Six hours of sleep, five days, and four cities

It has been quite a trip lately. Seems like a month has passed since I left Pen and my internship but it has just barely been a week. On friday we left for Mumbai got there late. Aoi and I had to stay up even later figuring out our flight to Kathmandu. When all was said and done we got about two hours of sleep befor we had to go to the Mumbai airport for our flight to Delhi early Saturday morning. We headed straight for the bus station and then endured a five hour bus ride to Agra. Blistering hot. We checked into our hotel, called Shanti's Lodge which had a rooftop resturaunt with an amazing view of the Taj Mahal. Sitting on that rooftop was possibly the most sublime moment in India yet. After two days of travel and business it was the first time we had to relax. The sun was setting directly in front of me and the Taj was to the right. We sat and talked with the other travelers and listened to the evening prayer song drift up from the streets.

We went early the next morning to the Taj to aviod the rush and it was pretty epic watching the sun rise hit the palace. Later we spent the day relaxing, went to the movies and saw Rock On, a pretty decent Bollywood movie. Afterward we got word of the bombings that had happened in Delhi. Another traveler who had just come from there had been in the market place when it happened. Overall I think there were five different locations in the market place that were bombed and twenty people killed. Very scary because if our flight to Kathmandu had been as planned we would have spent that day in Delhi shopping. When I mention to Aoi that maybe it is a sign that we should not shop so much she says, "If I die, I die." which I take to mean, "I REALLY like shopping."

That same night we take an evening bus back to Delhi and go straight to the airport for our early flight to Kathmandu. All of this traveling, bus rides, plane rides and airports, takes place in a sleep deprived haze. I have not yet figured out the trick of falling asleep on suicidal bus rides and the airport is a most uncomfortable place so over this period of time the only real sleep that I get is at Shanti's lodge. We arrive in Kathmandu early in the morning and get pushed into a hotel by the tourist machine. After getting settled in the machine takes us to book tours for our stay here but on the way I run into two people that I went to college with which is the last straw for my sleep deprived mind. It was very strange and unexpected to see someone from home on the other side of the world. We talk for a bit and decide to meet up later. After the machine is done with us we are allowed to go to our rooms where I get to take a much needed nap.