After almost a year of wearing the same stinky clothes we decided we better return to Mumbai for a few days of shopping to prepare us for Australia. We checked out all the main shopping areas, from High Street Phoenix, a real super fancy shopping mall, to many street stalls along Colaba Causeway. Once we had bought a few new outfits we spent time visiting some of the touristy spots. One evening we visited an upscale movie theater where we saw Life of Pi in 3D. It was fantastic, and it was quite fitting to see it in India! The theater was also really fancy and an awesome treat. You could order food and drinks and have them delivered right to your seat food and outside the auditorium we got to test the most high tech massage chair that gave the best full body massage! On another day we took a ferry over to Elephanta Island, which is famous for the intricate cave carvings of different Hindu gods. We were amazed at the size and detail of the carvings. It is truly stunning work. On our second last day we experienced two extremes of wealth in Mumbai. We began the day by visiting one of Mumbai`s most popular and largest slums named Dhavari. We learned a lot about life in an Indian slum and about the mass amounts of commercial business that occurs in the slum. Our guide also explained that there are between 600,000 and 1 million people living in a 1.7 km squared area. Most families have 6 or more people per household in a 10 by 10 ft house, which includes an area for cooking, a semi private spot for a bathing then mats to sleep on with a shared bathroom outside. The tour we took was organized through an NGO where 80% of the proceeds get returned or used in the NGO programs. The NGO runs a school where they teach photography, and workplace skills. We found the tour very interesting, organized, and enlightening. To conceal the peoples identify we were not allowed to take photos while inside but here are a few from the top of the rail station. On the other extreme, later in the evening we met up with Rahul, a young Indian studying at Harvard in the USA who was home visiting his mother for Christmas Vacation. We were really excited as we had met Rahul one day on a bus in Peru going to Huachachina. We spent two days with him and really enjoyed getting to see him again. We were invited to his house for dinner with his Mother and Aunt. Their house was beautiful and very upscale; they even had kitchen help and drivers to take them around the city and to work! After dinner we chatted for a bit, enjoyed some cocktails and headed to a bar attached to the Taj President Hotel where we enjoyed a few drinks with his Mumbai friends. It was great to catch up! For the rest of the time we stuffed our faces with as much Indian food and drink as we could. We also bought spices so once we are settled we’ll start making authentic chai and curries! We were sad to be leaving India but so excited for our next adventures in Australia!
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After a lovely 6 hour bumpy bus ride we arrived in the not-so-touristy city of Erode, where we would stay with Elango’s family for two nights. Elango is an Indian friend who studied with Courtney in Edmonton. One cold wintery day in Edmonton while Courtney and Elango chatted about India, Elango offered for us to visit his family if we made it to India. We said, "for sure!" and were very excited when the time had come! While we waited at the bus station for Elango’s “brother cousin” (male first cousin) Arvind, we noticed we were the only foreigners around, which obviously was exciting to the locals as they gathered around us. Eventually a friendly guy came up to us and introduced himself as Arvind. We walked to his car and drove the 30 minutes to Elgano’s parent's house. On arrival we were greeted by Elango’s mother, father, two aunts and his sister cousin Somiya. Arvind and Somiya were the only two who spoke English so they acted as our translators and guides for the next two days. We couldn’t believe that Arvind had travelled all the way (6 hour train) from Chennai the day before we arrived and Somiya had taken off school just so they could show us off… I mean around. We settled in to our own room where they had prepared us a bed and our own clean bathroom with a western toilet! We were instructed to shower and then we would prepare lunch. I (Courtney) had asked Elango if his family could teach me how to prepare some Indian dishes. So happily his mother and Aunts taught me how to make Vada, an onion spiced doughnut fried in oil. After the cooking lesson Somiya asked us to sit on the ground while she served us lunch. The first thing she brought out was a large green banana leaf. Then she scooped out rice, veg curries, a coconut based chutney, and a sweet for dessert. We then were shown how to properly mix the food by using only one hand to intensify the flavours. We took a bit of everything, placed it in a pile neatly at the center of the banana leaf and then mashed it all together into a fine paste by squeezing all the food in our palms and through our fingers. Once the food was well mixed we would scoop it up and eat it with the same hand (the right one). I found it a little difficult to get used to but I had a lot fun eating because hey, our mother always told us not to play with our food so this was a treat! After lunch we visited the family’s relatives and friends. At each house it was customary for them