Our train rolled into Varanasi at around 5:00 am. The station was a lot busier than I’d expect it to be at that hour:

Varanasi train station, crowded at 5:00 am

A bright eyed and bushy-tailed rickshaw driver approached us as we were coming down from the platform. He drove us through a bustling produce market (apparently people start buying vegetables at 3:00 am) to a few guest houses in the old city. The first one we stopped at had almost the same name as the guest house we had asked him to take us to (the one recommended in our guide books), but I noticed a difference in the spelling. When I pointed it out he told us he couldn’t actually drive us to the place we wanted to go because the streets were too narrow. The guest house owner couldn’t give us a room until 10:00 am, so the driver took us to a few other places. I felt bad because we kept having to wake up the staff who were sleeping in guest house lobbies. We finally found a nice room (well, it looked nice at first glance. We later discovered a rancid smell coming out of the bathroom drains as well as some animal droppings on the floor) at a guest house right next to one of the ghats leading down to the Ganges river.

Varanasi is one of the most sacred cities for Hindus. The city has over 100 bathing and cremation ghats stretched along one of the banks of the Ganges. As in other cities on the Ganges, nightly worship ceremonies take place on the river, and people bathe and swim in the river to wash away their sins. We also saw people brushing their teeth and washing laundry in the Ganges water. There were even a few people drinking it.

After napping for a few hours, Rebecca and I hopped in a bicycle rickshaw and headed for McDonald’s. On the way we rode by one of most shocking and disgusting sights I’ve ever seen–a man was taking a poop right on the side of the road, pants-free, squatting so low that he was basically sitting in his own excrement.

us in a bike rickshaw

Most of the activity on the Ganges occurs at sunrise and sunset, so that evening we walked along the ghats to take in the sights. We passed by one of the main cremation ghats, where we saw a few corpses being burned in piles of firewood right along the side of the river. It was kind of unsettling to watch. Many Hindus are cremated in Varanasi because they believe that if they die and are cremated there, they can free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation and go straight to heaven. Here are some photos from our walk:

one of many goats wearing clothes in Varanasi

boats on the Ganga

cattle by the ghats

Kedar Ghat

The next morning we woke up early for a sunrise rowboat ride on the Ganga–a popular tourist attraction. In fact, almost every man we encountered on our evening walk along the ghats tried to sell us a boat ride. Here are some photos of that:

the ghats by our guest house

the boatman

the ghats at sunrise

the main ghat

one of the cremation ghats

After the boat ride, we met up with a rickshaw driver and a guide who took us to see a few temples. The guide was around our age, and his aviator sunglasses, knit ski cap, cocky swagger, and the Indian hip hop music he blasted on his cell phone indicated that he thought he was way too cool a dude to be showing tourists around. He couldn’t provide us with much information about the temples we saw, but he did tell us that he had met Goldie Hawn. Very helpful. Photos from that tour are below.

Vishwanath Temple, located on the Banaras Hindu University campus

our guide holding a puppy outside of the temple

a pile of puppies. the cutest dogs I've seen in India

hand weaving a silk brocade

The coolest temple we saw was Durga Temple, also known as monkey temple as tons of monkeys hang around there. Unfortunately, cameras weren’t allowed in, so I couldn’t take any photos. In an area just outside of the temple, people sat in rows on long benches, chanting prayers along with a leader who spoke into a mic. The wall outside of one of the shrines was covered in orange pigment, which masses of people were touching and then putting on their foreheads. In another area, a group of people were singing and playing instruments. It was loud and chaotic but very interesting.

We read and slept for the rest of that day because we were tired from getting up so early. That evening we grudgingly ate the bad food at the guest house because we didn’t have the energy to walk around the maze of narrow streets that make up the old city. We rallied the next morning though and walked around and did a bit of shopping. Here are some shots of the old city streets:

cows in the road

a chai maker

a sadhu in the street

That night, we checked out the prayer ceremony on the Ganges. There were a bunch of sadhus (Hindu holy men) lined up on the steps of the ghat:

a fancily clad sadhu

a line of sadhus

the prayer ceremony

The next morning (Thanksgiving day) we were back on the train, bound for Khajuraho–our final stop before going back to Delhi. All we had to eat during the 8-hour ride was a handfull of bite-sized samosas. We passed the time fantasizing about what our friends and family were probably eating for Thanksgiving dinner and made lists of all the food we can’t wait to eat when we go back to the US.

We took a 2-hour train ride followed by a 4-hour bus ride from Varkala to Periyar, a hill station in Eastern Kerala with spice and tea plantations and a wildlife sanctuary. The bus ride was unrestful because we sat in the first row, right behind the driver, and we couldn’t take our eyes off of the scary driving. The bus driver zoomed down the winding, hilly roads, aggressively overtaking other vehicles and coming within inches of oncoming traffic. It seemed extremely dangerous, even for driving in India (which I thought I was used to by this point)! We were relieved when we made it to Periyar. We checked in to a really cute jungle-themed guesthouse with a campfire pit and a little treehouse in the back.

jungle-themed guesthouse

the funky elephant bed in our room

The next day, a very friendly rickshaw driver took us into the wildlife sanctuary. He informed us of a horrible boating accident that had taken place in the park about a month earlier. Apparently a tourist boat in the sanctuary’s lake was overloaded and capsized when all 80 of its passengers suddenly rushed to one side to catch a glimpse of an animal someone spotted. Since then, park officials have stopped operating boat rides. We were still able to take a 3-hour nature walk with a group of 3 other people and a guide. Before we went into the jungle, we had to put thick khaki socks on over our regular socks and pant legs to prevent leeches from getting through to our skin and sucking blood. The socks looked a bit ridiculous, but I was glad I wore them as there were so many leeches in the jungle mud. They looked a little like inch worms, but the thought of them was pretty gross. They were covering our shoes and socks by the time we were through with walking, but luckily none of them got onto our skin.

leech-covered socks

wearing our leech socks, ready to enter the jungle

The nature walk was nice, but it was a bit of a disappointment in terms of animal sightings (aside from leeches of course). We had expected to see at least a few wild elephants as there are about 1,000 in the sanctuary, but we only saw one elephant pretty far in the distance, mostly hidden by trees and shrubs. Other than that, the only wildlife we saw was a few wild boars, a monkey, and the two largest spiders I’ve ever seen. They were bigger than a human hand. According to our guide, we missed seeing a leopard by about 2 seconds. He also told us that animal sightings on the nature walks are pretty rare and that we were lucky to have spotted an elephant at all. If we’d known that beforehand, we might not have made the trip to Periyar. We’ve since heard that there are better national parks in India.

we crossed the lake on this bamboo raft

a massive spider

our jungle guide

our guide said this was a tiger's hairball

if you look very closely, you can maybe see part of an elephant through the trees

On the bright side, we made a friend from Israel during the nature walk and saw some cool things outside of the sanctuary. After having lunch with our new friend, we went to a tea plantation and factory and saw how tea is grown and processed. I hadn’t been inside a working factory for a long time. It was interesting and reminded me of an episode of Mr. Rogers.

fields of tea plants

more tea

connemarra tea factory

these women pick tea leaves and carry them to the factory

women waiting to bring tea inside to be processed

After that, we went to a spice garden and saw nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and a bunch of other herb and spice plants. Our guide made a few racial slurs but was generally entertaining.

the spice garden

checking out at a spice market

That night while we were enjoying dessert by the campfire pit at our hotel, two huge rats scampered out of the jungle and came right at our table. Unfortunately, I didn’t see them coming, and they both scratched against my legs before darting off behind a building.

Fort Cochin (Days 60-61)

Before dawn the next morning we boarded another government bus back to Cochin. The seats were slightly nicer than on the other buses as they were plush and not quite at 90 degree angles, but the bus quickly became packed, and the 6-hour ride felt long. It was interesting that there was an employee riding the bus whose sole job was to open and close the door and ring a bell to alert the driver that it was safe to start rolling after each stop.

christian decals inside the bus

From the bus stop on the mainland, it was about a 20 minute rickshaw ride out to Fort Cochin, the charming part of Cochin that was initially settled by the Portuguese. We checked into a nice guesthouse recommended by our new Israeli friend and got a driver to take us around to the major sights for a couple of hours. These included an elephant training ground, a ginger factory, a Hindu temple, several churches, the Bishop’s house, a synagogue, Chinese fishing nets on the Arabian Sea, and a few tourist shops which we had to browse so that our driver could earn “points.” Fort Cochin was quiet and had the feel of a small village rather than a city. I liked it.

Rebecca and I at an elephant training center

an enormous pile of elephant poop

snake temple

ginger sitting out in the sun at a ginger factory

women picking out broken pieces of ginger root

fort cochin roof tops

the "jew town" section of fort cochin

chinese fishing nets

a church

Delhi (Days 61-62)

The next morning we were off to the Cochin airport to catch a flight to Delhi. When we booked our plane tickets through the travel agent in Hampi, we didn’t realize the flight made a stop in Hydrabad, so that was an interesting surprise. Our friend Rishabh who lives in Delhi was kind enough to have us stay in his guestroom, so we took a taxi from the airport straight to his house. He invited a few American college students studying abroad at a university in Delhi over for drinks (one of them is interning at his girlfriend, Shailey’s company). Two of them actually go to Brown—I didn’t even know Brown offered a study abroad program in India. They had also recently traveled through Kerala, so we talked about our experiences there. Then we all went to an Italian restaurant in Khan Market that had really good pizzas, even by American standards!

