Ayurvedicadventure

We have settled into the daily routines of life at the clinic.  As of today (July 10), we have completed our fifth day of the treatments.  I noticed a shift today as I was returning from the treatment center. I felt light and actually happy to be here.  Today my 4-5 treatments were being done in two appointments and I was walking to lunch by myself through a small park headed to lunch and some rest time. I was enjoying the day!

The first couple of nights were hard; I was uncomfortable with the bathroom and generally freaked about the accommodations.  I would wake in the morning feeling sad at the recognition I was still here. Then Monday morning, Alan had gone downstairs for something and I noticed as I was getting ready for the day, I had stopped fighting the environment and was actually relaxed enjoying myself.

The clinic is full at the moment with about 28 people, staying in various nearby locations.  We are staying in the main building above the office, the doctor’s office and where the Vedic Pundits chant mornings and evenings.  The four flights up to our room are proving to be very good daily exercise, and sometimes quite a challenge!   There are no public restrooms, like we are used to for our convenience. We have a bathroom in our room and then there is one at the treatment center, a couple blocks away.  So we have to think about what we might need from the room and if we need to go, as you don’t want to run back upstairs!

We are more settled in the rooms and are enjoying the peace and quiet we have there.  There is no TV or internet in the room.   Here are some pictures of our rooms.  The room with the two beds is the main room, where we hang and sleep. This is a picture of Alan hanging on the bed!

We have a wonderful little blue tooth speaker that plays the music from our phones and sounds quite good.  We picked up the speaker, last minute at the airport, so we didn’t think to update our iTunes accounts.  We would love suggestions on new music to download. We love classical, jazz and pop., anything really except real rock and roll.

Alan had his head shaved the other day.  A barber did his head and shaved his face with a straight edge, all for about $1! Last time he was here, the doctor requested it for his treatments.  This time he just did it; and loves how it feels. The other night at dinner some repeat female guests mentioned that Dr. Raju had requested they shave their heads and they did it!  They said he would have already asked me if he wanted me to do it!  Whew!

THE GUESTS

I have enjoyed getting to know and spending time with the guests and that has helped tremendously in feeling more at home. People are from all over the world – Australia, Ireland, England, Panama (a couple with their 15 year old son), Hong Kong, Atlanta and several from Fairfield, Iowa.  There is one guy, who just sold his business and all his possessions and has begun a yearlong travels.  He is staying at the clinic for 40 days and says he doesn’t have to return to Michigan until next August to renew his driver’s license!  Many of the guests are either teachers of Transcendental Mediation or have their various practices of mediation.

My favorite guests are two gals from Sydney, Australia.  Helena is 28 and is working on her thyroid as well and has been to the clinic before.  Helena is incredibly well travelled for her young age.  Kim is my age and was so impressed with the improvements in Helena’s health that she came with her for this visit. Kim does many different types of healing work for her profession; and has studied all over the globe with amazing teachers of different disciplines. They are travelling with their friend, Andrew, who is a Chinese herbalist.  They have so much knowledge and experience between them in many alternative approaches, and of course, their accent makes it even more great fun to hear.

SHOPPING

Alan and I left the clinic today for the first time today to pick up a few things in town (I am using that term loosely).  We picked up an auto-rickshaw at the end of the street and for less than a $1 were driven to a small department store, called the Big Bazaar.  We got a few things to make our room more comfortable and returned quickly as we had afternoon treatments.   I have to admit I did not let Alan out of my sight, I continue to be aware of being completely uncomfortable in this strange land.  When we returned, we told the driver we wanted to go to “Sahara Estates” and he took us right to the door of the clinic.  I thought it was strange we didn’t have to give him the address and Alan laughed, at this local store, they know all the white people are going to the clinic!

Tomorrow morning I am planning to go to a mall with one of the gals from Iowa to get a few cooler Indian items to wear.  I had thought I would take my camera to capture a few shots, but the security guard who checked my purse upon leaving the Big Bazaar, said you can’t bring cameras into shops!  Strange, I thought, but won’t take the chance of having my camera taken away tomorrow.

Another interesting note about checking out of the store, there were two large white boards posted with the question, “What would you like to see in the store, that isn’t here?”  There were handwritten notes written all over with items that people wanted.  Two that stuck out were a Barbie set and Herbal Essences shampoo.  Again, I wondered what my marketing pal, Nancy Shaw would say about this neat way to get consumer feedback at the store level and the reach of American products!

RELATIONSHIP AWARENESS

At home, I would say that Alan and I enjoy that marriage rule that says “always for breakfast and dinner and never for lunch!”  We both have busy and fun professional lives; my sense is we do well by going in separate directions all week.

