but the time will fly. I'm about fully restored to health following the crashes of the summer, and work has slowed down enough I am taking off next Fri-Mon for a bike camping trip. Not sure of the itinerary yet but I have a good idea for the 3 nights (if I can't get out of town Thursday to make it 4) and the rough mileage (200-250) for the 4 days. Getting the gear down this weekend and the Kona is about all ready to go, only one fender on the back but it's not been too rainy lately. More good news to follow as things come together! I am so excited.

Biketalk for Friday Sep 10

2010-09-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to getting some miles in this weekend.. felt real strong this morning finishing the first week back riding every day.

Fixing a sticky campy road shifter

Today an noon I'm going to attempt to fix this thing... it may be some dirt but more likely it's the new bar tape I put on last weekend constraining the operation. Still to hot for a lunchtime ride on Friday but it's getting cool enough to think about it (another month)...

Here's the link to my blog w pics of the new paint job, turned out great! I'm thinking not put the Bilenky stickers back on, no one knows what they mean anyway and I kind of like the minimal look. No racks or anything on my bike now, it's nice and clean if you want to try a ride on a quality steel frame bike let me know it's all yours!

2010-09-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

What do you think ? My house is about 3:00 on this picture... make a run for it? I'm going to wait it our for another 30 mins and if it's not raining at 5:01 I'm going to make a dash for it... if it is raining? I'll catch the 5:15 bus (out of my brain on the 5 uhv, fifteen!, remember that one!)

Riding on that new paint today... but it's looking stormy!

2010-09-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm riding the all cleaned up Bilenky with fresh paint, new bar tape, and every single component clean as new.. and guess what? Look around, it's thunder and about to rain big time! I'm holed up in the office downtown and we'll see what happens with the storm. Meanwhile, I'm going to put in a huge plug for Ed Steidle at Steidlepowedercoating.com

Ed did a fantastic job and you cannot believe the prices, I told him he should raise his prices, he's at least $50 less than anyone else in town and his work is great! He's a small owner run business and I'm sure he'd be happy to have yours! Also, you can buy the powder yourself or have Ed do it for you... if you want to do it yourself lookat powderbuythepound.com

Hard to believe it but check these pics out with a fine zoom and you will see it's no fluke!

Bilenky painting finished

2010-09-05T16:22:00.001-07:00

I picked up the Bilenky yesterday and spent last night and today building it back up. I think it looks great! The powder coat made it a little snug to get the front hub back in place, but it's in there now. Tomorrow morning I'm looking forward to a nice long ride, as long as my ankle and stamina hold up, after a month without riding. More tomorrow after the ride! Happy HOLIDAY!

Aug 30 Biketalk

2010-08-30T07:09:00.001-07:00

End of the trail for biketalk?
Let me know your thoughts, I think the biketalk concept may have run it's course. We have great participation in commuting and bike events of all sorts, and the intention when I started biketalk was just to raise awareness of cycling for fun, health, and transportation. What do you think?

I rode a little yesterday, about 5 miles 26 mins just slow coast up to target and around the neighborhoods. Still a little fragile (the ankle, shoulder, and hip) so I didn't ride in today as planned, can't really put a shoe on comfortably to ride. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday for sure.

Dropped my bike off w Ed Steidle http://www.steidlepowdercoating.com/ for a green metallic powder coat Saturday, $50 + $17 for the powder the price is right we'll see how it turns out! I pick it up next Saturday, meanwhile I'll be riding the Kona. Now that I have a brooks on each bike (spring B-66 on the Kona) it's pretty easy to switch back and forth.

Planning to ride at least a 25 mile ride Saturday or Sunday on the long weeekend coming up, look forward to that (it will likely be Sunday if I get the Bilenky back Saturday I'll set it up Sat night). Found out after visiting 5 shops Saturday morning I have a Phil Wood bottom bracket which are very nice, I thought it was Campagnolo like every other component on my bike (except TA Cranks). LocoMotion Winter Park finally got it off for me.

Happy riding enjoy the long weekend! Cool Camping season coming up after the move settles late October and it starts getting cool at night I WILL go bike camping!

Back on the bike again

2010-08-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

It was a little coast around audubon and over to target and back, but it sure felt good after 2 solid weeks without riding. The ankle wound still isn't all closed up, and it's a little creaky, but the shoulder and hip were OK. I think I'll take the vespa one more day tomorrow, then start on the bike again Tuesday. I'm riding the Kona Sutra, the Bilenky is at Ed Steidle powdercoating getting a fresh green put on, I'll pick it up next Saturday.

Once a month!?

2010-08-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah that's the sorry truth, I'm not riding or camping or touring enough to feel like there's much of interest to post. Daily ride to work, but come on, well into the second thousand trips there's not a lot of fresh material there.

I look forward to the next trip and will be back then!

Back in the saddle

2010-07-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

I've been back on the bike every day the past 2 weeks, did 25 last Sunday without too much trouble. Ribs are coming back still sore at night but at least I can sleep now! Really wanting to get a tour in but don't think I can sleep on the ground... going to get busy at work for the next 2-3 months with the construction project and new people moving in, then getting settled, but maybe October/November I can get a tour in (still secrectly hoping for a little weekend escape in late July or August, we'll see).

Hear that Nick is getting started riding again out in California. Good thing, from the last pics I seen of him getting a little chub from all that good air force life and beer. Really hot here now, 95 or so in the day, blazing hot sun, humid, down to 74 or so at night. I'm going to go out early tomorrow for a 25er or so out the trail to Oveido, haven't done that for a couple months. Never heard from any of those guys in Bodhgaya, Ishu, Kamil, Sanjiv, if you're out there shoot me an email at liketoobike@gmail.com.May be a long time before I get back to India but you never know! Next year we are looking to Italy or Switzerland, during Tour de France time, and yes this time I am going to take my bike and make it to see at least one stage of the tour live!

After the crash

2010-06-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

So I crashed on Mills Ave, one of those big metal plates in my lane caught my wheel and I lost control. Been in pretty good pain for 2 weeks, 3 broken ribs and collapsed lung. Going to try to get back on the bike for a little coast around tonight see how it feels. I was tired and seems like that's when i always make a bad decision and crash. Anyway, since I'm not riding the bike it's been the Vespa to work the past couple weeks and I am enjoying that pretty much. Now that the world cup has started I'm watching most games and the ribs are feeling much better with all the rest. GO USA!

California dreamin

2010-04-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

I should be in California. Yesterday was the travel day, tonight I would have been camping out at Elk Grove campground in Redwood National Park... followed by 9 days of bike camping through the redwoods and down the pacific coast, ending w 2 days in San Francisco. Instead it's been a few long days at work and I need some rest. Hoping to get a little 3-4 ride n camp in the last week of the month, down the east coast from Cocoa to Sebastian inlet and back home. Catching up on yardwork n rest this weekend, finishing up the taxes, and next weekend I'm getting all the gear down and packing the panniers, buying the food supplies, having everything ready to go. We'll see.

Sold the Klein to Jay W at work, he's a little bigger than me it fits him like a glove, and since I got the Bilenky I really felt guilty about the Klein sitting in the closet not getting many miles. Now I'm alternating the Kona and Bilenky, and probably will sell the K2 mountain next, the Kona is OK for off road as much as I've done the last 5 yrs.

Looking forward to a good ride Sunday morning after a nice rest tomorrow.

Where were you? this morning

2010-03-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

So it was probably the heaviest rain I have ridden through to get to work. Pelting when it wasn't pouring. I wonder if the guy from commute orlando that is always saying "where were you, I didn't see you" was out there this morning. I didn't expect to see anyone else but was surprised to see a female in a lightweight plastic outfit walking her bike across Livingston and down the sidewalk on Bumby.

It was pouring pretty bad... I had my pretty new J&G rainsuit on, so other than being hot under the helmet cover, was staying dry. Anyway, it was pretty cool once you get the right gear, the Crosso panniers were as advertised, made for durability and dryness, I didn't even pay attention to making sure the corners were covered... and my papers were all dry when I got to work. The little rain booties from Campmor for about $7 were awesome, wore my most comfortable sneakers under them and arrived all dry. So I guess other than lightning and severe winds I am going to ride every day now, no matter how bad it's raining. Wish I could have a couple pics of how wet it was with the streams in the gutter and huge puddles in parking lots but it was just too wet and it's a hassle to stop and snap a pic when everything is so wet!

I'm disappointed about bagging the California tour, but for a number of good reasons, also relieved. Firstly, 12 days away from home was something "the boss" was not too happy about. Second, 8 days away from work was going to put me behind, and I am learning don't add stress, there's enough these days already. Third, I was not going to relax much, it would be go, go, go for 9 solid days of 50 miles, loaded, in the hills and all, and I would have been pretty exhausted at the end. Finally, it was going to cost about $800 which kind of defeats the purpose of using a frequent flyer ticket... saving money. So I am going to bide my time and do a little 3-4 day mini-camp tour, probably leaving from home or get a ride up to like Gainesville or take the train to Jacksonvile, and hope to put together a nice west coast tour in the fall, maybe get to see Portland that way, we'll see more to come.

Rode the Kona today and it is a super bike for bad conditions, but when it dried out, on the way home it was slow, compared to the Bilenky. I have everything off of it, and tomorrow it's a speedy light sweet ride w a messgr bag. Finishing up the month way low on miles, only about 250 will put me behind for the year but I should still make 3500 pretty easy so no probs, I'm in better shape than 5 yrs ago so don't feel like I need to push it anymore, just do maintenance. Taking fewer rides just to get in miles, don't feel like I need to prove anything anymore. It's my transportation and relaxation when I get to go camp and tour.

More this weekend, I am hoping to take off Friday and get a good ride in to enjoy a good long ride before it starts getting hot!

Got Bikes? Ride em! event

2010-03-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun with the Got Bikes? Ride em! event at Dover Shores community center today. There were 148 kids in attendance, and Commissioner Ortiz was a real crowd pleaser. We had a great presentation and gave away 4 bikes. The highlight for me was seeing all the little ones so happy and joyful and having so much fun. On the ride over in the right lane of Curry Ford 3 guys in a white compact car laid on the horn and shouted for us to "get off the road" and one of them threw something that hit me in the side, it was a snuff container that then fell in the road and spilled it's contents. Shortly following another vehicle got behind us and laid on the horn for a long long time, before zooming around. We were riding single file in the right lane, but while Ken was hugging the white line I was about 24" out I just didn't feel safe sharing with so many cars zooming around. Looking forward to our next event Wed 17th at College Park.

Meanwhile, on the California trip planning, it's coming together. Have a one-way car reservation for when I land in San Francisco, will drive up to Eureka and get a good rest in a motel (6am wake up in Orlando, -3 hrs to California it will be midnight Orlando time when I stop for the night). But in the morning I can sleep late and only have to drop off the car at the airport and get the bike together then ride 40 miles to Redwood National Park. Should have camp set up early and get a good night rest before starting south the 375 miles to SFO. 9 days later I have a 2 night reservation in SFO, maybe it will end up being one, it will be a long way in between. Got all my gear out of storage, this weekend I'm packing the panniers and seeing how everything fits on the bike.

Riding in to work this morning a pleasant surprise I was coming down Bennett to the Cady Way trail crossing and see a beige jacketed rider go across, I caught up with them a short time later to find it was John Griffin, a co-worker. He is an experienced bike commuter from college days and we enjoyed the beautiful weather and some conversation on the way in.

Super weekend

2010-02-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

We finally got some good warm weather, i had lunch on the side of lake baldwin on my way home from whole foods, had some nice veg sushi rolls and water in the warm sun looking at the lake.

A nice ride Saturday morning and again Sunday, ending up at the Rusted Chain Bike Collective cleaning up some bikes for Active Orlando's giveaway late march. Great to see the place so active and so many people out working on bikes.

Got this awesome looking package in the mail yesterday from Poland, my new touring panniers from Crosso, they are the best and I hope I get a chance to visit them next year on our next Europe trip.

Back to the daily life of a working bike commuter tomorrow so I'm resting early. Taking down that tree by hand yesterday wore me out!

Gearing up for a 10 day tour

2010-02-19T19:24:00.000-08:00

I'm getting psyched up for my California tour in a couple months. It will be my longest tour, 400 miles in 9-10 days. Putting together logistics and buying gear right now. I've been riding the Kona all this month and it is doing great. Have a little squeek and chatter on the front disc brake but otherwise it's all good, loving the 32cm Schwalbe Marathon Deluxe Tires. Reading some Cal blogs and forums, making some contacts, see the word "stoked" a lot. Looking forward to the hiker-biker camp sites in most of the state parks.

Around here I volunteered to participate in some community bike events over the next month and a half, trying to raise some money to donate a couple bikes and some gear. Going to the Rusted Chain Sunday to see if they need any help setting up some donated bikes for the giveaway's. Also, Julie wants to get a bike from there and learn to wrench her own bike together.

I ordered some new Panniers from Crosso, yeah I know my others are only 6 months old.. but I got a smaller size for the 3-4 days I usually do around here, and they are great bulletproof, waterproof bags, but I think for 9 days in cold rainy season I'll have a little more gear and need the larger bags to avoid a huge pile on top.

Been coolish here, we're having the coldest winter of the 6 we've been here, but warming up over 70 tomorrow and 75 Sunday, should be great cruisin around weather.

Two months later

2010-01-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe, but it has. It's was a real busy holiday season and start to the new year with our company being purchased and all the new stuff to learn. Ended 09 w 4001 miles, that's 2 yrs in a row... but it was kind of a hassle having to ride for the sake of making mileage goals, so this year I'm moving down to 3600 again, 300 a month. Today being the second last day of the month I was needing 37 to rode out the Cady Way all the way (that's approaching Oveido in the pic) and had some pancakes & home fries at the Town & Country Diner.

Critical mass was really cool last night, talked with a few people I have seen before, and a few new people. Victor is from Sweden and he says Poland is awesome, we're hoping to get there in 2011 (sweden and northern europe) if we can get a home exchange and the airlines still honor frequent flyer tix. It was good to get out there with the group, must have been 250-300 people all good! Talked to John who has been down the California coast, that's my next tour, about 12 days later in the spring, self contained, solo, camping. Huh what?! I made a couple trips to Denver 2 yrs ago and you know how they hawk get a Frontier Airlines Visa and get 20,000 bonus miles, enough for a free round trip! So I did it for $60, figuring we'd make a vacation trip to Vancouver/Seattle/Portland, but it hasn't panned out, and now the miles are set to expire, so I "have" to use them. Always wanted to see San Francisco, only been there to fly in and get a rental car and drive out, and Redwood National Park is about 400 miles north. Lots of state parks and hike/bike campgrounds along the way, so there's that and I can't wait, my tours will get longer again this year!

I'm going to take the Kona, trying to hook up w a bike shop out there to have it shipped to, cheaper than flying it and less hassle for me, and they can set it up so I can bus up the coast, get my bike and head for a grocery store and campground.

gotta run, Gracie has a Winter Guard competition, the first of the season. Last year they were State Champs in their class, this year they've moved up a class.

Giving Thanks

2009-11-27T18:22:00.001-08:00

This week I'm especially thankful for passing 500 miles for the month, only the 3rd time that's happened in the 5 years I've been commuting. And... I rode all three bikes this week, the bilenky to work a couple days, then the kona for rainy days, and today I took the Klein out because it was cool (50ish this am)... and a little breeze so I kept it rolling and stayed warm. Sadly I have felt guilty about not riding the Klein enough as most of my rides are utilitarian so I am going to sell it next year.

Hope to get the fenders on the Kona this weekend and ride it to work that way, it's going to be my every day bike and the Bilenky will get cleaned up and painted next year and become my pretty weekend ride.

I'd like to get another tour in this year that was so much fun but I have to get the house painted first... so I'll be doing some scraping and priming tomorrow and Sunday, and hope to finish the job the first couple days of Xmas break then get a 3 night ride in by next year! Where will I go? The only direction I haven't yet gone is southeast so I think I'll try to get down to Sebastian Inlet or Kissimmee Prairie State parks and back in a 4 day. We'll see how the wind blows and the painting goes!

09 Tour with the Kona

2009-11-16T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well I found out the Kona Sutra is an awesome bike for touring, on, or off road. It was pretty windy all 4 days. I got dropped off at Riverview south of Tampa and had only 20 miles to Little Manatee River state park the first night. It was real windy, and Rt 301 was under construction most of the way, single lane, little or narrow shoulder part of the way, with rumble strips on the outside of the white line about 10-12 inches, leaving about 10-12 inches to keep the bike in, with the wind... amazingly I was able to keep in that narrow groove and guide the bike within inches.

Following a refreshing campout at the park, it was 63 miles into a fierce headwind all day Friday. I didn't think I'd get in by dark, but made it about 15 minutes before... lots of shifting mostly about 8-10 mph, it was all open prairie and at times little ring, little gears doing 5-6... Highlands Hammock was an awesome park with the Cypress Swamp and old Hammocks, though the camping was chock-a-block it was quiet and I got a campsite under pine trees lots of needles for a soft bed.

Saturday it was more of a crosswind though a good portion was into the headwind again, 60 miles. Then 3 into the park and 3+ to find the primitive campsite, they call it a bike trail but it was more a horse trail, rough in spots with sugar sand and grassy bumpy others. It got dark on me never did find the primitive campsite the bike was excellent on the rough trail never missed a shift and all the racks and gear was solid. A great quiet cool sleep in the wilderness and up early to get home.

