My wife Liza and I traveled to India in March on a tour called the "Palace on Wheels" organized by Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT, www.ventbird.com). This unforgettable journey through north-central India started in Delhi, then headed south to Agra and the Taj Mahal, where we joined the tourist or heritage train called the "Palace on Wheels" that took our group further south across the Tropic of Cancer to Kanha National Park. We then returned north to Ranthambhore National Park and the pink city Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, before returning to Delhi. With a large group of 37 participants and a train with 22 "saloons" or cars, VENT provided four guides in addition to Victor himself, namely Bob Fleming, an expert on Nepal and India who speaks fluent Hindi, Jerry Bertrand, and Mimi and David Wolf. Their expertise was complemented by a large in-country staff lead by Raj Singh. Obviously, this was much more than just a birding trip (or for that matter, a tiger photo-safari), so let me start by sharing my lasting impressions and memories of a country clear on the other side of the world from us.

I can understand why people who have traveled to India say you either love India or hate it. In our case, it's definitely the former. I can see how one could leave with a poor impression if one focused only on the trash and squalor of the cities, the chaotic traffic, the need to use bottled water everywhere, the spice of Indian cuisine if your palate is accustommed to milder fare...

But there are the contrasts to such images and experiences too. There is a significant first world embedded in that third world country. Modernization is everywhere. The roads were well-paved even in the small towns (plenty of cheap labor, but also many willing workers where one might apply with 200 others for the same job). Delhi is in the process of putting in multi-lane freeways throughout the city for their plans include hosting the Asian Games in 2008, the Commonwealth Games in 2010, and perhaps the Olympics in 2016. New Delhi is full of construction, new corporate facilities (think off-shoring), plus the Indian Institute of Technology (the IIT featured in a segment on 60 Minutes last year), so the modern is displacing the modest particularly in this section of Delhi. And through a court challenge, the Clean Air Initiative, all public transportation (auto-rickshaws, taxis, and buses) are required to use compressed natural gas (CNG), with special focus on Delhi.

Our tour guides emphasized how much the country has changed. Twenty to thirty years ago, there were few cars on roadways dominated by pedestrians, bicyclists, and human-powered, cycle rickshaws alongside camels and the odd asian elephant. Today the streets of Delhi are choked with cars, trucks, buses, and three-wheeled auto rickshaws competing with the traditional forms of transportation - there are still camels, elephants, and even cattle sharing the roadway - gulp! This state of affairs is true of other cities too. In the smaller ones, there might be only a single, albeit paved lane shared by such traffic in *both* directions. And the road also serves as something of a social gathering place. But there is order to this chaos. Drivers of faster vehicles are encouraged to honk to let others know they are coming and passing, despite only inches of clearance. And yet with all the continual honking, there appears to be no such thing as road rage! I can only imagine if Indians were replaced with westerners, they would all kill each other over repeated close-calls and cut-offs.

They have a well-educated, hard-working populace. English is spoken by a surprising portion of the populace, even in the poorer areas, as the lingua franca of India. And smiles are everywhere, no matter their station in life. Theirs is a secular democracy, a government ruling benignly over the hindus, muslims, jaines, christians, and buddhists, who all get along - an inherently tolerant society that is a surprise to those of us from the west where prejudices seem all too common. People are accustomed to thinking of Hinduism as a polytheist religion, but an equally apt description is that of a polymorphic monotheism (as suggested by tour coordinator Raj Singh and one of our guides Bob Fleming) - some may devote themselves to Shiva, others to Krishna, but they all practice essentially the same religion. The most notable prejudice was manifested by the advertisements in the Matrimonials section of the newspaper in which parents placed ads emphasizing the "fair skin" of their daughters, not to forget the significant dowry of the family, in soliciting husbands for arranged marriages. There is an example of such advertisements on the web site listed below. Speaking of examples, there are also photographs of the exquisite Kashmir rugs we saw, including one bought.

Did I mention that everyone was *extremely* friendly AND curious about foreigners? The inviting reception we received virtually everywhere is one of my most vivid and lasting memories of this trip - not to mention kids playing cricket matches in the street. Despite the caste system, the notion of the "unclean" or "untouchables" is a thing of the past, legislated into oblivion. Essentially, the caste system gives structure and tradition to their society, but members of the high and low castes are interdependent - the higher castes depend on the lower castes for certain functions only they perform, and for which they are respected. Speaking of respect, I was amazed at the quality of service provided by our Palace on Wheels saloon steward and attendant, Santosh Kumar and Prabhu Singh, whose attentiveness to our every need and genuine friendliness are unmatched in my experience, on board trains or otherwise.

We have posted a photo-essay of our trip to our web site aves.org. You can find it by browsing the following URL: http://aves.org/india06/

As a momento of the trip, I was outfitted with a turban as you can see (click the People and Parties link on the web site). Yes, I got to keep the turban, a gift from the farewell dinner. But I was not brave enough to wear it through the airports on the way home. Now if only I can remember how to wrap it properly!

Stay tuned for the next installment about this journey. Yes, I will get to the birds and other fauna and flora eventually. Check out the photos on the web site if you cannot wait.

-Robert Weissler