Once we were done running around Rajasthan we took a train to Mumbai. We were pretty impressed by the general cleanliness and organization of the city. We used our time in Mumbai to send some packages home, which is a process that can take a full day, as well as get Andrew fitted for a tailored made suit. We mostly used the local metro trains to get around and a lot of people told us that we should just take cabs because it would be too busy but in truth we loved riding the local train even during rush hour. We also rode the local train with all of our travel luggage when we were going to our hostel and even though the train was rammed, the men on the train were quite helpful in making sure we could get on and off at our stops. We visited a few of the touristy sites around the city including the Colaba Causeway, the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Yay!!! Finally beach! We chose to visit Agonda, a small beach town in South Goa since we read that the beaches in the South are much quieter and not filled with Russians making sexy photos. We were so happy with our choice! Our original plan was to stay 7 nights then move on to Kerala however, after enjoying the first few days so much we extended our stay to 17 nights in typical beachbum yogi fashion! We arrived in Goa by train from Mumbai and had to take a few separate buses from the train station to reach Agonda Beach. We were thrilled to see our new digs for the upcoming nights as it was clean, modern, the staff was super friendly and most importantly of all it was right on the beach! The place was called Monsoon and was run by a friendly German guy and his team of Nepali boys who made our stay really pleasant. They were all easy to chat with and a lot fun to be around. In addition to the spectacular service at Monsoon, over the course of our stay we would come to find that it had some of the best food on the whole beach! Along the road that lines the beach are small shops selling anything you could desire while vacationing on a beach including...water toys!!! Our best purchase in India so far was a $2.50 inner tube. For the next 17 days we would float or ride the waves then enjoy a beautiful sunset drifting with the current. Our time in Agonda coincided with Diwali! It was fun watching the small village string up lights, sing and dance. On this particular night the children in the village made large demon paper mache things then danced around them and at 12:00pm lit them on fire in the church parking lots! The first week in Agonda we participated in a week long yoga foundations course at the South end of the beach. It was very relaxing waking up early, running to the yoga studio to learn the basics and theory of yoga outside in the jungle on an actual foundation. We loved the setting of this class as pigs, chickens and the odd monkey would stroll through our 'studio!' We had a great, very informative, and easy going teacher who also happened to be a Canuck! When we weren't busy playing in the waves or practicing yoga we would rent a scooter and scoot around to the other beaches and towns nearby. It was amazingly fun riding around dodging cows, people, and other cars! The first day we visited Palolem (a busier beach town) where another couple we had met on our train from Mumbai to Goa from Basque Country was staying. After we ate lunch we went for a walk and shopped around a bit. The second day we rented a scooter we visited Khola beach which was located 17km away on a paved road then down a bumpy dirt road. To our surprise Khola was very scenic with a nice lagoon running throughout with a couple restaurants and a bar. There were also many Russians drinking and using the scenery to make sexy photos. After the beach we headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us by our yoga instructor It was an organic, vegetarian, vegan place near Agonda called Blue Planet. We heard that the food was incredible and really different from typical Indian cuisine so we had to check it out. Everything we ate was incredibly delicious. It was so good that on our second last day we rented a scooter and went back! Blue Planet has been open for 13 years and when we asked the owners how they learned to cook as good as they do they told us that it has just been trial and error and improving what they make over the years. As per the rest of our trip, we made a good friend on the beach who we named Hindi Bindi. We named her that because she has a permanant third eye on her head made from the different colours of her fur. Yes she's a street dog who lives on the beach. We would see her in the mornings when we were on our way to yoga, we would see her in the evenings when we would have sundowners on the beach and we would sometimes see her at dinner when we would eat a place called Agona White Sand (where Bindi would hang out and eat food that was left over from people). We got to know her so well that we could call her by the name we made up from far away and she would come running and wagging. She also became very territorial around us too. At first she wouldn't let other dogs approach us when she was sitting with us on the beach and then she got so attached that she wouldn't even let other people approach us! Any time an Indian would come up to us and try and sell us a boat trip to see dolphins she would stand up and viciously growl at them until they left... which didn't take long! Oh and she would watch our things for us when we would go swimming. It was actually kind of nice to have some personal security.
