February 3 - Inconvenience Regretted

Our wake-up call is 4 A.M. and on the road at 5. Up you travelers, and away! There are significant numbers of trucks on this new road from Jaiphur to Delhi so our bus driver demonstrates his considerable skills, weaving and dodging in our big vehicle. There is endless road construction for which the government is apologetic but about which they remind you that it is for a better tomorrow. The signs say, "Inconvenience regretted." When the sun comes up, we stop for chai tea and a few last trinket purchases. We approach the Delhi suburbs just in time for the morning commute. There are 6 million motor vehicles registered in the city and we're seeing a goodly number of them this morning. Now at the airport, things start to go badly. I feel faint and break out in a cold sweat and, since I know what's coming, I wisely find a bench and lie down, grateful for the opportunity. A wheelchair is summoned and I am shuttled through the airport to the plane where the flight is blessedly brief. In Kathmandu, there is another wheelchair and I am hastily ferreted through all the lines. Ah - our bus has a bench seat in the back so I rest en route to the hotel, go straight to our room, and lie, most mercifully, down.