DJ - Hello and welcome to the update with Carl and Don coming to you at this time from Delhi or New Delhi, India. As you travel, we often ask each other, "How's the weather?" The weather here deserves a comment. It's hot, it's humid, it's windy, there's not a cloud in the sky.

Delhi is a city that is incredible. I want to be careful with my adjectives and be kind as a brief visitor. By incredible I mean it is a real mixture of madness and mayhem. When you ask what the population of Delhi is, the response that you get is too many, because the population here is thought to be between 9 and 10 million people, all thrown into an urban environment that had not planned for that many people. In our brief time here, you couldn't help but notice that people are attempting to live underneath the highway overpasses and some of the railroad overpasses in very pathetic living conditions right on the public streets and highways. Driving in India I would describe as sort of a human pinball machine game. It makes the machine pinball kind of dull. It also makes driving in places that have repute for driving conditions, like Rome, Italy or Mexico City, Mexico, seem rather mild. I say that because if you ask what are the rules of the road in India, I think the answer is there aren't any. You make them up as you go. The combination of the vehicles and modes of transportation that are all on the surface of the public highway can range from ox carts to tractors pulling produce and people to highway transport trucks, buses, along with people walking in either direction on the side of the road and then you throw in some sacred holy cows who take it upon themselves to meander into the highway at any time and you have quite a combination. One of the rules of driving in India is to use your horn liberally. On the back of every transport truck is an ad mentioning, "Please use your horn." This is quite in contrast with a place like Japan where in many of the urban environments, such as Tokyo, it's against the law to even use your horn. Well here in India, a horn is an essential part of the driving technique. It's really quite extraordinary and if you like challenges, as far as driving is concerned, it can be challenging. We've attempted also to do it at night, which is like playing the pinball game blindfolded. I think for most people it would be pretty nerve racking and stressful and indeed it is for us, but you somehow choreograph your way through all of this mayhem and you get to where you're going.

We crossed a major river today, it was the Ganges River. We've added that to our water crossings since we began our journey in Times Square, New York. We've crossed the Hudson River. We've crossed the Guyahoga River in Cleveland. We mentioned that in one of our reports that we survived that experience. We crossed the Mississippi, the mighty Missouri, the Plattes, the Sacramento and of course, the extraordinary Yellow River in China. And so today we crossed the Ganges River on our travel into the city of Delhi, also called New Delhi, it's the same place. The Ganges River has been added to our landmarks that we've traversed as we've traveled around the world thus far by automobile. Couldn't help but notice that there is a sign at the entrance to the bridge of the Ganges River that says, "No Photography Permitted." I thought to myself that in this age of satellite photography, how peculiar it was to see a sign like that. Can't image if that was a religious region or a strategic reason, but nonetheless, thought it kind of curious to see a sign such as that in 1997.

A word about India to give you and me some perspective. The history of New Delhi is that anything that the British started in the city of Delhi is referred to as New Delhi and the old Delhi part of the Ranjit, the Maharaja who ruled India up to the arrival of the east Indian trading company from the UK in the 1800's. It's referred to as Delhi. You might enjoy reading this history of New Delhi, or is it Delhi? The answer is either answer is correct. The third answer in modern times is New Delhi.

As we say the population here is an incredible 9-10 million people and we can tell, being here only a short time, that the infrastructure of the city is really quite stretched. Many housing buildings stand in partial completion. A lot of attempts to provide some modern housing and there is also some very, very, distressed and very inferior housing throughout this major city which is the capital city of the nation of India. A nation that's celebrating it's 50th year of independence at the present time.

Moving along in our report, a couple of comments about the '54 Packard. We are currently operating with two wheel bolts missing from the front wheels of the car. One of the bolts came loose after we had a tire serviced in Katmandu and we found ourselves the day before yesterday going down the highway with the wheel wobbling. We stopped to discover that a bolt was missing and that the rim had been damaged in the short time we had operated without the missing bolt. So we removed a bolt from one side, made an adjustment, in fact changed the wheel with the spare and we're currently operating with four bolts on each front wheel instead of five. And the vibration of traveling through rivers and jungles and over mountains have caused the windows to become inoperative, we think because of vibration. We're not worried about that because fortunately we're going into desert and it shouldn't be a problem.

