Met some folks in Varanasi who are also doing a blog and figured I’d give them a shout out, even though there appears to be something wrong with their site — it’s a bit difficult to read, like it’s all gibberish or something. Some good pix too.
One of the great things about traveling is not what you see, but whom you meet. It’s easy to read through here and, as some of you have indeed done, say, “Wow, what an adventure.” And that’s only the parts I’ve had time to record in this forum. Last week I saw a tiger in the wild. Well, two actually, but why gloat about it? We were in an open jeep and maybe less than 10 meters away. Damn they’re big.
But just when you start to feel like you’ve done a lot and seen a lot and had some amazing adventures, you meet someone over a hot chai (and, my god, do they serve tea steaming here!) who sort of blows your mind with what he or she is doing or has done.
I had dinner in Varanasi with four people who were on round-the-world trips that are taking the better part of a year. I’ve met people who have been driving their motorcycles across this corner of the world, traveling through Iran and Pakistan to get to India. I met a British guy who drove his car from the UK to Mongolia where he lived with eagle hunters (sounds amazing but I feel they’d laugh at my vegetarian ways unless the eagles are also trained to hunt tofu and carrots, which seems very un-eagle-y); he sold the car and flew to Korea and then landed next in India. My companions on the train last night had spent a few weeks at the Sisters of Charity mission in Kolkata.
Humbling and inspiring. And it just goes to show you that there’s a lot to see out there. And a lot to learn.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
