Adventures of an Old Broad... Abroad: March 2019

The transition from India to Thailand was not smooth. The flight was delayed four hours (due to operational issues). There is a war going on between India and Pakistan and we are not sure if that had anything to do with our flight delay but we figured it was a good time to be leaving. I had a very long paragraph describing in detail all the various complications, but suffice to say that while in the past close scheduling has worked for me, this time it did not. I learned a valuable lesson about allowing myself transition time but things ended up really fine because I ended up staying at one of my favorite places in Thailand - Magic House in Chumphon. The owner remembered me - "Ahh birds!", and I certainly remember Magic House with its beautiful rooms, nice beach and friendly owners. So all ended well and I'm now in Koh Tao sitting in my tree house and taking it easy to get over a cold I caught along the way! The snorkeling is as good as I remember and I love the look of this island with its tall hills and huge granite rocks and beautiful beaches. It is sunset and there is a din of some sort of insect chirping in unison while the Thai Reggae band Jobs2Do is playing on the beach. (I'm listening from my deck.)
Getting back to India, step wells are amazing things and I've been fascinated by them since I read an article a long, long time ago. I did not think we would get to see the mother of all step wells, but our driver (and friend), Ghoki knows where all the good stuff is. These were places where people went to get water years ago before there were wells. The work it must have taken to get a bucket of water is just unbelievable! They are, however, beautiful things to behold and I had forgotten to include photos so see below.
Reflections in as few words as I can muster:
Poverty, dirt, dust, trash, pollution, cow poop unlike anything you've seen before (at least I hadn't), horns honking constantly, people everywhere and this traffic dance that is unexplainable but seems to work most of the time.
On the other side, people, people, people and immense beauty. The people are the most open, accepting and friendly people I have ever encountered. No matter what happens, they say no problem (until I got the 2000 rupee note with a tear on the corner. Then it was, "Oooooo, not good!"). They also love light colored people and we are in more selfies, videos and even a few interviews. Everywhere we went people would come up to us, want to know where we were from and ask to take a selfie with us! I think they were especially impressed with Chuck's white beard, even saying he looked like a maharaja in one encounter!
The buildings in India are spectacular - not the new buildings, but the old, old buildings with ornately carved stone all done by hand. They are truly beautiful. We stayed in several havelis which were mansions or palaces that wealthy people lived in but have been converted to hotels. Beautiful!
The Taj Mahal, the birds and wildlife, the forts which are not just forts but contain palaces within and in some cases still have people who live in them. Oh, and the desert and the camels and, most importantly, experiencing this with my friends who could laugh along with me at the absurdity of having a room on the fifth floor of a hotel with no elevator and, as we were huffing and puffing, our 'porters' sprung by us carrying our luggage! And then there was Ghoki, a happy man who hummed through every traffic jam and stayed calm until another driver did something he thought was stupid and then he was a fierce warrior (as he called himself). I think we will all miss Ghoki, our new friend. Now I understand why people return to India.
Some photos below including a few birds - sorry! LOL!