We've moved from Delhi to Jaipur. It was about a five hour entertaining bus ride through the countryside as well as many small towns and villages. While in Delhi we did see a few cows roaming the streets. Once we got out of the city the number of these sacred Hindu animals increased dramatically to the point that if you wanted to see a cow roaming around you merely had to look out the window of the bus. If there wasn't one in sight, just wait a few seconds and one or more would appear.
Our bus driver (Bushon) is quite possibly the best driver in the world. He navigates our full size bus down roads where the lane lines are merely suggestions. Cars, bikes, motor bikes, tuks-tuks, rickshaws and pedestrians zip in, out and across as if no one else is on the road. If it was just humans it would be crazy enough but to make it more interesting you have to throw in the cows, monkeys, camels, donkeys, pigs, goats, elephants, horses and more. Amazingly to the best of my knowledge no human or animals have been harmed by the bus or even each other. I really don't know how they do it but somehow everyone seems to get where they're going without running into each other.
As I previously mentioned, 70 percent of India's 1.2 billion people are Hindu. Our guide is Hindu so we're learning a lot about their beliefs and customs that I'll be sharing as we go along. Hindu's as you know believe cows are sacred (so do I but more so when they are served with a baked potato or french fries) and therefore freely roam the streets. They do provide milk but are not eaten which lead me to do a little investigative journalism. I had seen the golden arches of McDonalds several times around Delhi which got my small brain to thinking "Do they serve beef"? We stopped at a McDonalds for a coffee break on our drive to Jaipur so it was easy to answer this question by simply looking at the menu. The answer........................no beef served here! You can get a chicken or vegetarian burger but sorry, if you want a beef hamburger it won't be found here.
Wendy's may have originally coined the phrase "where's the beef" but it would apply for McDonalds throughout India!
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| Palace in the lake in Jaipur |
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| Street scene from the bus |
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| Bacon on the highway (from bus) |
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| Sorry, I couldn't get an elephant or camel in the picture |