to serve us chai and some sort of sweet. We were already totally full but had to fit in several more chai’s and sweets before the day was up. We weren't omplaining, we love chai and sweets! Later in the evening we headed back to Elango’s family home and had Malasa dosa, a thin rice flour pancake stuffed with spiced potato served with dal and chutney. After dinner (10:00pm) Arvind and Somya took us to a Bollywood cinema where we watched a Masala film called Thuppakki . It’s called a Masala film as it had a mix of romance, comedy, singing, dancing, and action. The theater was retro and freezing with the air con blasting and fans circulating the cold air. The movie was entertaining but totally ridiculous at parts. It was a Tamil film with a few English lines thrown in to help us foreigners understand the plot. We had to fight falling asleep as we were completely wrecked from the long day of travelling and meeting every person in Erode. The next day we woke up early, washed up and went to their kitchen where Elango's Mom and Aunts were once again preparing food. Even after we explained we washed up we were asked to go back and take a full shower as we were heading to temple after breakfast. Once clean, Arvind dressed Andrew in a white shirt and a traditional white dhoti. The temple was situated 40 mins from the town up on a high hill with a great view of the surrounding area. Somiya was very excited as it was her first time visiting this particular temple, which she had been waiting to visit for along time. We really enjoyed learning about Hinduism, the gods and watching a prayer ceremony inside the temple. We also felt honored when Arvind and Somiya added us to their prayers in front of the Brahmin. After temple we headed back home. The women had spent the morning preparing us a delicious non-veg meal of chicken and mutton curry for lunch. It was fun chatting with the other family members who had come over for the special lunch and tasting local non-veg dishes. Somiya and the Aunts teased Courtney about not sucking every last bit of meat off the bones and picking through the curry. The truth was that Courtney had gone completely vegetarian while in India and found it very difficult to eat/digest all parts of the chicken. We felt like we were on a stage being watched while we ate, only we were sitting on the floor. While the men ate in the kitchen the women surrounded us and watched us eat then would giggle when we would miss our mouths and food would fall onto our laps. After everyone ate we were offered a leaf with calcium paste and a few red hard seeds. We rolled all three ingredients together then had to chew and swallow; this was supposed to help with the digesting of meat. The taste of this digestive product was overwhelming and hardly enjoyable. Once again the family got a kick out of watching their guests politely chew the leaf concoction and eventually Courtney had to spit the chewed leaf substance out. After lunch we got taken to visit more extended family members. Our favourite visit was to Elango’s cousins who farm. We loved visiting their farm, and playing with the animals. We then visited a sugar cane farm next door were we learnt about the cutting and processing of sugar and got to taste real raw sugar that had been made earlier that day. After the farm we visited more homes; everyone was very excited to meet us, feed us and take a snap of us in their home. They said they were honored we were in Erode and thrilled when we would patiently look through their children’s wedding albums. The wedding albums were from the 1940’s up to as recently as a few months ago; they also ranged in size, colour and extravagance! One cousin had 4 huge bound coloured albums for us to go through from the engagement to the wedding then to fun after wedding shots. Learning about the arranged wedding process was really enlightening; we also appreciated how everyone was so excited and happy to answer all of our questions. Once we were finished with the visits we picked up the aunts along the road and continued to a shop, which sold a huge variety of sarees and clothing of other types. To our surprise the family insisted they purchase us authentic India attire. When Courtney would try on the Salwar Kameez all the aunts would clap their hands in excitement then ask Andrew which one he preferred. Andrew politely turned down the offer for a Dhoti. After we were done in the saree store we went to another shop which sold men’s branded clothing. I (Courtney) then got to pick out a nice new outfit for Andrew. Again the aunts and uncles were so happy with the new purchases and that their foreigners were starting to fit in! We had been told we were done visiting but after dinner some more family friends came over then asked if we would visit their house, so in our new clothes, we were back to visiting. After the last visit Somiya applied a special dye, similar to Henna but lasts longer and is good for the body, to Courtney’s palms and then we finally went to sleep. In the morning we packed up, said our goodbyes and were off to Chennai with Arvind. ChennaiOur time in Chennai was pretty uneventful except that we were attacked by bugs. Not sure if they were bed bugs but none the less we had bites everywhere! We switched hotels and treated ourselves to a 3 star hotel for the night in hopes of reducing our chances of being eaten alive! Once we had wifi and TV we only left the room to eat!
