India Oct 26 – Dec 4 2000 Home Page Itinerary Photo Album Contact Us	India is the most amazingly complex place we've visited thus far.   It is a study in simultaneous (and sometimes maddening!)contradictions:  ancient and modern, depressing and uplifting, polluted and pristine, rough and defined.  As my friend Nish Bhutani described it to us before our departure, "You won't always like India; but you are guaranteed a non-stop, full-sensory attack!" The bulk of our time was spent in northern India.  We spent our first evening in India having dinner with Nish's parents in Delhi, which was a wonderfully warm and welcoming way to begin our voyage.  We then headed off for Darjeeling, the land of tea, and then to the mountainous region of Sikkim, which is sanwiched between Nepal to the west and Bhutan to the east.  Travel in the region consists of trying desperately adhere to the narrow strip of "road," while being constantly taunted by the fatally steep cliffs literally inches away from the tires.  There are no retaining barriers and our tires often sent loose rocks skipping to the depths.  We kept thinking that India could benefit from a National Transportation Association equivalent. The apex of our trip -- both literal and figurative -- was our 10-day trek in the shadows of Kanchenjunga (world's third-highest mountain after Everest and K2).  By a stroke of serendipitous good luck, our guide was Jamling Tenzing Norgay.  Jamling's father was the first man to successfully summit Everest in '53 with Sir Edmund Hillary.  Jamling climbed his way into history with his successful Everest in '96 which was faithfully chronicled by the IMAX film, "Everest."  Jamling was the most down-to-earth guy and we couldn't have hoped for a better guide.  His humor, competence and warmth were always in full evidence and he was very generous with his stories.  His crew of porters, cooks, and guides were delightfully cheery and efficient and they fed us very well.  Unfortunately, the terrain was much tougher than we, and we were both felled by altitude sickness and were unable to gain as much elevation as we'd hoped.  Even Diamox didn't help alleviate our symptoms.  As a result, Warren has adopted a new life philosophy about altitude:  "Where trees cannot live, Warren doesn't venture."    We also enjoyed the rare treat of getting to overnight at Jamling's house with his lovely wife, Soyang, and their three highly-spirited and adorable daughters.  Home-cooked food had never tasted better and it was wonderful to enjoy all sorts of homey comforts. We were sad to leave the mountainous region, but there remained so much to see, so we headed off for Calcutta (now I can better appreciate the famous title, "Oh, Calcutta!") and then Agra, home of the breathtaking Taj Mahal.  From there, we headed to Varanasi, known as "The City of the Dead" for Hindus believe that if they die and are cremated in Varanasi and their ashes are strewn in the Ganges, that they'll pass directly onto Nirvana and will be spared suffering several more lifetimes' worth of reincarnations.  The city is bewildering and fascinating:  as far as the eye can see, there are cords of wood for funeral pyres and every third truck has a swadled body lashed to its roof.  The faithful (which seems to be everyone as far as we can tell) congregate at the series of steps ("ghats") at the river's bank for daily ablutions. From there, we went west to Rajasthan, the India of fairy tales -- forts and palaces, camel trains, and ribbons of desert.  It's difficult to know which place we enjoyed best:  Jaipur, Udaipur or Jaiselmer.  Each was a treat and spoke to the majesty and finery of old India.  I (Megan) was enthralled with the handicrafts, from quilts to silk-covered books, and managed to fill two duffel bags' worth, much to Warren's chagrin.  He, however, was taken with the papier-mache puppets and we are now the proud parents of an entire storybook's worth of Indian figures, from the snake charmer to the swashbuckling warrior. Our India tour wrapped up with one of the major highlights of our trip to date:  a weekend spent in the countryside of Aurangabad with Manish and Sunaina Kejriwal.  They were the most gracious hosts and showed us the famed caves of Ajunta and Ellora, included us in several family parties which were a rare treat, and regaled us with all of their favorite Indian food.  We each probably packed away a good four pounds in the three days spent with them.
	Pictures From India (click on each to enlarge)
	Thar Sand Dunes	Camel Jockey	Lake Palace	Street Spices
	Ganges River Ride	New Delhi	Prayer Flags	Tiger Hill View
	Frosty Camp	Breakfast in Sun	Mt. Kanchenjunga	“Higher Next Time”