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JoeLea’s Indian Adventure

December 2022 - January 2023
We’re celebrating Joe’s 60th birthday by driving an auto-rickshaw from Jaisalmer to Kerala, India. We’ve got 14 days to make it from start to finish, with every adventure imaginable en route. Read more
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  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure

    The Rickshaw Run - Some Background

    December 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    It was 2020. Some time in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic time where everything just seemed pretty dismal. We were on the back deck, sipping cocktails after a harrowing day of working at home. We had dressed up. He was wearing a tux and a top hat, and I was wearing a fabulously colorful sleeveless gown. I think it was a Wednesday.

    “Hey honey”, I asked. “You’ll be turning 60 in January of 2023. Assuming the entire world hasn’t disintegrated by then, how would you like to celebrate your 60th birthday?”

    He looked at me in his sly kind of way. I could tell he was ready to talk to me about something he had been thinking about for weeks or months, which happens often with Joe.

    “I’d like to drive an auto-rickshaw across India,” he said, with an amazingly straight face.

    I stared at him. We had been at home together for weeks in COVID quarantine so I assumed this was some kind of joke to enlighten the despair we had all been living with.

    “That’s pretty funny,” I replied.

    “No, I’m serious,” he responded, eyes twinkling.

    The thing about Joe is that he rarely says things he doesn’t mean. Well, he never says things he doesn’t mean.

    And so it began.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure

    What about toilet paper?

    December 13, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Our trip to India, organized by The Adventurists, is just over two weeks away. We’re mowing through our trip preparation checklist – Indian tourist visa (check), International Driver’s Permit (check – complete farse but that’s another blog post), travel insurance (check), waterproof luggage (arriving this week), minimal clothing that all dries quickly (still shopping). Shoes. Medications and ways to combat bug bites (in progress). A stick to poke at cows and buffalo that might be on the road (check – also another blog post).

    Here’s my question. What do we do about toilet paper? Or about going to the bathroom in general? I still have post-COVID stress disorder from the fact that there was a world-wide run on toilet paper for the first six months of 2020. So generally have a phobia about even thinking about toilet paper. Do we pack rolls and rolls of it in plastic zip lock bags to make sure it doesn’t get wet? Do we get stacks of packages of tissues? Something reusable (yuck)?

    What do people in India do when they are driving cross country? Are there gas stations and places to stop for a bio break? What if there aren’t? What do you do? What if we get Delhi belly and need to make frequent stops? So many questions. No answers quite yet.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure

    All I want for Christmas…

    December 25, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 0 °C

    …is waterproof luggage.

    Ho Ho Ho! It’s Christmas Day, the happiest day of the year. The presents are all wrapped and under the tree, and we’re getting ready for the annual Feast of the Seven Fishes (an Italian American tradition apparently, but that’s a different blog post).

    Shopping for Christmas gifts was a bit strange this year because of all the planning and purchasing we’ve been doing for the Rickshaw Run. There was “not India gifts” and “India gifts”. And some of the stuff had to be purchased well in advance to ensure it was all ready for our post-Christmas week departure time.

    Especially the luggage, which we put a great deal of thought into. Essentially, what is needed is something waterproof, dust proof, thief proof, and small enough to strap onto the top of the rickshaw. And it has to be able to be secured in case we tip over, cross through large bodies of water, collide with a buffalo, or need to leave the rickshaw alone while we are searching for food, water, accommodations, or a toilet.

    This is not a product endorsement for Outdoor Research products and I’m unfortunately not getting paid to praise their luggage, but the duffel bags that we did get are pretty awesome. Waterproof, with cool separate compartments on the ends you can put your stinky shoes, grimy undergarments, curry stained shirts and smelly socks in them until you can wash it all somewhere on the way.

    So, we haven’t unwrapped any “non India” presents quite yet, but the duffel bags are a thumbs up.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure

    Turning left…

    December 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    Last night Joe and I decided to watch one of our favorite movies - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It’s a lovely film about a bunch of elderly British people in various circumstances who decide to relocate to a hotel for those in their golden years in India (Jaipur). The hotel, marketed as a high end sort of retirement destination, is actually in a “state of development” that doesn’t meet their expectations.

