Sunday, February 24, 2013

So this is MEDICARE...

Welcome to MEDICARE (19 February 2013)

Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I would reach the age of sixty-five, nor did I think I would ever qualify to participate in the Medicare program provided to senior citizens in the United States.  Well, here I am - yup, I made it!!!

My day began with a telephone call from my daughter, wishing me a Happy Birthday. This was followed by another telephone call from my wife. The final call of the early morning came from my eleven year old grandson. What a treat, to hear birthday greetings from the three most important people in my life!  Earlier, at about 4:30 I had ventured down to the manager's office in order to connect to the WiFi offered.  I wanted to check Email, as well as Facebook entries. It is amazing to count the number of people from all parts of the world who take the time to send birthday wishes. Thanks to all of them.

Breakfast was in the hotel dining room, at the Himmatgarh Palace Hotel, with the other team members and Andreas and Beatrix Eickhoff from Germany brought me a gift from their home town, a brass replica of a coal miner's lamp and two beautiful magazines promoting their home city. Really interesting to read about how the government in their city had repurposed several of the relics of the past Industrial Age of the area, most notably the conversion of the old water tower into an art museum! Wow, now THAT is vision!

We all then boarded our bus to be driven to the city of Jodhpur. It was going to be a very long ride and I was experiencing a queasy stomach so just wanted to fall asleep on the trip for a few hours. The plan was to drive for three or four hours and then stop for a long lunch and then continue driving for a few more hours, when we would reach our hotel in Jodhpur. After some discussion, we voted to more or less drive straight through, with only a pit stop and perhaps a short stop for buying snacks. 

When we finally reached the"blue city" of Jodhpur, the fort loomed ahead of us on the top of the hill. We met our new guide for the afternoon, and were pleased to be reunited with our teammate, Cornelia Stockman, who had separated from us a few days prior, in order to visit a project supported by her Rotary Club, that was located in Bikaner. She had brought about one thousand pencils to give to the children at the school. She had several experiences to share with us as we walked to visit the famous crematorium in Jodhpur that looked more like a white marble monument, with smaller sandstone monuments nearby. This was the location of what we in America might refer to as a cemetery, and used almost strictly by the royal family members. There were also two very modern looking monuments, made of white marble and enclosed within a wrought iron fenced area, and topped with a tiny horse. I asked about these and our guide explained that one of the members of the royal family was a renowned polo player, who had been killed in an accident, along with his fellow teammate and so both had monuments constructed there.

 From the crematorium, we then traveled to the city fort for a tour.  Once more, the facades on the exterior of the fort, as well as within its towering walls where princes and maharajahs and their many wives and mistresses all lived, provided an amazing spectacle for all to appreciate.  Again, to imagine living in the ages through literally hundreds of years, when these places were thriving would boggle the mind.  

We descended from the top level of the fort, stopping en route at the government sponsored shops which were cleverly located between the top level with its magnificent vistas, and  filled with wonderful and expensive souvenirs and gift items. Because of the great love of polo in Jodhpur, many of the items were reflective of the sport. Although we heard about it and saw photos in the museum, we never had the opportunity to witness a real and close-up game of Elephant Polo.

The winding passageway back to the street level took quite a good deal of time, because the elevator was no longer operational at that time and the steep slope of the cobblestone "street" was almost treacherous because of the centuries of wear, augmented by elephant dung and other waste, ground into the stones. We all made it back to our awaiting bus, without incident.

We then were driven to our hotel, the Ranbanka Palace, another of the Heritage hotels in India. Of the hotels where we had stayed, the rooms at this hotel were by far the nicest. My accommodations included a bathroom that was about fifteen by twenty feet in size and had a very long and deep bathtub, as well as a shower that could accommodate about a dozen people!  We all we to meet in the dining room for dinner, but decided it was warm enough to sit outside in the garden and enjoy my birthday dinner under the stars.  A troupe of Rajasthany folk dancers entertained us, and even sang a version of Happy Birthday to me.  Since we were having a very realty wake up call, we all decided to call it a day. 
The call came very, very early, at 4:30, since we had to check out of the hotel no later than 5:10 and then be on our way to the railway station to catch the train to Jaipur, which was departing the station at 6:10.  This was yet another new experience for the members of the team.

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