September 22-25: Delhi, India

We arrived in Delhi in the evening, and it was definitely monsooning! There was terrible traffic because of the flooded roads and it took us quite a while to reach our hotel, Amax Inn, near the main train station. The staff there were helpful, and cooked up some dinner for us even though their kitchen was already closed.

Delhi is a very interesting city, blending the colonial with the ultra modern with the destitute. Our first day we decided to check out an aspect of its heritage. We visited Humayun’s Tomb, which is a complex of many mausoleums set inside a 30 acre garden. The tombs were beautiful, and it was very relaxing to walk around the peaceful and quiet grounds. The main tomb for which the site is named appears to be a replica of the Taj Mahal, however it was constructed before the Taj and is made from red sandstone. This tomb was almost more enjoyable than the Taj Mahal since we were the only people visiting it! We spent a couple hours wandering the rest of the grounds before we set out for the national zoo.


Humayun's Tomb (Looks very similar to the Taj Mahal)



We decided to go to the zoo because we had really wanted to see some tigers while in India. It apparently wasn’t the season to go to any of the national parks as they were all closed. We read that this zoo, the national zoo of India, had white tigers, so we were very excited to see them. The zoo was interesting in that it seemed more like a large natural space with certain areas fenced off, versus our zoos with pens built on cement. The zoo has one main path that takes you through all the animals, one by one, and has the tigers at the end of the tour. We saw some gibbons and some chimps, lots of birds, various kinds of deer, and tons of peacocks (which run wild on the grounds). When we came to the paddocks of the best attractions, however, the animals were nowhere to be found: Indian rhino, lions, Himalayan black bear, and sloth bear. Huge disappointment! Even worse, though, was that we arrived at the tiger paddock too late. Zoo staff said that they close the tiger pen several hours before (?) they close the rest of the zoo. Only God knows why they do that, but we were super upset considering they were the whole reason we went to the zoo in the first place.


Liz looking at a wild monkey at the zoo

We also saw the Gandhi Memorial which is on the property where he spent his last 80 days. It had cool dioramas showing important scenes from his life, and the walls were coated in photos and quotes coined by him. The upstairs of the residence had a very oddly modern yet pointless museum. We visited his living quarters, which showcased his only material possessions, including his glasses and a spinning wheel, among other things. The memorial traces his last steps, leading from his bedroom to his prayer meeting, where he was shot. We unfortunately needed a lot more time to thoroughly go through the museum, but we were happy to have seen what we did.


Ghandi's final footsteps


Ghandi's memorial

We ate at a very swanky restaurant, Q Ba, in Connaught Place (downtown Delhi) which was no doubt one of the top restaurants. We had to wait quite a while to be seated because we had no reservation and we wanted to eat outside on their terrace. We ordered a fantastic Beijing duck dish for two, which came in three courses of soup, crispy duck rolls, and the insanely succulent, tangy meat. Ugh, so yummy! And of course, the whole meal was like $25.

Our last day, we ventured to the outskirts of the city (on their new A/C metro!) to a ridiculously large and beautiful Hindu temple complex, Akshardham. As we entered the complex gates, it felt like we were lining up to get into Disneyland. There were gobs of people, and we had to check all bags, cell phones, and cameras (sorry, no photos). We had heard that there was a fountain show in the evening which we wanted to see, so they sent us straight away to the ticket office, where we also bought tickets for an animatronics show, boat ride, and IMAX movie. We didn’t really know what everything was or entailed, but we figured we might as well. The animatronics show told the story of Swami Narayan, a Jesus-like figure of Hinduism. The show was rather impressive. At the end, however, it felt a bit like they were trying to convert us or something. They emphasized why one should be vegetarian, and they showed all of the do-good projects this particular sect funds (hospitals, schools, temples all over the world). The boat ride was very similar to Pirates of the Caribbean, but told about all of the accomplishments in science, medicine, math, literature, farming, etc. in the last 10,000 years in India. The IMAX movie reiterated the animatronics show. The musical fountain show was very cool, with music and lights. Only after all these activities, about 10 minutes before the complex closed, did we have time to finally see the temple. It was stunning! The entire building is intricately carved with deities, elephants, peacocks, people, and other designs. The inside has several altars, with the main altar in the center. I don’t know if it was covered in real gemstones, but the whole thing sparkled like crazy, and was dripping with gold. And the gold was real, because we asked a security guard, haha. I wish we could have taken pictures of the temple to show everyone! It was so beautiful. A must-see in Delhi!

The following day we hopped on a plane to take us to Bangkok, to begin the next chapter of our trip!

September 18-22: Varanassi, India (by Jeff)

Varanasi was undeniably the dirtiest city we visited so far in India, (and the rest of the world for that matter) but considered one of the more sacred and traditional cities since it is located right on the Ganges river. The owner of our guesthouse met us where the a-hole taxi driver dropped us off (tried to rip us off, then asked for a tip and asked if we wanted to go on a tour all day with him…complete loser) and saved us from the toothless beggar who did not leave us alone. Like many of the places we have stayed thus far, the guesthouse was under construction, but we were not informed of this when we originally made the booking. Our room reeked of paint fumes and all the walls and ground were concrete. The small window allowed some light to come in, but otherwise it looked much like a prison cell. The bed was placed on a plywood frame and the “mattress” was about 1/4 the width of a futon mattress. In addition, the mildew smelling towels, no air conditioning, having to pay for toilet paper, and the power going out 5 times per day made this place a real catch. I guess that is what you get when you pay $7 per night for a room, even though it was the highest ranked on hostelworld. On the plus side, our crappy room gave us good reason to be out on the street as much as possible.

