Final Days in Canada

Thursday was a rainy day, so we slept in, made scrambled eggs for breakfast, and didn't head out to fish until about 11:30 when it started to clear up. It was dry when we hit the water, but we ran into a bit of a squall as we crossed the main basin of the lake north of the lodge. It didn't rain a lot while we fished, but the wind never let up.

We didn't have a fantastic day of fishing, but we caught all we needed to meet our limit, and our walleyes were decent sized. Barry caught a 35 inch Northern to capture the prize for the week.

We went in fairly early again to clean the fish and eat, then hit the water again in the evening to fish for Northerns. The weather was better, but Dad and I didn't catch much. I think Barry and Larry had a little better luck.

Friday morning we headed out around 9:30 for some catch and release, and didn't catch much worth reporting. Dad hooked a big northern and it fought pretty well. He hadn't had a lot of success in the past couple of days, so it was exciting that he was about to get a good fish. I got the net under it and lifted it from the lake - but it was longer than the rubber net we had and with one good flop it bounced out of the net and came loose from the jig. It was on the surface for a second, when I thought maybe it was still on the line, but before we knew it, it was gone. It was a big disappointment. The fish was at least 28 inches long, and likely over 30. But we will never know for sure.

We went back in to camp around 11:30, prepared lunch, and finished packing up. We hit the road at 1:38 pm, with me beginning the 5-hour drive to Kakabeka Falls. About an hour into the drive, we saw a bear in the brush by the side of the road. I stopped and backed up, and we were thrilled to find she had two cubs with her - a black phase cub and a brown phase one. They were very curious and came onto the road to see us, with the black cub coming right to Dad's door, standing up on its hind legs, and even putting it's paw on the door. The momma stayed fairly still watching us as the cubs moved around to see what we were all about. It was amazing to see them, but I drove off before we got into any trouble.

After four hours of driving through the scenic woods, we stopped for fuel and Dad took over for the final hour. At Kakabeka Falls we stopped at a motel and had dinner in the restaurant. The food was fine, and filling (I had poutine). The young server, who also checked us into our room, was friendly but didn't know much. She hadn't seen the rooms, hadn't tasted the food, and obviously couldn't tell us about the beer selection. After dinner we retired to our room - a classic 1970's themed space with brown paneling, glitter on the ceiling, yellow-gold fixtures in the bathroom, linoleum flooring, and the most hideous yellow and brown formica counter. We went to bed right way and did our best to sleep on the world's worst pillows. All of the snoring and coughing kept me awake for quite a while, but I got a little rest. Dad didn't.

We were on the road by 5:30 Central time, with Dad driving about an hour to the border. I drove from there to the Minneapolis airport, stopping briefly for fuel and at a beautiful rest area in Duluth. While the first part of my drive was through steady rain, it ended up being a beautiful drive along Lake Superior and an uneventful drive down I-35 to St. Paul. There, however, we ran into an interstate closure and had to take surface streets the last few miles to the airport.

We arrived at the airport at Noon, for a 4:40 flight. The reason we were so early is so Dad and Larry could get back to Iowa and return the rental car more-or-less on-time. We made good use of our time at the airport: each of us enjoyed a 45-minute massage, then we had a nice meal at Rock Bottom. Now we're boarding our flight to O'Hare. We should be home by 11, the end of another wonderful international trip together.

Wonderful Wednesday

Wednesday started off cool and mostly cloudy, and we left the cabin with what seemed like a sense of urgency at 8:30. We headed north to Jack's Point and caught a few walleyes, including one I caught which was over 20 inches - tying Larry for the day's record. He thought we should try a different spot while the walleye were biting, so we moved and didn't have as much luck the rest of the day. Larry caught a 28 1/2 inch Northern and thought it would be the prize for the day, until Barry caught a 29 1/2 Northern a short while later.

While we were out, the sky cleared up and most of the day we had a lot of puffy clouds all at the same altitude - what Dad would call a Canadian sky if he saw it at home. It was dry and beautiful all day. The sun grew warm later in the afternoon and I took off some layers. Throughout the day we saw five or more eagles, several loons, a flock of pelicans, a few gulls, and a duck landing on the lake.

We went back in around 3:00 and cleaned our catch, then stuffed ourselves with a late lunch/early dinner. Barry and I drove about 7 km up the road to New Osnaburgh to search in vain for the little store we heard about there. It was interesting to see the tiny community, even though we missed finding the store by half a block.

We went out again at 6:00, specifically to cast for Northern. We headed to a bay that another Larry told us about before he left to go home to Wyoming. Larry happened to catch his big walleye there, but the rest of us caught Northern. While I was reeling in one cast, I had the lure within site - about 6 ft from the boat - when I watched a fish come to the surface and take it. It was a fighter; a lot of fun to catch. We got him in the boat and measured him in the little lined trough we had in the boat. It was over 30 inches and longer than the trough, so we put him up to the ruler on the side of the boat: 31 1/2 inches! The largest so far and the prize for the day. I was trying to figure out why it seemed so much longer when we used the other ruler, and only then (on day 4!) did I realize the trough didn't start at "0." As it turns out, all of fish were half an inch longer than we thought they were!

Dad did not have such a great evening. First he cast one of his favorite lures onto the shore and we couldn't find it. Then the boat motor wasn't idling and he spent a considerable amount of time trying to get that to work right so we could troll. Then he cut his finger on my big fish and nearly bled out in the back of the boat while he tended to it. He probably had problems with his line and reel, as that's been a consistent theme this week. At one point, his pole came apart and half of it ended up in the lake. I think he finally caught a fish - nothing memorable.

We went in at 7:30 as the sun was setting. We had to clean Larry's walleye, so while we did we had the opportunity to chat with Tim from Montana and Mike from Wisconsin, two of the four brothers staying in the other cabin. They had better fishing than they had on their first two days and had plenty to eat.

When we got back to the cabin, we found a delicious homemade blueberry pie waiting for us, along with vanilla ice cream, complements of Colette. It was delicious! Tiny little hand-picked blueberries from the property here, but very tasty.

We played more Pitch before going to bed fairly early. I lost.

I'm posting a photo of my fish. I hope it's not upside down... on my phone it looks like it might be.

Eagle at Sunset

Today was a pretty great day for fishing, even if the fishing was mediocre. Of course, a mediocre day on this lake beats good fishing in a lot of places.

We left the cabin at 9:00 this morning. It was overcast and cool, but dry, and the water was smooth as glass. We headed north to fish and had some success early on. We fished in several different spots, of course, and only experienced a light mist a couple of times before some blue sky started to show through the clouds around Noon. At one point we stopped at a rock to pee, and I noticed a fishing pole submerged under water as we were approaching shore. Dad pulled it out and we were surprised to discover that it still works!

Our plan today was to come in early, clean our catch, and have a large late lunch before going out to fish again in the evening. That's what we did. We brought in nine fish - eight to eat and one to take home. (Barry caught the big one to take home.) We only needed seven to eat (or six), but for some reason Larry kept the eighth one late in the day. Indeed, we had more fish then we could fit on two trays in the oven. Today we broiled our fish with lemon pepper seasoning, and it was just as tasty as the fried fish.