We have been together now for almost two weeks solid and I don’t think we have had a fight yet.  Maybe a few tense moments if we have gotten lost, but mostly the days have been very easy to be together.  I am sure not having to manage kid’s agendas is a huge relief and getting to put ourselves first is incredibly refreshing after the years of managing kid’s needs.

I do notice there is a shift in our relationship.  At home, I am the one who schedules our weeks and often pushes the comfort zones with new ideas.  However in India, Alan is in the lead, I am following and comforted by his knowledge on how to handle almost everything.  He is agile with the currency and has handled all the arrangements with the clinic.  Yes, he has been to the clinic before, but even before we arrived here, I noticed the shift.  I like that he is comfortable here and moves through the world with ease, it allows me to be more relaxed.

Some of the other guests have been thrilled with his technological knowledge.  He fixed Kim’s Mac, so she can now connect to the internet and have Skype calls with home.  Steve, the guy on the year long journey is staying in the room where Alan was last time.  Alan had been able to set up a wired internet connection in that room on his previous visit, which Steve didn’t realize.  Already, folks know he is a great resource!

Each day the patients either line up or have an appointed time to meet with Dr. Raju for a consultation.  A consultation is brief and the most important part is that the doctor listens to your pulse at your wrist and asks you how you are feeling.  He then notes what treatment will be given that day based on those inputs.

Alan and I queued up on Friday morning with the other patients for our first consultation.  There is one row with a few metal seats to wait inside first door of the building and few more outside.  The two Vedic Pundits (monks) are once again chanting blessings for the guests in a small, separate room off the waiting room.  There is an altar of flowers and many color images with so many other things in their small room.

Alan and I are shown in for our time with Dr. Raju together.  The doctor sits in a small, office behind a large wooden desk. The desk and office is overflowing with paperwork in no apparent order.  I think my pal, Kathleen Peterson, a professional organizer, would be beside herself and get right to work!  There is something about the doctor that reminds me of a younger and certainly darker version of Eric Lefton.

Dr. Raju has a welcoming presence; he seems to be the kind of person that delights in other people.  He smiles warmly and we sit next to him on the side of the desk.  He is happy to see Alan again and meet me.  We have completed paperwork, which describes in detail why we have come.  However, he starts with the pulse without looking at the detail.

I am up first.  In less than a minute of listening to my pulse, he says, “You have you a strong constitution.  Hmm, it’s your hormones”.   I nod in agreement.  Then he continues, “And your thyroid is causing disturbances throughout your entire system.”  I am moved by his ability; and tears come to my eyes.  I am not upset, but rather pleased that he gets me and so quickly.  I will start the treatments that afternoon.  The specific treatment for thyroid will be later in the week and maybe another treatment for female hormones after that, known as the “banana treatment”.

We change seats and he moves onto Alan.  After listening to his pulse, he smiles with a twinkle in his eyes and says, “You are so much better!”  Alan gives him a brief overview of his medical journey since he left the clinic last March (2011) including the radiation to his brain.  I happen to have the Ipad with me with photos of that treatment and open it up to show Dr. Raju.  His eyes open wide when he sees the shots of Alan going through the process and $5 million Gamma Knife machine.  Alan also shares a recent scan of the lesion on his brain on our laptop.  Alan leaves him with the CD.

Again I am struck by the wide contrast between the wonders of western medicine and the fact that we have travelled across the world to be treated by this world renowned doctor of an ancient medicine; and we have the good fortune to be sitting quietly in his office.   A few more notes on the contrast. We can hear the pundits chanting (click here ===>Pundits Chanting ) blessings over the wall.  Dr. Raju has a current iPhone sitting on his messy desk, which rings often from the treatment center asking for directions. I get a kick out the fact that he has the same ring tone on his phone that I do!

Dr. Raju confirms how long we plan to stay at the clinic.  I am scheduled for the four weeks he has suggested.  Alan has planned to stay only for three weeks due to his vacation time from work.  Dr. Raju says he should prepare himself that may ask him to stay an additional week.  Also he will be consulting an oncologist regarding Alan.  Alan quietly nods.

After the visit we are each given a basket of herbs, we are to take at various times throughout the day.  The process of healing has begun.

I am excited to return to Hyderabad. My last visit gave me the opportunity to focus solely on returning to health and I think has paid off.  Although, I have had a few challenges since I left the clinic in March of 2011.