On the first day we arrived we took some time walking around checking out some local shops and seeing how the local people use the Ganges River. Navigating around the old city (where we were) is very difficult because all the streets are the size of alleyways with buildings that went up a couple stories all around us. As we weaved through the streets trying to avoid the cows that block most of the path or the huge piles of garbage and cow crap we eventually found the river where we were surrounded by boat drivers wanting to take us on a boat tour. We came to an agreement with one driver, named Diamond, to go out the following evening to see the burning Ghats, the daily Ganges ceremony and other significant sites along the way. We pressed on to find a big ceremony going on by the river, which turned out to be the exact ceremony we saw the next day, until it started to monsoon rain and everyone scattered. That evening we found a music school and set up a lesson the next day for Liz to learn the sitar and myself on the tabla again.


Location of the nightly ceremony

The next day we awoke to the loud sound of a construction worker banging a hammer and pick into our wall to chip away concrete…very enjoyable way to start the day. We got out of there quickly and had a good western breakfast down the street. We walked around until our music lesson that afternoon where I struggled once more on the tabla, but Liz did great on the sitar…a natural. It looks about 10x harder to play than a guitar, but sounds beautiful when mastered. After the lesson we walked down to the river to find our driver Diamond eagerly waiting to take us out. He and his son paddled us while some other English speaking driver was the guide. It was a pretty lame tour as he explained the significance of some of the nearby buildings and then showed us a burning Ghat for about 3 seconds while the whole time was trying to sell us already on some other ride the next day. Many of the taxi, rickshaw, and boat drivers really do not understand the concept that no tourist is going to get back into their vessel after an awful tour the first time only to have it repeated again. After making it back to the dock they of course tried to charge us twice as much as we agreed and made up endless excuses until we gave them a little extra and thanked them for the half ass experience. We had dinner at a place near our guesthouse that had live music which ended about 1 minute after we arrived, but at least the food was pretty good. On our walk home in the alley before our guesthouse it is very dark and has no overhead light, and without a flashlight we had difficulty seeing the path in front of us. While walking in my sandals I slipped in a giant pile of cow diarrhea and lost my balance where I smashed my toe into a rock ledge that caused it to instantly split open gushing blood. It was a very painful and disgusting way to incur an injury at this point in the trip, and it would only get grosser as rain caused dirty runoff water to get into the wound. Liz doctored me up that night the best she could with our limited first aid supplies and we went to bed.


Liz's sitar lesson

The following day we went to visit the university in the city, which was the largest in India, and in the top 3 in all of Asia. We drove through the campus and were very surprised to see just how large it was, and comparable to a college campus in the states. Our driver stopped at the temple on campus for us to take a look and it was gorgeous. Most of the temple was built from white marble and had beautiful colorful paintings around the perimeter walls. We also liked that they had many quotes from their scripture posted on the wall and then translated into English so it gave us an idea of what Hindu faith says exactly. We left the campus and headed over to the fort on the other side of the river because we had not yet seen a fort in all of India. We paid 300 Rupees to enter the museum (Lonely Planet said it cost 7) to find that it was horribly overpriced. They had a couple very old Ford cars that were not at all maintained and a bunch of other broken and unkempt items as well. Some of the guns and knives they had were impressive including their tiger hunting weapons, but not making it worth the time and effort it was to go out there. The fort itself is situated right along the river and after walking through a tunnel, where the entire roof was lined with bats, we made our way to the side facing the river and had some great views. We were surprised that this entire complex was still standing considering one guy told us not to stand too close to the edge by the river because it was not very strong…there was no sort of sign or other indication telling us this. After seeing all the fort had to offer we hopped back in the rickshaw and headed back to the guesthouse. Our driver was a nice and young guy our age so we made arrangements for him to pick us up the next day and take us to the airport to give him the extra business.


In front of the Ganges

That evening we walked down to the river to hopefully see a sunset, but the clouds once again covered it. We stood there for some time watching as people performed ceremonies and prayed in the river, while others bathed and washed clothes beside them. This river is used for everything in India from performing daily ceremonies, bathing, drinking, cleaning, throwing garbage and waste, and even cremation ashes. We watched as water buffaloes submerged their entire bodies beside people who were cleaning their kids or making offerings to Mother Ganga. The sight was one of the most authentic Indian experiences we had because it was hassle free and for once people were not staring at us but rather we enjoyed watching them act within their element.


Water buffalo cooling off in the Ganges

On our last day before our flight we decided to pay a visit to the burning Ghats to see another part of Indian culture. Upon arrival some man came up and began to talk to us telling us how sacred and holy the Ghats were and all the information about them before asking for a donation. He led us up some temple stairs to have a good view of where all the bodies are cremated where we sat for several minutes watching as they continued to bring up body after body on wooden stretchers covered in decorated cloth. There must have been hundreds of people around as people helped make large wooden platforms for which to place the bodies and let the ashes blow right into the river below the Ghat. We watched for a few minutes before deciding that we looked a bit out of place and paid the guy who asked for some outrageous donation just 20 Rupees. We then met our driver and headed off to the airport to catch our flight back to Delhi for the final few days in India.


Surprising list of items one must not carry on the plane...

September 14-18: Amritsar, India

Amritsar is the holiest city for Sikhs, comparable to Mecca for Muslims. The houses the amazing Golden Temple to which many Sikhs from all over the world make pilgrimages. It is in the state of Punjab, which is in the northwest, where India borders Pakistan. After missing our original flight out of Delhi at 8am (we were in the airport the whole time…the stupid person at the check-in desk told us that boarding began at 7:45, so we arrived at the gate at 7:47…apparently the gate closed 7:45, and the crew refused to let us on the flight…another man missed the flight as well) and having to spend 5 extra hours in the most boring terminal, we flew to Amritsar had a nice expensive taxi ride into the city to arrive at our hotel. Our room was insanely nice for how cheap it was: fan and air conditioning, a TV (with 3 movie channels!), a mini fridge, and it was SO clean. A very nice change from the nasty hotel in Delhi for the previous night! It was also about a three minute walk to the Golden Temple.

