INDIA: GUWAHATI TO KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK

 December 17, 2024

We were up at 6:00 AM, ignoring both the 12.5 hour time difference between where we were and California and our 40 hours of travel, and were down at the extensive and excellent breakfast buffet by 7:15. Chris and I especially liked the black rice in a purple pudding--more dessert than breakfast!

A driver in a small minivan came to pick us up at 8:00 AM. Our luggage caused him and the hotel staff some distress. They spent over twenty minutes strapping it to the roof, and we finally got on the road at about 8:30.

We headed east-north-east through the finger of India that lies between Tibet to the north, Bangladesh to the southwest, and Myanmar to the southeast. I had no idea that India was anything other than the downward-pointing triangle I always pictured it as.

The distance was just over 200 km, or 125 miles, but it took us 4.25 hours of driving.

It started out well enough with wide, scenic roads lined by vendors, most of them selling oranges.

INDIA: GUWAHATI - MAA KAMAKHYA AND TIRUPATI BALAJI TEMPLES

 December 16, 2024

Our traveling companions were not going to arrive until late in the evening, so we had planned a tour of some of the religious sites in Guwahati, the largest city in the Indian state of Assam. Assam is a little finger of India that stretches to the east in between Bhutan and Bangladesh. Guwahati has a population of over a million people and is one of India's fastest-growing metropolises. In India, with population comes pollution, and that is definitely a problem in Guwahati. In fact, in 2023 it was ranked the second-most polluted city in the world (ahead of Delhi).

Here is the view from our hotel window:

At 3:30 in the afternoon, shortly after we checked into our hotel, we were picked up by our guide, Shyamol Gogoi, a young man working on a master's degree in Tourism Organization. I'll say right at the beginning that if you need a guide for Guwahati, he is an outstanding choice. 

It took just a few blocks of navigation by the expert driver that accompanied Shyamol to validate all the advice we had read that tourists should not drive in India. The traffic doesn't look bad here, but believe me, it was. Besides, as passengers we were free to marvel at the colors and designs that make India India. Take a look at these painted concrete pylons holding up the highway. 

Our first stop was the Hindu Maa Kamakhya Temple, perched in the hills above the city. I loved the markets that line the streets on the approach to the entrance. They were selling a few tourist items, but also items that are part of Hindu temple worship.

INDIA, DECEMBER 2025: LAX TO GUWAHATI

December 14-16, 2024    

We've been wanting to go to India for a while, but the timing never worked out. A few years ago it was not our year to have everyone home for Christmas, and I made the casual comment to Bob that next time it wasn't our year, I wanted to be traveling instead of sitting around at home. He took that as a green light for India and began planning. Once Bob starts planning, well . . . 

We drove to LAX on Saturday, December 14. We were trying out a new parking structure--105 Airport Parking--and couldn't find it. It turns out it had changed names to South Bay Parking, but no notice had been sent informing us of that change. It turned out to be a bit of a dump, and not a place we would recommend. There was only ONE available parking spot in the whole place, and it was on Level 6, the top floor. Of course, the elevator was broken, so Bob dropped me off and unloaded our luggage before going up (and then taking the stairs down after he parked).  We waited and waited and waited in a decrepit waiting room for a shuttle.  After at least a half hour, we gave up and called an Uber, which cost $18. 

Luckily, we always leave ourselves lots of time when we take international flights out of LAX as we never know what kind of traffic we will be facing on the LA freeways. We had time for a pizza at Wolfgang Puck's before flying to San Francisco Airport, where we again had plenty of time and enjoyed some clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. 

The plan was to meet up in India with my sister Chris and her husband Stan, who live in Billings, Montana. While we were in the San Francisco Airport, we got a text from Stan telling us they had missed their first flight from Billings→Seattle, which meant they might be behind 24 hours or more. Later we heard that they found a Billings→Portland→Seattle flight and made it in time to make their Seattle→London flight before their London→Delhi flight. Whew.

When we boarded our Air India flight from San Francisco→Delhi, we were struck by how Indian the plane seemed. Its seats were a yellowish-orange and red, and it smelled like an Indian restaurant.