During my previous visit, I had a premonition that I had brain cancer but didn’t act on it to have it checked out. Well, when I returned to the states in April I did make an appointment with an ears, nose, throat specialist regarding the incessant ringing in my ears and what did he do? He ordered an MRI that didn’t find anything particularly wrong with my ears, but did find a tumor, or lesion on the upper left portion of my brain. After undergoing a PET scan to make sure the cancer had not spread anywhere else (it had not!),  I had Gamma Knife radiation therapy.  The treatment doesn’t eradicate the lesion, it jumbles the DNA and prevents it from growing any further. It took a couple of weeks to recover from the swelling and to wean myself off the accompanying steroids, but other than that the recovery went smoothly.

I decided after that episode to change oncologists and made an appointment with Dr. Jon Richards out of Lutheran General. He is a melanoma specialist and was responsible for the regional clinical trial of a new treatment for melanoma called Yervoy. Dr Richards is incredibly caring and made me feel comfortable right away as I explored my options for additional preventative treatment.

By August I was on track to start the Yervoy treatment as a way to boost my immune system and prevent any further recurrence. Yervoy is given as series of four infusions spaced out over 12 weeks. I handled the first infusion well but about a week after the second infusion I started having issues with colitis, which is a known side effect of the drug. Even with taking large quantities of prednisone, the colitis continued to progress until the end of September, when I was admitted to  the hospital for a long weekend to get it under control.

Dr. Richards stopped the treatment and  he stressed that I should not count the number of infusions as a measure of the success of the treatment. He said that in his experience the presentation of side effects meant that the immune system had actually accelerated and that it correlated with higher success rates with the drug.

It took a while to taper off the prednisone but by mid-December I was off of it altogether and feeling good. Since the Yervoy, the only preventative measures I have been taking are a combination of:

• My diet, which is mostly vegan but with a few eggs and fish.
• The herbs that I have continued to take since my last visit to the clinic.
• Lots of green tea for its anti-cancer properties
• And vitamin supplements, that support the immune system that I have researched over the past couple years.

By January, Susan and I were planning our trip to India, the kids were going to be at camp for eight weeks this summer so that gave us our window. Six months later, here we are!

While the one lesion I have has not grown, neither has it stopped lighting up on the MRI(meaning it is still active). My neuro-oncologist told me it can take eighteen months for a  lesion to actually die and stop showing up as brightly on the MRI. My focus for this trip is to accelerate that process. And the best part about it? Susan is here with me for this visit…..although she might not exactly agree with that statement! 🙂

I had some simple ideas of what the clinic and rooms would look like from the blog and photos Alan had shared from his visit here last year.  I was not prepared for what it really looked like. In preparing for our trip, Alan had described the accommodations as rustic.  I won’t say that word fits exactly.  I might say it is more primitive, although there is plumbing.

We are taken to our rooms, which are on the fourth floor, on the roof of the building.  There are narrow stairs leading upstairs.  There are two adjoining bedrooms rooms with a very simple, small bathroom.  The bathroom contains a toilet, tiny sink and shower (I use that word loosely) in the ceiling between the sink and toilet.

I have a look around at these incredibly simple and not particularly inviting surroundings and quietly lay down on the bed and wept.  I cannot believe my desire to feel better on a consistent basis has brought me to this place.  I have always been open-minded about alternative approaches to healing and wellness, but this time I think I have gone too far.

Alan is sweet and doesn’t know what to make out of my response or what to do.  I say give me some time and space, I am in shock.  I am deeply tired from our travels and at the moment cannot believe I have committed myself to staying here for a month!  I have the sense if Alan wasn’t with me, I would be inclined to contact the airlines for a return flight!

We go across the street for lunch, in another building the clinic owns.  Lunch has been left in containers and it is just the two of us quietly eating.  I am still a bit weepy and Alan appeals to me that this must be like arriving at camp; moving into a rustic cabin for the summer.  I curl my lip at the suggestion that this situation would be anything like my beloved camp memories. However, the suggestion does take me to thinking about how I must have felt upon arriving at camp and realize these current feelings were never present.  Camp was always a joy for me, even at very young ages. I don’t think I experienced homesickness or questioned the simple, clean surroundings of a camp cabin.  This is different.  We are in a completely different world; we have left the familiar world of comfort a long way behind.

I also know myself well and know that my first reactions can often be intense and that in time I will relax and maybe even be sad when it is time to leave, but I am a long way from that in these first hours.

We unpack our things, making the second room like a closet with our clothes and suitcases moved out of the way.  There are two large beds in the room where we will sleep.  We go about trying to make the space cozy and ours, as it will be our new home for a few weeks.

I fire off a quick email to my friend; Karlin who has done this type of healing cleanse in Nepal to get her first impressions.   Karlin writes back quickly and with comforting words, for which I am incredibly thankful!  There is wireless on the first floors of the two building and I am thrilled with the connection to the familiar!