Many questions are asked on the E-mails from the Guest Book about the car, what we do in our spare time and how we handle food and bathroom needs and do we operate with the top down on the convertible. Dave Hill of Los Altos, California asked about that. Gary Nadolsky of Wisconsin has asked about the logistical arrangements. We want to acknowledge receipt of those questions and say that over the course of the next two or three days, we'll comment in response to those questions and tell you about some of our daily operations. I want to acknowledge also other E-Mails just briefly. My daughter Mary Jones in South Bend, Indiana was kind enough to think about me on this special day and I want her to know I did have some apple pie and that I do understand that she could not surprise me by coming to India, but, nonetheless, through her messages and by means of telecommunications we can still be in contact. So, Mary, thanks so much for your messages and your good wishes and I really enjoyed hearing from you here in India. To Bianca in Madrid, Felix's friend, who is not quite sure that her messages are getting through to Mick the Flick and Felix, both are operating a Mercedes automobile, we want Bianca in Madrid to know that her messages are being received and that Felix has copies of her E-Mail comments, and so does the rest of the world, but it's a small world and it really doesn't matter because we're all amongst friends and family. To students at Poplar Bridge School in Minnesota, we want you to know we've gotten you're greeting and we're going to be getting back to you with further comments from our journey. To the senior officer of General Motors Buick Division in Michigan, we want him to know we appreciate receiving his E-Mail and knowing that he's following our journey.

The number of cars have officially decreased we're told by the amount of 75 at the present time. 94 began the trip in Peking. It's hard everyday for us to complete our travel and to keep up with all the news, but a couple of things that have occurred that we do know about. One is that Herbert and Elfi Handlbauer's car, a 328 BMW, had a broken part and fell behind by as much as a day and a half. We understand that the Handlbauers, who are from Austria, were able to have a part fabricated and have succeeded in getting back with the agenda and the itinerary. A mishap within the last 24 hours, last night our time, when a Rover automobile operated by two participants from the UK drove off the road and over a cliff. For more facts about what happened, we would direct you to the Discovery Channel's Peking to Paris news and information service prepared by Mike, Drew and Chris of the Discovery Team who are on the journey and they can fill you in on the details (discovery.com). The drivers were not seriously injured, although, I understand, they were obviously shaken by the experience.

Here in India it seems like there are people on every square foot of the land as you move around in this country of 800 plus million people. We'll ask our chief research librarian, Mom Jones, to look at the square mile density for India, on a population basis and compare that to some earlier figures we gave you for China and the United States, so that we can get an understanding of just how intense the population situation is here in India. We want to report to you that when we entered the country, we gained back 15 minutes of time so our time difference is now 11 hours and 30 minutes from the United States. When we began in China, the time difference was 13 hours and for some reason we gained 15 minutes between Nepal and India. I myself would like to know the history as to why that is. If someone would care to look into it for us and pass it along in an E-Mail, we would certainly enjoy knowing why there is that peculiar time zone situation in this part of the world involving 15 minutes for India and 15 minutes for Nepal.

We've quickly scanned the local newspaper and would share with you some highlights to give you a feel for what's important in this part of the world contrasted to where you are and where you live. Here in New Delhi they have requested 5,000 new police officers and as many as 17 new police stations. They say that they have had 124,000 persons arrested in 1996 and that has skyrocketed from 68,000 persons in 1984. So they're asking for funding and authority to hire 5,000 new police officers in the city of Delhi and to open 17 police stations in addition to the present 107 police stations that are currently in this major capital city.

There's kind of fascinating situation involving cable television and satellite television programming. An arrest warrant or summons has been issued for Rupert Merdoch here in New Delhi. It has to do with obscene and vulgar films being shown on a satellite television channel. A 32 page complaint has been filed in the local court here along with copies of actual movies such as Danger of the Damned, Stripped to Kill and The Jigsaw Murders have all been submitted to the court and an arrest warrant has been issued for Rupert Merdoch to come to India and to defend the use of that material on cable television.

