Planes, trains and local buses.

It was a long, hot day, and then some. I left Khajuraho yesterday at 3 (really, if you haven’t googled it yet, do – or visit the UNESCO World Heritage website). It took 6 hours to go 165km on the local bus. Two hours of that involved a two-year-old sitting in my lap, because there was nowhere else to sit. 70 people or more crowded onto this bus built for 35! It was wild! You haven’t really lived until you’ve driven down a one-car-width road with 70 people in a bus while facing on-coming traffic and slowing just enough for passengers to jump on, right from the fields. Just amazing. Glad I did it, even if it was a little uncomfortable. They stopped for almost half an hour at the major towns, and if you left your seat, you might not get it back – so we all sat and baked in this little tin oven in the 47C heat, hoping the bus would start soon and a cool breeze would wind its way through the millimeters of space not taken up by passengers. After the bus ride, I put my grimy little self on a train to New Delhi. A sweet woman in the bunk below me managed to procure us clean sheets so that we wouldn’t have to use the ones left by the passengers preceding us (whew! Although, no one on earth was dirtier than me at that moment, so perhaps I shouldn’t have cared.) Once in Delhi, I went on a goose chase to find our hotel, finally arriving after an hour in an autorickshaw, brandishing a not-so-skillfully drawn map. They kindly let me shower, and I headed off to the Red Fort, built by Shah Jahan in the 1600s and home to the Mughal emporers until the British took over in the mid-1800s. It’s really lovely – check out the photos (a view through the arches in the throne court -- they were coated in white and gold for Shah Jahan -- and a second view. There are about 15 buildings though, here's just a sample!) A nice girl named Pooja, who was in Delhi to take her admission exams for the Masters program in Biochemistry, joined me for a tour about the fort while her father watched the bags. We had a nice time, and I was greatly relieved to notice that she also found it unbearably hot to wander in the sun from palace to bath to palace. Two fun facts – one of the small palaces was built for the women, and had a stunning lotus-shaped fountain inside. Waterways run through all the buildings and many of the gardens – this place would be amazing if the government could find a way to turn them on now! Second fun fact – the bath house had hot and cold running water AND a rose-water mist room to perfume the lovely ladies. Nice! Pretty chic for the 1600s, when European courts were still picking lice out of their padded hairstyles.

In the afternoon, I just wandered to a few sites, but most notably, I took the subway. Stunningly clean and air-conditioned, it is truly a marvel of modern Delhi – and a stark contrast with my usual mode of transport, the noisy auto-rickshaw, cramming its way down the streets and dodging horse-drawn carriages, cows and goats, cars, buses, and regular rickshaws. I love the subway! (Many of you may know that, after suffering the NYC subways for a year, I regularly offer to eat off the floor of the DC subway system. This is even cleaner than the DC system – spotless.)

As I write this, I’m off to Church (more great signs, I hope!) and to meet my friend Andy for dinner. Then – Kerri! Yay!