Around 4:30, after eating and having a nice chat with the property owner Colette, we went back out to cast for Northerns. By this point it was partly cloudy, calm, and gorgeous. I caught seven fish this evening (at least one at every place we fished), but dad didn't catch a thing. He even used his new rod and reel (fresh out of the lake), but with no success. Barry and Larry caught about a dozen between them; none were large enough prizes to take home.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful this evening, with sun shining on the trees, rocks, and water. There were plenty of dramatic clouds which turned shades of grey, pink, and orange as the sun dropped lower behind them. As we headed back to camp, Larry's wake cut through the still water and added even more interest to the reflections of the clouds and trees. On our final approach to the campsite, we saw an eagle fly across the lake in front of us. I would have said a "beautiful eagle," but that goes without saying.

A Wet Day

I am so happy to be dry right now! We just started the heater, so I'm looking forward to being warmer, too.

Our fish last night was delicious, and we all ate our fill. After dinner, we played a card game named "Pitch," which evidently involves bids, a trump suit, and some system of counting face cards at the end of each hand. I'm not very good at comprehending this sort of game, but I ended up scoring better than Barry, apparently. Barry and I sipped Blanton's while we played. We went to bed around 10 pm.

We slept this morning until waking up without the assistance of an alarm or hungry doggies. There was no need to get up early - it was raining, as forecast. We had a simple breakfast and then suddenly around 10:30 everyone started getting ready to go out and fish, even though it wasn't supposed to stop raining until 2:00. We were on the lake just before 11, this time heading south through the steady downpour.

I caught the first fish of the day very shortly after we put our lines in. We had decided that today we would only keep fish longer than 15 inches, so we threw mine back. Dad then caught 4-5 in a row, including a Northern. Barry and Larry were also catching some, and keeping them, so they had six in their cooler before we had any that we kept. Soon the fish stopped biting there, so we moved farther down the lake.

Although we tried six or seven more spots throughout the day, we never had so much success again. I did catch a 19 inch walleye - the only one we kept in our boat - and Dad caught one that was 20 inches. He realized we could have kept it (as per our licenses) just after he dropped it back into the water. In the end, we were out for four hours and I caught a total of four fish.

At one point our boats got separated. There may have been some miscommunication between Dad and his brother. They agreed "if we're going to go up there, we won't be any closer than we are now." So off we went. Dad thought they were talking about a bridge; Larry thought they were talking about a certain fishing hole, so off we went in separate directions. Fishing by the highway bridge was a bust, although the rain had nearly stopped by then so it was a fairly pleasant place to be. We didn't stay long and went back to find the others, reuniting just before stopping on a tiny island to eat our packed lunches.

By this point I was soaked clear through, excluding my feet, because my rain gear proved ineffective against the elements. But after lunch we fished a little more, without much luck at all. It finally stopped raining around 2:15, but as we were heading across an open part of the lake in the direction of camp the sky suddenly grew darker, the temperature dropped at least 5 degrees, and we ran into a soaking heavy mist that stung when it hit my face. With this development, we decided to call it a day.

We made it back to camp around 3:00, although Barry and Larry probably stayed out another half an hour. Dad and I went to the cabin and changed into dry clothes while we waited for them to return. I was literally soaked through four layers, but my feet were still dry. Honestly, I cannot endure cold, wet toes; I never would have made it through the day if we hadn't wrapped my boots in plastic bags. It worked!

The rest of the evening was much like last night, except before dinner we learned a new card came called Pass the Ace. After eating too much fish, we played another two games of Pitch, the first of which I won. Maybe I'm not as dense as I thought I was.

Clothes are now hanging near the heater as everyone heads to bed. Before 10. Weatherbug says tomorrow should be drier - and cooler.

Oh! Canada!

We've had a pretty good first full day in Canada. Supper preparations are under way - we brought in and cleaned eight walleye and the deep frier is warmed up, the beer batter is made, the potatoes are underway, and the peas are in a pot waiting for Bob the caretaker to hook up a full propane tank so we can light the stove.

We had a nice stay at the English River Inn, although apparently I snored. The free breakfast was basic but fine, with good wafles. We left at 7:30 and headed north toward Osnaburgh, stopping once for fuel on the way. During the drive, everyone except me saw an Eagle (I was on the wrong side of the car and Dad didn't slow down.) A bit later we saw a bear cross the road, which was pretty cool. I wish we had been a bit closer. There was not much traffic along the road, so the drive seemed to go fairly quickly and we arrived at Oz Lake Lodge around 11:30.

We loaded in to the cabin, prepped our gear, had a quick lunch, and were on the water by 1:00 pm. We headed north and went to a little bay past the school, and within 20 minutes of leaving shore all four of us were catching walleyes between 14 and 18 inches long. We tried several spots around the lake - some were prolific and others were a bust. Barry was in a boat with Larry and I was with Dad. Barry kept track of how many they caught but we didnt. In all, we figured we caught about 46, releasing all but 9. Dad wins for the biggest catch with a 21 inch walleye, which he said is probably the largest one he's ever caught. We caught fewer Northerns and didn't keep any. I probably had the largest, with one measuring 21.5 inches.

We came back to shore around 5:30. It had been overcast and mild with a slight wind, and there was thunder by the time we headed back. The rain didn't start until we were cleaning the fish. It rained hard for a few minutes, but now it's mostly a drizzle.

Supper is about ready, so I'm going to wrap this up and eat delicious fresh fish.

Long First Day

We're in Canada! The sun is low in the sky, as we're driving northwest through the countryside toward English River, where we are stopping for the night. It has been a beautiful day for a drive - sunny and warm, with some beautiful, wispy Cirrus clouds. They have a yellowish hue as the sun begins to set.

Barry and I left home at 3:52 a.m. and made it to the Indy FastPark in 50 minutes.  We went through the TSA pre-check line fairly quickly, on the wrong side of the airport. At the gate, we had a slight boarding delay but departed about on-time. With about an hour layover at O'Hare, we made it to Minneapolis before 9:00 a.m. Dad and Larry missed the ramp to the baggage claim area at the airport and were disappointed to discover the airport has no turnaround. After leaving the airport property and driving several miles, they eventually found a spot to turn around and come back to us. We left the airport around 9:20.

Dad initially seemed to have trouble following the signs for I-35E, but soon enough we were headed north toward Duluth. During the drive it seemed Larry and Dad both enjoyed telling stories about family history and previous fishing trips. Larry says this is his 61st fishing trip to Canada. That's amazing! This year he's making three trips, like he has a several years in the past. I was surprised my dad hasn't been to Lake Osnaburgh for 5 or 6 years. I think this is my 7th Canadian fishing trip. I was reminded that my last trip was in 1997. It's been a while!

I drove for about 115 miles from a rest area through Duluth to lunch. There was 10 miles of construction which, unfortunately took. About an hour to get through. At one point the one-lane traffic stopped suddenly and cars were veering left and right to avoid collisions. I stopped hard with a few feet to spare between us and a couple of cars in front of us. I was wondering if everyone behind us would get stopped and, lucky for us, the truck behind us flew past us on the right into the ditch, avoiding us and the car on the shoulder. They driver said they were ok, so went went on, thankful we were able to do so.

We stopped at a Culver's north of Duluth for lunch, then had a lovely drive up the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior. We stopped along the way at Gooseberry Falls. The park was packed with people and their pets enjoying the great weather and the holiday weekend. We walked around to take a quick look at each set of falls and to take a few pictures (each of which included quite a few people in addition to the aceneryscenery). After that, we stopped at the Palisades Head to take in the view and watch some climbers, followed by the Split Rock Lighthouse scenic overlook, and finally a high scenic overlook from which we could see Isle Royale. At each place, Dad seemed to misjudge the entrance and ended up going in the exit.