One evening we took a rickshaw to another hotel for dinner because they had live music every night. We were the only ones there so the musicians slacked off until we asked if they were going to play anything. Then they began playing lovely songs to go along with our delicious food. We took a rickshaw back and, as usual at nighttime, the town was dead quiet with very few people out. I walked behind Jeff as we climbed the stairs to our hotel, and there was someone walking behind me as well. As I reached the top of the stairs, I felt this person touch my rear, so I turned around and said “Excuse me??” He just looked at me blankly, so I told Jeff what he did, and Jeff backed him up against the wall. The guy at the hotel desk overheard what I said and rushed over, asked the man something in Punjabi, and without waiting for an answer, gave him a sharp slap across the face! Like, a head-turning slap! I went from fumingly angry to delighted. The two continued to jabber, and the hotel desk guy slapped him again! He pushed him outside, yelling at him, and then apologized to us and said we could go ahead on upstairs to our room. Once out of earshot, Jeff and I giggled about how ridiculous the scene was. We dashed to our room’s window, and we saw that the hotel desk guy had followed the other man outside and was still yelling at him, and that they had drawn a crowd. He gave one final hard slap before finally coming back inside. After so many of these “accidental” inappropriate touchings throughout India, it was very satisfying to see someone pay for it. The next morning, the desk guy apologized again, and said that it seemed the man was drunk. Standard.


Random parade in the street by our hotel

We heard that the Golden Temple is best at sunset, so we waited until then to visit it for the first time. We left our shoes with the shoe-keeper people, and walked across the shallow pool of water at the entrance (to cleanse your feet). The Golden Temple itself sits in the middle of a holy pool in the inner “courtyard” of a huge, square, marble building. It is only from the marble structure that one may take photos. We walked all around the temple to get the bridge to take us across to it. There were several people ritually bathing in the holy water. We waited in line for a few minutes before we could enter, and a boy behind us struck up a conversation with Jeff. His English was rather poor, but everyone around was suddenly part of the conversation or was watching. It was a little awkward because no one else on the bridge was talking! They wanted to know everything about us: how old we were, where we were from, if we were married (we said yes), if we had kids, what our names were, what religion we believed in, which hotel we stayed at. They were all very nice people, it’s just so funny to be such the center of attention of so many strangers!


Golden Temple


Golden Temple

We entered the temple and it was gorgeous. The temple is marble, but most of it is gold-plated, and the dome on top is supposedly 450 kg of gold (or something like that, look it up). The marble portions have intricate inlays. The temple is two stories with a rooftop prayer area as well. The bottom floor has musicians playing and chanting (which is played over loudspeakers all throughout the complex), and has the original copy of their sacred book (like our bible). All of the pilgrims threw donations into this center area. We climbed the stairs to the next level where we were able to look out over the first floor. The second floor was filled with people praying and reading from the many copies of their “bible” which they keep available on a shelf for everyone. There was a “chapel” on the second floor where one can pray and make offerings. The whole temple is very breath-taking, and it was incredible to see so many people worshipping at their holiest place.

We also visited a very bizarre Hindu temple that resembled a fun house; it was filled with small tunnels, water crossings, mirrors, and stairs. There is one path to take through it, and the walls are covered in statues and paintings of deities, and of pictures of the saint to which the temple is dedicated. The focal point of the temple is one central room with an altar where everyone prays and gives offerings. The old woman managing the altar gave Jeff and I a typical Indian candy (kind of like Baklava, but not really), which, I think, Hindu people normally bless then eat. But she motioned for us the just eat it, so we did, haha. We also checked out a large park, but it seemed really dirty and kind of sketchy, so we didn’t hang out there for too long. Amritsar also has a memorial park for the Indians who were killed in 1919 in peaceful protest against the British.

Other than the Golden Temple, the big attraction in Amritsar is the ceremony of the closing of the border with Pakistan. It sounded reasonably cool so we decided to make the one hour trek to the border in a very small share taxi with six other people. We were expecting there to be about maybe sixty people at the ceremony, but there were more like thousands! There were huge long lines at multiple security checkpoints (separate ladies cues, of course), and after clearing them, people were literally running towards the grandstands. There were two nice guys on our share taxi who helped us out, but as we approached the stairs to get to the grandstands (there was a separate section for ladies, but it’s not like I wanted to sit by myself away from Jeff), a guard told us to go to the VIP line. Um, why? Because we’re white? Very odd. We felt bad leaving the guys who helped us, but they understood that we’d have much better seats. We went through our VIP line which had its own section. All the Indian sections of the grandstands were packed, and Jeff and I had plenty of room, and we got to sit closest to all the action. We had to wait a while, but they eventually began the ceremony with lots of long, droning yells from both sides. They continued with absurd marching steps and high kicks where their knees almost smacked their faces. Lots of stomping, slamming of gates. They took down the flags and ended the ceremony with everyone cheering. It was such a good-natured rivalry it’s difficult to believe how much these two countries hate each other. We took our share taxi back to town, had dinner, and went to bed so we’d be ready to fly back to Delhi and then to Varanasi the next day.


