Here’s a little picture of what you’ll see on your way out to the Ashram.
Clothing stand on road from Kanpur
Downtown traffic is interesting too:
unusually light traffic near Kanpur on the way to Brahmavarta, India
Usually the road is packed with 5 or 6 lanes of people, bikes, motorcycles, moto-rikshaws, cars, trucks and buses!
I have my plane ticket.
Kayak.com helped me navigate all the online resellers and find a good price and more or less acceptable itinerary.
Meet me in Detroit Thursday, March 11th to catch KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 6052 (Delta Flt 252). It leaves at 4:00 PM (1600 hrs) EST. Or, meet me in the Amsterdam-Schiphol (AMS) airport to catch KLM Royal Dutch Airlines # 871 at 11:10 AM (1110 hrs), March 12th. This is the flight that goes to Delhi arriving at 11:30 PM (23:30 hrs) on March 12th, at Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi.
It gets in pretty late so we’ll go straight to our hotel to sleep. Mr. Ashish Tiwari will meet us and take us to visit a Temple or two. We’ll find a pleasant place to have a meal. Then find something else interesting to do in the afternoon.
It will be a gentle day because we will have just flown half way around the world.
In 2008, I flew from Newark to Delhi in about 15 hours. I was on the road for about 12 hours before that. So it took me a bit over 24 hours to get there. This type of traveling is tiring for me as I don’t sleep well sitting up. 
Therefore, we’ll get to bed early on the 13th. Next morning we’ll be up at 0500 AM (0500 hrs) and at the train station by 5:45 AM (0545 hrs). The Lucknow Swarna Shatabdi Express leaves for Kanpur at 6:15 AM (0615 hrs). The official Indian Government website to buy e-tickets is http://www.irctc.co.in/ They require you to register and set up an account for free. This allows you to purchase e tickets.
The easiest site to find train information on was Indian Rail Info. It’s an ad-free, non-commercial website. It is not affiliated with the govt. operated official website.
http://indiarailinfo.com/search/664/452. This link will take you to the page for Indian Trains in general. Look for train #2004 in the left column. Click on the row and a drop down window will show you that it is a 5 hour, 5 minute ride to Kanpur Central from New Delhi. Dig a little deeper and you’ll see that it costs 1180 Rupees (Rs.) for First Class AC. The food was quite good last time I rode that train.
We’ll arrive in Kanpur around 11:20 AM. It averages being 4 minutes late. From there, we’ll thread our way through the trafi
Note that the train station code we want is NDLS for New Delhi and CNB for Kanpur Central.
Please email me to let me know that you are coming. . . goldenspirit-at-jyotish-yagya.com
India is a place of contrasts. Here is a 10 Rupee bill I brought home in 2008.
Mahatma Gandhi on the 10 Rupee note
National symbols of India on the reverse of a 10 Rupee note. Elephant, Tiger, and Rhinoceros on the Ten Rupee note.
Tiger, Elephant, and Rhinoceros on 10 Rupee note
India is generally inexpensive relative to the USA. Check out the exchange rate from dollars to rupees here. Today 10 Rupees is worth about 21 cents. Fifty rupees will get you an auto rickshaw ride from Hotel Sita International to the train station. Be sure to set the price before getting into the 3 wheeler!
Five star accomodations are available. Hotel Sita is quite comfortable, although not 5 star, at about 1600 Rupees per night. I like them as a hotel.
I stayed the night there in September 2008 on my way to Kanpur. I only slept about 5 hours that night (jetlag, excitment with my first trip to India). I left a sports jacket hanging in the closet. Totally forgot I’d brought it.
When I stayed there in October 2008 on my way back to the States they returned my jacket to me! It was neatly wrapped in plastic with my name on it! Honesty is a great quality.
Next post will list the estimated costs to me for this trip.