    The characters, including the hotel’s young proprietor, develop through the story as they adjust to the change in their circumstances and other challenges. One of the most miserable of the lot, who in the end leaves her husband and heads back to the UK, at one point en route exclaims how grateful she is that she and her husband “turned left” when they boarded their flight from London. Meaning how happy she was that they were sitting in first class. When she suddenly decides to leave her marriage and go home, she exclaims again that she is “turning left” again. This time it has a very different meaning.

    We all “turn left” sometimes in life. And these are the times of our greatest growth. Whether it is leaving a relationship, changing a job or career, or boarding a plane for a great adventure into the unknown, these are the times where fear and excitement seem almost like the same thing.

    That’s what we’re doing today. Turning left…    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 1

    Last glass of ice…maybe…

    December 27, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    So here we are at John F. Kennedy airport getting ready to board our flight to Paris. Thankfully we are “turning left” when we get on the plane.

    I am enjoying a glass of ice. All of the travel guides say that you shouldn’t put ice in your drinks when you are in India. Joe says that as well. Botulism or something.

    Okay. Albeit we will have a few hours in Paris tomorrow prior to the flight to Delhi so I may eat some ice there as well but regardless I am eating and sipping ice water. I am not sure why. That all seems very fatalistic somehow. So I am weirdly eating ice which I never do. I mean, it has no taste. And I have sensitive teeth, which makes it all more unpleasant.

    We’ll connect again from Paris. Have some ice tonight in our honor. :)    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 2

    Foie gras

    December 28, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    We flew in business class (Delta points cashed in wooo) on Air France from New York to Paris overnight. I love business class. You can lie down. There are frequent glasses of decent French wines handed to you. And the entree includes foie gras.

    I don’t want to get into how foie gras is made. That’s extremely cruel and you can read about how terrible it is on PETA’s website. But the culinary art of stuffing ducks and geese with food to enlarge their liver and eat that as a delicacy is actually thousands of years old. As early as 2500 BC, the ancient Egyptians learned that many birds could be fattened through forced overfeeding and began this practice.

    Anyways I digress. I happily ate the foie gras and sipped my Champagne and managed to get an hour of real sleep.

    That flight ended many hours ago but I am still experiencing the foie gras. It is sitting in my stomach like a rock. Like a little passenger who is there reminding me of how stupid I was to eat it.

    Now we are preparing to take off to Delhi, and I am worried about what curry and foie gras might be like together in my stomach and how that is going to feel in 12 hours.

    They have it on the menu on this flight but I am going to pass this time. Lesson learned.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 3

    Blue cows and gingerbread

    December 29, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    I don’t know how to say hallelujah in Hindi but if I did I would say that right now. We made it and most importantly so did our luggage! Delhi airport was very efficient and everybody was very polite.

    Thanks to some local friends we had arranged for an airport pickup through our hotel, where we are going to be for the next 36 hours. On the way out of the airport area we saw a nilgai on the side of the road. Our driver Ajay, who is very knowledgeable about auto rickshaws as it turns out, said we were very lucky to see the nilgai as they aren’t commonly seen in Delhi.

    What’s a nilgai you say? Well, it’s a sturdy thin-legged antelope common across the Indian sub-continent that has a sloping back, a deep neck with a white patch on the throat, a short crest of hair along the neck terminating in a tuft, and white facial spots. Think of it as an Indian deer, I guess. In Hindi it translates as Blue Cow. It was a treat to see that. I unfortunately didn’t get a photo since it was pretty dark.

    This part of Delhi still has a lot of Christmas decorations and lights all over the place. Our hotel is no exception. There is a massive gingerbread structure in the lobby which was pretty much the last thing I expected to see here.