We stopped just before the border for fuel and an odd little duty-free shop. We bought some alcohol and then drove up the road to wait next to the Customs office for some guy to deliver it. We got through the border fairly quickly, and they let us through even though Barry did most of the talking on my behalf.

Well, now it's dark and we're driving past an occasional closed restaurant wishing we had eaten some supper. We should be in English River before 9:30 p.m., within the next hour.

In Transit

Barry and I left home at 3:52 Eastern Time and we've made it to Minneapolis before 9 am Central. Waiting for Dad and Larry to pick us up, at the lovely MSP airport. Long drive ahead.

On the Road Again

Route to Lake Oz

It's almost time for our next international trip - this time Barry and I are traveling together, and it's a vacation! No students with me this time. We're going with my dad and my uncle Larry fishing in Ontario. We will be on Lake Osnaburgh, near New Osnaburgh and south of Pickle Lake, staying in Oz Lake Lodge. Early Saturday morning we're flying to Minneapolis, where we will meet Dad and Larry who are driving from central Iowa. Then we will begin the 12 1/2 hour drive north to our final destination. We will stop overnight after crossing the border and will arrive sometime Sunday.

I've been to this lake before, years ago, but this will be Barry's first time. Dad and Larry go more frequently, often once a year. I'm looking forward to spending time with them, but I'm hoping it won't be too rainy or too cold. I'm expecting long days in the boat, pretty scenery and wildlife, fish for dinner, some reading, and some evening cribbage games. The lodge has no WiFi, and there won't be much for cell service - if there's any. In other words, there might not be many blog posts during the trip. If nothing else, I will write some while we're gone and post it later.

Bangalore and Final Reflections

Following a 24 hour delay and an interesting overnight in Dubai, we’re on the flight to O’Hare with six hours left to go. So far, I’ve had two naps, eaten second breakfast and lunch, read some of the newspaper and the beginning of The Immortal Life Henrietta Lacks, and watched both The Big Short and The Idol (about a Palestinian who won Arab Idol.) Meanwhile, I’ve listened to a lot of world music. I have a middle seat and it hasn’t been awful. The somewhat elderly man next to me is quite flexible. He’s spent most of the trip with his bare feet off the floor, either pulled up on his seat, crossed under him, or folded over the top of his tray table. He seems to sleep quite comfortably while classic Arab movies play on his screen. I suppose that in addition to flexible, he must also be tiny. I haven’t seen him standing.

I was nearly the last person on the plane, if not literally the last person on the plane. We’ve had mixed experiences with the Emirates staff during this delay. The woman who started off reluctantly helping us yesterday and hugging us in the end advised us to go to the counter at the gate this morning to make sure all of our bags were transferred. We decided to check at the ticketing counter/bag drop prior to going through security. A woman there spent almost a full hour completing a multi-step process to individually update the baggage information for all 27 of us. We were thankful, and headed to the gate with enough time to grab breakfast. When boarding began, we learned that most of us didn’t have our bags properly checked to this flight. The gate agents began fixing it, stating “We’re not supposed to do this here.” So much for the advice from the woman yesterday – although apparently it didn’t help us much to ignore her advice, because the woman this morning wasted our time for an hour! Apparently she put some note in our records about putting the bags on the flight, but she didn’t actually complete the steps necessary to get the bags on the flight. The gate agents were very helpful in straightening everything out, but we have no idea if they were able to get all the bags from storage and onto the plane before we took off. Time will tell if all the bags, or any of the bags make it to Chicago with us.

I haven’t blogged about India since the end of our first day in Bangalore, so I will recap the last three days here. I made some notes in my phone about some things I wanted to remember and write about, but the notes app I have used for two years (and which stopped syncing with my Outlook sometime months ago) seems to have lost all of my notes data yesterday. Not just my notes from this trip, but every note I’ve made in the past two years. I really wish Android had built-in note functionality. How hard can that be? I’ll write plenty, but I’m disappointed and worried that there may be some interesting bits I forget to throw in.

Monday morning started with a business visit to EnAbleIndia, a NGO which works to help persons with disabilities become integrated into society through employment. Traffic was terrible on the way there, and it took much longer than our guide Amrit had anticipated. He began hearing about it from Nandini about 10 minute before 10:00, our scheduled visit time. He assured us we were “very close,” but we knew we would be late. Nandini predicted we would be half an hour late and Amrit was reluctant to believe her, but she was right. I was following our progress on Google Maps, and all of us were fretting out loud about the situation. We think Amrit was pretty embarrassed about misjudging the travel time. The visit was good; we heard from two speakers, watched a couple of videos, and saw demonstrations of some pretty cool technology. The young woman who presented about their new online collaborative was good and answered questions with great information in a conversational way. The older man who was the main presenter talked somewhat patronizingly from a 10,000 ft level and didn’t answer questions directly – missing some questions altogether. He was so indirect that I was processing his style in my head. He used some storytelling, which Nandini later said was typical for people from Kashmir, and I chuckled to myself, thinking he answered every question with poetry. Shortly after thinking this, I nearly had to stifle a laugh when he literally quoted Invictus.

Amrit hired some cars to shuttle us back to the bus, in the interest of time, considering the streets were too narrow for the bus to navigate to EnAble India and we had walked the last several hundred meters on the way there. It had been a really interesting walk through moving traffic, past shops, and among the hustle and bustle of daily street life. Following EnAble India we made a very quick stop at a nearby mall for McDonald’s take away, which we ate on the bus while traveling to the next stop – the Central Silk Board. Here we had a lecture and tour. We had been unsure of what to expect, but it turned out to be a pretty good visit. They were scientists and not the world’s greatest presenters, but we learned a lot. Bangalore had suffered significant flooding on Saturday, and the Silk Board was affected. Staff were sweeping the dirt and debris-covered parking lot, and we were unable to see the silk-making process in action because their equipment had flooded and could not be turned on until it dries out. On the tour we learned, as best as we could understand, how the silk from the cocoons is twisted and combined into thread, then we saw the looms, and then we went into a lab where they remove a gum-like byproduct from the threads and they work on various dying techniques. While he showed us the contents of one display case, we watched the poor scientist lift the lid of the case all the way, where there was nothing to hold it, and – as if in slow motion – it flipped over the back, ripped out the hinges, and hit the floor where the glass shattered with a horrible crash. Other staffers came running to investigate the commotion, while he continued with the presentation. Next we walked through an interesting design showroom full of wonderful products made entirely of silk before heading back to the bus. As we boarded, we watched some type of construction project happening on the ground which, unfortunately, seemed to involve at least two young boys doing some of the labor.

That night we had a group dinner and debrief in the hotel. The service at the dinner was almost over-the-top, as is to be expected from the Oberoi, and the food was really outstanding. I’m sure I ate way too much, but the staff obviously wanted to make sure we didn’t go hungry. I facilitated most of the discussion, and we wrapped it up just in time for me to make it downstairs to the spa for my one-hour massage. The massage service in the spa was, of course, great and the massage was decent. I was only mildly distracted and annoyed by the woman’s fingernails, and I was so worn out I practically fell asleep. Following the massage they served me tea and I spent a little time in the steam room.