The next morning Rishabh cooked us Maggi noodles for breakfast, which are kind of like top ramen with an Indian flair. They were tasty. Then he dropped us off at the main train station in Delhi and we boarded a train to Varanasi—a 17 hour journey. We were again in the air conditioned 3-tier sleeper class. I’ve gotten very good at passing time (not that I was ever one to get bored easily), so I wasn’t dreading this train ride at all. It’s nice not to have anything to do but sit, read, listen to music.

The train ride started off alright. It got progressively grosser as time went on, though. People threw their trash directly on the floor (I guess because the windows don’t open in the air-conditioned cars, otherwise they would throw it out the window), and the man sitting directly across from us indiscreetly changed into his PJs right in front of us and later spit chewing tobacco on the floor. He also wouldn’t stop looking at us. I guess the glaring might have been justified at one point because Rebecca and I stuffed ourselves into a single bunk bed side by side to attempt to watch a DVD on my laptop. We were so uncomfortably close that we couldn’t stop laughing.

train beds (sorry, i can't figure out how to rotate photos 90 degrees)

our train meals (they cost us about a dollar)

Though my expectations for the sleeper bus experience were low, it somehow managed to be even more unpleasant than I’d thought it would be. The layout of the bus was actually pretty clever—in the front half there were normal chairs on either side of an aisle and single or double beds above the chairs, and in the back there were two-tiered bunk beds on either side of the aisle. Rebecca and I shared an upper bunk. The bed was about the width of a normal twin bed, and we were close enough to the ceiling that we could barely sit up straight; it was very close quarters. It started pouring rain while we were waiting at the bus stand, so everyone who boarded the bus was soaked. The rain not only made the whole bus smell like wet feet but also prevented people from opening their windows, minimizing the circulation of cool, fresh air. Poor road conditions combined with the scary driving that I’ve mentioned before made for a bumpy, jerky ride. I was very thankful for my inflatable neck pillow, which was the only thing that kept my head from slamming into the wall several times. I brought my laptop up in the bunk with us, so we passed the first few hours watching Gilmore Girls and then dozed in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. We were on the bus for almost 15 hours.

the sleeper bus

By the time we got to Hampi we were sleepy, hungry, and dirty, and we vowed never to take an overnight bus again. A tout drove us from the bus stop to a guesthouse that doubled as a travel agency. We spoke to the travel agent right away as we were eager to secure train tickets to our next destination, Kerala. You can imagine how disappointed we were to learn that the only way we could get there involved a 16-hour overnight bus followed by a 12-hour train. Grudgingly, we booked tickets for the bus leaving the following evening.

We arranged for a rickshaw driver to drive us around the ruins of Hampi, which was home to one of the largest Hindu empires in the 15th and 16th centuries. We both commented that the temple ruins reminded us a lot of the Angkor temples in Cambodia. The striking thing about Hampi is the land surrounding the ruins, which is covered in piles of huge red-orange boulders. It’s really incredible to see. Here are some photos:

elephant stables

the old bazaar

a chariot

boulders

hampi at sunset

temple near hampi bazaar

We explored the ruins for about three hours in the afternoon and evening and then went back to the hotel to book trains for the rest of our trip. We figured we might as well book everything right then because we wanted to avoid buses and to secure sleeper seats on trains we needed to book as far in advance as possible. We booked a cheap flight from one of the main cities in Kerala back up to Delhi this Saturday, where we will spend a night before taking a long train ride to Varanasi. Then we’ll take a train from Varanasi to Khajuraho and after that another train back to Delhi in time for Rebecca’s birthday on December 1st. After that I plan to just hang out in Delhi until I go home for Christmas.

Cochin (Ernakulum) (Day 54)

From Hampi, it was only a hop, a skip, a smelly sleeper bus, a sketchy hotel, and a 12-hour train ride to Cochin. I’m sad to report that the second sleeper bus was actually worse than the first. It started out okay because the bus wasn’t full at first, so we sat in normal seats and read for a few hours before climbing up to our little bunk bed. It was there that the situation got bad. We noticed an awful smell shortly after we got up there. We weren’t sure what it was and figured it might go away, but after it didn’t Rebecca sniffed all of our belongings to see if she could identify the source. Finally she sniffed the covering of the sleeper seat itself and then looked as though she might vomit. It smelled as if it had been covered with sweaty feet and then went unwashed for years, which was probably the reality. Making matters worse, the ride was even bumpier than the first one, likely because we were in the back of the bus right over one of the wheels. Here’s a photo of us making peanut butter sandwiches in our bed on the bus.

After a sleepless night, we arrived in Mangalore at 7:30 am, where we had to connect with our train which wasn’t leaving until 2:30 pm. Because we felt like the stench of the bed had permeated through our hair and clothing, we both felt quite desperate for a shower and decided to look for a cheap hotel that might let us pay a small amount to use a shower for an hour. A rickshaw driver took us to a few different guesthouses, none of which were willing to negotiate such a deal, so we finally settled on taking a room for the day for about $6. The room was pretty gross, and as I was walking down the stairs to leave the hotel a man (I’m pretty sure he worked there) grabbed me inappropriately and then stared at me as though it was my fault. Mangalore seemed like a dirty, busy city. I didn’t get a good vibe from it and was glad we didn’t have to stay very long.

First train ride in India

Finding our places on the train was confusing because we were on some sort of waiting list for seats in the air conditioned, 3-tier sleeper car and didn’t have seats assigned until just before the train departed. This was our first experience on an Indian train. I was expecting it to be pretty uncomfortable, but it was actually clean and smooth compared to the buses. In our car there were rows of three-tiered bunk beds on one side of the aisle and two-tiered beds on the other. Each bed came with two sheets, a pillow, and a blanket, all of which smelled and looked relatively clean. An Indian passenger sitting next to us informed us that usually everyone sits on the lower bunk beds until 8 or 9 pm before putting down the middle bunk and getting into bed. However, I was so sleepy that I put the middle bunk down pretty soon after we left and went to sleep. Probably not the proper etiquette, but I didn’t really care.

the train

rebecca on the train

At around 6 pm a man came around and took our dinner orders. Three hours later he delivered hot meals—some of the spiciest Indian food I’ve had. The stops go unannounced on Indian trains, but luckily the woman sleeping in the bunk across from mine had overheard us speaking about where we were getting off and was kind enough to wake me 15 minutes before our stop, around midnight. I’d reserved a room at a mid-range hotel listed in our guidebooks because all of the budget options were full. It was nice having clean sheets and hot water for a change, but other than that the hotel was not much better than the others we’ve stayed in. It also had a funky fantasy garden in the lobby, pictured below.

garden in hotel lobby

Alleppey and the backwaters of Kerala (Days 54-56)

We slept in past breakfast hours in the fantasy garden café, so I had an unsatisfying breakfast of a veggie burger and a few sips of pineapple juice that had a strong aftertaste of garlic and onion. Then we went to the government (KSRTC) bus stand to catch a 2-hour bus to Alleppey, the shoving off point for many of the backwater houseboat cruises in Kerala. This was our first experience on a government bus. Since the bus was still relatively empty when we got on we were able to take a three person bench all the way in the front and stuff our bags into the third seat. Even though the bus eventually got packed, no one asked us to move our bags from that seat, which made the ride nice and easy and relatively comfortable for us.

the government bus

When we got off the bus we hopped in a rickshaw with the first tout who asked us to look at his guesthouse. We drove past several canals on the way—Alleppey is known as the Venice of India. It’s kind of charming. The guesthouse was similarly sort of charming—a collection of little cement houses with tiled roofs right located right next to one of the canals. There were mangy kittens and a wild hawk hanging around there too. Here are some photos:

guest house in alleppey

a hawk

the canal outside of our guest house

Coincidentally, the owner of the guesthouse was also able to arrange backwater tours, so we met with him that evening and tentatively booked a 22-hour cruise through the backwaters on a private houseboat modeled after a rice barge. We confirmed the trip the next morning when we visited the two boats he offered to us and chose the one with less scruffy looking deck furniture. About two hours after that, we were on our way, cruising leisurely through the backwaters on our own private boat with a captain, a cook, and a deckhnd. It was a peaceful, relaxing experience. The palm trees, rice paddies, and small villages lining the backwaters were beautiful. I especially enjoyed it when the canals narrowed and we could see people in villages on either side. Here are some photos from the trip:

our houseboat leaving the dock in alleppey

el capitano

a huge swarm of ducks

backwaters

a houseboat

villages on the backwaters

a church on the backwaters

rice paddies

The only downside to the houseboat stay was the strong odor of exhaust in our bedroom, I think because it was located right above the engine. We left the doors to the room wide open while we slept that night (under a mosquito net as there were lots of bugs in the backwaters), but still found the smell overpowering. Needless to say, it was not the best night of sleep.