Coming home Sunday was supposed to be 53 miles but the google map should always be double checked, go east 5 miles... well... .5 miles out of the park the road dead ended into a wide creek/canal, the boatmen told me there was not road on the other side, had to go west and since my phone battery was dead navigation was poor at best. 77 miles later I was in Kissimmee when darkness fell, didn't really have the lights to come up John Young so took a bus to downtown and then home, 82 total.

The bike and panniers were great, no problems, though for the 230 total it took a couple days to recover since the work into the wind was so hard. see the pics

A couple things I learned this trip. Always double check your maps and take a printed map with you. This isn't the first time I've had dead phone or no service counting on the pda for navigation. Pack for warmer than you expect, the all day of work in the saddle leaves you good and warm for hours I never cracked out the sleeves or pants or caps it was short and short the whole time. Pack your food and water for the day and trip as if you will not see any stores along the way, Friday on hiway 62 I saw 4 convenience stores and nothing else for 40 miles. Count on picking up fresh fruits and vegetables from roadside vendors along the way... the fresh tomatoes, zuchini, apples, and potatoes were some of the highlights of the tour, cliff and power bars and trail mix get tiring after a while. Do have that cup of tea at the end of the day and enjoy the rest. Go light on the tarp or rain gear I had a heavy plastic groundcloth I put under everything it will be much thinner next time.

Getting ready to roll!

2009-11-02T18:48:00.000-08:00

The Kona is ready and the 09 mini-tour is about to roll! The panniers are about packed to take off one of these weekends. Planning a car or train ride to Tampa and from there to 3 State Parks, a night each w 50-70 miles between, before returning home the 4th day pm. I'm altering the packlist from www.liketoobike.com since it's 3 nights and the weather has turned cool at night. To save space, I pack each days outfit in a newspaper sleeve... socks, shorts, jersey, headband, rolls up real small and makes it quick to find stuff. The Crosso Panniers come with a mini-bag on the outside so I'm reorganizing some quick grab things like clif bars, bandanas, poncho, etc for easy retrieval. Primitive camping is available at all 3 places $5 a night. I was worried about spending $22 a night to shower and pitch a tent but not to worry they are reserved except one place, they have "wilderness camping" just show up. Need a good cracker western or adventure story to read in the woods but still have a week or two to find a couple. Really looking forward to this years adventure on the sturdy Kona Sutra.

October Doldrums

2009-10-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

I'm getting bad about updating, super busy lately, now tired from that and a little down about not getting the Kona set up yet... ordered Crosso panniers from Poland, they are great, got stainless fenders, cool. The 35cm Schwalbe marathon tires are too beefy, sent them back for 32's. Avid disc brake pads never showed from Jensen, cancelled after 3 weeks and ordered from another site. Measured the bilenky seat to bars and stem height and ordered an 80mm adjustable stem, figured that would work, but it is still too far to reach, returned to GottaRideBikes in exchange for a 120, but they sent a 120 straight, which makes it even further of a reach, so that's back in the mail w a note for a 120 adjustable. The Tubus Logo rack looks great, so... maybe next week the tires will come, then I'll take the wheels off and put in the brake pads, tires, new rack, fenders, and stem, strap on the panniers, and be ready to shake it down commuting to work for a while. Our weather is supposed to cool this weekend, it's 74 to 92 or for the next 3 days, but I'm starting to look at routes and when can I get a 4 day camping trip in... Thanksgiving weekend is the best time, but campgrounds are full and I'm having heartburn about $22 a night to pitch a tent in state parks... need something primitive but then there's safety, anyway, more to come once the bike is setup.

On the upside, I'm loving the Bilenky ride every day, around 19 mins in and 23 out in the heat, no extra mileage I'm resting evenings as much as possible to recover from the long days last week w IFMA World Workplace convention in town and catching up w work as much as possible. I could take the Bilenky loaded but the last 3 years I've said this is the last one... already looking at routes on Google aerials I'm finding off the path gravel and dirt roads to short cut and keep out of traffic, perfect to test out the Kona with a load.

I'll post some pics when all the gear is on... Would really like to get one in to see how the new bike and gear works before the traditional Christmas ride, though this year, with Gracie and Julie in India for Christmas, I'll be wise to stick around home, M tells me... maybe I can get an overnight out to the seashore at least, then get a long weekend after Gracie gets back on the 30th.

Finally the Bike Bus business is happening the 24th...going to the Vegfest and Florida Renewable Energy Expo... here's links http://www.metroplanorlando.com/site/plans/bicycle.asp, http://commuteorlando.com/bikebus

New bike update

2009-09-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

So... I rode the Kona for about 10 days, and got on the Bilenky for a Saturday trip to the store... and I've been on it since! It's such a sweet bike, just not setup for touring and off road. I've compromised w myself, I'm going to ride the Bilenky until I get the Kona set up right... and I have tires, an adjustable stem, rear rack, and panniers all on order, oh a new set of disk brake pads too... then I'll try the Kona for a few weeks commute and a tour, and see how it goes. Cross our fingers it will work out. A little concerned about the frame size (54) my other 2 road bikes are 56 & 57... but the dude in the bike shop in Dallas told me 54-55 should work fine maybe better, we'll see. I measured distance from seat to bars, floor to stem, and crank to seat top, and there's about 1.5 inch difference, which will change w the new stem and adjusting the seatpost up a little.

Otherwise life is great riding every day the weather has started to cool morning and evening though the humidity is still high and mid-day til 6:00 or so the heat is on, one more month and we'll be seeing some cooling. I owe Commute Orlando an article that will be on my list 2 weeks out, after the IFMA convention next week here in Orlando. I'll post again after I get the new rack, stem, and panniers on the Kona w a pic of that setup, and the bilenky which is now stripped down and I'm carrying a messenger bag on the commute.

Oh the bike-bus to veg-fest next month (Oct 25) looks like it is going to be a lot of fun, hope I can recruit a few people to ride along with me and eat veg for a change!

Got a new bike, a new community bike resource

2009-09-07T18:21:00.001-07:00

So I got the Kona Sutra off ebay and it is a sweet little thing. At first it felt slow and heavy, but the front disk brake was dragging so I don't know how to adjust it but turned the dial all the way one way and it is totally disengaged, now it rides fine. A little slower than the Bilenky and the frame geometry is smaller but I'm getting used to it. Hopefully will get an overnight trip in the next couple months as it starts to cool here.

The http://rustedchainbikecollective.blogspot.com/ is happening at Public Storage #626 Colonial at McGuire Thursday 5-9, Sun 3-7... we saw the group meeting at Ethos tonight (Mon) they meet there... we just happened to be going to dinner and saw them all.

Finally getting back to bike shape, although with some extra hours this week at work I didn't feel much like riding this weekend, we had a great long day at the beach Sunday and I got sunburned so no riding at all yesterday or today!

At work people riding bikes is I think at an all time high percentage wise and that is so cool... we are still in the hot season when it cools we should get a group ride or two together, I definitely want to plan an overnight to Hontoon Island and have the cabins staked out... if no one shows up then we won't do it again, but if people do we'll do it again next year.

I really enjoyed showing pics of my india trip to everyone that showed up to thursday lunch at work, I had many many more pics it took a long time to go through them and pick out representive pics, there were so many more things i could have talked about... but I think everyone got a flavor for some of what india is like. I'll definitely go back for an extended time in some years when I have more time, like 6 months.

Had a great labor day weekend at back to work tomorrow.

Bicycling is all I can think of!

2009-08-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

I'm on ebay half the weekend looking at used touring bikes, and also craigslist and the new sites looking for bargains. I'm riding extra to make up miles, took the Klein out for 35 today to Oveido back thru UCF and Blanchard trail. Almost bought a 58cm Fuji touring bike, coming with full Arkel grand touring panniers front and back, alone worth $500... but the 58 is too big I'm sure and checking the guy's web site out he's touring south america and busting spokes, who knows what else, by the end of the tour the thing may be shot anyway I don't want to start off with repairs and the panniers are heavy from all the reports. Back on the Bilenky tomorrow, looking forward to my daily to downtown and back, with a little extra. Julie is having a heck of a time, look at a past post to find her blog... it's a difficult adjustment I'm just happy she's only in Delhi at the college for 9 months not over in Africa in the peace corps for 2 years... she's really homesick and it's a strange setup. She's going to come home for Christmas break the girls are all looking forward to that(so am I, though nobody does much with me anymore). Looks like I am going to have a tour bike by Thanksgiving so planning that again... I'm seriously leaning toward 26" wheels for the durability and off road capability, the time I cut through the Ocala forest for 12 miles or so it was incredible and I'd like to go up there to Salt Springs again it's only 90 miles. Getting to bed early to start off Monday morning fresh and strong... last week of August already!

dog days rounding back into shape

2009-08-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

So last weekend I did the birthday 54 ride... today I was able to do a 2 hour loop 31 out to Oviedo and back by the Cady Way/Cross Seminole trail going out, and cutting through winter springs / tuskawilla to eagle to dodd to howell branch back to the trail. Wasn't real strong but pretty solid. Burly racer type zipped past me right before the 436 bridge (biggest hill around)... I let him go but decided on my own to see what I had left getting up the hill.. and caught the dude he was showing off and got gassed climbing up the little thing... so I returned the zip past and watched him try, then fade in the rear view. I am not a racer but at 54 it's nice once in a while to go fast for a while.

Our weather is great, it's hot and humid normal, but we've had lots of cloud cover lately so the sun hasn't been so strong. I'm starting to plan a tour (shsshhh maybe 2) before the year is out, but have pretty well decided I need a sturdier bike for self-contained touring. Each of the past 2 years on the way home I've told myself this is the last loaded tour for the Bilenky, let's keep it light for commuting and overnight or credit card tours and get something more durable, so, even in this economy (how many times have we heard that this year) I'm looking at the mass production standards Surly/Kona/Trek/Cannondale, and the Thorn/Bilenky/BruceGordon/Koga types and having a heck of a time comparing geometries and trying to make a selection. I've been looking onine for used, but that game has gotten pricy and sight unseen it's a lot of dough to put out on trust. Today I'm leaning toward the Surly Long Haul Trucker at $1000 it looks like it will work fine. I really want drop bars and all XT, not convinced steel frame vs heat treated steel vs aluminum that's probably the last choice. I love the steel feel and ride, but people swear by the aluminum ride when loaded...honestly with padded bars, gloves, and a sprung brooks saddle I think the trade off may be worth it. Appreciate any help if you have some experience.

Otherwise, back to tour planning... if I HAVE TO... I'll do a quickie overnight to Hontoon Island for Thanksgiving weekend, and stay in the cabin to minimize pack gear.

Ok well alls well with Julie if you want her update go to http://followmetodelhi.wordpress.com all is going great for her this week shes started classes, loves the school and her hostel warden and the girls she's met so far and Tuesday is moving into the Hostel at Miranda House.

Back to normal in Orlando

2009-08-02T18:59:00.001-07:00

It's been a week, and things are getting back to normal with the sleep cycle, rounding back into shape at work, thrilling to death having the bike ride in and out from work. Took a ride on the bus downtown yesterday (Sat) to pick up the Klein rode it home it was hot so not too much detour... then took the Bilenky over to Whole Foods to stock up on muesli and get in a few more miles. Other than cleaning the pool and a little yardwork got a nice nap and did some reading, relaxed.

Sunday I got the pool clean and did some yardwork, then went out for a 2 hour ride on the Klein, thought I'd make up for some of the miles I missed in July. But, I am so not in shape for that... it was hot, maybe 95 and sunny, and I went out about 30 mins before I was out of gas and had to decide to push on through it til the second wind came, or hydrate w some cold gatorade and ease it back home with a good hour ride in... and I pulled back, which I've been doing since I really hurt myself last summer on the Crystal River tour ride going to far in the heat hurting my knee for a couple months recovery and suffering like... well... I was eating motrin by the handful, like popcorn, and it still hurt like hell... most of the 85 miles home I pedaled with one leg... but I made it and didn't call for a pickup. Hopefully I learned my lesson and don't get in that shape again. So I cruised back home in easy fashion still 18 miles in 77 mins not too bad for a Sunday ride next weekend I'll go for 90 mins and see how it works out.

I messed up giving all those people in India my liketoobike.com cards, the email link on my web page was hosed... so I corrected that and during the next week will email everyone over there I got an email address from and also try to look into charitable organizations to help some of those folks out, they are so good of people.

So the pool is clean and after my ride I had a nice cooling dip in there... attached a pic Marian has planted flowers all around the pool it is looking nice and colorful and a great place to hang out on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Getaway day and the looooong trip home

2009-07-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

Getaway day started with one last futile attempt to get the elusive student Visa, but it was bagged early as the embassy said "no way" to a letter which maybe would help with the Indian gov't process. So... since we had Kuldeep to drive us around, by 9:30 we were on to shopping! The tourist trap places on Janpath don't start opening until 10 or 10:30, so we went to Connaught place for a special family member gift, following that it was to Dilli Hat the craft market, where we met many hungry vendors but prices were touristy a little high. Julie found a neat leather wallet and I a pretty yellow embroidered tablecloth for Marian and a periwinkle Dhurry for Ruth. 2400 to 1800 to 1500 but he wouldn't go below that...I offered 1200 then walked off, knowing it's on the way out if nothing else ... we stopped for cool drinks and Kuldeep told me the guy offered him a 10% cut at 1500, so 1200-1300 should be doable. On the way out I glanced over and kept going, he was pretty animated SIR, SIR! I give a look and throw up my hands in exasperation... 1200? or what! He won't come below 1300 so that's where we settle.

We head over to Lajpat Nagar market for lunch at Sai Sarovar (strictly veg)... which was great and about $6 for the three of us... including butterscotch ice cream all around! I pick up another pair of camel sandals and a piece of luggage for the stuff Julie is going to leave in storage, then it's time for a nap and finish packing, settle the hotel bill, a final cold shower and change before Kuldeep is picking us up at 7:00. Our flight is 12:15 just past midnight, allow 3 hours so we're to Haus Kauz Village and Naivedyam South Indian for dinner. Kuldeep joins us we have a really fine meal and pick up 10 packs of bidi's (local smokes, a piece of tobacco rolled up and tied with a string) before 30 last minutes in Delhi traffic to the airport.

An hour and a half get's us through check in and security with an hour til boarding it's diet coke and brownie for Julie and Clausthaler for me then we are on in the economy section only 14 hours to Chicago! Eat, read, sleep, blog, sleep, eat, walk around, sleep, eat, and we're in early at 4:30am! But, customs doesn't start work until 5:00am, so we can't deplane for a while... wait... then we are off with a couple hours til our 7:20 to St Louis. We marvel at the clean bathrooms and WATER FOUNTAINS! and... lots of large people in line at mcdonalds... we haven't seen many overweight people in India. Short jump to St Louis we just have time for breakfast there before we are on the last leg home, and in early at 12:20! Just about 24 hours total... there's Marian and Grace at bag claim and we are home! Wow what a nice place, we really have a fantastic life! I'm down for a nap and Julie is getting her VISA pics and fedexing things off, oh, she has to set up her return air itinerary first so following that the paperwork is in the fedex to Houston and in 8 business days she will have her student visa! I'm planning to go in to work 4 hours tomorrow so I'm abed early and get another 11 hrs sleep.. though still in a funk all day Friday. Plan for the weekend sleep, rest, and that's what happens, Sunday my birthday uneventful except me and M make a trip over to Baldwin park and walk around the little connector lake with the birds in the center and sit for a while... the cypress trees are green again and the lake is full of activity... back for another nap and birthday dinner coming up, then back to work tomorrow. Thanks all for your comments it wasn't easy to make time for the blog some days but knowing people were at the other end meant a lot and made it easier to stick to it.

Khurampur village

2009-07-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

We're getting nowhere with the VISA thing Julie has decided bag it, buy a ticket back and take care of it in the USA... too much hassle. Our last options dwindle to a spark of hope, and when the guy says first go to the US Embassy and tell them to write a letter stating such and so... we're pretty sure we're sunk. We go to the embassy and they have just closed American Citizen Services for the day, yup, 9-1 is all they are working for us... wonder what our tax dollars are doing the rest of the day... we go back the next morning to be told, nope, we don't do letters, no way, no how. That's it, we're going home together tomorrow night. So now, let's visit Kuldeeps village and tomorrow we'll pack and shop a little if time permits.

I summarize my conversation with the guy on the train and as Kuldeeps face darkens, am quick to say, my feeling is that you are a trustworthy person and I don't think you woud kidnap us or anything, would you? No, no, why do something like that, for what, for money? No, not worth money chance of trouble, worry about get caught, not right to do... you have nothing to worry about, I am not that kind of person. And he calls his wife Radkhi to let her know we're coming for dinner and should we pick up some things on the way.

It takes an hour and a half to get out to Kharumpar village, it's northeast of town out past Gaziabad, and traffic is plugged, cycles get by on the side of the road, by going around, through the shop lots, whatever.. until it is all stopped it is so narrow, 4 "lanes" divided highway, Kuldeep goes onto the other side of the road, 2 lanes of traffic coming at us, trucks, buses, many cars going fast, you cannot believe this, he's driving down the wrong side of the road at speed to get around the jam, hand on the horn, miraculously, buses, trucks, cars, all swerve at the last second around him and keep going... this is too good to be true, and sure enough, there's a Johnny (polic officer) standing on the side of the road with a big bamboo stick (that's how they keep order her, and it works pretty good)... he points the stick at us and motions "ok you've had your fun, now turn around and go back where you started from"... which isn't easy either as about 15 other cars have followed us and are jammed behind us in that lane, and the regular traffic is all crammed into the other lane and shoulder... finally we get turned around and get back to the press again. Eventually we pull off onto a side lane, which is a "short cut to my village" and it's a bumpy mostly paved farm lane road, with the usual pedestrians, cycles, bicycles, cows, dogs, and a few cars sharing. Soon we're surrounded by green fields of rice, millet, and sugar cane, people are out working their plots or diverting water from the canal to them, no monsoon rains yet, just a little bit, and the crops are suffering, yield will be small and the rice grains will be smaller too, Kuldeep says. In a few minutes we are far from the road and crowds and people, animals, and green space is on all sides. Kuldeep pulls over at a vegetable stall at the crossing before the village entry, and Julie goes with him to pick up some 3 or 4bags of things. That's how they do it here, buy fresh just about each day. I stay in the car, I'm tired, sleepy from the heat and hassle of the train station and rushing around town, and watch some boys play a game where one tosses a piece of brick, then the next one, from where he's standing, throws a piece of brick at it. If he misses, the next one tosses a piece at his brick and so on, until someone hits the others brick, then they start over.

