LUCKNOW
We arrived in Lucknow around noon. La Place Inn is a very nice place to stay. The first thing I did when I got my room was to take a shower. Later in the evening I went to the zoo. When I got there I looked around for awhile and saw some of the animals. There were some exotic birds, a bear, an elephant and some monkeys. After walking around for awhile I went looking for Raja. I found him. He wasn't far away. I bought a couple coconuts from a vender. We went back to the hotel where I turned on the tv to watch the news and see what was going on in the world. Later I went down to the resturant off the lobby and had a dinner of Mediterrainian fish with vegatables and rice. I went to bed early so I could get up early for the tour the next morning.
Elephant The next morning I had a big breakfast of rice porridge, fruit, small donuts, stuffed tomatoes and potato balls etc: Then I met the guide in the lobby and went on an excursion of the city. We went to several mosques and other Muslim places, then a famous school for boys that was built by an Englishman. While there the guide told me the history of Lucknow. It is the capital of Uttar Pradesh. It's founders were called nawabs. They were Muslims. In their day the rulers lived a very luxurious life style but now the old buildings are starting to crumble and decay.

Bear The symbol of the city is a winged fish. The man who founded the city was in a boat one day and a fish flew into the boat. After that he felt that the fish gave him luck. After spending the whole day touring the tour was finally over. Towards the end of the afternoon the traffic became very heavy and while getting some bananas for the upcoming train ride back to New Dehli we got into some gridlock. I felt bad for Raja because he was doing everything to keep his cool. I could tell he was getting tired of all the traffic. It was just relentless. There was no let up. The traffic jams just kept on coming.

While we were at the boys school I was asking the guide about the nim tree. Every morning I would see people with a little stick in their mouth chewing on it and brushing their teeth with it. I was very curious about this. The guide asked one of the gardeners if he could get a little branch of the nim tree so I could look at it to see what it was. The gardener went into a small woods on the outside of the garden and broke off a small stick and brought it over. I guess this tree has medicinal properties to it and that is why people all over this country use it to brush their teeth with. Their is some kind of anti-bacterial agent in the tree.

Old mosque We made it to the train station. I paid Raja off. I knew he was glad that this trip was over for him.

The guide and I walked into the train station and found the train that would take me to Dehli. The doors to the train wouldn't open for an hour. There wasn't very many places to sit so I sat down in a place behind the benches. Come to find out I sat down in a place where people had been urinating. In fact people had probably been urinating there for hundreds of years. That's what it smelled like. I got up out of that and sat on a bench. Someone was selling popcycles so I bought one for me and the guide. I asked him if it was safe to eat. He said it was. He didn't seem concerned about it at all. I asked because of all the reports I had read about being careful about what you bought from street vendors.

THE SHATBADI EXPRESS

Finally the doors on the train opened and the guide helped me with my bags and then left. That popcycle was his payment because I had no more money at that point. It was 1530 and we were to arrive in New Dehli at 2200. It would be a six hour ride. For the most part I watched the landscape pass by until it was dark and they pulled down the shades. They kept everyone busy by serving food every couple of hours. Most of the people on the train were Indians. There was an English woman and I think I was the only American.

NEW DELHI

The train arrived in Delhi at a little after 10. I was met by some TCI agents who found me by holding a sign with my name on it up to the window. They took me to the Sunstar Grand Hotel, the same place I stayed at when I first got to India. I stayed there the night and got up the next morning and had a good breakfast of masala omlete, toast, mango juice and tea. Back in the room I watched a little news on the tv then I went down to the lobby and finished up on my blog on the internet then checked out. Come to find out the car that was supposed to pick me up wouldn't be there till 8 that eveining. So I waited about eight hours in the lobby for the car to come. I didn't feel like going out for a walk or even leaving the hotel, so I stayed in the lobby and caught up on my journal. As the hours drug on I finally left my place in the lobby and went out on the front porch and waited until my ride came. Finally they came and took me to the airport to begin the long trip home. First to Singapore, then Tokyo, Los Angelos and my home Seattle. It's now history. I was glad to be back. I love India and it's people and will never forget this adventure.

THE END