It's an anywhere road for anybody anyhow. Where body how?

The thing about traveling is that as long as you aren't headed anywhere in particular, but you are just going THERE, then everything is fine. It doesn't matter that you are sitting on someone's lap carsick going down a mountain, or in the sun soaked window seat on a packed bus where people are standing and the woman who sat down next to you is possibly the only overfed Indian in India laughing hysterically at the entire ridiculous situation, or that your elephant isn't paying attention to its Hindi commands and only wants to eat leaves, or that your bicycle has a horrible tilt because you are going THERE and THERE is exactly where you want to be even if you have no idea what to expect or where, really, THERE happens to be.

THERE can be on a completely unhygienic massage table completely naked being scissor chopped on your butt bruise from a tumble down a staircase earlier that the masseuse can CLEARLY see or in the middle of a tiger preserve with 2 Indians with a horrible sense of direction that gave you a ride or sitting on a train headed to where the sun rises in the same place the sun sets and 3 great bodies of water collide over rocks from the Little Mermaid or lying on top of Tata tea plants having a photoshoot with a wannabe photographer but happens to only be a rickshaw driver and again, THERE... THERE can be just about anywhere but when you are THERE, it is, at that moment, the best place to be.

During the course of our trip, Riane and I discovered that we are capable of doing quite a lot of things, and make the best of it.

Cockroaches in the bathroom? Leave the door open.
Monkey family on the balcony? Leave the door closed.
Flight canceled and train 2 hours late? Eat a brownie and read a book on the ground.
Getting ripped off? Tell them that they are cheating you, rant, rave and think about how much that person probably needed that extra 100 rs ($2.00).
Lost in a tiger preserve? Don't depend on boys.
Riding bikes on major roads dominated by buses coming directly for you? Swerve.
Luggage that falls apart? Buy new luggage?
Lock the new luggage and lose the key, and find out the zipper is broken anyways? Make it a carry-on.

Ladies that comb the beach and sing songs to you about beautiful mangos, pineapples, and madams? Buy a sliced pineapple and eat in the ocean.
Not sure where to get off your bus in a country without road signs? Ask ask ask everyone around you and listen, because these people do it a lot.
Step on a crab? Take a picture of it and apologize.
Being spooned from behind by impatient Indians in a queue? Take a picture.
Finding a hotel at 10:30 at night, being white females? Lonely Planet.
Make our way safely across an entire communist state in 10 days by plane, train, car, bus, rickshaw, boat, elephant, and bike? Done and done, by just letting it happen.

And of course, on the way to THERE is some of the best part.
The way THERE can be stressful, or you can remember that you can't control it. And so the way THERE becomes very easy, and very carefree. And if you just spent 7 hours on 3 different buses traveling to THERE, it isn't a day wasted, but a day where you rode across an entire state in India and saw villages and backwaters and fruit and mountains and clouds and daily life and processions and the sun set and the children play and relished in the smiles and the help and even in being able to see close up the sad, tired eyes of a woman tired from work commuting an hour back home as she climbs the stairs with bags heavier than she is.

The question of the week was Why Not? and Why Not? Why couldn't that be the question? We had nowhere to be but THERE so everything was a-go.

I've finished reading On the Road for about the zillionith time and now, a few quotes that I can now truly relate to, instead of just reading the book that defined a generation, a generation full of actions and experiences that I never thought I could know.

Carnival man to Dean and Sal --> "You boys going somewhere, or just going?" We didn't understand his question, and it was a damned good question.

Dean --> "Now dammit, look here, all of you, we all must admit that everything is fine and there's no need in the world to worry, and in fact we should realize what it would mean to us to UNDERSTAND that we're not REALLY worried about ANYTHING. Am I right?" We all agreed.

Dean --> " Now, Sal, we're leaving everything behind us and entering a new and unknown phase of things. All the years and troubles and kicks - and now this! so that we can safely think of nothing else and just go on ahead with our faces stuck out like this, you see, and understand the world as, really and genuinely speaking, other Americans haven't done before us - they were here, weren't they?"

I need to say, though, is that as much as I like On The Road, I feel so sad for these characters.
I get all caught up in the story so often. My mind races and I'm gone, just like everything else in and related to On The Road and then I hate the book. And I hate the characters. And I hate myself for loving it so much, when all I do is end up feeling so sorry for those that can't figure out what they are looking for, and spend so much time looking, they forget what they have and lose it all.
They themselves feel so sad, because it is a sad life they led.

And so, more to come.
Definitely more pictures. And more explanations and trip details and yea, all of those things.