Out Through the Gate

We decided to fly to Bombay rather than take the rail journey (approx. 20 hours-- including a 2 hour layover in Ahmedabad) for fairly obvious reasons. Traveling by train has its benefits and well as its drawbacks. At its best we met a variety of interesting people: Indian families on their way home after the Diwali holiday, a friendly army officer heading back from training camp, an eagerly talkative young medical student, as well as travelers from England and the continent-- often sharing itineraries similar to our own. It made for stimulating conversation, and afforded an intimate view of contemporary Indian life-- often missed on those fast-paced itineraries on cozy "air-con" tourist buses and stays at starchy hotels. And the countryside through Rajasthan en route to Jodhpur was captivating; we dangled our feet out the open door at the end of the carriage, took in the subtle changing of scenery, from farming terrain to the magical beauty of the arid landscape, breathing deeply the warm, dry desert air. At its worst, each station was inevitable chaos. Our introduction to rail protocol came early on. On the two hour trip from Delhi to Agra I was unable to get off-- my bag got stuck, and the onrush of boarding passengers compounded my problem. We learned very quickly, one slight head injury later (not mine) to hire a porter for the bags. Then came the sluggish sea of people attempting to move as one, up the stairs, over the platform, down and out into another sea of waiting auto rickshaws. Then blessed relief. Another drawback, trains arrival and departure times can be unreliable. We sat (well, stood more accurately) on the platform in Ajmer for three hours (in the wee hours after a long and busy day at the Pushkar camel fair) before settling in to a compartment with already sleeping passengers. In such close quarters count on sharing more than the limited space-- the coughing in the night, unfortunately, brought more than mere interrupted sleep.

But experience it we did. I'm proud of us. We sidestepped nothing. Everything we vowed not to do we eventually did. We swore we would travel only by train, avoiding the road whenever possible. Traveling by car proved to be as dangerous as we naively feared, but by the three hour car journey from Jaipur to Ajmer we'd managed to almost completely block out the sight an oncoming lorrie. Muscles nearly unflinching, we'd steal a glance, first at each other, then at our driver (it couldn't hurt to check, every once in a while, to see if his eyes were still open). We also vowed never to fly any of India's domestic airlines. Belted in my seat during take-off I wondered if this was where old Southwest Airline jets were retired to. The flight to Bombay was actually quite pleasant. The real test was our three hour stay in the overcrowded airport cafe, courtesy of the air-traffic controllers "slow down," where it proved just as challenging to hold on to our seats as the batteries in our luggage. After kissing the ground (and strangely appreciating each other a bit more) whenever we stepped out of a moving vehicle, surely we would have scoffed at renting something as tenuous as a motor scooter. For two days we darted in and out of traffic, confidence unmerited-- and building. Perhaps we were bolstered by the folks waving us on enthusiastically as we sped by. Probably they were amused at our bravery (or stupidity?). The scooter offered us our most revealing view of India yet. We honked our way alongside countless others, through the pulsing marketplaces and continued out into the unexplored countryside. Pushing our luck one step further, we slowed the pace down a bit and found ourselves taking in the serene landscape of Udaipur on horseback. Well, we never said we wouldn't go horseback riding in India. Maybe we should have. Not ten minutes into our excursion the feisty Snowball decided to leave me by the side of the trail. We continued on, my pride feeling a bit more bruised than my body. Back at the ranch I realized my injuries were slightly worse than I'd first thought. On the upside: a few stitches later, I had a vivid memory and a permanent reminder of my trip to India. Needless to say the journey was an unforgettable one. We can't wait to go back.

Oh east is East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great judgement seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
from The Ballad of East and West