The Craziness of Solo travel in India

My lovely time in the quiet mountains of Almora finished Saturday night in an overcrowded jeep. We were 14 people in one jeep for a three hour BUMPY road down the mountain to an insanely busy bus depot. Several people, including me, got carsick, although only one person vomited in the car. I was lucky to get in the front seat of an a/c bus to Dehli after a quick but very nice meal of dahl and tandoori roti. I arrived in Dehli at 5.30am and was very confused by the early morning and of course, every rickshaw and taxi driver is trying to sell me their ride and tell me I am further away from my destination. I turned and walked the other way, finding fairly easilya local city bus to take me to ANOTHER bus depot to continue on to Jaipur, this time on a normal bus, in a seat with two other people and my bag, among others, obstructing the center aisle.
Six hours later, I found myself in the capital of Rajistan, the desert of India, again with lots of taximen selling their services. I thought I chose rightly by hiring a prepaid government taxi and went to the ONLY guest house I had written down from a lonely planet guide I had seen in Darjeeling...it was full and from there, I couldn't rid myself of the taximan!They get commissions for showing tourists to hotels and I let him showme one before getting my friend in Jaipur on the phone and telling me where to go. I was in Jaipur to meet an Indian girl I worked with only by internet during my college days in AIESEC. I met her and her boyfriend for a nice dinner in a fancy railcar themed restaurant and we went to a hindi film about the Bombay fashion scene.
The next day, I took a city tour as per my friends' suggestion and was all day in an out of the bus, visiting museums, fortresses, taking photos of monuments and temples, mingling with the other tourists from all over that were taking the tour and in general,enjoying a rare 'tourist' experience. At around 5pm, I was done and separated myselffrom theothers for somemeditation and asanasbefore walking downthe fortress stairs andhaving some foodwhile waiting for thebus... well, the bus parked somewhere different andI DIDN'T findit. Luckily, I had one of the guy's number and someone was nice enough to let me put my sim in his cell phone because, of course, my battery was dead. I was picked up a half hour later and returned to the tour, a bit nervous, but thankful for the reunion. Five of us had gone missing at that fort and only three made it back to the bus to return to Jaipur city again. Too tired to leaveJaipur thatnight asplanned, I stayed again in my guest house and when taking a shower, realised, someone was spying on me from the service stair area through my bathroom screen window!I told the manager about it in the morning and said it was very upsetting, which it was, he returned my room fare to me and apologized. I was shocked that he did that, but grateful thathe acknowledged there being something wrong. Sexuality is highly repressed here and foreign women are always stared at unfortunately.
I took an early local bus back to Dehli yesterday morning to meet another Indian friend I knew through my interest in the Bocconi University years back. She was coming through Dehli for an interview and we were to meet. I couldn't get ahold of her until late afternoon, once already in the city and frazzled from the long and perilous trip. The bus driver had hit a tractor carrying a large quantity of red bricks about 2 hours from the city and the tractor turned over, pinning the driver below... I had dozed off a bit and awoke to the crash, then another crashas we were hit from behind by another bus, breaking our back windows, harming only one person slightly, thank God, and disfuguring a few rows of seats. We all filed off the bus and many men attempted unsucessfully to take the tractor off it's driver. Everyone else was unscathed and my seatmate led me to theother side of the road where traffic had been diverted and we got on a new bus and agreed about how lucky we were to have escaped unharmed from that disaster. He invited me to his sister's wedding in February if I should be back in India then and wished me asafe journey.
In the craze of Dehli, I took another hour long bus in heavy traffic, stuck against the other 50 standing passengers in yet another local bus and arrived in the middle of the main bazaar area. An Israeli tourist led meto the Chabad house, kind oflike a local synagogue, where I can come for peace or leave luggage safely and eat dinner or study Torah:) I checked into the tiniest room I have seen and headed with him for lunch and the train station...taking the train the next two big travels!!! I leave tonight for Varanasi, where I look forward to staying for 5 days, hopefully more peacefully!
I met three tourists from the Gran Canaria island (at the reservation office) and went with them in a fun, cramped rickshaw, hanging half out of the window to fitin! We went to some beautiful sites, a mosque and a huge red fort, taking photos of the sunset and being taken photos of by Indian tourists (very common). Then we all went out for a fabulous dinner and several laps around the inner circle of a commercial center before finding our way again.
My neck is sore in the muscles from the accident, but I slept well and am happy to be healthy, alive and constantly finding good company!I am also THRILLED that Obama is the NEW PRESIDENT!!!! YAY