Holy Cow! Planning Travel In India Is Complicated.

Wikipedia on the Cow: In Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred and its protection is a recurrent theme in which she is symbolic of abundance, of the sanctity of all life and of the earth that gives much while asking nothing in return. Most Hindus respect the cow as a matriarchal figure for her gentle qualities and for providing nurturing milk and other products for a largely vegetarian diet. Hindus do not worship the cow, yet it holds an honored place in society, and most Hindus do not eat beef.

Jaime on travel planning: I am working on getting us to Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan. The problem is that there are no flights to Jaisalmer. There is a military airstrip but no commercial flights land there. So we will likely have to fly into Jodhpur and then train to Jaisalmer (so as to minimize Karin's time on the roads). Doesn't that sound simple? It's not. If you try booking a train you will find that none exists. Or maybe it does. Depends whom you talk to and which website you visit. And don't even bother trying to book a bus from here. And then there is the never-ending flow of warnings about hiring the wrong driver who will explain to you how your hotel burned down overnight and who will then drive in circles until you agree go to wherever his biggest kickback lies. India is a nonstop barrage of people trying to rip you off. Or maybe it's not. If they openly charge foreigners 5 or even 10 times as much for the same product or service, is it highway robbery? Of course! Or perhaps not. Perhaps I'm just being culturally insensitive.

I don't think I've ever been quite so bombarded with information (and that includes law school). At one point yesterday I had between 40 and 50 webpages open. I've planned trips to quite a few places in this world - including when I have prepared the actual flight plan - but this is something else. Getting a handle on traveling in India is like trying to install democracy in Iraq... The concept makes for a marvelous sound-bite but, in reality, is quite impossible (end of controversial analogy). Even after we have narrowed our trip down to one tiny region of India, the options are seemingly endless, the histories long and complicated, the accommodation choices practically infinite, and the means of travel labyrinthine (Connie: "Oh, quit your belly-aching Levine!").

The plan, as it stands, is the following: 1. Spend a couple of days exploring Delhi. 2. Do a day trip to Agra. 3. Fly as far as we can into western Rajasthan. 4. Visit Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, and then finally end up in Alwar before we head back to Delhi.