The Prime Minister of India made a presentation to the United Nations. And in his presentation he said something that we probably would not think of in the United States and that is, he made the observation that India is the largest democracy in the world and that New Delhi is ready to take responsibility for permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council as the largest democracy in the world. They should be entitled to that position. Those comments made Thursday by the Prime Minister of India to the United Nations.

On the business front, an Indian, age 34, who also is an American, has invented an electronic postage stamp. He has entered into an arrangement with the United States postal service to allow users to print postage directly on envelopes or labels while printing addresses. When postage runs out, you can use a PIN number to access an account with the United States postal service and secure what's called an E Stamp. A company that the Indians have started in the United States has secured funding from Microsoft and AT&T as part of a joint venture. So people from outside the United States are inventing the concept of E Stamp, as it's called. It's estimated that 40% of the world's mail originates in the United States.

Lastly, it's hard to tell whether attention is being given in the United States to this piece of news from China, but in China, public officials there and the foreign minister said that they are seeking a strategic alliance with the United States similar to that that the US has made with Russia and France. The Foreign Minister of China, whose comments are headline news in this part of the world, made these comments 30 days in advance of a visit to the United States by the president of China and those remarks are thought to be of very major political significance in this part of the world.

We have received some mechanical advice from Andy Vann who is from what he calls the Red Neck Riviera. We would probably refer to that as Alabama. Andy, in the small world department, tells us that he is from the town of Trustville, Alabama where they have a police dispatcher whose name is Fond du Lac Page. Apparently, Mr. Page was born in the city of Fond du Lac, near and dear to many our family and friends, and his first name is Fond du Lac. I've never encountered a person with a first name like that. He's the police dispatcher for the city of Trustville, Alabama. These are things that you learn about as you travel and meet peope around the world.

We want you to know that we've arrived in Delhi. It's a very hot, humid, dusty, windy and chaotic city. I like to describe the situation here as unorganized chaos in contrast to organized and disciplined chaos in China. When you think about the fact that the combination of the population of China and India is 2 billion people and there are 5 billion people in the world, and what a tremendous amount of resource that is, and the human public policy and management issues that that represents it's very extraordinary.

We are being very well received in India. People have an expression here of saying to all the participants, may luck be with you. Tomorrow promises to be a challenging and hard day and that is because it begins at 4 AM. We've been advised that we must be on the road at 4 AM because we have to arrive during daylight hours in plenty of time to be processed across the one and only former border that exists between India and Pakistan, who are currently in a state of war involving the Kashmir region. Consequently all of the automobiles in the rally are being asked to depart at 4 AM tomorrow in order to cover the 400 kilometer journey over to Pakistan and the Indian/Pakistan border. We hope to pass through the cities of Amritsar, where the Queen of England is expected to visit in October. Then to move onto the nearby city of Lahore, a major regional city in Pakistan where we'll be overnighting and having a much needed day off.

The 1954 Packard continues to roll on. It seems to be indestructible. Although it is battered and bruised quite a bit as are most of the cars at this point. We've had comments from the boys of the Aston Martin from UK, Tony and Simon, two London businessmen, that they just can't believe that the '54 red Packard is still going on and on and they chuckle and laugh when they see the car at the end of everyday continuing to carry one while they're struggling to keep their very fine and well tuned Aston Martin, sort of a James Bond kind of automobile, going on these very, very difficult conditions. We're back on asphalt roads and that makes things just so much easier for both machines and people than some of the off road traveling that we've been doing over the last few weeks.

That's today's update. Again, a lot of information to share with you. I thought all of you would find it very fascinating and interesting to share this experience and I want you to know that it isn't because I enjoy talking so much that I'm passing on this information, it's because I know it's important and it's being relied on, not only the family and friends of Carl and Don, but now the many family and friends of participants in this extraordinary journey. So we'll stop at this point and tell you that our next update will come to you from Pakistan. In the next 24 hours we'll be leaving Delhi, the capital of India and going to Pakistan. And the journey rolls on with our destination of Paris in October as our objective. Thanks for joining the update and stay with us on this wonderful trip. We're hanging in here. We're committed to staying through to the end and with the grace of God, we'll all be healthy and well and be able to see our way through this experience. So long until the next time and good-bye to you from India.