Good Afternoon, this is Doug with Around the World 1999. Today is November 6th. Today's journal entry is from Butwal, Nepal to Mombasa, India.

We left our hotel in Butwal about 6:30am in hopes of reaching Naini Tal, India before nightfall. Our cars had been locked up all night in the hotel parking lot and the first thing I saw when the guard opened the security gate is a cow and two small pigs routing for food on a smoldering garbage pile. Pigs are one of my favorite animals so I snapped a couple of pictures. It's just kind of funny. Picture in your mind, a full grown cow with two tiny little piglets running around at its feet and they're all just grubbing down on garbage.

It took us a while to find our way out of town, but eventually we got headed in the right direction. The drive was pretty amazing at first, deep canyons and rushing rivers. The roads are in fairly good shape along with the occasional pothole section. After we got out of the hills, the road was amazingly flat and rice patties flanked the sides. We had a half dozen or so rivers to cross. At the largest one, Hercules, with myself behind the wheel, got stuck and died right dead center in the river. Nick had to pull me out with Alaska. I didn't feel like wading through a river in lowland Nepal. I had no idea when my next shower would be, and I'm sure the water was full of little nasty parasitic creatures. So I climbed out onto the hood and tossed Todd the raft. Meanwhile, Jeff had the video camera going from inside the car, so he captured the whole debacle on video. I'm sure those of you in the Nor-Cal Land Rover club will have a field day ripping myself for our performance. Prime example of how not to cross a river. But all the other ones, I did just fine. So cut me some slack.

We pressed on, dodging water buffaloes and cows. We finally reached the border right at dusk. We cleared Nepali immigration as well as Indian customs and carnay(?) matters, but the Indian immigrations officer had gone home for the night. We were informed that the border was closed. We went back to the carnay officer and he said that he would help us out. He gave the Indian immigration officer a call and the guy said he would come back. He did come back, but unfortunately, he was very drunk and he didn't feel like checking our passports. It was the first day of Diwali, which is a big celebration for Hindus, and he had been partying. He made it clear that he wasn't going to do any work that evening, but he would definitely see us first thing in the morning.

We had no other choice, but to pop the top on the Dormobiles and settle in for the night as best we could amid all the celebratory explosions in Diwali. At this time I'm going to read verbatim out of the India Lonely Planet that tells you about Diwali.

This is the happiest festival of the Hindu calendar celebrated on the 15th day of Kartika. At night, countless oil lamps are lit to show Rama the way home from his period of exile. Today the festival is also dedicated to Lakshmi, particularly in Bombay, and to Kali, in Calcutta. In all, the festival lasts 5 days. On the first day, houses are thoroughly cleaned and doorsteps are decorated with intricate Rangoli, chalk designs. Day two is dedicated to Kali's victory over Raktavija, a legendary tyrant. In the South on this day, a pre-dawn oil bath is followed by the dawning of new clothes. Day three is spent worshiping Lakshmi, a goddess of fortune. Traditionally, this is the beginning of a new financial year for companies. Day four commemorates a visit of the friendly demon Bali, whom Vishnu put in his place. On the fifth day, men visit their sisters to have a tilak put on their forehead. Diwali has also become a festival of sweets. Giving sweets has become as much a part of the tradition as the lighting of the oil lights and firecrackers. Diwali is also celebrated by the Jains as their New Year's Day.

A little addition to that, as far as we can tell, fireworks and massive explosions seem to be the order of the day with Diwali. We're not talking firecrackers, we're talking minimum M80 and larger explosions. You can buy these things on any street corner. They look like rolled up balls of twine, which they are. Somewhere in there is a little explosive charge. We ended up buying a bunch of them and just let them off. There are really loud. You hear these all through the night. All through the night, and all through the day. It sounds like a demilitarized zone. So, that gives you a little idea of what Diwali is all about.

This is Doug with around The World 1999 signing off. Goodbye.