We get to sleep in a bit today before we hit the road for Delhi. Some of the tour members will by flying back home. Six of us will be staying the night in Delhi for our flight tomorrow to Nepal. One of the retired couples is being dropped off at another hotel as they have extended their stay for several weeks and will be travelling around on their own.
On the way to lunch we stop off at a rural village to see what small agricultural village life is like. Both Barbara and I had a kind of hard time with this. We don't really feel comfortable wandering into and out of peoples' homes taking pictures of stuff like they and their lifestyles are strange and on display. She spends about 10 minutes and heads back to the bus. I head off into the crop fields with some of the others. Random villagers begin asking for money. That's my cue to leave. I have been to a personal home in China and made to feel welcome. They cooked for us, told us about their lives and even celebrated the moon festival with us. Not once did I ever feel that they wanted anything but to share these things with us. Of course, the tour company has paid for us to be there. I never felt that. Here, however, I felt that they huddled around us waiting for the opportunity to hold out their hands for tips. I did not feel welcome here as anything except potential extra income. I walked back to the bus.
We drive on for what seems like days. Barbara and I are getting a bit sick of the bus. Seems most of the others feel the same way. The only good thing about the bus is that it has air conditioning and is home base. Like when you played tag as a kid, home base. Pinkhu, our assistant driver (yeah, the driver does need an assistant for a bus on these streets), does a superb job of keeping the hawkers and vendors away from the bus entrance. Depending upon the location, we could be swarmed by people trying to sell us stuff. Pinkhu, who is all of 5 foot 2 inches, has no problems physically pushing these pests away from us as we near the bus if it comes to that. I saw him do it once. Once you were in the bus, you were safe. The prices of all those goods were also cheaper. Shankar would take sample items from each vendor, show them to us and give us a price. That price was always a third cheaper that the price the guy tried to get us to pay on the street.
Eventually, we arrive at the location for our 'going away' dinner. We sit outdoors in the heat and the sticky and are served a mediocre meal. Thankfully, it comes to an end as the people departing for the US need to be dropped off at the airport. Quick goodbyes are said as people file off the bus. The rest of us return to the Shangri-La for a last night in India.
Tomorrow is Nepal!
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