Varkala (Days 56-58)

As soon as we got off the houseboat, we went back to the government bus stand in Alleppey to catch a bus to Varkala—a beach town about 3 hours south of Alleppey, not far from the southern tip of India. This bus ride was considerably less comfortable than the first because the bus was already packed by the time we boarded, and we barely had room to cram ourselves, our backpacks and hand luggage in the crowded aisle. We eventually snagged two seats and managed to push our backpacks all the way to the back of the aisle, but even when we were sitting it was not very comfortable due to the lack of personal space. For instance, a woman who stood next to me rested her hand bag on my knee as though it was the most natural thing to do.

inside the bus

Once we arrive, a rickshaw driver took us to dirt-cheap guesthouse with a super-friendly owner located only a few minutes from the beach. In my opinion, Varkala was even more beautiful than Goa, and it definitely had a more peaceful atmosphere. Contributing to its beauty were palm tree-lined cliffs. Here are some photos:

the beach in varkala

We didn’t do much other than lie on the beach and chill out for the two days we spent in Varkala. It was fantastic. We drank lots of fresh juice and Rebecca enjoyed fresh fish.

a nice spot to chillll

On October 25, Mukesh picked us up in Mcleod Ganj to drive us back to Delhi. It was a 12-hour trip—our longest car ride yet. I was worried that our time with Mukesh might end poorly because of an awkward encounter we’d had when he’d dropped us off in Mcleod Ganj a few days earlier. Before he left us to fend for ourselves for the week, he unexpectedly requested that we pay him his tip right then. It was more of a demand than a request, actually, and it seemed out of character for him to be so pushy. We handed over the same amount we had tipped him after the first 15 days of our trip. He then counted it in front of us, scoffed at it, told us it was a very bad tip, and asked for more money. It was an uncomfortable exchange, because we didn’t want to shortchange this man who’d been so hospitable and friendly toward us, but we felt we’d given him a generous tip. We told him that we gave him what we felt comfortable with at the moment and that we might pay him more when we ended our trip with him in Delhi. It was disappointing because I’d had such a great time at his house and felt like we’d become friends, so we certainly didn’t want him to be upset with use or feel that we’d ripped him off. While in Mcleod Ganj, Rebecca consulted a few Indian friends, who said they thought we had paid him plenty and that he was probably just trying to squeeze as much money out of us as he could. So, we decided not to pay him anything more, but I was nervous that he would bring the matter up again and be angry with us when we refused him more money. Luckily, he didn’t mention it, but we didn’t exchange any warm parting words as I’d imagined we would—only an abrupt “ok, goodbye.” It was a little disappointing. I guess I wanted to believe he invited us to stay at his house because he liked us, not because he wanted a huge tip. Oh well.

Anyway, Mukesh dropped us off at a pretty nice (though the toilet was broken), cheap guesthouse in a part of Delhi we’d been advised to avoid due to an abundance of “shifty blokes.” Our late arrival didn’t stop us from taking a 20-minute rickshaw ride to Defence Colony, the expat area with nice Western restaurants, as we were craving some decent food. The next day we indulged in many comforts from home, including pedicures, fro yo, safe salads, and free wifi, and dinner at a Mexican restaurant with the friends we’d met the last time we were in Delhi. Although my burrito had an Indian flair to it which I could have done without, the nachos weren’t bad, and the margaritas were excellent!

Mumbai (Days 37-41)

The next morning, clad in our Indian suits, we flew to Mumbai to meet up with my parents. It was great to see them, and they loved our outfits.

my mom took this photo of us arriving at Mumbai airport

They whisked us off to the Hyatt Grand, which had comfortable beds and crisp clean sheets. It was incredible. I spent the rest of the day eating and napping and didn’t even leave the hotel.

Rebecca’s boyfriend, Cameron, flew into Mumbai from Kazakhstan late that night (he’d cycled from Beijing to Al Mahdi!). The next afternoon, my parents hired a driver who took all of us to see some of the major attractions in Mumbai, including Chowpatty beach, Haji Ali (a mosque on the sea), the hanging gardens, Dhobi ghat (an outdoor laundromat of sorts, where hospital and hotel sheets are professionally washed), and a Jain temple. The highlight was probably the taking in views of the city from the swanky rooftop bar of the Intercontinental Hotel. Here are some photos:

people doing laundry in dhobi ghat

dhobi ghat

Haji Ali

view of mumbai from the walk to Haji Ali

Haji Ali

Roof top lounge

the view from the roof top lounge

me, Rebecca, and Cameron at the gardens

Mumbai is a crowded city with congested roads. It took us over an hour to get from the southern end back up to our hotel in the northern part by car.

The next day, my mom, Rebecca, and I went on a shopping trip that was not very successful (we sifted through some junk but none of us bought anything).

My friend who has been traveling in South Asia for a few months recommended a tour guide in Mumbai who drove him to around to all the major sights in Mumbai. I called this guide, and we arranged a tour of the slums for the following morning. This was one of the best tours I’ve been on, probably in part because the guide lives in the slums–along with about half of Mumbai’s 13.6 residents–so he knew exactly where to take us, but also because the living conditions we saw were shocking. We walked through narrow alleyways separating dilapidated buildings. The rooms we peeked into were immaculately clean, but the streets and areas surrounding the buildings were filthy and strewn with garbage—particularly in the first slum we visited, which consisted of shacks built on top of a large water pipe running under a bridge. We also saw a hole of dirty looking water near train tracks where people were doing laundry and laying it out on the tracks to dry. I think our guide said this laundry area was featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire. There were tons of children around (most don’t go to school), and many of them came up to us and asked to have their photo taken.

slums near the water pipe

shacks under the bridge

group shot

cute kids

people washing clothes

laundry dries on the tracks

we made some friends

That afternoon, in stark contrast to how we spent the morning, we all went to see “This is It,” the Michael Jackson documentary, which seems like it’s a hit even here in India. Even though it wasn’t a long movie, it cut out about half way through for intermission. I guess that happens during all movies shown at theaters in India.

South Goa (The Hyatt) (Days 41-45)

The next day, my parents, Rebecca, and I flew to Goa—a small state located on the Southwest coast known for having some of the best beaches in India. We stayed at a fancy resort on a beach in the south of Goa, where we spent the better part of three days relaxing on cushioned lounge chairs next to a series of interconnecting swimming pools. It was amazing! Here are some photos:

the resort in goa

the pool

my parents on the beach

the sunset

We left the resort only once to venture up north to Panaji—the capital of the state of Goa, an old Portuguese colonial city. The remnants of Portuguese architecture gave the city a slightly different look than many of the other cities I’ve visited, but it still was not as charming as I’d imagined it to be.

panaji

a church in panaji

a hindu temple in panaji

We were planning to eat at one of the beaches in the north—where Rebecca and I would be moving on to after my parents left—but my parents were scared by the scruffy look of the shacks that made up the beach town, so we went back to the hotel and had the best Italian food I’ve eaten in India.

North Goa (Anjuna) (Days 45-50)

After about a week and a half in India, my parents were thrilled to be heading off to Cape Town while Rebecca and I were dreading the return to budget accommodation after a taste of the the good life in the Hyatt. Nevertheless, it was time to move on, so we went to Anjuna, a town with decent beaches, lots of foreign backpackers, and thriving drug and trance music scenes. It’s actually not as dumpy as we thought it would be. The night we arrived, we befriended a gregarious, intoxicated, middle-aged Australian lesbian couple who were staying in the room next to ours at “The White Negro” (weird name. apparently, the hotel is owned by a black woman and a white man).

They served us some whiskey and entertained us with stories of their recent trekking expedition in Kashmir and a variety of other tales. They also took us to a restaurant on the beach, where we had some food and drinks and were eventually joined by two guys around our age from the UK. It was a fun evening.

I barely slept that night because our hotel room was suffocatingly hot, and being stuffed under a mosquito net didn’t help matters. In the morning we found air conditioned rooms at a cute little guest house right on the beach, and I spent the rest of the day reading in the shade. Cameron bicycled down to Goa from Mumbai, so it took him about five days to get there, but he joined us the following day, which we spent hanging out on the beach. Photos below.

anjuna beach

our guesthouse in anjuna

Rebecca about to feed the rest of the watermelon to cows

view of the beach from a restaurant

Anjuna beach

The hotel staff threw a rave on the beach in front of the hotel that night. The trance music started thumping in the afternoon and didn’t stop until around 4 am. It was fun to watch, but ultimately we didn’t get tipsy enough to join in on the dancing.

Since then, I’ve pretty much just been relaxing on the beach, reading, eating, sleeping. Not too shabby.. But again, I’m ready to move on and see some more of India. Tonight Rebecca and I will take a non-AC, double-decker sleeper bus to Hampi—supposedly a 13.5 hour trip, but you never know, it could be longer. We’ve spoiled ourselves so much so far that this will be our first time taking a bus in India. I’m very interested to see how it goes…

It took about 5 hours to reach Chandigarh from Rishikesh. I’d read that accommodation in Chandigarh was expensive relative to other areas because Chandigarh is an affluent city that serves as the capital of both Haryana and Punjab states. Still, I wasn’t expecting the hotel Mukesh found for us to be so dumpy. After taking in the sticky surfaces, stained sheets, and a general uncleanliness that surpassed even India budget hotel standards (I wasn’t even willing to sit on the toilet seat), Rebecca and I asked Mukesh if he could take us to look at some other hotels. However, he assured us this was the best we could find unless we were willing to adjust our price range. Since it was already late, we decided to stay there for one night and search for a better hotel in the morning.

The next day I woke up to one of the foulest stenches I’ve ever smelled. It seems that overnight the pungent odor of sewage had seeped through the pipes and collected in the bathroom, and as soon as Rebecca opened the bathroom door to take a shower, the stink escaped and filled our entire room in a single draft.

Driving around that day, I appreciated the structure and organization of Chandigarh. It’s actually the only planned city in India, giving it a distinctively western feel compared to the other cities we’ve visited. The real only tourist attraction we visited was the rock garden—a 50-acre maze of waterfalls, rock formations, and a large collection of sculptures made out of crushed ceramic plates, bangles, and other recycled junk. It was definitely interesting and unique from any other park I’ve seen.

the rock garden in Chandigarh

junk sculptures in the rock garden

more sculptures

That afternoon, we found slightly more expensive but much cleaner hotel—the “Diamond Plaza” (I love the grandiose names of these cheapo hotels. The majority of the hotels I’ve stayed in have either “mansion” or “palace” tacked on to the end of the name. Though likely intended as a good marketing strategy, I doubt the owners fail to see the irony.) It had free wifi, which was a huge bonus.

the shopping center we stayed in in Chandigarh

For dinner, we walked to a restaurant that advertised “New York Pizza.” After checking out the disgusting sample pizza they had on display, we realized we were setting ourselves up for disappointment and tried to find another place to eat. We finally came upon a dingy Indian restaurant with liquor store in the front, so we bought some beers and took them back the sit-down dining section. The restaurant was packed—entirely with men—who all turned and stared at us the moment we walked in. When a few started making comments toward us, we felt like eating there would be setting ourselves up for harassment, so we walked right back out, returned to our hotel, and ordered room service.