Tuesday was another long day. Having been late on Monday, and having received the loud and clear message that this was not ok, Amrit had us leave the hotel at 8:00 am for our 10:30 visit with Tata Elxsi, the innovation and design company of Tata Group. Well, traffic wasn’t horrible and we arrived at the gate to Tata at 9:30. We couldn’t go in early (and Nandini made it very clear to Amrit that he was not to call and ask to come in early). We would have enjoyed waiting at the Café Coffee Day inside, but instead we had to drive around and sit by the side of the road until the appointed time. The Tata visit was interesting; we had an overview of the company followed by a demonstration of their autonomous car prototype and a visit to their design lab where they work on everything from product packaging to water filtration systems and automobile design.

Our second visit was with Deloitte Consulting U.S. India, which was very corporate and probably pretty interesting to our students. This was in a very large and growing office park, and Deloitte employs literally thousands of people at this location. They pulled out all of the stops, with at one point 13 employees in the presentation room. We heard from the director and another high level partner as well as a woman from HR and a number of recent MBA hires. The presentation room had chips and biscuits (just like the last time I visited, at their previous office), but we moved from there to a cafeteria where we had carrot cake, tea, and coffee while we mingled with the employees for about 10 minutes longer than necessary. Then we toured various floors of their newest building before returning to the hotel.

That evening we had dinner on our own, and I walked over to the mall where I ran into a large group of our students wrapping up their meal at the Mexican food restaurant. I joined them and enjoyed talking with them informally as I ate my fairly spicy fajitas. When I finished I returned to the hotel and waited for my friend Rajeev who came and joined me for a drink on the patio at the hotel bar. Rajeev earned an MBA at the Kelley School, and while in Bloomington he held a graduate assistantship in our office. I was surprised at how long he’s been away from IU. He asked about some of the people he knew in Bloomington, and we had a great conversation about our lives before he had to head home.

Wednesday morning we drove to the Akshara Foundation office, which had also moved since my last visit, and picked up two of their employees who rode with us about 35 km to the outskirts of Bangalore where we visited a primary school. This was an interesting experience, for sure. The school was better equipped than the one we visited in Ghana in 2008 – as were the students – but it was still nothing like what we expect to find in a school. The classrooms were dim and open-air, with rows of fairly primitive desks shared by multiple students. Some rooms had computers. The walls were covered with brightly-colored murals depicting lessons in English, science, geography, and math. The students wore uniform and left their shoes outside the classroom doors. The classrooms surrounded a large dirt field where children play, as well as a small temple of some sort. Very little English was spoken here, although the students were learning English. Our students split up into six different classrooms to interact with the children, and in the room where I spent most of my time we did some math problems, practiced English words, and sang songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” When I stepped into the other rooms I saw a reading demonstration, a dancing demonstration, and what seemed to be a dance party. Eventually everyone ended up outside on the dirt field playing games, and near-chaos reigned. I was pulled into an upper-level classroom which erupted into cheers as if they had accomplished a great victory. They tried to entice me upstairs but I refused to go. Our student Jack didn’t put up enough resistance and was taken upstairs where he was sure he was being kidnapped. I eventually had to go retrieve him. This all went on for about 10 minutes too long, but we finally boarded the bus and drove back to the Akshara office for a conversation with the Director.

We stopped for lunch on a nearby street with a McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and Café Coffee Day. Nandini was skeptical, but she finally relented, and everything was fine. I chose McDonalds, and was invited along with a few of our students for a surprise tour of the kitchen. What a trip! We played along with it and learned some things about their food prep (kind of interesting, actually), then posed for photos with the employees. I was asked to complete a survey about the tour(!). As it turns out, this must be something they do on a semi-regular basis. What they were trying to do was demonstrate how they keep the veg and non-veg food prep processes completely separate, and solicit feedback about their performance so they can entice more vegetarians to choose dining at McDonalds. It was an unexpected but fun experience.

After lunch we drove across the city for our long-anticipated visit to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. This was my third and favorite visit to the garden, as I finally saw most of the grounds, including a beautiful and absolutely huge Kapok, or silk-cotton tree. It was a beautiful day for a walk through the garden and workers were busy preparing for an upcoming flower show in honor of Independence Day. On the way out we climbed the large granite hill to take in the view of the ever-growing city. 

Leaving the garden en route to more souvenir shopping, we learned of the Emirates emergency landing at Dubai. I immediately started looking for information online and was foiled by poor connectivity and a rapidly dying phone. There was no new status information about our flight, and I started growing anxious about my inadequate technology and limited access to information. We went from shopping to our closing dinner and celebration at the Solitaire Hotel. Nandini was very disappointed in the venue and vowed we should never go back there, although it was passable as far as the food and service was concerned. My anxiety level continued to rise as my information-seeking remained hampered and the program went on for more than two hours, preventing us from having any meaningful discussion about the flight situation and last minute details I wanted to work out with the other facilitators. It was a good closing event which I simply could not fully enjoy. A cool yogi came to teach us and demonstrate some yoga, and most of the students got to practice some simple yoga. This was followed by some traditional dancing demonstrated by some lovely, talented, and expressive dancers who taught us about their art before teaching the students some moves. I was disappointed I couldn’t focus on the presenters and give them my 100% attention. Eventually this all came to a close and we returned to the Oberoi to pack and shower before the flight home. The original plan was to leave at Midnight, but due to the delay we didn’t leave until 2:00 am. The hotel unexpectedly supplied us with Lychee juice boxes and way too many bags of yummy Lays potato chips, because apparently that’s what you need at 2:00. From there, it was bus to the airport, one-by-one entry into the airport, waiting around near the gate, passing out from exhaustion, boarding late, sitting on the plane, and finally leaving India behind for the third time.

This was my favorite visit to India so far. Aside from their exhausting volume, it was a great group of students with whom to travel. The facilitators got along well and we had a lot of fun. I got to see a number of new things in spite of visiting all of the same cities. The hotels and meals were better than in the past. No one became ill. The weather in Bangalore was beautiful. I got to see Rajeev. Beyond all of this, I went in knowing what to expect and determined to take it all in, accepting everything as-is, simply taking in and enjoying all of the sights, sounds, and smells of the rich and complex country.

We land in 47 minutes, then it’s just a matter of getting through INS, waiting expectantly for the possibility of claiming luggage, and enduring the 4- or 5-hour bus ride home with a dwindling number of students. It will be great to see Barry and the dogs again soon.

Postscript: Made it home after 57 1/2 hours of travel. None of our 27 bags made the journey with us.

Blogging on the Move

India is now behind me, for the third time. But I'm not home yet! I'm currently sitting in Dubai looking at a lovely view of the Burj Khalifa and a golf course - used as part of an ad for the Hotel InterContinental, mounted on the wall in the airport above the moving walkway, just across from my Naugahyde lounge chair.

But that was then... as I typed that I was summoned to the desk where new boarding passes were being printed for all 27 of us. That process complete, now a nice woman is checking into the unlikely possibility of getting us hotel rooms for the night. Yesterday an Emirates flight from India had an emergency landing here at the Dubai airport and then exploded after everyone safely evacuated. That stopped all traffic for a number of hours, and now the airport is open again but with only one runway. Emirates chose to fly us in here in spite of the delays, probably because they needed our plane to move other people out. Our 4:30 am flight was postponed until 7:00 and actually departed around 8:00. In spite of promises offered by the Emirates staff in Bangalore, we landed when the gate to our connecting flight was already closed and missed our connection to O'Hare.

