Cathy and I spent 2 weeks in India and a brief time in Nepal during February 2000.  We had a very enjoyable time and I learned so much about this fascinating culture.  Most of our visit was to Northern India which is a vast country geographically and very diverse culturally.  There are 26 states and 4 or so municipalities (e,g. Delhi).  We very much want to return to the Southern part of the country.

I will try to answer the 2 most common questions people ask me.

1) Did you see a lot of poverty?    The answer is yes and no.  Considering that 1 of 5 people in the world live in the Nation you would expect its proportion of poverty. However, the people may have been poor, but they are not impoverished.  I saw worse poverty years ago in Haiti.  Most people I saw were reasonably dressed, and as you will see very colorfully.   I saw no malnutrition (compared to the many cases I saw of Kwashikor when I was in Haiti). 

2) Did you get sick?   I prophylactically took liquid pepto-bismol, twice daily.  Although I was very careful to watch what I ate,  almost immediately after I had a few bites of food in a reputable establishment, I felt ill.  Within an hour, I had severe cramps and  watery diarrhea.  This started at 10 pm, approximately 5 days before we were to return.  I immediately started drinking fluids, popped  Imodium and started myself on Cipro.  I felt well enough to continue touring by 8 am.  Cathy quit taking pepto-bismol after 1 day.  About 12 hours after I became ill, Cathy started feeling very nauseous. She vomited twice, slept about 5 hours during the day, started the Cipro regime and was fine the rest of the way, although she had some lingering tiredness for a couple of days. We continued the Cipro until we were back home in the USA.

I have arbitrarily divided the photos into 3 main groupings, namely Group A, Group B, and Group POW.  Within each grouping there are 4 addtional..    I hope you will enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE POW SECTION WOULD PROBABLY BE OF INTEREST ONLY TO THOSE PEOPLE THAT WERE ON THE PALACE ON WHEELS TRAIN WITH US.

ADDITIONALLY, PLEASE NOTE THAT AS OF MARCH 5, 2000, I PLACED AN ADDITIONAL GROUP OF PHOTOS IN THIS SECTION.  YOU WILL FIND THEM BY GOING TO GROUP B-4.  THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 120 ADDITIONAL PHOTOS IN 22 SEPARATE SECTIONS.   I HAVE GIVEN SOME ROAD SIGNS ALONG THE WAY TO MAKE YOUR NAVIGATING EASIER.

For part of the trip Cathy and I took the Palace on Wheels Train that goes between various cities in Rajastan. The train travels  mostly at night, allowing for sightseeing during the day. It was an efficient way to see this part of India, although the train was not what it was touted.   On this portion of our journey, we met several people from all over the world. It was a very congenial group.  I became the photographer of the group, and many of the group saw  my digital photos on the train during the evening.   The photos in the POW section are especially for their attention, since they asked to see them on this web site when they got home.  I trust that each of this group will drop me an e-mail.