    So, a blue cow and gingerbread house in our first five hours in the country. That’s good juju.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 3

    The Art Market scheme

    December 29, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We had some time this morning to explore the area around our hotel, and the India Gate was only a 10 minute walk away.

    The India Gate stands as a memorial to 84,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921 in the First World War, in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and elsewhere in the Near and the Far East, and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. 13,300 servicemen's names, including some soldiers and officers from the United Kingdom, are inscribed on the gate. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the gate is often compared to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It is pretty spectacular.

    A few interesting things happened when we were there.

    There were throngs of school kids on organized tours there. That in itself wasn’t notable. What was fascinating to me is the fact that I must have been asked to pose for a selfie with middle school boys about 10 times. Must be the blond hair. This place will be great for my ego.

    We also met one of the workers at our hotel who had served us breakfast earlier that morning. He was on his break and was also walking around the neighborhood. He noticed us and was very friendly and talked about his sister who lives in Buffalo and how cold it was there last week. He kept telling us he didn’t want anything from us, which was nice. And he kept suggesting we should go and visit the Art Market, which he said had nice handicrafts from all across India. No need to buy anything, he said. Just nice to look.

    Joe was skeptical. But Miss Friendly Pants (me) said yes, yes, let’s go because I didn’t want to refuse his hospitality and it sounded interesting and we had some time on our hands. So off we went. We started walking and then climbed into a nice auto rickshaw that he offered to pay for and headed to the famous Art Market.

    Which turned out to be a highly organized scheme where local guys con foreigners to come into a shop and buy stuff. I had noticed that on the way there he was on his phone a few times. I thought maybe he was telling his wife how he met people who knew where Buffalo was.

    Turns out he must have been prepping the horde of salespeople at the shop who were waiting like hyenas to sell us everything from tailored suits to pashminas to jewelry to tea and spices to carved elephants.

    Joe says now he could see it all unfolding and knew we were going to get fleeced. I now have a very nice set of pearl earrings and matching necklace that I really hope were truly made in Rajasthan. For not so bad a price, a portion of which likely went into our friend’s pocket.

    And we got a free auto rickshaw ride out of it. So there’s that.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 4

    The Festivity Desk

    December 30, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Every hotel should have a Festivity Desk.

    There is one in our hotel. We aren’t quite sure what the lovely young man sitting there actually does, because nobody talks to him. There is already a Concierge desk in the lobby and they are extremely helpful with restaurant reservations, car pickups, airline related stuff, touristy recommendation stuff, etc.

    There is also another set of desks where you can sit and talk to other people about stuff you need help with and to pay for your room.

    So we just aren’t sure what the purpose of the Festivity Desk is, but the guy there sure looks happy. Maybe it’s because he gets paid to smile at people and nobody asks him questions. And his desk has a sign on it.

    He was really pleased that I talked to him and asked to take his picture. That in itself was a very festive experience.

    Off to the airport to head to Jaisalmer. This is getting real now.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 4

    Sun Salutations and an Old Plane

    December 30, 2022 in India ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    It didn’t hit me, a yoga lover and practitioner for many years, that I am in the country that invented yoga, until I saw a huge statue in the Delhi domestic flight terminal this morning of a child doing the 12 poses of the Sun salutation. It’s the bodily prayer one can make every morning to thank the God of the Sun, and is core to any yoga practice.

    What a lovely statue to have in an airport. There was a little description on the bottom of it encouraging people to do yoga. Love it.

    We are on a very old airplane now, sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off to Jaisalmer. It is pretty foggy today but we’re hopeful the pilot has some sort of navigation system up front. We met two Aussies and six Americans ( all guys) who are also doing the Rickshaw Run who are on the same flight. One of the American kids is from Woodcrest, New Jersey, which is a development really close to where Joe grew up. The kid couldn’t believe that Joe was from Cherry Hill. He kept saying that and throwing out names to see if Joe knew them.

    What we’ve realized is that we are so far the oldest people here. Like a mother and father figure, maybe? No, maybe a crazy uncle and aunt, is more like it.    Read more

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