My colleague Tia spent the next 5 hours in near-Hell conditions at the transfer counter working her butt off to get us booked on new flight(s), while my colleague Karleigh hung near a different awful transfer counter in case they could serve us more quickly. Meanwhile, the students and I hung out in the mall-like terminal where I enjoyed a free sandwich and charged my phone. In the end, we were booked as a group on tomorrow's flight to O'Hare.

But that was then... we indeed did get hotel rooms, courtesy of the airline which gave out well over 3000 hotel rooms today. The woman who printed our boarding passes was a reluctant helper at first, as we were apparently keeping her from her work with another flight.  But by the time she printed them her attitude changed. She personally walked us down the concourse to the ticketing gate to the chaotic connections counter and proceeded to work with her colleagues to process hotel-related visa sponsorship. After that mess, where I observed passports all over the place, among people working while people of all nationalities tried to push through the open door, she emerged victorious, full of smiles, and so excited to have helped us that she went around and gave half of us hugs before taking her leave. We somehow found our way downstairs, through security, and out through the amazing terminal that sits under the tarmac and resembles a beautiful old train station and a casino. Soon we boarded a bus with little fold-down extra seats, exactly like the one we had while touring Ghana in 2008, except with cloth seats, not Naugahyde.

Now I am seated having instant coffee with Tia and Karleigh on a Naugahyde(?) couch in the lobby of the Palm Dubai Hotel, waiting for them to scan 27 passports. We will have dinner in about 15 minutes. We landed in Dubai 10 hours and 10 minutes ago, so it has been a long day.

That was then... now I'm struggling to keep my eyes open in my room while a Tom & Jerry cartoon plays on TV and I wait for a power adapter to be delivered to my room. I called more than half an hour ago. Called again just now and had a hard time reaching anyone. Someone just arrived at my door without one... I was very direct and repetitive explaining what I needed half an hour ago. He immediately came back with the adapter. Now I must go to sleep. Tomorrow I'll have to write more about the room, the dinner, and the collection of sketchy clubs on the Mezzanine.

First Day in Bangalore

Rain Tree canopy, as seen from my balcony.

It's Monday morning, and I'm up earlier than I need to be sitting in a robe on my balcony with an espresso so I can catch up with blogging, since yesterday offered no free time for writing. My view is the garden and pool, including the huge canopy of the 118-year-old Rain Tree that is the "guardian" of the hotel. Just above the tree I see two satellite dishes mounted on the roof, each with dozens of birds sitting around their rims. It's overcast, but it's pleasantly cool with low humidity. Quite a drastic change from northern India.

Arrival at the Delhi Airport went rather smoothly. We had time for a sit-down dinner and I exchanged cash. While boarding, an Indian man asked to take a picture of me shaking his hand. I didn't know he had already asked for pictures with some of our students. I obliged, and Tia was there to snap the photo - but she was being devious. Unbeknownst to me and this man, she snapped a bizarre close-up selfie. When she handed the phone back and he looked at the photos, he was scrolling through the pictures and I was slightly horrified to see the picture of Tia, mostly teeth, on the camera. He must have been surprised as well, because he kept scrolling past it, then back to it while I looked on nervously wondering why this unflattering photo was on his phone. We had a good laugh about it later. That was just the beginning of the laughter, as the long day characterized by our students shouting on the bus had gotten to Nandini. She, Tia, and Karleigh sat in the row behind me on the plane where, due to a misunderstanding amongst themselves while we waited for takeoff, they could not contain their giggles. I had no idea what was going on, so I did like the locals do and pulled out my phone to capture them in the background of a selfie. The resulting photo was fantastic.

Silliness on the plane.

Our hotel here in Bangalore, The Oberoi, is amazing, as Tia said it would be. They've thought of everything in the rooms, including a button to push for butler service, and there is always a staff member in the hall to make sure everything is ok. (This is similar to the hotel next door, where I've stayed before.) Yesterday morning, said staff member asked me about the room, and I mentioned off-hand that it was a little humid at times, but it was quite nice. I headed to breakfast. About 10 minutes later, a man in a suit appeared over my shoulder to say "I understand there was a problem with the humidity in your room? We will send someone right away to fix it." Who knows if there was a problem with the AC or what they might have done about it, but I do know they adjusted the thermostat during the day and the room felt better when I returned. Last night I couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights, so I told the man in the hall and he came to show me how to turn on the master switch. I said "Oh; I didn't realize that's a master switch, because the writing is worn off." He immediately told me he would send someone to fix that in the morning, so I'm curious to see what it will look like when I get back this afternoon.

We had a great morning yesterday, when we visited the Jude Felix Hockey Academy, which is an NGO located at a local orphanage where children from the orphanage and the community learn to play and develop hockey skills, ultimately helping them to improve confidence, academic performance, life skills, and opportunities. This was Kelley's fifth visit to the Academy, but I had never been there before. It was founded by Jude Felix, a former national star in the sport. Mr. Felix arrived while we were there learning about the NGO from the director, and I spent a nice amount of time sitting and talking with him one-on-one about hockey, sports, and his experiences playing test and World Cup matches in Pakistan, It was super interesting, and really cool. NBD, just a leisurely chat with Jude Felix. Meanwhile, our students were playing hockey with the Academy students and having the time of their lives. When our students were finished and sat to rest, the boys of the Academy started a scrimmage. One of our students, Madison, play club field hockey at IU, and Mr. Felix had commented to me that she was good. (I later told her, and she seemed thrilled.) She was invited to join the boys in the scrimmage, and we had a great time cheering her on while she got a pretty good workout. At the end of the match, they presented her with a JFSA t-shirt. Madison later told me that it was a surreal experience and that the game went much faster than what she was used to. Needless to say, she felt honored and will never forget the experience. After the Academy girls scrimmaged, we toured the Academy facilities and orphanage before returning to the hotel for lunch.

Learning about the Jude Felix Hockey Academy.

The afternoon was less awesome. We had scheduled a three hour city tour, and after years of experience we pretty much knew what to expect. There are a few key sites in Bangalore, and we requested to see those. The guy from our tour company had other plans, ensuring us he had something "very special" arranged. Indeed! They had arranged for a young woman to be our tour guide, and it started off well. She was hip and friendly, spoke great English, and was very knowledgeable. We started by going to Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, just around the corner from the hotel. I had been to this Sikh temple once before, but this visit was even better than the first time. Being a Sunday, the temple was very crowded and busy with activity. In the temple itself people were worshiping while two guys performed sacred music - one guy playing drums while another chanted and accompanied himself with an accordion of some sort. Downstairs in the kitchen, people were busy preparing food for the 5000 people they serve there daily (or, at least, that many on Sundays). We were able to see the assembly line of people preparing Roti, and actually allowed to join in the process. I spent a little time tossing the uncooked flat bread onto the scorching hot stove. (There's a technique to it...) Meanwhile, a number of the volunteers enjoyed talking to us about where we are from, their experiences in America, and what was going on, in general. I had a great time, and the students did, too.

Women preparing Roti at the Gurdwala.

