My hotel.
The new truck.
And the driver Euan.
The poverty on the streets is depressing to see. This little beggar woman and...
people living or sleeping on the sidewalks.
Thursday, March 29th.
Today was a catch up day. I was in Chennai
a few weeks ago with John and we learned that there was nothing very interesting
here to see. It is just a huge, congested, smelly, noisy city. So, I took advantage
of my own room and got some things sorted out. I got my laundry done, I sorted
and reorganized my bags and I typed and sorted on the computer.
When I went to the hotel restaurant for
breakfast I met my new group. I already knew it was small, because I had met a
woman in Delhi who had just left this truck and she had seen the passenger list
for the trip. This is a large overland truck, like the ones in Africa. It
started in Kathmandu, then to Mumbai, then Delhi, then Chennai and now to Kolkata.
There are only two passengers other than me. There is a young woman named Liz
from the UK, who has been on the trip since Kathmandu over 60 days ago and Nico,
my new roommate from Argentina who has done the last two legs. I also met the
guide, Rianne, who is from the Netherlands and the driver Euan from Scotland.
I am heading into the last few months of
this incredible journey and thanks to Denise, I have all the trips, transfers
and hotels booked. There are however, a couple of holes in the itinerary
between tours between 3 and 8 days, and I have decided where I want to go to
fill that time and had the flights booked. Today I used the time to find things
to do in those locations.
I have been traveling with either Intrepid
or GAdventures, but even though I booked the next two tours through Intrepid,
they are actually being run by Dragoman. They have a different way of doing things
and there are food kitties for both trips. So, today I went out to get money
from an ATM. I tried a couple but my card was declined. So, I went back to the
hotel and called the number on the back. I got a nice woman who explained that
they had put a hold on the card because they thought something suspicious was
going on with it in India. I explained that that was where I was. The ATM’s
here will only let you take out 10000 rupees at a time ($200), but you can do
that up to four times in a row. However, the bank back home charges $5 every
time you use the machine. Anyway, she cleared the card. Then I remembered that
Denise had tried to use my credit card and it was declined too… same problem,
so she cleared that too.
Back to the room to continue researching
and packing. At 7 the group met up for dinner. Rianne dropped a bombshell then,
as she told me that she is leaving the trip because her father is very ill with
OCPD back home. So now we are 4 on a truck that can carry 25. Should be
interesting.
After dinner, I put the finishing touches
to my stuff and finally finished the I Contain Multitudes book. I can’t
recommend it enough to anyone who is at all interested in science and what is
going on at the microbe level in or on their body. It will definitely make you
think differently about the world and how it and us works.
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