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We left Bikaner on a night train headed to Sawai Modhpur, the town next to Ranthambore National Park, one of the last remaining places on earth to see tigers in the wild. A lot of guide books and websites say that although chances are still pretty slim of seeing a tiger in the wild, they are slightly higher here in Ranthambore due to its relatively small size and a half decent population of about 35 tigers. We were told to book early as space for the regulated safaris books up quickly since the park is closed during the monsoon from June to early October. We ended up reserving space on two safaris: one afternoon safari and one morning safari. Our e-ticket stubs said something about having to pick up our boarding passes at the tourist center at least 30 minutes prior to our safari. After getting settled at a little hotel we made our way down to the tourist center only to find it closed. When we inquired with a local, we found out that it would re-open about one hour before the afternoon safari departed. After going back to the hotel and then doubling back to the tourist center again, we were greeted by a massive, loud and completely unorganized crowd in front of the tourist center. Listen, we have been in India for about a month now so we were used to the chaos that comes along with everyday run-of-the-mill activities. This, however was a different kind of chaos. We started showing random people our ticket stubs and after getting directed to the wrong service window three or four times we found the correct one where we could redeem our tickets for boarding passes on the afternoon safari. We seemed to be the only foreigners in this particular line and we couldn't figure out why. Finally we asked an Indian man who was holding a box of about 40 passports and a small ream of paper in his arms. He told us that he came to pick up boarding passes for guests staying at a few different hotels and that our hotel should have this service as well. After having no luck spotting tigers on our first safari we were hopeful that we would have better luck on our next safari the following morning. This time we were a bit smarter and asked our hotel manager if he could arrange for someone to get our boarding cards without the hassle of us going to the parks office at 5:00am. The next morning we got up early and headed outside to wait for the guy with our boarding cards and passports. We couldn't find anyone and got worried we'd been forgotten about until we saw the hotel manager riding on his bike up to us waving our boarding cards. He told us that the guy that was supposed to come and pickup our passports, the night before, never showed so he went himself. We were so grateful that he let us sleep in and took care of it for us! Shortly after a safari vehicle pulled up and we were off on our second tiger safari. This time we were happy to meet our friendly, informative guide as the one from the night before was falling asleep and not interested in talking. To increase our chances of spotting a tiger our guide suggested we drive quickly through the beginning of the park because they had heard there was a tiger in our zone a ways in from the gate. We drove to the area that they thought a tiger was in but the guide said it must of moved or was hiding so we continued through the park and at one point got to get out of the vehicle to spot other wildlife. After our break we got in and the guide must have gotten a tip from another driver because we started to once again speed up until we reached a point where a bunch of other safari cars were all stopped with everyone looking over to one side. Our driver started honking and our guide started yelling, some India tourists in our car told us the guide was mad because the car in front of us wouldn't move up and was blocking the view of the tiger from everyone else. Unfortunately by the time they sorted it out the tiger had moved and was no longer visible. We were disappointed but we had to remember that there was only a 20% chance of seeing one so for us to see foot prints, hear warning calls of other animals, and be one car behind the car who could see it we felt pretty fortunate! Romantic UdaipurLater in the day we went to the train station hoping to switch our train from Udaipur and head right to Mumbai so we could get to Goa quicker. Once at the train station we found out that the Mumbai-bound train's seating chart was already made so we couldn't get on. Therefore, we spent the next 9 hours waiting in the train station's waiting room for our train to Udaipur. Udaipur is a very scenic city built along Lake Pichola. We were told to stay in Udaipur to recharge and relax so we booked two nights in a hotel with a great view of the city and lake. We spent the days people watching on roof top restaurants and walking around the city to various sights. One of the most famous buildings in the city is The City Palace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Udaipur), a palace complex built alongside Lake Pichola by Maharana Udai Singh. The royal family still lives today. We walked around inside the City Palace museum that was created by one of