The village has a 7 or 8 ft wide concrete lane winding through, with open concrete drains of appx 6" on either side. Most homes have at least one cow or goat, for milk, very important for the kids nutrition. There are dogs, kids, and people visible everywhere. We pull up to Kuldeeps family home, which has a car-port type of space entry, where his father Beetam is resting on a cloth woven pallet. He comes to greet us and offers me his pallet, sit is the sign language. He's dressed in a dhoti, cotton cloth wrapped around his middle and upper legs, nothing more, it's hot at 3:30. For the next few minutes we are being introduced to the family members, some of whom speak english, and walked through parts of the home to a stairway upstairs, where we are offered cool bottled water (they get theirs from a pump and we can't drink it) and try to converse. It's awkward after the 2 college age english speaking girls (Rajni and Jyoti) and one boy (awaiting admission test results) exchange with Julie about their courses and what will she do, where stay, etc. I pull out my picture book and offer it to the closest person, narrating pic by pic as they flip through. It takes a few times through for everyone to see them, and by the 3rd time Kuldeeps neice Rajni is narrating in very good english. She's a smart one, just completed her MS in IT from Delhi U 2 days ago she has just come back to the village. She is searching for a job but its very tough for a "fresher" right now people are taking minimum 10% pay cuts to keep their jobs and new hires are getting 50% of the regular rate, with so many experienced people available at 50% a fresher has not much chance. minimum 300-600 applicants per position it is very competitive.

We're sitting in the 2nd fl bedroom where Kuldeeps family sleeps, there's a small room off to the side with a window overlooking the village, and a toilet room, backing to the street. There are 3 pallet style beds in the room, and also a sofa, a ceiling fan, and a bookcase with family pictures and a few religious statues and paintings on them. Outside the room is a maybe 15' square terrace, where dinner will be eaten and the family will hang out as the day cools and a breeze comes up. It's airy and neat and the windows are full open, no screens. Radkhi makes a few trips up the stairs with plates for me and Julie, and platters with Pekora (fresh veggies fried in a light spicy chick-pea flour) and Parantha, round tasty bread, hot and tasty, couldn't be fresher, delicious. We are encouraged to eat and eat, the high piled platter gradually flattens, and we get a little help, though most everyone else has had lunch a short time ago (they eat lunch about 2, dinner about 8). We thank Radkhi and Kuldeep asks if we want to walk around the village and see what its like. Sure!

We are a great curiousity, as we have read, people around here do not see many white people up close, and the kids especially are intrigued. It takes a few minutes to get out of the driveway kuldeeps daughter Radhka shows us her bicycle with training wheels, and accidently rides over julies foot, bloodying her toe, and I have to get photos of the other kids on the tractor, and the kids next door, and their goats, within minutes we have an entourage of 15 or 20 following. Almost everyone in the village is out tending to the cows, goats, or some chore, most everyone is cheerful and smiles at us and returns our awkward greetings (almost no one knows english, but the little kids, some of whom are proud to step forward and say HELLO, or HI my name is).. and we are shaking hands and greeting everyone with a nod, a wink, a smile, as we walk. Some of the children are too shy or afraid to come close, they keep a careful distance. Once in a while we act like we're going to reach out and grab their hand, and they run away, giggling, with all the other kids and grownups around laughing and encouraging them to take the plunge.

We come to a crowd of men, a few dhoti clad elders mixed in, sitting on pallets and woven cane chairs around a water pipe with a 6 foot stem. One of the elders speaks a little english and he asks me a few questions, they nod appreciatively to hear I work at a community planning firm, but I don't think even the one or two that spoke english understands what we do. He asks Julie a few questions, and offers us water, which we explain we can't drink, or tea, which it's way to hot for. Milk? Somewhere they got the idea Julie nodded, and a fellow runs off, a few minutes later we are each handed a large metal tumbler, filled to the top with steaming warm milk, yellow stuff floating on the top and all... Ohhhh, thanks!30-40 people looking on proudly...... I do my best, and get to the bottom OK. Thankfully a bunch of sugar had been added.... Julie took a little longer... but she got almost to the bottom of the cup. Her bloody toe is covered with flies by now, they are all over the place. I pass around my photo album and everyone likes it... you very lucky man, very happy family, very happy life... oh believe me, brother, I know it, I am so lucky!

Kuldeep takes a seat on the pallet and takes a long draw on the water pipe, coughs, exhales, takes another, and I am motioned to partake. You put your hand over the end so not to touch with your mouth and it takes some suction to get the thing gurgling and get a lungful, but I have two successful puffs thanks to bike commuter lungs and do not embarrass myself by coughing or tearing up. Julie declines. I ask if it's OK to get a photo and 3 or 4 tries later we think we have everyone captured and we promise yes we will get a print to Kuldeep, a big one, and we say our goodbyes. Winding through the street, see a proud family in the yard where a new cow has been born, in the last hour, Kuldeep says, yes OK to take a picture, and we wave congratulations to the husband and wife watching over the newborn. We stop to snap a few pics of the monkeys, cute little baby, then come to another group of village elders. I am introduced to the chairman of the village, who speaks a little english. I'm offered a seat, and Julie is being encouraged to go with the kids, they want to take her home and show her to their parents. After a couple awkward minutes because no one speaks much english... I ask if it's OK to snap a photo, of course, please send a print to Kuldeep they say in Hindi.

Coming to the end of the village I look back Julie has wall to wall kids she's trying to coax a shy one to shake hands, we head out of town, where there is a noisy crowd of boys, 10s to teens, moving and jumping around "snake!" they are shouting and motioning for us to go over, I lead the way with my camera at the ready.... right up on the the mound of dry(thankfully) cow dung they are standing on, and try to keep my balance on the sidehill while my sandal is getting full of dry manure, the other one is sliding, and I'm trying to find the green cobra slinking through the tall green grass... I get a pic and get out of there, stopping to shake out both my sandals. We get to the end of pavement and are in the fields, the sun is going down so people are returning to work, a young girl in a bright orange and yellow sari, maybe 15, takes her basket nearby and starts cutting weeds from among the millet plants with her small hand scythe. She'll carry it home to feed to her goat of cow. Most family's have a plot they work, the ones that don't barter or buy from the ones that have a surplus. Kuldeeps family no longer has a plot, they used to. He points to a village in the distance, that's where I was born and lived til age five, then we moved to this village, I learned to swim in that canal, see that yellow 2 story building that's the school, my mom was a mathmatics teacher there... the sun is setting, and we head back, catch up to Julie and the kids are trickling away now as dusk approaches it's time to be home, with family, before dark.

Back at Kuldeeps we enter the courtyard and are offered a couple plastic chairs, a fan and battery are moved near, the clips attached, and the fan blows directly on me and Julie. The college girls mother Grita is introduced, and their aunt, then Kuldeeps grandmother Gwati comes out from her quarters across the courtyard away from the street. She's 90, slim, alert, in a pink and brown sari, rings on her toes, bracelets, smiling. She says she has a little arthitis in her fingers and toes, and flexes them for us... smiling. Looking pretty good for 90. She asks about us, what do we think of India, what do we like most... what is Julie doing, community service very good, the grandneices tell us she used to teach mostly underprivileged kids and especially women. We're called to dinner upstairs by Radkhi and say goodbye. Each part of the family has their separate rooms, with space between them and the next group. Each has privacy, but also share the common space, well, & kitchen.

We are back upstairs on the terrace at sunset, Radhki is sweating, making numerous trips up the stairs carrying everything to set up for dinner, I carry up a couple handfuls on my trip, and others help out. We are seated, the fan and battery are brought up and put to blow on us, and we eat again! Dal, mixed vegetables, rice from the field, excellent roti or parantha, pickle, and for desert fresh ripe papaya, which is much sweeter than what we get. There are 4 or 5 varieties here, some are better for pickle others to eat. Dinner is great, the kids at the pallet nearby come back for more rice, more papaya, they are 3 sharing off one plate, getting along so nicely, even when down to the last piece of papaya the 10 yrs old daughter carefully cuts it with a spoon so all 3 get an equal part. I thank Radhki for the wonderful 2 meals... and comment about how hard she works. She smiles and nods as it's translated to her. "India wife" says Jyoti, they take great pride in how hard they work. She tells how her sister Jyoti loves fresh butter and Grita mother makes it for her every morning and she eats it all! Every morning? asks Julie, yes, she says, it ONLY takes about 20 minutes work to whip it up from the curd. Wow, they really do work hard.

Soon enough darkness is falling, the dishes are cleared, and we are looking over the terrace wall to see many other families going up on the roof to enjoy the cooling of the day. There are a number of pallets on rooftops as well... yes, many people sleep outside on their roofs because it's cooler, he says. We say our goodbyes and exchange email addresses and promise to keep in touch and we are back in the dark on the road. It takes nearly 2 hours to get back the traffic jam is terrible... an interesting thing we see at the toll booth where there is no lane it's 8 lanes of jam going past the 2 booths and if you don't drive by the booth you, or someone in your car or cycle has to get off and go to the booth to pay and get the receipt... seems like with these thousands of cars there's no way they could tell who did or didn't pay, right? In a few minutes, here come a gang of about 5 guys, carrying big sticks.... going car to car to check receipts! They come right to Kuldeeps window and he puts up his receipt... the guy says no roll down the window give it to me Kuldeep says no, I paid, here's the receipt, and he shifts into gear and moves with the crush again... yes, that's how they make sure people pay, he says, 10 rupees, or stick, he laughs.... I think the 10 rupees is OK for that! We're back to the room by midnight, and we're packing, tomorrow is getaway day!

Night train back from Bodhgaya

2009-07-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

Leaving Bodhgaya on the back of our Honda Hero 125 (Sanjeev driving and Ishu in the middle) I had another one of those moments... it's pitch black, we stop for gas, all of a sudden Sanjeev takes off and runs across the road.

Ishu starts up the bike and is beeping the horn we need to go, it's 17 kms, a long way to go on an overloaded 125cc motorbike in the black Bihar night, on the potholed roads with the trucks, speeding cars, other cycles, auto rickshaw's (they are bigger here), and the occasional pedestrian, cycle rickshaw without lights, or dog. We dodge and weave and bump for 30 minutes and enter Gaya.

Traffic crawls the last 2 kms, it takes 15 minutes or so... dust thick enough you feel it in your eyes and every breath, we are stuck behind some trucks and a jam up, 2 trucks can't fit on the town road at the same time, and there are a bunch of them going both ways. While they move over as close as possible to the shops, stalls, open air eateries, and buildings at a snail pace, cycles and cars are trying to slip by at every opportunity.

I am questioning myself why didn't I just get an autorickshaw? It would be as dusty and noisy, but much less dangerous! We inch along, a hair behind a big truck, vying to pass on whichever side opens up with a pack of cycles and autorickshaws, even though it's 9:30 on a Monday night it is crowded everywhere you look. My eyes are feeling the grit, I look at the open air food stalls and shops on the side of the
road you can see the dust in a thick layer on everything, I cannot believe people eat the food being prepared right there, but that's life at normal here. We finally blessedly are turning off and into the train station, whew!

Negotiating the "road" in, there's no pavement, just potholed, bumpy dirt with gravel and rocks, it's just as dusty as the road.

We say our goodbyes at the station entry and it is packed, people laying everywhere, I'm looking for a signboard and find an e-board, all in hindi, but my train number and time are there, and there are the dot-matrix printouts of passengers tacked up on the wall, in english. I don't find my train number, and while my ticket says confirmed, they always tell you that doesn't mean anything until you confirm it at the station. My ticket says a car but not a berth number. There's no listing for my train but a little Tourist help office is open, and the man in there takes my ticket and confirms I have a berth, my car isn't A1 but H1, and I am berth F. Great! Now 40 minutes til train time I walk around the whole station it takes about 5 minutes, there are 2 snack bars, each with a choice of tea biscuit cookies, bottled water, soda, or the chip type things they eat there, a book store with all Hindi books
except one or two Business type english books and some trash novels, and that's about it. People are laying around on the floor everywhere, there's no place to sit and as usual it is too dirty to sit on the ground. I follow the signs upstairs to the "1st class" waiting room, across from the retiring rooms with beds for a small fee, and quickly decide the dirty crowded platform is a better choice, at least there's a chance of a breeze. Back downstairs I walk the building again, buy a pack of biscuits and a bottle of water, and walk way to the end where I find a place to sit. A train pulls in, the announcement is in hindi, the e-board doesn't show the number, and it says Howrah Express on it. Not mine, I'm on the calcutta-Delhi express I think... people start getting on, it's a long one, and the clock says 10:22... my train is due at 10:19, I better check. No english speakers around someone
looks at my ticket and points at a railroad worker. Yes this is the train, your car is all the way at the other end, hurry, run!, and he takes off at a sprint leading the way. I follow, with my loaded backpack and rueing the 2 full bottles of water it's only a minute I'm pouring sweat, and as we pass about 13 cars by my count
get to of course the last car before the engine, where the conductor is standing with his list shaking his head and waiting impatiently. "Is this" I start to ask, Berth F upper, he says, without looking at my ticket, and he checks off his paper and walks off with a sideways shaking of his head. I am winded, hot, sweaty, dusty, tired, with a heavy pack on my back, and as I enter the berth, everything gets nice.

There are red fabric seat/beds, ac, it's spacious and clean. Several stewards show up, one brings a fresh bottle of cold water!, the other has clean sheets and a wool blanket, which he spreads out on my berth. Then they are gone and I am meeting the one other person in there, who owns a textile company (nationwide), lives in Gaya, and is heading to Delhi to meet up with his wife who is with her parents, before flying off to Goa (THE seaside resort town of India)for holiday, and then traveling on for 2 more weeks of business. We chat a while I show him my pics he shows me his
laptop full and starts with the wedding pics. He does things in a big way, has a 40,000 square foot home, had plannned to fly 300 people to Bangkok for his wedding but 11/26 (terror attack on Mumbai) happened just days before so they had to completely replan the wedding for Delhi which they did in 2 days and everything went off splendidly. I MUST go to Goa, I MUST go to this restaurant, it's the best in all of India (it's where Hillary Clinton ate that, or the next day) everything is 5 star this, best in India that. Well I'm really more comfortable in 3 star places and I've had great food everywhere in India, for as little as 12 cents a plate, so ... ah, never mind. Yeah, well, maybe so, but I only have 2 days left and I think I'll just relax, visit Kuldeeps village. "Village, vILLAGE!, why would you want to visit a village?" We've been invited to. "Who invited you?" Our driver, Kuldeep! "DRIVER?!
DRIVER?! You must be very careful, trust me on this my friend, I know what I am talking about, you must NEVER trust ANY taxi driver in Delhi, they are not to be trusted with anything. You must not go to any village with driver, it could be very dangerous for you and your daughter, trust me, I'm telling you, I know this for a fact"... OK, well, we've been hanging out with him for like 3 weeks, and he seems to have been very honest in his dealings with us, he's helping my daughter learn hindi, and he has helped us negotiate a good many things we've required with all the
Visa hassles. I'd be very careful, my friend, trust me on this, I know what I am talking about... OK well, thanks and goodnight. (Later Julie tells me one of her new friends told her "WE don't mix with people like drivers to much", so that partly explains it... the caste/class thing), but still, now I have doubts again....

The bed is great! It's big and wide and pretty soft, I can stretch out, I doze off by midnight, to be awakened by the berth door slamming open and the light coming on an hour later. 2 more men drag their bags in and the other berths are prepared noisily in bright light, I stay under my pillow and don't even look, eventually the light goes off and I'm back to a fairly restful sleep. Awakened about 6 the door slams open Times of India is handed to me and I'm offered Juice. Breakfast is grand, cornflakes with hot milk? veg patties and fries, toast and orange marmalade, a ripe mango, and 2 tea bags and a hot pot of water, served on china, real silverware. The 2men aren't up yet so I take breakfast on the upper and avoid conversation with my downstairs neighbor, who sleeps late too, when he get's up we nod a good morning and that's good enough.

We crawl into Delhi the last 1/2 hour takes forever we go so slow
through the sprawling city. Julie and Kuldeep are picking my up at the station at 10:00, and we are in at 9:55, precisely on schedule. I follow the crowd up and across the concourse to the terminal building, but, it doesn't look familiar! Did I get off the wrong place? No, the train terminates here, this must be it. Down to the terminal which is not what I remember from buying my ticket. I got outside and no Kuldeep and Julie... hot beating sun, crowds, about 30 touts and taxi drivers persist, no, no, no, no... no where to sit down outside and no shade is uncrowded. I find a tiny piece of signpost shade and squint to read my phone text in the blazing sun. "We are here in front but don't see you" reads the text from Julie... it takes a few minutes of back and forth Kuldeep says I must be on the Paharganj side? Oh, the station has 2 terminal buildings, one on each side? That must be it... wow... what a place, this side is just as crowded as the other. 10 minutes later I've walked all the way back up the stairs and across the whole station, down again, and out to the street and find them. What a trip!