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.
Amritsar is home to one of the most beautiful temples around. The Golden Temple. Its also home to one of the most outrageous border crossings around. The Wagah Border between India and Pakistan. We endured another long hot and loud bus ride from McLeod Ganj in Himachal Pradesh to Amritsar in Punjab. We only planned to stay for one day in Amritsar because we only wanted to see the Golden Temple and the Wagah Border Ceremony. Fortunately for us, there isn't too much to write about from that day in Amritsar but there are a lot of pictures, so this is going to be more of photoblog! The Golden Temple is a very well known place of worship for Sikhs and upon entry it's immediately obvious why. The temple's gleaning golden domes shine in the sun and its white marble walkways and outer buildings are just as stunning. We quickly became a crowd pleaser upon entry into the Temple grounds, where many Indians asked to have their pictures taken with us. In Shimla only a handful of people asked to have their pictures taken with us, but in Amritsar, we lost count within minutes of being there. In fact in order to get around and see the temple we had to keep moving with purpose otherwise we would be asked for a photo op; it was a blast! After the Golden Temple we split a tuktuk with three other foreigners to go to the Wagah Border to watch the ritual changing of the guard ceremony, which over the years has become more of a sport than a solemn military event. Guards from both the India and Pakistani side march and kick their way to cheers from the massive onlooking crowd. We were lucky that we brought our passports (yeah we almost forgot to bring them to the border) and we were given VIP seating as foreign tourists, which got us closer to the action. As the crowds swelled the celebrations began with music pumping through loudspeakers and women dancing on the road that connects the two countries. In the distance we could see the border guards stretching and practicing their moves and we knew it was going to be one heck of a show. We'll let the pictures and the videos do the talking for us though! To get to Mcleod Ganj we had to take multiple buses from Manali, which, in total took an absolutely grueling 10 hours. Needless to say, spinal realignments will be in order when we get to Australia. We were fortunate to have had a well deserved break in a bus station. Here is what a normal day in an Indian bus station looks like. After arriving in Dharmasala we had to take a 3rd bus up a steep winding road to McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. We walked around found a hotel and settled in for 4 nights. One day we ventured out to the Dalai Lama's residence. On another day we hiked up to Triund, a 14km hike through two small villages, past a few chai stands, and around a few farms. The views were incredible all the way up and breathtaking once we got to the top! Along the way we stopped and had masala chai at one of the stands. At the top we made some Indian Mr. Noodles, watched some paragliders come out of the high Himalayas and enjoyed the company of a few Hindu mountain dogs. After our four night stay in McLeod Ganj we jumped on yet another seemingly endless bus ride to Amritsar, to visit the Golden Temple! Stay tuned!
