we’re in luck now!

That’s Lucknow, India, in case you didn’t know…We arrived in New Delhi, India at about 8:30 pm Wednesday night, after getting on a plane in New York about 8:30 TUESDAY night. No, it wasn’t a 24 hour flight, but there’s an 11 1/2 hour time change–not 11, not 12, but 11 1/2, part of what makes India India. There was nothing too unusual about the airport, but I knew the moment we stepped outside we weren’t in Kansas anymore!

Since we didn’t find a hotel car waiting for us, we took a taxi. You pay at a little window for your particular destination, get a little slip of paper, and go to the front of the taxi queue–hopefully the taxi number matches the number on your paper. The cabby put our bags in the trunk of a well-used 1960s vintage Tata, and while he was doing so, the young boy who was hanging around wanting to help us with our bags tried to open the car door for me. But he couldn’t get either the back or front door opened, and looked at me a little sheepishly, lowering his eyes in silent apology.

The cab driver tied his trunk shut with the rope that hung from the lid of the trunk and was able to wrench the door open. He got in the car, verified our destination, and we took off.

Riding in a taxi in India is an adventure that you can dread or just sit back and enjoy. I figure these guys drive these streets all the time and are used to it, so I don’t sweat it. I was tempted to try to tell the guy we really weren’t going to a fire or anything, but since his English was minimal and my Hindi is non-existent, I decided it just wasn’t worth it.

This taxi creaked and rattled and the brakes squealed, and drivers in India pretty much keep one hand on the horn at all times. We pulled up right on the tail of a motorcycle two different times and blasted him with the horn until he moved over and let us pass. It’s not road rage, and the motorcyclists are never offended, it’s just the way it’s done.

It was warm for 9 pm in February in New Delhi, a balmy 72 degrees, but even so, many people on the streets wore heavy winter jackets. It doesn’t rain here in January and February, and the air was heavy with dust. You could see it illuminated in the headlights of oncoming vehicles, and smell it too, as well as lots of diesel exhaust. Mmmm, dirty diesel, my favorite scent.

We had a short night at the hotel–I slept from 10 pm till 3:30, and then laid awake until our 6 am wake up call–better than I expected! We had to leave for the domestic airport at 7:30, and our flight to Lucknow with PG and Lilly.

And here we are now, in Lucknow, enjoying the warm sunshine! The flowers are blooming and are beautiful. I guess if spring wasn’t coming to us in St. Joe, we just came to it!

The first thing I saw as we exited the airport was a group of young boys playing what I first assumed was a pickup game of baseball, but quickly realized it was probably cricket. (They use a bat as well.) You don’t see kids in America playing cricket, but that wasn’t as unusual as the six or eight COWS that were grazing in the midst of their game. There was also a couple of goats…and nobody seemed to mind.

Our hotel is nice and roomy, overlooking a main road below. There is a constant flow of humanity–trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, more often than not with at least two riders, autorickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, so many bicycles like the stars of the sky, you could never count how many you see at any given moment. The horns never stop honking. I don’t see any cows at the moment, which is surprising. There go two bicycle rickshaws, each carrying four people, and those men look like they’re pumping those bikes hard! Fortunately, the streets here are absolutely flat…

We leave for the beginning on the conference in just a few minutes–I’ll dig my camera out and try to get a few pictures up soon….