Bodhgaya sights

2009-07-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

A fitful sleep, I wake at 8:00, late. Room service omlet, toast, and coffee (they don't do coffee very well here), and I head across the street to the Japanese Temple... but, "Hello Sir!" I hear from the shop a couple doors down it's Ishu, he leads me over to where Sanjeev is milking a cow in front of the shop. I say later I'll go around and go to the Temple, it's a great quiet peaceful place, awesome, plenty of pilgrims coming and going, and there's also a school next door with about 100 kids, ages 3-5, all in uniforms, the boys red the girls blue, they are all smiling and happy and could be a kindergarten anywhere. I snap a few photos and head around to the other side of the complex, where there is a free medical clinic, a line of maybe 100 people threads along the several building front sidewalks. As I'm coming out of the gates, there are my buddies, and they insist on guiding me today. Again I'm skeptical, what are these guys after?

We walk a long block in steamy hot to a small, simple, serene Butt Shinji Temple, featuring a wood Buddha carved by Masahiro Maeda, born 1973, his caption "I'll pray you, Sakyamuni, to lead all the people to live cheerfully, honestly, and peacefully. I pray with all my heart. Can this really be what all the people here are thinking?

Next is the large Buddha statue, 80 feet or so tall, in a nice park, surrounded by statues of disciples. The walls have the broken glass stuck in the top of them to keep people out, must work!

We pass the Daijokyo Vocational training school, sponsored by a Japanese charity, where young people learn to type, make cloth, or cook if there's no university in the future, and that means 95% of the locals.

On the same street is the Daisokyho Buddhist temple, high tall flight of stairs in front, 4 old beggar women and a crippled young man dragging a leg with his hand greet you on your way in and out.

Next door is the Tibet temple, built by the Bhutanese but named for Tibet as a tribute to the many Tibetans in exile living in India. It is an exquisite work of art you have to see and ponder a long time to absorb, colorful art inside and out.

Now Sanjeev rejoins us and says let's take the bike (cycle) for a few places out of town... OK...I'm thinking about all the dacoit (robbery/banditry) in Bihar I read in the guidebook, but what the heck, these kids seem honest. The 3 of us pile onto the Honda Hero 125 and head down the craziness that is a rural india road... past working farms of rice patties, goats and cows milling all around, people working everywhere, doing everything by hand, and into a complex with a huge golden buddha statue under a metal barn type structure, it's maybe 30 feet high, and not finished yet, in the middle of a field down a peaceful path with trees and flowers along the way. A goatherd passes by outside the fence with about 20 goats, and he shouts something to the 3 girl/women hand weeding the field, they laugh and shout back happily. Everyone is happy here, if they're not begging or hawking...

Sanjeev says "now to the Sujata Temple!" one of the oldest, most important temples... we are going through back road villages, and I am getting scared... the "street" is maybe 6 feet wide, houses both sides, no electricity don't even think about running water, dirty clothes on everyone, kids with no pants, I see my first hermaphrodite kids... then we cross a river and we are going out in middle of nowhere, looks like a good place for a robbery! I'm thinking... but the kids are good as gold, we pull up to an old, decrepit site, with unkempt buildings, about a dozen beggar old women and kids at the gate... we push past and see the shrine, at the site Buddha sat for 6 years and did not eat. There are many buildings here and I go to take a picture, no pictures! Shouts an old man, there are about 30 of them under a pavillion, making designs on floor, sweeping, meditating. A string of them is heading down to the river with dishes in hand to wash them. We are not feeling welcome here now they are saying give money, give a donation! Ishu says you do not have to give them anything, pay no mind... and we are out of there. Now it the last village was scary... the next one I am sure I am not coming out... Sanjeev makes a bad turn and we are now on a dirt "street"... although there are no vehicles and the dwellings are about 6 feet apart on each side, a drain between each building has to be negotiated by the 125 cycle with the 3 of us on it, we get stuck once, stall once, and it is looking like a dead end! Luckily there was one more turn off and we see pavement again. One more stop, where Buddha stopped before crossing the river to Bodhgaya... the river is shallow enough people are walking across it and you can see the Mahabhodi temple over there, so thanks Sanjeev, I'm walking back!

Ishu walks with me and we talk, on the Bodhgaya side is a palace a king used to live in, now it's fallen into much disrepair but still has a beautiful shrine with a lion head resting bed in the center, where the king used to hang out maybe. Only the caretakers live here now, and they are again making us feel unwelcome and asking for donations so we are out of there and back up the hill to the Mahabodi temple. A good hour milling around the grounds and sitting peacefully on the marble floor under the Bodi tree and I'm done sightseeing for now, Ishu gets on the phone and Sanjeev drops me at an internet cafe, after a quick stop at the shop for cold club soda and to meet his dad (I didn't get his name it's in Hindi and he spoke no english at all)... Sanjeev asked what time is my train and do I want a ride on his cycle and I say yes sure, I would pay an autorickshaw 100 rupees I'll give him the same! He likes that.

No luck uploading pictures but I will try again later. Tonight 10:22 my train is due in Gaya to Delhi overnight again, but 1st Class AC this time, my first... it cost 1300 rupees to come out 2nd AC, 2600 first class! The ticket seller said the food will be excellent, it's included in the price. Now it's 2:45 hot as blazes black monsoon clouds building maybe a cool breeze will come with the rain that hopefully will fall soon, then lunch, a cold shower and fresh clothes and back out for the last few hours. I love this place... all that worry for nothing, the people are just as they are supposed to be by Buddha's teaching, peaceful, honest, helpful, and totally trustworthy... though I'm still skeptical, its starting to sink in.

Friendly Bodhgaya

2009-07-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

After a "room service" meal of clear veg soup, aloo, roti, rice, and cold coffee I'm off to explore Bodhgaya on foot. I make friends quickly, everyone want to know where you are from, will you help me learn english, help me get the money for school, etc. The touts and hawkers are thick and just as aggressive as Delhi, but, and this takes some getting used to, some of the people are genuinely friendly and honest as possible, due to the heavy Buddhist influence.

Most of the schools in the area are run by foreign help groups or through the monastery's, so all the kids are getting some education up to level 10 or 11, then choices slim to vocational school to learn to type, weave cloth, or cook, and the dream of many is somehow to get to university for studies, but money is a huge obstacle their families are living month to month just enough for food and rent. 3 young boys from the orphan school hung around with me for a while and at the end asked me to buy them a book... i'm thinking this is a scam of some sort but go to the bookstore and a Merriam-Webster English-Hindi dictionary is the prize possession they want, 950 rupees. I buy it, just like I would for a Fern Creek mentee, then ask the trio "you're not going to take it back for money are you?" Oh no... no sir, this is what we need to learn english, this is very important to us, and you can tell they are sincere. The three will share it and take it to school tomorrow. My other unofficial guide Ganesh is after someone to fund his 5,000 rupee entrance to university, then 5,000 a month, his family can only afford 2,000.

We have a cup of chai in a roadside place with maybe a 12 yr old girl and her little sister and brother. The chai is cooked over a clay bench with a hole in it, the fire is underneath sticks. Dirt floor, one plastic chair, which I am offered... the chai is excellent, then we chat as the monsoon rain starts and mom comes in, there's also a schoolteacher from Gaya, googly eyed Ganesh says he is drunk... it rains heavy for about an hour and we talk much.

Walking down the road back I stop for a bottle of water and another group Ishu, Sanjeev, and Ashish are met at the Sujata General Store, an open air counter about 8 feet wide the same depth. I talk with them a good while and they see my photos of home and just shake their heads "mindblowing" is the word they use, over and over. I buy 20 packs of chocolate creme biscuits to give the beggar kids I see (you never had anything snatched from your hand so aggressively). They want to guide me around tomorrow and I say OK I will meet up in the morning, what time? They get up at 3:00 (it's the buddhist training), mediation 3:30, jogging/pe til 5:00, then the work day starts. I say we'll see how it goes and retire. Sleep is difficult thinking about all the kids and how needy they are and there should be more that can be done for them, I call Marian to talk but she's overdue for a nap so I wanted to be on my own in Bihar here I am!

Bodhgaya and Bihar, another overnight train

2009-07-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

The train ride was great, 2nd class ac... I couldn't get the Delhi-Kolkata express from New Delhi Train Station so had to shift (that's what they call moving here) to the Old Delhi station which also left 2 hours later, so I had 3 hours to kill in Old Delhi... it was of course over 100 again and sweltering, Saturday so the market was packed... found my way around the Chandni Chowk but didn't score any bargains. Ate a great meal at Haldirams topped off with 2 red slush drinks (risked the ice&water)... so finally was able to stop sweating. The Old Delhi station makes the new station look like a palace... unfortunately you cannot take pictures inside there the machine gun toting guards frown on that... terrorism these days coming from Pak you know..

Picture the orlando amtrak station x12 platforms, strip off all the paint, put corrugated metal up over the platforms, and cram the platforms as full as a crowd leaving a sellout basketball game, add 100+ 90% humidity, and piles of fly covered you know what on the tracks in-between the platforms... absolutely the only breeze is when a train comes by...you cannot sit down anywhere except the ground and it is so filthy even though I had dark brown pants on I didn't want them to get THAT dirty. So you stand and sweat is pouring off... bandana on my head down to my eyebrows with another one to mop off my face and neck below that. Soaked through shirt and uwear. The bottled water is the only relief, it's just cooler than 100.... finally our train shows up, it's on time, the Jarkharand Express, and YES! the AC is on in the ac car... not at first, the train was starting fresh, but after about 10 minutes. I got a nice berthmate couple of students from Tokyo, Ray is studying Native American literature at Tokyo U, his partner Meg is into Public Health. We had good talks about native american books, authors, etc, and also Rays dad is a cyclist everywhere around Tokyo! So we had a good time and although they got off 7:00am at Varanasi, while I was still groggy with my head under the sheets, they each left me very nice notes. Ray will get his dad on liketoobike.com and converse with me.

10:10 we pull into Gaya, I am in Bihar, the poorest state in India! A dozen kms from Bodhgaya, and it is absolutely way way hotter than Delhi! You walk up a long ramp to get out of there, it's a dusty dirty open air station, and it's pretty full of people waiting for local trains. Not a person with clean clothes in sight.

Before I get out of the platform concourse I have 3 auto rickshaw drivers fighting over who is going to take me to Bodhgaya, it's an 80 rupee ride, says Lonely Planet guidebook.
The first one starts at 200 and I give a loud laugh, the second one is 150, and I push past him "no thanks, buddy". The last guy says what do you want to pay and I say 80, he says OK, and the other guys are hassling him I saw him first, hot, dusty parking lot... then as I'm getting in the vehicle "100 0K?"... yeah, yeah, you take me all around Bodhgaya and take me to 3 hotels. That's just what we did and you read about they will steer you someplace they get a commission in this case the Hotel Tokyo(!!!) Vihar... offered at 600 rupees, was not far behind the quality of the Sujata, which Lonely Planet calls "top range"... they want 3600 and won't deal after I see the room, as I'm walking out no thanks he's "how much you want to pay"? game, too bad. Everything works at the hotel I get a cool shower and change to fresh clothes the go out to explore Bodhgaya... I make friends quickly here...oh they are closing up the internet cafe so I gotta go, more tomorrow!

Going to Bodhgaya

2009-07-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

We've decided it will be good to split up a couple days. Julie was on her own for 4 hours yesterday and really enjoyed not having dad around... and my time is short, and the one place I really wanted to go besides the Taj Mahal is Bodhgaya, where the Buddha became enlightened beneath the Bodi Tree.

There are several overnight trains leaving tonight, and of course, the online booking system, after a long time of pages not working, found the train, a 1st class sleeper spot, and let me put in my name and age but when I try to pay for it too bad, nope won't work and by the way I may get downgraded to any class seat if not confirmed at the station... so I will go up to the station 2 or 3 hours early. It leaves at 5, it's 11:50 now.

I'll get to Gaya, 12 km's up the road from Bodhgaya about 4:30am... don't know what I'll do then. Also, the online booking for hotels shows no accomodation available, except at a couple "budget" places.... still at $60 USD per night! Now we've seen what are called "posh" neighborhoods and places, and to us they are hmmmm well, imagine the worst part of any city you have ever been in... now, imagine all the garbage get's piled in the street, people pee etc not behind bushes and trees but on the sidewalk, dogs and cows roam freely, and there are masses of people everywhere all staring at you... that's a posh neighborhood... so a budget hotel I think I'd rather be on the train back but don't want to do overnight trains 2 nights in a row, they tend to not be the most restful, especially with a 3:30am wake up call.

So this may be my last post until Tuesday, it's Saturday morning here now... we will see if I see an AC internet cafe somewhere along the way I'll be in there for an hour.

Meanwhile, on the Visa front.... one last hope tomorrow is dimming, it looks like Julie will be required to travel back to USA for a week to get her Student Visa, then return in the 3rd or 4th week of school (they started 2 days ago here). So she will probably come home with me Thursday morning we fly out of Delhi 12:15am and with the 9.5 hour time dif, going west, after changes in Chicago and St Louis, get to Orlando about noon Thursday! That will give us back the day and a half we lost on the way here.

It's hot and going around 100 again today, monsoons would cool things down again and they tell me the further to the east you go the hotter it gets! But I must make the pilgrimage and chill for a day or two before saying farewell to India.

Oh we had dinner at Ashok and Alka's last night, Ashok is Julie's Rotary host here in India and Alka his wife. They have a very nice house in the southwest part of the city, after a wonderful veg dinner topped off by creamy vanilla ice cream atop fresh mango we were pushing 11:00 when Kuldeep showed at the gate to drive us back, about 20 miles. It was still crowded on the roads and streets everywhere even as we got back at midnight. There are huge Krishna processions going on where hundreds of devotees got water out of the Ganges up by Rishikesh, and they walk all the way back with gaily colored orange and gold banners and decorations by the hundreds, then they pitch large tents on the side of the road and you see them all stretching out in there with lit up palm trees and like christmas lights strung up all over the place... they are just on the roadside and apparently many temples send their people to do this we saw 3 separate parties going on during our drive back. When they get back to their temple they pour the water on their krishna statue and maybe something else, it's confusing all the things they do and who they are worshipping...

That's what confirmed for me to go to Bodhgaya, I like the Buddhist religion for it's simplicity, not too many rules, worship as you wish, live and let live. I look forward to hanging around the global mecca for buddhists from around the world and absorbing the laid back peaceful vibes... more to come.

Up in the air, but shopping is good

2009-07-16T02:19:00.000-07:00

We don't know what's happening with the VISA... but at the Rotary District meeting last night, where all the leadership was changed, everyone got gifts and bouquets presented to them, the new leaders were installed, the waiters came around with hors deurves and whisky, a little beer... we had a good time. We were dressed right in the middle, not as nice as the dignitaries and award winners, but nicer than most of the friends and family attendees. I was so glad we went and bought nice stuff they announced our presence and asked us to come up on the dais as they presented Julie with a bouquet so everyone (about 75-100 people) could see what we look like and take our picture. They are doing a lot of great stuff here for community service, Polio eradication is their number one goal, and Bill Gates foundation has stepped up to donate 350 million american dollars, if the Rotary matches 200 million... so there's that drive, they have gotten polio down from 1000 cases a day to 50 and the goal is 0... india is one of 4 countries in the world where polio still exists and we see many people sitting on the road begging, peddling bicycle rickshaws with their hands, and walking on their hands with deformed legs, etc.

Aside from that project they are funding and operating a vocational school in rural area's to teach farmer (mostly women) job skills, and also a program to teach computer literacy (MS OFFICE), so they can aspire to get a job as a clerk rather than menial labor or peon work. After the meeting, over drinks (I got some hard looks when I declined the straight wiskey with water as they all were drinking)... there was a great buffet line of veg things and some meat as well, and the deserts were strange... some white balls of curd like stuff flavored, kindof gritty, and YOU MUST TRY THIS! Ashok tells me as he piles something that looks like scalloped potatoes then puts on a white gravy... and then some ice cream may have been pistacio...

we hear from many people about the visa hassle they have all heard of it by now. Some say that should be no problem, to others who say what a mess you are in!

Anyway, we agree to dinner at Ashok and Alka's home an hour out of Delhi Friday night at 7:00 and say our goodnights, it's nearly midnight as we leave and the meeting is still going strong with the food and drink, but we have had enough. Kuldeep is waiting outside in the lot and we are in by 12:30.

Thursday, July 16. Article in the paper this morning Delhi U colleges are opening some holding their first days of class, others orientation as they open at different times over the next 2 weeks. Julie is a little disappointed she isn't starting school and settled by now, we've been here over 2 weeks and still don't know if she will have to travel home and back or what, we're finally adjusted to the time difference it's day when it's night at home and verse visa. Ashok calls this morning and 3 ways a call with a high ranking man we met last night who has a connection somewhere, and asks us to scan and email copies of all the documents to him so he can see what can be done. Mind you, this is where there are no office max's or kinkos, not in this part of the city anyway, photstat or fax is the best you can do and they are usually open air with mininum 10 year old equipment. We walk quite a while and it is hot again, though the monsoons have started just one day and the next 3 no rain is expected, we stop and ask several places and get pointed down the road or to Nehru Place, so we flag a tuk-tuk and start for there then see the place I saw the other day "RK Document Filing" We stop in and in a few minutes are sitting in an office with a guy on a pc while another meeting between 3 men takes place on the other end of the desk. 15 minutes later it's all done and we cash out for 100.

