London and Delhi

Greetings from Delhi!

We had a nice time in London for a couple of days, its a wonderful city! We exhausted ourselves by walking its streets and riding the tube and the busses. We rode the london eye, went to the tate modern, saw Titus Andromicus at the globe...

Then we bid London goodbye, we could have stayed longer, and took the plane to Dehli, arriving yesterday at nearly midnight. Our guest house here is a wonderful reprise, the polar opposite of the cramped, noisy, dirty hostel where we stayed in London! Here we are the only guests in an old mansion, our own room with king bed, bathroom, and very friendly and helpful staff. They have cooked for us, helped us get around town, and arranged our travel plans to Dharamsala. Its amazing!

This morning we started off in Delhi, walking to a market, then taking a small motorized rickshaw. Dehli is a PIT!!! It is so dirty it is unbeleivable. Everything is falling apart from buildings to sidewalks to people etc, with nice trimmed hedges every once and a while. The roads are completely wild, they don't appear to have any real organization that we can figure out, but we haven't seen any collisions either. Whole familes ride by on motorbikes with multiple small children hanging on. This morning as we drove and walked around, I kept thinking that we'd turn a corner and get to a "nice" area or somewhere slightly clean, but it doesn't seem to exist. Except maybe beyond the high walls of the golf club that our drivers all point out. Its sad, and bewildering, and strangly beautiful at times. The women's saris are so bright and colorful! They liven up the landscape. We took a few pictures, and maybe will attach them later, but mostly it was kind of a mess and not very photgenic. The pictures added in the blog are stolen from the internet! We cheated, but hope to add our own when we can get a usb connection.

After a exhausting morning, we napped at our hotel and then rented car with driver and AC for the afternoon. A much more relaxing way to veiw the town!! We first went to buy train tickets to Dharamsala (leaving on a night train tomorrow at 9pm) then to the Laksmi Hindu Temple. We walked gingerly around the temple, with Indians staring mostly politely at us the whole time. An older woman brought her whole family over to gawk and smile at us. A young boy's mother brought him over to shake my hand and talk to us in Hindi (maybe). Then prayer time started, with tablas and harmonium and call and response, clapping, singing, and offerings. It was very moving. Kevin and I both felt really blessed to be present in the beautiful temple with so many devoted people.

Afterwards we went to the India Gate, which is a huge monument. It was after dark, and thousands of people gathered in the park around the Gate with picnic dinners, balloons, and glowing toys. It was very festive and delightful, finally a bit cooler, with lightening in the sky fortelling of the rain that was to catch us and drench us on the way home. So many more things to write about, but this will have to do for now. Off to bed! Tomorrow we go out to see the Red Fort, more temples, and a famous mosque. We'll write more from Himachal Pradesh and Dharamsala. Looking forward to moving on, and to see the Dalai Lama. All the best, and more from the road later:) LOVE, kara and kevin

---

---