Leaving India

(Lesley) Our last train journey was a great last example of train journeys in India. We experienced everything during that ride: dirtiest berth, most bizarre traveler (who spoke to his dog on his cell phone), we were offered every food snack assortment ever seen on a train, saw eunuchs collecting money or cursing stingy passengers, had a smelly homeless man trying to ride in sleeper class -in our seats. Well, I could go on. We'd seen it all before (except the dog conversation on the cellphone) But it was a nice culmination of Indian train experiences. I can truly say that after our last two weeks, we were ready to leave India now. We were eager to get out, in fact. There is a lot we will miss and a lot we still want to see or experience again, but it was time to go and we were OK with that. I suppose it speaks to our mental sanity that we all felt this way. Leaving but wanting to stay would have hurt. So we pushed lots into our last weeks and we felt done, and happy to go.

But before flying out we managed a last stop in Delhi with Kristen and Jeff, Kate and Robin. It was lovely to see them again. We saw some photos from their recent trip and showed them some of ours. We played, relaxed and chatted again. We got cleaned up, had a swim in the Canadian pool and got to go to CANZA, the shop for the employees of the Canadian, New Zealand and Australian Consulates. We bought Tang crystals and other silly things. Then, early morning, Tuesday we crept out to a cab and began the journey to Jordan via Kuwait. Our flights were good. We arrived in Jordan with very little sleep but we managed to stay awake all day and retire early. Our body clocks have more or less adjusted and we are learning about life in the Middle East.

Going for swim in the Club Canada pool.

Sam looking refreshed.

Back to the train station for one last picture...

Just a typical Indian train station shot late in the evening or early in the morning.  We saw a lot of people bedded down on the station floors and platforms to sleep the night.  I thought it might be interesting in a photo.  Actually, I would have loved to shot off hundreds of photos of all the family groups and the shared meals and how they look after each other and their belongings, but I didn't want to be obtrusive, so a quick snap is all there is.  A real photographer could do a nice exposee on train station life in India.  I would buy a coffee table book on that subject for sure.