Some of the coolest people we've met in India, were in our compartment on the Mumbai-Jhansi train (if you're playing the home game, that's the #1057 Amritsar Express, schedule 4 in Trains at a Glance). They asked to borrow our copy of TAAG, and in return gave us their Indian Railways map — one of the best souveneirs we could've gotten. "I wish I'd had this weeks ago!" Claudia said.

As the day went on we chatted about various things, and one of the guys and I played gin rummy together. When I was a kid, my dad used to kick the crap out of me at gin, but today the card gods were with me. At least, they finally were, considering that Claudia had just finished trouncing me in a game of 500, that finally ended after a month of back-and-forth, up-and-down play.

The married couple we were chatting with also let us feast with them. They were going from Mumbai to Delhi, and had brought enough food, apparently, in case they decided to change their minds and ride to Siberia. Their homemade lemon pickle certainly would've kept them warm enough.

Indians like to pickle things. Fruit, vegetables, fungus, you name it; somewhere in India, it's being pickled right now. Lemon pickle is perhaps the most popular. It's very simple: salt, lemon, oil, and red chili powder. It's also very powerful. Imagine taking a bite of something (fruit and rind, both softened by the pickling) so tart that your mouth sucks in on itself, yet hot enough to make you want to gasp a little more after each bite. Yet so damn good you have to finish it. My lips were tingling for a while afterwards, though it was a great complement to the sweet rice they gave us.

We left them at Jhansi, after handshakes and well-wishes. Their kindness and curiosity — and ability to put up with 2 Yanks constantly asking them to repeat themselves — was boundless. Claudia and I didn't realize that this was only the beginning of meeting some very cool people.