Border to Pakistan


Border ceremony

September 12: Agra, India (By Jeff)

We reached Agra in the early afternoon and only had the day to see the city, or in our case just the Taj Majal. After storing our bags at the train station and agreeing on a price for a riskshaw to chauffeur us around the day we were off. We refueled at McDonalds before arriving at the Taj Mahal and paid a ridiculous 750 Rupees for the entrance fee (Indian price is like 50 Rupees) and hired a guide to show us around for another 250 Rupees each. Being complete losers, we both left our cameras in our bags at the train station and were without any way to capture the number 1 man-made wonder of the world. This proved opportunistic for the countless photographers who harassed us upon entering, offering to take our picture in various locations and in super lame poses. This was our only way to have pictures so we spent 20 minutes posing after we only wanted like 2 pictures. The guy insisted on more and we went along making sure we had an understanding of what we were paying. It all worked fine, but of course there were people who followed us and took pictures behind our photographer of us posing. While this seems beyond creepy, there were too many people to tell to screw off. Finally, we were off to go see what we went there for and were stunned to see just how perfectly built and gorgeous the site truly is. Towering over 150 feet in the air the center of the Taj Mahal is surrounded by 4 pillars on each corner of the grounds, all that lean exactly 5 degrees outward towards the center structure. The entire structure is all made of white marble and very intricately carved down to the slightest detail. The entire building is just a mausoleum for the King and the Taj Mahal was dedicated all to the man’s 3rd wire. She was apparently the favorite as the other 2 wives were not given any sort of a similar burial. Our guide continued to lead us around and explain various historic significance and point out the symmetry or the entire grounds which was astounding.

What made this visit such a shame was the unrelenting attention every other Indian person gave us the entire time while trying to sneak in pictures. By this point we were fed up with the whole stopping to take pictures with random strangers and refused nearly everyone since our first experience in Mumbai. This was far different though as literally everywhere we turned and stopped there would be people who would crowd around us and ask us for a picture making it very distracting even to listen to our guide (who was useless in helping us). Most of the guys did their best to sneak pictures in of Liz to show their buddies and make up some bogus lies about having been with her (this is what we heard from one of our guides in another city, and the point when we stopped posing for any pictures). All in all it is a truly amazing site that everyone should experience at one point in their lives, but hopefully Indian people will be more used to seeing western people and not pester and annoy them during the entire visit. Upon leaving we had to deal with our angry photographer who wanted us to buy more than 3 pictures that he took, but most of them turned out pretty bad and he threw a bit of a tantrum. So after getting confrontational with several guys and seeing the whole Taj Mahal grounds we decided to take off and try to catch the train to Delhi that night which we were told by several sources that it was already sold out. Our rickshaw driver did his best to get us to take the late train for some reason but after insisting he take us to the train station for us to see for ourselves we were able to get on the train we wanted. We were not sure what our driver was trying to pull because we were not going to give him anymore money but he was persistent about telling us there was no way we would get on the fast train…turned out he was wrong.

We made it to Delhi around 10pm and without a hotel. We only needed a hotel for 1 night and somewhere near the airport because we had an early flight to Amritsar, but that was not easy to find at this time of the night. We chose to let some loser cab driver take us to a disgusting hotel that we overpaid for just for the 8 hours we would need the room to sleep. Our room smelled like mildew, the sheets were horribly stained, bugs in the room, and our damn cab driver even got a commission. We survived the night and got the hell out of there where we made it to the airport to run into another disaster. The Air India ticket agent misinformed us about when the boarding time was going to be and we showed up literally 2 minutes past when the gate closed. We pleaded with the man checking tickets but this man was a piece of crap and refused to let us on the plane despite the fact our bags were on board and would have to be removed. We waited at the airport for 5 hours, and had to pay another $20 each to get on the next flight…awful start to the day, but we eventually made it to Amritsar.


iPhone quality pictures

September 10-13: Jaipur, India (By Jeff)

After a quick few hour AC train we arrived in Jaipur. Our guesthouse was located right outside the city center and consisted of 4 rooms so we got to know the other guests rather quickly. We walked around the area surrounding our guesthouse and relaxed the rest of the day. Later that night we found a delicious non-veg dinner that evening not far from our place and enjoyed a beer on the roof of our guesthouse with a great view overlooking the walled in old city.

The second day we decided to walk around the city area where it was said to be Ganesha’s (their major God) birthday as well as Eid (celebration after Ramadan) and there would be parades and festivals throughout the day. While walking around we noticed we were some of the only non-Indian people out on the streets so we of course attracted plenty of attention from the locals in addition to rickshaw drivers. It was quite a sight to see lights strung up all across these small streets between every building along with food carts, kid’s carnival games, and music playing from local stores and restaurants.

Since we had not yet tried McDonalds in India we made sure to grab it for lunch. We knew it was very different due to their vegetarian standards and non-beef substitutes so we were interested to see what they came up with. Their interpretation of the Big Mac was the Maharaja Mac where it was chicken patties instead of beef and tasted delicious as well as their regular veg burger surprised us. During the couple minutes I had to wait for my burger, Liz went to get a table only to be harassed and bothered by little Indian boys and teenagers who thought it would be so cool to talk to a western girl. She did not give them that satisfaction and shortly after an employee tossed the kids out the door after noticing what was going on. That afternoon we hung out with a couple English guys from our hostel who arranged a Cricket match with some of the rickshaw drivers and locals in the area. I had no idea how the game was played but had a very basic idea of what the goal was…hit the ball that was pitched to you and run (similar concept to baseball). We showed up at the field to find well over 20 Indian kids who were already playing and hopped on after they were finished. In India Cricket is by far the biggest sport and essentially the only one they care to play, and to our luck some of these drivers were on club teams and traveled around India to compete. I was the only person who had never played or even watched a game before and ready to be the biggest loser out on the field. These guys were all pretty good and when it came time for me to bat, the pitcher eased up on me knowing it was my first time. I managed to hit the equivalent of a homerun which was exciting until the next pitch, which was much harder, I popped up and was out (in cricket you continue to bat until you get out). It was a short lived moment of glory but a fun one. The game ended early because of some loser Indian guys who lived at the apartment adjacent to the field wanted to practice javelin, and they get priority over people who don’t live there. It was a very selfish move on their part to kick 30+ people off the field so they could practice right then rather than to let us at least finish. We took off to grab a beer with the rickshaw drivers we came with and the English guys hoping that we were not going to try to be scammed. We were very tentative as it had the setting where they would come out charging like $50 per beer or something absurd since there was no menu. Fortunately all was well, and we headed back and relaxed the rest of the night. We arranged for the same rickshaw driver to pick us up that next morning and take us around the various sights of the city since we figured we could trust him a bit more than some other guy on the street.