the more recent Maharanas. We enjoyed the museum and were fascinated at some of the weaponry and armor used in battles. We also visited the Jagdish Temple and the City Gardens. We really enjoyed our stay in Udaipur and we would like to come back one day to spend a little more time exploring the surrounding countryside. We had planned to visit many places in Rajasthan but after the difficulty we had in pre-booking trains and some of the other "fun" frustrations you encounter travelling in India we decided to streamline our travels to the beach!. So we researched into all of the Rajasthani highlights and what interested us and chose to visit Bikaner to see the Karni Mata temple (rat temple) and try a came safari. Then we would travel to Sawai Madhopur in hopes to see wild tigers in Ranthambore National Park. After tiger spotting we'd hop on another night train down to Udaipur, a scenic and romantic city set alongside a lake. Arriving in Bikaner we were greeted by our hotel manager and taken to the hotel by tuk tuk. The hotel was very basic but clean, had friendly staff and doubled as a place we could book camel safari. We were sold on going on a day tour of some of Bikaners "must sees" including the Red Fort, a minarture artist, a Rajasthani embroidery factory, and then end at the temple. Even thought we weren't totally interested in seeing all the sights we were to tired to tell the hotel manager no so we decided we'd try it out. We weren't too happy about the hotel manager accompanying us on our "tour"; we're pretty sure he was a tourist tout trying to get commission off of what we purchased. What he didn't know was that we're actually browsers and hardly every buy anything. We did enjoy seeing the sights and found the rat temple to be very interesting! We know what you're wondering. Why do people worship rats? Well, its because they believe that the rats are the reincarnations of their loved ones who have passed. Obviously there's a long legend that goes along with this but that's essentially the reason. People donate money to the temple, which provides the rats with food and coconut milk. While we were walking around a young Indian boy who was on vacation told us that the temple is really special as these rats have no disease unlike many other rats outside the temple. He also tried to show us the white rat which is good luck to see! Ready. Set. Camel Toe!We woke early, ate breakfast then headed on a 45 min car ride to the desert to meet our guide Harpool, his camel men, and the camels we’d be riding for the next two days! We were really excited about the experience. As it was just Andrew and I there would only be two camels, 1 for riding the other to pull the cart which carried our food and shelter for the trip. At first we were disappointed that we both wouldn’t be riding all day but once we spent some time on the camel and riding around, we quickly were grateful for the cart and the opportunity to take turns riding. Our first stop was to collect some gear and have a chai. At the village one of the daughters of our camel men drew henna on Courtney's hand. Once we were ready we continued for another 2 hours in the hot desert sun. The Thar desert near Bikaner has small vegetation and some cool wildlife. We spotted lots of deer running through the small bushes. After two hours we stopped and had lunch. We were so impressed by Harpool's and our camel man's culinary expertise out in the middle of nowhere. They prepared us a delicious stuffed eggplant and chapti lunch. They also taught us how to roll and cook chapatis. After lunch we all laid down and had a siesta as the sun was at it's strongest and they didn't want us to boil to death. It was a great day riding on the camel and the cart! We enjoyed the views and the interesting facts Harpool taught us about desert lifestyle and customs. They set our camp up on a small dune with a view of the sprawling desert plains. Right after sunset we had some excitement when 7 coyotes approached our camp. Luckily two local dogs followed us from the closet village who kept barking and eventually chased the coyotes away from our camp. Harpool made us a delicious mixed veg curry with chapatis and for dessert freshly prepared rice pudding! It was the day after full moon which meant that the moon lit up the entire sky making it too bright to see tons of stars. After we star gazed a bit we tucked ourselves away in our tee-pee tent which was free of any creepy crawlies while Harpool and the camel men slept outside on blankets. In the morning we asked how often they see snakes or scorpians out there; Harpool said there were many occasions that he woke up and a cobra or viper had slithered next to where his "bed" was beside the cart. He also said that it's common for scorpions to sleep underneath his bed. After hearing his stories we were so thankful we got to sleep in the tent! We really enjoyed the camel safari; the desert was very scenic, quiet and peaceful! We had tons of fun and interesting conversations with Harpool and the camel men. We also had amazing food freshly prepared for us over camp fire! After the two days our butts were literally rubbed raw so we were happy to get back to our hotel, shower and "rest" before we hopped on another overnight train to Sawai Modpur.
