Mumbai and Amsterdam!

So incredibly sad that india is over already, but now i am in amsterdam about to head into the city for the wild and crazy queens day festival.

Mumbai was a wonderful day, Yogeeta's aunt let me keep my bags at her house, and i got to meet yogi's family and see the house she lives in when she comes to india. I spent the day sightseeing which was really good in a city that has a metro system and some sort of map, it was a good precursor to Europe.

Left india at 2 20 in the morning and arrived in brussels last morning at 8AM (withe the time difference), immediately got ona train for amsterdam and spent last afternoon completely lost in the city that on paper seems like it should be really easy to get around in. Last night was "Queen's night" and everyone was decked out in orange and basically just really drunk and messy on the street, a lot like Fell's point in baltimore or times square for new years.

Today i am meeting Mackenzie's past nanny for lunch and spending another day losti n the crowds. Heading back to brussels tomorrow to spend two days there before coming home!

Coming back to a western country after india has its very own culture shocks and i stil am finding things strange, i am not used to being the ethnic majority, and people not staring and trying to speak to me on the street, consequently i keep thinking people are talking to mew hen they are not (you just have to go to india to understand, i feel like i sound really full of myself)

i miss curry

i miss curry

things at the orphanage are not doing great since i left, political situation in nepal has just turned sour (need to read up on it when i get back) and the kisd now have more time off from school than was expected (which trust me is not a good thing lol). Didi is having troubles with Rajendra and things are a little unstable right now, which has made me even more sad about leaving them, but i guess it was best to be out of nepal right now.

Will give another update from Brussels before returning home on May 4th.

europe is expensive, i miss things being the equivalent of 15 US cents . . . those days are gone.

Arambol

Arambol is amazing . . . it's the complete end of the season so the beaches are deserted, prices are low ,and the people here are more "traveler" type and less obnoxious touristy type

Had some delicious freshly grilled shark last night while sitting on a table on the beach overlooking the ocean. Havent seen a glorious sunset yet but i have two nights left here for the evening clouds to clear which i hope they will .

just a short walk from the beach i am on, past some rocky cliffs, is another EVEN MORE deserted beach (that i am headed to right after this update) with a lake that comes up to the backside of the sand filled with fish and bordering green hills . . . incredible.

just booked my ticket to mumbai for the night of the 27th, and will wake up in mumbai o nthe 28th to spend the entire day there, and then head t othe airport at about 11PM to catch my 2AM flight to brussels . . . where i will then RUN from the airport to the train station to catch my train to amsterdam . . . where i will then probably get absolutely no sleep that night or the night after that due to this crazy queen's day festival that just happens to be going on there when i am there.

thats about all . . . i am browner (color wise) than most of the indians on this continent

Delhi and Paradise

Leaving Pushkar was really sad . . . it was the first chilled out place I went, and the population of people there is just amazing . . . men in all white and bright colored turbans, women in ridiculously bright sarees and huge arm bangles that come up to their shoulders, and a sense that not EVERYONE was trying to scam you, which was really refreshing.
Getting up to Delhi was an experience all together, with some waiting time at the town with the train station called Ajmer turning into the white kids being a spectacle for no particular reason. We had some time before our train was supposed to leave so we plopped down at a random building to later find out everyone was waiting there to meet the superintendant of the Ajmer police. While we were there we were the center of much attention minus any actual english conversation, its hard to describe why it was so magical and entertaining, but it just was.
Train to delhi was incredible . . . Air conditioned, only 7 hours, and there were two meals and a snack served . . . that really is the best you can ask for.

AND NOW

I AM IN GOA!!!! at a ridiculously small beach in the middle of no where called arambol, living in a bamboo hut right on the sand for the next four days. This is paradise. Last night i had fresh grilled squid and shrimp during a beach barbaque that is apparently held every night :). The ocean water is almost too warm and the waves are pretty big. Just to the right of the sandy part of the beach are some rocky cliffs which are extremely beautiful, and i plan on completely chilling out here until i head up to Mumbai in 4 days to catch my flight to europe for my extended layover before heading home.

I love Pushkar

This is such an amazing place!

No annoying rickshaw drivers
No cabs
Desert mountains surrounding a small town with a dried up lake in the middle
(okay some people still trying to scam you, but that's everywhere)
Hilltop temples surrounding the town
The old women here have these ridiculous bangles that go up their upper arms all the way to their shoulders, and ridiculously huge nose rings and earrings that have sagged their skin so much

waking up at 5 tomorrow to hike to the second temple (bigger one) for sunrise!

bought ridiculously cool shorts :)

heading to Delhi in two days

oh i love pushkar

visited the bramha temple today here, one of the only hindu bramha temples in the world!