When we left the Gurdwara, things started to go downhill. We went to a Catholic Church which was important in the Colonial history of Bangalore. I hadn't been there before, so it was nice to see something new, and it was a pretty structure on the outside, but it was a fairly simple building dating only to the late 1800s and I was over it fairly quickly.

Our tour - near the beginning when we were still excited about it.

From there we went to another place we hadn't asked to see, the large Cubbon Park, where we walked down a sketchy street to the area of the Bandstand, pausing to learn too much about the Queen Victoria Statue. We reached the steps leading to the High Court of Karnataka and posed for a group photo, before sitting on the steps for a brief talk about the park and the Court. This is where the tour turned into a nightmare. We were held captive there for God only knows how long, while she went on and on in great detail about the park, the colonial history of the city, the court, (which we couldn't even see as it was to our backs), and the Vidhana Soudha. We kept thinking the lecture would end in 5 more minutes, but she had a script and she was sticking too it - all the while preventing others from taking photos in front of the Court, but providing them ample opportunities to stand around staring our students and slyly taking selfies with us in the background. I felt trapped, anxious, and uncomfortable, while Tia thinking we had been kidnapped  by the tour guide. Finally I turned to the VP of the tour company, who was sitting next to me, and told him bluntly that we had to leave. So they walked us around to the other side of the court where we could see the impressive Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the Karnataka state legislature. I was mildly annoyed that in two previous visits the tour guides had never taken me to this front-side street view of the building, always before having walked on empty streets to a fence on the back side where it was impossible to get a good picture or a sense of what the building was really like. There, the guide droned on about the building - even after the bus pulled up on the street and stopped in traffic to wait for us. Finally we were allowed to board, and as we drove away the woman pointed out the "life size" statue of Gandhi - a sculpture of him seated, standing probably 20 feet high.

Finally we were on our way to the Bull Temple, a site which we had requested to see and which our students had studied. All day long, they had been asking "Are we going to the Bull Temple? Are we going to the Bull Temple? Are we going to the Bull Temple?" Now it was late in the afternoon and we had the unfortunate surprise of snarled traffic, making the trip across town to the temple almost unbearable. We finally arrived to find some sort of festive procession on the street infront of the temple, with guys on a float of some sort, which had stopped the traffic. That was an unexpected and fun thing to see, even though I didn't appreciate the delay. The Temple, otherwise known as Dodda Ganeshana Gudi or Nandhi Temple, was about as I remembered it, but more crowded. It's not "all that," but I think our students were happy to finally see it and it was interesting watching the faithful pay homage to the god.

Festive street scene stopping traffic in front of the Bull Temple.

It only took us 22 minutes to get back to the hotel, but by the time we arrived it was 7:00 pm - our three hour tour had turned into 5. My plan for a relaxed evening with some solitude was shot, and I joined the other facilitators for drinks and dinner at an al fresco venue in the hotel. We laughed a lot as we filled in Nandini about the excruciating tour which she had thankfully skipped. (No way she could have handled it.) I finally got back to my room at 9:30, then, even though I was exhausted, ducked out again briefly to discover the location of the spa and fitness center, since I hadn't yet had any time to explore the hotel property. Before bed I took a hot bath in an effort to relax and unwind.

Now it's time to get ready for a day with two business visits and a debrief dinner. It's been nice sitting here, but even in the garden setting on the back side of the hotel I can hear street noise from MG Road, mixed in with the sound of dogs barking, birds, and the hotel staffers sweeping the pool deck. I hear faint but persistent tuk-tuk horns tooting, along with the occasional siren and car horn. Suddenly, there is a strong fragrance of men's cologne.

Agra, etc.

We're back on the bus, returning from Agra to the Delhi airport, which means two things: I have time to blog and the students are playing silly games - this one involving animal noises. The battery in my noise-cancelling earbuds died, but I can still use them to listen to I Am Harvey Milk at full volume.

Agra was a pretty good time; the Doubletree hotel was really nice and the three meals we had there were great. Last night they let us use the bar area for our debrief meeting during which our students shared a number of good insights, except for the three students who fell asleep.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Agra Fort and all was well until the deluge. I was prepared with an umbrella and we were able to shelter in a portico facing Shah Jahan's palace so it was ok - we just had to wait for a break to continue the tour. While we waited, our students started posing for photos in the rain, under umbrellas and in cute poses with friends at first. Things gradually devolved... first the umbrellas were cast aside. Then people began walking around further out on the patio, then there were groups of students, then there was dancing - all the while with dozens of other, mostly-Indian tourists (and a few loiterers) looking on. Finally someone crossed the line, much to our shock and Nandini's horror, and we had to put an immediate stop to the shenanigans. This whole episode led, later in the evening, to lengthy processing amongst the facilitators (sans-alcohol). We're hoping we can be more educational from this point forward about appropriate behavior amongst other cultures, especially considering we're moving from the mostly-sightseeing portion of the trip to the more academic/business-focused portion.

Taj Mahal and Yamuna River as viewed from the Agra Fort just prior to the downpour.

Fortunately the rain let up and we finished the tour without further incident. The guide Aditya took us beyond where my two previous tours had stopped, so I enjoyed that, and we enjoyed watching the monkeys climbing on the fort walls. Unfortunately, the rain did nothing to lower the temperature, and with 100% humidity we returned to the hotel sticky and miserable.

This morning started early, although not early enough for me. I wanted to get up at 4:15 and indeed my alarm went off then. I hit "snooze," but what I didn't know is that apparently my phone didn't charge overnight. Rather than sounding the alarm again, the phone chose to die completely. At 4:56 I happened to open my eyes and see that I had 4 minutes until the bus was leaving. I threw on clothes and made it in time, but I wasn't organized or properly prepared for the morning's outing. I remembered to wipe on some bug spray before running out the door, but it proved ineffective against the flies as we stood in line to enter the Taj Mahal.

In spite of all this, our sunrise visit to the Taj was generally a success. We walked along the path to the site in the near-dark, dodging dogs, scooters, and resting cows. Only one student tripped on a hole in the path and fell over. It appeared as if the path was undergoing improvements, if not brand new construction, but like many things in India it was difficult to tell if the path was being put in or coming out, and whether construction was ongoing or stopped. Piles of bricks lined the route, with no barriers protecting materials or pedestrians, and there was a surprising number of bricks randomly missing from the center of the "finished" path.

Once the gates were open we made it through security (not nearly as "thorough" as the temple security the other day) and into the Taj grounds where the guide shared a familiar-sounding description of the mausoleum and its construction. Then we had time to view and enjoy the site. Good news: no rain; MUCH cooler than previous, mid-day visits; relatively small crowds; nice bird song; great group photo; some decent lighting for photos; visit not particularly rushed; we survived the tonga rides to the bus without incident. Not so great news: it was overcast, so no brilliant sunrise; I gave up my booties for a student and went barefoot through the Taj; the front minarets were covered by scaffolding for cleaning (of course they were); the guards blew their annoying whistles a few times; the light bulb inside wasn't even working(!); people were late at the meeting place so I spent 10 minutes anxiously wandering around wondering whether I was confused about the plan or simply lost; I spent too much time unnecessarily fretting over the tip money for the tonga drivers.

I had to marvel over the upkeep of the site. As beautiful as it is, it is still India... walking back from the Taj to the gate, amidst discarded booties and various small wrappers and trash bits, I noticed at least six discarded water bottles in the edges of the lawn. I encountered a man vigorously sweeping leaves (and booties) off of the path. I thought the leaves seemed perfectly natural and wondered if his time might have been better spent picking up bottles. Tia suggested maybe that was someone else's job. We will never know.