We celebrate by stopping in Narulas for a Fanta Ice creme soda and fries, then take a tuk-tuk to Greater Kailash market, which is supposed to be THE market in this sector of the city. We are greatly disappointed it is mostly clothing and jewelry, upscale for Delhi, higher priced than we are used to, and most of the stuff is plain ugly. An article in the paper this morning about the "Freshers" Freshmen girls at the Lady SriRam College just up the road "you must have different stuff" and they are all shopping at places like this for plaid capri's, denims (jeans), and tshirts with american slogans or ads on them... Julie thinks this is hideous and you can be different by being yourself so we flag a tuk-tuk and head for our favority market Lajpat Nagar. No word from Ashok so we pick up a few things and cannot find a Ganesha statue in wood, only brass, someone suggests Connaught place, so after back to the room to unload and cool off we will venture back up north to Connaught place, where we can also catch the metro on to the Chandni Chowk, the biggest best market in all of Delhi, in my humble opinion.

Oh I picked up another 3 india kurta tops (super lighweight, loose cotton with a pocket), and 2 pairs of the elastic waist loose cotton pants that are so lightweight you can wash them all out in the sink and hang up and within a couple hours they are dry and ready to wear again. Julie's ready to go so more tomorrow, it's 2:10 in the afternoon which means it's what 3:40 in the morning Thursday back in Orlando, so when I write again tomorrow Friday morning it will be Thursday night for you all!

We hope to have good news for the Visa by tomorrow so we can make a trip somewhere this weekend, if not I may have time to dash out to Patna and Gaya next Tues/Weds before I am coming home next Thursday.

VISA cannot be changed ! ?

2009-07-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have heard that China and India are going to pass us up soon and be ruling the world... you do not have to worry. This is not possible within the next 50 years at least, more likely to be 100. We had a day planned to get Julies tourist visa changed to a student visa. We have all the necessary paperwork and a letter from the university saying she will be admitted as soon as she is issued a student visa.

So we plan to first go to the Home Ministry Affairs office, where they will give you the application, and then provide you with a sealed envelope with their decision, which you will take to another office miles away, the FRRO Foreign Registry whatever, then we should be getting the visa application processed. Here's what happens... we hire a driver for the day, and get to the Home Ministry office promptly at 10:00, as applications are only accepted between 10:00 and 12:00 each day. The driver drops us at the guarded gate, and we walk in, the guard shak guard waves us over to a table where 3 other guards wave us into the reception office. Once in here, we wait in the line for the reception desk, where the "reception officer" asks us what are we there for, who are you? to me, and to see Julies paperwork and passport... all looks good, so he pecks into his keyboard for a minute, and then scrinch, scrinch, scrinch, scrinch, he tears a fresh green form off the dot matrix printer, with her name, and other information from her passport. He then rubber stamps the form with great applomb, and puts his initial on it. This form, from the Department of Reception, allows us to go back out to the guard that waved us into reception, and after searching our bags, waves us to the main building to the visa processing office, which we find on the 2nd floor (they call it first).

So far so good, we get upstairs to the office, where we wait in line to talk to the 2 women at the reception desk. One of them asks to see the green form, then hands us two photocopied applications which Julie needs to fill out in duplicate. The forms ask the same information as is already printed on the reception form, name, passport number, etc, with the additional question, VISA APPLIED FOR. She fills them out and checks Student, then gets back in the line to turn them in. By now it's 10:30 and already about 30 people are waiting for "the interview". The interviewers, however, don't start until 11:30... they are in the building, maybe, doing who knows what, but they won't start giving interviews until then. Once you complete your interview, then you must come back after 5:00pm, when they dispense the stamped and sealed envelopes that give the disposition of your case, and also the place you are supposed to take it to. So you cannot go to the other place today in any case, that will take at least another day. The fellow sitting next to us has been here 5 times before and he hopes today is his lucky day.

One interviewer starts doing interviews about 11:20, and Julie is the 2nd one called! Wahooo! It is a short interview, and I see her shaking her head and saying, you mean there's no other way? The interviewer shakes his head... she comes walking out... I have to get the visa processed in person, in my home country! So we have a valid passport and valid tourist visa to visit India, but must leave India, travel to the US, to apply in person to get the student visa, with the letter from the university showing their intention to offer her admittance if she has a student visa.

This is so crazy we are stunned... beyond belief. We ask the driver to take us to the market. Meanwhile, we're invited to the Rotary Club meeting tonight, and we don't have the address yet... so Julie calls Ashok her Delhi sponsor to find out about that and let him know what's just happened. It's at the Habitat Center, the big International arts and meeting place in the center of Delhi.. kind of like the Kennedy Center is to Washington DC, and it's formal attire, black suite, maroon tie preferred! And by the way, your dad is also invited..... I have khaki's, a "washed" (what they call used here) white shirt, and my scruffy brown suede shoes I've been wearing out here in Delhi they are filthy! Julie planned to wear a white shirt and khaki's as well.

So we are back to Lajpat Nagar market and do some decent shopping in 2 hrs we have clothes, my new black pants have been altered to fit, and I have a fresh haircut from the street barber who gave me the most thorough haircut, shave, head rub, face massage, neck and shoulder massage, back alignment, and neck crack I have ever had.

We get back to the room and try on our clothes and Julie' pants are a size too small... she told that guy 32 and he have her 30... oh is she steamed... and it's naptime we have a late night coming we must be there for the reception at 7:30 and dinner is 9:30... then the program?

While Julie naps I flag down a tuk-tuk in the pouring rain (did I mention the monsoons have started?) it's nice and cooler now... go back to the store slipping like crazy on the marble sidewalks now soaked in my slick new camel leather bottomed sandals. A thousand apologies from the guy at JCD department store that committed the screw-up... I said you are lucky Julie didn't come back here... she was too mad! They made good and there was a 1 rupee adjustment in the price for the larger ones... then I pick up a black belt and grab my favorite dish coconut rice at Sai Sarovar, with a veg chow mein to go and back on a tuk-tuk to East of Kailash. We pass the scene of the metro distaster where the column colapsed and the cranes got all messed up and the 200 tonnes of concrete and metal are all there they are cutting everything apart and removing it piece by piece... no shortage of bystanders either. So now we have 45 minutes to get ready before the driver shows up to take us to the habitat center for the big district meeting of Rotary International... more tomorrow... we don't know if Julie will have to come home to get a new visa or not... hard to imagine the government of India does not have the ability in it's capital city to issue a student visa, but we'll find out and report soon!

I am due to fly back next Thursday, Julie the following Friday, we set it up that way because we expected she would need more time to find out when she will finish school next year and change her return flight... anyway... things are very fluid here and my tour of India is not looking like it will happen we will likely be trying to get this thing straightened out here in one line or another begging for official receptionists and the like to stamp our forms and please help us find some sanity here!

Back in Delhi... still no admittance

2009-07-14T04:57:00.004-07:00

We're on a turbo prop plane back to Delhi on Jet Airways, it's pretty uneventful once we clear security at Udaipur. A beautiful brand spanking new airport, clean as a whistle, 3 gates, only 2 flights happening anytime soon, ours to Delhi at 6:20 and one to Mumbai at 7:40. Security is extremely tight.. you drive up to a police checkpoint (they give Arunesh a good long lecture for rolling the police stop sign... yes sir, yes sir, I know... sorry sir... then there are two more checking passports and tickets to get into the airport.

When you check in, every bag gets a new bag tag, so they can rubber stamp it when you go through security. The first security guys check your id, ticket, and that you have a bag tag, then through the scanners and metal detectors, a thorough pat down, then they go through your bags and stamp stamp, your boarding pass is stamped twice. We wait to go out and board the plane (it's a small airport the airplane is parked on the tarmac you just walk out there and up the steps into the plane). But not so fast... your boarding pass is checked and you walk outside, another security checkpoint, this will make 3... and this one is the most thorough, inside your bag, body frisk, metal detector, and a screened area where women get a more thorough body frisk by a women officer... only then do you get the final rubber stamp on your bag tag. Monica is travelling with us and she questions the officers about why they are taking so long to look through Julie's bag.. and the next thing you know there are 4 officers in the conversation as they start boarding the plane! Finally the situation mellows out and we board. They pass out cool Limca to drink, the salty lime drink, then we are airborne. One thing about india i like, when it comes time to food, the options are always "veg or non-veg"? And the veg meal... now get this, comes with real silverware, including a metal knife! We're getting our bags checked for things like paper clips and ink pens then they give us knifes and forks on the plane! Crazy, after dinner read for a while we cruise at 21,000 feet for 1:20 and we are in Delhi. No security to get out with your bags, though the machine gun guys are everywhere... and there's Kuldeep waiting on the rail waving us over. We drop off Monica and arrange for Kuldeep to drive us all day Tuesday, when we will again attempt to get the elusive "Admission Certificate".

We're back in our old room at F4 East of Kailash by 10:00, and we laugh when we try to use the lift and for whatever reason it doesn't work and we hump the bags up to the 3rd (they call it 2nd) floor. While the guys put our bags back in the room and change the single bed into two doubles again we head down to fast food city for a pineapple cake and orange soda, and walk down to see the around the clock spectacle
of the elevated Metro section collapse... people galore watching, 6 cranes trying to pick up the 4 cranes that went down trying to lift up the concrete and steel girder that went down due to the cracked concrete cantilever.

Tuesday 14th: Breakfast at 8:00, 8:30 Kuldeep picks us up and we're across town to Delhi U and the foreign student registry office by 9:15, except, they don't open until 10:15 and probably won't see anyone til 11:00. We debate and Julie decides to wait it out, she was supposed to get an email today or yesterday but no nothing yet. While she waits I send Kuldeep for a couple bottles of water and wait outside, noticing through the iron fence the sewer is backed up and filling the courtyard to the left of the building with a bad smelling liquid. Kuldeep comes back and I run the water up to Julie, she's ready to leave it's so frustrating... the office workers start trickling in between 9:30 and 10:00, there is already a line of kids waiting, Julie and a Chinese fellow at the front. This is going to take a while so I have Kuldeep take me to look for some sandals but the shops are not open yet so we come back and I figure I'll go wait with Julie, as I get to the stairs Julie calls she needs a copy of her passport and visa, so I go back down the stairs and in the wall across the road from the Office there is a hole in the wall I see a sign copy? Yes, believe it or not... 1 rupee for each then I'm back with Julie... and we wait...
it's hot in the hallway, this is so exasperating! We first applied July 1, it's now July 14th, this is our fourth trip to this particular office... all we hear is "first you must obtain the certificate of admission, before you can apply to the college, or sign up for courses, or buy books, or apply to a hostel" 2 days still school starts. Finally, a little after 11 Julie comes out with a paper in her hand...

Nooooooo, it's not the certificate of admission, but it's a letter stating she will be admitted once she meets the following 3 conditions, among which are a student visa, which you can't get until you've been admitted... but this letter should help get that from the US Embassy... and the letter has a rubber stamp! even though it's dated July 10 they didn't email us or lett us know... so Kuldeep navigates the Delhi traffic from north Delhi to southwest Delhi... 35 mins of so, to the American embassy, we go through security yes we are american citizens so get the short line and the clerk happily gives us a sheet with the 2 addresses we need to go to, no they do not do anything with visas here... so we are off to the India Foreign Registry R something office, FRRO for short, where we enter a packed room of foreigners speaking all sort of languages and jostle up to the reception counter where we are told we first have to go to the other office and get a brown envelope with a stamp on in, before we can come back to this one and apply for the student visa. Unfortunately the other office closes at 12:30 and it's now 1:15, so we will have to go there tomorrow morning, then back to the FRRO (they are in the same area of Delhi, but not close together), then we will have maybe the right papers to take back to the University to get the Admission certificate. Remember, school starts Thursday! So my plans to have Julie in housing and all set for the first day of school so I could make my journey to Bodh Gaya and Patna and Kerala... may not be happening, the letters also tell her she may have to go to her home country to get her student visa processed?! And also to plan on making her own living arrangements changes are negligible she will be able to get into on-campus hostels.

We have Kuldeep drive us out to "Gurgaon" the new city, where Microsoft and Oracle and all the american companies are building the new office buildings and shopping malls and bowling alleys and liquor stores and stand here drink beer on the side of the road shops... we drive about 1/2 of it and we've seen enough, this place is sick get us out of here... we head to Lajpat Nagar, one of the best market area's in town, and at Sai Sarovar I have a great coconut rice dish with Panatte and Raisa's, with the chutney and spicy and cool sauces and a lime soda... great lunch then we shop and Julie gets shoes and earrings and a shirt and i finally find a decent pair of sandals that fit me in a style i can live with... genuine camel hide... 595 he says, ha ha ha, come on... do I look that stupid?... he misses the joke, after a few back and forths we settle at 400 i won't go a penny higher i start to put on my socks and old shoes and get up to leave and OK OK we're done and they're in the bag.

We're back to our room after an ice cream stop Kuldeep sees a vendor sleeping on his pushcart so we wake him up and he sleepily gives us two butterscotch cones (kindof like a nutty buddy), collects the 32 and goes back to sleep on top his cart. Monica is expecting us for dinner at 7:30 she's at D20 Pam Posh Place just time for a nap and we'll have more great adventure tomorrow. Kuldeep is driving someone to Agra to see the Taj so Raj will be driving us tomorrow, 9:00 pickup and we go insearch of the stamped envelope, student visa application, and admission certificate!

Udaipur - Rajasthan

2009-07-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Udaipur July 11 & 12
Udaipur is a really cool place! Yesterday we went up into the hills to the Monsoon
Palace up on top the mountain, it is surrounded for miles by wildlife and nature
preserve so the views are unspoiled and it's very cool. They are in the process of
restoring the Monsoon palace but we saw a little of it and on the outside and entry
chamber it was really cool with fountains in both entry hall room bordered with 4"
high marble ledges. We enjoyed the views and cool breeze we are laughing to remember
how sweltering it was in Delhi now.. although we'll be back there in a few days! We
watched a huge storm dropping rain in sheets coming towards us as we sat on the
outside patio overlooking the valleys all around, til we felt the first drops then
scampered down the hill to the car just as the big drops started. We saw huge monkeys bounding across the road... Leugans or some such they were plentifl, also lots of goats, cows, water buffalos, donkeys, an elephant, some camels, as we drove around the lakes and hills.

Following a late authentic lunch prepared by Monica and her cook, we took a nap and
chilled out with the window open and hearing the silence and birds chirping. Dinner is quite late at Monica's as Arunesh is having some friends over and they will drink for a while before having theirs. We are there at 9 and it's decided to wait awhile and meet Arunesh's friends, which we do. Deepak owns the hotel we are in and also a
restaurant and has a contract with the concrete plant for materials. Sundeep and
Krupaj were not real talkative in English, most of the conversation was in Hindi so
after a few minutes we ate and they went outside to drink. We finished up by 10:30 and headed in for an early night of long rest... delightful! See you about 10 for
breakfast!

July 12
It's Sunday, and we enjoy an indian breakfast of tea, cheela's, which are kind of like pancakes made from chick-pea flour with thin slices of onions, coriander, green
peppers, and chilli peppers mixed in... you put a chutney of some sort on them and
they are fantastic! You eat 3 or 4 of those with fresh fruit pears, apples, bananas,
pomegranate and you are good to go! We have a second cup of tea and chat for a while, breakfast stretches out for about 2 hours! By now we decide to take a ride to old town and see the City Palace. Monica's family has been in Udaipur a long time, and her father in law had been the Maharana's family doctor, so she knows the family members going way back.

It takes about 2 hours to go through the palace at a rapid pace, Julie is not big on old buildings so she leads the way quickly, I am the dawdler reading every card and taking pictures of all the doors and archways... Arunesh is very well versed in
history, and he tells me many of the great stories of the Maharaja's of Udaipur, the
oldest continuous rulers in India, going back to say... 745 or so! In the genealogy
hall there are the photos of all of them, and a big chart of when they ruled, etc...
and he tells me the stories of the famous battles, and how the Rajputs were the only
ones not to submit to Akbar when he conquered all of India... the ruler went and lived in the woods until he would overthrow Akbar but he never did and died in the woods.. there was a famous battle where they were outnumbered and Akbar's army was on elephants so Maharana Prata had elephant trunk like things put on their horses so the elephants would think they were baby elephants and not attack the horses... the
elephants had sword blades attached to their trunks and they nicked Maharana Prata's
horse on the leg... the spirited horse Chetak turned around and bleeding, rescued the Maharana from danger and jumped the stream to safety... but, once reaching safety he expired. There is today in the center of town a big statue of the white horse in the middle of Chetak Circle. I know that name is familiar there is a scooter made by Bajaj, the Chetak, I saw one in the market later. A bunch of stories like these as we travel room to room seeing all the unbelievable architecture of white marble, glass, mirrors, inlays, doors, cupolas, little passageways, hidden courtyards, balcony's, fountains... war armor, swords, maces, you name it it's been saved and since the family still owns and lives in part of the palace, (another part is a 5 star hotel) many family photos and artifacts are on display as well.

We stop for lunch in the main courtyard, by now ac is welcome, and at a cool table
overlooking the front lawn discover it's Mexican day! After some insistent pleading on my part Monica and Arunesh allow me the honor of buying lunch, and a 5 course mexican meal follows, the food and service is perfect, and the chef comes out to make sure everything was OK. Following desert we take the car out of the palace and down a block or so into old town where we jump out to do a little shopping in the touristy area. We've seen many tourists today Arunesh says Udaipur is now one of the top tourist destinations in the world, maybe not in number of total tourists, but in the quality and value of the trip. You can get hostel rooms starting at about $1 a night, on up to $1300 for the top places.