I give you good price

so many things to describe and so little time to do it.

FIrst of all, the Taj Mahal was absolutely wonderful . . . no more words, want to understand, go to India

afterwards mackenzie and I wandered into a local market outside of the tourist quotas which was amazingly refreshing (the streets were too small for annoying rickshaw drivers who pester you to no end) and the people werent looking to scam or annoy you, everyone just wanted you to take a look at their shop and havey ou try something.
After that we wandered out of the market down a more industrial street where we were mobbed by children screaming hello and demanding that we take pictures of them . . . usually the public harassment here is totally annoying but on this street it was pretty obvious that it has nothing to do with taking your money and they were just excited to see a white person, so we amused them and took pictures . . . we were called into one house with this gigantic and awesome woman who just had us sit down and attempted to talk to us for a few minutes, even though she knew no english, i really liked her

Second house we ended up in was because we were watching people fly kites from the roofs. . . we were beckoned up to try which turned into Tea, swarms of neighborhood children talking to us, free henna, and hindi music transferred to mackenzie's pen drive.

Unfortunately these amazingly good experiences are completely shadowed here by people trying to scam you, pester you, leave no room for your personal space, stare at you, shake hands with you as you are walking down the street, and pretend to be really nice to you until they finally reveal why they really have started talking to you (want a tip for being your unofficial guide, want you to see their shop. ect)

The only way to deal with this has just been to let it be and go with the flow and laugh about it. . . because in India the more you fight the system, the worse it kicks you in the ass.

Heading to a small quiet town called Pushkar on the edje of the desert in Rajasthan, and then heading up to delhi for one day in a few days to catch the Flight to GOA !!!!!

GOA = Bamboo hut on a beach!!

so much more to explain and describe, but honestly its too much for words, india is amazing and ridiculous, annoying and beautiful, fragrant and putrid, kind and cutthroat. Someone could come here and have the time of their life, or the worst time of their life . . . not to say i have not been pissed off a few times here, but i am definately doing more of the former.

Ganges feet

okay i did it, gross, i washed my feet in the ganges. I stepped on the ashes of thousands of indian grandparents and possibly previous important politicians . . . my feet are now holy. Left last night and am now in Agra (change of plans, jaipur tomorrow) going to see the Taj Mahal today!!


Short and sweet might be the new theme of the entries because computer time is limited to space in between running around.

Varanasi

not that much time to really go into things but varanasi has been amazing

extremely spiritual place that many hindus go to to see the holy river, many people come here to die because it is the holiest place to be creamated.

The Ghats are openings to the river where people bathe, pray, are creamated,

people BOTHER THE CRAP out of you way more than in nepal, for boats, tea, jewlery, hash, anything yuo can think of.

off to jaipur today!

Varanasi!

arrived in varanasi at 4 45 AM this morning after taking a train that left Ghorakpur, India at 10 30 last night. Before this we spent 12 hours on what was supposed to be an 8 hour bus ride through nepal to the indian boarder. We BARELY made our train and had to pay extra for a taxi to take us 1.5 hours away to the train station because a bus would have taken too long

its been a long day (Mackenzie inserts that it is currently 9:30 am)

BUT, we're here, and have 36 hours to see Varanasi . . . . We've already seen the ganges river and are just heading out now for breakfast and to get ourself some money

nothing the bank could have done about my debit card, but i can take out money on my credit card so thats what i will be doing for now (bitches are charging me 3% of whatever i take out for foreign transaction fee, oh well)

off to Jaipur tomorrow . . . update soon!

crap

SERIOUSLY the one thing i forgot to check was that my ATM card was going to expire on 03/2010 . . . god has smitten me. Crap. have credit card so im not totally screwed but who wants to pay ridiculous international fees to withdraw money from a credit account. BOO.

I need major input . . . brown people listen up . . . from jaipur i have a bunch of days until i have to catch my flight to delhi. Its looking like i dont have enough time to see the taj mahal AND other parts of rajasthan west of jaipur . . . so . . . i need a poll from the audience . . . Taj mahal, or another city like jodhpur (i think thats how you spell it) . . . in more western rajasthan (Rajasthan is liek the state) there is desert and amazing and beautiful things and it might provide more to do than just running to see the taj mahal and then to delhi, because i heard agra is kind of lame other than the taj.

Mackenzie is here now and we just visited three temples today and have plans to go out to kareoke tonight . . . trying to fit everything i know here into two and a half days is going to be exhausting

Really sad that the my last day at the orphanage is tomorrow, and im really going to miss the kids a lot :(. Sunday morning bus, bus, and train will have mackenzie and I in Varanasi by monday mornning to start INDIA!!! (my unofficial homeland)

if you dont have a google account or something to post a comment with PLEASE e mail me and tell me everything you know about agra, rajasthan, or things to possibly do FROM delhi for a day or two because i have heard spending too much time in delhi is just too much.