Cricket match


The next morning we met our driver and took off to see the city palace, water palace, mausoleums, and a textile factory. The city palace was a disappointment in our eyes because it lacked much beautiful detail compared to others we had seen and the whole upper portion of it was closed off. We wasted money on an expensive ticket for a walkthrough that took about 20 minutes. The mausoleums of the royal family were a great sight all carved from marble and with intricate detail and situated high on a hill surrounded by mountains and overlooking the city. These kids in the area kept running around spying on us which seemed odd; we thought it was going to be like Slumdog Millionaire and we were going to get hustled somehow, but it all turned out to be ok. The water palace was our last sightseeing venture of the day and did not last too long since you cannot actually go inside or get anywhere near it. You can only see it from land about a few hundred yards away, but it appeared to be a gorgeous palace even from a distance. We then stopped at the silk factory and received the free tutorial on how it is all made and then the sales pitch on every overpriced item they had. Liz bought a beautiful pink sari while I had them custom make me a pair of cotton light weight pants to try and blend in a bit more with the local crowd. Tired from the day’s activities we headed back where the hostel cooked us a homemade Indian meal and we relaxed for the remainder of the night. The next day we took a train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.


Water Palace


Security guard at the mausoleums


At the mausoleums


View from the mausoleums

September 7-10: Ajmer & Pushkar, India

After a painful bus ride, we finally arrived in Ajmer, and it was quite a bit less charming than Udaipur. It was super dusty, very loud, much larger and therefore very chaotic, and a bit stinkier due to all the garbage in the gutters (which also housed many pigs). But our hotel was set back from the main road so it was rather peaceful. We asked the hotel’s recommendation for dinner and they pointed us to a place called Mango Masala (or Mango Curry is next door and they serve non-veg as well). It was sooo delicious. It was definitely more expensive, but still affordable, and Jeff and I just stuffed our faces. The boy taking our order seemed reluctant to let us order so much! We ordered a thali (a selection of a few small plates), a double order of butter chicken curry, a vegetarian curry that turned out to be VERY spicy, lots of naan, and lassis. They even had Baskin Robbins ice cream so we of course had to get dessert!

The main attraction in Ajmer is a Hindu temple. It is so special because it is the only Brahma temple in the world/India (mixed information). However, after seeing the amazing temple in Udaipur, we were disappointed. The loser outside the temple who ran the shoe cabinets (one cannot take shoes or bags into the temple) tried to rip us off, and the temple itself was very dirty and underwhelming. Hindus bring small sweets and flowers as offerings, and all of the little candies were stuck on the ground, and in turn were sticking to our socks. The temple was not very well cared for, nor big, nor very intricate. In all, it was a major bummer and we even ended up recommending against it to another tourist who asked our opinion just outside the gates.

The other big attraction is the Dargah Mosque. It’s an enormous Sufi mosque made entirely out of white marble. A man who volunteered there gave us a tour of the place and explained lots of things about the sect. They offer free meals to those who cannot afford to eat (you don’t have to be Muslim), and it appears as though they allow people to sleep on the grounds as well. Our tour had hardly begun and the monsoon rains came at full force. Most of the mosque is open-roofed, except for various small rooms around the grounds. We scampered into one room, which housed the body of a saint. The room was beautifully decorated in fabrics, lights, candles, incense, and thousands of lovely smelling flowers. We watched for a minute as pilgrims entered and made their offerings. We set back out into the rain to get to another room, and let me tell you, wet marble when you’re barefoot is VERY slippery. Jeff was following the guide, and I was following Jeff, and I guess I was walking a bit too fast. I slipped and smacked onto the ground, and as I was falling, I made a mental note to stick my left arm out so I wouldn’t fall directly onto my tail bone and break it. Instead, I jammed my wrist, elbow, and shoulder and it HURT. And it was so embarrassing! Everyone was watching the stupid white girl fall because she can’t handle the monsoon. And my bottom was soaked! Awful all around. After Jeff and I left the mosque, we went back to Mango Masala to get some yummy food, and my elbow was just getting more and more swollen. I couldn’t really bend it more than 10 degrees, so we improvised a sling out of my scarf. We had to catch a bus that night to Pushkar, and we were getting nervous about me being able to carry all my stuff.





