Broken down bus- our 52 member group has been divided into 2- an orange group and a white group. We were on the orange bus. After a rest stop our fourth gear stopped working and unlike any American bus driver, ours actually opened up the transmition compartment and started working on it. After 3 more starts and fails, we finally pulled off the road and loaded all our luggage and passengers into the white bus. Unfortunately 52 people will not fit into a 45 passenger bus so some of us were sitting on stairs, on the floor, or standing. We heard a couple of complaints in that they were sleeping, one, who was sitting in a seat, asked Paula to move off of her floor space so she could stretch her foot. I was sitting on a side ledge by the first seat - there was room for another person to sit on the other side's front seat but the people refused to put their bags up so that another person could sit down. We had definitely walked into enemy territory. (After riding in the front for the next hour, I realized we had had the better driver of the two). Another bus was called into action right outside of Delhi so "us intruders" left. Paula made good use of her time while she was on the floor - she fired up her India hotspot and pulled up her spreadsheet and emailed in her payroll time sheet. It really is a "workcation" for her.
After we got onto the boat, Munish gave all the 'standing' people free massages at the ship's spa. Seemed like a fair trade to me ......!
Air quality gave Paula a sinus infection and a couple of days later I followed suit. After yesterday's long travel day, we are finally on the small boat and in a beautiful room. I am taking the morning off to give my body a chance to heal while Paula is being the good tourist and going to the Kolkata tour. I will read her notes. http://pgalland.blogspot.com She is way better at including the history and fact stuff.