Blessed in a Cave

okay so Pokhara plans didnt quite happen in the order i predicted, but this is for the ABSOLUTE best

Friday: got up decently early and started my hike to the world peace pagoda. As i was walking i was tapped on the shoulder by a girl named Carolyn, a PHD student from toronto studying women and religion (specifically buddhism) in India. Needless to say we had a lot to talk about. Devi's falls is obviously a sight to see in the MONSOON season . . . it was a decently cool waterfall that plunged into a cave-ish looking cavern, but the pictures of the falls during the wet season were tumultuous and 500 times better than what it looked like now, but it was still cool. Across the street was pokhara cave # 1. 100 rupees (mahango chha) got me a look at a flourescently lighted cave with a few stalagmites that the locals worship as the god Shiva's Penis. The hike up to the world peace pagoda was hot, with no shade, but only took about an hour, and the top was very nice. I dont know how a large white stupa with a few statues of different buddhas is going to bring about world peace, but its a nice thought. As i got back and tried to nap there was a knock on my door and some guys i had e mailed that i went canyoning with had actually found me and invited me to go out with them. These were very high class nepalis who had major connections and had a private car that i was shauffered around in. Very nice. After about 2 hours of snacking and drinking one of the guys recieved a call and they said they needed to leave because they were going to pick up two girls and bring them back to their apartments to "have a good time." keep in mind two of these three guys were brothers. they told me to knock on their hotel room door in just an hour. . . needless to say i did not.

Day 2: 4 45 AM wakeup to see the sun rise at sarangkot, a mountain that looks over the lake on one side and to the mountains on the other. Sunrise was exciting, the sun peeked out from the corner of one of the mountains and made a pretty dramatic entrance. the mountain view was hazy at best. After breakfast a little bit down from the top we decided to take a look back at the viewpoint. THANK GOD WE DID. the clouds cleared, the gods bellowed "tada" and the moutanins came into clear view, one of the most spectacular things i have seen in my life. And then they disappeared again. Carolyn and I walked down from the peak, through peoples properties, on a path that definately was sometimes a dried river, sometimes a path, and sometimes nothing really at all. Afternoon was spent at a tibetan refugee camp

Day 3: Morning, rented a boat and paddled across the lake, by myself. Reached enlightenment. Saw the reflection of the hills (not the mountains like all the tourist photos show) in the water, which was really nice. Afternoon i went on a cycling/caving tour. cycled up to an area about 45 minutes uphill away where there were three nearby caves. The first one, Kumari cave, was guided by about 5 small boys who showed me everything there was to see. They were actually very concerned guides, CONSTANTLY telling me to walk slow, watch my head, and crawl when it was totally not necessary. They were pretty cute, and i saw a few cool structures in the cave that resembles things like the buddha and crap like that. After the cave i went swimming in a nearby river with one of the kids who i thought was only being nice to me because he wanted money, but actually ended up being a really good kid who was just looking to hang out with someone. Second cave was the Mahendra cave. Here is where i was blessed. There was a huge Shiva penis (I mean stalagmite) that was decorated with red tikka powder, money, and necklaces. 20 rupees bought me a tiny sweet, a rockin tikka (third eye, hindu dot), and a blessing in english which went something like this "good mind, intellectual, good luck, safe travels" . . . it was a good attempt. Third cave was the bat cave, hundreds of bats clinging to the ceiling of a gigantic room. . . pretty cool, denied the guide that they reccomended so im pretty sure i saw some parts of the cave that not many other tourists see. Alone all of these caves were not as awesome as our JHOC cave . . . but it was cool to see three different ones in one day.

Heading back to Kathmandu tomorrow!

POKHARA

the next time you're on an 8 hour bus ride through rural nepal, DONT SIT IN THE BACK ROW, thats all i will say

POkhara itinerary:
Tomorrow : Pokhara by foot- see devi's falls (waterfall), the bat cafe (self explanitory), and hike up to the peace pagoda ( some buddhist shrine for world peace, like thats going to work)

Saturday: Pokhara by bike: ride up to the tibetan refugee villages surrounding pokhara, and ride into old pokhara, a part of the city untouched by tourism (says the lonely planet, we'll see)

Sunday: Pokhara by boat . . . oh right, there's a lake here, and hike to sarankot, a sunset/sunrise mountain top view point

havent actyually seen the mountains yet, but supposedly it is clear in the morning, so wish me luck!

oh and im alone here, so first solo traveling!

leavng for india on the 11th, more details about that coming soon!