On Thursday nights, there is a Yagya, a blessing ceremony on the roof the building, just outside our rooms.  There are two young pundits, or vedic monks dressed in colorful cotton wraps who chant and lead the blessing.  They build a small fire in brick pit and give us colorful a fragrant wood chips, almost like a popurri to throw into the fire when they say a specific word throughout their chanting.  There are about eight other guests who arrive; all dressed in cotton Indian attire.  I try to relax and enjoy the moment with the goal of releasing my shock of the clinic accommodations.

We have dinner across the street and meet some of the guests, who all seem very relaxed and happy to be here.  I hope that feeling comes to me!

Thursday morning and we are headed to the airport to fly down to Hyderabad today to go the Ayurvedic (ancient Indian medicine) clinic.  We have one last fantastic breakfast in the Imperial’s beautiful 1911 room.  We savor many treats, knowing that our diet will get much simpler when we get to the clinic.

We are continuing with our airline carriers, so we are on different flights at about the same time.  Traveling domestically, the rules are a bit different.  When I check my bags, I learn the weight restriction is much lower than the 50 pounds we are allowed internationally and had ensured we didn’t exceed. I am forced to pay 4,000 rupees ($80) for weight overages.  The process of checking my bags, then going to a different counter for a cashier to pay the fee and then back to the bag agent, who can’t find my baggage stubs is incredibly challenging.  My heart is racing, as I watch the clock, worrying that I will miss my flight.   There is a helpful floating agent who is aware of my flight who somehow deals with these two characters who are flipping through papers, unable to find my bag tags.

The agent tells me to run, as the gate if VERY far away.  Security is simple with almost no crowds compared to the US; I am through there in minutes.   The gate is so far, let’s say United’s ORD Terminal C would have been a breeze.   The flight is leaving in 20 minutes and I am seriously worried about missing it, as I completely out of breathe and have a long way to go. I see a golf cart with an attendant in the corridor, and ask for a ride and amazingly she whisks me off with two older folks sitting in the front seat!  I am the last one on the plane and had it not been for the cart, I would have missed the flight.  Without a working cell phone, I had no idea how I would have contacted Alan if I wasn’t showing up in Hyderabad as planned!

The flight is two hours.  I have to admit I get a kick out of watching how everyone behaves. It is really mostly like being on a plane in the US including the announcements they make in the local language and then in English.  The exception is my white skin, which makes me in the minority here.

I get my bags without a problem.  Thank God, I am not sure how I would have explained that I didn’t have the proper paperwork!  I have 45 minutes to sit and to work on the blog before Alan arrives.

The airport is modern, clean and beautiful.  I notice most of the passengers passing through the airport are businessmen men dressed in western style clothes.  The women that are traveling are dressed in traditional colorful Indian  clothes and seem to be traveling with their families.  I don’t spot what I would call any Indian businesswoman, but I not sure how I would differentiate them.

Alan arrives and I have to say, I am quite happy to see him after my challenging departure in Delhi!  A man who doesn’t speak English has come to pick us up from the clinic.  The car is incredibly small and he masterfully gets all of our bags in the car! I am in the back with the bags and Alan once again in the front.

The contrast once we leave the airport is striking. The scenery and poverty is as depressing as it was in Northern India.  Yet, there is a different, darker look to the streets here.   Hyderabad is in a different state, with a very different history and language. I see women in black berkas along the roads. We have clearly left Colonial India and I have to say it frightens me.

I reach for Fifty Shades of Grey to distract myself.  I am sure there is a joke in there; I just don’t what it is!  Maybe it is not a joke at all, just the huge contrast between the freedom women have in the west vs. the lives that Muslim women are living here.

We arrive at the clinic after a 40 minute drive.  The clinic is in a gated community, called Sahara States.  I missed the gates since I had my head buried in the book.

The next part of our adventures begins!

We wake early with the promise of watching the sunrise over the Taj.  We don the hotel robes, dig into the mangos left in the room and sit on the patio.  Unfortunately, it is overcast.  I have a morning nap before hitting the heat again!

Asif and Omveer pick us up at 11 for one last Mughal tomb, Akbar’s, on the way out of town.  The outside of the tomb is the usual sandstone and marble, but inside there are some magnificent frescoes!

The hotel has given us a box lunch for the ride back, so as they say, “we don’t have to take any chances with the local food”! Asif leaves with promises of friending us on Facebook and asks if we will send him a good book on Judaism, so he can get a better understanding of our religion.  We are open to anyone for a good suggestion on what book we might send.

