Gone skiing

While in Agra we stayed at the Taj View Hotel--well there was a little view if you could make the Taz out of the haze--and headed off for what turned out to be a very long drive to Jaipur. The highway between Agra and Jaipur is under construction apparently. We could see very little evidence of actual work and quite a bit of evidence of cut up bits of road and diversions., The trip took , not the four to five hours as advertised, but rather 8 and a half. We actually thought the traffic in Dehli was chaotic.. boy were babes in the woods. Everything and everyone uses the highway and there are hundreds of little villages on both sides of the road. We saw every kind of bus, vehicle, and animal you could imagine Plus the driver always has to be on the look out for little children who merrily run from one side to the other. And camels are still used to transport goods along the same road. In fact in order of degrees of near misses it was the one with the camel that stands out.
And we saw all the variety of poverty that one associates with India.. eeeking out a living from the dumps of little plots of land.
I was struck however, about how there seemed to be some sort of order to it all. People were going about their business, dragging longs sticks to build their litte teepee like structure, lighting their fires to cook their meal, in the dust beside the road, going to the little stores and the barber shops, moving the cows, donkeys, camels whatever, little groups talking, and the women most colourfully dressed, in sarees and longs pants and blouses all through together with great elan.
The drive was indeed a scary one. It did not seem possible to squeeze our van into the space given somehow, but we will never forget it. None of us would haver missed one minute.

Just to let you all know, as I write this it is Tuesday am on Jzan 8th, and Norm and Karen arrived safely Monday night from Goa.