It's pretty touristy so our shopping doesn't last long... we're going to do more
tomorrow but we'll go to the regular town market on Monday prices will be better.
Julie spots some headrags like I've been looking for the whole trip so Arunesh pulls
over and I jump out and walk back to the cart, where the guy sheepishly tells me the
large tie die's are 35 rupees (48 to the dollar), and the smalls are 10! 10! I say... 10! Yes he says, well, give me one of those, no make it two, and give me one of the big ones too. He looks at me? 35? this is 10? Yeah, Yeah, give me all three of them... crazy... american prices for lunch now 55 for 3 headwraps a couple blocks
away!

We're back to our room for a nap until dinner at 9 then tomorrow it's check out time, shopping, and to the airport for our 6:20 flight to Delhi, we should get to our room by 10 before enjoying the press and head of Delhi Tuesday morning, when Julie is supposed to finally get her admittance if she is going to, to Delhi U, then she can plead her case for Miranda house college and the on-campus hostel.

It's still 1947

2009-07-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

We're convinced we've fallen through a time gap on the plane over, and everything has gone back to 1947. The cabs, the lack of ac anywhere, none of the buildings, sidewalks, or roads have been updated since then. The Brits left it, and it's been straight down ever since. They are trying to do all these new things with the metro and new roads and sidewalks and green city... but just to come to central delhi around connaught place and try to walk down the sidewalk is a major hassle. If there aren't cars or motorcycles parked in the way, there are street vendors cooking or spreading out their wares, or like Julie is rolling her laptop bag along because we're headed for the train in a little bit and all of a sudden you come to an 18 inch concrete wall in the middle of the sidewalk that goes all the way across the parking lot, no way around it... so you jump that and another 10 paces there is a rounded only about 10 inch high concrete dome to navigate... that's not so bad, another 15 paces and the sidwalk turns to dirt, then a muddy puddle, and you have to tiptoe around that... you can see sidewalk, but it's on the other side of the railed off parking lot... aiiiiiii!

We packed up and checked out this morning.. our laundry still damp from the hand wash and press, and thought it would be nice to hang out in a cyber cafe and update our post cards and blogs.... the nearest place is Nehru place, a huge shopping area Kuldeep showed us on the way to the Lotus Temple. As we drove by he commented there was a McDonalds... all new, western shopping area.... so we're thinking AC, relax, post some cards, browse the web.... til the driver drops us off, on the backside away from that side and we could not find it for the longest time. It was so hot, and parking lot was dirt... since we're packed for 3 days on the road by train to Udaipur I have my backpack full, my shoulder bag as well, and Julie has her roller and a backpack. So I'm carrying the bag through the lot til the cars are parked so close together you cannot walk between them, on all sides? Backtrack.... some guy asks if he can help, as the indians will always do... and we said yes we want to find a nice ac place to sit down and eat... he shakes his head, but points over through that gateway, and he walks us to a pathway between the parked cars and a building. Did I mention it's oppressively hot and sticky?

It's cloudy today, which is great to keep the sun off you, but it's still high 90's already by 1:00... and the cloud cover keeps all the pollution down, it is stifling.
We get to the gate, up about a dozen stairs, and into a sweltering hallway of shops... where Julie buys some stationary she needs, and we continue, out into a huge plaza, broken tiles all through it turning to dirt, surrounded on all sides by 6-8 story buildings with all manner of little shops and offices... many eateries, all outdoor, no ac, stand up, and it is not quite wall to wall but throngs and lines and hustle bustle on every side. Julie is getting a little steamed by now, what the heck did we come here for?! Well, Kuldeep said... nice new wester modern... so we press on... see a french boulangerie in the distance, looks like sit down.... but when we get close enough...it's closed for renovation... around another corner, another plaza with a cast of thousands... and did I mention we are the only white people for miles? Everyone stops what they are doing to stare at us, (well not quite everyone, it just seems like it).... around another corner, past a gaggle of beggars laying on the tile screaming at us to give... then getting irate when we don't... and I spot the McDonalds sign. There's a small door leading into a tall office type building, up another 10 stairs or so, inside which is airport security type screening security... I am loaded with 2 bags so is Julie, and the guard is quite thorough... finally we get in, and see a RUBY TUESDAY'S!!! and a SBARRO! Never ever in a million years did I think I would be happy to see them, I avoid them like the plague at home... but AC!!! SIT DOWN SERVICE!!! I maybe can even risk a salad here... I haven't had one since the airport in Chicago 10 days ago.

We have a glorious meal and actually stop sweating... and get full, they had some great little veggie burgers and fries w ketchup, and the salad bar was wierd but some parts like brocolli, lettuce, and green peppers were familiar, the papaya, watermelon, and cucumber salad were hot hot hot spiced... thankfully they brought us a large mineral water at the start, (did I mention you cannot drink the water here?, or use it to brush your teeth, or your toothbrush, or eat anything like fresh fruit or vegetables unless you peel them yourself?) Anyway, it's only been 3 hours and my stomack is rumbling a little, we'll see what happens on the train tonight where another adventure is in store for us... almost time to head for the station... I may drop out for a few days, not likely there will be cyber cafe's in Udaipur, it's hard enough to find in the capital of the country... and Udaipur is not that. It's in Rajasthan, where the guys wear the turbans and grow the huge handlebar mustaches, and I think the women wear saries and salwar kameez...will be nice if the young people actually dress indian not in jeans and stupid looking american tshirts like most do here... anyway, we'll be back to Delhi Monday or Tuesday night, Julie is supposed to find out about her admission on Tuesday... then we'll see what's up with housing before school starts on Thursday and I maybe board another overnight train to Gaya... see how this goes first.

Catching an autorickshaw to Nizammudin station for the 2693 at 7:00...

Has it only been a week?

2009-07-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning marks a week in Delhi, and we're beginning to go with the flow a little more. We take breakfast at 8:00, a busy morning agenda will take us to Model Town, way up north by the University, then to the University to drop off the official looking paper the Embassy staff notarized for us, I need to get my phone working or purchase a new one to go with the Aircel SIM card I've purchased. We have to arrange train travel to Udaipur (pronounced OO da purrr, I have been saying YOU Diaper) where we've been invited to visit a Rotary contact Monica, and finally to get back to the market at Lajpat Nagar I need a good head rag and a sleep sheet for the overnight train. Julie needs some baggy legging loose cotton pants and another kurta or two wouldn't be bad.

For whatever reason the autorickshaws nearest our hotel don't ever take us anywhere, just shake their heads? So we walk a couple blocks to the intersection in the center of East of Kailash, were the traffic is brisk and one soon pulls over. 100 to Central Secretariat? Head wobble means get in, this old driver takes a slow meandering way, more shaded, less traffic, took an extra 10-15 minutes too, so we're going to be late for our 11:00 appointment that's clear. We get to the metro OK, it is near the center of the capital government offices, like the area north of the national mall in Washington DC. Lots of government workers getting to work about 9:30-10:00... must not be worries about job security here!

The metro is a crush after the first 2 stops, most of the way up the yelo line to Model Town, Julie is on the phone with Suresh our agent. Meet at McDonalds... we find it after a hot walk of a few hundred meters, a big sign "NO BEEF OR BEEF PRODUCTS SERVED HERE" I check the menu, righyoh...only chicken on the non-veg side, and veg on the other. We have a couple "large" cokes, with ice, and wait for Suresh to call or show up. A busy intersection outside the windows, I count about 75 people a minute criss cross the intersection one way or another, no lanes or traffic signal so they all weave around one another adjusting speed and location so no one has to slow down too much, once in a while a car or bus or truck will bull there way through in front of others but that's how it works here, most are respectful as long as you don't hinder them!

Suresh shows us 3 apartments, 30 to 45 thousand rupees a month... nice, fairly new, all marble floors, counters, bathrooms with tile walls. 2 3 bedrooms and a 2 bedroom, they are spacious and the one on the 2nd fl, they call it the 1st here... has 2 nice balconies front and back, spacious rooms, it's perfect.. except there's no furniture, no frig or ac, and Julie isn't yet sure whether she's going to get housing in the hostel or not (she still hasn't been admitted to the university, maybe next Tuesday, 2 days before schools starts they tell us!?)

We thank Suresh and before heading back to the metro stop in the McDonalds (next to he and his fathers office) for another cold one and a bit of food....which is no better an idea there than here... the veg patty is smothered in a spicy yelo goo that's just about unedible, Julies veg pizza puff is about the same inside... the coke is good and cold, Julie has a strawberry shake. We recap our housing strategy as I fiddle with my phone and voila the thing unlocks like majic... I've tried about 10 different things and spent hours on the phone with ATT customer service and on the web site trying to figure it out and the instructions are all wrong... there's a simple code to enter that unlocks it!

That done, we're on to the metro to the Vishawavdavalya or something close stop, for the University. I pull out the addresss card and soon have 5 rickshaw wallas jostling and fighting over who is going to take us and what the fare will be. 20-50... we settle on a guy for 20 who says he knows exactly where it is, he is the most foreceful, and we find this is great, he powers the rickshaw with the same vigor up the hill in the hot sun, passing every other rickshaw on the road easily... within minutes we pull up in front of the building and Julie is off to the line... GEOFF! this is so strange to hear, it's Omprakash, the Mathematics student from Nepal, and also Ashita, the local girl that's befriended Julie in the line, Julie's here?! she squeals... yes in the line... and off she goes to find her.. Omprakash says "it was meant to be! How could you be in Model Town and not call me?" we visit and Julie is not in line for hours this, our third time to the line... Mrs Deepa takes her papers, gives a head wobble, and we say our goodbyes and head back to the metro. Next stop Rajiv Chowk, the center of New Delhi, nearby to the train station... but after another forgettable veggie burger at Nirulas and pineapple soda we realize we are too gassed for another outing. Let's ride the metro out to the end of the blue line and cool off, then see how we feel... it's only 4 stops, and we see the slum shantytown, back of the electric power plant, water treatment plant, and cross the river to see the water buffaloes before circling back the same route. No we are done, we get an autorickshaw to the room, we'll try to make reserves on line... After a shower and a nap it is impossible to make reserves on line, no matter what they say it doesn't work. When I finally get to the page after about 20 pages, I see our train is sold out with 29 waitlisted! And like same for next 2 days! We must go to the station to see if this is real (this is more than 30 mins away by autorickshaw, which of course are not ac). But the heat has broken by now and people are out everywhere in the cool evening, all the parks are full, people are out front and on top their buildings, the kites are flying everywhere. We get to the station and run the gamut of seriously agressive touts in your face every few paces... doesn't help we're the only white people in sight, dressed in Indian clothing (they mostly wear plain western clothing, and most people look as though they own on the set they have on). The International Tourist Bureau never looked so good as the 2nd time, the white painted board with the numbers and the pale xerox copy of reservation form. We get our train number and sit on the sofa which is where the line starts. A few minutes later it's all done! Miracle of miracles, they have set asides for International Tourists only the office can print the ticket. He's on an amber monitor typing in the information we put on the form, and a few seconds later 2174 rupees (about $40) for both of us to go 600 kilometers overnight, the dot matrix printer is scrinching out our ticket. Car 1 berth 13 and 14 and upper and a lower. Back through the throng to the pre-paid autorickshaw booth, where we find how much we've been overpaying... 55 to Lajpat Nagar...we've been paying 100 or 150 to get from East of Kailash to the metro or central Delhi... of well...

The market is crowded as always in the last hour, but we bargain and get a few things before dropping into our final autorickshaw of the day. The first driver who is too proud to ask for directions when he gets lost he stops about a 1/2 mile from our hotel and turns the motor off... East Kailash! 50 he says.... No... F-Block, you stop here I'll give you 20! 50! F-block... finally... he starts up and within a couple minutes we are here.

Just time to have shower #3, a quick skype call to home, and blog a bit before lights out, tomorrow is a travel day, check out and get to the train station by 6.

Taj - Agra day trip

2009-07-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

6am wake up call, the driver was downstairs waiting, we were off by 6:20, the roads were very crowded already. Faridabad is the first crush we hit leaving the south of Delhi, Palwal the next. So we're on the National Hiway #2, and your thinking like an interstate (at least I was) we'll fly down the 200 km's in an hour and a half or two... but in India things are different. First, while it is a 2 (marked) lane highway each direction, divided in most places, with a wide shoulder, there are no speed signs, and cars share the road with... trucks, buses, tractors, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, bike rickshaws, oxcarts, camels, cows, horses, goats, children on their way to school... you name it.
As we get out of the big city and into the villages, each one a crossroads.. there are lines of people waiting to cross, in a few of the places there were police directing traffic, a couple had traffic signals, and then the rest of them were the most confusing choreography you ever saw. A group of motorcycles & bicycles, followed by cars, buses, pedestrians, and what have you (50-500 people in all) will inch out until they have pretty much blocked both lanes, then they get to the center and inch into the other side and have the whole road blocked... traffic on the thoroughfare honk wildly and press forward as close as possible, motorcycles take advantage and go around every other thing to get at the front of the pack... then, the hiway traffic breaks through and resumes again. This happens a few dozen times on the way down.
At Mathura there's a big Krishna festival going on, maybe 50 or 100 thousand people are lining both sides of the road for miles, tent/tarp shelters are pitched, apparently it's a multi-day festival... here the local police of whoever rolls some portable metal walls out onto the highway and the festival goers criss cross a while, then the walls are removed and we're rolling aqain... most times you are stopped there are beggar children and street vendors tapping on your window doing whatever they can to get your attention and give them money. We handed out some food to a one-legged beggar kid at one stop, he had been pointing to his mouth so vigorously and Kuldeep said no don't give them money that will go to someone else... well, the kid shows it to his two sisters and they through it on the ground like it was a snake! So much for that theory.

About 4 hours later we roll into Agra and pick up the tour guide Kuldeep has arranged for our tours of the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, lunch, and the market.

The Taj does not dissapoint, despite the 750 rupee charge for foreigners to get in, the tickets say 500 but you can't question the authorities selling the tickets... india residents pay 20 rupees, with discounts for children, elderly, disabled, etc.
We take a bicycle rickshaw down the hill, to get past the gauntlet of hawkers, beggers, touts, and others that come at you what seems like 2 per second... we get to the bottom and the rickshaw drivers are trying to get more than the 20 rupees you agreed to, for a short ride downhill, and no they don't have or make any change if you only have 50's or 100's. We finally get in, but then the picture takers are hawking you... and we did purchase a few pics.

Having been to Humayuns tomb in Delhi a few days ago we're struck by the similarity between the outer gates, east, west, north, aligned with the points of the calendar, and the gardens and fountains laid out symmetrically along the ew and ns axises(?). Of course here there are only the three, as the south is bordered by the river Yamuna. The fountains are not on today, the reflecting pools reflect the white marble and sky behind it beautifully. We snap a few shots midway, where there is a raised platform, everything in the site is balanced in 2 parts. 12 architects from Iran Then we are walking up, and there is an optical illusion of the 2 small domes along the front, the one on the right appears to be closer, way closer, but as we get closer, we see they are perfectly even. The little white wall, the plynth the monument sits on, is about 35 feet high. All is white marble, the craftsman, 20,000 of them, imported from Iran, worked for 20 years carving, detailing, inlaying semi-precious stones. We go up the stairs, the details astound. Arabic writing framing the main archway, is larger at the top than the bottom, so from the bottom it all appears to be exactly the same size.

We are given white covers for our shoes, you don't have to take them off anymore, though there is a shoe check...

Up the stairs to the level of the main floor, it's unbelievable as you get closer how much detailing there is... the inlay's of lapis lazuli, garnet, jade, onyx, carved marble flowers, screens in every opening, door entries, running all around at the base the flower panels, edged with cirles, the corners with inlaid onyx v's to give an illusion of the marble itself having a v shape... until you are directly below it and see it is perfectly flat.

All perfectly proportioned, each of the 4 minarets equal distance apart, same exact height, as are the two domes, and each of the 4 arched doorways. The structure is an octagon, 4 sides, 4 corners, all precisely the same, oriented to the compass. The front entry faces north, along the north/south axis, as do the fountains centered in the reflecting pools, in the center of the gardens. At the entry, we stop to see how the stones glow under a flashlight, how the marble is translucent when backlit. It's India marble, very hard, 20,000 Iranian workers spent 20 years building it, and today their families are still there plying the trade. When they finished the work, they were given an option of returning to Iran, without hands, or staying in India with. They all chose to stay. They were imported because they were the most skilled stone workers in the world at that time.