Our hotel owner convinced us to go to the hospital, so they helped us find an appropriate one. They assured us that it was a very big, very nice hospital. We took a rickshaw and it turned out to be more of a very small clinic, with one doctor specializing in gynecology, and the other in joints. The receptionist said the doctor was in surgery but would be available soon, so in the meantime, a technician took two x-rays (100 rupees = $2) and told me that there was no fracture. Yes! The doctor finally emerged from surgery, wheeling the patient on an ancient-looking gurney through the waiting room, his knee wrapped in a dressing. They took him to the room where they took my x-ray (?), then wheeled him out the front door. Rather different than how it’s done in the states. Anyway, the doctor looked at my arm and decided it was a sprain and prescribed me some huge Tylenols, vitamin B complex, calcium, and something I searched on Google later and found was for stomach ulcers (??). They put me in a plaster splint and sling and filled all the medicine there for me. The total cost? About $25. He asked me if I had insurance to cover it… I didn’t want to explain how it wouldn’t even be worth my time to make a claim, so I just said no.

We went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and Jeff was an amazing muscle man! He carried his 50lb backpack on his back, and mine in his arms! Such a nice boyfriend. We caught a rickshaw to the bus station, where we bought our tickets and got on an incredibly cramped bus. The ride to Pushkar is very short, only 30 minutes or so, but it goes through the mountains and I guess that doesn’t sit so well with some people. An older man in front of us one row hung his head out the window the whole time, and eventually threw up a Thanksgiving dinner’s worth.

Pushkar is known as one of the holiest cities in India. It is believed that Brahma dropped a lotus flower to the earth and it created a lake, around which the city of Pushkar is built. It is very strictly vegetarian, no eggs, no tobacco, no alcohol. Our hotel was very friendly and conveniently located, even though the city is extremely small. After needing Jeff to put my hair in a ponytail for me because of my arm, we grabbed dinner the hotel’s rooftop restaurant and went to bed.

The next morning we got breakfast down in the bazaar and watched tons of monkeys leaping from building to building! Very entertaining. Although we felt like the monkeys for most of the morning as all of the locals were literally gawking at us, turning their heads to stare as they walked past. Very irritating. One wonderful thing about Pushkar, though, is that there are no autorickshaws in the center, so it is almost free from piercingly loud horns. We walked down to the holy lake and were approached by a “priest” as we knew we would be. He said to take off our shoes (because it is holy ground around the lake) and come with him down to the water. Because I needed Jeff to tie my shoes, I decided to stay sitting up on the ghats (stairs leading down to the water). I watched as he performed the prayer with Jeff and blessed him. Another man had come up to me, clearly not even trying to dress like a priest, and asked if I wanted a blessing as well. I said that my husband (it’s better to make Jeff my husband in lots of situations) was taking care of it for me, and that I’d talk to him when he returned from his blessing. Without asking me, the man tied the typical red string around my wrist. I couldn’t hear anything, but I observed Jeff and the “priest” talking and I could tell that it was the mandatory donation part of the prayer. Jeff returned to me, with the priest following behind, and explained the situation: he had given 200 rupees, and the priest then said that he should give 200 more for me and my family (since Jeff said he was doing the prayer for me). We explained that the 200 rupees was for both of us, since we were married and had the same family, the same money. The priest was unrelenting, insisting that it was bad karma, bad karma. Then, the other man who had tied the string on my wrist, said that he needed money, too, and that I had said that my husband would give it to him. Which was nonsense. They said that most people give thousands of rupees. The men were extremely pushy, but we eventually got out of it and quickly retreated to a nearby restaurant for a cold lassi. It’s exhausting getting rid of scammers!! We told the story to the cool, young waiters at our hotel restaurant later, and they said that once an American woman stayed at their hotel she got scammed into giving them $300! She later complained to the hotel staff and wanted to call the police, but it’s not like these guys are breaking the law.


Holy scam lake at Pushkar






We spent the rest of our time in Pushkar roaming the city, and Jeff took an awful tabla (traditional Indian drums) lesson. We took a bus back to Ajmer, where we boarded a rather luxurious train to Jaipur.

September 4-7: Udaipur, India (By Jeff)

Our flight to Udiapur was a short 1 hour and a driver came to collect us upon our arrival as well. Coming into the city the monsoon weather began to come down on us and we began to get a much stronger feel of being immersed in real India. On our drive we saw cows freely walking wherever they pleased or sometimes just taking a nap right in the middle of the road. Our guesthouse was situated right in the heart of Udaipur and very close walking distance to all of the various parts of the city we chose to see. The first day we enjoyed lunch on our hotel roof top restaurant (a common theme with many of the restaurants in Udaipur) and just walked around the city. There is a beautiful lake that runs through the middle of the city and seemed to be the focal point of many local people. Even when there was no sun there were always kids swimming in it or jumping off the bridge into the water at all hours of the day. It initially crossed our minds to maybe take a swim until we got a closer look at the amount of garbage and waste that people threw in the water. We had a lovely dinner right on the water and a traditional spread similar to the one we had our first day in Mumbai and enjoyed the setting of the lake, the music, and the food for quite some time. When I asked where to go to the bathroom the server said he would show me and instead of a toilet he led me to a set of stairs that went down into the lake and said there was fine. It was at that point I decided I would most likely NEVER take a swim. It was one of the foulest odors I had ever come across and was running directly into the water that everyone used for swimming, laundry, and hopefully not drinking.


Cows on the bridge





The following day we set out to check out some of the tourist stops such as the City Palace which is the 2nd biggest palace in all of India and situated on a hill such that it can overlook the entire city. It is beautiful from a distance as we could see it from our hotel balcony and more so when you get up close. We took a guided tour for $2 each and he explained much of its history and religious significance…well worth the money. The entire palace is so detailed with tiles, artwork, glass, and other items imported from countries all over the world. At one point 3 immature kids were sneakily trying to take a picture of Liz and our guide intervened but could not properly punish them as he was on the job…a bit later he informed a guard who tracked them down, and brought them up to her to personally apologize…funny and awkward experience. As for the palace, it was amazing how intricate all the carvings on every wall were considering most of the palace was made of marble. We then checked out the elephant battle grounds and their sleeping areas which were awesome. He explained that elephants would stand opposite each other with a 4 foot wall between them, lock trunks, and play tug of war until one of the elephants was pulled into the wall when they lost. It was a cool sight and well worth the $0.60 admission fee. That evening we went to a traditional music show where all the performers dress up in elaborate clothes and perform music using various instruments and unique dances specific to Rajasthan. The show was great and we followed it up with an amazing dinner (big tourist spot) right on the lake in a secluded garden area. It was an all around great day of sightseeing, culture, and eating.


