January 25 The End of Our Alone Time

TCI, our Indian touring company, has taken such good care of us. Our dear Kishur Kumar picked us up in plenty of time to negotiate the crowded roads to the Kochi airport, picking up another guide along the way. We are spoiled but appreciative. We are presented with gifts of rather large - oh dear - commemorative wooden boats. These are eventually left for the delight of the hotel staff back in Delhi, I'm afraid. We fly from Kochi to Mumbai and Mumbai to Delhi, realizing that there will be no TCI at the other end to tend to us, but we head to the pre-paid taxi stand so no problem. It's good to contemplate 11 days with of ground travel. A semi-wild cab ride and not in the nice TCI vehicle, but we have a friendly driver which helps distract from his high speeds. At the hotel, we wash out a few clothes, wondering where we might place our clothesline. The plan fails to work out as envisioned and suddenly the lamp in the corner is felled and the glass shade scattered across the carpet. Oops. We make a contrite call and the hotel people whisk away the evidence within moments. We're off to a good start, we say. About 7:30 P.M. we're getting grumpy with no food to speak of since breakfast. We decide to eat, tour or no tour. As we finish dinner, we encounter our group dragging in after their 90 minute commute from the airport, jet lag and all. We muster up a polite greeting and off we go to bed.