We go inside, and the tomb chamber is centered under the dome, which reaches a height of exactly twice that of the arched entryways. The gold spire on top the dome had been solid gold, before the british claimed it, and other precious stones from the site. The main floor is a replica tomb, the real burial chamber is directly below, the architect did this so that the floor above the resting place would never be walked upon. All is screened with white marble, each section carved from a single block of marble. Mumtaz is exactly centered, on the north south axis, her head pointing north, slightly turned to the west, toward Mecca. Shah Jahan lies to the side, he was added to the site by his son Aurengzeb, who deposed, then imprisoned him, in a tower looking to the Taj Mahal, until his death.
We go out the south exit , a large plaza of white marble, overlooking the sacred Yamuna river. It will join the holiest Ganges a few hundred kilometers to the southeast. Today it is very hot and hazy, and the river is filled with water buffalo. Directly across the river, centered on the Taj north/south axis , is a marker, and some foundation work, where Shah Jahan intended his tomb, a mirror image of the Taj, in black marble, to be. The site work sits as it had been started…. Never to be finished.
We slowly make our way back toward the front, stopping to sit on one of the ledges in each of the corner pieces, on the cool white marble in the shade. It is a sweltering day under a strong Indian sun, well past 100 in temperature. We linger, running our fingers over the flowered screens, feeling the curves and edges of the leaves, hard to imagine they’ve survived 350 years in such excellent condition.
Finally, slowly, we make our way down the stairs, and down the long east promenade through the garden, thankful for the cooling shade and greenery all around. A monument to love, and a structure of such perfection, it can never be surpassed.
We go to the marble artisans workplace and see them working as their forebearers did, creating items of incredible lasting beauty by painstaking, difficult physical labor, turning the stone grinders by hand, carving the marble with hand chisels, grinding the semi-precious stones to the exact size of the scribes in the stone.
After a spicy vegetarian lunch in a long established, cool restaurant, we drive slowly past the Red Fort on the way out of town… it’s too hot an afternoon for the several hours it will take to see the Fort properly, but we see the massive structure in red sandstone with white detailing. Aurengzeb’s huge bed chambers high atop the fort, near to the white marble tower where Shah Jahan was imprisoned and died, overlooking the Taj from a mile away. The Yamuna was diverted to fill a double moat in the days of the fort, one to keep out the lions and tigers that prowled the area, the other filled with river crocodiles, to keep out anyone else. I align myself with the tower and face the Taj and snap a picture, and think of Shah Jahan looking there, to the monument of love he made for Mumtaz.
The ride back was much as the way there, differing that now the children and their buses and the oxcarts and camels and Krishna worshippers and cyclists were heading back the other way. We saw great grey clouds that promised rain, but contained only dust and wind. A huge duststorm came up, as it does before the monsoons start, bring sand from the Thar desert to the west. We saw great drops of rain tease for about 2 minutes, but not enough the dampen the dusty roadsides. No rain for at least another 10 days, the paper says. We are again back into the crush at Faridibad, it takes over an hour to get the rest of the way to our hotel in south Delhi’s East of Kailash sector. We had quite a day, and the heat and sunburn and long time in the little Tata subcompact made a body feel good and tired. After a shower and laying down to rest, the memory of the feel of the cool white marble of the Taj somehow made the tiredness seem a fit ending to a perfect day.

I've dreamed of AGRA

2009-07-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Who hasn't, as a child finding out there was such a place, and tomorrow, I will be there to stand in front of the Taj Mahal and get my picture took. I wish I had a few days more to look forward to it, but our apartment hunting appointment for tomorrow cancelled and that's all we had, and after seeing the Delhi train station today there's no way we're making a day trip on the train down there and back, we called Kuldeep he's doing nothing tomorrow 630am pickup and we'll be home by dark. I have just got my indian wardrobe complete tonight, and it's laid out, white kurta (long sleeved, long long shirt, embroidered in white), white pyjamas (loose cotton pants with a drawstring) and 2 large cotton handkerchiefs I've learned to put on my head just so to keep the sun off and sweat from dripping in my eyes, watch for pics.

Today we feeling pretty low energy after the heat and excitment of the chowk yesterday, so after breakfast we called Kuldeep he's open and can be around to pick us up by 10:00, and he is right on time. As we head down to the U.S.A. Embassy (Julie needs to register) I ask Kuldeep what about the budget the finance minister unveiled last night? More money for poor people for food sounds like a great idea, eh? It's to give the poorest couple hundred million people a guarantee of 25kilos of rice per month at 3 rupees per kilo... so about $1.25 per month will get them 50 lbs of rice. That will help them stay alive, anyway. Yeah, but, says Kuldeep, sounds good on paper but if there is 100 rupees in the budget to feed the poor, 99 rupees will go for the minister or this, the commissioner of that, and 1 rupee will end up going for food to the poor, that's just the way it is, sounds good, but the budgets are for the rich people, the ones with money and positions will get it all, for people like me there will be no change. Wow do we have it sooooooooooooo good. This is a smart, hardworking, honest person who earns about what we pay for tv, internet, and phone service a month (maybe less).

Anyway, on to the embassy, where once our driver is banished to the far parking lot, we walk past the machine guns and guards and join the line to find Julie has her camera! You must now go down to gate 5 and leave the camera, then come back says the guard, in not too bad english. So we bake a few minutes down and back, of course trees or any foliage to create shade would also introduce a haven for people to hide, so it's hot sun on hard pavement. Back to the cue, then we're sent into a waiting room (outdoor, no fans, but in the shade), it's only about 100 so far, it looks like the DMV line on a Saturday morning, pitiful as you wait for number 385 to come up now serving number 12... we meek up to the head of the line and get a nice surprise American Citizens? Yes, you don't need to wait, go around the corner there first door on the left. Wahooo! We're there, in the AC room with no line! We do our stuff, and they offer a notarized letter to Julie to help her get into school for only $30... yes back in the good ole usa for a minute, we're paying our driver $20 for the whole day. Can you help us with housing and medical recommendations? No sorry, we don't have any information on anything like that, we have everything we need for the state dept employees right here on the compound... you are on your own, check the internet!

So we are done and back on the pavement to collect the camera and find the driver, which happens before we are too lathered. Now to the Delhi train station, which as it's connected to the new, modern, air conditioned metro at Connaught Place I figure it will be a spectacular marvel like those in Paris... oh.. boy... was I wrong. The parking lot is gravel and dirt and dust, cars parked an inch apart but nobody has cars anyway. People everywhere, it's open air, no ac, not even any fans I saw. The 2nd class cue is like the racetrack betting windows before a big race... packed! Kuldeep leads us past the sleeping people laying around everywhere, dogs, what have you, up stairs to the Foreigners office, where we will get preferential treatment. It is air conditioned! No, no timetable, says the greeter at the door, now this place is a 50 year old office room with scoop type plastic chairs maybe purple brown or some such, yello dingy ceiling tiles and lights, and maybe a dozen people sitting around the perimeter at like folding tables and maybe a desk or two, a couple 20 year old computers I guess they actually print your ticket out, though the reservation form you fill out is a bad faded copy off the copy machine, and the clerks actually are using carbon paper to make receipt copies, by hand! No, no timetables, she goes on... they're going to be changing the schedule. OK, so when will you have schedule books, I ask? She shrugs... and points to a huge white board (that's like board, not whiteboard like we know, it's a board, painted white, with the trains out of Delhi painted on in black (express is painted in red), like with a paint by number paint brush. OH wow... but it works, we decipher the board and get a couple reservation sheets, and Kuldeep points out the boss, so I start over that way to ask "should I reserve on the internet" or not, because on the internet, from the USA it looks like it would work, but here..... I get intercepted by a trio of next in lines, 3 gents working together, and they combine to let me know yes I can book online, and maybe pay online, but maybe not I should fill out a form by hand and come in to the office to confirm my reservation and payment have been properly posted anyway! Ok I am so glad we came here... no way are we taking the train to Agra anytime soon, could you imagine a day trip starting at that train station, hours on the train, a hassle in the heat to get to see the Taj and Fort and Masjid, and then back to that train station to hassle in the heat and dust to get a tuk tuk home? uh uhhhh.

So next we go to a nice restaurant and invite Kuldeep to eat with us, spicy indian food authentic veg great cheap cricket on the tv all is great. Julie buys a soapstone carved elephant from the hawkers outside and I buy a couple post card books, we're on to get a sim card for my phone so to avoid 250 a minute ATT ripoff... but that doesn't go so well either the phones locked no they don't know how to unlock go see samsung or go online thank you bye!

Driving down to the Qtub Minar we stop at the Lodhi Gardens and tomb on the way, it's a beautiful spot but so ungodly hot you move as slow as possible from one shade to another too hot to take the path to the lilly or lotus pond, actually enveying the dogs laying in the puddle the workman is making with the watering hose to keep the trees from dying. Cold water vendor doing a good business we get 3 bottles a litre each and join the traffic heading out of town to the Qtub.

It is so hot there every single person has a cap, hat, hankerchief, washtowel, newspaper, or something on their head... ok not everyone, many indian people have thick black hair... they are doing OK. I love this place it is a fantastic ancient ruin from around 1200 or so it was started, the iron post still without rust the oldest around with this metal technology... anyway, it's tooooo hot for Julie they are restoring the whole mosque that was here, rebuilding it stone by stone, by hand, just the way it was built, tens of workers, hand tools, chiseling, mortaring, heat notwithstanding the work must go on!

And so almost ends our day. A stop for postaqe stamps we're back in the 30's again, the post office hidden back behind a wall off the road Kuldeep drops me off at the gate I walk up it's outdoor, the counter, no ac, a dark little room maybe 10x15... no one there just papers on a desk yellow light, yellowing peeling paint, oho! anyone in there... some guy comes out of the back room I must have woke him up... it takes a few minutes but I get my 20 stamps at 12 rupees each I only have a 500 he uses his desk calculator to figure 240, then the 500..... he only has 2 100's, so the other 60 I get 12 5 rupee stamps... thank you!

Now we are back at the room Kuldeep on his way home but I have to go to Lajpat Nagar to exchange 2 Kurtas I got that are too small for my growing belly... Julie doesn't want to go she'll nap so I put on the one Kurta long yellow with a brown headband and head out, this kurta is below my knees keeps getting wrapped up in my legs as I walk... the tuk tuk boys won't give me a ride give me a dirty look "no, uh!" whatever that mean, OK boy... I'll hoof it a while, up a few block to the main road here's a guy don't know what's up with the others... he get's me to Lajpat Nagar straightaway, Central Market, yes... the market is half dark and shops are closing up it's almost 9 by now and they close about 930 anyway but with the power out to most of the market... now the market goes on for like 10 blocks one way and about 3 the other, and it's not square, it's a big place of stalls and alleys and shops and tents... so it takes me a while to find my place I am sure they re going to be closed but finally I find them I have a good sweat...Kuldeep doesn't think they'll exchange 160 rupee kurtas but I say I have to try they won't fit, too tight. The see the old man, he must be the boss, and the young smily face fellow who sold me the 6 pieces Sunday night (they're closed on Monday). I just love this kurta, I say... smiling, you have great stuff.. yes, yes he nods, as I bring up the bag to the counter and take out the other 2... these 2, are too tight, I motion and say... need the next bigger size and I'm sure I'll love them just as much! Har a hay a yalla yalla tay he says to the boy.. one white, one green I think he says cause next thing you know there they are just perfect the smily guy has them out of the bag holding them up to my back, thees will be OK, he says... smiles all around and he looks at my pants, how you like? Oh I love them too, do you have a pair in navy blue? No no blue, but we have gray, dark brown, kakhi, white, yellow, green, as he tosses a half dozen pairs on the counter in front of me... no blue... one size fits all, he says... these are nice (the grey) nahh... but these greens will go great with this kurta... how much? 160... deal.

I find a cold bottle of soda and have to walk out to the road to get a tuk tuk, everyone is leaving the market now all the tuk tuks are full, rickshaws won't help I have too far to go. Finally get one and I'm home. Marian called to say the plumber has fixed the broken water line to the frig only $100... but a big hassle. Hmmmmmm, well, it's only money and can't be helped... and tomorrow, we'll spend about the same, to see the Taj Majal!

Slowing down a little

2009-07-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

So two days this time... Monday we rode the Metro around... first had to get a tuk-tuk from here in East of Kailash, F block, up to the Central Secretariat, in central Delhi. The first 2 said "no"... abruptly and looked the other way like I had the plague. Try #3 he says no, and I say 150? Come-on man... 150 OK? and he gives the Delhi head wobble they do here... back and forth like no but a little up and down the same time, with a shake to the back seat, means "get in". We soon found out why, chock a block the whole way, Monday morning rush hour headed to the center of town in the Capital of the country, the day the minister of finance is to unveil the budget for next fiscal yeaer. So we inhaled some fumes (luckily most vehicles run on compressed natural gas, but still. 35 mins later we're dropped off at the Central Secretariat metro, which is the southern terminus of the yello line at this time(they're building out a whole heck of a lot they have to have ready for the commonwealth games next October, and if you saw the crews doing almost everything by hand you would bet they will never be ready).

We ride up the first stop or two in the nice, clean, air conditioned efficiency of new Japanese (Mitsubishi) rail cars, before we hit a crossing of two lines stop, and next thing you know it is packed like rush hour in most big cities, close enough to tell what scent your neighbors are wearing and feel their body heat. Naturally Julie was sitting and I gave mine to a women under the sign marked "reserved for women"... and read the sign out loud to the other few guys sitting there that didn't...

Long Hindi name is the stop for Delhi U, sorry I'll have to look it up later. We get a bike rickshaw, our first time, oh he's thrilled to take us to Delhi U for 20 rupees, to the office name I write out on the yelo index card, til he gets up the hill to the main gate and drops us off there, he had no gas left to go any further. We get directions, oh it's a long walk over that way. Walking walking, all of a sudden Julie kicks a pipe sticking out of the ground with her big toe, of course she's wearing open toe sandals no socks... ouch! Long way to go.. here's another rickshaw driver... I show the card, no problem! he says... and we are home free, finding out its a long downhill the other side now, life is good for the rickshaw walla, but when of course hills that go down must go back up, so by the time he pants up to the front of the office of management studies building he's gassed too... and arguing the 20 should be 30! Yeah Ok... I don't like it I think you were putting on a bit of a show but I'll give you the extra 10.

In the sweltering hallway (read Julies blog for more detail) probably a little less than an hour this time, I only had to go out for a cold bottle of water once. Saw Omprakash again, he's from up by Katmandu in Nepal, lots of Nepalese kids here in the Foreign Student registry, a few Chinese, one from Afghanistan says to Julie "so do you think you'll be visiting Afganistan any time soon, I could show you around"!
I am chatting with a young man from Iran, he's a Ph.D candidate in medical genetics.

Out of there and I tell Julie I'd rather take Tuk-tuks, these rickshaw drivers are a hassle. But the tuk-tuks turn up their nose at a fare to the metro, it's too close, so father time comes along the oldest rickshaw walla we've seen yet, bet steady he is, standing the whole time to the metro in 100+ heat, so I figure he deserves an extra 10 more than the last guy and he gives a big smile for that!

We metro down to Civil lines, where we are to look at a share apartment, long and short of that it's a flat w a shared kitchen/dining room w a tv in it, 2 bedrooms with 2 cot like beds in each, and an add-on porch room with 2 more cots in it! 6 girls will share this for $110 a month each, meal plan extra. Mrs Gupta, the houseowner has strict rules, in by 8, no boys upstairs, no smoking, you must call if you will be late. Real nice terrace and balcony, too, but no deal, yeah, we'll be thinking about it for a few days, yeah, by next Monday for sure we'll let you know.

Tuk-Tuk comes by and swiftly we're back on the metro, down a couple stops to the Chandni Chowk, maybe lunch will perk us up. Hawkers in your face maybe 10 or 15 a minute, no I don't need shoes, eat first! Go to Haldirams, he says, the exact place we're looking for. After lunch we shop a while and Julie tells my embarrasing hat story in detail followmetodelhi.wordpress.com, then I learn about the geography of the chowk when you get way down in there, where the walls are about 4 feet apart, goats, people sleeping, people living on dirt, cooking on dirt, sleeping on dirt, there are dead ends... and you have to walk all the way back out the same way, once you find someone who speaks english to tell you that and point the way. Luckily when we get to where the alley is about 6 feet wide there's a rickshaw walla, hallelujah brother, how much you want to get us to the Chandni Chowk Metro stop! He's cooking along past the meat butchers (lots of flies there), goats laying around everywhere, guys smoking there little beedies, and of course a stall every 6 or 7 feet on each side of the alley, when here comes some guys walking motioning "get over, get over" and behind them a group of muslim men carrying a platform for a funeral, yes a body on there under the fabric, a crowd of 15 people and 3 or 4 rickshaws complete the procession, we're not knowing how to act with this at all, very awkward you don't know to look, make eye contact, or if it's disrespectful to have your head down or look away? So many strange new things in Delhi.

We get to the metro, and down to Rajiv Chowk again at Connaught Place and Center Park, ground zero of Delhi. At the metro station there's a Nirula's, modern ice cream and food joint blaring 1980's music like spice girls and such, Julie loves it, we have a butterscotch ice cream and coke and cool off, then go find the bookstore and get a new guide book, while Julie finds the shoulder bag she's been looking for at the stall next door. That done, heck w the metro let's get a tuk-tuk back to East of Kailash... which we negotiate a 120 fare and a little long, gritty, fume filled ride back through rush hour to the south part of town, but that pretty well ends our day. We walk down to the modern food place w a Subway, Pino's Pizza, and Food city or something like that all in one and Julie eats, I have a large orange soda and pineapple cake. We get back to the room my feet are on fire oh one last thing as we walk the couple blocks back, it's cooled down to about 102 by now after the sun is going down, so I stop in the chemist downstairs to see what they have. 5 guys work in there (they have so many people everywhere, there were 4 people helping when we recharged our metro cards) and 1 of them spoke enough english to understand I want I SO PROPYL ALCOHOL! Huh... I've been walking all day, my feet are on fire, I pantomime, you must have something, don't you have rubbing alcohol!? Huh.... what? Then finally one guy to the others, he needs something to wash his feet. OH! right over here... and he pulls out a bottle of........ Isopropyl Alcohol... I SO PROPYL ALCOHOL... I read slowly as I take the bottle from him, yes... that's a great idea, how much? It was blue in color and an absolute joy following the cold shower.