Hindu Temple


Traditional music and dance


City palace

Our last day we had to do some planning for a while as we changed our India plans and buy some flights before they got too expensive. For lunch we went to some kind of hippy Indian man’s restaurant who was a masseuse as well. The food was pretty good and then he went on to diagnose our problems by grabbing our hands and applying pressure to points that somehow correlated to nerves all over our bodies. Liz chose to get a massage from him that evening while I opted to hold out. In the meantime we went to the place we had dinner the first night since there was going to be a ceremony that afternoon honoring the water in the lake because before 2006 there was no water to be found in the lake and now it was plentiful. After her massage we went for a light dinner back at the hotel and took it easy the rest of the night since we had a long bus that next day to Ajmer…about 7 hours.


River ceremony




Elephant walking down the narrow street outside

September 2-4: Mumbai, India (By Jeff)

We arrived into Mumbai around 1am and after waiting some time for our bags we made our way out of the airport to find our driver. Upon stepping outside we instantly felt the heat and humidity like a punch in the face even at this time of the night. I personally was sad to be leaving the colder weather for the monsoon season here in India. We found the driver and made it to our hotel just before 2am where we went to sleep shortly after.

The next day was our first and only real day in Mumbai as we had heard mixed reactions from various people and decided 1 day in the city might be enough to see for ourselves. Our hotel was about 15 kilometers outside of the main city so we decided to take a train into the city for 8 Rupees (About 18 cents) each. This was certainly an interesting experience. As we saw the train pulling in there were people literally hanging on the outside of the train as it was going full speed. We saw that there was no more room to even cram into this train before it had even stopped in the station. Somehow, dozens more people still managed to stuff themselves into the train. We waited for the next train that came 5 minutes later hoping to have better luck. We did, and were at least able to fit inside the doorway where we stood packed in for the 45 minute ride. While riding we could see people in the train driving parallel to us looking at Liz and I laughing as they must have noticed as well that Liz was the only woman to be found in the men’s cars. That same train we saw several men hanging on for dear life with their hands on the roof and their toes clinging to an inch of ground as the train was going at least 60mph.


First rickshaw ride

We made it to the city early afternoon when the monsoon rains started to come. It was an all-out downpour unlike much we had seen before. The weather was still warm but it was as if someone spraying a fire hose from above on anyone not under shelter. After getting drenched enroute to finding an umbrella, we purchased it only to find the rain stopped for the remainder of the day. We were making our way to the Gateway of India which was a little walk from the station when we decided to get lunch and enjoy our first authentic Indian meal. We found a Parantha restaurant (Indian bread stuffed with various items) where we had an amazing array of food including rice, dal (curried lentils), unbelievably spicy pickle/onion salad, curried tofu, stuffed Paranthas, and washed it down with some Lassi (sweet yogurt/milk drink that helps deal with the spiciness). It was such a deliciously huge meal that cost each of us about $3.50 total. A few minutes later we reached the Gateway where we surprised by a random Indian family we had not met who asked if they could get a picture…naturally we assumed they wanted us to take a picture of their family in front of the Gateway, but instead they wanted to take a picture of Liz and I posing with each of the them. It was a funny experience, but as we came closer to the Gateway, which is a huge stone arch erected in honor of King George and Queen Mary, we were asked to take pictures with dozens of random Indian people. We must have taken 50 pictures and plenty more when we were not posing…we could see people trying to sneak in pictures with their camera phones. We did not mind the attention but were wondering if perhaps they had us mistaken with someone actually famous. After we went into the gorgeous Taj Palace hotel across the street from the Gateway to see just how amazing it was…our guidebook said the cheapest room was around $1,000 per night. We pushed on through the city stopping at various monuments and fountains that had been there for hundreds of years and just enjoyed the people watching and very different culture around us. One thing we did not see as much of was the constant begging and poverty that many people had warned us would follow us everywhere. With the exception of the occasional beggar only targeting the tourists, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this was not so much the case here in Mumbai.


Gateway of India


First Indian meal



That evening we found a restaurant called Gaylord where they served veg and non-veg food and one of the few restaurants you could get a glass of wine as well. We had some unbelievable curried chicken with naan bread and enjoyed a drink to celebrate our arrival in India. We took the train home again that night where it was far less crowded and we were even able to sit down. We took another short rickshaw ride back to our hotel where we were completely stopped in gridlock traffic with cars all around us facing different directions, cows walking as they pleased, and regular pedestrians getting out of the cars to direct traffic. We made it back to the hotel went to bed as we were headed off to Udaipur that next afternoon.


Bollywood Theater

August 28-September 2: Lion's Valley Resort, South Africa

Before I even say what Lions Valley is, how we got there or anything else about it, I have two words: insane luxury.

Jeff’s mom has a friend, Jarrod, who was originally from South Africa, so when we decided that we were going there, she suggested we talk to him and find out some fun things to do. It turned out Jarrod has an uncle or business partner (confusing sources of information) who owns a private game park near Durban, and offered to let Jeff and I stay there for free if we made it down that way. And we definitely made sure we made it down that way!

