Dec.30- Day14- We have left Agra and taken a two hour train ride and a four hour bus ride to where we are now. The train ride is something else. We have been warned that the trains don’t stop for long, so we are on alert. We get on and all is well. We were prepared.

It is a long journey and nature has called. I tried to open the bathroom door.It wouldn’t open. A conductor trying to sleep on a cabinet top told me to kick it when I woke him. I did and it opened. Great for privacy I think. The door to the facility was stuck.

The train is swaying like a boat in a storm. Not a ship in a storm, but a small boat. It is an eastern styled toilet. Just a hole in the floor.

First, make sure that you have brought your own paper. That is a must.

Secondly, check you surroundings. Get your bearings and your balance and go for it. There are no other choices. The corner where the walls come together is round and fits my back nicely. Things are seldom as bad as you think they will be.

Sadly there was no view. In Mongolia we did our business behind a two foot high plastic sheet wall or behind a small plant and could see for hundreds of miles. The entire desert was open to our gaze. Those were bathrooms to be remembered. Oh well, I have been spoiled, I suppose.

Usually the outhouses there are ancient and it is more pleasant to do your business out behind a nice bush if one is handy. A cautionary note however. The bushes in Mongolia are rather short, and do not offer much in the way of privacy, so be prepared for that.

Sorry, back to the train ride. I was reminiscing. There is a large tin cup for flushing. The flush button does not work. There is a faucet near the floor for water. It is unusual. Put the cup under the faucet and pull back the shroud that covers the bottom of the pipe. The water will come. Now just pour the water over the toilet. Remember all of this. One day you may thank me for it.

The train stops for just very short periods of time. Thirty to ninety seconds most of the time. We have been warned and are on alert.

I have found a young man to talk to as I will. No one is safe from me. We soon are having a pleasant conversation and I have learned about his dreams and he has heard mine.

When it is our time to get on we were ready and when we had to leave, we were ready. No messing around with Indian trains apparently.

The roads were pretty good and ran parallel to a new freeway that is being built. It is a large undertaking and looks like they are well on their way.

We are going to the temples of the erotic carvings which depict many figures from the Kama Sutra, tomorrow. The sex acts are only about ten percent of the carvings, but they get all of the press. We shall see.

Sadly, there is little new under the sun, but the sex statues will be interesting. Those of us who might be older should not venture into this territory, I think. Unless you have good health insurance and are more limber than I.

Although remote and very quiet today, Khajuraho was a thriving civilization of the Chandelas in the tenth century. The temples here are very delicate looking and put together without mortar. They are carved over their entire surfaces. Inside there are rooms where the Buddha welcomes those who care to pray.

The buildings are scattered around in a large park like setting. It is a very pleasant place even as the peddlers beg for sales and the children beg for coins.

I have been handing out my cards during this entire trip. Hopefully I will find some people interested in my travel blog and books. I still have many followers from my recent trip to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and many of those nice people speak little English. Here in India I hope more people will speak my language and will be interested in my stories.

It is unusually cold here right now. I have no memory of one hotel. That virus really took over.