Leaving Darjeeling was all so much fun. We asked around where we would find the Jeeps headed down to New Jalpaiguri where we would catch our night train to Varanasi. We walked down to the taxi stand where everyone told us to wait for a jeep and none came. Also the men hanging around the area quoted us prices that were almost double than what we had paid to get to Darjeeling a week earlier. We got fed up with waiting and a little bit antsy we passed our expected departure time from Darjeeling. This meant that we might be late catching our train. We kept asking different people about where the main jeep and bus stand was and it turned out to be quite a ways further down the mountain, but still within the sprawling city. We walked as fast as we could with our enormous packs and when we made it down to the main jeep stand and asked where to find a jeep to New Jalpaiguri the men standing around all pointed in different directions. No one was able to speak English so we kept getting turned around and sent in the wrong direction. Now we were well past the time we had expected to leave Darjeeling in order to catch our train on the other end. To put things into perspective, if we were to miss our train to Varanasi we would not be getting on another. There were no other trains that had space. Everything was completely booked. Our last hope would be to get a tatkal ticket (a last-minute emergency ticket) that costs a whole heck of a lot more, for a train that departs the following day or the day after. Which means we would likely have to spend a lot of time in the train station. Not fun. Frusterated and out of breath we scrambled through the crowds pushing our way through the smattering of people and jeeps trying to find a ticket booth. When we finally did we purchased two tickets and immediately got in a jeep that was bound for Siliguri, a town near New Jalpaiguri where our train departed from. The jeep took about 20 minutes to get loaded and drive off. When we were finally on our way to Siliguri there was almost no hope of us catching our train. We asked the driver to go as quickly as he could without driving us off a cliff. When we arrived in Siliguri I grabbed the bags while Courtney grabbed a tuk tuk and we asked him to race to the train station. Miraculously we had 15 minutes to make it there before the train departed. The tuk tuk driver said it would take 15 minutes to get to the train station but that he would try his best to get there sooner. We arrived at the train station with about 2 minutes to spare and we raced to our platform and to our surprise the train was still there. We half expected it to start driving away as we approached it but we were able to find our correct car and hop on without chasing it. As we got settled in our berths the horn blew and off we went! For those of you who haven’t travelled in India you may not realize how difficult it is to book trains. As it is the main form of transportation for the rich, poor and everyone in between the trains book up well in advance. In South America we were used to travelling without much planning beforehand and because we thought that would work in India (despite being told otherwise) we have had to take whichever trains are available. For example there were no spaces on the trains from New Jalpaiguri to Varanasi so instead we had to buy a ticket all the way to New Delhi then get off at Mughal Saris, a train station close to Varanasi. The only issue was the train arrived there at 1:30am. So we set our watches and woke up a few minutes before the expected arrival so that we could jump off. Sometimes there is no way of knowing which train station you are at without asking, because signage can be non-existent so we had to be ready to jump off at any point as the train stops in some stations for a max of 2 minutes. We did get off at the correct station and decided we would sleep in the station in one of its retiring rooms; a very bare-bones style room with a few beds and a squat toilet and about 50 salamanders lining the walls. We were actually pretty impressed with the room, between having our own bathroom, beds and clean sheets it was an infinitely better alternative than sleeping on the floor of the train platform. The next morning we took a tuk tuk to our guest house in Varanasi, which came highly recommended by other travellers. The guest house was situated right along the Ganges, the scared Hindu river. We dropped our stuff, had a bit of a rest and then headed out to explore a bit of the city. Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world and was founded by the god Shiva. For Hindu’s it’s a sacred city because of the Ganges River that the city is built around. Hindu’s believe that the Ganges allows a crossing point of access to the divine and for god and goddesses to come down. If a Hindu dies in Varanasi they believe they attain moksha or enlightenment. Therefore, many elderly people come to Varanasi to die, the family then has a ceremonial cremation next to the river at the burning Ghats. We were fortunate enough to watch a ceremony; it was very interesting especially because funerals for us are sad occasions but Hindu’s do not feel that it should be sad because their loved ones are that much closer to crossing over. We were told that each ceremony differs in scale but mostly is dependent on the family’s caste and wealth. The minimum cost is 30000 INR (approx. $550 CAD) which, people save for their