After a confusing mess of trying to get to the reserve, we finally made it about an hour away, where one of the managers, Monika, was so nice as to come pick us up. We arrived at the lodge and were welcomed with cold towels and glasses of sherry, and were greeted and introduced to all of the staff. We got a tour of the beautiful common areas, including the dining room, the boma, the bar, the library and the pool, which all overlook a watering hole that was often surrounded by buffalo, zebra, kudu, impala, and warthogs. They explained to us that each room is a free-standing unit, and that the whole lodge is in an unprotected area (meaning any kind of animal can walk through at any point) so a staff member must drive us to and from our room in a golf cart every time for safety. Pretty nifty! They showed us our room and my jaw just about dropped. It had a large sitting area, a walk-in closet, dual sinks, two claw foot bath tubs, two indoor showers, two outdoor showers, and a huge patio with a plunge pool and deck chairs that overlooked the watering hole. The pictures on the website don’t do it justice. We had the Madiba Suite, which is decorated in the theme of Nelson Mandela. The whole thing was just unbelievable. We took a quick nap, freshened up for dinner, and headed out for the common areas (in a golf cart with a ranger, of course). We had a pre-dinner cider and chatted with Monika and another couple, who were from Johannesburg. Monika informed us that there was a wedding reception that evening and that everyone would be leaving the next day. That meant that for the remainder of our stay, Jeff and I would be the only guests at the reserve! The first night was a fantastic, intimate dinner of either leg of lamb or fish. Following our normal routine, Jeff and I each got one so we could share. Soooo delicious! There was also some chocolate fondant dessert. Quite the difference from our previous safari!


Typical meal setup


Our suite

The next morning we went out on an early morning game drive, complete with warm blankets and hot water bottles! Amazing. Our guide’s name was Andrew, and he was very knowledgeable. We weren’t too lucky that first drive, although we did see a pack of hippos grazing out of the water! That was super cool, because up to that point, we had only seen their ears and noses sticking out of the water, and the rear end of the one who ran in front of the car on the way to Kruger Park! Midway through the drive we stopped to have tea, coffee, and rusks (kind of like biscotti but softer). Again, luxury. We returned back to the lodge to be greeted by the staff and have hot towels, and were ushered into the dining room to have an insanely delicious brunch. The afternoon was ours to relax, and we did just that. Later on, we had an evening game drive and saw the normal spread of wild animals.


Family of Hippos


Buffalo right below us during lunch

Because we were the only guests, the staff organized a picnic for us out at a waterfall. It was less of a picnic and more of a dining experience outdoors, as they had prepared various sandwiches and cheeses, fruit skewers, spring rolls, dessert, and a bottle of wine. Their site even had a permanent table and normal, flushing toilets! Too funny. The water was a bit too cold to go swimming in, but we had fun wading and checking out the area.





That night, we had an amazing game drive. We hadn’t seen much beyond the usual animals and a couple rhinos (who are always super cool to see), and it was already getting dark. We began to head back to the lodge, and Andrew brought out a floodlight to hopefully catch some of the nocturnal animals. He suddenly stopped the vehicle, backed up and pointed out two female lions and one male! And they were up and walking!!! Huge difference from our other sightings. They were moving rather quickly and passed in front of our vehicle. Andrew followed them thinking that they were out hunting. They clearly were stalking something, the two females divided on either side of an area of trees, the male lagging behind. We radioed to let the other vehicles on the reserve know about this incredible sighting. We continued to follow them for quite a while, but gave up on expecting to see an actual hunt, and left the area for all the other cars to see. Then, not thirty meters down the road, a small cat sprang across the road in front of our vehicle, pounced on a mouse, and devoured it in front of us! Andrew told us it was a Serval Cat, which I had never heard of before, but it’s more rare to see than a leopard. It was a beautiful small, long, tall cat, with coloring like a leopard, but a much softer, glossier-looking coat. It was absolutely gorgeous. Jeff caught a couple blurry photos of it in the red flood light, haha. We returned back to the lodge ecstatic, and had a lovely, private, candlelit dinner set out for us on the terrace. The day was too amazing.

Our last morning we went on a quick game drive before we had to catch our bus back to Johannesburg. And guess what we saw? Another Serval Cat!! How did we get so lucky?? We saw it jump across the road, an insanely high jump, maybe five or six feet. It was clearly stalking something so we continued to watch. We had change our position several times, but it paid off. We saw it at the opening of a mouse hole, batting its paws around inside, trying to scare the mouse out. It worked, and the Serval Cat caught it, and bounded away with it. Andrew supposed that it did not eat the mouse right away because it probably had babies in its den and was bringing the food back for them. It was such a cool experience, and Jeff was great enough to catch several of the moments on video! We’ll try to figure out how to post it here.


Serval Cat


Serval Cat with its catch


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avZUBh1kJWY
Serval Cat hunting video

We returned back to the lodge and once again had hot towels waiting for us. We enjoyed one last brunch at Lions Valley and sadly said goodbye. One of the managers drove us into town where we could buy our bus tickets and catch it back to Johannesburg. The lady running the ticket counter warned us about arriving there, saying that it was one of the worst areas of the city (the most dangerous city in the world, at that), and that people will kill you for 20 rand ($3). And we were arriving after dark. Holy smokes. We were a little nervous to say the least. We called our Johannesburg hotel and he agreed in a less dramatic way about the dangerousness of the situation. He sent a reliable car for us, and told us NOT to leave the Greyhound terminal, and that the driver would meet us inside with our name on a sign. Thankfully everything worked out per plan, because as we drove up to the bus station…we could definitely see what everyone was talking about. Scary!

Anway, we spend another couple days in Johannesburg getting last minute things together before we took off for India!