Amritsar and Attari (Days 24-25)

The next morning we were off to Amritsar, six hours northwest of Chandigarh, near the Pakistan border. Amritsar houses the Golden Temple, one of the most sacred places of worship for Sikhs. We arrived in the evening and again stayed in a mediocre hotel. We then took a bike rickshaw the only large western restaurant in town, where I had an awful risotto dish that contained baby corn and, I’m pretty sure, ketchup. I should have known better than to have expected anything better.

our bicycle rickshaw driver

Visiting the Golden Temple was our main order of business the next morning. This was one of the best things I’ve seen so far. It was beautiful and so serene despite the large number of visitors. We spent a few hours walking around the lake and sitting by the golden temple, watching people go in to worship.

outside the Golden Temple complex

Golden Temple

head coverings were required

people lined up to go inside the temple

close up of the Golden Temple

In the afternoon, we made the short trip West to Attari, the location of the only road border crossing between India and Pakistan. Every evening at dusk, Indian and Pakistani soldiers perform a border closing ceremony right in front of the border gates. The event is well attended, with stadium style seats packed with cheering patriots on either side. Before the ceremony began, both sides blared popular music, while on the Indian side, groups of spectators danced before the crowd and women and kids took turns running the Indian flag up to the border gate. These were essentially opening acts to get the crowd pumped up for the main event. The actual ceremony involves soldiers on either side yelling a single note into a microphone for as long as they can hold it, along with lots of stomping, marching, and funny hats. The quirkiness of the ceremony coupled with crowd’s contagious energy made for a fun and interesting time.

A view of Pakistan from the Attari border

the India side

stadium filled up on the Pakistan side

Indian flags waving

Indian soldiers

a good photo op at the border

To save money and time, we decided to drive to Mukesh’s house right after the border closing. On the way, we got caught in the worst traffic jam I’ve ever seen in my life. It was so chaotic it’s hard to describe. Basically, vehicles and animals were trying to go in every single direction, and the road and dirt surrounding it were so congested that no one could move. Finally the police came and sorted it out, and we were on our merry way.

Palampur (Mukesh’s house) (Days 26-30)

We finally arrived at Mukesh’s home in Palampur at around 1:00 am. His wife and oldest son met us at the road with flashlights and helped us carry our luggage down the narrow dirt path leading to the house. I really was not sure what to expect of Mukesh’s house before we arrived. He had informed us before that it was equipped with “all facilities,” including 24/7 hot water, a tv, and a washing machine. He also told us the house was built less than one year ago. I guess given only these scant details, I was expecting something a bit more modern than what we found. His house is a single story, 4-room, concrete house with detached outhouse. The room through which you enter is kind of a patio/dining/living room as it had two open-air walls, a coffee table, bed with a rug over it, and a few plastic chairs. Off of that room is the kitchen, equipped with a fridge, portable gas range and electric boiler, both of which were on the floor. There actually aren’t any countertops or tables in the kitchen; all of the cooking, eating, and cleaning up there is done on the floor. The other two rooms are bedrooms separated by a curtained doorway. Rebecca and I shared the bed in one of the rooms, while Mukesh and his wife and two sons all slept in the other room. I felt bad that they were all confined to such a small space because we were there.

Though the house is nice, I would not describe it as having “all facilities.” Typical American amenities it lacks include a shower (we took bucket showers, which actually aren’t bad), flushable toilet, the Internet, and any type of AC or heater. Some photos of the house are below.

the entrance

the room we slept in

the front room

A view of the outhouse from the roof

view of the mountains from the roof

inside the bathroom (we used those buckets to bathe)

Because Palampur is in the mountains, it was getting into the 40s at night, and a heater would have been nice. For the first time during our trip, I was very cold going to bed that night and woke up with a cold the next morning.

I won’t complain too much about India’s discomforts because I think they’re integral to really experiencing this place. I was very grateful to have the chance to stay with Mukesh’s family because I was curious to catch a small glimpse of family life in a smaller Indian village. His wife and two sons are warm, gracious, and helpful. Unfortunately, we couldn’t communicate with his wife as much as I would have liked because her English is limited.

Our first day there was two days before Diwali. Rebecca and I had expressed an interest in wearing Indian suits to the Diwali festivities, so that morning, Mukesh and his wife took us to a fabric shop in their village to pick out some material for suits. Here’s a photo of the shop.

fabric shop

We then brought the material to a tailor across the street, got measured and selected necklines from a diagram of about 100 different kinds. We were both really excited about the suits!

the tailor

the main street in the village

We had some tasty home-cooked vegetable curries, dal, and chapatti while at Mukesh’s house. All of the good meals we ate there actually restored my appreciation for Indian food. We watched and even helped a tad with the cooking.

making chapatti in the kitchen

eating dinner

trying my hand at rolling out chapatti

Mukesh’s wife works as a teacher at a little elementary school located about 45 minutes from Mukesh’s house—in the small village where she grew up and where her family still lives. Mukesh drove us to the school to check it out. Rebecca works as a nursery school teacher, so she led the eager students in counting to 100 in English and a few songs with hand gestures. The kids really seemed to enjoy it. Then, the kids performed an Indian song and dance that blew me away. I think the entire routine was nearly 10 minutes long—I’m not sure how they memorized all the words and dance moves. Impressive stuff.

the kids, dancing

us and the kiddies. not sure why we're the only ones smiling.

We went up the road to the wife’s family’s house for lunch. One of their neighbors walked us around the tiny village and taught us how to make masala chai, the tea we’ve been enjoying so much.

a view from our walk around the wife's family's house

We got our suits back from the tailor that night and modeled them for the family. We had some good laughs about the pants, which are awkwardly shaped and unlike any other pants I’ve ever worn, but very pleased with the results.

the pants to my suit

That evening we picked up some ingredients for banana chocolate chip bread because we wanted to make an American treat for the family but hadn’t yet realized that Mukesh doesn’t own an oven. As a result, we changed our plan and decided to make chocolate chip and banana pancakes for breakfast the next morning. They were amazing! Even if the family didn’t really enjoy them, I relished the most authentic taste of America I’ve had yet. Here’s a photo of Rebecca cooking up some delicious, fluffy pancakes.

pancakes, hot off the griddle

Later that day, we helped decorate the outside of the house for Diwali. This involved cutting wicks for oil candles and rubbing different colors of pigment into a flower design on the pavement in front of the house, sort of like drawing with sidewalk chalk. The boys went into town and bought a duffle bag full of fire crackers to be set off that night. Meanwhile, Rebecca and I bought party snacks and a few beers for ourselves because we thought they would help facilitate our dancing, which Mukesh informed us was a key component of the celebration.

decorating

the almost-finished product

Once night fell, we lit the candles and the family held a short prayer ceremony, offering gifts of rice and flowers to the gods.

Rebecca and I were encouraged to participate

happy couple

us in our new suits

Then the barrage of fire crackers began. The kids set them off one after another right next to the house, and they were so loud that it was scaring me. They took a break to come inside and dance for awhile, which was a lot of fun.

busting some moves

Rebecca and I were kind of expecting a late night rager, but after we ate dinner that night it seemed like the party was over. Everyone retreated back to the bedroom to watch TV. It was ok for us though, we were pretty tired too.

We were so pleased with our Indian suits that the day after Diwali, we went back to the fabric shop to get more. We’re thinking we could wear the shirts over jeans or leggings and it would look cute at home.

We took it pretty easy the rest of the time at Mukesh’s house. His wife drew a design on my hand with henna, we watched a video of their wedding (in which he appears gleeful, his wife terrified (I would be too if I never spent a night with my husband before the wedding)), looked through family photo albums, and taught them how to play the glorious game of Uno. All in all, I had a great time at Mukesh’s.

my hand, covered in henna

McLeod Ganj (Days 30-35)

From Mukesh’s house, it was only a short drive to McLeod Ganj. He dropped us off here on Monday to stay until Sunday. Since it’s such a small town, we have no need for a car here, so he is spending some time with his family this week. On Sunday we will make the 12-hour journey back to Delhi with him, and then we’ll go our separate ways. We decided to shorten our trip with him, cutting out the hill stations of Manali and Shimla, because we found out that my Dad is making an unexpected business trip to Mumbai (Mom is coming too!). We’re now heading Delhi in a few days to meet up, see Mumbai, and go to the beach in Goa together.

Since 1960, McLeod Ganj (also known as “Little Lhasa”) has been the official home of the Dalai Lama and headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile. Over 8,000 Tibetan refugees are living here. The town is nestled in the mountains near the Himalayas—a beautiful setting. I’d hoped to do some hiking here, but I’ve been taking it easy because I’ve been sick with cold/flu. We happened to be here during a time when the Dalai Lama was doing a 3-day educational seminar—open to the public—at his main teaching room in the Buddhist temple in town. Though there wasn’t space available to sit upstairs in his teaching room, we went to the temple and watched him walk in before starting a Q&A session, which we listened to from downstairs. We also went back the next day to watch him leave his last teaching. We were very close and had great views of him both times we saw him. Here are some photos of the temple.

