Dream Trip 2008: April

Great Travel Moment

It was the second week on a difficult but required 6-week first trip across India. This was street-level-nothing-fancy travel. Up to the moment of this photo, I had not adjusted to the poverty, the litter and the rigors of India travel. On this morning, I had time before the work I was doing in India. I opted for a dawn ride in a three-wheel tuk-tuk. The young driver asked me how I liked India and in casual conversation, of course, I said I liked it. Not really. I was a spoiled Westerner who was only tolerating it all. But on my shamefully shallow but courteous answer, the driver pulled over to the side of the road, the litter flew up and he turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, "I am glad you like it. Isn't it the most beautiful place in the world?" In the moment of this photo when Bangalore was waking, thanks to that driver who gave me his eyes to see it, India became, and has remained, the most beautiful place in the world.