After breakfast at the hotel and an hour and a half to get ready and check out, I somehow ended up being the last person to exit the hotel and board the bus. At least I made it out before all the bags were loaded. Our journey through the city and out of Agra was a reverse of the trip in, and equally as fascinating. The busy, colorful street scenes delighted me, but we're also, in a way, devastating. And yet, everything about it is perfectly normal for those people living here.

Spotted:

•  Tiny children playing and running, shoeless, immediately next to the road (largely because at that point there was little distinction between "road" and "not road.")
•  Adorable school children neatly dressed in western-style uniforms - some of whom were being led hand-in-hand by an older woman in colorful, beautiful, traditional dress.
•  Brightly colored, highly-decorated trucks and tuk-tuks, and many colorful, often hand-painted signs. Nandini pointed out some Hindi script on a dilapidated brick building: "Built with German engineering."
•  Multi-layered, multi-storied buildings in every imaginable state of repair, disrepair, or completion, many with bricks or garbage (or both) littering the space leading to the entry, or even bricks piled inside the walls.
•  Amongst these crumbling facades, countless tiny storefronts, and modest homes are the occasional tiny temple.
•  People everywhere... sitting, waiting, socializing atop their scooters, wading barefoot through flooded streets, sleeping in front of their store, resting under trees, walking with purpose, loitering in shops, riding in truck beds with cows or co-workers, pedaling rickshaws, walking with baskets of grass on their heads, urinating.
•  A filling station with two urinals mounted on the exterior wall around back.
•  Water buffalo wading in the wide river and lining the river bank, as well as cows, monkeys, goats, homely dogs and parrots along the streets.

Agra Street Scene.

Decorated trucks in Agra.

I've been taking note of a number of other sightings, observations, and aspects of India which don't necessarily surprise me, but which (on my third visit) I should better remember. It makes for a long post, but hey - it's a six-hour bus ride...

•  I enjoy seeing platonic boy friends holding hands or even walking arm-in-arm. It warms my heart.
•  Commerce is different, and happens on so many levels. There are so many tiny shops, some in small buildings and some simply set up in the street on a cart, in a tin shack, or under a canopy. All are mixed in with the trash, rubble, and commotion on the street. All are staffed by a single shop owner or the family members, who sit there all day until someone comes along and happens to pick them for a sale. Some shops  appear to sell all the same stuff as the shop next door; others are very specialized, selling only one or two items that people invariably need. There are even barbershops set up outside on the street.
•  Hundreds of men are making a pilgrimage to the Ganges in honor of Shiva, carrying elaborately decorated yokes for transporting water home. There are rest stops set up align the way - large tents (or sometimes smaller ones) with benches and chairs, sleeping platforms, fans, faucets for bathing, portable squatty-potties, and racks on which the yokes can be placed while the pilgrims rest. It's colorful and fascinating to see.
•  All of the buses and auto-rickshaws in Delhi (and some cars) run on compressed natural gas to help control emissions. CNG is sold at stations alongside petrol and diesel. We were told there are 18 million registered vehicles in Delhi, which does not include the millions of scooters, which are not licensed.
•  Large groups of men on scooters gather under overpasses in an effort to seek shelter from the pouring rain. Not on the "shoulder" - right out into several lanes of the roadway.
•  Street and highway lanes are optional.
•  Drivers honk when they are about to overtake someone.
•  Animal-drawn vehicles can be found on the roads, along with everything else.
•  Delhi streets are distinctive for black- and white-striped curbs. In New Delhi and the government and diplomatic zones, streets are characterized by the stripes; boulevards and rotaries; tree-lined streets (it is incredibly green here); walled homes, businesses, and government and military buildings; armed guards; yellow barricades; street signs in four languages; people and dogs; and traffic and tuk-tuks.
•  Yesterday we saw a  peacock in the middle of the toll road and as we approached it took flight - beautiful.

We're back in Delhi now, in the midst of a pouring rain. This could slow us down, but we've been making good time so far. Our flight leaves at 7:30 pm. DAMN these students are loud. Now they are super-loudly playing that Password-like game with their iPhones. Do these people ever sleep?

Typical Delhi street scene.

Leaving Delhi

We have checked out of le Meridien hotel in New Delhi and are now on the bus traveling on the nice, wide fairly new toll road to Agra. There has been a lot of development along the road in the past few years, including a lot of high-rise buildings currently under construction. It reminds me of China (similar to Suzhou) except the developments are more spread out, and the countryside and infrastructure still looks like Inda with the occasional cow or herd of water buffalo roaming about. We just passed a huge and very nice looking raceway.

The bus is pretty noisy, as at least half of the students are loudly engaged in playing some word games in which people have to figure out the rules to participate. Obviously they got too much sleep last night. I might nap in a while, but I've decided to use the time for blogging, while charging my phone in the bus's only electrical plug. I look up occasionally to see the rice fields, farmers, grass huts, and odd chimney-like structured dotting the flat green landscape.

I didn't get enough sleep last night. Once we finally got back to the hotel around 10 pm, feeling sweaty and miserable, I planned to work on a task that was due yesterday. But I got a GroupMe message from Nandini inviting the other facilitators to decompress over a drink. Realizing it was needed, I joined her and Karleigh in the upstairs hotel bar for a Tom Collins. We re-hashed the evenings adventure and what we might have done differently before I went back to my room right around Midnight. I got up at 5 am to complete my task - taking advantage of the fact it was still yesterday in the U.S. I finished in time to shower and pack, and was disappointed that I had to leave the room for breakfast and check-out just as Hillary Clinton arrived on stage for her acceptance speech. I'll have to find that online later.

Arriving in Gurgaon. Typical traffic scene.

So... yesterday was quite an adventure. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get to our visit at the IU Gateway, as noted in yesterday's post. Traffic was bad, of course, but I felt like we drove around New Delhi unnecessarily before ever making it to the highway (as if I know Delhi that well). Anyway, that threw us behind. Then, for some reason (probably because our Parliament visit fell through and we thought we ought to add something), we headed to a temple for an unplanned cultural stop. The woman at the Gateway recommended it, assured us it was only 15 minutes from our hotel, and that all of the visitors from Bloomington love it.

As it turns out, it was through Delhi, past our hotel, across the river in a different state. Close to the hotel on a map, kind of, but not close in reality. Considering the Gateway is in Gurgoan, we ended up in three states in one day. The temple was Akshar Dham, and we facilitators regretted our decision even before we got there. It was a bizarre place! It was a huge cultural complex, complete with dancing fountains (not while we were there), a theater, gift shops, and a food court. The temple itself was beautiful, if a bit gaudy, kind of museum-like, and crazy hot. The grounds were pretty, but it all seemed a bit commercial. Nandini later dubbed it a peasant's amusement park or something along those lines. Not far off. The students seemed to enjoy it, though.

