Enter the Calvary

For months India had loomed on the horizon.  The prospect of traveling there both excited and terrified us. We had been warned, India is the Olympics of Travel, a very difficult place to navigate.

Months earlier, when we were visiting Machu Picchu, we met a traveler from New Zealand who told us, “Traveling in India is a moral test.  The poverty is so pervasive, so in-your-face.  You need to be prepared for it, and you need to decide how you are going to handle it.”

My Australian friend John, who had made several trips to India, offered this advice:  “Mate, the secret to traveling to India is to get yourself a really good hotel.  You’ll need a place where you can come back and just relax after a day of wandering round that country.”

With deep fatigue setting in, we weren’t sure if we could handle the aggressive touts, chaos and emotional demands of India.  But as is so often the case, providence provides.

Fortunately for us our friends the Callahans made plans to meet us in Delhi.  We were glad to see them, to get news (and a few comforts) from home – and relieved to not have to face India on our own.

Best of all, Brian Callahan took the lead on setting the itinerary and dealing with the tour guides, hotels and touts.  For the first time in a long time, we could relax and just be where we were.

Which is the perfect state of mind for India.

Brian arranged for a driver and planned a flexible itinerary for the Golden Triangle: Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra (with a stop at the Sariska Tiger Sanctuary thrown in).

On our first full day together we toured “Old” Delhi and immediately gained an appreciation for the utter chaos and sensory assault that is India. In nearly nine months of travel, we had seen nothing like it.

Game on.

More pictures from Delhi are posted here.