February 18, 2015
I signed up for this tour because it involved a significant amount of train travel, including three overnight trips in sleeper carriages. After my Japan trip last year, I wanted to do more travel by rail. And what better way to see the vastness of India than by train? We boarded our train for Delhi early in the evening, traversing…
February 17, 2015
Incongruence was a word that came up time and again while we were in Amritsar. The juxtaposition of chaos with calm, serenity with edginess was has left me with mixed feelings about this city. On the one hand it was dirty and congested and unsettling, and on the other there were oases of peace and tranquility. The approach to the…
February 14, 2015
The chaos of the night is replicated in daytime Amritsar. The road is crowded with pedestrians and drivers in all kinds of vehicles, including horse and carts and tractors. The missing footpaths force pedestrians to take their chances walking along the sides of shoulderless roads. The air is clear and cool, but dusty. I’ve brought my running gear, thinking that…
I have to start by saying I have never been as happy to see anyone in my life as my driver who picked me up from Amritsar airport. Firstly, I assumed he wouldn’t be there because I was bumped from my original flight and had to take a later one. And second, I didn’t want the transfer I paid for…
By this time tomorrow, I would have checked into my hotel in Changi Airport, foraged for food, maybe caught a movie and prepped for a restful night’s sleep (hopefully!) before flying out to Delhi early on Thursday morning. By this time Thursday afternoon, I would have checked into my hotel in Amritsar, Punjab, up near the Pakistani border. It will…