entire lives as well as get help from family members. We heard mixed information, one person said anyone from any caste can get cremated there if they have the funds but we were also told only certain castes could be? For people who can’t afford the cremation, their bodies get wrapped up like a mummy then a rock is tied to their legs and then the body is taken to the middle of the Ganges and sunk. Unfortunately, it is common that the tie comes loose and the bodies float up; therefore, it’s common to see bodies in the river while boating. Government workers go around and retie the rocks to the bodies so they sink. Also, all animals that die in Varanasi also get buried at sea (so to speak) in the Ganges. To us Varanasi was a very odd place to visit; it’s very overwhelming and emotional but also very spiritual and we enjoyed the experience. The Ghats are the steps that line the Ganges. We would walk up and down the Ghats people watching. It was so interesting seeing what everyone was engaged in. We saw many people bathing, many washing clothing and beating the clothes with paddle boards which, resembled cricket bats. We also saw many groups of cows getting bathed by their herders in the river. During our time there, there was a festival where the people created wood or weaved god shaped statues where at night would get burned or placed into the Ganges. At first we thought we kept seeing tons of bodies but quickly found out that it was the figurines of a goddess. While we walked along the Ghats avoiding the touts (they are everywhere and have the most slick ways of getting you to speak with them always ending with them trying to take you to their shop, go on a boat trip, or paying to see the burning Ghats), which Varanasi is horrible for, we were approached by a westerner who was looking to talk with people without the need to pay for something at the end. His name was Matt from the USA. As he had a long thick beard Indian’s kept coming up to him and calling him Western Babba. Matt had studied religion in school and taught us so much about Hinduism and the caste system. We had a great day and evening chatting and experiencing the city all together. At sunset we all went for a boat ride to get a different view of the city. Agra - The Taj MahalWe took a night train from Varanasi to Agra to see the world’s most beautiful building, the Taj Mahal. Rather than explaining the history behind the Taj we’re going to give you the Wikipedia link and then bombard you with photos! Check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal. After our awesome experience in Amritsar we took a night train back to Delhi. One of the trail guides we met while hiking to Beas Kund near Manali offered to take us out for an evening in Delhi for some really delicious street food. They said we weren't getting the true Delhi experience if we never ate street food so we hesitantly agreed to meet him! We say hesitantly because we heard horror stories or foreigners getting Delhi belly from eating the street food. We ended up being completely surprised at the quality and deliciousness of the street food! Raghav’s friend Vandana had previously been on a walking food tour of the area and knew all the best places for us to eat. Our first booth was a chicken vendor who served the BEST BBQ chicken with Ghee (similar to butter) we've ever eaten! We ate nearly two full chickens worth. We were all so stuffed but Vandana said we had to top off our bellies with dessert! They arranged two cycle rickshaws to take us through the back alleys to our next gut filler. Driving through the alleys with locals was a great experience! They taught us a lot about the people, culture, and also informed us of the differences between areas. The next stall was a specialty ice cream shop called Kuremal Mahavir Prasad. Vandana was very upset as the shop was closed; she went around and spoke to a couple of young men standing around. The next thing we saw was one of the men opening up the shop just for us! We couldn't believe they were opening up just for us but Vandana explained it was her third time coming that week and she was beginning to get quite the reputation as an important customer. We tried two different desserts; the first dessert was made from fruit concentrate and ice, kind of like a really delicious slushy. The second dessert was something we had never seen before called Kulfi wale; it was a frozen spiced ice cream stuffed mango, peeled then thinly sliced. So each bite had fresh mango, spice, and ice cream it was Delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed our night out and rolled ourselves home. FYI we never got Delhi belly! The food was all prepared to the highest standards even though it was prepared on the street. We highly recommend other tourists to try some of Delhi’s awesome street food. You should be fine if you ask locals or go to stands that are preparing the food fresh! The next day we flew from Delhi to Bagdogbra (the city closest to Darjeeling). After our flight we jumped into a jeep and began a 4 hour ride up the steep mountain side to Darjeeling. We met two other English travellers and decided we would share the experience of the jeep ride. The driver stuck us four in the back where the two bench seats faced one another. It was very cramped but we had a great time getting to know Shane and Gemma! The drive