Asian earthquake/tsunami update

Death toll is at 55,600 and rising. Fears of epidemics are rampant due to the profusion of dead bodies in the warm climates. Small native island civilizations may have been wiped out. This is huge, and likely larger than we yet know. Greg of Airbag has a better post on the subject than I have time or ability to make right now.

Those interested in helping with humanitarian relief efforts can donate to:
Doctors Without Borders or The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent; please let me know if you have other suggestions for effective disaster relief donations.

Bangalore, India. Far from the coast.

First, in case anyone had worried, we're all right. We were not in any of the affected areas; we are, as a matter of fact, safe in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley. We had - just three days before - been in Kanyakumari, an area which is now reporting over 200 dead in the tsunamis created by the Indonesian earthquakes; I am feeling very lucky and blessed at the moment as we watch the reports of the devastation on CNN and the BBC. If there is anything this trip has driven home, it is just how charmed a life I lead.

A week previously, driving through Mumbai (Bombay) on our way from one railway station to the next, Himself and I both had the same thought; one strong earthquake could level the place. I don't think the destructive potential of earthquakes is clear, even to Californians, until you visit a country where building codes are not rigorously enforced. The slums of Bombay are just corrugated tin and tickytacky lumber scraps, and the highrises are none too stable either. An earthquake can cause significant damage in the U.S; here, it can devastate cities entirely.

On that cheerful note, happy holidays to all; Lord willin' and the crick don't rise (which seems a much more sinister expression given recent events) we'll be home for the New Year and I'll have stories and pictures to share then.

Jodhpur city, Rajasthan, India

Well, it's finally happened...I've gotten sick. But in a terribly Panglossian way - I mean, yes, the illness is awful but it truly is for the best that it happened once I'd got to Jodhpur, where the hotel has an in-house doctor who has sterilized needles (I got an anti-nausea shot this morning so I could keep the other meds down, joy) and not on the train or out in the middle of the desert.

Jodhpur is still in the desert, but not like the huts we were staying in in the village we were at two nights ago, with thatched roofs and sand dunes. Just, you know, not much rain. And yes, this is where the funny riding pants get their name.

In any case, I was saying...things have truly been charmed this trip, despite some setbacks. The horror stories we are hearing from other travellers make our own occasional minor setbacks (of which there have been very few) seem completely inconsequential. A group of friends we met in Jaisalmer missed their plane yesterday when the train in front of them derailed, killing fifty. So, you know, life could be much worse. And the bug is just a stomach bug, not Japanese Encephalitis B, my new horror disease. You don't get the immunization for that unless you're here for more than a month, but it's the sort of sickness nightmares are made of. So, YAY for just minor G.I. problems, I say.

Himself is out seeing what is supposed to be a truly amazing fort and palace, and then tomorrow we will hop on the train for that 52-hour ride to Cochin, with a two-train transfer in Mumbai. As I understand it, after that it will be tea and relatives, tea and relatives, and hopefully I will pick up some Indian cooking while I'm down there, so that I can share the joy of the trip when I return.

I'm missing home a bit - it's hard to be away from the dogs, and I love the holidays with my family and baking with my mother - but how often can I take a month off and travel halfway around the world? I'm glad I chose to come, just wistful sometimes. Cake...eat. Cake...eat. Difficult decisions.

Will torture you all with endless stories and photographs on my return.

Jaisalmer, Rajasthan desert

We've been in India now for a week, and have come from Delhi through several desert towns, by train and car, to Jaisalmer. We have three days here, to relax, sightsee, and ride camels(!) before we head south to Jodhpur and then by train to Kerala - a 52-hour ride. I'm typing this from a dial-up Internet cafe with a crappy keyboard in the gorgeous sandstone fort high above the town.

India has been amazing so far. I thought I had no expectations of what it would be like, but I find that I did, and that they are daily challenged. We are travelling well, which is a real relief; it's allowing this to be a vacation and a honeymoon, as well as an adventure, and I desperately needed the break. Staying with relatives in Delhi was also wonderful; I have married into a family that I really like, which is, I am given to understand, a rare occurence. I am appreciating it greatly this trip.

Yesterday we got up at six to go to a small Hindu temple full of holy rats. We saw the one white rat (out of hundreds!) and one ran across my foot, both of which occurrences are supposed to be very lucky. There have been many forts and temples on the trip, and much good food (oh my god, so much good food) and a lot of driving. Yesterday we drove through Pokaran, where India tested the five nuclear missiles a few years back. We did not see any mutant camels, though. And right now we are only about two hours fom the Pakistan border, so we can hear occasional fighter jets overhead.

Can't cope with this keyboard much longer. But...am well, and safe, and enjoying life greatly. Hope all is well with all of you, wherever you are.