ShimlaFrom Delhi we had planned to head north to the Himalayan Mountains to do some trekking and site seeing. We spent half a day arranging a night train to take us to Kalka where we would catch a toy train that would take us the rest of the way up the steep slopes of the Himalayan foothills to Shimla. We were told that Shimla was a big Honeymoon destination for Indians and when we arrived we felt like the only foreign tourists around. Shimla was absolutely swamped with Indian tourists but it had quite a nice charm to it. The views from the main town were really nice and people weren’t constantly approaching us trying to sell us stuff unlike what we experienced in Delhi. Instead we had a lot of the Indian tourists approaching us to have their photos taken with us! It was a concept that seemed really odd at first but we quickly got used to it and started to have some good fun with it! We didn’t do much in Shimla, but what we did do turned out to be a lot of fun! We had planned to send a few parcels home and to Australia so we went to a local tailor (yes that’s correct, a tailor) to have our items to send sewn into cloth packages, which were then sealed at the seams using hot wax! It was a lot of fun to watch the tailor and his assistant whip up the packages! While looking for lunch one day we were stopped by and older gentleman in the main square, he wanted to know if we needed help finding something. At first we were really apprehensive and assumed he was up to something but as we continued to chat with him we learned that he was only a retired college professor looking for a good conversation. He introduced himself as Madan and he recommended a few different restaurants for us to eat at and then politely mentioned that we were more than welcome to join him for tea at a restaurant in the main square. So we took him up on his offer and accompanied him for tea in the main square. Our conversations went from understanding the meaning of love to scientific explanations of existence to poetry! Let’s be honest the only poetry we know is the stuff we learned on Sesame Street years ago! It was a lot of fun and it turned out that Madan was written a book entitled ‘Endearing Approach’ and it’s kind of hard to describe but we understand it as a collection of poems that attempt to shed some light on our purpose of existence…we think. Anyway he used poetry throughout his entire career to aid in teaching mathematics to high school and college students. In the end we felt privileged to have met him and we are trying to find his book to buy online. He says that the publisher produces very few copies so they are quickly sold through Amazon, but he also said that the Royal British Library has a copy of it. Maybe one day we’ll get a chance to read it. ManaliFrom Shimla we took a bone-rattling 10 hour bus ride to Manali where we had planned to do a little hiking. Unfortunately Manali was even higher in elevation than Shimla and so it got quite cold at night! We stayed up in Old Manali where most of the foreigners stay. We’ve been lugging all of our camping gear around with us and we wanted to use it one last time before we sent it Australia to lighten our traveling loads. We had heard of and read a few stories of hikers who went missing near Manali. We guessed that the majority of disappearances were drug related, with Manali being the weed capital so we got some info from the Mountaineering Institute and planned to hike up to the source of the Beas Kund, the huge river that flows right through Manali. All of the people we talked to said that the hike was safe, well-marked and easily doable without taking a local guide. We are really comfortable planning and going on our own overnight trips so we went for it. To get out of Manali we took a local bus headed north and hopped off in a small village. Everything was uphill from there! We walked up to a small local ski resort where you could go paragliding for less than $10. We passed on that because believe it or not we still value our lives and continued up towards Beas Kund. We had read that the beginning of the trail was a 4x4 only jeep track; well that was written back in 2009 and now there is basically a 2 lane highway where the jeep track used to be. Luckily the highway is closed to general traffic and open only to authorized construction vehicles so as we walked up the hill dump trucks would pass us on either on their way to pick up gravel or drop some off. We walked up for about two and a half hours and finally we reached a huge construction site. We felt defeated. Even though everyone kept telling us to continue up the road to find the Beas Kund trail we stood there at this huge construction site feeling like we should turn back. They were building a tunnel, someone told us, and when we asked them to point out the trail to Beas Kund or to the Dhundi campground everyone pointed in a different direction and no one spoke more than a few words of English. We stood there, right in the middle of a massive construction zone, debating our next move when a young Indian (he looked to be in his 20’s) appeared from the forest on a hillside about 300 meters up from the construction zone. At first we didn’t think much of it; he was probably just a local farmer coming down into town or something like that. As he approached us he said, “Oh, I thought you were part of my group.” He went on to explain that he was guiding a group of Indians up to Beas Kund and that he could help us find Dhundi camp, where his group was set up. He spoke fluent English and made certain we knew that he was a real guide; probably because he knew that there might be some apprehension on our side. He introduced himself as Mowgli and took us up to the camp. Later on we were invited over for dinner by Mowgli, Raghav and Prem; three of the guides who run an adventure company called January the 14th and who were organizing this trip up to Beas Kund. We were warmly welcomed by all the Indians in the group and we enjoyed an amazing dinner and some really groovy campfire song and dance! That night as we tried to sleep the temperatures dropped… and dropped some more! We were freezing and we tried everything to stay warm in the tent. We zipped our sleeping bags together to share body heat, we put on all of our clothes and we even used our sleeping bag liners for more insulation but nothing really worked. Feeling sick and groggy we decided that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to continue up towards Beas Kund where the elevation only got higher and the temperatures cooler. When we woke up and were having breakfast in the morning (all stuffed up and soar-throated) Mowgli and Rhagav came up to check on us and bring us a packed lunch for the day! Unfortunately we decided to turn back despite them offering us an extra sleeping bag and liner! We thought we would walk up a little ways to get some more views in another valley and then turn around for the day. When we were tried enough to call it a day we headed back towards the road we climbed up and hitch-hiked with a construction vehicle heading back down the mountain towards Manali. The next couple of days in Manali we tried to relax and enjoy a few of the sites around town before another perilous 10 hour bus journey to Mcleod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Government in exile!