Buddhist temple in Mcleod Ganj

people praying at the entrance of the Dalai Lama's main teaching room

a monk turning prayer wheels in the temple

It was difficult to understand what he was saying because of his accent, but he spoke a bit about how materialism contributes to loneliness and the need for freedom of the press in China. He had a hearty, infectious laugh, which I liked.

The worst pizza ever

When we got to Pushkar, we walked over to the Brahma temple, where a young man was eager to show us around. He handed us a newspaper full of flowers to place as offerings on shrines to several gods throughout the temple.

the outside of the Brahma temple (photography was not allowed inside)

After that we walked down to one of the ghats, rang a bell to announce our presence to the gods, and were given plates of offerings, including flowers, puffed rice, red pigment, sugar, and a coconut.

me holding a plate of offerings to the gods

Then sat on the steps close to the lake (which actually didn’t have any water in it due to maintenance work) and were each led by some type of spiritual leader in repeating prayers for our family members (mostly in Hindi). Part of this involved repeating that I would give a donation of 300 rupees for each family member, which I sort of blindly repeated. He then asked me to place 1000 rs on top of the coconut, but that seemed like a lot of money, so I just placed a 100 rupee bill on the coconut. The prayer leader insisted that I give the amount I had promised when I was repeating my prayer and seemed angry when I refused, but I remembered reading in my guidebook about scams with priests in Pushkar and wasn’t sure that the money would be used for charity as he’d promised. When he realized that I wasn’t going to give him 1000 rs, he gave in and took the 100 bill. Overall, it was an interesting experience. After that, we went to a backpacker’s restaurant recommended by our guidebooks for decent Western food, so we went and enjoyed pita and hummus and pasta with tomato sauce and basil.

sitting on the ghat, repeating prayers

after the prayers

a view of the empty lake from a ghat

The next morning we woke up at 5:40 to hike up to a hilltop temple dedicated to Savitri, the first wife of Brahma. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the top of the hill, and we watched the sun rise on our way up. The view of the town and surrounding hills was beautiful. We saw lots of monkeys on our way back down the hill.

Pushkar at dawn

Jaipur (Days 13-15)
We left Pushkar to make our way to Jaipur later that morning. I think that was another long 5-hour car ride, although they’re all running together in my memory now. Anyway, our first stop in Jaipur was Pizza Hut, which I was pretty excited to see as I was still hankering for American food. It wasn’t great but it did hit the spot. There happened to be a camera repair shop right next to the pizza hut, so I got my camera fixed!

That evening, Rebecca, Mukesh, and I went to see Hadippa!, a bollywood film, at the Raj Mandir.

The Raj Mandir cinema

According to Mukesh, the Raj Mandir is the best Hindi movie theater in India. It was quite an interesting experience. The first thing that stuck me as unusual was that there were two separate ticket lines—one for women and one for men—which apparently is meant to prevent groping. I can appreciate that. There was only one screen/seating room in the theater, but it was massive and has over 1,200 seats. The décor inside the screening room and entrance/concession area looked very dated. There was even a velvet curtain that covered the movie screen until the movie started. Here’s a photo of the concession area.

inside the Raj Mandir

Following Mukesh’s instructions, we bought tickets for the upstairs balcony area, which cost 150 rupees (about $3.25) apiece (nearly double the price of ground-level tickets). Outside of the balcony section there was a smaller concession stand, which sold classic movie treats like popcorn and soda as well Indian treats like veggie burgers and samosas.

When the stars of the movie appeared on screen for the first time, the audience went wild with applause, whistling, and cheering, almost as if we were at a live concert. The movie was about a Punjabi woman who dresses up as a man to make the Indian cricket team, which is preparing for a critical re-match against Pakistan. She ends up playing for the team in disguise and falling in love with the coach, which as you can imagine has hilarious consequences. In typical bollywood style, it included plenty of music and dance. It was also about 3 hours long but had an intermission where the curtain went back down and people left the theater for about 15 minutes. Although it was mostly in Hindi, the plot was simple enough and there were enough English phrases sprinkled in that I didn’t really have trouble understanding it. Rebecca and I both thoroughly enjoyed it. (Mukesh seemed to love it too, even though in the US I think it would be considered a chick flick). It was actually one of the best cultural experiences I’ve had so far.

The movie theater was right next to a McDonalds, so we got some takeout for dinner and then went back to the hotel, which had the most uncomfortable bed I’ve slept in yet. I think it was literally a wooden platform covered with burlap sacks and a sheet.

We had a full day of sightseeing around Jaipur the next day. In the morning, we went to Amber Fort, a huge sandstone and marble fort located a few miles outside of Jaipur. Like the forts in Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, Amber Fort is located on top of a hill, and Rebecca and I rode an elephant from the bottom of the hill up to the fort. This was my first time riding an elephant. It was a pretty bumpy ride, but it was fun! The fort was built in the late 1500s and incorporates a blend of Hindu and Muslim architecture. It was pretty impressive.

elephants!

view of Jaipur from riding on the elephant

the elephant we rode on, being cute

Amber fort

another shot of the fort

old city Jaipur

In the afternoon we went to Monkey Temple, a Hindu temple located in a valley between two rocky hills. We had to hike a little to get there, but it was worth the walk because it was awesome. There were hundreds of the brown (red butt) monkeys around the temple! We bought a bag of peanuts to feed them, but when I was feeding them I drew such a crowd of monkeys that I got scared that one of them might bite me, so after scattering some peanuts I just dropped the bag. One big, greedy monkey immediately picked it up and scampered off with it. Here are some photos of Monkey Temple and the view of Jaipur from the hike over to the temple.

The path to monkey temple

Baby monkey!

monkey temple

view from inside the temple

view of Jaipur from the walk to monkey temple

We were able to stomach dal, chapatti, and paneer korma for lunch that day but decided to resume our Western fast food binge by getting a take-out Domino’s pizza for dinner. It wasn’t as good as it is in the US, but we gorged ourselves on it anyway while drinking Kingfisher and watching Gilmore Girls DVDs on my laptop, which made for quite an enjoyable evening.

While we were in Jaipur, our driver presented us with an itinerary for a 25-day trip with him that would take us back through Delhi for a night after Agra and then up north to Uttaranchal, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh so that we could all spend Diwali at his home. As I mentioned before, I was hoping to spend Diwali with an Indian family, and since we were having a pretty hassle-free time with him driving us from city to city and the price seemed right, we decided to go with his plan and booked him for another 25 days.

Agra (Days 15-16)
We had another long car ride to Agra the following day. During this trip we crossed from the state of Rajasthan into Uttar Pradesh. It was very rainy when we arrived in Agra, and we noticed right away that it’s not a very attractive city. The main attraction is the world-famous Taj Mahal, and we were planning to see that the following morning at sunrise, so we had some down time that afternoon. I had a headache and was feeling exhausted, so after a mediocre lunch of parantha and black dal in one of the dirtiest restaurants I’ve ever set foot in, Rebecca and I went back to our guest house and took a long nap. We went to McDonald’s again for dinner that night. I’m feeling kind of disgusted thinking about all the fried food we ate over the course of our time in Jaipur and Agra.

We woke up about an hour before sunrise the following morning. The sketchy travel agency through which we had booked our driver set us up with a guide to take us to the Taj Mahal. His English was limited, but I guess it was nice to learn some things about the construction of the Taj. Even though it was very overcast and drizzling that morning, I thought the Taj Mahal was spectacular. It was definitely the best-maintained monument or site I’ve seen in India. It was so picturesque I ended up taking over 100 photos (probably a bit excessive). At one point, we handed our cameras over to an Indian man who we asked to take a photo of us in front of the Taj Mahal, and he ended up whisking us around to different photo ops at the Taj, putting us in different poses (such as the ones below), saying “Smile. Cheese.” and then encouraging us with a blasé “Yes” or “Hot” after he snapped each photo, almost as though he really was a jaded fashion photographer. Of course he asked for money after the photo shoot was over. We got such a kick out of the way this guy said these things we couldn’t stop laughing. As Mukesh would say, it was a “good time pass.”

the Taj Mahal

We had some strange interactions with local people in Agra (a woman stood right next to our table in McDonald’s and just stared at us for a while, for example). The city was also crowded and dirty. As a result, I wouldn’t recommend spending any more time in Agra after seeing the Taj Mahal.

Because we had already purchased train tickets all the way to Varanasi from the travel agency in Delhi before changing our plan, we wanted take our tickets to the train station to try to get them refunded. However, we didn’t have the tickets in hand yet because another driver was bringing them down to Agra from Delhi, and he didn’t arrive in Agra until 2:00 pm, so we had to wait around in Agra for a while before we could leave for Delhi. We were in a rush to get to Delhi because Rebecca’s friend who used to live in Delhi put her in touch with a few young people who still live there, and we were trying to meet up with them for dinner.

Delhi (Days 16-17)
We ended up leaving Agra at 3 pm and arrived in Delhi around 8 pm, but it took us almost an hour to find an affordable hotel room once we reached Delhi. I felt bad because we were running really late to meet up with Rebecca’s friends of a friend, but luckily they were really gracious and met us for a late dinner even though they had already eaten. We ate tasty, non-Indian food (I had Pad Thai) at a trendy looking restaurant in Defence Colony Market—a popular ex-pat area. It was wonderful to meet this couple because they were very friendly and seemed happy to educate us about certain aspects of Indian culture we’d encountered during our two weeks in Rajashtan. They also shared lots of great information about where to go for foreign food and other items that we were hoping to pick up in Delhi. I’m looking forward to meeting up with them again when we go back to Delhi next month.

We spent the next morning eating more delicious food in Defence Colony and Khan Market. We ate salads at café with safe raw veggies in Khan Market; I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated a salad more in my life—it was awesome!