was scenic; we drove through tea plantations and got great views of the valleys. Darjeeling isn’t the small quaint town you picture. It’s actually quite large, loud but set on a beautiful landscape in the Himalyan foothills. We took a day to rest then arranged for a 4 night trek up into the Indian Himalayas. The Singalila trek is not only popular with foreigners but also with Indian trekkers. The trek climbs up into the mountains above the clouds (and sometimes through them) and criss-crosses in and out of India and Nepal. We chose to do this trek in particular for the views of the Himalaya and the chance of seeing 4 of the 5 highest peaks including Mount Everest! From Darjeeling we took a 1.5 hour Jeep ride to a smaller town called Maneybhanjang to meet our guide Pemba and start the trek. The first day we hiked in thick fog through forest and alongside a Jeep road which services the small villages in the area. We hiked for 5 hour and ended in a tiny village where we spent the night at a tea house with homemade Nepalese food. Our second day we woke up really early bundled in some blankets and hiked to a small lookout to watch the sunrise hit Kanchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. After we enjoyed the view we went back to the tea house relaxed, ate then headed out for the days hike. We continued hiking, the trail traversed through small villages, a conservation area with the Red Panda (we looked hard but never saw one). The total day's hike was 20 kms with 12 being very steep. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in early, which significantly decreased the views. It was interesting and slightly eerie hiking above the clouds. Later in the afternoon on one of the very long and very steep climbs the clouds opened and we got a view of our hotel which sat at the top of Sandakphu overlooking the huge mountain valleys. We finally reached our hotel at 3636m we could feel the elevation in our breathing and were so looking forward to sleep. Even though the hotel is so high and set in the mountains there was no heat so it was very cold. We were lucky that our guide gave us hot water bottles to sleep with! We had a very difficult night as it was very cold and we had eaten something that made our bellies turn upside down (not the street food from Delhi, this was 5 days after). Needless to say we spent the majority of the night running back and forth from the bathroom (squat toilet with a tap). After the horrible night we were glad to see the first signs of sunrise. We once again bundled up and stepped outside to see the sunrise hitting the mountain range. It was stunningly beautiful! Pemba pointed out which mountains we were looking at. The neatest part was Everest was further away and it looked smaller than some of the other giant mountains around except for when the sun rose it hit Everest first! It was an amazing view. We were feeling very ill so we decided to hike to another village at a lower elevation. Pemba was convinced we had a touch of altitude sickness but he quickly realized it was only in our guts as every 5 minutes we were running into the woods to use the bathroom! Although the 14kms was downhill it took way longer than planned and was way more difficult for us that we had thought. Once we arrived at our village we ate then climbed into bed and slept the night through…all thanks to Imodium! After we woke from a decent sleep we ate then hiked the last 7 km to where a Jeep picked us up. We asked if it could pick us up any closer but due to a massive landslide that happened during the Monsoons the driver had to wait at the other side. Once we rounded the last bend we had never been happier to see a Jeep! We had a 3.5 hour ride back to Darjeeling where we checked into our hotel then went to a Doctor. Due to a Hindu festival the doctor’s office was closed so we had to endure a visit to the hospital. We walked into the building which looked like it was built in the 1940’s and never updated. There was no triage area so we walked up a really decrepit staircase and started to pop our heads into rooms to find someone. Signs above the doorways read; women’s ward, men’s ward, economy ward and our favourite, which we didn’t dare enter was the surgical auditorium. The dormitories (wards) had people laying on gurneys which looked like they came from World War II. The whole building was old and very dirty. We eventually found a nurse and explained that we would like to see a doctor, she told us to wait downstairs and they’d let us know when he arrived. Waiting for the doctor we heard a lot of commotion then saw a group of (at least 8) Indians all carrying and surrounding a stretcher up the flight of stairs. There was tons of yelling and chaos but the man on the stretcher seemed to be conscious. Once the doctor arrived he made us feel much better about being there as he was very knowledgeable and professional. He explained we probably had eaten some type of parasite and prescribed us antibiotics and instructed us to drink electrolytes. We were glad we were healthy other than the stomach bug as we’d have been very reluctant to get treated for anything serious there. After a few days of rest we felt much better and much lighter! We enjoyed a few more days in Darjeeling sipping tea and people watching in the main plaza.
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