I think we are going way too fast to be landing. The plane hit the runway with a bone-rattling touchdown and the pilot hit the brakes so hard that we both flung forward in our seats. Wow, that was rough. We must be in India. We had already adjusted to stifling heat in Abu Dhabi and Delhi would be no different. We called our hostel and arranged a transfer from the airport and within about 30 minutes a young man arrived with a sign reading something like, “Courtney and Andrew.” Our names were completely misspelled but you get the jist. Our first taste of India was quite exciting! Driving from the Delhi airport into Pahar Ganj in the heart of the city was like something out of a movie. Even after traveling for the last 9 months we felt like it was our first day out of Canada! Cars travel both directions on the road even on one way roads, roads are not only used by motorized vehicles but also by horse drawn carriages, cycle rickshaws and yes even elephants. We were a little tired from our night flight so we planned to just take it easy on our first day. This proved to be quite difficult. When we arrived at our hostel, which was located through a maze of alleys, it took about an hour to get checked in. First we had to walk to another building where we sat and waited for 20 minutes or so, then we were brought back to our hostel and sat and waited for another 20 minutes but at least they gave us tea. Then a guy showed up and took down our info and we were on our way. We spoke to one of the employees of the hostel and he started to recommend a few things for us to see in India, he recommended us visiting the government run tourism office for help on booking trains among other things. He then offered us a free ride to the place. Great! We thought. While we were on our way out our driver asked us if we were hungry for breakfast, which we were, so he dropped us off at a little place with pretty bad food and pretty high prices. We ate while he waited and then we continued to the tourism office. The office looked very official; it had air conditioning, government signs, desks and even computers. We sat down with a friendly man and we told him what we wanted to do and see: hike in Manali; visit the Taj Mahal, Varanasi, and the Golden Temple; trek in Sikkim and finally head to Rajasthan and then head south to Goa. We were absolutely shocked to hear that the weather in Manali was very bad right now (despite what the weather websites on the internet were showing us and what we read in our guide books). He recommended that we head up north to Srinagar and stay in a house boat for a few days, then return to Delhi and tour in a car through Rajasthan since there were no trains there. We asked for what that type of trip would cost and the price he gave us was astronomical in terms of what we had heard things would cost in India. Courtney and I excused ourselves from the desk to chat about his offer. We both agreed that this was one of those scams that we had read about, so we bailed. Unfortunately this wasn't the last. During our time in Delhi we were approached by people who were interested in getting to know us, students, dance instructors, people from Mumbai and they all had one thing in common: they wanted us to visit a local tourism office so that we could get some really good and valuable information on India. Turns out they were all touts looking to get us on outrageously expensive houseboat tours in Srinagar. Once we were used to them we had no problems telling them to leave us alone and that's when Delhi became quite fun! We loved visiting all the shopping stalls around our area! We wandered through the bustling Main Bazzar; Chandi Chowk, one of the older areas of the city; and Connaught Place, which has a combination of upscale shops and local markets. We even stopped by an interesting shoe shop where the shoes fall from a hole in the ceiling. One of the helpers asks your size and the shoe you like and calls it up to a stockroom in the ceiling and within seconds the pair of shoes you are looking for falls from the ceiling in a very comedic yet slightly dangerous fashion! We aren't very good at visiting historic sites so we've decided to try improving that here in India. We started with the evening light and sound show at the Red Fort, one of Delhi's oldest buildings that has stood through many different eras of rulers. We had heard the food was great in India but it took us by surprise even with our high expectations! It is absolutely fantastic! After we finish one meal we are already looking forward to the next one! We tried a lot of different things in Delhi and there isn't one thing I can think of that we didn't like. Fortunately we avoided Delhi belly, which is the common term used to identify one who spends three days in the bathroom after first arriving in Delhi. We had a lot of fun in Delhi but like any other city, it eventually wore on us and we grew tired of the hustle and bustle. Fortunately we've met a few people that live in the city that we hope to visit the next couple of times through! Here are a few more exciting pics to get you ready for the last leg of our year trip, enjoy! |
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