We set out with Omveer in the white tourist Sedan for Delhi.  We had chosen to go by car on the return, as the express train didn’t leave until later in the evening.

During the 4 hour ride back, I find the unending humanity, crumbling road scenes and oppressive heat overwhelming.  I am riding in the backseat capturing my thoughts for the blog on the iPad, as the driver honks often winding through the snarl of traffic on the simple paved roads.  Omveer’s driving skills are quite impressive.  Alan is sitting quietly in the front seat trying to manage his tenacity to motion sickness, when he is not the driver.

The “Greyhound Train” (sans the train stations!) appeals as I wonder when we will see the tree lined streets of New Delhi again.  The thought of the cool bath scene in the movie, The English Patient comes to mind as the car’s air conditioning can’t keep up with afternoon’s heat.

When we return to the Imperial Hotel, we feel like we have returned home.  Many of the staff members remember our names, calling us, “Mr. and Mrs. Myers”, with their awkward pronunciation of Myers. They put us back in a suite for the regular room rate, which was incredibly kind.

We have dinner in the wonderful Spice Route restaurant in the hotel for a second time.  If you have the opportunity to visit Delhi, having a meal there is highly recommended.  According to the menu, Conde Nast magazine rates it as one of the top restaurants in the world. The menu and decorations have been created from the various countries along the route of the ancient merchant’s searching for Asian spices.  The hotel took over seven years to create the restaurant, pulling together beautiful artifacts to create the colorful and cozy atmosphere.

This time they put us in the “relationship” section of the restaurant.  We liked the symmetry of moving from health to relationship in our travels! The manager and waiters are so chatty; they treated us like old friends inquiring about our travels.  This is must be part of their magic formula for a very successful business!  I order the same chicken dish from Sri Lanka as last time because it was so delicious.  I was so thrilled with the dish; the manager has the recipe written out for me!  Happy to share if anyone wants a wonderful dish with coconut oil and curry leaves that can be made with chicken or fish! We will certainly be serving, at least trying to recreate it at home!

We pack up our bags, a bit sad that the end of fun touring days are over.

Driving through the streets of Agra was even more shocking than Delhi.  Not only were there people everywhere, but the small crowded streets were lined with people, trash and building ruble. We arrived at 8:30 in the morning at The Oberoi Amarvilas.  The hotel was exquisite and a complete contrast from the streets outside. The hotel was only built ten years ago and sits adjacent to the Taj Mahal.  The building is designed so that all the rooms and public space provide beautiful views of the magnificent domed structure.

The hotel staff treated us like visiting royalty.  We were taken to a lovely sitting area off the lobby and offered tea, with the promise that they would be able to offer us our room shortly, hours before the typical check in. I must admit we loved this royal treatment!

Asif, our new tour guide strutted in the lobby to meet us.  Asif was a cool, hip 30 year old man of Agra.  His viewpoint was very different from the intellectual  one Vineet had provided in Delhi. We deposited our bags in our room and were off with Asif to visit the Taj Mahal.

One thing we have learned from the Indian people, you cover your arms and legs in the very hot weather to stay cool and protect yourself from the sun.  So I wore a long cotton dress and wrapped myself in long scarf I had purchased in Delhi.  The sleeveless t-shirts and shorts we wear at home do seem out of place and actually hotter to the body.

The Taj Mahal is more beautiful than pictures can convey.  It actually shimmers in the sunlight.  Asif found a shady bench for us to begin his instruction of the Mughal (ruling Emperor) history.  The Taj was built by Shad Jahan as a memorial and tomb for his second wife, who died in childbirth of their 14^th child.  The construction began that year, 1631 and took 22 years and 20,000 employees to complete.

We also visited the Red Fort of Agra.  Picture a large open-air, Indian version of  a palace.  There was plenty of room for the Emperor, his family, 500 harlequins, and an army!  Having not studied the history before arriving, I mistakenly assumed that a fort referred to a small military outpost, something like the Alamo.  I didn’t realize we were talking about luxurious living along with your own army in the 16th and 17th century!

The heat continued with highs of 112.  We were dripping just standing still! The good news is there were not as many tourists as there would be in cooler months!  Asif took us back to the hotel for an afternoon rest and the promise to continue later in the day.

I checked my email and was surprised to receive a message from Rajiv, my seat mate from the flight to Delhi.  In response to his request for coaching tips, I had suggested he read about emotional self-awareness and emotional awareness of others, given the situation he had presented.  I assumed he was already digging into his leadership self-study.  I burst out laughing when I read that he was writing to ask if I could send him a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, the book I was reading on the fight! I guess sex is more interesting than leadership!

