The good news is I got to India…the bad news is my baggage didn’t. It got stuck in Beijing but will be delivered to Lataa Chitti’s (my aunt’s) house.

Not deterred, I raided Lataa Chitti’s closet (3 AM - photo at right), Mehar Singh drove us to the train station (4 AM — the title of this post is derived from the incredibly annoying and repetitive message that played over the station’s loudspeaker when trains were delayed) and we hopped the train to Jaipur (6 am). The service on the train surpassed our expectations (on time, lots of legroom… way better than Amtrak!). When we got on board we received tea and biscuits, a copy of the Hindustan Times, followed by a delicious lunch of vada, and sambar (Jamie looked confused so I showed him how to eat them).

After getting off the train we met up with Jamie’s family (David, Rusty, and brother Dan) at the luxurious Le Meridien. From there it was off to the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar and the Palace of the Winds.

The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical/astrological observatory, which includes a huge (27 meters high) sundial which can tell time up to 2 seconds. It was also interesting to see the dials which are used to calculate the ascending star sign in Hindu astrology. My grandfather was an astrologer and I’ve been hearing about Hindu stars and signs since birth so it was very cool to see how the calculations are made.

Jamie is currently en route to Delhi right now, via London (eat some salted cashews for all of us, J!) Unfortunately, thanks to a canceled United flight (with no notice), I’m still in rainy San Fran (BOO!).

When I arrived at the airport this morning they informed me that I couldn’t fly to Delhi via Beijing without a Chinese visa because my itinerary said I was staying in Beijing for over 24 hours. What?! A 28-hour layover? That was definitely NOT in my original plans. But apparently United/Air China canceled my original Beijing to Delhi flight and without telling me, booked me on a flight that left the following day (moral of the story: think twice before flying United).

Rather than camp out in the Beijing airport and risk deportation due to lack of a visa, I’m just flying to Beijing/Delhi tomorrow morning…certainly not my ideal situation. The good news is, while this sets me back a day, it doesn’t interrupt too much of our itinerary. As soon as I get to Delhi, we’ll hop a train to Jaipur to meet up with the Ruth clan.

Just hoping that Jamie can survive a day in Delhi left to his own devices We shall see…