| Christmas Eve I woke up around 7 AM and had
breakfast. I've only eaten omelets and toast for the last couple
of days. It is one of the few things that aren't over-spiced.
While waiting for my driver to pick me up for my flight, I
updated some of the web pages.
My concerns about there being
fog in Khajuraho were unfounded. There was a little bit, but
visibility was pretty could as far as I could tell. Thank
goodness. At 11:30 AM, I went up tot the front desk. At that
point they told me my flight would be a hour late and I should
wait in my room. No problem.
At 12:30 PM, they told me my flight was cancelled. The plane
never left Varanasi. Crap. Not
the worse thing in the world, but certainly not was I planned
for. So here are my options. Number One: drive in a car 10 hours
to Varanasi, stay the night, and hope the flight from Varanasi
to Delhi isn't cancelled because of the fog. Number Two: drive in a car 3 1/2 hours
back to Jhansi and take a train tonight to Delhi. Which do you
think I did?
Well, I'm sure I'm going to regret it later on, but I choose
the later. I ate lunch, talked with a couple from Texas, then
headed back to Jhansi. This is the same terrible road I was on
the day before.
When drivers go from state to
state, they have to pay a tax. When he went inside to pay, a
bunch of kids gathered around my car to beg. Pretty normal stuff
- until one of the little SOBs opened my backdoor and tried to
steal my dinner (which I didn't eat, but that's hardly the
point). I laughed it off pretty quick, but he was a brave little
thief. I had to pull the dinner out of his hands.
The train was going to be 1 1/2 hours late, so I was taken to
a restaurant to wait. While I was there, I talked to a nice
psychoanalyst from New York City. We talked about the good and
bad in India. If you live in the USA, you are a lucky person.
You should count your blessing. Anyway, the train showed up
around 7:30 PM. I asked how much to upgrade to first class. The
guide said 600 rupees. Do you thing I did it. Six hundreds
rupees is around $13. You're darn skippy I upgraded. I had
dinner, more room, and a better class of passengers.
Unfortunately, they didn't come get me out of second class until
over a hour on the train. Then I had to carry my bag on my
shoulder for 8 cars. Boo hoo. I know. I shouldn't have pulled
out the backpack straps, but I kept thinking it was only one
more car. That bag is get heavy. Dinner was too spicy. I ate
the rice and an apple, but not the skin. Plenty of free water
and tea. I'm not sure where I'm staying tonight or what I'm
doing tomorrow. I just hope I have internet access - I have many
days of pictures to upload. It's 4 AM, train was only 5 hours
late getting into Delhi. Merry Christmas to all!
Driving back to Delhi |