The late afternoon tour featured another tomb, called the Baby Taj and a park directly across the river from the Taj.  The sun was setting, it was quite something.

That night for dinner we went to restaurant in town that Asif owns.  It is called Taj Babur. Babur was the first Mughal Emperor.  Asif is an incredibly entrepreneurial guy.  He guides in English and Spanish.  He is what we call a connector with friends across the globe from his touring.  He opened the restaurant a few years ago on the suggestion of his tour company connections.  There was a large group of American high school kids having a grand time the night we had dinner there.

Asif tells us he has purchased land to build a hotel in the next two years, also for the tour business.  Asif was very candid and endearing about his challenging romantic life.  He is in love with a local girl, having dated her for years.  Her family is from a caste, one higher than his own, so her father won’t grant permission for marriage.  Asif’s father even asked her father for permission four years ago and the fathers no longer speak to each other.  So they wait, neither dating others, hoping the situation will work out.  His strategy for now is to put his energy into building his business success and enjoying his work life.

One last interesting point about Asif, I asked him how he chose the name for his restaurant, thinking there must have been some significance to naming the place after the first Emperor.  “No”, he replies, “We go to a Magic Guy for such things and he said this was to be the name”.  I thought to myself, my marketing strategist pal, Nancy Shaw would have a fit at this practice!

Of course, I asked him if the guy could help with his romantic life and said unfortunately not, he had already asked him!

Omveer was waiting patiently outside the restaurant to return us to the hotel, which looked glorious with it’s evening lights.  We had learned earlier in the day that these two white elephants were craved from the same white marble used in building the Taj and been especially approved by the Indian government for the hotel’s use.

At home when we were discussing the trip, I was not keen on taking the train.  Through our friend Hayley, we connected with her friend Renee, who had recently visited India.  Renee introduced us to Emma Horn, a British tour operator in Delhi, who runs a company called Himalayan River Runners.

Alan and Emma had set up our daily schedule via email.  Emma turned out to be the perfect peace maker to our different thoughts about our travel arrangements.  With her input, Alan began to understand the benefits of guides and drivers in such a foreign land and I relaxed about taking the train.  Himalayan has provided all the wonderful guides and a driver.  They brought over all the paperwork upon arrival to the hotel and a rep called to review the arrangements.

On Tuesday, we checked out of the lovely Imperial Hotel.  A guide and driver picked us up at 5:30am for the 6:15 train.  I was surprised at first that a guide had been dispatched with the driver.  Once we approached the train station, I began to understand.  There were hundreds of people everywhere lining the street, cars honking and people milling or just squatting in all directions.  The guide explained that people come the day before they plan to travel and queue up with the hopes of buying a ticket.  We were told not to engage with anyone, as people would try to scam us out of our tickets.

The guide literally went through the simple security system with us and took us onto the train and delivered us to our reserved seats.  I don’t believe we would have been able to navigate the scene on our own, or at least in the desired time frame.  The train was scheduled for a 6:15 departure and pulled out of the station at 6:00am with everyone in their seats!  We were thankful we were in the seats, having thought they would leave the station at the scheduled time!

I laughed to myself having a look around at the train car. The seats and atmosphere reminded me of a dated Greyhound bus.   The train had been described as a first class, air conditioned car that would be serving breakfast.  In my mind’s eye, I was remembering a first class breakfast train ride sister Sal and I had taken with our parents between Paris and Amsterdam with beautiful white table cloth, elegant service and eggs cooked to order.  Well, it was air conditioned and breakfast was served, but it was closer to the Greyhound approach!

The train made one stop in Madras.  I realized my limited knowledge of India comes from many cherished novels.  Madras was the hometown of the adopted parents of twin brothers, Marion and Shiva in the wonderful book, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  As we pulled into the small, undeveloped town, I tried to imagine the characters here before they made their way to Ethiopia, where the novel starts.  I had been thinking about the name Shiva from the book, the day before when we were touring the Hindu temple in Delhi.  I had forgotten the book’s character, Shiva was named for one of the most important Hindu Gods.

The train announcer let us know that Agra was coming up and we would have 5 minutes to depart the train.  We got ready promptly, as we now know they mean business on this train!

The train station was once again full of seas of people, again many squatting.  The signs were confusing and we wondered how to find the promised guide and driver.  Omver, the Delhi driver had driven down to Agra the night before to ready for our 8am arrival and we would have a new guide.  The driver must have told the guide what we looked like, because as we stood trying to figure out how to leave the station, a local guy picked us out.  As Veneet had said on the first day, most Indians are not used to seeing white people, so we stand out!