Haridwar (Days 17-19)
That afternoon, we were back in the car and off to Haridwar, a sacred Hindu pilgrimage site on the Ganges which attracts millions of pilgrims every 12 years for the Kumbh Mela—the largest religious gathering in the world. It took about 6 hours to drive there, so we didn’t arrive at our hotel (actually it was a youth hostel—kind of a weird, communal vibe there, but we had a private room and hot water in the shower, so it was okay) until almost 10 pm, by which time I was exhausted and went right to sleep.

The next day we took a cable car up to a temple on a hill, where people smeared pigment and ashes on the middle of our foreheads. The temple was packed with worshippers. Here are some photos from the cable car ride (aka the “ropeway to the gods”). The top photo is of Mukesh:

That evening in Haridwar we watched the river worship ceremony, where hundreds of worshippers gather on one of the ghats every evening at dusk to pray and make offerings to the gods. Normally, they light candles and set them in baskets in the river to drift away. However, like the lake in Pushkar, the river was undergoing maintenance when we saw it, so there wasn’t much water for offerings to float away in.

Though the prayer ceremony was interesting, the city of Haridwar was not very nice, so we were happy to leave for Rishikesh the next day.

pigs and cows rooting around in a big pile of trash in Haridwar

Rishikesh (Days 19-21)
Rishikesh is another town on the Ganges in the foothills of the Himalayas. It’s only 25 km from Haridwar, so happily the car ride only took about 45 minutes. To get to where we were staying, we drove though a national forest, which apparently is closed to traffic during nighttime because wild elephants walk along the road. Nice! We liked Rishikesh from the moment we got here because it’s small, completely walkable, and very peaceful—much less frenetic than all the other cities we’ve seen in India. Many tourists come to Rishiskesh to stay in Ashrams and do yoga, ayurvedic healing, and meditation courses.  In fact, we learned that the Beatles came spent a few months at an Ashram here in 1968 when they were writing songs for the White Album. There are tons of yoga, meditation, chanting, and other new age healing classes offered here every day (Christine, I think you would really like it here!) Since I’ve only done yoga twice, I came just to relax and check it out.

a girl making papadam in Rishikesh

While wandering around town we stumbled upon a fun, new age, vegetarian restaurant (actually, I think all restaurants in Rishikesh are vegetarian) called “Moon Dance.” It caters to the Western palate, and we ate there both last night and this morning. Naturally, it has cushioned on-the-floor seating. While we were sitting there yesterday morning, I overheard a girl around my age talking to a fellow yoga enthusiast about urine therapy, which apparently involves drinking your own urine. Interesting…This was right after the guy sitting next to me casually told me about how God spoke with him when he was trekking through the Himalayas.

Rebecca inside the Moon Dance cafe

We also did a yoga class yesterday morning, which involved a lot of sitting up straight and slow, deep breathing. Although it wasn’t a very physical class, the yoga instructor wore only a pair of short, tight spandex shorts, which Rebecca and I thought was bizarre. In thickly accented English, he kept instructing us to keep our spines erect and to focus on our physical, spiritual, mental, and hormonal energy. We both wanted to laugh but managed to stay serious by avoiding eye contact with each other.

That evening we attended another prayer ceremony on the Ganges and had an Italian meal that was surprisingly tasty.  The river ceremony was interesting; children from a local school played instruments and sang and some hippy-looking western people who probably found themselves here danced along without reserve.  Photos below.  This is a place that I would definitely visit again.

Shiva statue

Greetings from India! I haven’t had regular Internet access since I’ve been in India, so this first post will be a long one! I apologize in advance for including many not-so-interesting details–I’m using this blog not only to try to keep in touch with friends but also (more selfishly) to remind myself of all the things that happened on this trip (two birds one stone, I figure). I will try to include lots of photos to spice it up!

I guess my adventure began when I boarded the Air India flight from JFK to Delhi. I was seated in a middle seat in between a young Indian woman and a middle aged Indian man. The man started chatting with me shortly before take-off when he noticed my lonely planet on the floor below our seats and asked me if it was my first time visiting India. I appreciated this man’s company because both of the meals served over the course of the 14-hour flight were Indian cuisine, and he talked me through a couple of dishes I was having trouble identifying. He told me he really enjoyed the way I said “thank you” to the flight attendants who served our food. I’m not sure what he meant by that.

It turns out I may have been too friendly to this man. After dinner, I started watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II on the TV on the back of the seat in front of me and fell asleep midway through the movie. I woke up to the credits rolling and his hand slowly reaching over me. He explained that he saw I’d fallen asleep and wanted to turn off my TV. Plausible enough, but grabbing the remote out of my lap was still an invasion of personal space. The weirder thing happened later in the flight. I had been sleeping for several hours, and when I woke up, I noticed that he was holding my hand. Yes, it appeared that his hand had crept over the armrest between us and somehow interlocked with my hand. Shocked and disturbed, I looked over and found him fast asleep. I immediately tried to pull my hand free, but he seemed to yank my hand back toward his side of the armrest. When I finally pulled my hand free, his arm was left dangling over the armrest into my seat space, his fingers lightly brushing against my upper arm. He still looked like he was sleeping. At this point, I was utterly creeped out and went to the bathroom in hopes that his hand would be back on his side of the armrest by the time I came back. When I returned to see it still hanging out in my personal space, I got back in my seat and moved as close to the other side of the seat as possible. I decided to give him the cold shoulder for the rest of the flight.

When breakfast was served in the morning, he offered some unsolicited advice on how to eat the dosa and curry that were served. As we landed, he told me he had enjoyed my company and again mentioned he found the way that I said “thank you” to be “magical.” I hung around and let him get off the plane a few minutes before I did and thankfully didn’t see him again.

Thanks to my parents, I spent my first two nights in Delhi at the luxurious Shangri La hotel near Connaught Place. Rebecca met me there a few hours after I arrived, and we had a late dinner at the hotel restaurant and then caught up for a little before falling asleep in the comfortable bed with unquestionably clean linens. Below is a photo of the bed.

The comfy bed at the Shangri La (with bed slippers waiting at bedside)

We didn’t see much of delhi at all those first two days because we decided to take advantage of the hotel’s pool and spa instead. Before we checked out on Tuesday, we found a cheapish hotel in the Karol Bagh district, though it still cost more than we had expected to pay. Karol Bagh seemed like a traveller’s ghetto with narrow alleys crammed with lots of tourist agencies and guest houses. After pressing us for information on our itinerary and the duration of our stay in India, the hotel desk staff insisted that we visit their travel agency down the street. Even though they seemed a little shady/pushy, we decided to try booking our train tickets to Agra through their travel agency. At this point, we were thinking we would stay in Delhi for about 4 more days and then travel the following route by train:

Agra→Kajaraho→Allahbad→Varanasi→Bohdgaya→Calcutta→Darjeeling

We wanted to head in this direction first because we were hoping to get to Darjeeling (in the Himalayas) before it gets too cold.

So we went into the travel agency and told the man working there that we only wanted to buy a train ticket to Agra for Friday. He told us the Taj Mahal was closed on Fridays. Because it was already Tuesday and we wanted two full days in Agra, we asked if we could book a train leaving the next morning. He showed us on the rail system’s website that all the trains to Agra for the next day were completely booked. We asked if we could take bus, but he told us we should avoid the bus because men would try to give us “free massage” and pressured us to tell him where we wanted to go after Agra. We really didn’t want to be pressured into buying more tickets as we weren’t sure how legit this business was, but he told us that if we booked the trains and buses all the way to Darjeeling through his company, he could get us on the train to Agra in the morning—even though it appeared sold out on the official site. We asked how he could do that and he just smiled and said “this is my business.” I think we were asking too many questions, because he sent his boss–the owner of the agency–back to talk with us shortly after that. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow after a long discussion he convinced us to hire a private car and driver to take us through Rajasthan for 16 days, and also purchase train tickets to Kajaraho, Allahbad and Varanasi, all through his company. After negotiating the price, we decided it seemed affordable and would be really nice to have a private car rather than taking a mix of trains and buses and having to figure out routes ourselves. So, despite some skepticism about how this would all turn out, we signed a contract outlining our route, handed over our money, and planned to leave for Mandawa the following morning. (Sidenote—since we started our trip through Rajasthan, we met several other tourists who were swindled into booking the same type of tour).

The reason we decided to leave right away rather than stay in Delhi for a few more nights was mainly that the hotel and surrounding neighborhood weren’t very nice, the staff seemed like they were hustling, and we weren’t sure we could find any other hotels that were super affordable in Delhi. The room we stayed in was reasonably clean (although it smelled musty and we used our sheet sacks rather than the blanket that was provided (as it was probably unwashed)) and had AC and a private bathroom, but I did not like it because it didn’t have any windows. Photos of the hotel and room are below.

hotel room in karol bagh

hotel facade

I had a really hard time sleeping that night and wished I could go back to the Shangri La. I was happy to get into the car and head to Rajasthan the next morning. Here’s a link to a short video clip of us leaving Delhi with the driver:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWc6eMeVjn

Our driver seemed nice, but his English was difficult to understand. Before signing up for this, Rebecca and I were both worried that our driver might try to talk to us throughout the entire ride, so we were polite but tried to keep small talk to a minimum. (as an aside, after almost a week of traveling with him, we’ve grown very fond of our driver. I’ll go into more detail about him later). All in all, the ride to Mandawa took over eight hours—though the travel agent had told us it would take 5 hours. The traffic getting out of Delhi was terrible. We were stuck next to non-AC, double decker tourist bus for a while, and I saw two people lean their heads out of the bus’ windows and barf while we were sitting in traffic. It was gross, and it made me feel very relieved that we were in an air conditioned car rather than a bus like that. Once we got out of the city and traffic got moving, we got a better sense of how terrifying Indian highway driving is. For most of the ride we were on a two-lane highway—one lane in either direction—with lots of buses, trucks, motor bikes, farm animals with carts, and auto riskshaws that our car was outpacing and passing. But to pass them, the driver had to honk his horn several times and then pull into the lane of oncoming traffic, which he would move out of at the last possible second before we were about to hit an oncoming car or truck. Rebecca and I were really nervous. It got even worse as we got further out into the desert and the highway was reduced to a narrow strip that could barely fit two cars side by side, and herds of sheep, cows, and goats were frequently crossing. At one point our car was totally surrounded by a herd of sheep! Photos below.

