The 200-km drive from Delhi to Rishikesh took 7 hours! 'Nuf said.
1 The road from Delhi to Rishikesh currently wins our prize for worst we've traveled on. It took one hour to get out of Delhi. At the "border" of the next state, we spent 10 minutes warding off an aggressive beggar woman with a baby (hers?) on her arm, while our driver negotiated the tax. Here is a market street somewhere along the way.
2 Proud barber showing off his skills.
3 Indian taxi
4 The toll booth (péage) -- What is the life expectancy of this poor man in all that pollution?
5 We saw lots of farm produce and by-products being hauled around by various animals like this bull.
6 An even larger load of sticks. These are the stalks of the sugar cane grown in this area. At ;east some will be burned to make candy, as we saw later.
7 Another bull, smaller load.
8 Sugar cane abounds north of Delhi
9 Our driver stopped at one of several small factories making candy.
10 Here is the low-tech tool for squeezing the juice out of the cane.
11 The hot sugar mixture is spread out to dry and cut with some sort of instrument we did not see.
12 Stacked-up plates of sugary stuff. Actually, it is quite delicious.
13 Another bull and some more sticks and stalks. They don't worry about motorized traffic.
14 Those are shit-piles, not bee-hives. You don't want to mistake them.
