Quite an Adventure for Enthusiasts
Lori Sweeney
Given the hot temperatures in India this past summer, I should not have been surprised that when I got out of the airport taxi at 3 am, my glasses fogged up in the heat. For 3 minutes. I’m still not sure what my signature looked like on the hotel register. But somehow I survived 3 weeks in that heat, 3 liters of water a day, a hand fan and bucket showers notwithstanding. We’re talking 100+ degrees with 91% humidity. Worse than Iowa in July!
I spent a week touring palaces and forts, notably the Taj Majal, which really was a gem at dawn. I went ballooning over villages à la Around the World in 80 Days, took an Indian cooking class in the cook’s home and even cycled at dawn (going to the flower market and monuments before they opened, having a masala chai in a terra cotta cup (recyclable!) and, unbelievably, feeding the cows that wander the streets). Then I spent 2 weeks horseback riding, logging 102 miles in 8 days.
The native Indian Marwai horses are distinctive. Their ears turn in – and all around to tune into the rider, and they are ‘desert horses’ with phenomenal stamina to canter and ride out 6 hours a day). Farming families welcomed us all along the way (imagine a hippo parade with Australians tromping through High Prairie; you’d come to the gate to wave for that, wouldn’t ya?). We would, blessedly, stop at noon for lunch and a long rest in someone’s walled yard, under a tree. Then we would engage with the family (and their numerous neighbors who were called) to dance the Hokey Pokey, listen to jazz on my headphones or do “gymnastics” with the children. The 9 women in our group stayed in safari tents with funky bathrooms with buckets, but it was a grand adventure for sure. The 30 guys who made our trip happen, from kitchen to tents to bar would serve up cold cloths and G&Ts the minute we got off those horses in camp; their favorite phrase was “No problem!” even though half the time I wondered if they really knew what we were asking. One of the great ironies of the trip was all the “health hints” the Indian men (it’s a very patriarchal culture) seemed to want to parlay (a favorite: “Indian spicy food is so good for you and clears out your system”), a tendency I thought hilarious given that their public health sewage and garbage problem is completely out of bounds.
The whole adventure was once-in-a-lifetime and made me so grateful for High Prairie Washington’s weather, clean highways and water!
An Indian company interviewed me to promote tourism; here’s the podcast: https://music.youtube.com/podcast/4Wup2fSE8HM