The shepard is carrying a small lamb

sheep surrounding the car

many many sheep

It was around 5 pm by the time we got to Mandawa. We wanted to go to the hotels recommended in the Lonely Planet, but our driver said he had another hotel in mind. We were skeptical about his advice but decided to take a look, and I’m glad we did because the hotel he took us to was gorgeous. It was in an old haveli—which is an old mansion with multiple stories and courtyards. Havelis are the main tourist attraction in the small village of Mandawa, and all of the havelis there are decorated with ornate frescos. The hotel owner showed us three rooms that rimmed the first floor of the inner courtyard. The first was one of the coolest rooms I’ve ever seen. The walls were completely covered in glass mosaic, and it had a small staircase leading up to a loft with a balcony overlooking the room. He showed us three other rooms, each of which was unique and elaborately painted, and told use we could have one of them for 600 rupees if we didn’t tell anyone else what we were paying. Photos of the hotel and room are below.

hotel facade

Inner courtyard of the hotel. The door to our room is the one on the left

Our room

Since we wanted to see the fort and havelis before dark, we headed into the village right away. Several teenage boys came up to us as we were wandering around and asked us if they could show us around. Even though we felt like exploring on our own, we ended up walking around with two young guys because they wouldn’t leave us alone even when we tried ignoring them. It ended up being a good thing because they were pretty pleasant to talk with and they showed us a haveli that had rooftop access and great views of the village, which we probably wouldn’t have found by ourselves. Our guides didn’t even ask us for money—they just insisted that we visit their family’s shops. The havelis were really cool–some photos of the village, fort, and havelis are below.

the main drag in the village

a hindu temple in Mandawa

the fort

more of the fort

street scene

more street scenes

a barber shop

Rebecca and I on the rooftop of a haveli

That evening we had a nice dinner on a nicely manicured grassy lawn outside of our hotel. We had a spinach paneer dish that was awesome (almost as good as Kabob & Curry). We tried to have some beers, but when they served them to us warm, we opted for club soda with lime juice instead.

The next morning we woke up pretty early and wandered into the village again in search of fruit for breakfast. We ended up getting some bananas and our first cups of Indian chai tea, from a vendor at a little cart on the main street.

fruit vendors

Chai tea is very good in India, and it seems that everyone drinks it at all times throughout the day. We’ve had at least once cup a day every day since.

We then got in the car again and left for our next destination—Bikaner. On the way we stopped in another small town—I can’t remember what it was called. But our driver told us to get out and walk around with a man who was hanging around on the street. Again, we didn’t really feel like paying some random guy to show us around, but we just went with it because our driver wanted us to—I think the man might have been his buddy, but it was unclear. Anyway, we went to the rooftop of another haveli that had an Indian family living inside. A few of the women who lived their tried to sell us post cards, and kids asked us for money. We walked around the city for about 15 minutes and saw the facades of a few other inhabited havelis but didn’t go inside because we didn’t want to disturb any more families. We took a few photos of the outsides of havelis (below) and even saw some wild parrots!

parrots!

The cool thing about this village was that all the auto-rickshaws were decorated—inside and outside—with colorful decals, streamers, garlands, and strands of pom pons. Most of the riskshaws and trucks that we’ve seen in India are colorfully painted and have strands of black pom pons hanging from either side of the front windshield. I have no idea if there’s a reason for this, but I think it’s interesting.

It took over 5 hours to reach Bikaner. Shortly after we arrived there in the afternoon, our driver took us to have lunch at a roadside restaurant. A cow and several calves were hanging out around the tables outside.

hotel room in bikaner

calf in the restaurant

No biggie—cows seem to be everywhere in India. A lot of the ones we’ve seen in Rajasthan have large humps at the base of their necks, which make them look deformed. Anyway, this was the first meal we ate with our driver. He ordered for us and seemed excited to see us enjoying the food.

After lunch, we drove about half an hour outside of the city to a Hindu temple, which I thought our driver referred to as “rock temple.” It turns out he was really saying “rat temple,” which we only realized when we got inside (barefoot, might I add) and saw swarms of rats covering the floor, eating millet and other seeds covering a section of the temple floor and drinking out of huge bowls of milk. Groups of people were crowding around the rats and chanting prayers. Since we weren’t expecting any of this and seemed to be the only tourists there, we were shocked and a little overwhelmed. At one point, our driver and a few other men tried to get me to climb up a small set of stairs to this dark little room housing a white rat—the luckiest rat in the temple! I started climbing up to see it, but then I got too nervous and grossed out and turned around and came back down. Later, I read in the lonely planet that Hindu pilgrims who visit the temple consider the rats sacred, and I felt badly for acting disrespectful of people’s beliefs. I wish I had been a little more prepared for what to expect! Even though it was scary and disgusting (the whole place had a weird smell wafting through it), I appreciated it as an interesting and unique experience. A short video of the rats is posted here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfVnjoPxW4U. More to come.

rats

people checking out the holy rats

Rebecca and I in the rat temple, feeling slightly uncomfortable

After leaving the rat temple (Karni Mata Temple is its actual name), we drove back to Bikaner and walked around the huge fort built in the 1500s, which is probably the city’s main attraction.

As soon as we got back to the hotel we washed our feet in the sink to rid them of the rat germs.

That night, our driver insisted on buying us some bottles of beer to sneak into our hotel room, since beer was cheaper to buy outside of the hotel than at the hotel restaurant. He also got us some samosas for dinner and apples and bananas for the next morning’s breakfast. Rebecca and I had a picnic on the floor of our hotel room. Unfortunately, the beers were not very good, so we couldn’t finish them.

Early the next morning we were back in the car and on our way to our next stop—Jaisalmer—which was another 5 hour car ride. Vegetation became more sparse and the land more desert-like as we headed further west. We stopped at a roadside restaurant along the way and had our first experience with an asian-style squat toilet since we arrived in India. I’m really not adept at using these and find them unpleasant, so I try to avoid them at all costs. Anyway, we had a nice lunch with some german tourists who were on the same route as us and whose driver is friends with our driver. We had actually seen them at our first hotel in Mandawa. We had two paneer curries and a lentil dish, vegetable rice and chapatti. I’ve really been enjoying the food in India.

roadside diner

Jaisalmer is an awesome desert city with a small lake, beautiful Jain temples and a huge 12th century fort on a hill. We stayed at a hotel with rooftop views of the fort.

a view of the fort from the hotel roof

Our next stop after checking into the hotel was a walk around the lake. Some Indian tourists were walking around there at the same time and wanted us to take pictures of and with them, so we did.

a man feeding ducks

this family wanted me to take a photo of them

Our driver then walked us to the home of a man whose family makes silver jewelry. Mukesh (the driver) had explained that Jaisalmer is known for its quality silver. The man explained to us how to tell the difference between high and low quality silver by scraping it against some sort of black rock and then poured bowls and bowls of rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets onto the floor for us to look at. We looked for awhile and found several things we liked but decided they were all too expensive to buy. We felt bad after that because we had spent a fair amount of time looking and were pretty sure our driver and the silver man were expecting us to buy something and were curious if our driver would have earned a commission on whatever we had purchased for taking us there. Here’s a photo of the streets outside of the silver vendor’s apartment.

street in jaisalmer

We ate at another cheap roadside restaurant with our driver for dinner. The food was good but spicy, and the spiciness gave me a runny nose, so I asked the waiter for a napkin. He didn’t have any napkins though, so he gave me sheets of old newspaper instead. Blowing my nose into those was rather unpleasant.

The next morning, our driver set us up with a guide to take us around the fort (again we wonder if he was a friend of Mukesh’s). A crew was there filming a little girl walking on a tightrope.

tightrope walker

We took some cool photos from a lookout point inside the fort.

aerial view of jaisalmer- "the gold city

We also saw the outside of a really intricately carved haveli and went to tombs of Jaisalmer royalty, where a young boy showed us around and tried to sell us some fossils.

haveli facade

royal tombs

Jain temple

We were heading to the desert village of Khuri that afternoon to set off on a short camel safari through the desert—a popular tourist attraction around Jaisalmer. Because it was so hot, we had originally asked Mukesh if we could stay at a budget hotel with a pool that was listed in the Lonely Planet, but he took us to another place instead (it seems he always takes us to hotels where he has friends and his other driver friends are staying). I guess he remembered that we wanted to go swimming, because after we had lunch, he took us to the hotel with a pool to swim for an hour. That was refreshing.

Afterwards, Mukesh drove us about an hour into the desert to a guest house in Khuri, from which the camel safari would depart. The guest house consisted of a courtyard surrounded by small huts with straw roofs, a toilet, and a long table and kitchen in the back. We weren’t staying there since we’d opted instead to sleep out in the desert sand dunes under the stars, but we sat there and had a chai and put on some sunscreen to prepare for the desert, which Mukesh found hilarious. I’m not sure why, but he started cracking up and took Rebecca’s camera to snap some photos of us putting on sunscreen.