Once again, we were happily seated in the white air conditioned sedan with our trusted driver, on the way to the hotel.  The guide was nice, although his English was not that great.  Turns out his only job had been to ensure our delivery from the train to the hotel.

I was happy the train ride was behind us and we would be driving back to Delhi tomorrow!

For day two we planned to meet our guide later in the day (to avoid the heat) and see the Old Delhi Market. To spend the hotter part of the day in a cool place he suggested seeing the National History Museum.  Well… Vineet had forgotten that the next day would be Monday, and that all the museums are closed on Mondays. Nor did our concierge inform us of this fact as he was giving us directions. To our guide’s credit, he did realize his mistake when he woke up and saw his sister was getting ready for work for her job at the Toilet Museum!  He  did call the hotel but we had already left!

As we walked out of the hotel complex we were approached by an auto-rickshaw driver who offered to take us to our destination. When we told him where we wanted to go he told us it was closed, but offered to drive us there for 20 rupees ($.40) so that we could see for ourselves. When we arrived it was, of course,  closed and we  had to move on to plan B. We decided on Humayun’s tomb and thus started our tour of the tombs of the Mughal Emperors! The auto-rickshaw driver happily waited as we toured the tomb and the grounds. While visiting we met a young high school (Culver Military Academy ) woman from the U.S. who was traveling on her own. . Susan and I marveled to see this young person on her own in such a foreign land. The three of us listened to a quick explanation of the tomb which the ticket agent was happy to provide, for 150 rupees, and then left for our walk around the tomb.

After visiting the tomb we left our U.S. companion and asked the auto-rickshaw driver to take us back to the hotel. Instead he convinced us to take make a short visit to some shops along the way. I am sure he gets paid for dropping off tourists but we did manage to get out  without buying any rugs! We only purchased a few smaller, and probably overpriced, gifts for family back home.

Next stop was back to the hotel; Susan was a very good sport riding along in the rickshaw. The traffic was wild with the roundabouts and all of the jockeying for position on the roads between cars, motorbikes, and rickshaws!   We arrived  “home” feeling a little windblown and hot but overall in good spirits.

We left the hotel about 4:00pm and I tell you we had no idea what was in store! We arrived at the outskirts of Old Delhi and hopped out of our car and into a bicycle rickshaw. The seat was a tight fit for the two Americans but after a few instructions on how to brace for bumps we were off and into the thick of it. We started out on the main thoroughfare but quickly ducked into a curvy alley that was barely wide enough for four people shoulder to shoulder. In this alley there were scores of people, scooters, and of course a few like us in a rickshaw! Every time we would stop and lose momentum our driver would have to labor with all his might to get the buggy rolling again. I was amazed at how strong this guy was. After a while of going past many, many shops, some no wider than a doorway,  we hopped off the rickshaw and ducked into an alley where there were homes of some of the people that worked in Old Delhi. Our guide, Vineet, explained about how most of the shops were wholesale and that even though shops were small, people from all over India (and the world) were coming to visit the shops and buy the goods. The shops we walked past first were primarily clothing, textiles, jewelry, and accessories. Intermingled in these shops were a number of places to purchase food, some little nooks, others with more of a storefront, but all with a lot of history (we saw signs stating that some had been doing business from the late 1700s!).

After we wound our way through that part of the market we came out onto a larger street and then crossed over to the spice market. First we walked into an alley where they were selling wholesale dried fruit and spices, we saw sacks of turmeric, chillies, salt, dates and other goodies. I had never really thought about it before but having all of those spices together in such large quantities really made it hard to breathe without sneezing! After our trip into the wholesale market we came back onto the street and visited a shop where Vineet knew the owner. He had a number of different spices that we could buy retail, some teas, and also some blends of spices that he had made for different types of food. We bought some  blends, some great vanilla beans, saffron, and a black cardamom which has  a great smokey aroma. The 30ish owner said he was third generation running the spice store, however, it was clear he was a man of the this century with global buyers and the latest technology at his finger tips in this very old world marketplace.  He sent our purchases home via DHL to arrive only in 4 days!

At this point we met our cycle rickshaw drivers again and headed down a busy street which showed the diversity of religion in the area. There was the Jama Masjid Mosque (the largest in India), a HinduTemple, Sikh Temple, and a Jain Temple all within a few blocks of each other.

After our touring, Vineet  took us to a place call Connaught Place. It is a business district with a number of shops and restaurants, clearly a hip part of town. He left us at a trendy restaurant called Q-Ba (pronounced Cuba) and mentioned that it was only a short two block walk back to the hotel.