It was an interesting, very Indian experience. There was a huge parking lot and the infrastructure to accommodate huge crowds, much like the lines for a roller coaster. The restrooms were large but not well maintained, and some locals were using the sinks to wash up quite thoroughly. Absolutely nothing was allowed inside - no cameras, phones, umbrellas, swords, bags, guns, etc. We sent everything we had back to the bus and headed to the security checkpoint, but right when I got there I realized the tiny cell phone I had been given by the travel agent was still in my pocket. I knew I couldn't take it in, so in an effort to ask what I should do I showed it to the guard who immediately shouted "NO!" and pointed to the bag check - even though there was no direct path to get there. I finally figured out how to get there, and I began the odd process to check the phone. I got in a short line to get past the guy letting people into the bag check area. He gave me a form to fill out. Then I took it to a table where a man was handing out small bins and stamping the forms, but he waived me off and sent me to the window where I exchanged the phone for a numbered token. Then I got back in the security line where I finally went through the metal detector and enjoyed a VERY thorough pat-down from the nice guard. Once in, an employee flagged me down to let me know where I could find my group, and I found them just in time to join them for the walk through the stifling, ornate, bejeweled, and likely not even very old temple. (Confirmed: Opened in 2005.)

Akshar Dham as seen from the highway... considering cameras are not allowed inside.

Needless to say, after all of that we were very far behind schedule, and we should have changed our plans to fit just one more thing in for the day. Unfortunately, we didn't. (On our way back to New Delhi, we crossed the river again and everyone was thrilled to see four elephants and three camels by a little settlement next to the river. One of the elephants was in the river with a boy on its back.) Our next stop was some type of government-supported craft emporium. We shopped happily for about an hour (the guys got Kurtas, of course) and then walked (through the rain, unfortunately) to Cannaught Place for dinner. It was crowded, and by this point dark, and as planned we split into three groups for dinner. I ate at Johnny Rockets, which was fine. By the end of dinner, Nandini was understandably anxious to leave. We walked quickly to the Metro and went through the uniquely Indian security process to get in. The Metro itself was easy and nice, and we took it two stops to Central Secretariat near Parliament. That's when things got really interesting.

The students led us out the wrong exit onto the street. We soon found the street we needed and took off walking for the hotel - in the wrong direction. After a block or so, we reversed course and headed toward the hotel around the rotary. Unfortunately, we didn't go 180 degrees around the rotary and headed about a block and a half in the wrong direction again - through puddles, past sleeping homeless people, dodging traffic, in the dark. After considerable discussion, we reversed course again, going back past the sleepers and crossing at the rotary to get to the correct street. We rounded the corner and we're confronted with an odd parking lot where people were hanging out. We forged through, and in the next block met a group of stray dogs which, unlike all the others in Delhi, decided to bark excitedly at the group of foreign tourists walking by in the dark. Fortunately a local helped scare them off and we made in the final block or so back to the hotel.

Pilgrims walking to collect water from the Ganges to take back home to their local temples. These guys lined the highway.

OH MY GOD THESE STUDENTS ARE SO LOUD! Now they are playing some story-telling game involving mafia, cops, IU students and a murder. Everyone gets a chance to loudly tell a story, and I guess the rules dictate who was killed or who did it. All I know is that it's super exciting and very loud. A bus nap might not be possible.

New Delhi Update

It's mid-day on our second day in the Delhi area. I'm on the bus traveling from Gurgaon back to New Delhi so I thought I would make use of the time. Of course, one can always be entertained by looking out the window.

Today is warm (although Weather Bug wouldn't load so I don't know the temperature) and hazy, but not raining. It's been raining a lot here. Yesterday was really got and humid and we did have rain during our city tour. We got rained on at Qutab Minar, where many of us - myself included - had gotten off the bus without our umbrellas. The rain stopped and mostly held off for our stop at Hunmayan's Tomb, but when we got to Ghandi Smriti it poured. There was even lightning at one point. We were under the covered walkway so mostly stayed dry, but the site lacked the serenity I felt on previous visits even with the added solemnity of the rain. Some student walked out into to the garden to view the spot where Gandhi was killed, but I skipped it in favor of dryness. Whether from the earlier rain or simply from sweating, everything still felt damp long after I got back to the hotel.

Early morning arrival in Delhi.

Our trip here was mostly uneventful. The bus ride was quiet at first, since only my two colleagues and I left Bloomington together. In Zionsville we picked up 10 students and the bus became much livlier, particularly with the addition of Steven who is quite outgoing and has an infectious laugh. We had some group presentations and a pre-departure meeting at the Radisson, where we also got to learn everyone's name and eat our fill of fresh-cut vegetables - our last for the next 10 days.

Security at O'Hare was slow but manageable. We passed the K-9 smell test, so we were allowed to "drop and go" at the metal dector. Didn't even have to take off our shoes! The Emirates Airline plane was nice, with a robust entertainment system, charging outlets, and a fancy starlight-like ceiling. I was annoyed by the meal service, though. They run out of meals with meat by the time they get to row 41 (both flights!) And for some reason they serve dinner after midnight  (both flights!). I wanted to go to bed right away after we took off at 9:28 CDT to help me adjust to the upcoming time change. Apparently the airline staff had other plans.

We arrived at our hotel around 5:30 am and got checked in. The idea of a nap was appealing, but instead I had just enough time to get comfortably settled, take a glorious hot shower, check 40-some email messages, and enjoy the generous breakfast before leaving at 9 am for the sightseeing tour. I've been everywhere we visited - Qutab Minar and Gandhi Smriti twice, and Humayan's Tomb once before. Fortunately, we had a decent guide who shared new things and took us to new places at the Minar and the Tomb - so I enjoyed it! (Well... other than the heat and rain.) I was surprised at Humayan's Tomb, as they have been doing a lot of restoration work on it and it's more impressive than it was in 2013. They are also building an major new visitors center, so there is quite an investment in making this World Heritage site a top-notch tourist destination.

Today we visited the IU Gateway, and the drive took longer than expected so we arrived late. We had two lectures by faculty from J Nehru University. The first woman talked about history, and she was quite good. She said she would get into drtail, but she actually got into a lot more detail than I expected - as much as she could really fit into a 45-minute overview of thousands of years of history. Several students asked qood quetions, and I learned a few things (as much about the field of history as about Indian history itself - pretty interesting).

The next guy was a sociologist and, to my surprise, his talk had a lot of overlap with the history lecture. Good reinforcement, I guess. Unfortunately he was a little harder to stick with... maybe because of the repeated content, maybe because his accent was more challenging, or maybe because by this point I was more tired. In the end, I also learned some new things from him, particularly more about the origins and structure of the caste system and some differences between traditional cultures and modern cultures. Interesting, some of what he told us reinforced what our tour guide said yesterday about the origins of the Sikh religion.

We had, as expected, a South Indian buffet lunch in a too-small room at the Gateway office. Tasty enough, but then we hung around way too long after we finished eating. We checked out the rooftop garden, which is nice, but then I got anxious and frustrated while trapped in the noisy lunch room while waiting for us to finally board the bus back to New Delhi. Our afternoon plan didn't come to fruition, so now we're improvising an itinerary for the rest of the day. We're back in New Delhi now, where we plan to visit some temple (something new for me) before going out for shopping and dinner tonight, possibly followed by a ride on the Metro and a walk around the area of the Parliament building, which I would love to do.

Oh, yeah - my 14th-floor hotel room has a great view of the Parliament building. (Doh - just drove past India Gate, which took me by surprise so I didn't get a picture.)

The students were surprised by their first glimpse of Humayan's Tomb. Much bigger than they expected.

At Humayan's Tomb.