Still no Delhi belly

2009-07-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

We keep expecting something to happen but so far so good... Kuldeep our driver offered us chai from a street vendor yesterday and we took it, it was great! Then he said try some red beans and rice we did and it was great too! Then we ate at a restaurant in the Chandni Chowk... iced drinks... all good!

We saw monuments and tombs yesterday, the Lotus Temple of the Bahai faith, Humayuns Tomb including Isah Khan tomb and an old mosque, we drove by the red fort but didn't go up to it too hot by then, or the Jamah Masjid it will be there for a while... the Gandhi museum was uplifting and you could really feel how much he is revered and loved by so many (though there are detractors too due to the separation he grudgingly gave in to)... anyway, a thought provoking and inspiring place. What a huge difference a principled person can make if they devote themselves to it.

Today Sunday the 5th Julie hung out and worked on blogs while I went up and bummed around central Delhi, connaught place was not my cup of tea, though the metro ride up to model town, the walk back to the next metro stop, and ride back to central secretariat was cool and relaxing... people taking great pride in having a shiny new metro to ride, and it's below ground so it's cool!

After a cool shower (one of the joys of being in Delhi in this heat) and a little nap we took a tuk-tuk up to the Habitat Centre and International Center, to find there were 2 plays tonight, one sold out the other not starting for a few hours. We agreed to go back another time, but stopped in for dinner at their eating emporium which was great for veg food of all types, highlighted by fresh squeezed lime or watermelon juice, and butterscotch ice cream for dessert!

Another tuk-tuk ride took us to Lajpat Nagar market, we weren't sure it would be open on a Sunday night but it happens to be the biggest day of the week! It was jam packed bumper to bumper down the main street all night, and the side avenues and market blocks were shoulder to shoulder much of the way. We discovered mushki's (I hope i've remembered it right)... which are like snow cones, but the guy has a block of ice he hand shaves into your cup, then it's pressed in and a stick put in, your choice of sauce, and there you are! Icy sweet and cooling for 15 cents!

Julie picked up 3 more salwars, a pair of camel hide shoes, a henna design on her left hand and arm, and I picked up my first kurta and pyjama outfit, and a couple other light cotton pants and 2 more long shirts, but they're a little tight I'll have to go back when they reopen Tues and haggle some more... also got 12 large handkerchiefs which will serve as head covers for me.

We had a great time haggling over prices and jostling with the crowd... as it's been most of our time here we see tens of thousands a day but all today only 3 "white like us" people...but we haven't felt out of place at all, the people are so respectful and well mannered, wish it was like this at home!

2nd day in Delhi

2009-07-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

We are not up so early today, I'm up at 7:30 and Julie 8:15, breakfast is 8:30. We go down, by now everyone knows we are leaving after breakfast so it is a little odd... but we sit down to a wonderful breakfast of granola, milk, juice, fresh cut papaya, bananas, eggs, toast, some type of paan fried bread, coffee or tea, a dish called boha? rice, vermicelli, greenpeas, and the fried potatoes with spices. Fortunately a couple from Kazakstan comes in and we have conversation over breakfast and it eases the situation. They are up from her training for NCSB bank customer service training in Hyderabad, and are leaving on a 5 night tour of the Golden Triangle, Agra, Jaipur, and Rajasthan. We talk about the weather it is so cold there, and the horsemeat is so good you would love it if you tried! The man Iliya scoffs at the small tea cup, don't you have a bigger cup!?, he asks (she translates)... the cookman brings another glass... no, get more hot water! he says, and he takes a bowl and pours his tea into it, soon he has the bowl full of hot water with just the one tea bag but he is happy as he drinks it down... different people everywhere, eh? We finish up and get packed, I settle the bill (there was no extra charge for early cancellation discussed), and they hand us a thank you gift of 4 embroidered cushion covers in a color that will match perfectly with the new slip cover my wife has bought for the love seat. Then precisely at 10:00 a car is out front and 2 guys are trying to stuff our bags, their tools and cooler into the back of the car. We arrive in East Kailash about 30 mins later, and are immediately welcomed upstair into a nice B&B, maybe a little bit nicer than the one we were in, but not in a home, this is like a hotel. There were 3 men to take care of us and our bags, we could not touch anything. We were met by the owner, Mr Sial, and he advised us Desraj the manager was onsite 24x7 and would take care of anything we need.

The leave and we start to settle in a little, but there is only one bed in the room... so I go out to talk to Desraj about this, we prefer 2 beds, as we are father and daughter... no problem! Tea bags! Yes we have tea bags.... no, no two beds, two beds, we need a room with two beds! ... Finally with the help of the 2 other men we figure out "separate beds".... and they dash in to strip the covers and under the bedding and pads discover the bed is 2 mattresses pushed together, and in a short short we have 2 separate beds made up separated by a foot.

Next we need a sim card for the phone, and a power adapter to plug in the laptop. No problem! Simran Sial has shown up now, the owners son, and he has been educated in the states, so he understands perfectly and sets us up. Desraj takes us next door to the airtel office, where we find we have to fill out the forms, which include a passport size photo? Don't you have one? I turn the application over to Julie, she needs the sim card, and she has a picture... we take it back... but, didn't realize we have to have a sponsor sign, someone who knows and vouches for us, with a permanent address.. so Simran takes care of this for us, we round up the photo, and head back, to find out the phone won't unlock, she has to purchase a new phone now too. Anyway, after 1.5 hours we exit with a new phone and account in Julies name, with a pre-paid sim card and her choice of Delhi phone number, which will receive calls from the USA at no cost.

Simran has provided an adapter for the laptop, so we are good to go onto our other 2 ojectives for the day, see Lady Sri Ram College for women (a short walk up the road), and Miranda College for Women at Delhi U (we are about 15 kms away, on the south side of town and Delhi U is way north). We first have lunch at a new 3 store fast food shop on the way and have a delicious wheat flour pizza with all veg toppings, then to Lady Sri Ram. You may want to read Julies blog followmetodelhi.wordpress.com for more details and her take, mine is that Lady Sri Ram was quite spartan and reform school looking, and the beaurocracy is stifling. No you cannot go down that corridor, we are informed by one of the wardens, so we make our way to the dorms and no we can't see them... why not? can't we see a room? About this time an older gentleman, apparently very proud of his status showed up... young lady... he explained.... do you have your admission certificate? First, you must have your certificate of admission to the university... then, you may apply for admission to the college, and then, IF you are admitted, you may apply to stay in the student housing. "So are you saying we will not be allowed to even look at a room? I ask? Yes we understand the process this, then that, then the other must happen, we just want to see a room. Oh, well, then, if that's it the, yes, and he motions to the 3 lackeys... yes show them a room then. And we see it, ... appalling is the best description I can offer. No fan, No ac, 2 wood plank beds, 2 small desks, maybe a shelf. white walls. Nothing else. We push down to see the library on the way out, lo and behold it's the corridor we cannot go down... we did get to see it and appalling may be a little strong, but not too. We stop for a cool soda in the cafe, and yes there are stray cats lounging around looking for food.

We come out and get a tuk-tuk(auto rickshaw) all the way across town, a sensory overload adventure of some 40 minutes in the crazy traffic... 3 lanes clearly marked... 5 streams of traffic, moving like tall grass in the breeze, together, coming close but never touching. Nonnstop people on the roadsides, sleeping on the ground, cooking, living under tarps, walking, bicycling, waiting for buses, peeing, buses packed full, cars, cycles, tuk-tuks, trucks, we took some video hope to post in a day or two.

We find Miranda college and have an adventure getting the run around, looking for the dorms we are sent into a gate with apartments so stark, down and out, and scary looking Julies first words are "Nooo waaaaaay"! this cannot be it! Luckily it wasn't, and when we got to the guard shack and got in by saying we needed to see the warden, got into the office and made use of Ashoks card, he sent us to see the person in charge and we want to see a dorm... Have you your certificate of admission to the university? we go through this again, but eventually see the rooms, which while not the waldorf, are better than lady sri ram by a country mile. We then try to the the principal, get sent to an office to see a mr Agrawal, who asks, have you your certificate of admission to the university? And lets us know nothing can be done until that threshold has been surpassed. Thank you and good day, we are out of there, but need water by now. We go up the wrong street past a stinking drain and bunches of dirty filthy food stalls and motorcycle/bicycle repairs, all sorts, but find our water, 13 rupies for a litre bottle of cold nestle. Flag down a tuk-tuk, show the card of our hotel, and haggle the rate, the 3rd driver agrees and gets us to our room. After a 3 hour name we have an hour to shop in the market at Lajpat Nagar, where Julie gets 4 things and I get my haggling skills and price ranges down... steel will... not buying, but came close to getting some dress shirts 3-9 dollars and pants 10-20... handkerchiefs by the dozen first price 150, down to 90 by the time of my last no... think I can get 3 dozen for 200 tomorrow, if not better.

We're back for more veg pizza though Julie opts for veg roll and choc pie/cake delicacy... then late to the room and up til 2:00 blogging and planning our day tomorrow. We ordered a driver for a Delhi Blast tour... 7-8 hours seeing some of the monuments and sights and we'll take his shopping to the famous Chandni Chowk, the old market of Delhi... he will help us get good prices!

First day in Delhi

2009-07-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we woke early due to messed up body clocks we were up at 5:00a Delhi time, after tea and breakfast, we hired a driver for the day and he took us up to Delhi U, where Julie had to turn in her admission papers. Now we find out about the famous Indian beaurocracy! You don't just turn in your papers, first, you work your way up through the line of oh 25 or other students waiting there, to put your name on the list, then you wait. About an hour and a half, a good time to make friends and become acquainted with the other foreign students in line, although, in the 90 plus heat, without ac of course, and a little fan over by the guard, it was quite sweltering in the hallway everyone is dripping sweat but you cannot leave for what if they call your name? Finally they do, and they take her papers. So these must now go to the admission council, and they will be in contact with you. Uh, in a day, 2 days, a week? How long might it be? Shrug... who knows?! They will be in contact with you by email, or mail.

Next we make contact with Julies Rotary host Ashok, yes we should come by his office in Karol Bagh, the driver gets instructions on the phone in Hindi and off we start, around India gate, and by now since it's almost 2:00pm, we stop for lunch. Nice good if very spicy veg food, about $13 total for both. Continuing on to Ashoks office, which is upstairs in a very busy market area, his "peon" comes down to meet our car, we sit until a guy taps on the car, then we follow. We're led down the muddy alley, watch a minivan back into a motorcycle and knock it back into the truck parked behind it in the alley, and upstairs in an open stairway past business of sorts you cannot figure, with people just sitting waiting. At the 2nd fl we're led through an office of 5 or 6 guys in tiny cubicles, no ac of course, working with papers, phones, and maybe a computer or two... definitely looks like 1960's office, cramped, papers everywhere. In Ashoks office, which is air conditioned, the peon brings in glasses of cool water, "it's good" Ashok assures us as we look at each other... Delhi water is not drinkable for westerners, you will get bad "Delhi Belly" diarea for days if you do... but I digress... Ashok asks what is going on with Julies admittance to the U, and shakes his head knowingly as we describe the ordeal. Show me your papers, he says... Julie shows him what she didn't give to admissions. Always keep at least 2 copies with you of all papers at all times, he says, and he copies them on a little desktop fax/copier. He looks them over carefully, then tells us we must go back and ask to see the proctor of a particular college, and say that he has sent us. (This will have to be tomorrow, it's nearly 4:00 by now). Then about where are you staying? I describe the B&B I found after months of search and correspondence, and he says, you'll have to move, I know someone who owns a B&B in a better place, and he get's on the phone, what are you paying? I tell him and the next thing he is hanging up and it is all arranged, we must tell our host, where we've been for 1 night, we're checking out in the morning, not staying the 8 nights I have booked. A car will come for us at 10:00 am in the morning to take us where we don't know. The peon brings green tea and we have a cup and talk more about Julies school and living options, then his wife arrives and after a short visit it's time to leave. They walk us out and we find our driver and head back to the B&B.

Nap time 5-7, before dinner at 8:00... how was your day? asked our host... so I tell her we are needing to move out in the morning it was quite awkward. After naps, we go for dinner and explain what we can to them, dinner was fabulous by the way, veg dal, paan, jasmine rice, eggplant, and some things we didn't know but were delicious! We talked a lot about the american economy, politics, and the effects of the financial crisis on "average" americans, then retire to pack for our morning departure. By now it's close to 11:00 and we have no trouble getting to sleep quickly.

Delhi !

2009-07-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

So we have made it here, 26 hours door to door, the long leg from Chicago went over Greenland, Iceland, and came down through Russia and over Pakistan... we were so happy to see the driver "Frank" (Raj) holding up our name sign. Not at all prepared for what we saw coming in. The airport was like one anywhere else, til we got in the long health check line, where the rubber stampers checked our papers and asked a few questions (have you had cough, sore throat, or fever)? so fast I had to ask 3 times to repeat what are you saying? Oh, no.. then on to the customs line where the attendent has 3 people in line, serves one, then up and leaves. What do you make of that? Another fellow in a few minutes waves us over to another line, then we find the baggage and get some money changed before running the gauntlet of a hundred or so drivers lining both sides leading out to the exit. After a long walk through a very crowded lot of tiny cars, tuk-tuks (3 wheel motorized open air taxis), all kinds of people milling everywhere, and a lot of hundreds of motorcycles jammed together, we're on the gurgaon road to the ring road for a 45 minute ride better than any thrill ride I've even been on... the lines don't count, the rule of the road is the biggest vehicle rules the road, bicycles and cycles (motorcycles) bewarned and get out of the way!

We arrived at A-6 New Friends Colony East so tired the driver and host carried our bags up to our 3rd fl room, which was quite nice, if within hearing distance of the Mathura Rd/Ring Road intersection, one of the busiest in Delhi. Horns all night, they didn't stop, and we were up at 5:00am which was 3:30 in the afternoon the day before by our out of wack body clocks. So that's getting here, tomorrow is our first day!

Sure gonna miss my bike...

2009-06-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

Rode home a little slower today, off to vacation 3 weeks, NOT takin my bike this year… just looked like too much hassle. Have the promise of buying one cheap to tool around Delhi after getting rested… we leave tomorrow morning, no time for a ride... put my bike away tonight, gonna be a long 3 weeks, but maybe there will be a good one waiting in India.

Still can’t believe I’m going to India, must have been I grew up watching Tarzan all the time, I always dreamed of going there and riding around with the crowd. 2 days and I’ll be there… looking for a bike to ride...

Critical mass Orlando and NBA Playoffs

2009-05-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

For lack of a good critical mass orlando link... commuteorlando.org is the best site in town all they need to do is add the CM info to their wide and comprehensive array of information.Rode on critical mass orlando yesterday w maybe 200 others. It was good to get out with all the other types united by their passion for 2 wheel travel. Had police stopping the traffic at some places, threatening to give tickets for blocking all lanes and running red lights at others. Not sure what we're supposed to be doing really, anyway it was a nice warm ride to finish off the week. Got a quickie 10 miles in this morning before heading to the office and fortunately need to get to the whole foods on the way home so another 10 at least today. Didn't stop at B3 with the gang after the ride, I'm overdue for that... but went home and out to dinner w the fam to Forbidden City, Fran (owner) is going home to Saigon for a month her dad has serious health issues but she is still positive and a joy to talk to. Watching the Laker win last night if the Magic make it to the final I think the matchups and bench depth will favor LA. See you on the road! If not... the Lakers/Cavaliers will remind you of the Road Runner and WILEY Coyote...

Bike to work week

2009-05-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

so it's national bike to work week, not many people know about it. as the rest of the country/world advances... here our legislature just abandoned the commuter rail, just like they abandoned the light rail 10 yrs ago... i'd be happy if the cops and city workers and super whopper suv drivers would just stay out of the bike lane. Clearly signed, Bike LANE, picture of cycles ONLY!. Must be the water down here.
But it is bike week, I I was in a bike shop at lunch, the owner didn't know... yeah, I'll have to ride in on Friday (guess he drives other days). Where's the good news?! We got a bunch of people riding in Friday at least 5 or more that don't normally ride, and 3 more have asked about the bus this week. We are about 90% on our 1st surveymonkey transportation survey... and I hear another person is going to turn in the ole gasser at lease end and go car-free. So it get's better.

bike commuting 101

2008-04-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

so there's this new guy commuting all the way in from UCF every morning (10+ miles), he's going on 4 weeks, and has started to realize the limitations of the starter specialized hybrid/mountain bike... it's heavy, gearing, knobby tires not great on the street... etc. He' coming around into shape, though, and doing OK. He is committed to doing it year round, they have showers at his work, and looking forward to summer (starts here in May)... he's going to be shopping for a road bike.

I never thought I'd be a "roadie" either... up in Virginia I was on the dirt/gravel roads, C&O towpath, rocks and mountains of the blue ridge, but here, most of the riding is on pavement, and if you're doing it for transportation, you just need to get places like to work, home for dinner, and to the store and back it pretty good speed.

So all that here's the point... if you spend $300 for that starter bike with the intent of riding serious for a long time, you'll end up a month or two later wishing you had spent on a real good bike to start with, cause the $300 is gone and you still need to buy a good bike. I used to spend $300 A MONTH on insurance, so didn't cheap on the bike, $1,000 second hand for a $3k plus steel road bike... 10,000 miles later, a couple tires/tubes/chains replaced...(also 2 crashes, frame fixes and repaints) I love the bike more than that first ride... and it's mine for another 20 years.

Til next time,gef

2008-03-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

If you think you want to do it... save money, get healthy, be more cool... wikihow has a great posting that answers about everything... I've been doing it for going on 4 years, and once you start... I don't know what could make you stop.

http://www.wikihow.com/Commute-By-Bicycle