It was happy hour (it was 8 and we were clearly ahead of the crowd), they wanted to give us each four beers!  We had two and an appetizer.  I looked at our map and asked the waiter for directions so we left thinking we knew where we were going……Wrong!

I thought we were to walk up a couple of streets and turn left to the hotel. What I didn’t do correctly is count the street that we saw just as we came out of the restaurant so in fact we overshot the correct street. What at first was pretty nice sidewalk and shops turned to broken up sidewalk and holes in the ground very quickly! Just as we were starting to think of back tracking, and as you can imagine a little nervous, we saw an auto-rickshaw driver that was available. I asked him to take us back to the hotel and he asks for 200 rupees! I offered him 20 and we eventually settled on 60 rupees (just a little over a dollar US). It was definitely a dollar well spent as we were quite a bit off course, it was dark, and we would have gotten very lost!  Although it was a little tense in the moment, we could both laugh about it once we got back to the hotel.

After arriving Saturday night, Susan and I had a late dinner and then off to bed so that we would be ready for our first day of touring in Delhi. We met our guide in the lobby at 9:00 a.m. and walked out into what was already a hot day but was predicted go up to 111 Fahrenheit! Our guide, Vineet, had lived in the USA for about 3 years over a couple of different visits, one to the University of Virginia. When we first started planning the trip I was not particularly interested in going around with a driver and guide, Susan was adamant that we would need the service and after the experience, I am extremely glad we did it!

Delhi is the capital of India so our first stop was to see the government buildings and the home of the president, from a distance of course!

Our next stop was a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi and it was the home of a prominent family where he spent the last 4-5 months of his life. Our guide was very interested in Gandhi and spent a good amount of time telling us about the stories of his life as we sat outside the steps of the rooms where he slept and had his meetings while overseeing the partition of India and Pakistan. What struck me as I heard about his life was how interested he was in building model communities via his ashrams. One of his most simple but powerful ideas was that the people should learn to spin their own thread so that they could make their clothes. At one point before India’s independence a member of the royal family was greeted by a huge bonfire of clothes that had been purchased from England. He wanted the people of India to be self-reliant and to source their materials locally. At the age of 78 he was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist that felt that Gandhi had gone too far by welcoming any Pakistani that wanted to move across the partition and live in India.

Our next stop was the largest Sikh Temple in Delhi. Our guide took us to a visitor center where we left our shoes and hats and donned a head covering. Have you ever walked on the beach on a hot day where the sand burned your feet? Well, being barefoot and walking around on the marble outside the temple was like that if not worse because we were standing in a line waiting to enter the temple!

Here again we found the focus was on community and there was a number of ways that people can contribute. One way was to purchase a type of sweet food made of wheat flour, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar. A person would purchase the food in one location, take it over to another stall, and give half of it away. The part that was given away was then offered to people as they exited the temple. Another interesting aspect of the temple was that it offered a meal to anyone that visited. The meal looked great and consisted of a lentils, curry with chick peas, and chapati (bread). Our guide asked us to guess how many people they fed in a day and i guessed 5,000. He told us that on a busy day they could serve over 20,000 people! We visited the large kitchen where many people were volunteering their time to cook the food and clean up after the 20,000 guests. Inside the temple there is a main alter where they keep their holy book out during the day and there are attendants that have this huge feather that they periodically sweep across the book to keep it clean. People wait in line to pray at the alter and then move off to the side where they can listen to men singing the traditional prayers.

Our last stop of the day, was a large Hindu temple that was finished very recently, 2006. It took over 10 years of planning and additional 5 years to build. We were not allowed to bring cameras or cell phones into the temple so I do not have any photos to share, but imagine the opulence of a cathedral in Rome and multiply by ten! Again we had to leave our shoes before entering but this time those with socks (Susan) were able to leave them on. That definitely would have helped as I was left to scampering around on the relatively cooler white tiles! We did purchase a book about the temple that has a number of pictures that we would be happy to show you the next time you visit. There are a number of different branches of Hinduism each with their own lineage of Gurus. This particular lineage has a significant number of followers and through donations was able to build a magnificent temple. The exterior of the buildings that make up the temple are covered with carved sandstone and inside the carvings are often made in marble with embedded jewels. This temple was really more for display rather than a place of prayer, but it showed the extreme dedication that the people have to their Guru and their religion.

By this time we were thoroughly exhausted by the heat and touring and headed back to the hotel for a shower and a nap. We had dinner inside the hotel in a restaurant called the Spice Route. They had designed the restaurant into nine different sections that were supposed to represent nine different stages of life. We happened to be sitting in the central courtyard section of the restaurant which they told us represented health and well being. A good omen I think!