The Newbie....

We possess almost every gadget under the sun, but this is my first blogging experience! It's a new thing for me....I hope I'm not the only one!

For a description assignment, I pulled an article out of the March 2006 edition of National Geographic Traveler. Though we subscribe to other travel magaines, we find Traveler to be the absolute BEST! I have a vivid imagination as it is, but the writers at Traveler really do take you to places you've never been. Rudy Maxa is a favorite of ours....he also has a show called "Smart Travels" on PBS. The article is called I came in search of Authentic India. (And found it. Then I took it home.)

We awoke on one of our last days in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan and emerged from our tents to find five or six crocodiles lolling on the banks of the small lake where, the night before, we'd dined by candlelight as waiters emerged from moonlit shadows bearing the makings of a feast.

The crocs weren't that big, and they looked benign baking in the early morning sun. But a guard with a rifle had kept a wary eye as we'd dined and slept. I was grateful -- a lack of rain had shrunk the lake, and I figured the crocodiles' menu options might be shrinking too. And in the desert, on the crocs' home turf, humans rank lower on the food chain.

Orange, blue and red flags outside our luxurious tents -- each tent complete with flush toilet and hot shower -- whipped in the morning breeze. Although it was only March, we knew that the serious heat would arrive in an hour or so. As Mark Twain once wrote of India "cold weather" is only a phrase that distinguishes "between weather which will melt a brass doorknob and weather which will only make it mushy."

Almost makes you want to go, doesn't it?