As Ziggy and Zoe noted, we took a trip up north for about ten days at the beginning of March. We made plane, hotel and train reservations via the internet. The hotel reservations were with a very good hotel and those were perfect. The plane reservations were tricky. We tried calling the airline that most people say is the best in India, but after getting cut off a total of 7 times we tried the internet. The system there worked fine, so we thought- at least. We got round trip seats quite inexpensively. We paid for 3 seats in economy to give ourselves more leg room. Things first started to go wrong about a week before departure when we went to confirm the reservations. We found that our 3 seats had been separated to two together and one separate. We called the airline and got cut off a total of 5 times before finally getting the seat arrangement clear. They could not understand why we wanted 3 together and have one seat empty! We checked the reservation again the night before the flight and all was well. Oh, we did find that our original departure flight was canceled and they moved us to a later flight when we spoke to them the 5th time as well. We arrived at the Bangalore airport to find that it seemed a little chaotic outside. They have not be letting people inside who did not have tickets, but this was worse. It turned out that they were collecting a departure fee that had to be paid outside, but the guards did not communicate very well. Once inside we checked in to get our boarding passes and explained that we paid for 3 seats but only two people were flying. The woman at the counter just could not understand this and we had to explain several times and pointed out the extreme height of one of us. She finally went to a supervisor to get him to fix the fact that our seats had been changed again over night! The supervisor moved us around and said we were all set, but they only gave us passes for 2 seats and not 3. They claimed that they could not give a pass unless there was a passenger but they had "blocked" the middle seat. We boarded and took our seats. As the plane started to fill someone came up with a boarding pass for the middle seat! We complained again and they found a seat for the guy. The flight to Delhi was pleasant and the crew was pleasant, so once the seats were set, all was fine.
We arrived in Delhi airport about 1PM. The hotel had a car for us and we checked into the hotel effortlessly. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant that was very good and then took a car to the Crafts Museum. This was very interesting, but we arrived at 4PM and they closed at 5PM. We then went to a crafts store or two- one was very familiar because they have branches in major cities. While there, we met the manager of the store- we knew him from their store in Bangalore!
We returned a bit late to the hotel and had dinner and then went to sleep.
On Sunday morning we had a city tour scheduled by the train. The train was The Royal Rajasthan On Wheels. We were going to take the Palace On Wheels to get a survey of Rajasthan, but it was booked up and this new train had just started in Jan. This train is supposed to be better- larger bathroom and some what more comfortable public cars for dinner and drinks. The new train is meant to travel the same route as the other but it leaves
on Sunday instead of Wednesday. In any case, they had sent us an email saying they would pick us up at the hotel for the city tour at 10AM. We thought they might come in a large bus, but they implied it would be a car. By 10:15 we got concerned and then got a call from our guide. He had been sent to a different hotel of the same chain. We then proceeded to see the President's House and India Gate. India Gate was built about 1919 as a memorial to Indian soldiers who died fighting in WWI and Afghanistan from 1914- 1919. We then went to 
Humayon's Tomb where we learned that he was the second Mughal conquerer (ca 1535) who stayed in India. After he died his wife had the tomb designed and built. His wife was Persian because he was deposed at one time and fled to Persia where he married and then returned. The guide told us that it is best to see this tomb before going to Agra because you can see the similarities of the Taj Mahal to this one which was built about 100 years earlier. He also said the Taj is much nicer, so we would find this one disappointing after seeing that. The guide also said that the area around the tomb was inhabited by thousands of people after the 1947 partition that formed Pakistan. The people lived there for a full generation and were not moved out until about 1998. So the tomb has not really been so accessible until the past 10 years.
We next had lunch and then went to the Lotus Temple. This is a famous newer temple built by the Ba Hai's. Most people don't know much about the Ba Hai Faith and neither do we. We understand that the founder lived in Persia in the 1700's and he believed in equality of the sexes among other things. However, he was killed for his beliefs. The faith has little dogma and may be gaining support in places where other religions seem a bit too oppressive. The temple is very nice and there were many visitors on this Sunday. The guide left us a bit later and had the driver take us to the train station for the RROW. The guide seemed a bit put out having to deal with such a small group as us. He seemed a bit disinterested at times, but he seemed to know his subjects.
We arrived at the train station after a drive through a construction site that made us think we were about to be robbed in some out of the way place, but it was OK. At the station they had is sit in an air conditioned room to wait for other passengers. After awhile two others arrived along with their guide. This was Paul and Cecilia- he is German and she Indian by birth and they live in Dubai for half the year. We got to know them fairly well. No others arrived for some time. Then One Indian man, Then there was some commotion and another man arrived with his wife and daughter and an entourage that included a body guard. Eventually, we learned that he is a member of the railway board and is retiring in a few months. He said he was too busy to get on the train now and would be joining us later in the week, but this was some sort of photo- op. So, the train pulled in with all 21 cars plus locomotive and we 5 passengers got on. Janet, Jim, Paul and Cecilia and Ram. We got to know Ram a little better. He also works for Indian Railways in the financial side. He was with us most of the week, but he had to leave to work the last 2 days. He just paid us a short visit in Bangalore where he came for a day of work. We boarded the train and went to our compartment "Pearl" in the car named "Moti Mahal" We were all close to the dinning cars. The train pulled out about 6:30 PM and
we had dinner at 8PM. We were surprised that they did not cancel the train, but they said that because it is new it will take time for people to know about the train and it is important to run so people see it and hear about it. We also thought that they want to give the staff more practice and the train more work to break it in. Thus began or journey to Rajasthan!We do know that Ziggy and Zoe know how to use the camera and computer. Not so dumb!
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