Getting on the camel was a little scary, to be honest. Well, not getting on him when he was sitting down, but when he stood up, I shot up so high so quickly that it felt like I was going to slide off the front of the saddle. Camels are really tall! I think I was about 10 feet off the ground when the camel stood up.

a little nervous as the camel gets up!

hanging out at the waterin hole

Even though it was still sunny and hot in the desert when we set off at 4:30 pm, there was a nice draft up on top of the camel. At one point on our way to the dunes, we stopped by a watering hole where herds of cows and goats were drinking. The old man and young boy who were leading our camels (walking on the ground next to us holding reigns tied to horns near the camels’ snouts) filled a bottle with the muddy water from the watering hole and drank it (even though I’d just watched a cow pee in the water! Ahh!) We made our way to the top of a hill overlooking the dunes just before sunset. Unfortunately there were quite a few other tourists up there. We took some nice shots of the sunset and then rode back to the guesthouse, where the staff had set up a short table and cushions for our dinner on the courtyard floor.

camels are cute!

sand dunes

desert sunset

Mukesh was sleeping in the courtyard of the guesthouse that night, and he sat and kept us company during our dinner even though he was doing some kind of fast that day that only allowed him to eat bananas and potatoes. We had dal, a yogurt curry, (they call yogurt curd in India, which turns me off of it a little), and “desert beans”—I’m not sure what they were, but they were pretty good and of course, chapatti. I feel like I’m getting fat from eating all of this rich food at every meal!

This dinner was especially nice because we had a good conversation with Mukesh about all sorts of things like places he’s been in India and his home in the Himachal Pradesh region, and we felt like we bonded with him for the first time. As I think Imentioned before, Mukesh seems like a really friendly and generous guy. For example, at one point when we were driving though the desert, some kids waved at the car and he stopped to buy a bundle of peacock feathers. He suggested that instead of heading East and then North toward Darjeeling as we had kind of planned, we should go north to the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh states and spend Diwali (Oct. 17th) with his family at his home, which is in a small village 30 km from Mcleod Ganj, headquarters of the government of Tibet and home of the Dalai Lama. As far as I can tell, Diwali is the biggest Hindu holiday (sort of like Christmas is to Christians), so I think it’d be cool to spend it with an Indian family. He told us that we could stay at his house for free for as long as we want (“5 days, one month, whole life!”) which is really generous. Rebecca and I will need to see what the price would be for driving around with him until Diwali, but if it’s good (and it would probably be much less expensive than what we’re paying now since we booked him through a travel agency, and I think they overcharged us), then we will probably change our route and ride with him though the Northern states before heading East. Mukesh seemed really excited about the prospect of us staying at his home—he said he only gets a chance to go home about once every three months, so he’d probably be glad for the chance to go home instead of some other tourist destination.

After dinner we rode back into the dunes on a wooden cart pulled by a camel. The cart was loaded with cots and bedding, which we set up at the base of the dunes and slept in under the open sky. As we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, the stars were very visible. It was kind of a surreal experience sleeping in the desert, and aside from the sound of insects and a few bats swooping above our heads, it was very peaceful. We had heavy blankets because it was kind of cool in the desert at night temperature-wise. I had a decent sleep.

our cots in the desert

We woke up shortly before dawn and hiked up to the top of the hill overlooking the dunes to watch the sun rise over the horizon. I know it sounds pretty cheesy, all these sunrises and sunsets, but it was cool to see. My camera was out of batteries, so I didn’t get any photos, but trust me, it looked very similar to the sunset.

We were carted back to the guesthouse and got back in the car for a 3.5-hour ride to Jodhpur, our next destination. Jodhpur is a bustling city of over 800,000 people—the largest city we visited in Rajasthan so far. The main attractions are a huge sandstone fort sitting high up on a hill, and the old city, which has a lot of blue buildings earning Jodhpur the distinction of “blue city.” We were both exhausted from getting up very early in the desert, so we ate at the hotel and napped in the afternoon. I think we were both suffering from a bit of heat exhaustion because we didn’t feel like going into the busy old city to walk around an have dinner later that night, so instead we just relaxed and read at the hotel all night. Unfortunately, Rebecca still wasn’t feeling well in the morning, so I went out to look at the fort by myself. The fort was huge and overwhelming because there was a Hindu festival going on that day and lots of Indian tourists were visiting the fort at the same time I was. I was trying to see it quickly because we needed to go back and get Rebecca before checkout time at 11 am, but I got a little lost and somehow wandered into the entrance of a temple without realizing it until people started yelling at me to take off my shoes. I took some photos looking down on the old city from the fort.

The sign for our in Jodhpur (and yes, we ate at the "rhythm restaurant"

a view of the fort from the bustling old city

the fort's exterior

city of Jodhpur

view from inside the fort

another view of jodhpur

more blue buildlings

a temple inside the fort

can't get enough of these fort photos!

a blue hotel in the old city

Luckily, Rebecca was feeling better when we got back to the hotel, so we picked her up and walked though the old town briefly—but not for long because it was really hot and packed with vendors and crazy traffic. We were both getting tired of Indian curries by this point, so we opted to have lunch at a McDonald’s. The McDonald’s in India is interesting because it doesn’t serve any beef (since Hindus don’t consume beef) and has lots of vegetarian options. I had a veggie burger, which had a bit of an Indian twist to it in terms of the spices, and fries, which tasted the same as at home, thankfully.

Next we took off for the small village of Ranakpur, which was about three hours south of Jodhpur. The land got progressively greener and more mountainous as we closed in on Ranakpur, and I was happy to see forest again after spending the last few days in the desert. The guesthouse our driver took us to had lovely gardens and an orchard. We had a shaded patio outside of our room and were happy to sit out there and read/ do crosswords for the rest of the afternoon. Right before dusk, I heard a strange barking noise below the patio and saw that it was coming from a huge monkey that bared its teeth at me when I looked at it. Then I looked up at a tree near our room and noticed two more monkeys sitting in the tree, eating something out of the tree. All of a sudden and seemingly out of nowhere, 5-10 more monkeys of various sized appeared in the tree. They were eating and being super playful, jumping and swinging between two trees. Then they quickly migrated to the roof of the building right next to us. There were a few baby monkeys being carried under their mothers’ bellies—so cute! I was mesmerized and tried taking about 30 photos and videos, which sadly were poor quality because of the lighting and because I got some sand lodged in my camera when I was in the desert, and it hasn’t been functioning properly since. A hotel staff member came up and explained that the monkeys come by every night to eat and drink water from the garden. He then scared them off to the forest by chasing them with a metal pole.

monkeys!

monkeys on the hotel roof

monkeys da da da

the hotel

the hotel

The next day, we went to see the Ranakpur’s main attraction—an amazing Jain temple carved out of white marble.

Jain temple

inside the temple

Fine marble craftmanship

We also ate lunch at a Jain restaurant on the temple compound. For about 50 cents per person, we were served all you can eat curries, rice, and fried bread, all of which we ate with our hands until Mukesh could tell we were struggling eating the rice with our fingers and asked for spoons for us. What was interesting was that all diners sat on the same side of the long metal tables, and servers constantly walked down the line on the opposite side of the table, doling out more food. I’d never been to a restaurant that seated people in such a way. The food was good, too.

We spent another day maxing and relaxing out on the patio. I spent about 2 hours talking with a retired couple from New Zealand that was staying next to us. They had a lot of interesting tales about farming Emus, living in Papua New Guinea, and distilling liquor in their home’s hot water heater. They seem to be on the same route as us with a driver of their own as they’re in the hotel we’re staying at now in Udaipur.

The other attraction in Ranakpur is a lake that has 3 or 4 crocodiles in it. We walked over to see the lake at sunset but didn’t see any crocodiles, unfortunately. A family living in a shack on a hill by the lake invited us up to sit down and have tea. Rebecca and I politely declined the tea offer because we were afraid that the water used to make it came from the crocodile lake, which was really more of a pond because of the hot weather and probably very muddy. The family had two really cute girls, who were singing and dancing for us and kept asking us to take photos and videos of them so that they could look at them. They also had a few goats, including a cute baby goat tethered to a rock.

lake in Ranakpur

shack on the hill

cute kids in front of the hut

a baby goat teatherd to a rock!

The next day (yesterday) we drove to Udaipur, a popular tourist destination with several large palaces, one of which is on an island in the middle of a lake. I cannot even tell you how excited we were that our hotel had not only hot water, but working wireless Internet! Yesssssss! So that is how I was finally able to post this blog. We went to an art school/gallery, where an annoying man informed us about traditional Rajasthani paintings, and Rebecca bought some small paintings of a camel (which represents love), an elephant (luck) and a horse (power). We spent the rest of the afternoon working on our blogs. So dorky. Then we had dinner at a restaurant on the lake with views of the palaces, all lit up. Then we came back and used the Internet until nearly midnight!

That catches me up to today. After a tasty chai and nutella pancake breakfast, I spent the morning walking though a hindu temple, the city streets, and the main city palace–one of India’s largest palaces–which is intricately decorated with tile, glass, and mirror mosaics. Unfortunately, my camera has stopped working, I think due to the sand that got lodged in it in the desert. Bummer. So I don’t have any pics of Udaipur yet. I’ll try to steal some from Rebecca. Also unfortunate–the water in the hotel stopped running in the middle of my shower this morning. It’s now 9 pm and the water still isn’t back, and the staff is acting like it’s no big deal. They just carried 2 big buckets of water to our bathroom. This should be fun! I’ll blog again next time I have access to the net…